Writings from the Cellular to the Whole

The Big Waves Journal

The Urgency Audit.
Joanne Kerrigan

The organization may stop encouraging or rewarding needless urgency, but if it hasn’t mapped out and implemented the corresponding structural or process supports (resource allocation, incentives and performance metrics, accessibility supports, roles, workflows, policy) to enable this shift, it will either become less effective or it will continue operating in perpetual urgency.

Picture of two metal torches. The one on the left has an open flame. The one on the right has smoke coming out of it.
Leadership Behaviours For Regenerative Power
Brook Thorndycraft

Power is not in and of itself a bad thing. However, in social change spheres we tend to notice how power causes harm and reinforces injustice and inequality. 
Check out this framework for shifting leadership power away from the dominant ways that power shows up in the workplace, to a set of behaviours and mindsets that are more regenerative and restorative.

How I Discovered The Simplest Thing That Is Making A Big Difference
Brook Thorndycraft

Orienting to joy and pleasure is a core part of the work to support change, work together better, and feel better while doing it. Not as an add-on or a distraction, but as an absolutely essential source of capacity and connection.

Psychological Safety, Two Ways
Brook Thorndycraft

Psychological safety is very important but figuring out how to create it can feel like a big and confusing topic. This blog post offers an explanation and comparison of two frameworks for assessing and measuring psychological safety in the workplace to help you figure out the best approach for your context.

A person walking by a bank of windows in a building looks at the building wiht a skeptical look on their face
This is Your Brain on Work Relationships
Brook Thorndycraft

People need a sense of belonging and purpose, and we thrive through connection and mutual trust, but our workplaces are not set up to encourage trust-based relationships. We can change those workplace structures and cultures by integrating greater practices of trust into our work. 

 High Conflict vs. Generative Conflict
Brook Thorndycraft

Conflict does not have to be as bad as it often feels. Conflict is a source of energy for change, and it always has the potential to lead to new possibilities and deeper relationships. But for this to happen, we need to build the skills and determination to avoid the lure of high conflict whenever possible. 
This is what is meant by the idea of generative conflict.