By: Jer Swigart on October 22, 2020
My team just finished up a three-day, in-person on-site retreat. It was the first time we’ve been in the same room since March and it was life-giving. So much has changed since we last were together. During our convening in March, we were set to move into a future that would have scaled up our…
By: Shawn Cramer on October 21, 2020
If we were to journey into the fray with family therapist and organizational thought-leader, Edwin Friedman, we would likely move with the cadence of the word “self.” Self-differentiation from the surrounding emotional processes. Self-determination of one’s values. Exposing one’s self to vulnerability. Self-regulation of emotions. Leadership in liminality demands a proper sense of self. Frederick…
By: Darcy Hansen on October 19, 2020
Words flew through the air like bullets on a battlefield, leaving deep, gaping wounds. Not the best way to begin a Saturday morning. Still, there we were, once again, in an emotionally explosive situation with no real hope in sight. For months, the darkness had been settling in as circumstances with our daughter went from…
By: Greg Reich on October 19, 2020
We often look at life like flipping a coin. “Heads I win, tails I lose”; a depiction, that for many things in life there are only two choices, winning or loosing. In a situation where we think we or someone else has the advantage the saying becomes “Heads I win, tails you lose”; depicting that…
By: Chris Pollock on October 16, 2020
‘I am a street person. I am twelve…I am twenty…I am sixty years old. I live on concrete fields and bask in the sunshine of neon. My pillow is of stone and my fortune lies in broken promises. My daily bread comes from a needle and alcohol soothes the pain within me.’1 A…
By: Jer Swigart on October 14, 2020
For the past 10 years, Global Immersion has been relatively successful at honing, teaching, and training our message of restorative theology and practice of Everyday Peacemaking. We’ve identified the power of immersive learning as a central ingredient to the awakening of dominant culture faith leaders to the imperial theology (& its implications) that they’ve been…
By: Darcy Hansen on October 13, 2020
Five years ago, at this time, I was midway through a grueling 28-week training schedule for the Walt Disney World Dopey Challenge. Preparing for this challenge was exhausting and exhilarating. The run was being hosted on my 45thbirthday weekend, and involved completing a 5K, 10K, ½ marathon, and marathon over the course of four consecutive…
By: Shawn Cramer on October 13, 2020
Scientifically, gases fill the entire space given to them. Sociologically, people fill their entire space – basement or garage – with “stuff.” Organizationally, meetings tend to fill the entire time allotted. Likewise, a temptation for the global leader is to fill the entire space given, to be the hero. Leadership is not about filling space,…
By: Greg Reich on October 12, 2020
As I read Shawn Cramer’s blog from last week, along with the concept of pause in Not Doing, I couldn’t help but reflect on the concept of pausing from a broader coaching perspective. Have you ever wished you could hit the reset button? I am sure that I am not the only individual that has…
By: Chris Pollock on October 10, 2020
There was a dark spot noticed on the floor of the lobby of my workplace a few weeks ago. I walked by it a few times before I thought to explore it further. To begin with it was just one, solitary alien drop; I stood there at first slightly dazed, thinking about soya sauce and…
By: Shawn Cramer on October 7, 2020
With an expressed attitude of “bias towards actions,” Design Thinking, in its most popular form, lacks helpful pauses to assess, think, and reflect. These pauses possess the potential to be pregnant with critique, corrections and creativity. What rests are to musicians, lines breaks are to poets, and negative spaces are to artists, so pregnant pauses…
By: Jer Swigart on October 6, 2020
Central Oregon’s Clergy for Justice is a collective of local faith leaders that is committed to the remaking of our community into a space where justice & equity are a lived experienced for all. Last Tuesday, Trump, from the debate stage and in response to a question about white supremacy, told the Proud Boys and…
By: Dylan Branson on October 5, 2020
“There is nothing that man fears more than the touch of the unknown. He wants to see what is reaching toward him and to be able to recognize or at least classify it. Man always tends to avoid physical contact with anything strange.” – Elias Canetti[1] We stand at the precipice of the unknown. A…
By: Greg Reich on October 5, 2020
It’s a quiet rainy Sunday morning. It has been a full and busy weekend so far. With the help of my son and son-in-law Saturday was a day of home repairs that were long overdue. This morning with coffee in hand I looked out over the deck at a cedar fence that needs repairs. Just…
By: Darcy Hansen on October 5, 2020
Three years ago, when I left the church, I left not only my primary connection to community, but also many ministry responsibilities. These ministry responsibilities consumed much of my time for so long, I was disoriented when those responsibilities were no longer required. When I left the church, friends said kind things like “God has…
By: Chris Pollock on October 4, 2020
My dad was an English Teacher and he loved to talk. He loved to tell stories. I think he enjoyed the attention at the front of his class; he was a passionate teacher. My brother and I certainly didn’t offer him the respect teachers are deserving of. His class-front podium with the undivided attention of…
By: Jer Swigart on September 30, 2020
Fear. It’s a high-octane undercurrent of energy that drives some to remain safe and others to lash out with violence. Fear. It seems to have replaced the hope and the vision and the optimism the once inspired personal, organizational, and even cosmic exploration. Fear. For some, it’s a debilitating power that renders them paralyzed. For…
By: Shawn Cramer on September 29, 2020
Innovation requires risk. Risk requires courage. Courage responds to fear. The twenty-first century possesses a fear-based, ambivalent posture towards innovation. Only 4% of businesses have not defined innovation as a strategic priority, yet only 10% are satisfied with their current innovative endeavors. Meanwhile, a culture of fear has hamstrung courageous risk taking – from the…
By: Darcy Hansen on September 28, 2020
A friend of mine embarked on a 23-day hike along the John Muir Trail earlier this month. Just days into the trek, wildfire smoke became a prohibiting factor. She and her fellow hikers were forced to leave the trail. Not to be deterred, they traveled to eastern Oregon so as to keep their feet moving…
By: Greg Reich on September 28, 2020
“Papa tell me a story” is a common request when Facetiming my 4-year-old Granddaughter Addison. “Papa use the faces!” So it begins. I pick an emoji face that covers my face and start the story. “Once upon a time there were 3 little pigs (the pig emoji face covering mine) …” When I get to…
