Resources

Learner, teaches teacher. “Teach and learn in every interaction.” Recently I finished up with two executive coaching clients that I’ve had for a year. Their organization was shifting their culture, and they needed their leaders to do the same. We started off with a good plan, and the coaching went pretty well. Both made great strides and see where they still have to grow. They are grounded in their values, identified and lived into who they want to be and hopefully shifted the culture by their example.

In 1925, Mahatma Gandhi described a set of patterns that he believed would destroy us as a society. Those “7 Sins,” as they have come to be called, hold true today. How can we use HSD to help us see, understand, and influence patterns of health and sustainability as we move through the current crisis and work together to shape whatever comes next?

The past year has brought race and racism to the fore in national and global dialogue. Murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and too many others were shocking, but they were no surprise. Health inequities were not created by the pandemic, but they were exacerbated and laid bare. The essential nature of “essential workers,” cascading homelessness, New York Times’ 1619 Project, demonstrations and outrageous police responses, and misery at our southern border have disrupted my comfortable vision of the American community.

How I prioritize my time is a consistent concern for me. It relates to my work, civic engagement and volunteerism, relationships, and to how I take care of myself. When I say, “I’m sorry, I wish I could do XYZ, but I can’t,” there is a voice in my head that tells me, “If you really wanted to, you could. You just have to prioritize it.” This blog isn’t about why I feel this way. Anne Helen Peterson nailed it when she wrote about burnout. This blog is about how I tried (and botched) using Human Systems Dynamics to optimize my time. In that process, however, I gained insight that gives me the energy to move forward.