Authenticity at Work: Loving What You Do and Doing What You Love

The Indigenous Focus 3 cohort welcomed 50 people onto their webinar with Elango for the first all-cohorts session. Hearing voices from every group made me smile and miss you all.  I am looking forward to continuing to build these opportunities through the Fall and seeing where we can take it. If you would like to see that session, the edited webinar is up here.

We will be sending an edited copy of the slides plus the articles and resources Elango recommended with next week’s communique.
 
The session made me think a lot about my own ‘calling’ into social care work (4 decades ago next year!) and the many ups and downs along the way. When have I felt most authentic and congruent with my values and purpose (and yes happy)? What are the common threads in these experiences that I can learn from in order to construct a more intentional connection between what I do (in work, community and family) and purpose? In light of this, how do I define ‘success’ now? (For me, it is definitely no longer about position, power and authority, which drove me for the first few decades).  And what does this have to do with my Leadership practice anyway?  How can I work within the often-constrained systems of social care and still crack open a little more opportunity for others to achieve greater alignment and authenticity so we can do stronger work together? If you are inclined, crack open your journal and see what these questions uncover.
 
Elango also mentioned Sir Ken Robinson’s TED talks and I highly recommend them to you. His first talk in 2006 is one of the most watched TEDs. Although the title is, Do Schools Kill Creativity? it is a highly engaging presentation about passion and purpose.

His second talk is entitled, Bring on the Learning Revolution, and he encourages us to think about creating opportunities for people’s strengths, gifts, talents and interests to flourish. Although focused on children, the message is just as pertinent for our workplaces. This is the one Elango referred to.

Elango shared a few creative inspirations. The first was an excerpt from the poem by May Sarton, Now I Become Myself, and I have attached the full version for you as a beautiful reminder of being authentic. The second was a recommendation to view Jiro Dreams of Sushi – a documentary about a man in his 80’s that continues to pursue his calling. 

It is sometimes through these ‘oblique’ and apparently un-related references and concepts that we gain new insights to apply into our daily practice and work. (More on the power of obliquity in a future post.)
 
Other ideas on learning, and an invitation…
No matter how old I get or how old my daughters get, September feels like a ‘back to school/learning’ time. Because you stepped into 2020 we know you are the continuous growth types, so my assistant Kate and I have prepared a resource about a newer approach to learning – Massive Open Online Courses – or MOOCs. There are some wonderful offerings coming up. For example, edX is offering a course taught by Otto Scharmer who developed U-theory which we work with in residency 2. Entitled U.Lab: Transforming Business, Society and Self, it begins on September 15^th.  Coursera is offering a course entitled Women in Leadership: Inspiring Positive Change, which might be interesting.  However, I am most intrigued by their course entitled A Life of Happiness and Fulfillment, because it features some of the most interesting researchers in the field of positive psychology and neuroscience. I am curious about how we might create some cross-cohort learning circles around some selected courses by taking the program together and then discussing – sort of like an online book club but a ‘course-club’. Thoughts?