Inviting is something I'm learning to do more of :-)
The people who need to work locally come together by invitation. Someone identifies the local need or want, sees the vision, gets the idea and puts it forward. Others see the possibility that is in there when it is put before them. Those who wish to respond and something happens when the responders come together. It requires clarity to make a clear invitation. Many of us are afraid to really ask because we're afraid of being rejected.
The invitation could be just for a movie that reflects our time in a useful way, or a pot luck. Or it could be a community meeting to address transition to a low carbon economy. The more important - and unambiguous - the invitation the greater the risk to us.
Really each time we meet someone or speak with them we are inviting them to consider a possibility. We're walking invitations for something. Is it for the thing we most want to build?
We all like to stay within the confines of the familiar. Inviting puts us into a conversation around a possibility that hasn't happened yet, something unfamiliar. It puts us on the line. If no one is interested, we can believe no one is interested in us. That might be true but it's not proven by the response to the invitation.
My mentor in invitation is a man I haven't met, Peter Block. He's articulated a number of the elements that have become part of my "resilience DNA." This page and this site has a lot of his influence.
Block invites people from diverse backgrounds; the variety in the room makes for richness and is more representative of the whole.
He says that a good invitation should:
- Name the possibility about which we are convening.
- Specify what is required of each should they choose to attend.
- Make the invitation as personal as possible.
- Be clear that a refusal carries no cost.
Which is the say the invitation should be clear not just about the name of the event but the crucial details: just what people are being asked to do if they attend.
The invitation needs to have all the elements of the meeting itself. It needs to be a valuable experience in itself, something meaningful to consider, a real choice.
