When hearing from the other about you — Is it easy to listen to a story about you? Can you lower your defences? Do you trust the other enough to believe that they are lowering theirs? That they are hearing a bit of their own story in what they say? Have they ever said so? Do they give…

I often find my mouth running faster than my mind Confabulating Story emerging from a very ephemeral place — I am sometimes uncertain what the story is, even as I tell it Usually in an effort to “get it all out” without taking too much space Or to assure the…

Experiencing Liberating Structures, Learning with Peers, and Practicing in Community in multi-week “Studio” — Now that the pandemic has forced our gatherings online, how we design our interactions and what facilitation exercises or structures we use to enact our design in a digital setting, are more important than ever. I’ve recently written a little about this in the context of designing online workshops. This…

Zoom fatigue is real. But I also want to challenge the hype around this and say: don’t confuse Zoom fatigue with bad meeting fatigue. — As someone who brings large gatherings of people together face-to-face to explore problems and solutions, the pandemic has been quite an adaptation for my facilitation practice! But when I put my organizational development consultant glasses on, I see the same need as before, in the midst of new digital constraints…

Beginning in the Middle — A few weeks back, I was going to drive to the pool for some swim therapy. And to take a shower. It had been over a week since my last shower, and the pool was the best opportunity to have one. So, I “battened” the truck, and piled the kids…

The answer is easy, and we’ve implicitly known it our whole lives. Ever since about 6 years ago, when I became a dad, I’ve had the fortune of being able to watch my two littles grow up. Growing-up, if you recall, has a lot to do with the basics. …

A few weeks back, I celebrated the 20th episode of The Working Together Podcast with a compilation of clips from previous episodes–all centered on the concept of efficacy, which is like a red thread running through my Minotaur’s labyrinth of conversations with thinkers makers and doers. Have a listen to…

OMFG, I say to myself, as another speaker gets up to the podium to deliver another slide deck. My ass is numb. My eyes are dry. I feel like I’m in solitary confinement even though I’m in a room with 100+ people. I’ve got the jitters because I drank too…

Quoting some interesting scientific studies about the evolution of aggressive and violent behavior, Tom Bartlett writes: “We reliably stigmatize the other. We also reliably respond to certain kinds of information and interventions, our positions soften, we become more open. We’re more predictable than we imagine, less entrenched than we assume.” …