I should start with the Robins: the eggs have now hatched and both mama and papa robin are busy gathering worms from dawn till dusk. Any pause and i hear the chicks protesting loudly. I love how these birds have made their next next to my office: we each industriously work throughout the day, politely ignoring each other, but (for me at any rate) in good company.
This week has had something of a community focus, as i’ve been guiding a group into running their own experiments, discussing the differences between qualitative and quantitative data, and repeatedly coming back to the question ‘what type of Community Builder will you be’. Which is essentially a conversation about whether your role is to be ‘in’ the community, or to nurture and support it.
Our time and energy is inherently limited, so if we use it directly to drive engagement, we limit our scale. But often this is the most intuitive thing to do.
Intuition is a powerful force: it’s how the robins know how to parent - they don’t sit down and study for it, it’s intuitive.
Intuition itself can be a powerful part of our leadership, but not if we mistake it for truth. We must balance intuition with critical self reflection if we hope to moderate or balance our path.
Earlier this week i spent some time exploring how other writers are using SubStack, which is the platform i publish Social Leadership Daily, Learning Fragments, and the Captain’s Log video edition on. I love the platform, and love how people use it for diverse storytelling. It gives the potential for authentic voices to be carried to scale. In part i was inspired to do this because it’s London Book Week, which is an old gathering of publishers and booksellers, representing the more traditional aspects of storytelling.
More modern technologies of narration, and social collaboration, have largely served to isolate storytelling from infrastructure, to bypass the gateways, and in some cases have produced emergent arbiters of quality as well. Our landscape of stories is more diverse than ever, and it’s ever easier to use your voice (although the proliferation of voices does, of course, not make it easier to be heard. Instead, we rely on social filtering, recommendations, and amplification for that.
I have been encouraged by the continued growth of the Social Leadership Daily community, which though still embryonic is no longer tiny. I am not sure where i will carry that work, but i do note with interest that the idea of being ‘in practice’, of being in your own practice, in every day, is a compelling one for many people. Not a grand view of leadership and learning, but a granular and adaptive one.
I have also continued developing the work around Generative AI and learning, and have half a mind to publish an Emergency Guidebook on this topic - though finding the time will be hard. Several times this week i have said ‘no’ to interesting things because, optimist that i am, i recognise that with the Doctorate in full flow, with client work, with the Certifications running, and writing the Learning Science book and the one on Togetherness - Otherness… i am quite busy!
Still: overall i am pleased with the way that my work is developing, and particularly some of the illustration work accompanying it. It’s funny how our emotional state, or satisfaction, impacts back onto our energy for work.
I hope you’ve had a great week, best wishes
Julian
Intuition, Storytelling, and Community