Week 43, 2020 - In stillness

On Tuesday, I delivered a 40min talk titled “Learning as a social practice: ideas to increase our range for growth” for Namahn’s Lecture series. I’d been working on shifting my public speaking to be sharing original thinking that was not anchored in a specific methodology or project, so tackling an abstract topic like learning was a milestone. The talk was quite a hard birth. The preparation took a lot longer than usual, from finding a coherent narrative to pulling together material. I’m pleased with the end result and overall response. I added a Mad Tea activity (aka Chatterfall) to the webinar-format for the audience to share sense-making and reflection, which doubles as an in-situ moment for me to get a sense of how people interpreted the main points and what they’d be able to take into their own work. Not sure where I’ll take this body of work myself - perhaps that could have been one of the questions.

Wednesday is my mid-week rest day, space made for important-but-not-urgent activities or de-stressing big tasks like cleaning out my old apartment. (ref Week 34) This week, I had a meandering call with a dear friend who’s going through a period of regeneration. And then I cooked fish as nitsuke (simmered) for the first time, garnished with oyster mushrooms that I’d grown in the living room. And ended with a session with my Liberating Structures practice group. We are starting to gel and it is a beautiful thing.

Speaking of which, I moved my Liberating Structures Fieldnotes out of stealth mode, promoting it a bit on Twitter and LinkedIn. It’s cool to see interest from different people, especially from those whom I wouldn’t have associated with an active interest in facilitation. I’m quite proud of this little series - if anything, my future self will benefit from good notes! - and want to develop this kind of writing practice as a key activity.

Last but not least, Marion and I turned our idea for regular weekend retreats into a long-awaited reality. It’s to be the first of many and I’m writing this post from a tiny village near Chantilly, enjoying the stillness and a full belly.