Tag: Inspiration
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If We Can Laugh Together, Maybe We Can Last Together
I need a reasonably decent sense of humor to do the work I do, bringing people together across differences and helping people discover their capacities to affect positive transformation in their communities. I have to see the comedy in everything even if not all of it can be turned into a joke. That is because,…
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Fear of an Equitable Workplace (FEW) and the Quiet Quitting Deception
By now, you’ve probably come across a plethora of articles aiming to explain this seeming phenomena being touted as “quiet quitting” or “quitting in place”. As I see it, this label attributed to folks who–for the most part–have failed at QUIT QUITTING, is a way of adding fuel to the fire known as THE GREAT…
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I Work For Your Organization. And You Can’t Stop Me.
In Mandarin there is a phrase that goes, 水涨船高 (shuǐzhǎngchuángāo)–literally water rise boat high–which basically comes down to the often expressed wisdom that we hear in American economics, “a rising tide lifts all boats”. A lot of people attribute the saying to John F. Kennedy. But it turns out he got it from his speechwriter,…
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Despite Reverence for Variety and Diversity…
In reflection, I wonder if what makes so many “well meaning” folks show up so hypocritically (myself included) is the unexamined discriminatory brain function that tells me, “Weeds are magnificent models of creation and I don’t want them in my yard.”
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Tools for Creating Greater Belonging
Belonging is an essential need for every person. And, creating greater belonging is the main ingredient for community thriving and healthy democracy. But what do we do when our ability to foster belonging reaches its limits? Or when we are frustrated with being excluded from the communities that profess to be welcoming?
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Is This the Face of Fear?
Someone responded to a poem I wrote by saying I was an ignorant religious person, divisive, and a bad writer. I’m not fishing for compliments. So, don’t worry about filling my bucket. Rather, I’m just wanting to look at this philosophically. What I’m thinking about is the question of how or if one should try…
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Mother, Minister, Manager: The 3Ms of Leading People Successfully
As a former pastor, I feel tempted to call these 3Ms of leading people, “The Holy Trinity of Leading People Successfully”. But maybe, I’ll call it the “Wholly Trinity” because when leading people it is best to see us as whole people and that is what the 3Ms encourage us to do. I must acknowledge…
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The Alpha and the Omega: Why Endings Are as Important as Beginnings
Endings matter because the final moments of a group’s togetherness can substantially influence the entire experience. The ending can modify the experience, make it better or worse, embed it deeply in memory or, absent a strong close, can dilute an experience into something that happened, but mattered little. Tim McNamara – https://sweetunrest.com/ending-well-treating-classes-like-gatherings-part-three/ One of the…
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Don’t Lose the Vision When You’re in the Valley
Many times in my life, I’ve come to the top of a mountain, metaphorically speaking, only to realize that my journey is leading me to yet another mountain. For years, I’ve tried to articulate this path in a way that is both descriptive and prescriptive for those who may also find themselves on a precipice…
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Diversity and Subcultures: Lessons from the Bronies
Recently, when speaking at a TEDx MileHigh Rethink Event, I shared a humbling experience I had with the Brony subculture back in 2013 that helped expand my awareness of cultural formation and how gathering or collectivizing around a certain set of values helps people transcend divides. Although “corporate culture” has made its way into the…
The Roofless Church 