The edge of the ICA: What is now being called for?  What is the edge of our work? What does it mean to be spirit driven?

These questions are important as we transit from generation to generation as ICA.  Last year at the global conference in Kathmandu, I was proud of the young and old participating in our work and in our reflection.  We had people from age 5 to 85, some who had been a part of the organization since the earliest days and others who showed up after seeing the conference notice on a website.

So what is ICA about? 
A facilitation group, an NGO or community development group, an environmental group or …?

In our dialogue work in Taiwan, we recommend speaking from "I" so that others have the choice of accepting whether what is said also represents them.  In ICA, we have traditionally used exactly the opposite, since we intended to stand as "we".  For the following comments I will speak as I.

I have always assumed three things about my work as ICA:

1. I intend to be of service to the global/social/personal contradictions as I perceive them.
2. I am about contextual re-education, social or structural reformulation and spiritual re-motivation  
3. I am part of a research, training and demonstration community which continually revises its task based on where its exploration takes us/me. 

What is the uniqueness of ICA? 
One of our colleagues once described us as the “People of the Question” - we were not focused on the answer as much as the exploration.  Our strategy may change but the focus does not. Another way to say this is that facilitation and community development are strategies, not the purpose of ICA.  ICA is always asking what is called for here and now.  We look for approaches that work toward a new tomorrow, while knowing that tomorrow we will ask again.  We are always challenging past patterns as not necessarily being the future ones.  As we build the future, the past is significant but not defining. Our past is our legacy but to build the future requires us to continually re-frame the past, present and future based on the new perspectives we discover. 

What difference does this make to my task?

• I started a project recently in Europe and I asked, why me?  The answer was three fold:

(a) You pay attention to us and tailor your work to this organization and group of people
(b) You have worked with us for a long time and never look at anything without looking at the comprehensive and systemic perspective
(c) Because of your work with both organizations and community you seem more grounded in reality.  Is that the uniqueness?

• When I (and other colleagues) facilitate with other methods, e.g. Open Space, Appreciative Inquiry or World Café, people tell me it is different, more open to the group, or even that I bring a spirit or presence to it.  Is that the uniqueness?

• Last year in our work with the Profound Journey Dialogue, the question was “what does it means to live between The No Longer and the Not Yet?”  What does it means to recognize that every decision and action I take I am not sure of the consequences until later? That I am always operating from hope but never certainty, faith aligned with my perception of service and mission.  Is this perception or stance the uniqueness?

• Recently I was in Shanghai facilitating a group of trainee facilitators and we designed an ORID reflection.  In the process, the group went far deeper than we had planned even though all the questions had not even been asked.  In the reflection we shared the original design, the actual questions, and the group’s reflection. A few people in the group were confused that the facilitator did it “wrong” by not having asked all the questions.  I always facilitate knowing that the methods are a doorway to spirit, but that to "facilitate what is happening" I have to let even those methods go in order to be open, to honour every moment and be respectful of every person. Is that the uniqueness?

• A colleague in Taiwan once said that ICA loves us more than we love ourselves.  Is that the uniqueness?

• Almost 20 years ago in Taiwan we invited Jean Houston to come and do a week of work with us. Then we invited the foundation for community encouragement (M.Scott Peck), got involved with healing work like Reike and Holographic repatterning, and more recently dreamworks.  These are all “peripheral” to more clearly focused areas of research like other facilitation methods and coaching.  My colleagues are exploring constantly for avenues that give us access.  This diverse community all exploring yet all striving to stay connected in diverse ways; is that the uniqueness?

• In every program I do I offer anyone whatever support they need, including my materials.  I am currently in a quandary: my colleagues want me to protect our intellectual property rights in China. I do not feel that protection is the right way to go yet I do not want my colleagues to suffer.  An old story in ICA was “We don't have competition by definition; if someone else can do better what we have been doing, we need to stand back from that and explore the next wave.”  I believe the willingness to share all we know with others, understanding that only by truly sharing can we receive the wisdom of others is important, but is that the uniqueness?

My colleague Dick West has a review of a book called The Shift Age in this issue of W&W.  Its author David Houle describes the next 10 years as the years of transformation.  He writes that the speed of change will be so rapid that every year will be like every decade in the last century. 

What is the question that needs to be asked in 2013? 

The questions I am trying to answer with my life right now are:

• How do we/I promote spirit-based/transformative facilitation, particularly in Greater China?
• How do we/I call forth the next generation of spirit people whether they choose the ICA vehicle or some other?
• How do I continue learning, integrating and sharing while dealing with my economic realities?

My answer to what makes us unique is that we remain the people of the question, the people who put effectiveness and exploration before form. By the time the form is final we will have moved on to the next question.

Larry Philbrook is Immediate Past President: ICA International
and a member of ICA: Taiwan.