I think it's ok to comment in this section on podcasts I'm listening to - it's a kind of conversing, I suppose...
I listened to an episode of The Creative Shift, where guest Michael La Ronn mentioned that everyone regularly enjoys watching television, and reading books. But say that you want to become an actor or a writer, and people tell you you're crazy (or later on in your career, when are you going to get a proper job). Interesting to see that some of the more visible careers are those less well understood and in a way, less respected.
By the way, I listened to this episode, really liked the guest, and went to look for his own podcast. I was surprised to find that he was black. The surprise is what mattered to me. I hadn't heard anything in his voice that made me think about the colour of his skin, and there was no mention of his race in the whole hour conversation. The fact that it surprised me did matter to me.
In an audio-first-environment, like podcasting, does the colour of our skin matter at all? And does a different race always equal cognitive diversity?
A guest that did make me think differently and be curious about those different to myself was the last episode of The Creative Penn, with guest JD Barker, a successful author who also has asperges syndrome, a form of autism. His speech rhythm and pace were indeed different to what I'm used to hearing, and that caught my attention.
More Conversing
My most interesting conversations this week were with the potential client mentioned earlier, and a current client with whom I'm about to start a piece of work.
Conversation #1 is helping me design a path towards building a community of practice, and how to incorporate facilitation along the way. In an organisation where "learning" means turning up and listening to an expert, this is a fun challenge to embark on.
Conversation #1 took place when we presented a learning programme to a board, who after seeing that we wanted to ask for four hours from people over the next three weeks, said, "Too much, no way, they're already burnt out". That's the state of most knowledge workers these days...
Finally... I really enjoy those conversations about how remote work can instigate social change. Kudos to those making it happen. Check out episode 240 of 21st Century Work Life or read about how rural communities can benefit from remote work here.
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