“The future of journalism is to play a fundamental and important role in an ecology of community development works and capacities and professions,” says Peter Pula, founder of Axiom News and pioneer of Generative Journalism.

Peter is now co-leading a local initiative to bring citizen-led dialogue and community development in direct partnership with the media.

In 2015, the year Axiom News gave birth to the Peterborough Dialogues, over 100 gatherings were hosted. I was asked by an astounded colleague in Europe, why would anyone do that? Well, to know and to serve. That’s why.

We have become so remarkably accustomed to a form of leadership that comes from the top. Why? Well, because it is easier for everybody. It is easier for the leader because they can indulge in their narcissism. And, well, we want them to. You see, if they are shaping things according to their filters and persona then we can move in a direction that is embodied by the leader.

One has to wonder if the results of the Brexit referendum are an answer to a question other than the one on the ballot. Being in inquiry most of my life I’ve had many, many experiences where the question asked isn’t quite the one answered.

I’ve been thinking about what is it I believe is the essence of hosting. Intention and Ownership — that makes all the difference.

Deep democracy, as we refer to it, comes down to the basic idea that each one of us is inescapably responsible for creating, or trying to create, the workplace, community, society, economy, and political climate in which we live. That responsibility does not lie ‘elsewhere’ or with ‘them’ — it lies with us and how we interact and co-create.

As we create third spaces we also create spaces between spaces. Which seem to hold the most potential for life to thrive. Working within institutions and silos to create change seems, by contrast to working in the spaces in between, to be very, very limiting and difficult. Some of the same processes we have been using in institutions might be far better put to work, liberated even, by using them between institutions.

Culture will eat strategy for lunch – and stories shape culture. This article, Building a Storytelling Culture, by Julie Dixon points out that most of us agree our organizations and communities should develop a storytelling culture but that knowing what to do about it is a bit dicier.

As part of Social Enterprise Day in British Columbia, Urban Systems went public with a Social Enterprise pilot project of its own, Urban Matters.

To fulfil the potential of generative journalism as a co-creative communications method for organizations we, Axiom News, need to better attend to a couple of things.

This year I had the good fortune of two conversations with David Cooperrider. The first was while walking the grounds of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland this spring. That conversation gave plenty to ponder.