We each need to find our restorative spaces so that we can bring energy and compassion for what life is bringing us. You don’t need to put aside a week of vacation to find your restorative space. Your restorative space can be a few hours at the ocean or on a trail in nature. Or singing, painting, gardening, cooking, or whatever your hobby might be. Something that shifts your brain and body away from screens and the news cycle to a more embodied presence in each moment.

Sometimes the one person with the critique has an essential truth that the rest of the organization needs to hear

So many of us are Carolina right now: Grieving and suffering and trying to tread water.

It is hard to fault any one of us for being overwhelmed, for not wanting to know, for turning to fear and misinformation as a way to tune out the truth.

And yet – I want to share three sources that speak to meeting the moment:

Our best chance at figuring out the route down the river is to inclusively use the wisdom of the group. We need to be asking each other: What do you see now? What do you envision in our best future? What can we each do to make that happen?

At possibly the most challenging moment in our lifetimes, what do we need to keep in mind to lead our organizations and teams toward a healthy and prosperous future?
Based on conversations with nonprofit leaders over the past few weeks and our experience working with teams to embrace change, this post shares steps to maintain effective leadership at this moment. In order to build awareness of what’s happening on the ground, we have included examples of how our clients and colleagues are implementing each of these steps.

In these posts, I usually tell stories about my clients and how we work together to find a path forward.
We are in trying times. In this post, I’m going to step back and tell my story and then connect it to our current moment.
Over the past year, I’ve reflected on my work and why I do what I do. What do I bring that is different from others doing this work? This is part of my reflection.

As the holidays approach, I was inspired by this segment on NPR on Teaching Thanksgiving, which is a perfect model for my work with clients.

According to the segment, educators are finding ways to teach about Thanksgiving while sticking closer to historical facts.

The key to accomplishing our goals might not be what we expect:

New Year’s resolutions are a big topic right now. Changing the calendar makes most of us step back and reflect on the past year. What went well? What would we like to change?

Yet the truth is, we’re reading the same advice we read last year. Studies show that less than 20% of people succeed in keeping their resolutions past the first 30 days of the year. Something isn’t working!

Change is scary. But when we look it right in the eye, we are more open to new people and experiences:

This past Spring, our neighbor Nicole let us know that she and her family would be moving away from our community. I asked Nicole if she planned to have a goodbye gathering before she left. “Nah,” she replied, “We don’t like to make a big deal of leaving. We’ll probably pack our stuff and ‘sneak out the back door’ without too much fanfare.”

This summer, I tried a loquat for the first time: A friend gave me some loquats from a neighborhood tree. They were delicious – a cross between an apple, pear and apricot, with a sweet and slightly tart flavor.

Afterwards, I noticed what appeared to be loquats on the ground around the corner from our home. I decided to risk eating one. If I lived, they were probably loquats! I ate the fruit, it was delicious, and there were no harmful effects. Every time I walked by the tree, I brought home a stash of just-fallen loquats.

We tend to think that big, innovative ideas and strategic thinking are the most important elements of success. But often smaller details have just as much impact:

Our new puppy Hans, who arrived at our home a few months ago, reminds us every day of the power of acting positively and openly.

I recently watched the movie Wonder with my family. It struck a nerve from my childhood. I found myself sobbing as I viewed the main character’s experience of bullying and exclusion in the school lunchroom.

I sobbed because I strongly related, as the movie brought me back to those experiences of being left out and bullied at his age.

Yet I almost didn’t share that in this post because I felt too vulnerable.

I recently facilitated several conversations with staff and board members from Bay Area nonprofit organization about the results of the impact capacity assessment tool (iCAT). The iCAT measures the health of a nonprofit in six core areas: managing, planning, learning, leading, overseeing and generating. Staff and board members take an online survey that asks about perceptions of the organization in these areas. The iCAT converts this data into a report on organizational strengths and weaknesses and recommendations effective next steps.