Thoughts On Thrivability
Lessons from the Jam
5 hosts. 6 teams. 35 other cities participating. 48 hours to “rock the public sector.” Those were the key stats of GovJam Montreal, a global event in which local teams applied the tools of “service design” to conceive and develop viable projects that transform some...
It’s Alive!
I had a wonderfully stimulating lunch conversation with new acquaintance Lise Palmer of Spark Consulting recently. She had the delightful ability to challenge everything I’m passionate about in a light, playful way so that we could both happily learn through the...
You Can’t Plant a Forest
“You can’t plant a forest,” a friend said to me recently. He was speaking in general terms, saying: it's a physical impossibility. After mentally wrestling with the concept for a moment, the phrase struck me with its deep, practical wisdom – and its vital...
The Power of Place
Thrivability Montreal. Thursday, February 21, 2013. There are fifty of us gathered to explore what we’ve called The Power of Place. More wanted to come, but the room couldn’t accommodate it. We should’ve known it would be like this. So many of us quietly hunger for...
The Practice of Thrivability
Thrivability is a worldview, a global movement, and an active practice. Guided by what we know about living systems, it is a continual and purposeful drive to create the fertile conditions for life to thrive at the levels of the individual, the organization, the...
AoH Montreal: Post-Ecstatic Stress Disorder
This Art of Hosting stuff – it isn’t all rainbows and unicorns, you know. There are bumps and bruises along the way. Some they tell you about up-front. But some they don’t. The AoH community will tell you about the “groan zone,” for example – the middle point in a...
AOH Montreal: The Lost Practice of Apprenticeship
January 15. Months ago, we were thrilled when Toke Møller agreed to come to Montreal to lead our Art of Hosting event. But then he announced his three conditions – each of which would challenge our mental comfort and our egos. He alone would choose the other two...
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...
