Hello Friends!
Greetings from Barcelona☀️. Many thanks for your feedback on the last edition. A special shout out to: Deepa on Bainbridge Island, Chris in Brussels, Connie in Toronto, Gillian in Kingston, Gani in Cornwall, Adam in Oakland, and Barry and Michaele in Bracebridge 🙌. If you are joining The Quest for the first time, welcome to our weekly exploration of creativity, facilitation, and learning. You can catch up on past editions here.
For the last edition of The Quest for this topsy-turvy year we call 2020, I’d like to share 12 Resources from 2020 that I hope will help us all thrive in 2021. Here we go!
📋First, a quick poll.
Raise your hand if during the course of 2020…
You have had a hard time focusing
You have caught yourself doom scrolling more than once
You have felt overwhelmed by the urgency and scale of change the world needs
You have experienced mixed blessings of life during the pandemic
You have developed new habits that you plan to continue beyond 2020
You have learned important things that would not have been possible without COVID
You are relieved that 2020 will be over soon
That’s a hands up from me on all counts. As we come to the end of 2020, I am asking myself one question. “What can we learn from this year that will help us and the planet thrive in years to come?” Here are 12 links, articles, videos, books, and quotes from 2020 that have made me stop, think, and re-examine my beliefs, and re-imagine what is possible. I’d love to hear yours. If you send them, I will share them (with your permission!).
12 resources from 2020 to help us thrive in 2021
🌱Joanna Macy, Entering the Bardo.
Op-ed by eco-philosopher Joanna Macy on the bardo – the Tibetan Buddhist concept of a gap between worlds where transition is possible. Macy says, “The future is not out there in front of us, but inside us.” Shared by Rick Ingrasci at Big Mind Media.
A book that helps us to Uncover the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do. Standford University professor Jennifer Eberhardt tells us the ways unconscious bias can be at work without our realizing it. And that racial bias is a human problem – one that all people can (and I would add need to) play a role in solving. You can also see her TED Talk How Bias Works – and How to Disrupt it here.
A 1972 animation based on the Dr. Seuss book, The Lorax that chronicles the plight of the environment. Shared by Nadia Chaney in The Time Zone. It’s a creative masterpiece with a message that is sadly as relevant in 2020 as it was in 1972.
A beautiful video tribute to Brazilian singer Gilberto Gil who turned 78 at the beginning of the pandemic. A shining example of the burst of creativity and online collaboration that COVID has sparked. Thanks to Silvia Giovannoni who reminded me of this song, which means “walk with faith.” It has become one of my COVID anthems.
A tool developed by the folks at IDEO for teachers wanting to make change in education. My new mindset for everything I do starting from now.
💻Can Online Learning Be Even Better Than In-person?
A blog I wrote about my experience in David Perell’s online writing course “Write of Passage.” The course challenged my belief that in-person learning is always better than online learning. It opened my eyes to what online learning is getting right and how to do more of it.
🎯Session Lab: 20 Online Energisers for Virtual Team and Remote Meetings
Zoom fatigue is something that many of us didn’t even know existed before March. And now many of us have experienced it first hand. The sudden shift to online has also stirred a wave of experimentation on how to get way better at gathering online. Facilitators and experience designers have been trailblazing ways to make online meetings and sessions energising, engaging, and fun. Check out these online energizer ideas from Session Lab for some inspiration.
🧡5 Easy Ways to Kick-Start Your Creativity
A blog I wrote about busting the myth that some of us are creative while others are not. Creativity is one of the most important skills of the future, and our most important resource for solving the challenges we face. Creative expression is also vital for our well-being. This blog will show you how to fill your creative well.
A hilarious facilitation game from the world of improv theatre. I love this game because it reminds me that life is full of paradoxes and contradictions. You can play this game in pairs or in a group. One person invents the beginning of a story. The next person starts by saying, “Fortunately…”, and continues to build on the story of the first person adding a sentence. The next person says “Unfortunately…”, and continues to build on the same story taking it in an unfortunate direction. The following person says “Fortunately…”, again building on the story. Here are the instructions. Get ready to laugh. A lot.
😀The Real Ikigai
A diagram of the Japanese concept “the thing you live for” shared by Andrew Barry at Curious Lion, (with some excellent Ikigai resources shared by Wendy Ng in Singapore). As I re-prioritize for 2021, I will have these framed on my wall for reference.
Very few people can sum up 14 years of work in just two words. Maria Popova can. And her insight could not be more timely: choose joy.
💌Letter from the future
A writing activity that I learned from PYE that helps people envision positive possibilities for the future. I did this activity recently with a group of remarkable teachers in Barcelona. I asked them to imagine they had reached the end of the school year, and that things had gone very well, far better than they had imagined possible. I asked them to think of someone like a friend or relative who had supported them through the year and write that person a letter describing in great detail the successes they had had. They have tucked their letters into a safe place and will bring them out at the end of the school year. This year I plan to write a letter from the future instead of making resolutions (that I usually break anyway!).
📷Photo for the year
From my husband Andres.
Thanks for reading. I always love hearing your feedback and suggestions. Feel free to email me at gwyn@gwynwansbrough.com. Visit my website for ways we can work together here.
If you are enjoying The Quest, I’d appreciate it if you shared it with anyone you think might like it.
The Quest will be back on January 11.
I wish you all safe, happy and creative holidays🌟.
Gwyn
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