Closing Well. Composting our Networks when it's Time.
Closing Well. Composting our Networks when it's Time.
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And then comes the time to let go ... To close a (once) thriving network can be a delicate process. It’s different from closing a business or start-up because of its unique network structures which comes with its own challenges: who has the right to decide it’s time to close? What are the phases a network needs to go through? What are the practical elements to think about? How can we care for everyone’s feelings? …
We don’t have answers to all of these questions, in this session we will engage with all participants in a joint inquiry and invite you to add your stories and experiences into the mix.
Sophy Banks and Louise Armstrong will support us in this conversation bringing in their extensive experience with grief work.
In dissonance with the mainstream culture where death and endings are still taboo and grieving has little space, we ask ourselves: what does it mean to close well?
About this event
You can expect:
- A conversation with Louise Armstrong and Sophy Banks
- A fishbowl - a participatory format - where we invite your perspectives and experiences
- A space full of network OGs and enthusiasts and their stories
- Time in breakout rooms to harvest your learnings
- A taste of the Thriving Networks body of work - brought to you in co-creation with Thriving Networks Alumn
Which theme best describes the event?
- #leadership-and-followship
Who is this for?
Anyone who is passionate about networks and interested in the unpopular topic of ending things and death. We're looking forward to hearing your stories and experiences!
Our Guests
Louise Armstrong
I’m Louise and am based in London and constantly exploring what it means to live change. I’m a loyal friend, partner, mother and curious human who loves adventure. I play multiple roles in different parts of the change ecosystem. I am a changemaker, facilitator, systems change designer, coach, process doula.
In my current 10year cycle I’m wanting to make a contribution to reframing, the culture and practices around how we view and value loss, grief, death and closures as part of the natural cycles of life and the overlooked part of transformation.
Read more about my work and practice: https://louise-a.medium.com
Sophy Banks
Sophy’s eclectic life has included time as a therapist, radical footballer, community activist, engineer, and more.
She is deeply committed to creating healthy human culture at all levels of scale, and sees that shared practices to express and hear our grief is a fundamental part of what brings us to right relationship to ourselves and those around us. This work of surfacing, witnessing and making meaning of our pain is crucial to transforming the systems of harm that abound in our world – and creating healthy relationships with ourselves, other people, and the wider living systems of the planet. You can find out more about Sophy’s work on healthy human culture here.
She holds regular spaces for shared grief, drawing on the work of Joanna Macy, Sobonfu Some, Maeve Gavin and others.
Your Hosts
Alícia Trepat Pont has stewarded several networks and has been involved in the composting of a couple of them. She has been supporting other networks and organisations in their decentralised governance and community weaving endeavours for a decade. Within a PhD she researches the intersection between self-organising and emotions.
Lena Bumke is a community builder, facilitator, artist and bodyworker - dedicated to creating a future worth living for. She holds transformational spaces in a multiplicity of contexts and co-founded community-centred events and experiences. The sacredness of bodies and nature and the unique essence of each human being sit at the core of her work.
Catherine Jaeger has co-created and participated in a variety of networks and is a Thriving Networks alum. She’s held marketing roles in tech companies (from start ups to public) and non-profits. Catherine is a guide for human-centric organizations and is currently hosting 3 thriving bee hives.
This course is organised within the Thriving Networks body of work.