Sustainability and the Art of Conversation

It was as a social worker that I discovered the importance of conversations. Since I was the one with all the power as an income security social worker, better conversations seemed to happen in my clients' homes as it kept the balance of power at a place where meaningful conversations could happen...I was on their turf. It also provided me with more openings with which to begin a conversation as I was able to see them within a context.

When the conversations became stifled with the introduction of more "efficient" methods of gathering information, I felt an enormous loss. At the time I believed it was changing my job description from social worker to secretary, but recently I read something that made me realize that it was much more than that.

There is an article written by Fritjof Capra, author of The Tao of Physics, which you can find online at www.ecoliteracy.org. It is entitled Creativity and Leadership in Learning Communities. Over time I will write more and more about Fritjof Capra, as he is one of the leading thinkers in the world on systems theory, a way of thinking that compares human organizations to ecological systems and the elements within those ecological systems that make them sustainable.

In the article Capra refers to the feedback loops that exist within ecological systems that allow them to organize and regulate themselves. An example of this would be a food chain within a certain ecosystem. When there is more food available, more consumers appear. (Lots of rabbits, more coyote.) However, when a food source becomes scarce because of the overpopulation of consumers, the consumers will regulate themselves through lower birthrates, etc. in order to maintain the balance and remain sustainable ecosystems. If there were no feedback loop to maintain the balance it would be to the detriment of both.

Capra suggests that in human organizations these feedback loops take the form of conversations. A healthy community is one that encourages and sustains conversations.
When I saw the opportunities for conversations being reduced to a "fill in the blank" system with a skewed balance of power, I was afraid of what it meant for all of us. What happens when a person, who has reached a low point in their lives, reaches out for help from the community (because often there was no family support) and there is no one to engage them in a conversation about possibilities. No appreciation or understanding of the individual's context. No one to listen to the circumstances that contributed to the situation. We all lose because there is little or no opportunity to restore balance.