Colleagues, Friends, Froleagues

Chris Corrigan has a practice near the end of the year / start of a new calendar year to name some of the colleagues that he is grateful to have been in association with over the last year. He names it with intention to have more collaborators than clients. I like the practice.

I decided to create my own list, running back through my calendar to catch names. It was fun to do this.

Though I’ve listed only names here, alphabetically, with each I found myself transported back to the times of together during the year. Some were working together on projects or initiatives. Some were zoom calls to catch up or to stay in contact. Some were people that continue to guide me at the core level. Some were new people, kindling some awareness together. Some were those with whom I share laughs. Some, tears. Some both. Some in work, imagining new insights and practices into being. Some to be more silent with, as if watching stars and night sky together.

There’s more, including a lot of family, that aren’t named here.

Thanks to all. I’m glad we go together.

 

Sue Artt

Christina Baldwin

Cameron Barr

Krista Betz

Jae Bird

Tom Brackett

Glen Brown

Mark Busse

Martin Challis

Chris Chopyak

DaMareo Cooper

Chris Corrigan

Jennifer Cowley

Bonnie Christiansen

Gayle Engel

Amanda Fenton

Dawn Foxcroft

Kelly Foxcroft Poirier

Nancy Fritsche Eagan

Caitlin Frost

Alexis Fuller Wright

Robi Gareau

Roq Gareau

Erin Gilmore

Penny Hamilton

Prentiss Haney

Tony Harding

Kevin Hiebert

Joan Hitchens

Alyssa Huebner

Jonas Hunter

Tom Inglis

Diane Jordan

Shelly Jurmaine

Lawrence Kampf

Carla Kelley

Charles LaFond

Derek Larson

Glen Lauder

Ann Linnea

Sarah MacDougall

Kathleen Masters

Larry McCulloch

Marina Minari

Toke Moeller

Bill Muhr

Kinde Nebeker

Marjeta Novak

Judith Oki

Maureen Parker

Stephanie Papik

Rina Patel

Teresa Posakony

Carla Reading

Jessica Riehl

Rich Rivera

Quanita Roberson

Sara Rosenau

Herwig Schoen

Todd Smiedendorf

Chris Smyth

Jim Strader-Sasser

Cori Thorell

Corbin Tobey Davis

Jan Ungerer

Dave Waugh

Katharine Weinmann

Meg Wheatley

Nobody Knows

Everywhere I go, I meet people who are learning to lean in to the reality that most of our environments are just too complex to know completely. It doesn’t mean that we don’t know anything. It does mean that nobody can know everything.

My work, on the surface, is mostly process consulting and facilitation. That body of work grows from an acknowledgement that work and life are pretty involved and require us to go together. It’s an evolutionary step. And it’s one that contradicts so much of what many of us have been taught. Just like the gents in the cartoon above, we been taught to not say it out loud, and to mask “not knowing.”

Let’s face it. Not knowing, and the ability to own that as a step of vitality is essential these days. Relearning how we go together, without diminishing individual ability, yet contributing to sustainable, “go further” approaches only found in community (or team) — that’s the work of these days.

And beneath the surface of that, it’s just rather human to human adventure isn’t it. Sometimes I feel like I know a lot about that. Sometimes, even in knowing a lot, I can feel that I’m just beginning.

“Knowing” is a verb of continuous engagement. Not an item on the list to tick off. There’s the secret that many of us are trying to make not a secret.