City Nestmaking

A “just right” amount of ballast provides steadiness so people can choose where they want to go—and choose a course to get there. Images in this episode can be found in this blog post . Reflection: In what ways do you feel out of ballast? How are you susceptible to capsizing, unable to steer, bogged down or moving through life inefficiently? What do you need to release to not feel pulled down? Wha...

It feels good to fight and argue, but when there’s no pressure to convince others or be convinced, we listen in ways that allow us to improve our communities. Images for this episode can be found in this blog post. Reflection About what subjects do you “talk about” what you know rather than “speak from” your experience? Under what circumstances do you take center stage—and what reward to you get f...

Beth Sanders and Yasushi Ohki explore how being a land developer can be good for a community’s well-being, rather than the maligned role many believe. Yasushi innovates, pilots and demonstrates new housing forms with a dogged entrepreneurial spirit. He believes that building housing can be an opportunity to develop community well-being for individuals and the wider community. For over 22 years, Ya...

City making, the weaving of city building and city caring, only happens when we have a social habitat in which we choose to weave these perspectives together. Images for this episode can be found here .

We only organize together if we are in the push and pull of conversation, wrestling with the action we feel we need to take. If not, we are being organized, passive participants in the status quo doing others’ bidding. Images for this episode can be found here .

An impromptu check-in invited awe in self, others and a beautiful place. Images for this episode can be found here .

Receiving a big award made me notice how integrity and values shape my life and work, from the scale of me to the scale of communities, neighbourhoods, and cities. Images for this episode can be found here.

Think about an activation like a guided meditation. You can listen to them in order or in response to your intuition--which one catches your eye? In listening to the activations, you'll get a few benefits:  Calm. When we spend time connecting ourselves to our place and our work, we cultivate a sense of calm.   Clarity. When we settle into the ground and center ourselves, we create the conditio...

Is it possible that being more honest about what I don't know and what I don't know how to do makes me feel less scared? It looks like radical honesty with my ski patrol colleagues makes me feel less scared. And more capable, too. NOTE: You can find a video of the chair lift ride mentioned in this episode in this article .

There are two kinds of inconceivable: 1) the one I tell myself isn’t possible and 2) the one I can’t imagine. In this episode, Beth reveals a 35-year-old wish that came true and where that wish fulfilled is taking her. There are great images that accompany this episode; they can be found here .

Beth has landed in perimenopause, asking herself the question she asks others everywhere she goes: How do I make my way through this transition with care and compassion? The answer is in thinking not of The Change but of changing. Change as a verb. Images for this episode can be found here. 

What on earth are intersectionality and GBA+? And what do they have to do with city making? Beth Sanders and Soni Dasmohapatra explore intersectionality and Gender-Based Analysis Plus (GBA+) in their work as city makers; they land on this understanding: GBA+ is a means to be in a conversation about improvement . In this episode, you'll hear about the ABCDEs of GBA+ work and the five questions Soni...

How do you design a public meeting when you believe that everyone has something to say, not just the vocal few?  Images for this episode can be found here . 

When we avoid sharing opportunities to make meaning of our experiences and make choices from the meaning we've made, we avoid the challenges and brilliance of community. And the choice, in every moment, rests with each of us. Images created for this episode can be found here . 

We want change to happen without changing ourselves, without having to do anything differently. Yet, choosing transition means choosing to participate in our changing.  Images created for this episode can be found here . 

We level up our experience of community by growing beyond sharing an experience to shared choice-making.  Podcast episodes mentioned in this episode: connection bypassing , c onversation bypassing , and relationship bypassing . Images created for this episode can be found here . 

An emotional upset and a ski trip helped me unearth two limiting beliefs about relationship skills. Images created for this episode can be found here. 

When we avoid accountability and responsibility, we become untrustworthy and bypass opportunities to be in relationship with each other—in both our personal and professional lives. In this episode: 2 symptoms of, and 7 antidotes to, relationship bypassing. Images created for this episode can be found here . 

Assuming that the expertise in the room is in one or a few people disables and minimizes the resilience of a community. In this episode: 4 symptoms of conversation bypassing and 5 antidotes.  Images created for this episode can be found here. 

Whether online or in-person, how we gather fosters connection between people only when we design in opportunities for people to make contact with each other. When we don’t, we engage in connection bypassing. Images created for this episode can be found here . 

Agreements about how we’ll talk and relate to each other are a commitment to be responsible for the quality of our relationships.  Images created for this episode can be found here. I invite you to explore the following resources for agreements about how a group can work together: The Circle Way at http://www.thecircleway.net   Heather Plett and the Centre for Holding Space at https://ce...

To participate in the evolution of our cities and communities, city planners can no longer work the way they’ve worked for decades. In addition to our content expertise, we need to cultivate our social habitat expertise by letting go of our heavy reliance on prescribe and control ways of operating and make space for enable and empower ways of being. In this post: 5 new competencies for planners an...

Community has a vital role to play when emergencies arise: to enable transition from what was to what could be. Images created for this episode can be found here . This episode is the fifth in a series about the relationship between community and emergency: E23 Scales of Emergency Response (Itch #1). As the scale of emergency grows, the ability of a community to be proactive, responsive and respon...

When busy rescuing others or looking for others to rescue us, we miss the opportunity to renew ourselves, to engage and embrace the transition from one way of thinking, making and doing, to another. A healthy relationship with transition is necessary for resilience.  Images created for this episode can be found here .  This episode is the fourth in a series about the relationship between...

Rescue embodies resilience only when the rescuer takes action the rescued can't do for themselves (and wants). Whatever the  scale of emergency (E23) , we have choices to make about how to respond (E24) --and the language we use reflects the choices we make, the roles we play, and the actions we take.  Images created for this episode can be found here .  This episode is the third in...