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On the basis of my belief that who we are personally is always inextricably linked with how we work professionally, I thought some of you may be interested to learn a little more about me.
I live in a lovely area called Ferntree Gully at the foothills of the
Dandenong Ranges in the outer-eastern suburbs of Melbourne. "The Dandenongs" are one of my favourite places to rest and relax.
Sherbrooke Forest with its fern gullies, tall mountain ash and gum trees and native wildlife is always refreshing to the spirit. The
Friends of Sherbrooke Forest do a sterling job making sure the forest remains free of those pesky flora and fauna "furriners" that are such a danger to the native varieties.
In my time out, I also love taking friends "up into the hills" for afternoon tea in one of the many picturesque cafes or restaurants - perhaps one of the Devonshire teas for which the hills are famous. Mind you, the hills can be a place to avoid at weekends when all "those darn tourists", as the locals call them, are in a Dandenongs mood!
People - their creativity, wisdom, strengths and resilience as well as their follies and foibles - have always fascinated me, ever since I was a child. I have always enjoyed the challenge of learning new things myself - and for me the key to this has been the interactions I've had or relationships I've developed with other people.
I also have a deep commitment to genuinely collaborative approaches - which can indeed be hard to achieve! True collaboration is a mind-set as much as a map, a philosophy as much as a place - and I believe collaborative work is a "way of being" rather than a set of "how-tos"
There are also other personal characteristics which I believe influence me professionally
For example I'm passionate about possibilities; some might call me an incurable optimist, but I prefer to think of myself as an "upbeat realist". It's what I call the "feet on the ground and head in the clouds balance".
It's about working with the day-to-day practicalities of what is achievable right here and now in this time and place while also keeping our vision set on what may be possible in the future. (I like the Robert F Kennedy quotation for example - "There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why... I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?")
I tend to be an eclectic thinker, and love the serendipity of seeing patterns and connections between apparently unconnected ideas or situations. I suppose in a way I tend to see the world first through a kaleidoscope before I turn to the view through a telescope or microscope.
Part of our BJ Seminars International logo has a very personal as well as professional significance for me. I first came across this symbol long before I knew its name or its historical significance, as it has been used as the design of the cover of
Chalice Well in Glastonbury, England, from where my father's family came.
In two separate trips some years ago to the UK, I visited Glastonbury and fell in love with the Chalice Well Gardens. Because of this, my father had a special pendant made for me from the design of the Chalice Well cover, which I have worn ever since.
Some time later, I came across the symbol's historical meaning.
The symbol is called a "mandorla", related to the Italian word "mandel" meaning "almond" - the almond shape created when two circles intersect.
It's a very ancient symbol, honoured and used through many traditions to represent the interdependence of two different worlds or energies.
Traditionally it has also symbolised the pairing of opposites - light and dark, positive and negative, life and death and other paradoxical pairs.
We find different worlds, different energies and paradox whenever any group of people come together. There will always be vastly different or directly opposing world-views, opinions or perspectives.
To make progress together, everyone must move beyond adversarial thinking to cooperative thinking - and if possible, to truly collaborative thinking.
To do so, it is important for us to engage with and accept differences long enough to allow new ideas or solutions to emerge that can meet the needs of everyone involved.
The mandorla symbolises this process. The almond-shaped intersection of the circles represents that space in which we wait to sit comfortably with an apparent paradox. A space where we are, for the time being, simply accepting the existence of opposite energies or perspectives without the need to decide between them.
If we wait long enough, we find the tension between them tends to be transformed into a different way of thinking.
We can "invite all voices into the room".
We can move beyond "either-or" to "and".
And we can move beyond "I and you" to "we".
BJ Seminars International