There will NOT be an IOCCTI Online 2020
When in October 2018 the ‘organizership’ of IOCTI 2020 was handed over to Barbara and Sandra, a huge flow of energy and vibe to organize this event took part of us, including our colleagues. Many colleagues, within the Bert Hellinger Institute Netherlands, managed to find time in their busy schedules to design a wonderful IOCCTI in The Netherlands. Yes, IOCCTI with an extra ‘C’ for Community. Before we knew it we had unconsciously ended the former versions of IOCTI’s and where taken by a movement to bring IOCTI (International Organizational Constellations Training Intensive) to another destiny: IOCCTI (International Organizational Constellations Community for Transformation and Integration).
Even whilst being incredibly busy, it seemed a source of energy bigger than us was fueling us to be able to organize this event. We found an amazing location in a beautiful part of the Netherlands. We designed a program with the aim to have you tap into the widely spread state of systemic phenomenological work in organizations in The Netherlands. For you to taste, feel, touch, learn, meet, develop, exchange all experiences and practices that are available locally and internationally and to build and expand on it all together. To unleash the mastery and potential in the systemic field as a whole; and in all of us as systemic facilitators around the world.
When Covid19-pandemic entered The Netherlands mid-March 2020, life and work as we had known it came to an end. It was a true disruption. We stopped the preparations for IOCCTI 2020, awaiting how the pandemic would develop. In June 2020 we could not decide otherwise than to cancel the live event, since it became clear the pandemic would not end soon and that overseas travel restrictions could realistically be expected until at least December 2020.
We did feel a need to enable a meeting for the international community of systemic facilitators, so we intended to design an online version. Then something strange happened, and we did not really recognize it until a short while ago: the energy was gone. And every once in a while, out of strong will power, we worked on the online version. We finally managed it and, by the end of July, proposed a new design to the people who had initially registered for IOCCTI in the Netherlands.
And again, another month passed and we had not made any promotion, newsletter, video, nothing. Behind the scenes some activities where done to design the online event into more detail, to approach speakers, etcetera. However many things where not done that need to be done to guarantee a smooth online event! This all started to seem like symptoms.
And just last week the message hit us: the initiating energy is gone.
We explored to what extent this is personal (like others, we have a lot on our plate these days) and to what extent this is systemic and in the wider field.
And it is both. And both on the personal and on the systemic level, it is multilayered, so we feel.
First of all on the personal level, all around the world, we are still dealing with the effects of the Covid19-pandemic. Many of us have to work hard to adapt our lives, work and organizations to the constantly changing context.
Apart from this larger international personal level, the Bert Hellinger Institute Netherlands is in a period of re-shaping after the departure of its founder, Jan Jacob Stam. Maybe you have read the background of this movement in our newsletters. Although it is all in good harmony, of course it has its effects, on top of the effects that Covid19 has on our Institute.
On the systemic level it might be possible that IOCTI has reached it’s destiny… even that it is our ‘doing’ that unconsciously caused it to reach it’s destiny. And it could well be that we have to acknowledge that there is no place for an alternative version that builds on the previous version.
One thing seems clear… somehow it feels like a cycle has completed.
So as IOCTI returned to the place where it began, somehow it also has reached a cycle of completion. That cycle of IOCTI took it from its origins in Netherlands to South America and back to Europe and Netherlands. It has been a great collective journey of systemic discovery and sensing; and of community making. If we placed it alongside Theory U, it somehow feels like that cycle has taken us down the U and now we are at the bottom, in the space between movements, waiting in that unknowing for the next movement to arise.
So all in all, we decided to let go of all aspirations to organize an event for organizational systemic facilitators. And we wait. We wait for an impulse. To hold this all, rather than to act. And be curious, to wonder what might show; to wait for the next wise movement for IOCTI/IOCCTI to arise. To wait for an impulse that includes a proper source of energy to make the impulse come to life.
Oh, and be aware! The impulse might find us and the impulse might find you! Allow the freedom to let yourself be found by the impulse; and let us be in communication together!
We want to express our big thanks to many of you that spent time the past year in preparing for IOCCTI: feeding us with welcome advice and ideas around both versions, live and online; those who were promoting the event; who were preparing to share expertise; who served as sparring partners and as a lot more. The list of people that gave their energy is immense and impossible to be complete enough. The following people and groups we really want to mention in particular: Juan Londoño, Bradley Chenoweth, Salome Scholtens, Jan Jacob Stam, Bibi Schreuder, the Seed & the Fruit group 2016, the Pioneers group. Thank you.