Bringing out the best in ourselves and others starts not with our actions, but with the assumptions that guide those actions, the stories we tell ourselves that we believe simply as “the truth.” What if those stories are not true? What if “those people” are not whatever assumptions we make about them. What if “that … Read more
As we’re crafting the second course in our new curriculum – Catalytic Listening – we have been talking about creating “cheat sheets” as reminders. One of those sheets will include a list of words and phrases that inadvertently not only fail to bring out the best in ourselves and others, they actually bring out the … Read more
In our work at Creating the Future, we seek to change the questions embedded in the day-to-day work of individuals and organizations, so everyone naturally brings out the best in each other and in our world. This involves an intentional focus on language and how we use it to move conversations forward, to result in … Read more
How can the questions we ask in our day-to-day work significantly enhance the quality of life in our communities? Last month, I was honored to speak at the prestigious City Club of Portland, to share what we have learned at Creating the Future about what really creates social change. And when I say it was … Read more
Fellow: (In academia) a member of a group of learned people who work together as peers in the pursuit of mutual knowledge or practice (per Wikipedia). For nearly a year, our Creating the Future community of immersion graduates have been referring to ourselves as fellows. As a community, we played with words like graduate, practitioner, … Read more
Last week, in Creating the Future’s Facebook group for consultants to community benefit orgs, an article from Forbes titled Are You Dealing With A Real Expert Or A Fake? 7 Ways To Tell led to an interesting discussion. The list included this at #2: Real experts have no trouble saying: “I don’t know.” That led to an interesting … Read more
At our most recent board meeting for Creating the Future, we took time to deeply explore the role financial management, reporting, and leadership should play in the organization. As a demonstration project exploring what could be possible for all boards, we spend a fair amount of time engaged in a process talking about process. I personally … Read more
In just a few short weeks, Creating the Future will be presenting its first-ever conference – a joint effort with the Pennsylania Association of Nonprofit Organizations. Which means it is time for us to create a hashtag for the event! This is not as simple as it seems, at least not if we want to … Read more
Today's branding and messaging session promises to be entertaining, informative and hopefully will push us through to SUCCESS in finding our words! (And if you're reading this after the meeting is over, you can watch the video below!) Join us right here at 1pm PT / 4pm ET and please add your thoughts / comments … Read more
We are hereby giving ourselves permission to write some really bad taglines for Creating the Future! So mark your calendars for Tuesday, May 28 at 1pm Pacific time (NA) to help us come up with some zingers! Why "bad taglines"? To open up our creativity, to allow the GOOD taglines to surface without feeling forced. … Read more