DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid) holds the genetic instructions that enable all living things to function, grow and reproduce. Typically, we speak of DNA in reference to species development. However, I have also heard DNA used as a metaphor for organizational functioning…
If little labour, little are our gains: Man’s fate is according to his pains. Robert Herrick, Hesperides (1650) In 1982 when Jane Fonda touted the words, “No pain, no gain,” she was referencing a physical exercise motto intended to build…
In 2004, as part of my yoga teacher training, I wrote the following essay on sacrifice. As with most of my initial thoughts on any subject, much of what emerged reflected my intuition and early experience of what needed to…
In 2011, I wrote a blog echoing the current duality of living as a global society with a foot in each of two economic paradigms — competition and collaboration. At that time, I offered a middle ground of “do no…
I was inspired to write this blog in response to an interesting question from a recent dinner conversation — “How did we, as a global society, get to this point in our evolution?” What proceeded was much discourse around…
In last week’s RRRN meditation and writing circle, we explored our hero/villain archetype — the dual expressions or boundaries of our human experience regarding who we want to be. In our human search for purpose, direction and integration (the hero’s journey),…
Our lives are not our own, from womb to tomb, we are bound to others, past and present, and by each crime and every kindness, we birth our future. Sonmi-451, Cloud Atlas Realizing my passion, purpose and potential and then…
Yesterday, our STS community considered the ecosystem within which individuals, organizations and networks live and work. Both the implications of New Economics and Big Data were addressed relative to the impacts on our own emerging experience of Big Design. That…
We glimpsed a very inspiring future yesterday during the Equitable Food Initiative’s (EFI) presentation. The presenters demonstrated the collaboration power of their emerging ecosystem — major food buyers, growers, farm workers and consumer advocates — in growing safer food and…
Europeans, Americans and Canadians kicked off their 2013 Discovery Roundtable with a hearty discussion of what constitutes humane, healthy, innovative communities of work. Although cultural interpretations varied in the language used, shared understanding culminated around what “ennobles individuals and acts…
An archetype is a mental model or universal pattern of behaviour that helps us better understand ourselves and others. Plato believed archetypes were pure mental forms imprinted in the soul before our birth. Psychologist, Carl Jung, described them as universal patterns…
Opportunities surround the one who does not judge a situation as good or bad but simply remains open, trusting and persistent in effort and approach. Jackson Kiddard Since 2007, my STS Roundtable colleagues and I have participated in a virtual…
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