It is never easy to be criticized or accused. If our inner world is filled with self-dislike, any outer challenge is a double whammy to our fragile sense of self. So we shut our ears and hearts. We defend. We protect ourselves. Or we get mired in our own defeat.
Read MoreOn Orlando: Some Feeling-Thoughts
Last Thursday night, four days after the deadly massacre at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, I attended a vigil at the Q Center in Portland Oregon. Like many people, I had been moving through the week in a daze of grief, anger, fear and hopelessness, trying to wrap my brain around the complexity of the intersecting, colliding and exploding issues that ended in the horrific rampage. Over 100 shot and 49 killed, mostly LGBTQ, mostly under age 30, the worst massacre ever perpetrated by an armed US citizen with a legally purchased assault rifle designed to destroy as many people as possible in as short a time as possible.
Read MorePicture this: Week 3 of a five-week Intensive Course. About forty people—from different (and warring) countries, cultures, religions, races, genders and socio-economic backgrounds—are in attendance. The students have different levels of education, health, physical abilities, English language capacity and range in age from twenties to seventies.
Read More“If you inspire people to do their own thing, I think that’s the greatest thing. One always hopes for that…” Patti Smith
It’s the 40th anniversary of the release of Patti Smith’s revolutionary album Horses, an album that changed my life and launched my short-lived career as a punk rock star.
So much inspired me about this album, from Robert Maplethorpe’s iconic photograph on the cover, featuring Patti in gender bending church-boy attire sourced from (my then favorite store) Salvation Army (the record producers wanted to pretty her up but she wouldn’t have it), to the shocking and irreverent beat poetry in her lyrics—Jesus died for somebody’s sins but not mine. Above all else, I loved that she couldn’t sing very well—not in the standard sense, and she did it anyway. She didn’t look or act like a female was supposed to and she stayed true to herself. This was beautiful to me.
Read MoreExpertise can act like a drug. It puffs us up, puts us on top of the world—especially when we’ve paid our dues and earned the role through years of hard work. But like most drugs, it has a side effect. Stoned on expertise, we forget what it’s like to be a beginner. This cognitive bias is known as the curse of knowledge. And it is most noticeable in highly specialized fields that require a lot of study or experience to master.
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Derrick, a high level Creative Director, knew it was time to move on—he should finally be done working for somebody else. Well known in his field, and with many awards to his name, it would be the next logical step, the one his friends assumed he should take, a move that would make his proud mom prouder. In addition to being a brilliant Creative, my client was a genuine nice guy and supportive mentor; he was certain he could do a decent job at managing people.
Until this moment, until this very conversation, he believed that his decades long struggle with anxiety and the havoc its physical symptoms had wreaked, was a curse—a weakness that had stopped him from achieving more status and acclaim.
But was it?
Read MoreAndrea, the CEO of a large advocacy program for disadvantaged children has been at the helm of a nationally known organization for six years. She manages a multi-million dollar budget and wields tremendous power. But she is not a power monger. A deeply ethical woman, she is committed to walking her talk and living by her principles in every aspect of life.
Andrea is a team player, a consummate collaborative leader.
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Early failure can be crucial to success in innovation. Because the faster you find weakness during an innovation cycle, the faster you can improve what needs fixing. Tom and David Kelly
You can’t be a loser if you are a learner. Arny Mindell
I paint best, when I couldn’t care less. When my expectations are low because I’m sure I suck anyway. Maybe it’s dusk and I can’t see well. I grab a canvas that’s already been painted, find some old tubes with ill-fitting caps and lumpy crusts and scrape yesterday’s paint from the palette. Tada. Now that I know I’m not wasting good paint, I’m willing to make the most terrific mess.
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I love blaming others. And I know I’m not alone in this.
It’s easy to complain, or gossip with co-workers (who share my point of view of course), about the messes and mistakes that have been made. Such diatribes stoke my indignation and reassure me that someone else, someone with more power, is at fault. After all, I’m not the ultimate boss.
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Anything worthwhile, any project worth doing has an outcome that can’t be predicted.
My brain doesn’t like that. And if you’re human, neither does yours. We humans are pre-wired to feel vulnerable around risk and change. When we move towards something new or unpredictable, a little voice in our head warns us off.
Be safe. Stay with what’s known.
Read MoreI’ve always thought I’m better off second in command and it has never been truer than now. It’s been over a year since I left my long held position as a Dean at the Process Work Institute. This has freed me to focus on 361ArtWorks, a new venture formed with a collaborator whose life has taken her in other directions, leaving me to develop and grow the business in any way I wish.
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