tiny mindful moments podcast, with Suzanne Whitby

the tiny mindful moments podcast

Stories, meditations, reflections. Short. Because we can all make time for a tiny mindful moment.

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Facilitation as the hidden engine of futures work

Although I know nothing about basketball, I’ve been thinking about something often called the “Chris Paul effect” since reading about it in Jamil Zaki’s article about super-facilitators in the Harvard Business Review.

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Why futures without psychological safety (and/or bravery) default to the status quo

Often, a carefully designed futures sessions, packed with sound methods and provocative prompts, yields futures that are flat and oddly familiar. I think that this happens, not because people aren’t imaginative enough, but because they don’t feel safe or brave enough to risk saying the thing that might sound naïve, unpopular, or unfinished.

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Scientists Warning Europe

A interesting site full of science endorsed solutions which will lead to a just transition for our World to a sustainable and equitable future presented by scientists across Europe.

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CliMate, your climate conversation coach

Created by The Suzuki Foundation, this fun and simple chatbot on Facebook Messenger will teach you how stop arguing and start understanding people through a choose-your-own adventure style practice conversation. You’ll get to choose your responses from a set of options, and your conversation coach will guide you through it, providing insight into the reaction your responses might elicit.

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#Watch How to turn climate anxiety into action (TED)

It’s normal to feel anxious or overwhelmed by climate change, says psychologist Renée Lertzman. Can we turn those feelings into something productive? In an affirming talk, Lertzman discusses the emotional effects of climate change and offers insights on how psychology can help us discover both the creativity and resilience needed to act on environmental issues.

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When futures work becomes theatre

When futures work becomes theatre

I’ve been in futures workshops that looked impressive from the outside. There were beautifully designed slides. Sophisticated frameworks. Post-its covering every wall. People left energised, saying it was “inspiring” or “eye-opening”. And then: nothing really changed.

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Aligning values with your recruitment process

Aligning values with your recruitment process

“We care about our people.” Really? So why do so many companies fail to simply acknowledge receipt of job applications, and send out an automated response when the position is filled?

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A thought about used futures

A thought about used futures

Many futures conversations fail not because people lack imagination, but because they’re trapped in “used futures”. These are inherited visions that feel familiar and inevitable. Changing the question when facilitating futures can be enough to change the future that becomes imaginable.

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Never surrender a good question

Never surrender a good question

Jane Hirshfield tells a story about a man who travels far to ask a wise teacher a question. When he finally asks it, the teacher slaps him. The lesson, his students explain later, is simple: never surrender a good question for a mere answer.

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Using framing to unlock change

Research into the science of framing and how it can help us to be heard and understood. When we change the story and how we tell it, we can change the world. [Fran mentioned this in Storytell.] #framing #conversations #facilitation #scicomm #climate

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Place vs space

Place vs space

One of my favourite questions in place-based futures work is simple, but deceptive. I ask, “Whose futures are visible in this space, and whose are missing?”

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Whose futures are visible here?

Whose futures are visible here?

One of my favourite questions in place-based futures work is simple, but deceptive. I ask, “Whose futures are visible in this space, and whose are missing?”

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What if?

What if?

I am privileged to be able to spend my days working with scientists who want to learn how to turn their academic findings into information that the “general public” can understand and hopefully act upon. Many of the people I coach and train are natural scientists who have an up-close-and-personal view of human-caused climate change and global heating. Not only are they witness to what is happening now, but thanks to modelling, they have insights into what is likely to happen in the future. And frankly, for many of them, the future is at best worrying and at worst terrifying. They are continually perplexed at the disinterest in the problems they are uncovering by politicians, policy makers, the media, and us, the “general public*”.

I mention this because when I watched “Don’t look up” last night, I was overjoyed that someone in Hollywood had finally created a film that captured what scientists tell me that they experience. Sure, it’s a satire, but the basic storyline is one that I’ve heard time and again in my workshops and talks.

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Hope is not optimism

Hope is not optimism

In futures work, hope is often misunderstood. It’s sometimes treated as optimism, which is a belief that things will turn out well if we just think positively enough. That kind of hope doesn’t survive contact with complexity for very long.

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When infrastructure assumes constant uptime

When infrastructure assumes constant uptime

A lot of modern infrastructure quietly assumes constant uptime. The internet. Our power systems. Our payment systems. Our GPS-powered navigation tools. When any of them stutter, even if only momentarily, things start to unravel quickly.

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