Lori, Like Tricia, I love your posted image! For me it holds all the entwined energy we humans share. We are all connected which is why a spark from one to another can so easily catch and take hold. It is also why we can create huge flames when enough of us spark together. Hmmmm, sounds a lot like a fireball rolling through everything in its path. That is how I imagined a great group of collaborators making a contribution during my reading this week.
Being the board was an interesting picture analogy for me. I hadn't really thought of it like that before, and because I am a chess player, I could totally relate to "being the board" and determining how the game gets played. Loved that chapter too!
You are absolutely right with your final sentence. I haven't met an effective leader who told "I" stories. Blessings are for us and we. Teamwork is a "We" story and the best way to accomplish anything is as a pair, group, etc. If God intended for us to have an "I" story, Eve would never have been created......hmmmmm
The art of generating a spark of possibility seems very connected to presence. If am able to stay open to the “noticing” that we read about last week, then I am often able to feel for openings, ways to connects. Many times this kind of connection will happen with words but sometimes it’s small gestures or even just allowing space that can be enough to let what might occur to occur. I’ve experienced this kind of connection in my work, personally and creatively. So often “enrollment” is simply allowing things to unfold naturally and that natural unfolding often seems serendipitous.
Chapter 10. Being the Board
At some point in my adult life I began to think of responsibility as “the ability to respond.” The actual definition is not far off but somehow embedding my personal response into the meaning of the word made a difference for me. Now that I am the board, the captain of my ship, the master of my fate, I get to choose. Often choice is related to redesigning something and sometimes it’s about cleaning up messes that I’ve made but it’s all mine even if it’s only mine in thought or perspective. I am the board and I make the executive decisions of who I choose to be in the world.
Chapter 11. Creating Frameworks for Possibility
This chapter allowed me to reflect on the power of gratitude. In my own personal experience, gratitude had been the single most powerful practice that I have cultivated. In terms of restructuring meanings and creating visions, there’s a lot to be said about creativity, letting go of spiral thinking and living without a scarcity mentality but nothing will expedite the process of creating frameworks of possibilities for me like gratitude.
Chapter 12. Telling the WE Story
I had to laugh about getting past the “us and them” in this chapter because I get so caught up in the “me, myself and I” that I’m often not even in that conversation! But I do get the point. I like how Zander gives contrasting conversations in this chapter. When you compare an “I” conversation with a “we” conversation, the possibilities really stand out. “I” conversations sound very closed. I don’t know an effective leader who is not good at maintaining this type of perspective.
Being the board was an interesting picture analogy for me. I hadn't really thought of it like that before, and because I am a chess player, I could totally relate to "being the board" and determining how the game gets played. Loved that chapter too!
You are absolutely right with your final sentence. I haven't met an effective leader who told "I" stories. Blessings are for us and we. Teamwork is a "We" story and the best way to accomplish anything is as a pair, group, etc. If God intended for us to have an "I" story, Eve would never have been created......hmmmmm
MAC Week 4 Reading Blog: The Art of Possibility Chapters 9-12