Au·da·cious: “A willingness to take surprisingly bold risks; bold, daring, fearless, intrepid, brave, courageous, valiant, heroic, plucky.” Very excited to announce that the final report from the Bee Audacious conference is now available. Here’s a small bit from the report…
Valentine’s Day: The Gift of Dialogue
Valentine’s Day is similar to Christmas, Thanksgiving, and other significant holidays in raising expectations that may not be met. We idealize the loving couple out for dinner, holding hands, eyes locked together throughout their slow, romantic evening, exchanging thoughtful gifts.…
Bee Audacious
Just back from the Bee Audacious conference, and it was astounding, possibly the best bee meeting I’ve ever been at. It combined bees and dialogue, and was a model of both civility and tangible outcomes. There will be a full…
Bees and Dialogue video/ Semester in Dialogue Fosters Understanding, Leadership
A couple of recent updates in the bees and dialogue vein: Global Civic Policy Salon, “Bees and Dialogue,” video 4 May 2016 A nice article in the 30 May 2016 Toronto Globe and Mail Western Universities Report about the Undergraduate…
Synchrony
Bees, dance, playgrounds and children’s books came together unexpectedly in Toronto last week, along with synchrony, the idea of simultaneous occurrence or motion. The children’s book was not so much the book as its author JonArno Lawson, whom I met…
All Credit to the Bees
I’m having the most marvelous couple of months at work, with a remarkable diversity of pursuits that, at first blush, seem disconnected. What, for example, do naturopaths, territorial legislatures, a polytechnic college, a human rights caucus, agricultural land use planners…
Consensus
I had an unusual experience last December, facilitating a priority planning session for the incoming members of the 18th Legislative Assembly in the Northwest Territories. I had never been in Yellowknife, or so far north anywhere, and that alone…
Senior Moments
“Perhaps I have reached the age at which those who have been through the wash-and-spin cycle a few times become seized by the notion that their own experience in the suds may be relevant to others.” Margaret Atwood, “Negotiating with…
The Collaboration Room
I received an unusual honor a few weeks ago: Simon Fraser University named a room after me, the Mark L. Winston Collaboration Room. It generally takes a hefty donation to inspire a university to name a room, a level of…
Writing on the Wall
I am an inveterate collector of quotes, now on my second thick journal full of passages I’ve gleaned from books, newspapers, magazine articles, and conversations. The quote journals are fun to reread occasionally, as the phrases and sentences I’ve selected…