Continuing from Sustaining a self-reflection practice in a chaotic world (1 of 2) … 7. What gets in the way of sustaining your practice? Most days, nothing. Some days, I do. On those days, I’ve learned to reach out to self-organizing group members until I’m back on track. 8. How does your professional self-reflection practice support your personal practice and vice versa? Learning and experimenting … [Read More]
One of my self-organizing groups (Doug Nathan of conflictmatters plus Neil Baker of Neil Baker Coaching and Consulting plus me) is creating a proposal this week to speak at a national conference next spring. One hour into our first discussion, we decided to talk as a panel about something we’re all doing right now but hadn’t entirely noticed until we came together: namely, sustaining a … [Read More]
How many days each year are you angry? I’m not talking about clearly warranted in-the-moment anger—the kind that causes you to shriek out loudly to stop a young child from running out into busy traffic (followed by a mini lecture about the dangers of running into traffic while your hearts are still pumping hard from the life-or-death scare). Or the kind that causes your whole … [Read More]
Some of the things I learned this week thanks to my self-organizing groups: Chaos and order are both within us, and both ok. It’s in our nature to be chaotic, silly, ridiculous, and huge risk-takers. Within these groups, I can accept chaos as rewarding and even fun. Yet it’s also in our nature to appreciate order and structure and to minimize or avoid risk. Within … [Read More]
I spend all my time working with and as self-organizing groups and reflecting on what we experience and learn together. Thanks to these groups, I live my life in a very good mood: to the point that, most days, it’s hard to wipe the smile off my face. I recently saw this same experience on the face of a person next to me at Skillet … [Read More]
This was my official schedule yesterday: Take a bus, then ferry, to Bainbridge Island to spend the bulk of the day brainstorming ideas with one of my own favorite self-organizing groups (my friend Doug and I, a forming consulting group) Have dinner with another favorite self-organizing group (my husband and I) Spend three evening hours in the park near my house rehearsing dance moves with … [Read More]
Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays are the three days each week that I consciously prioritize my family, my close friends, and my individual well-being over my work as a self-organizing groups researcher. I minimize my connection with the broader world on these three days each week—don’t use the internet (unless in service of my family, such as finding the perfect recipe for chocolate cake) and don’t … [Read More]
Here’s something I can say for sure: self-organizing groups increase the resilience of group members and at least some nearby others. I experience this myself every time I’m part of a self-aware self-organizing group—both my own and others. This holds true across all 30 groups I’ve studied—from teacher and employee and consulting groups to friendship groups to milk carton derbys and flash mobs. Here’s an … [Read More]
If a visitor from another galaxy landed on planet earth today—watched our news programs to learn about us and conducted an objective examination of the overall health of human institutions and state of our oceans, air, and planet from the outside—what would they say about us as human beings? There’s overwhelming evidence that we humans are arrogant, self-centered, and dangerous to ourselves and the planet … [Read More]
This week I had lunch with a friend who I worked with at Microsoft almost a decade ago. She’s an amazing person—a dedicated employee, wife, mother, and daughter. And, like many people I know, she’s also frustrated, extraordinarily busy, and tired just trying to keep up. As our lunch drew to an end, she floored me by saying: “Lori, you don’t just have work/life balance, … [Read More]
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