I came across an extraordinary six-minute YouTube video called ‘The Shift’—a presentation that blows one’s mind with factoids about the rate of change in the world. The Shift they are talking about is a ‘paradigm shift’, meaning our entire worldview, indeed our whole reality, is being turned upside down and inside out by virtue of technology, population and the exponentially accelerating rate of change. Whether
Category Archives: Wisdom in Action
Journeyman
The word ‘journeyman’ has always conjured up two images in my mind: first, of a young apprentice learning from an experienced, older person and second, of a young man just beginning to undertake his own personal journey into adulthood. The recently released one-hour documentary Journeyman is an inspiring exploration into mentoring, rites of passage and male culture in the U.S. Featured experts, including Michael Gurian
The Cost of Faith
I have been doing a bit of work in the area of corporate social responsibility (CSR) lately. It is becoming a hot topic in organizations and a lot of very committed people are thinking about how to think about the mix of economic, social and environmental concerns. Traditionally, the sole purpose of business as an economic enterprise is to make a profit—and therein lies the problem. Yes, all would agree that this purpose includes being ethical, honest and responsible for stakeholders directly
How can we talk it through?
By Shae Hadden | Bio
The premise being that we CAN talk it through…This is the question that epitomizes the possibility that the World Café represents. It is the question that informs Anne Dosher, the 80-something ‘Elder’ of the World Café and Board member of the World Café Community Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to developing and disseminating this and other innovative dialogue approaches. I recently had the privilege of interviewing this gracious, generous and engaging lady—the human embodiment of what I imagined the World
The World Cafe
By Shae Hadden | Bio
Conversations can change the world. When we speak openly about what matters most to us, we can build authentic relationships. We can tap into the wisdom and collective intelligence we need to address our problems. We can create the future together.
I’ve been excited in the last few weeks to learn about The World Café through conversations with Juanita Brown, co-founder of the World Café and Anne Dosher, who at
Is It Possible to Over Commit?
I heard a friend saying that they were ‘over committed’. I got to thinking that this is a common notion and one that we rarely question. Is it possible to over commit? I can understand being busy. I can understand not being competent to fulfill a commitment. I can even imagine that I have made commitments that seem to conflict, although other than being able to be in two places at the same time, most of the conflict is in how I am thinking about it.
One of
Legacy
I was having a conversation recently with an old friend who is deeply committed to a spiritual practice intended to release us from the vicious cycle of ego and our addiction to the material world. I was sharing about Serene Ambition and my commitment to do what I can to encourage our generation to ‘make a difference’ and leave the world in better shape than we found it—to leave a legacy of possibility to those who come behind us.
My friend pointed out that this is a terrific focus for service
Ethical Will or Intergen Conversation?
By Shae Hadden | Bio
I was reading an article about ethical wills recently that got me wondering about what kind of legacy I might leave behind if I were to die tomorrow. This type of ‘leave behind’ document—like diaries, journals, books, letters and photo albums—are usually loving prepared over the course of several years. Nowadays, we also have innumerable opportunities to record our lives and thoughts online to share with friends and family. So why bother going to the trouble of preparing an ethical will in addition to a legal will?According to the article, an ethical will offers us an opportunity to communicate with loved ones on paper. We can share things like:
- Our values
- Our life history
- Our regrets and our gratitude
- The lessons we’ve learned
- Our hopes for the future
It saddens me to think of these being communicated in a will. True, sharing lessons learned in a document as one approaches death or as one’s last words after death is better than not communicating them at all.
But I see more value if we can use the document as a starting point for conversation with younger family members and friends while we
Creativity II
Read Creativity I.
Now it’s easy to hear this conversation about ‘standing in possibilities’ of what the future might be as some sort of optimism versus pessimism discussion—the “Just be happy” versus “There’s no hope” maxims. I am not suggesting this at all. Optimism and pessimism are grounded in positive or negative predictions of the future. Changing how we observe is not a function of prediction: it is a function of commitment.
I predict that the future is likely
Creativity
My friend Dan at Curmudgeon recently sent me a very interesting video of a speech by Sir Ken Robinson. He is a British educator committed to reinventing education to give creativity in our schools as much weight as we now give to literacy. This makes sense. One of the underlying principles of Serene Ambition is that we need intergenerational collaboration.