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One of the most challenging aspects of my work is staying engaged while leading a book circle with a book that I have already read and lead numerous times.
Case in point...Think Again by Adam Grant. Last year, I hosted 6 different book circles with the book with four different companies (some companies had more than one book circle.) Recently, I have started another one, and have 2 more starting in May. I thrive on new-ness and change, so the idea of leading another 3 books circles on the same book could have made me gag. Instead, I thought, "How can I stay engaged, so that the reader's will stay engaged?"
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 As I entered the room, the chairs were set up like a movie theater, all facing the front, ready for a screening of some sort.
I immediately thought, "This won't do." With the help of my client, we move half of the chairs to the back, and set up the remaining 30 in a circle. 30 people had RSVP'd yes. This was going to be a fun "Lunch and Learn" as we had advertised it. As people slowly entered the room, they said things like, "Great, this is going to be interactive," as they took a seat near myself and the head of Talent Management for the EMEA region.  Sometimes the most generative tools are the simplest; a pencil, a notebook, and observing gaze. In Annie Murphy Paul's book The Extended Mind there is a whole chapter devoted to thinking with the space of ideas, and includes ideas not just on the physical space of ideas (extra large displays are great), but also on giving abstract ideas physical presence.
In order to play with this idea in a new way, I introduced a group yesterday to a process called metacognitive drawing. The goal of this type of drawing is to move the pen without thinking of the outcome, and to see what arises. You let the pen decide where it goes. The results might be an image of something we can all see and know, and sometimes it's swirls and lines and nothing "pretty," yet there is still a sense of something there. This process is one that I learned from Cindy Jacobs, and proves to be an amazing way to access aspects of our thinking that we didn't know were there. I have the prime desk spot in our house. It's tiny...just 1 1/2 meters in each direction, but I have these huge curved windows in front and to the left of me, with a view of the mountains.
I also don't have a door, or any electrical plugs, and am located right next to my children's bedrooms. Which means, when I sometimes have evening meetings, I pop down to my husband's office, which is located in the back of the house away from going-to-sleep children. His desk is facing the wall - a white, blank wall. Every time I sit at his desk, I feel ill-at-ease.  Today is the first session for a new book circle with my group of individual leaders.
Unfortunately, one woman who wanted to participate isn't. Why? Because the publishers choose a font that doesn't work for her dyslexia. And it's not available in Audio or Kindle version in her country -- the United Kingdom.  Not all risks are equal, so when it comes to uncertainty, some of us can thrive in some moments, while others of us languish. If the context of the uncertainty switches though, the opposite might be true. As part of our reading of The Upsides of Uncertainty , today I led a group through the process of evaluating their risk affinities and aversions according to the Risk-O-Meter created by Tina Seelig. Each of the participants looked at themselves honestly, and then reflected on how these aversions and affinities connect to their work. How are they supportive? How are they an impediment?  It’s an exciting Friday night in the Destrebecq house.
I am sitting at the kitchen island with a work book and pen in hand, and my husband is taking apart the hot water heater. (The kids are asleep) As I sit here reading, I realize that I am actually not doing much reading. I am following bread crumbs (and now writing about it.) In my reading, I stumbled upon a poet that I had never heard of, so I looked him up. In any given week, I am leading anywhere from 2 to 10 book circles (Yes, I could balance it out better, couldn't I?)
Each book circle is unique. I don't have a blueprint meeting facilitation guide that I copy and paste each session. What that takes, then, are thought and creativity. I live into a range of questions. Yet, if I sit in front of my computer planning all of these sessions, I go nowhere.  On Monday, I will be starting a new book circle, with a steady client, in which we will be exploring resilience and how we respond to uncertainty.
The book we chose to read to explore this topic is The Upsides of Uncertainty by Nathan Furr and Susannah Furr. As I was reflecting this week on what we could do for our first dive into the content, I had the idea of creating uncertainty monsters.  When I first immersed myself into the world of reading personal and professional growth books, it was out of necessity.
I was trying to save my career. I started by reading books about resolving conflict and managing difficult people. Then, I turned to books on leadership and managing up. And none of it really helped me. Do you know why? |
Hi there!I am Theresa Destrebecq (I dare you to try to pronounce it...) |
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