Last week I wrote about increasing the awesome vs. decreasing the suck and how I think that the only way to decrease what sucks is by focusing on what's awesome. Since then I've been thinking a lot about how to increase the awesome in my work life--what is it that we can do to bring the awesome? Here are three tips I came up with from noticing my own practice.... Read more →

Tomorrow, I'll be starting a 7-day course on getting unstuck for people who may be feeling like they're getting nowhere fast. (Note--there are still slots available if this is you, so you may want to sign up.) As I'm pulling final pieces together for the class, I'm thinking about the "frames" we set up around being stuck--the stories we tell ourselves when we find ourselves in this situation. Often it's... Read more →

Accountabilty is the willingness to acknowledge that we have participated in creating, through comission or ommision, the conditions that we wish to see changed. Without this capacity to see ourselves as cause, our efforts become either coercive or wishfully dependent on the transformation of others. Community will be created the moment we decide to act as creators of what it can become. This requires us to believe that this organization,... Read more →

I was contacted this morning about doing a presentation on an old post of mine, "On Becoming a More Reflective Individual Practitioner," so I re-read what I'd written back in 2008. One paragraph I quoted in the post really stood out for me. It was written by Joy Amulya of the Center for Reflective Community Practice at MIT from her booklet entitled What Is Reflective Practice? Certain kinds of experiences... Read more →

I'm finding that the combination of "doing more with less," and the morale fall-out of the recession is increasingly adding to the psychological burden that many of us deal with at work. We've always had bad bosses, ill-tempered co-workers and heavy work loads, but there's a special something in the air that I think makes things even more difficult than they've been. Over the weekend, I ran across a nice... Read more →

As I look at my own professional development and my ability to implement the things I'm "learning" all the time, it occurs to me how often I learn about some new skill or idea and then end up doing nothing with it. This is a problem for the learners I work with, too. It's that pesky transfer of training that we all struggle with. With that in mind, I've begun... Read more →

A few years ago, I wrote a post about Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck's research into fixed vs. growth mindsets, in which I briefly explored the implications of her research. As part of my own personal professional development, I've been reading more books, so finally got around to reading Dweck's excellent Mindset: The New Psychology of Success and can see even greater implications for the positive professional development I've been thinking... Read more →

UPDATE! The Postivie Professional Development Online Day Camps are filled as of July 13, but I'm starting a waiting list in case anyone ends up dropping out. If you're still interested in attending, fill out this form and I will add you to the list. You can also complete the form if you are interested in attending, but can't make these particular dates/times. Depending on interest, I may look at... Read more →

This week I've been exploring using positive questioning strategies to drive professional development. Previous posts included: Professional Development from Inspiration, Not Desperation Positive Questions for Professional Development: Setting the Stage Positive Questions for Professional Development: Creating a Learning Vision Strategies for Exploring Positive Questions for Professional Development In today's post, I want to explore ways to translate insights into action. How do you move from creating a vision for inspired... Read more →

I've been writing and thinking over the past few days about using positive questions for professional development. First I looked at some questions for creating an internal and external learning environment and then I looked at questions to use in exploring what you want to learn. Today I'm thinking more about different strategies you can use to explore these questions. There are advantages and disadvantages to each. Frankly, I've found... Read more →