1.21: School's Out: Reflecting On A Year Of Reflection - How To Take Heart & Cultivate Readiness For Bold Change

Find The Outside

In season one’s final episode, Tim and Tuesday wrap a year of incredible conversations with a summer assignment: how do we cultivate readiness? Along the road as systems change facilitators, we wonder: are we really doing what we set out to do? And how can we find fertile and steady ground in emergent work?

1.21 —— SHOW NOTES

Tues: This is our Season Finale episode!

Tim: The number of people listening has been steadily increasing. I know there are groups listening together. I love the honour and opportunity we’ve had in being in people’s lives. It makes me really happy.

Tim: The Outside has exploded. It’s busy and we are still trying to figure out how to deal with that because we did not expect it to grow this fast, this soon. And so, the podcast has become a space to stop, reflect, think bigger, reconnect around the work, challenge each other.

Tim: Looking back on our year, what is important to leave with our podcast listeners?

Tues: Two things: (1) Work-wise, one of our learnings is that systems change, with equity at the centre, takes a long time to really catch. It can be years into an effort before those pieces really come together. (2) Personal: Keep learning and understanding and moving from your centre. If you do nothing else this summer, except discover more about yourself, you will have done some pretty amazing work and some pretty amazing work in the world.

Tim: My personal practice of meditation, of spending time in nature, of being in therapy that allows me to revisit things in my childhood that set fundamental patterns for my behaviour… there’s something in all of that which is about letting go of who I think I am, what I think I am, what I think my work is.

Tim: Accessing “readiness” is one of the things I want to start exploring. How to we map the stages of this [client’s] journey over multiple years. When I was in my early 20’s coaching with Meg Wheatley, she used to talk about ‘one step at a time leadership.’ Stop, Re-orient, Re-organize, Move.

Tim: My wife and I choose a word or a sentence that sets a tone for the year. The one we landed on for 2019 was ‘balance’. What is the balance I want in my life? Inviting everyone into this — how are we giving all parts of ourselves what we need?

Tues: Next season, we’ll interview Jacob Watkins, Trupti Sarode & Gabrielle Donnelly about co-existence of data and analysis. We’ll speak with Alastair Jarvis about Two Loops of Systems Change. We’ll explore balance, and continue to share what we’re learning about equity and systems change. We’ll also feature Ole Qvist-Sørensen from Bigger Picture, around visualizing shifted futures.

Tues: We will be back next fall (Date: TBC)! In the meantime, please revisit season one, and share and subscribe!

Poem: “Find a Point on the Wall” by our friend, Lex Schroeder

Find a Point on the Wall

try holding your leg out straight from your hip

turn out

bend, and dip

point

now hold it straight out

be long

where's your core

point

turn out

bend

now hold it straight out

grow taller

take it to the side

higher

back

we’ll do 8

take it up now

ball of the foot

turn around

higher

grow 5 inches more

arms up

turn

kick it out

try not to collapse into your standing leg

where’s your core

good

now try letting your friends feel pain

let them live with a steady ache

let them bring themselves back from the dead

let your loved ones grow older

keep going, let people get sick

let someone worry about you

try laughing during a nuclear war

let beauty wash over you

feel loved, try to love somebody well

take up a bit more space, back up

we’ll do 3 sets of 8

soften

higher

let it be bigger than you

grow 5 inches

say it straight out

don't rush these

forget yourself

try practicing grace

let your heart break for the world

try crying after a dry spell

root into the ground

soften

now stay long

we’ll do 3 more sets

Occupy

and back

back

just 2 more

where’s your chest

don’t scrunch

grow taller

make more space

it's ok, be exhausted

let it be easy

look up

Hello!

relax into the breath

find your core

there

Song: “Incapable” by Róisín Murphy

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Find the song we played in today’s show—and every song we’ve played in previous shows—on the playlist. Just search ‘Find the Outside’ on Spotify.

Duration: 33:28

Produced by: Mark Coffin @ Sound Good Studios

Theme music: Gary Blakemore

Episode cover image: source

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