Enlivening (make-up) session today with Dana and EEK about the muscle of engagement. EEK focused our session on a question that was relevant for both of our projects: what makes you come alive at work? This was very relevant for me as I have a huge personal passion and professional interest in this topic, so it was super fun and valuable for me to dig in with Dana as thought partner and EEK as observer of our process. I was really aware of the need to manage my own enthusiasm when working in groups – i.e. not dominating with my thoughts and ideas and consciously allowing space & pauses for others to chime in with their contributions!

In addition to that practice reminder, I got a few more great reminders/ponder notes I was pleased to have as take-aways:

  • remembering the power of simply reframing your original question to help generate new ideas – e.g. how can the question “what does it feel like to be alive” elicit different responses than “what does it mean to be alive”?
  • relatedly, I have a strong background in somatic awareness that is a form of diversity off view that I can bring to a lot of my professional conversations. takes a little courage but trusting that there’s real value…
  • don’t forget the generative value of eliciting & reflecting on personal experience and stories (what I call “the weeds” as opposed to the high level view/theory building). developing more conscious facility with moving back and forth between theory and the weeds and knowing when to be in which part seems a key part of this craft…
  • when note-taking, there’s another key balance point between writing down what others say and interpreting/synthesizing. care not to over-synthesize and really take time to represent what’s said in the group.

Good stuff! -Brooking