On Monday I celebrated my birthday in Tisvilde, a small town I like very much on the Northern coast of Denmark. At the intersection of forest and ocean there's a stillness and a slowness that feels like a blessing.
Last night I sat on a rock talking with a friend on Facetime, showing her the house ...
Interested in the real reason leaders don't use participatory practice with their people?
Just before I left for Sweden at the end of May to co-host an in-house Art of Host training, I interviewed my friend and long-time CEO Phil Cass. I wanted to know both how he had come to participatory practice a...
One of the great joys of my work is the opportunity to peek behind the scenes in organisations and teams to help them find their courageous stories and host them to life.
I spent all last week in Malmö, Sweden alongside a team hosting a team into being through what we called "The Art of Leading Toget...
If you listen more deeply to the conversations around you, what are the themes you're hearing? Yesterday I was in conversation with David Hutchens, who told me he's been thinking a lot about the conversations he's been part of and how he's beginning to muse on love as a leadership capacity.
I remem...
I've been in some good learning over the past weeks. Most of it was amazingly generative and connecting. Some of it was disturbing. A bit of it happened solo with my eyes closed. And all of it points to the unique choices we are making now.
In the dojo
At the end of May I headed to a "Dojo for Doj...
At the invitation of Brigitta Villaronga, I visited what she calls the "Cow-working" space in South Tyrol on a family farm in the mountains. Of course I helped to milk cows and enjoyed the view of the snowclad alps immensely from my outdoor office table high on the mountainside.
During my stay I ...
On Thursday night I was listening to mythologist Michael Meade during his webinar called "Coping in a World Gone Wrong." From a mythological point of view, the end times are also the beginning times. And they call for a special focus, because it no longer serves to hang onto "business as usual."
In...
I belong to a digital neighbour network. I see the posts about lost animals, "porch pirates" and road closures. Today I read a post from a brave and anxious woman. Her husband has been sick most of the year. They have dwindling resources. And four kids under 10.
I can feel the desperate edge to her r...
I remember laughing out loud at hearing Pema Chödrön once say: "If you think you're enlightened, go home to your family."
She has a good point.
If you think you're a good leader / facilitator / conflict resolution coach / mediation specialist / meditator / process host / [fill in the blank], o...
I met some weirdness on a walk in a State Park yesterday. This video introduces you to my new weird friend and it is intended to help you open your mind to the idea of weirdness. An open mind is the prerequisite to accepting weirdness, and especially your own. You may never know what gift you are ho...
Yesterday was the fourth Monday of the month and that means I took my regular seat by fire (on Zoom of course) in The Story Café. We open the doors, see who from THE STORY DOJO will arrive and settle in to share how our theme of the month is stirring in us. It's like a regular café, really -- you ne...
Where once I felt like a voice at the rim calling for more attention on the relational field, the more we move online the more it becomes obvious that relationship is at the heart of transformation. In fact, that might be the most important thing I learned joining Civil Defense all those years ago i...