Yesterday I was on a commuter flight from Toronto to Montreal. For those of you not in North America, these two cities are the biggest two in Canada and the flight is full of corporate looking people who are wearing ties, nice trench coats, shiny shoes, power rim glasses, and carrying leather portfolios. In short it was a flight of business travellers, mostly men, mostly white. What struck me as I watched people coming on was how grim everyone looked. Everyone looked deadly serious. They were quiet, travelling alone for the most part and quickly avoided making eye contact with …
An email from a participant in a recent Art of Hosting-type workshop where I brought my juggling balls and taught juggling. One of the participants, a teacher, picked up the skill and left with my three balls in hand to evangelize play! This may end up sounding like the silliest email ever but thanks for showing me how to juggle. I am really enjoying it. I have never found something that I am not hard on myself to perfect until now. I go outside, or inside and practice for a few minutes and if the balls drop, …
I’ve recently been introduced to the work of Al Nygard, a Native consultant working out of South Dakota primarily in Tribal communities. Al’s approach and values are very similar to my own, and it’s cool to see familiar ideas in another person’s hands. Al works with traditionally based models of leadership and calls his community development work “community empowerment.” My colleague Jerry Nagel sent me a link to a video of Al answering the question of why it is so hard to get things done in Tribal communities. Essentially he identifies seven factors that make community empowerment unique. These seven …
Just announced the summer programs at the ALIA Leadership Institute in Columbus, Ohio this summer. I’m thrilled to be back on the faculty at the Institute teaching with Luana Busby-Neff from Hawaii, Pawa Haiyupis from Ahousaht and Tim Merry from Nova Scotia. We’ll be continuing our collective inquiry about applying indigenous world views to systemic challenges together. We;ll be drawing heavily on the work of the Berkana Institute, the Art of Hosting community of practice and traditional perspectives including Malama Ole from Hawaii and Tsawalk from Nuuchanulth. Please consider joining us…richness will abound.
A beautiful sunny day for my son's 10th birthday. # Deer everywhere http://post.ly/1AX99 # Snow on the mountains last night buy clear dawn this morning. http://yfrog.com/gq9jlj # Arrived by the shores of the Mississippi in central Minnesota. It's a surprisingly warm night. # http://yfrog.com/c8xqwxj sunset on the Mississippi River at Monticello MN. A balmy early Nov evening with a river swollen by fall rain. # First real snow on the mountains http://post.ly/1BOVm # Crisp morning on the Minnesota plains. Frost last night but warm sun again today. # No matter what happens, the sun arises every dawn. No matter how …