Advice is unfriendly to learning, especially when it is sought. Most of the time when people seek advice, they just want to be heard. Advice at best stops the conversation, definitely inhibits learning, and at worst claims dominance.
Peter BlockRead
Invitation is not only a step in bringing people together, it is also a fundamental way of being in a community. It manifests the willingness to live in a collaborative way. This means that a future can be created without having to force or sell it or barter for it. When we believe that barter or subtle coercion is necessary, we are operating out of a context of scarcity and self-interest, the core currencies of the economist.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Invitation fosters community and collaboration, enabling a future built on shared willingness rather than scarcity or coercion.
This quote emphasizes the importance of invitation as a means of building relationships within a community. It suggests that true collaboration arises from a mindset of abundance rather than scarcity, and highlights that when individuals operate from a place of self-interest, they may resort to manipulative tactics instead of the genuine connections formed through invitation and collaboration.
Themes
InvitationCommunityCollaborationScarcityAbundanceRelationships
In practice
Example use cases
In a community meeting to discuss local initiatives, I would use this quote to highlight the importance of collective efforts.
More from Peter Block
All quotes →Relationship and connectedness are the pre-condition for change. Every meeting, every process, every training program has to get people connected first. Otherwise the content falls on deaf ears. So small groups are an essential building block to any future you want to create.
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Good questions work on us, we don't work on them. They are not a project to be completed but a doorway opening onto greater depth of understanding, actions that will take us into being more fully alive.
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The goal is to balance a life that works with a life that counts.
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How do you change the world? One room at a time. Which room? The one you're in.
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We need to tell people not to be helpful. Trying to be helpful and giving advise are really ways to control others. ... Advice, recommendations, and obvious actions are exactly what increase the likelihood that tomorrow will be just like yesterday.
Peter BlockRead
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