Gurteen Knowledge Letter February 2022 Issue 260

Gurteen Knowledge Letter
Issue 260 – February 2022

I love quotations and have compiled over 200 of them on my Conversational Leadership website. I am also slowly transferring over 500 quotes from my old gurteen.com website. Most of the quotations relate to Conversational Leadership, but it’s an eclectic mix.

If you are registered to access my blook fully, you can request a quote of the day to be emailed to you once a week or more frequently if you desire. If you are not registered, you can do it as part of the registration form.

1. What is Global Consciousness?
   Consciousness, collective consciousness, higher consciousness, and global consciousness
2. Conversational Leadership Workshop May 2022
   09 - 13 May 2022
3. The Mason Dixon Line
   Sailing to Philadelphia
4. What does it take to create a better world?
   Even Adolf Hitler thought he was making a better world.
5. Tweet of the month January 2022
   January 2022
6. The Henley Forum 22nd Annual Conference
   Henley Business School
7. Wordtune
   Crafting a better sentence
8. Help Keep My Work Alive
9. Unsubscribe
10. Gurteen Knowledge Letter

In his book Beyond Knowledge – How technology is driving an age of consciousness, Bill Halal predicts the Age of Consciousness — an age where our collective global consciousness reaches a level where it starts to impact the world significantly for the better. An era that, at least for now, I am more inclined to label Enlightenment 2.0.

I have never been overly comfortable with the word consciousness and less so collective consciousness, higher consciousness, and global consciousness.

But as Bill's work and mine have much in common, I felt the need to get my head around the words and add a post to my blook on global consciousness and, in doing so, I came to agree with Bill that a big part of our challenge in creating a better world is to perceive it differently.

In researching and writing the post, I was pleasantly surprised that I could define the terms in a way that seemed pretty sold and not new-agey.

The post is still work-in-progress, and I have a little more to add but take a look — I hope you find it helpful.

Last year John Hovell, Donita Volkwijn, Saule Menane, and I ran a 1-week online workshop on Conversational Leadership.

This year we are rerunning it with the Project Management Center for Excellence at the University of Maryland as one of their Executive Project Management programs.

You will find full details here, along with a registration page.  And if you are still not too sure what it is all about, take a look at this recent article by Saule on the subject.

I love the web. I love its ability to allow me to explore; to surprise me; to put me in touch with like-minds in a way that was undreamt of only a few decades ago. Here is a little personal story.

When I first bought Mark Knopfler's music CD (a while ago) Sailing to Philadelphia, I was captivated by the track of the same name.

First, Mark Knopfler is a fantastic guitar player, and second I love music with a historical story that connects me emotionally with the past. Al Stewart, for example, is my favorite singer-songwriter. Who else could write a song called Trains about the history of trains culminating with their role in the holocaust? And the words:

I still sometimes get caught up in the past I can't say why.

All our lives are just a smudge of smoke or just a breath of wind against the sky ...

Credit: Al Stewart

But as I first listened to Sailing to Philadelphia - the story of the 'drawing' of the Mason-Dixon line - I realized that as a Brit, although I had heard of the line - I had no idea what it was. A Google search and I quickly discovered the basic historical facts.

Jeremiah Dixon and Charles Mason were commissioned in 1763 by the heirs of William Penn and Lord Baltimore to establish the boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland.

The Mason-Dixon line boundary became the demarcation between the slave and non-slave states many years later.

I wonder if Jeremiah Dixon and Charlie Mason, when sailing to Philadelphia, ever realized just how well known they would become.

Since I first Googled the story, I have more recently discovered a short ten-minute video made about the line and the song that, for some reason, I find exceptionally moving.

In my blook, I write about creating a better, sustainable world, but better is a value-laden word. In what way better? Better for who? Even Adolf Hitler thought he was making a better world. So what do I mean by a better world?

I have still not completed the post, but I have drawn together a collection of material that broadly defines what most people would consider a better world.

We seem to have a pretty good idea of what it would look like. Our challenge remains to find the will and wisdom to make it a reality.

Here is my top tweet for January 2022.

Polarization: The Power of Dialogue and the Problem of Implicit Bias by @nancymdixon #dialogue #polarization #bias #ConversationalLeadership

http://buff.ly/3mS6JuL

I have been a member of the Henley Forum since its inception 22 years ago and am pleased to announce their 22nd Annual Conference - Sustaining and securing connections in a Hybrid World. 29 – 30 March 2022.

This year, the event is a hybrid one, part face-to-face at the beautiful  Henley Business School (Greenlands Campus) and part online on Zoom.

You can peruse the programme and register on their conference brochure.

I will be giving a talk on the first day titled We are not enemies but friends.

One of the most pressing issues in the world today is the increasing
polarization of society across political, religious, moral, racial and class divides.

David Gurteen will challenge us to stop seeing people with opposing views as stupid, or as enemies.

Instead he will invite us to see each other as friends and, crucially, to start to have ‘impossible conversations’ by talking with one another across deep divides to sharpen up our collective thinking.

I do a lot of writing. Evernote and Grammarly are two indispensable tools. I use Evernote for clipping information, capturing notes, and drafting posts. And Grammarly for correcting my spelling, punctuation, and grammar.

But I have just discovered a new writing tool that I can only describe as truly exceptional. It is called Wordtune. I give it a sentence, and it suggests half-a-dozen re-written improvements. It supposedly uses AI to do this, and it does a fantastic job.

Whenever I have difficulties crafting a sentence, I give it to Wordtune. It's the closest thing to magic I know. Check it out.

Help Keep My Work Alive
For almost 25 years, I’ve been sharing the Gurteen Knowledge Letter each month, and many of you have been reading it for five years or more. My Knowledge Café also reached a milestone, celebrating its 20th anniversary in September 2022.

If my work has made a difference to you, I’d be grateful if you could consider supporting it. A small monthly donation or any one-off contribution would greatly help cover some of my website hosting costs.

Thank you to the 50+ patrons who already support me – your generosity means a lot.

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Gurteen Knowledge Letter

The Gurteen Knowledge Letter is a free monthly email newsletter designed to inspire thinking around Conversational Leadership and Knowledge Management. You can explore the archive of past issues here.

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David Gurteen
Gurteen Knowledge
Fleet, United Kingdom

Gurteen Knowledge Letter January 2022

Gurteen Knowledge Letter March 2022