Oh for a high summer day….

The end of July and august summer days as we slowly move toward autumn are special to me. As a child, I used to go to summer sleep away camp, for 8 weeks! 8 weeks in nature with a bunch of other children (I started when I was 9 years old). The camp was on a lake, in the Pocono Mountains (more like hills) of Pennsylvania. One thing I loved about camp was just relaxing into these Summer days. It was as if time stopped and life Read More

Whenever I walk into an organization in the midst of change I take this piece of wisdom with me. [C]hange has always happened in the margins across human history, and it’s happening there now. Seismic shifts in common life as a geographic reality begin in the spaces and cracks. (Krista Tippet)

This wisdom has guided my approach to organizational change work for years. Paying attention to what emerges at the boundaries — the quieter voices, the less obvious patterns — often reveals the most valuable insights about transformation. I have had a number of experiences that have taught me this. One of the first lessons was also one of the most powerful. Continue Reading

“Remember to take your vitamins. When things get difficult, like they are now, you have to focus on your health.” These were the words my mother shared with me the day I told her I was getting a divorce. I remember being very angry when she said that. “Take my vitamins? Didn’t you hear what I just said? My life is turning upside down, and you’re talking about VITAMINS?!?”

Have you ever stopped to imagine what it was like for our ancestors, discovering new worlds? Recently, I’ve been spending a lot of time not just thinking about it, but trying to feel it — trying to put myself in their shoes. What must those experiences have been like? Stepping into a new landscape, one they had to navigate to survive, with the hope that they might even thrive. There’s something profound in imagining how little they may have known — neither the dangers nor the opportunities fully revealed. Continue reading here

Way back in 1987, I was getting a Master’s Degree in Communication and was writing one of the many papers that formed a part of the education. Often I found myself in the library exploring stacks written about whatever subject I was researching. I loved going down those physical rabbit holes looking through card catalogs, and microfiche in dark corners of the university library, not knowing what I was going to find.

Awhile ago, a friend came to visit me. It was the first time in a long time that I’d hosted someone who hadn’t ever been to Amsterdam. During our walks around town I was able to see the city through her eyes enjoying the typical sites,

In a world that talks about efficiency and quickness, I can find no better way to work fast and be efficient than by slowing down to be able to reflect before jumping into action. Read More

Emergence of the new often happens on the outskirts of our awareness. The time between the Christmas holiday and the New Year is a good time to stop and look at what is happening at the margins. Read more.

As I look at the world these days, I remember the wise words that,“you can never go home again.” Even as we start going “back” to old habits like flying, going to an office, eating out with friends inside a restaurant, the reality of what we are going into remains unknown and volatile. We are still in the midst of an uncertain and highly unpredictable situation.

I love working on development processes with organizations. My approach is based on the belief that the key to healthy organizational development lies within the organization itself. It’s also based upon understanding that effective change must come from within the organization, and that when you look openly and honestly to what is really there, solutions will arise. continue reading

It is said that the only constant in life is change. If that is so, then it also holds true that if grief responses are constant.

All change means letting go of something, and all letting go brings with it some form of grief. Grief expresses itself in many ways. Learning to identify those ways and become familiar with your own and other' people’s grief responses allows grief to take its place as a “human superpower” to navigate through a changing world. Read more