My professional development investment for 2024 was completing the Trauma-Informed Coaching Certification program (TICC) with Thomas Hübl and Amy Elizabeth Fox, after hearing both of them multiple times on the Coaches Rising podcast. While I was familiar with many of the concepts shared in the program (Immunity to Change, Internal Family Systems (covered in chapter […]
Category: people
The Message, by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Amazon link I hadn’t read any of Coates’s books since Between the World and Me, but I heard his interview with Trevor Noah, and knew I had to read his newest book, The Message, in part because the description of his visit to Palestine was controversial. Disclaimer: I recognize that Coates is only telling a […]
Conversations for Action and Collected Essays, by Fernando Flores
Amazon link “Conversation is not merely a prelude to action, it is its very essence. … People don’t merely use language to communicate their desires about the future; they create the future in language together by making commitments to each other.” Reading The Unaccountability Machine reminded me of this book of essays by Fernando Flores, […]
Be a Revolution, by Ijeoma Oluo
Amazon link This book, a follow-up from the author of So You Want To Talk About Race, is exactly what the subtitle describes: “How Everyday People Are Fighting Oppression and Changing the World – and How You Can, Too”. While the book was well-written and easy to read, Oluo challenged me with stories that showed […]
Becoming artists in a post-AI world
I have had a couple conversations about AI this week where my perspective was surprising to others, so I wanted to more broadly share my thoughts to seed more possibilities about the future impact of AI. A few articles that prompted these conversations: (Aside: In originally editing this post, I realized the articles below are […]
The price and cost of belonging
I listened to a podcast conversation between Annahid Dashtgard and Jerry Colonna this week that inspired me to write about my relationship with race and belonging. I first heard Dashtgard on an episode of Colonna’s Reboot podcast, and then read her book The Bones of Belonging to learn more about her journey, before discovering her […]
Creating Collective Intelligence
Several years ago, Google ran a study to determine what made teams effective, and later published the results, including sharing a summary in a New York Times article. While one might think that an effective team depends on having the most capable individuals, Google’s researchers discovered that the members of the team mattered far less […]
The Courage to Be Disliked, by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga
Amazon link Written as a dialogue between a passionate but unhappy youth and a wise philosopher, this book takes on big questions like what it means to be happy, and how to live a meaningful life. It’s based on the work of psychologist Alfred Adler but you don’t need to know anything going in, as […]
Us: Getting Past You and Me to Build a More Loving Relationship, by Terrence Real
Amazon link There is a path toward us, toward integration, connection, wholeness. And there is a path toward you and me, trauma, scarcity, selfishness. Choose connection. This book centers around a simple idea. When we were children, we adapted to our environment to get our emotional needs met. We used our parents as role models, […]
Practicing Celebration
Celebration is really hard for me. I used to feel that celebration is only for achieving something you didn’t expect to achieve, but after I’ve done something, I was clearly expected to have done it, so what is there to celebrate? Instead, I historically have pushed on to the next challenge. Yet researchers like BJ […]
