Hobbit Tools

hobbit tools

This is one of my favorite teachings. Playfully named for the bare bones needed to embark on big adventures, the simple things you can carry in your pocket. I often teach this at the end of a workshop. It is a marker for simplicity that can be applied at all levels of scale, whether working with self, and individual, a team, or a large scale multi-stakeholder engagement initiative. Though this teaching has been added too in many good ways, it began for me in a conversation with my friend Toke Moeller. We had just finished hosting an event together. I was looking for the simple, the most simple practice that I could apply in many situations. So I asked Toke, “If you had just one tool that you could choose, what would that be?” Presence was his answer. We continued to talk. I asked about a second tool. The result of that conversation is what became for me these hobbit tools. Start with presence. Have a good question. Choose a way to listen together. Harvest. There is much to say and practice in each of these. They are practices for a life time. I love being able to share some stories from each that help ground people and myself in some simple todos.