Alex has a great post today on his Top 5 reasons to celebrate mistakes at work. I’ve been hearing lately from many clients about the need for us to loosen up and accept more failure in our work. The pressure that comes from perfection and maintaining a failsafe environment is a killer, and while we all demand high levels of accountability and performance, working in a climate where we can fail-safe provides more opportunity to find creative ways forward that are hitherto unknown. So to compliment Alex’s post, here are a few ways to create a safe-fail environment: 1. Be …
I’m a sucker for principles, because principles help us to design and do what is needed and help us to avoid bringing pre-packaged ideas and one-size-fits-all solutions to every problem. And of course, I’m a sucker for my friend Meg Wheatley. Today, in our Art of Hosting workshop in central Illinois, Tenneson Woolf and Teresa Posakony brought some of Meg’s recent thinking on these principles to a group of 60 community developers working in education, child and family services, and restorative justice. We’re excited to be working nwith these principles in the work we’re doing with Berkana Institute. Here’s what …
A quote from DH Lawrence in relation to what Lost is really about: We cannot bear connection. That is our malady. We must break away, and be isolate. We call that being free, being individual. Beyond a certain point, which we have reached, it is suicide. Perhaps we have chosen suicide. Well and good. The Apocalypse too chose suicide, with subsequent self-glorification… my individualism is really an illusion. I am a part of the great whole, and I can never escape. But I can deny my connections, break them, and become a fragment. Then I am wretched. via What the …
A poem by Ralph Copleman a longtime Open Space practitioner, posted this week on the OSLILST The Days of Now On the night before Now we all clambored over and greeted each other by the gateway. Now came the first morning. We opened for each other many conversations and passed cups around the shining circle. On the second of Now, I could see a long way in people’s eyes which cleared to let in the light. On the third of Now, everyone started dialing up tomorrows, released laughter and embraced every future Now with braided voices and sweat-slicked arms. Each …
For International Women’s Day this year, Lianne Raymond published a labour of love. What is Dying to be Born is a collection of short pieces of writing and small pieces of art from 30 women. Each little piece is a reflection on a theme, like goodness and compassion and renewal. My favourite piece I think is the one from Danielle LaPorte on the theme of “Genius Heart.” In it she offers a little prose poem that includes these lines: Thee beauty of our DNA is dying to be born: an acceptance of the order of chaos; the reverence of High …