It takes two to Tango

Engaging in a partnership on the basis of your own strength. Allowing yourself to lead, but also to be led by your partner. Connecting to the values that lie behind the visible actions. Relating with a mildness and firmness that makes the other party feel safe enough to experiment, safe enough to develop.

Few of us will not recognize the essential skills related to building organizations and credible partnership in this ever changing world. However, actual doing and acting requires reflection and learning, but also 'un-learning'.

Chance

Over the past week, during their third Biennial Conference, CDRA South Africa offered some fifty development practitioners the chance to reflect and work on developing some of these skills.

Did I say conference? Well, what I am referring to are four intensive days of artistic metaphors, enquiring dialogues and intellectual probing into the daily practice of organizational development for social change.

Focused

This year's encounter focused specifically on creativity for organization and organization for creativity. In a sector where the left part of the brain dominates the right, where combined inputs must lead to desired and predictable outputs, the space and sense of safety for creativity is limited .

Through well measured doses of artistic input, the CDRA team managed to unfreeze their colleagues and make them experience the fruitfulness of using your entire brain.

Subject

As reported earlier, (in Dutch), CDRA South Africa and PSO have committed themselves to a process of reciprocal partnering. The subject of this conference made the PSO participation even more relevant in that PSO's mandate is to create and defend a space for creativity, for innovation, for action research and experimentation in a result-oriented environment.

It is through the painting and dance groups that the PSO participants to the conference have felt the real significance of the introductory paragraph to this article. If you read it again now you may even feel the flow of a tango, the strokes that make a painting.

Anchor

As for the work of PSO, we will anchor artistic and creative moments in the development of our collective learning activities even more than before. Thank you CDRA!

Cristien Temmink and Rob van Poelje

See Event 4th June organised by PSO and CDRA.