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A lesson in balance…from a crow
The other day my daughter came home with six or seven black crow feathers that she had found on an "out trip" at day camp. My first internal reaction was one of the Yuck! variety but she was so excited about the feathers that we talked about how she could keep them....
Thinking about the empty chair
A couple of weeks ago I read Daniel Pink's new book, To Sell is Human. Pink argues that all of us are in sales jobs these days, no matter whether we think we're in sales or not. That is, our title might not be "salesperson" but most of us spend large portions of our...
The strong appeal of a portfolio career
A few weeks ago at a dinner I convened for my facilitators group we got talking - as we always do - about the various things that we each do for work. Not surprisingly, many of us have several areas of expertise and it made for interesting introductions as each...
The upside of meetings
It's funny how sometimes in our culture people can get really down on meetings, saying they're "not productive", "don't allow people to get real work done" or even are "a waste of time." While there likely are meetings going on in the world that do fit these negative...
Setting up chairs is a most important task
Have you ever heard the expression, "change the room, change the culture"? The quote comes from Peter Block in his book The Structure of Belonging, and I like this post on the CommunitiesKnow blog which used it as a jumping off point in 2011 to talk about how...
Jeffersonian Dinner makes conversation a hit
Several months ago I stumbled on to the Generosity Network's site and discovered their resource called How to Plan a Jeffersonian Dinner. As a facilitator and someone who thrives on bringing people together to connect with each other, I was immediately intrigued by...
Facilitation Workshop Roundup
I'm happy to say that there are a lot of facilitation-related workshops coming up in Victoria soon, so I thought I'd make this post a "roundup" of some of the options that I know are available over the next couple of months. Please share in the comments if you know of...
Working on clarity (mission and vision)
A few weeks ago I asked a friend to put on a workshop on "creating a mission and vision statement for your business" for some members of the women's group that I convene. I had asked her to do it because it was something that I really wanted to attend myself! I've...
Are you a word person? My workshop title needs your help!
A few weeks ago I was in Campbell River facilitating a workshop I was calling "Volunteer Recognition Unveiled". I had tried to create a workshop title that would tip people off that volunteer recognition is so much more than sometimes they think it is. It's so much...
The way we talk about volunteerism is shifting
One of the reasons I went to the Volunteer BC conference in Richmond earlier this month was because Martha Parker was speaking. There were other reasons for wanting to attend the conference, of course, but I had heard good things from more than one person about Martha...