Narrow roads can lead to exciting adventures or peril. What considerations should we make when deciding whether to continue our journey or seek a new route? Does it change our mindset if we bestow upon ourselves the title of ‘explorer’ or ‘adventurer’?
The location of our town allows us to specialize. A port town has access to the sea and transportation amenities. A hill town might provide room to terrace the land, grow crops, and benefit from harvesting natural resources. In some locations, the main town was built a few miles inland from the sister port town, allowing the harbor to deploy signal fires to alert the primary village if an enemy approached from the sea.
Based on our geography, we might maximize a specific benefit. We may need to pass on opportunities that do not thrive in our location. Ski resorts are not usually found in the lower latitudes, and beach vacations get more challenging as the latitude increases.
Does your headquarters reflect the organization’s purpose and mission? Could we decode the organization’s values by touring the establishment that houses your programs?
A yoga instructor who shouts at their class might be missing the intention of yoga. A Board Chair who chastizes other board members for not twisting enough elbows to secure more donations from friends and business associates might not have a sustainable approach. A treasurer who reports that the organization’s tax returns have been filed but does not wish to share a copy for review may not be amplifying leading practices.
We might be doing the work that matters, but using the wrong communication methods (or volume) might cause more obstacles than benefits.
Who are serving with your work? Are you providing a light to draw people towards you or warning people to avoid your location? Is your presence providing confirmation somebody’s expedition is on course?
Why ride a bike in circles around a velodrome? It takes three laps to cover a kilometer, and if we intend to ride a long distance, it is a mentally challenging way to accumulate distance. Spending too much time riding laps can create a sense of vertigo. But the track offers a smooth service, with precise measurements, and eliminates several obstacles encountered on the open road. A session in the velodrome gets us closer to precision and gives us a chance to categorize the inputs and outputs.
What is equivalent to a velodrome experience for your team? Where do you assemble to practice performing at your highest level? What opportunities allow you to test your capabilities within a controlled environment?
“…that of confusing the thing observed with the mind of the observer” Edward Abbey in Desert Solitaire
How might we embrace the reality that what is observed is informed by our own intellectual depth and dimension?
We need to be aligned in the right direction before we can take off. When crunched for time, we might see an open space and treat it as an active runway; however, we need to navigate the taxiways before we reach the runway.
Navigating a shoreline trail does not always mean closely circumnavigating a body of water. Occasionally, the terrain requires us to leave the shore and head inland. We are going in the proper direction but flexible routing through the landscape.
What-if-concepts 