The dream shepherds
Recently, Tim and Tuesday led the Core Team Retreat for the NYC Workforce Institute (NYC WI). After our kick off with this team a few months ago, the group came back together to co-create: 1) a bigger picture of the organization’s current reality; and 2) a purpose and roadmap for the next period of work.
It’s a key turning point we’ll be talking about in the coming week or two with a few clients and collaborators: the process design of how we work together. What kind of flow makes space for new ideas takes shape? What intentions do we share, and how should we best show up in the service of them?
When you’re facing what feels like intractable challenges and complexities, there’s no sense tumbling headlong into problem-solving. That headlong tumble presumes we all know and share consensus not only about the problem, but the solution. What a disservice we do when we rush into fixing something that isn’t yet understood! And what a fantastic pause it is to set the stage for understanding.
In this moment, each core team member of the NYC Workforce Institute had been asked what they dreamt possible for this equity-building initiative. Tim’s slam poem, as always, pulls those dreams together in an unforgettable way. If you’re at this point — still trying to see your problem clearly, long before you can even imagine solutions — don’t forget to take this pause. Why does it all matter, and who are you in the middle of it all? Like stretching for one of Tuesday’s long trail runs, this is how we open up the muscles of creativity. Huzzah!
