Community listening
That question was one of my notes in reading Peter Block's Activating the Common Good - Reclaiming Control of our Collective Well-being. This was a weirdly serendipitous read, recommended by a friend and occasional colleague with whom I share professional interests in learning and change. (More on the
Thinking out loud
It's the 4th of July here in the U.S. We gather with family and friends to celebrate and attend events that show off our patriotism. Yes to the family and friends gatherings (my kids and grandkids are still in town with us, and it's been
Thinking out loud
The discipline known as knowledge management is one of the through-lines of my career. A common scenario when you work in this discipline is helping folks think through how they deal with the loss of deep expertise as people leave the workforce or transition out of active service. I am
Thinking out loud
I've been (slowly) hacking away at a longer essay to summarize how I came to think about learning and communities. It's challenging. Like herding concept cats. When I write things like this, I start by trying to find key ideas or concepts that come to represent
Thinking out loud
"It's exhausting." That comment is stuck in my head. It came at the end of an email exchange with a leader of Environmental Justice Evanston (EJE), an elder, and veteran activist and community organizer. The exchange was about implementing progressive changes that come out of large-scale
Thinking out loud
A few notes and observations from recent events and activity. Pausing the 100 Evanston Stories project I'm putting the 100 Evanston Stories: Navigating Trumpism project on pause. What I learned (once again) is that folks find it challenging to tell a story about their lives. I heard "
Thinking out loud
This is offroad a bit from thinking about community listening. But...it's really not. It's about paying attention to human moments. Stay with me here as I connect these dots. I am not a huge baseball geek but am slowly growing to appreciate the sport'
Thinking out loud
An acquaintance of mine, educator and higher ed leader Suzanne Wilson Summers, posted a comment on LinkedIn to an article calling on us all to remember history and to heed current calls for action. Her comment struck me at a moment when I was questioning my own current strategy of
Community listening
I plan to share highlights from my weekly posts every month or so via the Wordpress email newsletter (I do not use the email newsletter for weekly post sharing). This is the first of that routine. Let me know what you think. I started this writing and doing effort because
Thinking out loud
One of the items on my initial 2025 actions list - helping produce a newsletter for the complex I live in - came to life this past week. I also crossed a (small) Rubicon by submitting a letter-to-the-editor to the local Evanston newspaper. The letter (unpublished as of today -
Thinking out loud
One of the things I am motivated to help all of us get better at is moving away from hurling opinions and ideas at each other and moving toward more reflective inquiry. And I mean "inquiry" as more than just a question, but instead a process that leads