A few highlights from this week:
- Victoria Liberating Structures User Group meet-up. For the last few years I have been co-organizing this with the wonderful Beth Cougler Blom. It’s so fun and fabulous that about once a month, a bunch of people are happy to gather on their own time to support each other’s learning and facilitation problem solving. It has become SO much easier lately than when we started because the group is bringing the content, we just set up the container and invitation.
- “Ease up on yourself by 60%“. I am experimenting with this advice by not “over-preparing” for things, and sometimes i’m not preparing at all. If it pans out, I’ll attribute it to being present and listening. If it doesn’t, I’ll go back to proven methods of “fearing failure” and “plan clutching”.
- Teaching Visual Practice Level 1 at Royal Roads University. I love doing this, it’s so much fun. This time, our learning space was the Boathouse, which is hard to describe, but suffice to say I don’t expect to ever teach or learn in a more beautiful or ideal space
Some Media I consumed:
- The Truth About Stories (audio) – 5th and final part for our book club: What is it about us that you don’t like?
- Moose Hide Provincial Gathering – the livestream for this event was incredibly well done and I was so appreciative of being able to listen to the speakers that way.
- Emotional Intelligence 2.0 (book). This was a “leadership book” recommendation that I took with some hesitation. I mean, the whole idea of “IQ” is so problematic. And, colloquially, the idea of “low EQ” seems to have become code for just… being an jerk? But it’s a short, easy read that invites reflection on questions like: How well do you (really) understand and manage your own emotions and reactions? How well do you read the room (really) and navigate relationships? As ever, leadership development = personal development. The book offers some specific strategies/challenge tasks (and of course a test) to try. I think all “self-help” books WAY overdo the fricking storytelling, but this one isn’t totally terrible.
- Tools for remote teams (mega list): https://www.collaborationsuperpowers.com/tools/#retreats