Starting from the right ‘Place’
It’s been more than 4 months now. That’s a good 16+ weeks of working and living and socialising online. Without much warning and with almost no preparation the world of work (and everything else) went online in March and there we’ve stayed ever since. Which is starting to feel… relentless?
Imagine making such a huge change without thinking first about how to get the best from it. Yet that’s exactly what we did. We did it because we had to do it, and we did it with some relief that we could keep going. And here we are, still going strong online. How is that for you?
Creating a sense of Place online
What have you noticed so far about creating Place online? And what about ourselves, and the body that is our Place for thinking? The TE component of Place says that ‘it needs to tell you that you matter’. Normally we can achieve that by choosing to meet in a place that is comfortable and clean, somewhere with access to nice food and good coffee perhaps, somewhere that gives us a physical sense of arrival, of settling in, of actually being somewhere. It’s physical, kinaesthetic and mostly reassuring.
So what happens to this dimension of Place online? There is so much to say about this. Too much for a brief newsletter. Instead here is a short (6 mins) video where I ask myself that question in a chunk of ‘freshest thinking’ that may have moved on a little bit even when you get this!
Landing well
I’m taking this theme for July because it’s urgent. We are going to be online forever, even when we start going back to being in the room. This is going to be a vital skill for coaches, facilitators, leaders. If we can help ourselves and others to land well, to understand that taking a little time out at the start will create some sense of being in a shared online Place together, then our thinking improves because we are more at Ease and know that we matter.
Dialling up the human
This new Place that we all are working in requires lots more definition and acknowledgement; it is a paradox, a challenge and a liberating wonder of technology. All of that and more. I’m finding that I need to ‘ramp up the human’ in order to stay energetically connected to a group online. No wonder we find it tiring, alongside being convenient and easy…
An Appreciation of Flowers’
The Place in the picture in one screen of four, the recent meeting of 90 members of the UK Collegiate group with Nancy Kline. We ended the day with a virtual bouquet, bringing one flower each, to create ‘an Appreciation of Flowers’ for her and each other as we finished. Bringing something real into the frame is a perfect way to dial up the human, and to feel more real. You can see the joy and the humour in this very warm moment, and there’s Nancy in the top left corner.
Please tell me what it is you are discovering about creating Place online, and I’ll continue to share new thinking on this vital topic in the future.
Autumn Programme
If you are planning for the autumn, and interested in continuing your TE journey, my new courses are here; they are all online, over shorter days, and available anywhere in the world!
In the meantime, I’m intending to have a break throughout all of August, and look forward to being in touch with you again in September.
