Thoughts On Thrivability
AoH Montreal: A Well-Oiled Organism
January 13. This evening, we concluded Montreal’s first Art of Hosting event. I’m exhausted after the three-day event and two days of preparation before that. But I’m deeply satisfied. Everything flowed smoothly, despite much complexity, necessarily last-minute...
AOH Montreal: Preparing the Field
January 9. We’ve just finished the second day of preparation for a three-day Art of Hosting training to be offered to more than 100 participants. Though the training officially begins tomorrow morning, the learning has already been intense for our team of local...
Competition in the Age of Collaboration
For many years, I’ve spoken about the great promise of seeing organizations as living systems – a view that charts a path to employee engagement, customer loyalty, and organizational resilience. Every once in a while, though, someone will cynically point out that not...
The Dark Side of Co-Creation
Co-creation is one of today’s hottest buzzwords. It’s the idea that a collaborative process of shared creation leads to higher levels of engagement, innovation and resilience. I should love the concept – after all, I’m working to promote a more complete understanding...
The Dance of Thrivability
When I talk about thrivability, I find that many people understand it to be an end goal - an ideal state to aspire to once the real messiness of life has been perfectly sorted out. I’ve even encountered mild hostility to the concept: “There are people starving in the...
Meetings as a Form of Healing
I’ve just come home from the second Thrivability Montreal gathering this month. As so often happens with these gatherings, there was something special in the air tonight. “I can’t put a word to it,” said one woman in the closing circle. “It’s a feeling of connection....
Ownership and the Living Organization
If an organization is a living system, is it appropriate for anyone to own it? Would it be more appropriate to see it as something we bring into the world and steward, like a child? How might that work, legally and financially? These questions came up recently as I...
Postcards from Thrivability Camp: The Paradox of Transformation
Last week, I wrote about a story I shared at the opening of Thrivability Camp. According to the story, leaders can be seen as “keepers of the fire,” a powerful symbol of transformation. Though this is a role traditionally played by women, leaders of any gender can...
Postcards from Thrivability Camp: Keepers of the Fire
This is part of a series of posts about a gathering in Montreal in which a diverse group of 15 people spent four days exploring different facets of thrivability. On the first morning of Camp, we sat in a spacious circle. Each in turn, we walked to the center of the...
