Weekend Among Friends in Tuscany: A Tribute to Uncertainty

How can organizations and individuals transform themselves so that they can become as subtle, sensitive, intelligent and fast-responding as the world around them? (David Peat, 2010)

We are all familiar with setting goals and making action plans to realize them. We plan to move, to find a new job, to do better in our friendships or to quit our bad habits. Organisations also strive to implement certainty by setting and evaluating objectives to score success. We are accustomed to circles of planning and control and almost naturally analyse causes of failure and success to predict how to do better next time.

We all know life is not that linear, not that singular, nor that predictable. Life is subtle, sensitive and dynamic. We are related to each other and our environment in many ways. We are interdependent beings, communities, and organisations in an interconnected world. To adequately respond to the economic, ecological, social and personal trouble we face in the world around us, we need to understand and act upon its intertwined, co-creative and manifold nature. This Weekend Among Friends, we pay a tribute to uncertainty, as a basic tenet that might open pathways of organizing that are intelligent, responsible and contributing to nature, people and purpose.