Early morning trip to Minnesota on a holiday Monday. One downside of working a lot in the United States is that American clients often book me for long weekends. It’s free on my calendar, so it must be okay! Not too choked to leave on a little trip today though. The weather has been glorious the past few days, the Vancouver Whitecaps have treated us to some fabulous games at BC Place, including a thrilling comeback in the opening leg of the Canadian Championship Cup final and a terrific derby match against Seattle. But now the rainy weather has moved …
Today I am very sad about the current state of our country. Last fall, the Conservatives won their long sought after majority and this gave the Prime Minister the power to enact his intention to remake Canada so that we would “not recognize it.” And so Stephen Harper and his ministers and back benchers have been busy doing just that, with new legislation, new regulations, a new way of operating the budget and focusing more on values and attributes of Canadian life that reflects their view of the country and who we are. That is their perogative. They won the …
I was up north on the weekend, working with a small community that has been driven apart by a large and contentious decision. It doesn’t matter what it was, or what either side wanted – the result is the same result that happens in many small communities: people who are friends and neighbours shouting and fighting with each other. The team I was working with are trying to reinvent the way this community is engaged. We used a lovely redux of Peter Block’s work to help frame our conversation about design and implementation. A few things stood out for this …
Everywhere.
I’m at an Open Space conference in Grande Ronde, Oregon which is a summit of Tribal leaders and federal government agencies from around the Pacific Northwest of the USA, and Alaska. The subject of the meeting is improving relations around environmental issues. As we were wrapping up our action planning session this morning, a young man walked into the room who I hadn’t yet met. He apologized for being late. He got delayed on the way in. “No problem,” I said. “What was the delay all about?” “Oh, I live near Nome Alaska and we were out hunting. Got a …