Now that we’ve survived another election, I’m going to apply my Pollyannaish thinking, click my heels three times, and hope that Ottawa can now focus on what really matters.

It seems the United States may already be heading in that direction with the release of a critical document that doesn’t seem to have garnered as much media as would be warranted, even though it makes the case for, and then provides, a new narrative for the entire country.

It is a narrative that answers the same kind of questions Canada should be asking in this time of rapid and… More Posted on 05-02-11

A One-Size-Fits-All Solution for Large Scale Change?

Sometimes it takes an outsider to hold up a mirror to bring clarity to your journey.

This week I received an email from one of our government funders that included a link to an article in the Stanford Social Innovation Review.

The article talked about creating collective impact for social change by working collaboratively across sectors. It pointed out that collaboration, partnerships, networks, and other joint efforts to address specific social challenges, are nothing new. However, as our funder pointed out, the project we’re working on together is a form of collective impact because it is focusing on… More Posted on 04-25-11

Speak Your Possibility

Have you ever been to a conference or presentation where the speaker wraps up by inviting questions from the audience?

Despite typically having a mitt-full of questions, I must admit I’ve rarely had the chutzpah to take any of them up on the invitation. 

However, last week at the Rural Alberta Development Fund’s Blue Sky Conference I made the leap and stood up to ask a question because of a number of points made by the speaker, Eric Saperston, as he shared his story. Eric, a critically acclaimed film director, producer, and writer, spoke about the importance of… More Posted on 04-10-11

Be a Gumby

A while back I did a workshop in London, Ontario. With the permission of the organizers, I was able to invite one of the members of our information technology team to attend. While the majority of our team is based in Alberta, Chris just happened to live in London.  The organizers were surprised to learn that although we had hired Chris on a contract over a year before, the workshop was the very first time we had ever met face to face.

This week we hired a young woman named Montana as our new Knowledge Transfer Coordinator. Although now based… More Posted on 04-03-11

Is there a Disconnect Between Our Grass-roots and Grass-tops?

While I’m typically much more interested in grass-roots leadership, the federal budget temporarily shifted my attention to the grass-tops. And, despite my aversion to politics, I have to tell you that I’m not surprised it was defeated as it missed a lot of what I’m seeing as the priorities of the average citizen. As such, it seems to reflect a major disconnect between the grass-roots and the grass-tops of Canada. 

As a result of having delivering some 25 workshops across the country on the topic of community building, I’m hearing that a growing number of Canadians believe government priorities,… More Posted on 03-27-11

What if?

It seems there is a time and a place to ask, “What if”?

My husband sells kites. As well as the kites most would recognize from their childhood, he sells large traction kites that are used for snowkiting, kite surfing, or kite buggying. Not a sport for the faint of heart or those in less than stellar physical condition, this past December he received a query and subsequently sold and shipped a kite harness to a guy in his 50’s who appeared to fit that description. Normally that would be the end of the story.

However, this week… More Posted on 03-20-11

On Being Happy

At a recent staff meeting our team discussed the challenge of juggling escalating work demands against the need for ensuring a balanced lifestyle.  As someone who tends to spend a lot of time working and therefore not really walking the talk, I ended up being the recipient of a number of jests.  While I get how ironic that is, given I’m in the business of supporting individual and community well-being, the truth is I love what I do and ultimately consider myself to be a pretty happy person.

Later that same day, I happened to talk to my mother… More Posted on 03-14-11

A Spirit of Striving

It might not sound like a big deal to some, but this week I did my first interview via Skype.  I had to push myself to get comfortable with the technology but in the end it was much less complicated than I thought it would be. What wasn’t quite as simple was the focus of the interview itself. The entire interview was based on one question, “How do you position, or in some cases reposition, an entire field, profession, or industry?”

While my field for the most part has been the community building that falls within the profession of… More Posted on 03-06-11

Could Boomers and Generation Y be an Ideal Match?

This week, despite working really hard to turn my to-do’s into to-done’s, the list kept getting longer.  As a result, it was difficult to muster up much energy for an interview with a fresh-out-of-school young woman who wanted to interview me for an article that would showcase our organization’s community leadership work.

Much to my surprise, it was an uplifting experience. She had obviously spent time on our website and understood our mandate, prepared excellent questions, and listened well. But it was her enthusiastic grasp of the value and importance of our work that was most exciting. Even when I… More Posted on 02-20-11

Where Everybody Knew Our Name

Like many boomers, I grew up in a neighbourhood where everybody knew our names.

Not only did they know our names, they knew exactly where we lived, the names of our parents and pets, and probably what we had for dinner the night before. We played tag and hide and seek until the street lights went on, organized lavish theatre productions in our backyards, skated on ice rinks that stretched across several backyards, and delivered casseroles baked by our mothers to those who were sick or had lost a loved one.

While most of us were second or… More Posted on 01-23-11

Is Today’s Play Reducing Resourcefulness?

It started when my sister told me she had recently asked her son why none of his friends wanted to hang out at their house. My eleven year old nephew explained that since they were the only ones within their extensive network who didn’t own an Xbox or a Wii, their friends wouldn’t come over because they couldn’t play video games.

While my sister and her husband had always been clear about not wanting video games for their kids, they admitted to wavering at that point not wanting their kids to be the outsiders. It’s not that they thought… More Posted on 01-16-11

To Getting It Right in the New Year

Today a guy at the grocery store checkout waved me through ahead of him because I only had two items. I understand that in the whole scheme of life, it wasn’t a big deal but it did do a lot to lift my spirits, particularly as when I thanked him, he shrugged and said, “It’s nothing at all really, it’s just the right thing to do.”

Innocuous as it was, the exchange made me think that as we enter a new year, “doing the right thing” is a worthy resolution each of us could make. Let’s simply resolve to… More Posted on 01-09-11

Road to Joy

While I expected the holidays to be quiet, this year it was almost too quiet.

Everyone within my networks seemed to kick back and relax in a major way. It was almost as if we took a collective deep breath and decided we needed a break from daily stress, a lack of free time, and work that too often is a main priority. For the first time in years, emails were almost non-existent as most of us seemed to have stepped away from our computers.

While traditionally the holidays have been a signal to buy more, seek distraction, and… More Posted on 01-02-11

It Might Be Crazy But Its My Crazy

There’s something incredibly sweet about coming home for the holidays after you’ve been away for awhile. Even though things are crazy, it’s all good because it’s your crazy.

Crazy for my husband and I this year involved flying into Toronto at 6:30 am Christmas day and then being wonderfully caught up in multiple family celebrations over three days that spread from Mississauga to Niagara and back again.

All was well but not necessarily calm. But, it was certainly chaotic and fun.

While many traditions remained the same, there were new and interesting twists that enhanced the old. It… More Posted on 12-27-10

Slow Down if You’re Moving Too Fast

Yesterday a good friend recounted how she had recently taken a tumble while heading into the Toronto subway. Thank goodness she was close to the bottom of the stairs as it could have been much worse. As it was, she still managed to sprain both her ankles as well as one of her wrists. As she recounted her mishap, I found myself cringing with more empathy than would be typical as it brought back memories of my own ankle injury that took place a number of years ago. Teaching at Niagara College at the time, I was heading home with… More Posted on 12-19-10

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