Episode 1.21: School's Out

THE PODCAST: JUNE 25 /19

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REFLECTING ON A YEAR OF REFLECTION: HOW TO TAKE HEART AND CULTIVATE READINESS FOR BOLD CHANGE

In season one’s final episode, Tim and Tuesday wrap a year of incredible conversations with a summer assignment: how do we cultivate readiness? Along the road as systems change facilitators, we wonder: are we really doing what we set out to do? And how can we find fertile and steady ground in emergent work?

Together, Tim Merry and Tuesday Ryan-Hart are THE OUTSIDE—systems change and equity facilitators who bring the fresh air necessary to organize movements, organizations, and collaborators forward for progress, surfacing new mindsets for greater participation and shared impact.

1.21 —— SHOW NOTES

  • Tues: This is our Season Finale episode!

  • Tim: The number of people listening has been steadily increasing. I know there are groups listening together. I love the honour and opportunity we’ve had in being in people’s lives. It makes me really happy.

  • Tim: The Outside has exploded. It’s busy and we are still trying to figure out how to deal with that because we did not expect it to grow this fast, this soon. And so, the podcast has become a space to stop, reflect, think bigger, reconnect around the work, challenge each other.

  • Tim: Looking back on our year, what is important to leave with our podcast listeners?

  • Tues: Two things: (1) Work-wise, one of our learnings is that systems change, with equity at the centre, takes a long time to really catch. It can be years into an effort before those pieces really come together. (2) Personal: Keep learning and understanding and moving from your centre. If you do nothing else this summer, except discover more about yourself, you will have done some pretty amazing work and some pretty amazing work in the world.

  • Tim: My personal practice of meditation, of spending time in nature, of being in therapy that allows me to revisit things in my childhood that set fundamental patterns for my behaviour… there’s something in all of that which is about letting go of who I think I am, what I think I am, what I think my work is.

  • Tim: Accessing “readiness” is one of the things I want to start exploring. How to we map the stages of this [client’s] journey over multiple years. When I was in my early 20’s coaching with Meg Wheatley, she used to talk about ‘one step at a time leadership.’ Stop, Re-orient, Re-organize, Move.

  • Tim: My wife and I choose a word or a sentence that sets a tone for the year. The one we landed on for 2019 was ‘balance’. What is the balance I want in my life? Inviting everyone into this — how are we giving all parts of ourselves what we need?

  • Tues: Next season, we’ll interview Jacob Watkins, Trupti Sarode & Gabrielle Donnelly about co-existence of data and analysis. We’ll speak with Alastair Jarvis about Two Loops of Systems Change. We’ll explore balance, and continue to share what we’re learning about equity and systems change. We’ll also feature Ole Qvist-Sørensen from Bigger Picture, around visualizing shifted futures.

  • Tues: We will be back next fall (Date: TBC)! In the meantime, please revisit season one, and share and subscribe!

  • Poem: “Find a Point on the Wall” by our friend, Lex Schroeder

    Find a Point on the Wall

    try holding your leg out straight from your hip
    turn out
    bend, and dip
    point
    now hold it straight out
    be long
    where's your core
    point
    turn out
    bend
    now hold it straight out
    grow taller
    take it to the side
    higher
    back
    we’ll do 8
    take it up now
    ball of the foot
    turn around
    higher
    grow 5 inches more
    arms up
    turn
    kick it out
    try not to collapse into your standing leg
    where’s your core
    good

    now try letting your friends feel pain
    let them live with a steady ache
    let them bring themselves back from the dead
    let your loved ones grow older
    keep going, let people get sick
    let someone worry about you
    try laughing during a nuclear war
    let beauty wash over you
    feel loved, try to love somebody well
    take up a bit more space, back up
    we’ll do 3 sets of 8
    soften
    higher
    let it be bigger than you
    grow 5 inches
    say it straight out
    don't rush these
    forget yourself
    try practicing grace
    let your heart break for the world
    try crying after a dry spell
    root into the ground
    soften
    now stay long
    we’ll do 3 more sets
    Occupy

    and back
    back
    just 2 more
    where’s your chest
    don’t scrunch
    grow taller
    make more space
    it's ok, be exhausted
    let it be easy
    look up
    Hello!
    relax into the breath
    find your core
    there

  • Song: “Incapable” by Róisín Murphy

 
 

Subscribe to the podcast now—in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher or anywhere else you find podcasts. New episodes will be available every second Tuesday. If you’d like to get in touch with us about something you heard on the show, reach us at podcast@findtheoutside.com.

Find the song we played in today’s show—and every song we’ve played in previous shows—on the playlist. Just search ‘Find the Outside’ on Spotify.

 
 

Duration: 33:24
Produced by: Mark Coffin @ Sound Good Studios
Theme music: Gary Blakemore
Episode cover image: source

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