Current e-Journal
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August 18, 2026
Holding friends accountable for REST
In this week’s Systems Change Newsletter…
- Invitations and Announcements
- Catalytic Thinking Exercise: Holding friends accountable for REST
- Resources to Further Your Practice
Invitations & Announcements:
Evaluation for NON-evaluators (and yes, for evaluators, too)
What if your community members were the ones evaluating your programs? As Creating the Future begins documenting what we’ve learned from our 30+ demonstration projects, YOU will be leading that process! From determining what is important to document and share, to interviewing the folks who led those efforts, this process will be as open and participatory as all our work. We’ll be kicking off that project in September. If you’d like to join the fun, Send us a note.(opens in new tab)
Catalytic Thinking Exercise:
Holding friends accountable for REST
You’ve probably heard of accountability partners - people who help keep you on track for something you want to accomplish. It could be someone who goes jogging with you, or someone who checks in to see how you’re doing on a big project. Accountability partners keep us on track for accomplishing those big things in our lives.
This week our team has been thinking about the opposite of that accomplishment-focused partner. Instead, we’ve been asking what might be possible if we had accountability partners for rest and joy and calm.
These days, there is so much work to be done. The bombardment of pain and chaos and loss is so constant, our normal productivity compulsions are doubled and tripled. Funds are low, so we feel like we need to work extra hard and extra long to generate the resources we need to do our work. Then on the weekends, we are going to protests. Or volunteering. Or taking care of kids and doing laundry.
And somewhere in there we try to remember to sleep.
The things we manage to never make time for are the things that nurture and revive us. Whether that is making art, going to the movies, hiking, or just laying on the couch and binge-watching old episodes of Star Trek, rest is personal. And it is the thing we don't generally do until our bodies collapse in a heap and demand that we do it.
What if instead of a productivity partner, we had accountability partners for play and rest?
Try this
It all starts when we move away from thinking of rest as a luxury and start to instead think of rest as a condition for our success. And when it comes to conditions for success, we know that Catalytic Thinking has us covered!
Whether you are being asked to be that Rest Accountability Partner, or you are in need of that partner yourself, the questions of Catalytic Thinking can be your guide.
1) Listening: First, listen to yourself through the lens of Catalytic Listening. What are you feeling? What is important to you? What do you love doing? What makes you feel whole? What helps you feel in flow? (If you are the accountability partner, listen for these things as you walk alongside your friend.)
2) Aspirations: From there, establish what good would look like. If your rest time were 100% successful, what would that look like for you? Much of that will be rooted in your answers to #1, while some will be new. When you picture “rest” time, what does that look like in your mind?
3) Conditions for Success: From there, apply the same questions about conditions for success that you would ask about your community. What do you need to be assured of, in order to reach for that vision of success? What would you need to have? What would you need to feel? What would you need to value or believe? (For a complete list of those questions, see the Resources section below.)
4) Accountability: Importantly, what role do you want your accountability partner to play? What will it take for you to not just blow off your partner? What conditions will lead to your actually listening to your partner? And importantly, what will it take for you to ask for help?
We tend to be so good at taking care of those around us that sometimes it’s hard to answer these questions about ourselves. It’s often especially hard to ask for help in the first place. To be a good accountability partner may therefore mean that role is not “official.”
The thing to remember is that the goal is not the title of Accountability Partner. The title is really “friend.” The Catalytic Thinking questions will help you see what your friend needs. Then it’s up to you to figure out what it will take for you to be the best partner possible. (See Question 4 above!)
Combining Catalytic Listening with the causality of finding conditions for success – you can see why changing the questions we ask is not just about your social change efforts. The questions of Catalytic Thinking(opens in new tab) are powerful when we apply them to ourselves, too. Because when we change the questions we are answering in our day-to-day, we really can change everything.
- WATCH: In just 2 minutes, this video reminds us of the power of rest. Watch here…(opens in new tab)
- QUESTIONS: These questions will reveal the conditions for your success. Get the questions here…(opens in new tab)
- LISTEN: In this podcast episode, Marcus Walton talks about creating change by focusing both on the individual and the world. It’s powerful stuff – listen here!(opens in new tab)
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