Prepared for "core members" of Roanoke's U.Lab Hub, "Playing the Macro Violin" enlists the course's Case Clinic format as a working framework to coordinate a recent meeting.

1. Playing the Macro
Violin
Shifting from "Ego" to "Eco-System" Being

2. "When I gave my first concert in
Chartres, I felt that the cathedral almost
kicked me out. For I was young and I
tried to perform as I always did: just
playing my violin. But then I came to
realize that in Chartres you actually
cannot play your small violin, but you
have to play the macro violin. The small
violin is the instrument that is in your
hands. The macro violin is the whole
cathedral that surrounds you. The
cathedral of Chartres is entirely built
according to musical principles. Playing
the macro violin requires you to listen
and to play from another place. You
have to move your listening and playing
from within to beyond yourself." - quoted
from Miha Pogacnik and Scharmer's, "
The Blind Spot of Leadership"

3. Playing the Macro Violin (overview)
• My "intention statement":
• Current situation: What key challenge or question is the group facing?
• Stakeholders: How might others view this situation?
• Intention: What future are we trying to create?
• Learning threshold: What do we need to let-go of - and what do we need to learn?
• Help: "Where" or in "what" do we need input or help?
• Stillness
• Mirroring: Images (Open Mind), Feelings (Open Heart), Gestures (Open Will)
• Generative dialogue
• Closing remarks
• Individual journaling to capture the learning points

4. My "intention statement" - The Current Situation
What key challenge or question is the group facing?
"From your experience thus far, what's the single
greatest determinant or factor shaping (informing) your
answer to the two questions with which one's
presented at the bottom of the "U" . . . Who is my Self?
(highest future potential "self") and What is my Work?."

5. My "intention statement" - The Current Situation
"How we relate to our own and others gender
and sex is both extremely personal and
profoundly philosophical. In fact, few domains
of inquiry are as equally personal and
simultaneously philosophical than sex, gender,
and sexuality. This inquiry is personal in that
few topics are more intimate to our sense of
self-identity, our most immediate desires, and
our needs for love, intimacy, and connection."
Sean Esbjörn-Hargens from the Forward to
Integral Voices on Sex, Gender, and Sexulaity

6. My "intention statement" - Stakeholders
How might others view this situation?
What's the nature
and quality of our
interpersonal
relations with
community
members? Is it
mindful? If so, how . .
. in what ways?

7. My "intention statement" - Intention
What future are we trying to create?
"So you don't get to choose between
yourself and this other, between the shape
of yourself and what's passing around you.
So this is the piece I wrote for the plane,
but also to look at the way that human
beings can travel enormous distances.
They don't have to do the work, they simply
have to have the conversation . . . and the
conversation does all the work for you. The
organization doesn't have to do the work, it
just has to have the conversation with the
people itself. The converstaion creates a
dynamic whereby you look around and the
work's been done."
TEDx - David Whyte - "The Conversational Nature of Reality"

8. My "intention statement" - Learning threshold
What do we need to let go of and learn?
"We live on a razor's edge. From one instant
to another, any of us can regress to
yesterday's mindset or connect with an
emerging future possibility. In all countries
and civilizations around the globe, we face
the same challenge: crossing the threshold
to this other side, to the field of the future
that is waiting to emerge. Rilke referred to
crossing this threshold as a shift of
perspective and consciousness:
... for here there is no place that does not
see you. You must change your life.
("Archaic Torso of Apollo," Rainer Maria
Rilke)"
"You Must Change Your Life" - Otto Scharmer, HuffPost

9. My "intention statement" - Help
"Where" or in "what" do we need help?
"We will be continuing to
orient ourselves to the
issue at hand and
working to gain a deeper
appreciation of the
affects of mindfulness in
directing our
conversation."
Roanoke Food Security Mindfulness Initiative

10. Stillness
 Listen to your heart:
Connect with your heart
to what you're hearing.
 Listen to what
resonates: What images,
metaphors, feelings and
gestures come up for
you that capture the
essence of what you
heard?

11. Mirroring: Images (Open Mind), Feelings (Open
Heart), Gestures (Open Will)
 Each coach shares
the images/metaphors,
feelings and gestures
that came up.
 Having listened to all
coaches, the moderator
reflects back on what
s/he heard.

12. Generative Dialogue
 All reflect on the
moderator’s remarks and
move into a generative
dialogue on how these
observations can offer new
perspectives for better
serving the group’s situation
and journey.
 Go with the flow of the
dialogue. Build on each
others ideas.

13. Closing Remarks
 By coaches
 By moderator:
How do I now see
our situation and way
forward?
 Thank you: An
expression of
genuine appreciation
to each other.

14. Playing the Macro
Violin
Shifting from "Ego" to "Eco-System" Being