Grassroots Enterprises

Monday, February 06, 2012

Mobile Manners

Yesterday I sat in a workshop listening to a fascinating speaker. Entertaining, meaningful, and relevant, the man had the entire room glued to his every word. Until, that is, we were all startled by the loud ring of someone’s cell phone.

While it isn’t all that unusual to forget to turn off one’s cell phone, most people would have simply turned off their phone, and conveyed their apologies. But, no such luck in this case. 

Not at all embarrassed when everyone turned and stared, the workshop participant simply proceeded to answer the phone with a… More...

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Mentor Mutualism?

There’s a new man in my life.

While I’m not sure quite how to describe our relationship, I do know it’s an important one. He boosts my confidence and self-esteem, expands my comfort zone, and makes me think with greater clarity. In a deeply respectful way, he challenges things I’ve thought were true, and helps me grow.

Although I’ve yet to meet Rick Smyre face to face, we’ve spent hours talking, emailing, and sharing resources. He lives in North Carolina, is devoted to his wife of 45 years, and is the youngest 69 year old… More...

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Both Sides of Our Brain?

Last week during the closing circle of our team’s all day strategic planning session, I was struck by a comment from one of the younger staff members as he responded to the question, “What was your key takeaway from our session today?”

He said that what he appreciated most were the exercises that gave him the opportunity to use more right brain thinking. As he pointed out, it hadn’t been typical for him recently, and he quite enjoyed the opportunity to tap into his creativity and imagination.

Unfortunately, it is true that most of our… More...

Sunday, January 15, 2012

A Perfect Storm?

Even though it’s highly unlikely I’ll ever be able to change the world, I know that at the very least I can work toward making a difference within my small corner of it.

As a result, it shouldn’t be a surprise to learn I am passionate about the work I do within the non-profit sector (also known as the voluntary, charity, community or non-governmental sector).

I work with other dedicated, enthusiastic, hardworking, pragmatic, and forward-thinking people who accept making less money and getting fewer benefits than they would in a corporate or government job. Generally,… More...

Sunday, January 08, 2012

Risk Adverse or Risk Smart?

I am an excessively optimistic person born to look on the bright side of life. As a result, I am struggling to understand the deep funk where I now find myself to be.

While my family life is as good as it gets, it’s my career that has me perplexed. Maybe I’m just delusional, but from my perspective, my experience, education, passion for making a difference, and hard work recently seems to have been culminating and melding in a synergetic way. I really think I’m doing the best work I’ve ever done in my life. 

… More...

Leadership Learnings for a New Year

As the holidays draw to a close and we get back to the reality of more typical regimes, I’ve been reflecting about the upcoming year.

Rather than making resolutions which my monkey mind doesn’t always allow me to keep, I thought it might be an idea to focus on the community building work that has absorbed so much of my energy over the past year.  Here are five key learnings that have evolved for ensuring active, creative, and engaged communities. While they aren’t resolutions, they hopefully will provide direction for those wanting to make a difference in… More...

Sunday, December 18, 2011

May You Give and Get the Perfect Gift this Season

Is there really a perfect gift? And, after all, what exactly is the perfect gift?

I can answer those questions much more clearly this week after receiving not one, but two perfect gifts from members of my work team. Both presents touched my heart and moved me to tears.

Let me explain.

A while back I wrote a blog that presented parallels between the story of the Wizard of Oz and communities.  In that blog I suggested that just as Dorothy was looking to find the ruby slippers, so… More...

Sunday, December 11, 2011

On Being a Rudolph

I’ve been called a lot of names over the years but it was the first time I had been referred to as a Rudolph. Yes, Rudolph.  As in Rudolph-the-Red-Nosed-Reindeer.

It happened as I was recently whining to a friend of mine about some of my workplace challenges. He shook his head, smiled, and said, “It’s because you are a Rudolph!”

Somewhat perplexed because I definitely knew I wasn’t guiding Santa’s sleigh nor was my nose especially red, I asked what he meant. He went on to explain that he had just finished reading a book… More...

Sunday, December 04, 2011

A Gift That Keeps on Giving

Today I received yet another request for a donation to a good cause from a well respected charitable organization.

I am not proud of the fact that my initial response was one of annoyance. To my credit though, I was quick to give myself a shake and think about how stressful it must be, and how hard these organizations must work, to ensure funding is in place so they can continue making their vital contributions. 

With that acknowledgement, I sat down at my computer, went online, and made a donation.

I… More...

Saturday, November 26, 2011

We Want to Set Sail with You

I like what I’m hearing from today’s emerging leaders.

Last month, the first ever National Recreation Summit was held in Lake Louise, Alberta. Two hundred “thought leaders” were in attendance from each of Canada’s ten provinces and three territories. Since the Summit was also seen as an opportunity to involve young people, a core group of recreation and leisure studies students were also recruited to serve as meeting recorders. While initially it seemed to be a good idea, and students were delighted to be part of such an exciting initiative with all expenses paid, the reality was… More...

Sunday, November 20, 2011

If its Good Enough for Pixar

I recently talked to a government employee who had been rapped on the knuckles because she had initiated a conversation with an employee who was one level above her on the management grid. Apparently their ministry policy is such that one can only communicate with someone at their own level – no one above and no one below.

Call me crazy but that does seem to be rather outdated thinking. And, if you don’t believe me, believe Pixar Animation Studios.

Best known for awarding winning animated feature films like Toy Story, Finding Nemo, and Cars,… More...

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Tracking our Progress as a Country

Last Friday’s Remembrance Day served as a catalyst for getting me, and hopefully others, thinking about what’s truly important. After all, have we become the kind of country our war veterans fought to preserve? Have we made the kind of progress they envisioned?

Until now that might have been difficult to answer with certainty. Now, there’s both good news and bad news in responding to those questions.

The good news is that veterans might be proud to know that Canada has become a world leader in measuring wellbeing. The bad news is that our quality… More...

Sunday, November 06, 2011

A Miracle Drug

My mother is a beautiful and vibrant 83 years young. As lovely on the inside as she is on the outside, she did however recently acknowledge that she was slowing down and didn’t seem to have quite as much energy.

Spurred by her partner who coincidently was ordered by his doctor to get more physically active, they made a commitment to walk together every single day. Although initially the walks left them feeling tired, within a few short weeks they started to see results. Not only were they feeling stronger and more energetic, they were feeling more… More...

Sunday, October 30, 2011

We Can Do Better

Like a lot of others I was somewhat perplexed by the ongoing, albeit peaceful, demonstrations being referred to as Occupy Wall Street when they first originated in New York in mid September.

While the movement was predominantly driven by young people when it started, it now involves people of many colours, cultures, and political persuasions. As they put it, they are the 99% who will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%. Since initiated, the protests have spread to an astounding 900+ cities around the world and, as such, have become a movement that… More...

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Getting to Simple

There is power in simplicity.

While I’d like to take credit for saying that, it actually is a comment a young woman provided as part of the evaluation she completed after taking part in a leadership retreat facilitated by our team this week.

I was both proud and grateful that she saw the value of the training and resources we had provided to help participants succeed in their diverse work as community leaders.

The truth is that we’ve worked extraordinarily hard to reduce the confusion and complexity of community building by providing a… More...