History

Hi, James here. I'm the founder/source/caller of Intentional Society. When I retired from my corporate career at the onset of the pandemic, I'd been collecting thoughts and ideas for a decade about how organizations function and grow, while looking for meaning, truth, and the “why?”s of life for a few decades before that. I'd had some transformational experiences in my personal development, and I wanted to keep growing, make friends on that same journey, and be of service to humanity. I wrote a calling manifesto of sorts in December 2020, and began weekly meetings of Intentional Society in January 2021.

What followed has been a patient unfolding with many stories embedded in the journey. Below you can find title-based records of weekly sessions going all the way back to the beginning.

Historical Event Log

  • Embodied Awakening
  • Appreciating Beauty
  • 10x Agency in our faces
  • Relational Attunement
  • Death, remembrance, purpose
  • Intentionality in Wealth
  • Exploring Towardness
  • The edges of noticing
  • Bringing desires to life
  • North Stars 2025
  • IS Season 17 all-member update/invite
  • What if...?! Finale
  • The Good & People of IS V2
  • Vibes, Arts, BWIA
  • Being With What Could Be w/ Jochen
  • w/ Faith
  • BWIA + G&RP
  • Vows & Quests
  • ??? (mystery)
  • Centering fig & Ed
  • Circling (& BWIA)
  • Mini-Cases
  • Maps & Pods
  • IS seasonal all-member update
  • Where we go next
  • Alien Invasion
  • Daydreams
  • Communal Reverie
  • EGP (on collective+imaginal) plus not-EGP
  • Mid-season Party
  • Final pods
  • Entanglement
  • Skydiving
  • Falling together anew
  • Forming Pods
  • Build-a-season
  • Beginning Season 15 of Intentional Society
  • Wrap & Party
  • EGP at IS (response requested)
  • Garden Mapping
  • Pods Casework #4
  • Giving & Receiving
  • Pods Casework #3
  • Somatic knowing
  • Pods Casework #2
  • Presence and horizons
  • Setting sail
  • Case exploration & Flotilla organizing
  • Restarting anew
  • IS Season 14 Member Letter/Invitation
  • Season's End
  • 5 things
  • Noticing
  • Creative Practice
  • Hearing the Good
  • Holding Intentions
  • Sensing shadow’s edge (Edge Exploration)
  • The Arts in IS
  • March dates, GRP follow-up
  • Giving & Receiving
  • 24w5 — mixer, 15m, practice
  • Invitation: Intentional Society membership kickoff
  • End-of-Year Celebration
  • IS Builder Squad
  • Reflection, Direction, Appreciation
  • Nine Whys on Important Cares
  • Focusing, Colors & Amplification
  • Relating to Desires
  • Desire, Telephone Game & Processing
  • Circling
  • Tapping into Source
  • Impact Zone Exploration
  • Core Project Exploration
  • Connection Zone Exploration
  • Support Zone Exploration
  • Season of Change Kickoff
  • Zones and Change
  • Why(s)?
  • Giving & Receiving Practice
  • Story debugging
  • Sphere of awareness
  • I can't believe it's not Circling
  • Circling cleanly
  • Clean kata
  • Clean Language w/ Gina C
  • Crewing & Relaxing
  • Doing & Crewing
  • Kickoff
  • Season Finale
  • Giving & Receiving Practice
  • Doing Aliveness
  • Alively Learning w/ Caroline A
  • Revealing Experience
  • T-Group Fishbowl
  • Simple Presence
  • Social Tooling (decision-making, retros)
  • Crew Formation
  • Mini-Cases
  • Kickoff
  • Retrospective & Reunion
  • Container Struggle
  • Giving & Receiving Practice
  • What's missing?
  • Watch Party - Rebuilding Society on Meaning
  • What's real?
  • Possibility Engines Game
  • Honesty & Sensitivity Dials
  • Exploring Feedback
  • Fishbowl T-Groups 2
  • Fishbowl T-Groups
  • Design for Collab Jam
  • Integrity in Connections
  • Relating Languages w/ Sara N
  • Empathic Resonance
  • Improv Future-casting
  • Relating to Stories
  • Relating to Choice
  • Mini-Circles
  • Mini-Cases
  • Exploring Relational Giving and Trust
  • Giving & Receiving Prototype
  • Landscapes of Care
  • Emergence and Purpose w/ DAVP
  • Exploring Doing
  • Collective Pres-Tension-ing
  • Retrospection
  • (Not) Cases
  • Dancing with Scissors
  • Desire and Agency Games
  • Parts-oriented Circling
  • Internal Family Systems
  • Open Session w/ Seishin
  • Layered Awareness
  • Giving & Receiving w/ Mary
  • Structured and Structureless
  • Governance Working Session
  • Kickoff: The Relational Field and Loveseat
  • Community Day
  • CYOA Practices: Edge Case & Circling
  • You Can Just...
  • Yeses and Nos
  • The Field and Slow Proposal
  • Nominations and Circling
  • Circling and Membership Design
  • House Party
  • Designing the (Working Backwards from a Star Trek) Future 1
  • T-Group and Doing∞Being
  • Kickoff: AR and Acceptance
  • Heavenly Glory
  • Relating Games
  • Contemplating Un-knowing
  • Wardley Mapping
  • Case Clinic
  • Build-your-own Case Practice
  • Looking at Relational & Systemic Cases
  • Relational Cases
  • Safe to Say
  • Small+Combined Circling
  • Themed Empathy Circling
  • Condensing Growth Themes/Headlines
  • Fast-CP Reflection on IFS & Anniversary Celebration
  • Deeper Parts
  • IFS Parts Intro
  • Welcoming House Party
  • Open social hangout time
  • Self-organizing crewing discussion
  • Relating to Wanting
  • Sensing and Remembering
  • Developmental Circling
  • Free-flowing Circling
  • Circling Intro
  • Empathy Circling + Questions
  • Friendship & Connection Norms
  • Polarities and Tensions in Community
  • Polarities Introduction
  • Meta-aware Group Reflection
  • Intentional House Party
  • Kick off Season 4!
  • CP-style desire sharing for I/you/we/world
  • Eye-gazing + Transformation sensemaking
  • Stories cont. - responding in resonance
  • Stories of perspective transformation
  • Curiosity Game + Transformations intro
  • SD stage role-playing
  • Exploring edge-finding
  • Edge Case practice again
  • Prototyping new practice: Edge Case
  • Why grow?
  • Welcoming, Noticing Game, Sharing
  • T-Group
  • Redesign + Planning + The Wave
  • Voyage Retrospective
  • Inquiry Spiraling
  • One Word Turns + Voyaging 4/4
  • Voyaging 3/4
  • Voyaging 2/4 + Noticing Game
  • Voyaging 1/4 + Empathy Circling
  • Boat-building part 2
  • Boat-building part 1
  • Structural redesign
  • Adult Development intro part 2
  • Adult Development intro part 1
  • Authentic Relating, Hotseat
  • Glass Bead Game
  • Empathy Circling
  • Examining avoidance
  • I seem, we seem
  • Being with you, I notice
  • Bensing and seeking
  • Call text revised
  • Website deployed
  • Domain name registered