Thoughts – Page 46 – Reimagine. Strategy.

November 30, 2020December 1, 2020

Add the Tag

When I took piano lessons as a child, I remember learning how to play a cadence. It was a two-chord ending that gave a sense of finality to a piece. I loved the way it sounded — it reminded me of saying, “Ta Da!” at the end.

This past weekend I attended the quarterly gathering of Thought Leaders Business School. One of my favourite features of that event is the Genius Bar, where successful, experienced people offer mini coaching sessions one-on-one and others can listen in. Several of those conversations left me highly motivated this time around, and I realized they had something in common. In each case, the person added a tag at the end that required action on my part and commitment on theirs. Continue reading “Add the Tag”

November 23, 2020May 3, 2022

Set the Tone

I’m going to break one of my cardinal rules of facilitation right off the top: don’t remind a group of all they’ve lost. Avoid any variant of, “If we were meeting in person, we would…” or “If only we were together, we’d be able to…” Instead, leverage what you do have and can do. It keeps the energy positive and allows our attention to move to a more generative place.

But let me just say: don’t you miss variety in our venues? Continue reading “Set the Tone”

November 16, 2020May 3, 2022

When Disconnection Accelerates Connection

“I had the privilege of attending an Annual General Meeting recently…”

Said no one ever.

Except me today, as the AGM of the International Association of Facilitators really inspired me this week. Not because of the content, which was encouraging but pretty standard. It was the diversity of attendees that caught my attention. I didn’t know everyone on the call, but we were a group of 51 people and I counted at least 23 countries represented! (These global meetings have become my vicarious travelling life…they make me happy.) Continue reading “When Disconnection Accelerates Connection”

November 9, 2020May 3, 2022

Collective Reimagining

Just because you’ve never seen it before — or maybe no one has seen it before — doesn’t make something impossible.

My perfect storm of inspiration this week came from reading Rob Hopkins’ From What Is to What If on the same day that Kamala Harris became Vice-President Elect of the United States. In her victory speech, she called for people to “…dream with ambition, lead with conviction and see yourselves in a way that others may not, simply because they’ve never seen it before.” Continue reading “Collective Reimagining”

November 2, 2020May 3, 2022

Disrupting our Defaults

Default settings exist so that we don’t have to make conscious decisions about too many things over and over again. They move choices onto autopilot for us. That’s a very useful thing, as our brains can hold far more in our unconscious zones than in our conscious ones. Making too many decisions is exhausting. (If you’re curious how Obama handled decision fatigue during his presidency, have a look here.) Continue reading “Disrupting our Defaults”