Resources

Sim Phei Sunn (known to us as PS) is an HSD Associate, a member of the HSD Institute Board of Directors, an extreme athlete who has completed the Seven Summits and competes often in ultra-distance running. As an experienced officer in the Singapore government, she was recently asked to share her insights from mountain climbing and endurance running that have helped her keep going at work. She has graciously allowed us to re-print her post for our newsletter. Note, please, that while this is written for up-and-coming members of her organization, the principles she shares can be powerful for others, regardless of their place in life.

Each year at this time, we plan the Adaptive Action Labs (AALabs) for the next year. We consider a number of factors in selecting the topics. What challenges are clients talking about? What questions do we hear from Associates? Which of the AALabs has been successful in the past, and which ones should be put aside for a year or two? Ultimately, after these questions, the anchor we always come back to is this: What topics will best help individuals and groups live out the HSD Vision?

Learning a new language often involves as much forgetting or letting go as it does memorizing new words and creating new patterns of speech. On a recent trip to Mexico, I had a chance to renew my Spanish language studies. As I did, I noticed how my mid-life brain struggled to remember and retrieve unfamiliar words, and the surprising things it would do to meet the new demands. As a practitioner of human systems dynamics, I pondered what this experience could teach me about the role of difference in pattern formation. This blog explores some of my reflection.