Week 47, 2020 - Flow vs flux

Interesting conversations

• Why organizations aren’t set up to scan the landscape they operate in, why people don’t have basic skills and habits to do it, and how library science could evolve to fill that void

• The distinction between collaboration and coordination (ran a workshop on this topic with my Liberating Structures practice group)

• The potential of Twitch as a community building platform outside of games and music

• Why it’s so difficult for us to do things purely for ourselves, even when the resources are accessible

• The psychology of flow (participated in an Interintellect salon for the first time)

• The constraints of public administrative content and how they wrestle with private sites who fill the gap but add confusion by not maintaining the advice (another great chat thanks to the ResearchOps Pair Connect program)

• What is a headless CMS (Marion is helping me rebuild my website with Strapi and Vue.js)

Week 46, 2020 - Vectors

Finally got this out the door - “On mentorship as a vector for growth. The editing process was a steep learning curve, the good kind of painful, and I’m proud of how it turned out. We have a ways to go to engage a broader audience but I think we’re onto a rich line of inquiry.

I spent Friday and Saturday attending Intersection conference, which I hope to write about later.

Week 45, 2020 - Writing

I decides to start running as the best option for exercise within the confinement restrictions, and managed to do it four days out of seven. I don’t particularly enjoy running but it’s a low friction activity considering I already own the gear, have experience training and live next to a nice course. We’ve had a few days of autumn weather (still!) and it’s been lovely to be outside.

I also made strides in my writing, thanks to the gifts of Writer’s Hour and comprehensive feedback from friends on early drafts. I’m learning so much about the writing process.

And in the backdrop of all of that has been the US election. Congratulations to all the Americans who fought the good fight. I went from being scared that the race would go the wrong way, to incredulous that it could be so tight, to sheer relief with some joy, and now mostly concerned about the amount of difficult work ahead.

Week 44, 2020 - Locked down once more

My new winter cycling jacket arrived in the mail the first morning of our second national confinement. Like a bad joke, like a slap in the face, a promise held in both hands before it was snatched away… but the reality is that the pandemic continues to rage. France is leading the way in spring-like measures being rolled out across Europe, with people casting a weary eye towards the winter holidays. Most of us have enough friends who’ve gotten Covid in the past few weeks for the deterioration to have hit home.

We had a bit of a last hurrah and are now hunkered down once more, trying to swallow the disappointment and drudgingly seeking ways to make the most out of the situation. The sense of déjà vu is tough.

Last chance for a long while to see the forest -

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.

Week 42, 2020 - The beginning of a city life under curfew

We’re living with a 9pm-6am curfew in Paris now, which I imagine to be another 2020 first for many of us. It’s restrictive but so much lighter than the spring lockdown. Let’s see how it goes.

Week 41, 2020 - New views

It’s been an uneventful week and I’ve managed to enjoy that for the most part. The infection situation is worsening in France - it’s good to stay in without letting yourself feel too cooped up.

Highlights and accomplishments:

• Very first call with our practice group for Liberating Structures. We’ll be meeting every other week and I’m looking forward to having this gentle space for connection.

• Almost done with a full draft of an essay that I’ve been developing with a friend

• Great progress in the heavy planning phases of two new client assignments

• Hit my target training cadence of two CrossFit sessions, one long bike ride and almost daily Indian club swinging

• Tried one new restaurant and got our full of Chinese dimsum!

• Tried a new Asian supermarket. Great for pantry items and some vegetables.

• Saw a friend whom I haven’t seen in a few months

• Figuring out the different cycling pathways in and out of my new street

• Halfway done with constructing my mushroom shotgun fruiting chamber.

Week 40, 2020 - Moved!

Over the years, one difference I’ve found between life in Tokyo and Paris is the degree to which we rely on the resources and goodwill of friends in daily life. In Tokyo, we manage most things self-sufficiently with the use of professional services and established processes. My business is mine to deal with, and yours is yours. Here, we ask for housing tips online, sell and buy things from each other, pitch in to move heavy things, and make use of each other’s couches and extra storage spaces.

With the help of good friends who helped me drive and carry my stuff, a few more who welcomed me to the new neighborhood, a beat-up van rented from a car-sharing platform, and the kindness of apartment staff who lent me their industrial-size dolly that I’m now settled into a new place. I’m savoring the change of pace and having new pathways to discover in the city!

Week 39, 2020 - Packing up

The season is changing. The cycle invites us to creatively destruct what does not serve us anymore so that we may bring forth new ideas.

I’m moving soon, have a few projects wrapping up, and am seeking how else I might clear the slate.

Week 38, 2020 - Be water

I write this on a Sunday morning from my balcony that overlooks the apartment courtyard. There’s a good 150m stretch between the street and our various building entrances and I’ve spent a lot of time looking out to this view, watching the endless stream of people coming in and out. A husband getting in a quick stretch before starting his mission for a fresh baguette, a young man striding back home from a gym session, a kid swiveling his head from the vantage point of the back of dad’s bike, dolled up girls checking their phones, toddlers on their little scooters circling their parents. The courtyard acts as a buffer between home and street, an in-between where our defenses are lowered, and it fascinates me how much inner monologue seems to be expressed in the physicality of how people move through it. I’m moving out soon, and I think the courtyard is what I’ll miss the most.

I overdid it this week with a book club, a facilitation class and two conferences, one for which I was a speaker. I treasure the rich discussions, though.

Conversations

• The distinctions of the role that only someone who’s both a friend and peer can play when you’re delivering a public speaking engagement

• How our insecurities shape how we interpret power in group dynamics

• How communities of practice take years to gain cohesion and there’s just no rushing it

• How to consider where one’s line is between unpaid passion-driven work and leisure, and why that’s a/the key to balance

• What kind of feedback loops lead to feeling deep satisfaction in the work done, and how our individual needs are actually quite different

• Structures that allow us to sit with a question when our initial reaction to it is ambivalence or even boredom