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.

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Toward What Do We Aspire?

The Root of the Matter
I value clarity. Genetically indisposed to muddle, becoming a designer made sense. Helping clients untangle complex issues is a significant portion of the value that Foresight provides to its clients. Which isn’t to say that we simplify matters. Rather, through the process of externalizing elements and their relationships, perspective is gained, from which purpose and direction can be defined, and progress realized.

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The Nature of Our Ambition?

National Objectives
The Olympics were compelling. I enjoyed watching the fulfillment of ambition, win or lose, in all the apex moments. When I was younger, and studying classical music and pursuing my own athletic ambitions, the “gold medal” goals were clear, however distant. The older I get, the less destination-bound I feel. The direction is more internal and process-focused.

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Factoring Ambiguity?

Night Flight
We descend. The airplane’s lights struggle to cut through the night fog. I yearn for clarity. Words can be slippery and inexact, poor mechanisms by which to probe overlapping interrelations. Talk less, draw more. Glimpses of the city’s lights emerge. We are lower than I imagined, although there has been no context from which to measure and judge. Complexity can offer the mirage of easy understanding. Craft more diagrams to turn buried realities inside out, unravel their guts.

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The Nature of Resilience?

Blown Apart
Sustainability crosses over. The intersection of the personal and the professional has been the focus of this column from the start. Last week, they collided in an unexpected way: a young family friend’s suicide coinciding with the end of a project exploring student mental health issues on a college campus like the one he would have attended in the fall. It’s not just T’s death that has jarred me, but also witnessing the repercussions for his friends and family, including mine.

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