The essence of the method
Dragon Dreaming is an easy, inspiring, encouraging, and meaningful method of helping individuals and groups strive to make their dreams a reality. It is based on releasing the collective mind, creativity, and dormant power within us. This philosophy has three equally important goals: Serving the Earth, Creating Communities, and Developing Man.
A Brief History
Geographer John Croft based Dragon Dreaming on the principles of systems thinking and the wisdom of the Australian Aborigines. The method brings together holistic aspects that have long been ignored or separated in our cultures: our right and left brain hemispheres, logic and intuition, man and environment, theory and practice, thought and action, work, and play, success, and failure
The geographer has long investigated why some projects work so successfully while others fail, leading to worse results than if they had never been carried out.
John Croft was inspired by Gaia and Earth science, living systems, chaos theory, and the ancient wisdom of indigenous cultures. And in Australia, they say: if you’ve lost your dream, you’ve lost your soul.
But to dream outside your comfort zone is where the “dragons” lie in wait, hence the name Dragon Dreaming — Dragon Dreams (or dreams). Dragons represent our problems, our fears, our insecurities, and those people with whom we have difficulties. If we go beyond our self-imposed boundaries, we learn to “dance with our dragons”-we can be more inspired to nurture our inner strength and gain new skills.
Mechanics
“Dragon Dreaming is unconditional love in action.”
As we mentioned, the method is based on three principles:
- Personal growth — striving for one’s own healing and empowerment;
- Community building — strengthening the communities of which you are a part;
- Service to the Earth — enhancing the well-being and prosperity of all living things.
The method is designed to create mutually beneficial relationships and close collaboration. Each project seeks to generate satisfaction on three levels: personal, collective, and global. If each individual, project, or organization decides its actions with the idea of a Win-Win-Win in mind, creating a sustainable project, community, and personal satisfaction will be more successful.
So, you’ve set yourself up for joint action, so what happens next based on the methodology? Next, you have four critical stages of project implementation to go through.
Dreaming
Very often, a project begins with an “Aha” moment-the emergence of an individual dream. This is the moment of sudden realization, inspiration, insight, recognition, or understanding. “Aha” moments often come with everyday habits or rituals, but they are the germ of someone’s dream.
Dreaming is a crucial step, so it pays to follow an algorithm:
- For the meta to become true, the dreamer must become aware of his dream;
- the dreamer must share his vision with others, which opens the collective mind and encourages maximum creativity;
- when shared, the plan develops further — in a way; it dies to be reborn as the dream of the whole group;
- the goals of all dreamers must be strong enough to build from one shared vision.
- After the dreamer has shared their discovery, the team is asked questions. For example: “What do you need to do to make sure you’re having the right time?”, “What should the project be so you can say afterward that you feel happy?”. It is essential to write down all the suggestions, as these will be the plan’s basis.
Planning
In Dragon Dreaming, the essential tool of the planning stage is the creation of a project board, the Carabirdt. It is a “spider net” type diagram, but it is also similar to board games-”wandering games”-which, of course, carries its sacred meaning within the method. Carabirdt allows you to look at the project as a whole, notice all the obstacles, equalize efforts and outputs in each task, and distribute responsibilities evenly.
Implementation
This is the active phase of project implementation. The implementation of the agreed plan and the simultaneous monitoring of actions occur: “Are we on schedule and cost?” “Do we need to adjust the planning?” This is an important point because this is the stage where it is easiest to stray from the right path.
But the stage itself is also significant because it is where participants:
- they learn to integrate theory and practice;
- learn to improve their self-awareness;
- improve their teamwork;
- learn to work creatively with conflicts and manage stress;
- expand the boundaries of personal and collective potential.
That’s why it’s so important not to move blindly and stick to a plan here, which may require careful coordination. Usually, control is a “power over” method, where so-called “leaders” supervise the people who do most of the work. In Dragon Dreaming, the actual win-win process is built, so everyone in the organization has a supervisor. It doesn’t matter what step you’re on.
Celebrating
If you thought the previous steps were the most important, let’s solve the mystery — the celebration sets this project management method apart from others like it. And it is its cornerstone. After all, the festival relieves stress, and the participants come together interpersonally.
It is important to remember that in Dragon Dreaming, the celebration is not always a noisy party. The point here is about reflection and appreciation. It’s a time of skill counting, summarizing, and generating conclusions. Participants should answer the questions: “What could we have done differently?”, “What was done well and can be carried over to the next project?”, “What specifically did I do to make the project successful?”, “What did I learn in the process?”
Participants celebrate their successes and, most importantly, the group’s success. They are grateful to realize an “Aha” moment in the past. This prepares them for the next “Aha Moment,” and the circle closes.
Applications
If Dragon Dreaming were a conventional project management method, we wouldn’t need this point. But you and I have already seen that it is a meta-methodology simultaneously with the ideology and tools inside, so here is a list of what it can be used for:
- Finding inspiration and innovation, developing creativity, out-of-the-box thinking;
- Search for common ground within the team;
- Search for new ideas to encourage public responsibility and civic participation;
- finding proven methods and forms of work suitable for different skill levels;
- a way to make a difference in your life and the lives of others.
Inite
Our application is a separate piece that continues to be with you throughout the implementation of the Dragon Dreaming method. The central aspect of this method becomes people, how we interact and share our perspectives on the situation.
This is where Inite helps you. Not only can you develop your inner ideas through the Dragon Dreaming method, but you can also tell others about it, find like-minded people, and monetize your thoughts.
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