Give “No” A Second Chance
- October 24th, 2008
- Posted by: Joe Williams
- (0) Comments
Here I am at the restored Inukshuk during the September 2008 Dialogue desert walk. The Inukshuk was first used by the Inuit People of Canada mark trails to help people find their way. This one was built by Dialogue alum Wally Cherwinski from Ottawa, during the 2007 Master Class. Wally, you’ll be pleased to know that every group since then repairs it in your memory and in the memory of all Canadians and for all Dialoguers. Even today, it still helps point the way.
I read this article from an NPR email that I received. It struck a cord with me, so to speak. Maybe it will to you as well.
Imagine yourself in a Parisian cafe in the spring of 1931, eavesdropping on violinist Samuel Dushkin and composer Igor Stravinsky, seated at the table next to you. From their conversation, it appears Dushkin has asked Stravinsky to write him a violin concerto, and, since Stravinsky himself is not a violinist, he’s consulting with Dushkin on what is and what is not possible on that instrument.
Stravinsky writes a chord on a napkin and passes it to Dushkin. “Is it possible to play this chord on the violin?,” he asks. Duskhin looks at the napkin and says, “No.” Stravinsky seems quite upset. “Quel dommage!,” he mutters. When they both leave, you might safely assume, as you finish your café au lait, that’s one Violin Concerto that will probably never see the light of day.
What you couldn’t have known in the café was that when Dushkin returned home, he took up his violin and decided to try out Stravinsky’s chord anyway. To his amazement, it was playable. Dushkin quickly telephoned Stravinsky with the news. The Concerto was back on track.
“When the concerto was finished, more than six months later,” recalled Duskin, “I understood Stravinsky’s disappointment when I first said ‘No.’ This chord, in a different dress, begins each of the four movements of the concerto. Stravinsky himself calls it his ‘passport’ to the entire work.”
And on today’s date in 1931, Dushkin gave the first performance of Stravinsky’s concerto in Berlin, with the composer conducting.
How often do we say “No” to something because we initially don’t think we can do it, or we don’t want to change something in order to do it? I’m a great example of that, myself. But when I let it sit a while and revisit it, I see it in an entirely new light. For example, a past Dialogue Master Class asked if I could take the big 15-foot long planning map and reduce it to something that could be put next to their computer so it would be easier to refer to as a guide. Of course, my first response was, “What, are you kidding? That’s impossible!” But I followed the rules of Invent-O-Matic, kept quiet and just let the inner “No” blast around inside me for a while. But I couldn’t get the thought out of my head. So, weeks later I took a stab at it, and Prest-O-Matic, the handy-dandy “PocketMap” was born.
So try this: Everytime you first think “No” to something, give it a second chance. Take a shot at it. Try.
You never know where it may lead.
What We Learn Isn’t Always What We Think We Need
- October 20th, 2008
- Posted by: Joe Williams
- (0) Comments
A few years ago, a Dialogue group started making a “List of Firsts” on a flip chart, highlighting and documenting all the “firsts” participants experience throughout the week. I’ve kept the tradition alive with each group. The first couple of days, everyone seems to just stare at the blank flip chart sheet on the wall. And then something happens and they start filling it out like there’s no tomorrow.
Not all the learning during the week takes place in the formal class setting. Far from it. The beauty and uniqueness of Dialogue is that everything in our environment is a teacher–from the ranch horses to the walk through the early morning desert.
What we come seeking is often found in the most unexpected of places.
Sacred Moments
- October 7th, 2008
- Posted by: Joe Williams
- (0) Comments
A Saguaro starting to bloom in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona. A Saguaro will bloom every year, whether or not it gets rain through the winter season. That’s a pretty good approach to life, isn’t it?
A few weeks ago I went about preparing handout material for the September 21-26 Dialogue Workshop, our 106th session.
I have a three-page checklist of every handout and every logistical detail that needs to be done–after all, this is a planning workshop!
There are some 50 different items for each person, totaling almost 150 pages per person. It typically take almost two full days to compile and print it all.
In preparing for each Workshop, I add something new, rewrite a few things, change the handout design every now and then, and leave other pieces exactly the same. I go between computers and our workhorse Xante printer like a prisoner pacing his cell. But with one exception: I actually enjoy it.
It’s a sacred moment.
I look on these not as handouts, but as part of me. They represent my thinking and as such I treat them as gifts, rather than mere handouts. Of course, part of me expects participants to receive them the same way. Expectations are always the rub.
I’ve learned that life is filled with sacred moments like these. And to me, they are found more and more in the little things rather than the big things. My sacred moments consist of having one of my grandchildren climb on my lap; watching them play soccer–and watching my son, John, who is now 40 but still plays like he diid when he was on the varsity; mowing the yard and looking up seeing Barbara in the garden; when Buddy, my yellow lab falls asleep with his head on my foot under the table; being alone in the forest of Saguaro cactus in Arizona; watching participants work together during the Workshop–and then later when they saddle up for team penning; being present at Oklahoma State basketball game in hallowed Gallagher-Iba Arena with my youngest son, Matt; having a meal with our friends; having all 12 of our immediate family at home around the round table for celebrations. There are so many.
Our family enjoying a sacred moment on Captiva Island, Florida last summer. Okay, if you’ve ever gotten this many adults and kids to sit still for a photo, you know I am stretching things a bit to say that this was a sacred moment…but those days and nights on that sea shell island certainly were. And this photo reflects it.
But sacred moments extend further than just these. I’ve experienced them in a restaurant with the person serving my meal, at an airport watching a mother traveling with a baby, in the silence of a Sunday morning reading the paper.
Sacred moments are all around us, just waiting to be discovered. But to find them, we must still our minds and quit thinking. We simply think too much. We must silence the noise in our world in order to feel. And to feel, we must learn to let go, to empty ourselves in order to have room for everything else, everything that matters the most.
Sacred moments are all around us. Everyplace we go is a sacred place. All we have to do is quieten ourselves in order to see and then see again what is there before us all the time.
Where are your sacred moments? When do they occur?
Nonprofit “Dialogue Indiana” Workshop Set for December 3-5
- October 6th, 2008
- Posted by: Joe Williams
- (1) Comments
It’s Not the Conditions–it’s the Decisions: Strategic Thinking & Planning Like You’ve Never Done it Before
Barbara Coffman captures discussion items from the group on the flip chart during the inaugural Dialogue Indiana Workshop, held in December, 2007.
Know of any nonprofits who would like to experience some of the tools of Dialogue, but without the week-long trip and expense of it in Arizona?
Then refer them to Dialogue Indiana–a special two-day strategic thinking and planning program for nonprofits that will take place December 3-5 at the Waycross Conference Center, outside Bloomington, Indiana.
Dialogue Indiana is hosted by a group of Bloomington-area professionals who have participated in Dialogue in the Desert. They have taken the initiative to design a special program, using some of the tools from Dialogue in the Desert, for the educational benefit of nonprofit organizations in the Indiana area.
In fact, the Bloomington alums formed the first chapter of Dialogue in the Desert. Calling themselves the “Alpha Chapter” the six are
• Barbara Coffman (Indiana University Foundation)
• Bill Holladay (IU Foundation)
• LuAnne Holladay (Lotus Education & Arts Foundation)
• Anne Palmer (IU Office of Enrollment Management)
• Dru Presti-Stringfellow (IU Foundation)
• Jana Wilson-Harris (IU School of Public & Environmental
Affairs)
Last year they inaugurated the first Dialogue Indiana workshop for Bloomington-area nonprofit organizations. It received rave reviews and prompted us to build on it for this year by expanding the program to all Indiana area nonprofits. If you are in a nonprofit organization, but not in Indiana, and would like to attend, contact us and we’ll put you in touch with the organizing committee.
“The Workshop was inspirational…it rejuvenated me and gave me great take-away tools.”
I am returning again this year to lead the 2008 session, and we have a new focus planned. Last year, I introduced the StrategyMap, a tool for identifying multiple issues. This year, I will introduce our new MindMap, a tool that lets you take a 360-degree view of a single issue and arrive at a strategic plan of action. Participants are encouraged to bring an issue, dilemma, or opportunity facing them and/or their organization, and, using the MindMap, they’ll plot out a strategic course of action.
In addition, LuAnne and other Bloomington alums will take the group on a guided labyrinth walk, and LuAnne will lead the group in an early-morning yoga orientation.
It promises to be a rich, rewarding and balanced workshop–and it is limited to the first 20 participants who register. Last year it filled rapidly.
And here’s the best part–the workshop is only $440–and that includes your room for two nights, meals and material! We are offering this at a low price so it is affordable for nonprofits. How can you possible beat that?
To learn more or to register, go to: http://www.jwcom.com/bloomington
September 2008 Dialogue Memories
- October 1st, 2008
- Posted by: Joe Williams
- (0) Comments
Here’s a photo review of the September 21-26, 2008 Dialogue Workshop. Participants came from all over the U.S. and Canada. They worked hard, learning new tools for strategic thinking, planning, persuasion and leadership. They got up early (well, some more than others!) and stayed up late. They SWOTED their companies and a few flies as well. They learned more about their own Empathy, Honesty, Intention and Focus with a horse in the round pen, and overcame fears during team penning. They made presentations and got great Invent-O-Matic feedback. As all alums know, Dialogue is no boondoggle. We work hard and long. But we also have fun while we learn, as these photos will indicate. In fact, we learn as much outside the classroom as we do in it. Everything is a teacher at Dialogue: from the horses to the sunrises and from twirling a rope to hiking through the desert. So many good and lasting memories. These are but a few.
A jumping cholla reflects the morning sunlight next to a young Saguaro. Note the cactus wren nest on the lower left.
And here’s a close-up of the same plant. The cholla has reverse barbs, meaning they go in straight, but hook once under your skin, making removal very painful. Give these plenty of room!
Gerry DeSimas of Northeast Utilities, Louise Iadicola of GlaxoSmithKlein, and Samantha Maddaugh of Community Savings in Red Deer, Alberta, enjoy an early morning sunrise in the desert.
Ready, fire, aim! Deb Barshafsky of Medical College of Georgia, throws a pretty mean lasso during the roping clinic. Some folks are just natural at this!
Glenn Hildebrand of the College of Registered Nurses of Manitoba, shows how a Canadian strategic planner ropes a fast-moving little doggie. Laura, the White Stallion wrangler, looks on to learn a thing or two.
Russell True, co-owner of the White Stallion, gives Leanne Tait of Tait Communications in Yellowknife, NWT, a few expert pointers on how to twirl the rope.
Lynn Hutchings-Mah of Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission, shows the White Stallion wrangler the proper way to hold a rope. The WS wranglers learned so much about roping from us!
Andy Feigin of Eclipsys (and husband of Dialogue alum Richelle Feigin), shows that even “techies” can master roping in no time at all. Actually, Andy and all the others (well, most all) took to roping like they did doing the SWOT analysis in the classroom. In fact, Samantha was spotted down at the roping corral practicing on her own time!
And speaking of meeting rooms, here’s a glance at just part of our spacious new Longhorn Meeting Room at the White Stallion. Lots of room to spread out!
Diablo is just one of some 140 horses at the White Stallion. Okay, his name really isn’t Diablo. Or Widowmaker, for that manner. It’s something like Speckle or Spakle or Sprinkle. But when Dialoguers go home, the names of their horses tend to magnify.
Not all the learning takes place in the classroom at Dialogue. Here, participants gather in a team penning exercise in which they have to work together, talk, plan and cut three cattle out of herd and drive them down the arena and put them a pen. And do it on horseback. Without falling off. Did I mention that the cattle don’t want to do this. They’d rather stay with the herd. It’s a timed event. Worst time buys at the bar afterwards! Shoot, other conferences would charge extra for this! How much fun and learning can ya stand all at the same time!!!!
Here’s what I mean.
After a bit, everyone quits worrying and thinking and just goes all out, learning the art of “feel” in their communication with the horse and with each other.
Through this adobe entrance lies the patio (where we take most of our meals), the indoor dining area and main lodge of the White Stallion. Panther Peak is in the background. Not a bad welcoming site, is it?
Laura is from Great Britian and she is the acting head wrangler at the Ranch. Here she rides in front of the hay wagon on the way to an afternoon cookout site. I particularly like this shot in black and white rather than color. How about you?
Samantha went for one last ride before departing the Ranch to go back home to Alberta. Her dark hair, white hat and shirt just snap out against the blue Arizona sky.
Gerry gives one last wave before riding off into the sunset. So long September Dialogue. Hello reentry.
The entire September group, on the way back from a very hot desert walk. Glenn Hildebrand (in the striped shirt) made it all the way with a stress fracture in his leg–it happened before he came to Dialogue–and nothing was going keep him from the walk. He put a whole new meaning in the word DESIRE. Way to cowboy up, Glenn!
