“If there is one thing that is destroying our world more than anything it is numbness.
When people become disconnected, desensitized, indifferent when they stop listening, when they stop learning and when they stop caring about what’s happening here, there and everywhere.”

— Elif Shafak, British-Turkish Novelist
If Trees Could Speak ~ 3:58 Minute YouTube ~ Watch This Now!

The water lily, the birth flower for July, which symbolizes purity of heart. My time away for mid-point reflection connected me with heart and soul, for which I am deeply grateful. I pass a pond on the way to my home each day filled with water lilies, reminding me to acknowledge that we each live inside an extraordinary ecosystem, Planet Earth, and share a responsibility for caring. As the words from Elif Shafak in her video, If Trees Could Speak, describe, the complexity, uncertainty, and volatile pace of modern life can generate numbness. I resisted this and, in June, rediscovered how the high mountains of New Mexico held great beauty and a symphony of sound provided by Nature while in the quiet of my silence. The experience restored my sense of purpose. I feel energized and reignited by our vision for 2030 to shape a world where people love their life’s work, touching one billion people in a decade (yep, we started this in 2020, and we are one-third of the way!). 

You may recall that I spoke and moderated three panels for the June HEal Conference in Las Vegas. The quality of professionals speaking and sharing deep expertise and wisdom was soul-filling, too. I came away from that event with new friends and colleagues and a wealth of new ideas to engage with leaders in healthcare, education, and technology. Being present with people we don’t usually connect with enlivens our imagination and, through their reflection, brings clarity about what is most important to prioritize and pursue in our chosen work. The conference live-streamed all the panels and speaker sessions on YouTube, which are available there. You can follow this link to listen to the 20-minute keynote I delivered: The One Job of Leaders Requires Deliberate Judgment.

Sharing the power of generative coaching methods to navigate change more productively and close the communication gaps that impact essential partnering for change to produce new, more desirable outcomes was a great joy throughout the three days. The influencing force is our habits, preferences, assumptions, and biases, which result in unconscious behavior and action. We must learn to recognize that force to pause and choose differently. Yet so many of us skip over the micro-skills essential to use in our daily interactions. The micro-skills are easy; realizing to use them is the work of being deliberate. If you want to learn the three essential micro-skills to shift your mindset and deliberately sustain excellence, spend 20 minutes with me via video.

With the arrival of Summer in the Northern Hemisphere, attention drifts toward vacations and holidays. Happy Canada Day today, July 1, and Happy Independence Day for the US on July 4, Happy Islamic New Year on July 7, and let us also acknowledge Bastille Day in France on July 14. Marking the moments of great transition gives human beings a moment to pause, reflect, collect our accomplishments, express gratitude for our relationships, and recommit our attention toward our core purpose, personally and in whatever livelihood we choose. July 3 starts the hot and sultry Dog Days of Summer. We’ve drifted far afield from the original meaning of this phrase – to celebrate the presence of the bright Sirius star and constellation in the sky, to focus on relaxation, lightness, play, rest, restoration, and reading a great book on a Saturday afternoon, with a delicious iced tea. The great book on deck for my July that I highly recommend is written by john a. powell (yes, the lower-case letters are on purpose, and it is John’s way of signaling equality among all humans) Stephen Menendian, Belonging without Othering; How We Save Ourselves and the World. (2024). The authors share this critical point, “The root of all inequality is the process of othering—and the solution is the practice of belonging.” This book will offer you a vast treasure of perspective, practice, and potential to be, choose, and cause more significant equity, inclusion, justice, and belonging in your sphere of influence. I invite you to change through this book and be the cause of expansive caring for and with each other.

Keep loving our life's work and enjoy each moment of July!

Cheers,

Janet