In working with groups, especially doing planning, I am constantly struck by how hard it is for people to move from ideas to action. A lot of the time people are happy to brainstorm, and then consider action planning to be little more than a list of things starting with “we need to do this” or “we should do that.” Sometimes (!) groups will even get as far as making tables or lists with responsibilities assigned to specific names. But that is still not action. I often wonder if the size and magnitude of some tasks dissuade people from taking …
Ten pieces of interesting linkage for you collected over the last couple of weeks: An Interview with Martin Prechtel on indigenous soul indirectly via Jeff Aitken Very interesting work on measuring social capital in Northern Ireland Collaborative policy making resources from the Centre for Collaborative Policy via Happenings Youth as e-Citizens, a groundbreaking study on engaging youth activism online via Happenings Bruce Elkin’s resources to support coaching and personal, organizational and community success, including his book Simplicity and Success Nurturing a Faint Call in the Blood: A Linguist Encounters Languages of Ancient America via Jeff Aitken I’ve just spent the …
Great. I wrote a couple of days ago about how hard it is to facilitate in Canada during the hockey playoffs. Tomorrow I’m working with a group and tonight the Vancouver Canucks suffered a spectacular playoff-ending overtime defeat.
I was truly honoured yesterday to sit with 15,000 other people and listen to the Dalai Lame give a talk on Universal Responsibility yesterday in Vancouver. (You can view the video of the talk online) The Dalai Lama was introduced by Archbishop Desmond Tutu in a way that made it feel as if he was introducing a good friend to an audience of good friends. It was a wonderful afternoon. There were many parts of the teaching that resonated, and it will take me a while to process the entire experience. Just being in the presence of these two great …
Elder Sonny Diabo, (Mohawk, Kahnawake)The group I was working with in Montreal this week is assisted by the man pictured above, Sonny Diabo, an Elder from Kahnewake, a First Nation across the river from Montreal. Sonny is a marvelous and generous teacher, and is invaluable to the group. In the contemporary world, we don’t always get time to spend with Elders and so when I have the opportunity, I try to take advantage of it by asking about teachings in certain areas of my life that I am currently thinking about. Recently as evidenced here at the Parking Lot weblog, …