Kitchen Table Conversations

Our primary tool for personal conversations is Kitchen Table Conversations. It is purpose-built to enable people to connect-the-dots and grasp the big picture as quickly as possible.

• Catalysing mass commitment to transformational change describes Kitchen Table Conversations.
• Kitchen Table Conversations training video.
• Big Picture Drivers draggable Icon for Zoom conversations.

   

• Templates to make the  pieces are here.
• Premade kits can be purchased here.

• Another way of conducting Kitchen Table Conversations

Digging deeper

Our Kitchen Table Conversations model is intentionally abstract. For example, we mention ‘economic growth’ but do not go into detail about it. This is because we want to help people connect the dots and form a rough overview of our system as a system in one go – hopefully in less than one hour. We don’t want to overload folks.

Here are list resources that are helpful in digging deeper.

Economic growth

Patel and Moore  A History of the World in 7 Cheap Things

Like water, money in moderate amounts money is helpful. However, when it surges globally without restraint it is environmentally and socially destructive. This book, filled with vivid examples, shifts our perception of capitalism from being a ‘thing’ or ideology to be applauded or critiqued to seeing it as a dynamic process.

Pope Francis  Laudato Si‘

This book clearly shows how devotion to economic growth erodes well-being both socially and environmentally.

David Korten  Agenda for a New Economy: From Phantom Wealth to Real Wealth

Makes a fundamental distinction between a ‘Main Street’ economy and a financially exploitive ‘Wall Street’ economy, and shows practical policy changes to support local economies.

Population growth

Paul Ehrlich, The Population Bomb

This classic book spells out the implications of overpopulation.

Emotional disturbance

Bessel van der Kolk The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma

Cites research that shows shocking amounts of child abuse, and beautifully describes a variety of highly effective healing techniques. Human, readable, and authoritative.

Industrial design

Amory Lovins et al  Natural Capitalism

Describes design techniques in every field from agriculture to architecture (including retrofitting buildings) that greatly reduce energy requirements.

Green scepticism

Siebert and Rees  Through the Eye of a Needle

A very clear analysis of why we cannot realistically expect renewable energies to power our current high consumption lifestyles.

Leverage points

Donella Meadows  Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System

Meadows’ original article asserting that improving people’s paradigms and goals are high leverage points for systems change.

Partnership-respect relating

Riane Eisler  The Chalice and the Blade

The original book that introduces the Partnership-Dominator contrast.

Riane Eisler  The Partnership Way

Applications of partnership-respect thinking at different levels from child rearing to global governance.

Feldenkrais

Gisele St. Hilaire  A Feldenkrais lesson

An example of a Feldenkrais individual lesson. It demonstrates the process of improving the coordination of the whole body, rather than just focusing on the area of pain.

Andrew Gaines  Creativity and High-Performance Team Collaboration

Introduces Feldenkrais neurological theory, and shows innovative applications.

Resolving doubts

There are ways to resolve such doubts as ‘I don’t know enough’ or ‘People will think I’m weird’.

Here are three techniques that can be really helpful:

• EFT (the tapping technique)

EFT is an aspect of energy psychology. It was discovered that tapping on acupressure points with our fingers can elicit a mental/emotional shift that symptoms surprisingly rapidly resolves specific psychological issues.

• St Francis Process

In the St Francis process we visualise meeting the (unknown) part of us that carries doubt, phobias or other psychological issues.

• Option Process

Starting with an issue on the surface, such as doubt, we can ask a series of Zen -like questions that take us to deeper layers of the psyche. At some point we may realise that our concerns are quite unrealistic in terms of current reality, and laugh and let them go.

These techniques are described in Inner Work. You can download it here.