An Example of Deepcasting

One principle we often talk about in ServiceSpace is "deepcasting".  If broadcast is one-to-many with a large microphone, deepcasting is a heart-to-heart word-of-mouth ripple effect. Naturally, a movement requires both but most of our systems aren't designed for deepcasting. Moreover, if the  center of gravity of our ecosystem isn't rooted in deepcasting, it forces us to take many shortcuts that bias our effort towards the short-term and away from "building a field of emergence." So what does it mean to design for deepcasting? 

To make this practical, especially in light of our upcoming event, I'm sharing a simple example of what goes behind a  simple guest speaker event we host.  Last week, among numerous such event, we hosted a talk by Ven. Karma Lekshe Tsomo on death and dying.  

• prior to the call, we wrote a bio from our lens about why her story is interesting
• in 30-minute pre-call, we asked her five questions that turned into this video
• prior to the call, we invite all RSVP's to submit pre-reflections and pre-questions
• during the call, we invite 50-60 people for a "guest listener" event
• during the call, we invite everyone to submit questions
• during the call, we infuse it with different contextual acts of kindness -- like having two Buddhist monks offer a chant for one of the most prominent businessmen in India, because he was about to head into a meditation retreat; or Linh singing Lynne Twist's favorite prayer on her 77th birthday; or getting Carrie's mentor to introduce her concert or putting together a collage of appreciation; any excuse to show love. :)
• guest-listeners stayed back for 30-minute informal q&a, where she shared this meditation on death
• after the call, volunteers posted the full recording, a summary of key nuggets -- and inspiring short clips that inspired listeners could share with their friends
• we invited all listeners to share reflections around three questions
• we add feedbackers into their online group, to further continue the dialogue
• after the call, we digest all the feedback and send a nice gratitude-note to the speaker; if it wasn't a monastic, we would also figure out a way to "tag" them with something material.  Mostly it's small things, but sometimes more creative things -- like Michael Penn spoke last week (moved to tears by the introduction alone), and all listeners were offered a copy of his book as an anonymous gift from another listener.  When Charles spoke once, someone made a hand-made drawing for one of his poem and shipped it to him. 
• those who are interested in volunteering (on feedback form), we invite them to transcribe 10-minute segments and publish on the site
• we requested Ven. Lekshe to do a hour-long meditation on death; she said yes, so we are doing a bonus event
• two weeks later, we have another guest speaker -- who runs a hospice in Japan, so the momentum continues
• everyone from all three (maybe four) events in the series are invited to join a peer-learning pod on death/dying -- which will then create its own ripples

At one level, we can say that 1200 people RSVP'd for the call, but that's a very superficial metric. Even if it was 12 million, it's quite light touch compared to what can regenerate in this kind of field. Such an infusion of energy also allows us to really flesh out the engagement spectrum more thoughtfully ...

• subscribers who read the emails, are inspired but can't engage
• RSVP's
• RSVP's who submitted a question or pre-call reflection
• RSVP's who joined the live call
• guest listeners who joined "backstage"
• listeners who submitted post-call feedback
• feedbackers who checked the box to volunteers
• post-event viewers (who couldn't make the live call or didn't RSVP)
• RSVP's for the bonus event
• applicants for post-call pod

Now, imagine this with 20 such events (or in case of Awakin Calls, 500+ guest speaker events). With that kind of intelligence, you can get a lot more creative about involving different levels of engagement in different ways. If that skillfulness is combined with an untiring mind, it's easy to see that ripples would easily turn into tidal waves. And furthermore, if that whole field is cultivated with detachment and emptiness at the center, then nature's winds start to lift up the emergence to a new plateau -- and as a personal agent of such grace, you are ready to die and release at any point, because you see that nature is doing all the heavy lifting. Win, win. :) 

Core question for us, then, is -- what deepcasting are we doing now, that can become the architecture for building such a regenerative field?