Intended Consequences?

Thoughtful, Committed Citizens
The group was smaller than expected. Working in a nascent field can have more challenges than rewards. I persist because the pursuit is fulfilling and important, but it can be lonely. Named A Better How, last week’s gathering convened a handful of like-minded practitioners to forge, even if for only two days, a community of practice. Sometimes you have to create your own professional development opportunities, as well as blaze ahead with fewer participants than hoped. Sometimes you need to just start, no matter how modestly, push the stasis aside and try to generate a modicum of momentum. When introductions took twice as long as scheduled, I knew the experience was going to be edifying. Each attendee had an abundance of knowledge and experience to contribute. At the end of the first day, I was already mourning the 12-person conference, knowing that the serendipitous, fortuitous and incredibly edifying experience would be difficult to duplicate. Future iterations will likely lack the same intimacy, generative intensity and good will that was shared among this international group, and there would be less risk to broach. No one there had been dissuaded by our modest numbers and, in that, a potential fear of failure. Rather, right from the very start, we pushed that aside  and dug in, quickly discovering the opportunity to delve more deeply, share more generously, and emerge more enlightened than otherwise might have been the case.