Week #1 LW Academy_Check-in

Yesterday a new cohort started the Practical Self-Management Intensive online course. I was traveling and I missed the first session, so I thought I’d write my check-in.

The check-in (or chicken in kiwi English ;) ) is a process in which each person shares something about themselves. Sometimes there’s a guiding question, sometimes we share what’s on top or how are we feeling today.

In this occasion, the check-in questions were:

- What have you been noticing in your world? What has been changing?

- A favorite activity outside of work

- What do you want to get out of this course?

And here, my check-in

What have you been noticing in your world? What has been changing?

When I left corporate HR about eight years ago, a friend told me “you’ll be back, just differently”.

A few years ago I started hearing about Teal, the book Reinventing Organisations, self-management, etc. At first, I didn’t really pay much attention but the topics kept finding me. Through friends, colleagues, and organisations I was collaborating with. Through books, experiments and spontaneous trials.

My first real experience putting these concepts in practice was organizing an event with a team of volunteers a couple of years ago. From the beginning, I saw it as an opportunity for me to learn a new leadership style, and for the whole team to practice new ways of working together. At the time I didn’t know anything about teal or self-management practices. I just knew that I wanted to learn new ways of working. Learn by trying and practicing.

And I did learn. Through trial and error, through having difficult conversations, through creating clear criteria for decision making and setting the foundations for everyone to work and create freely.

What I’ve been noticing in my world is that there’s a need, that people are craving to find new ways of working (and being). That sometimes we need to step back before moving forward. I’ve noticed that people want to do this, they want to move in this direction, even though sometimes they’re not ready. I’ve noticed that “to go deep, we have to go slow”.

I’m now back into corporate work. Totally differently from when I last worked in the corporate world eight years ago. The work I’m doing is different. Most importantly, the intention of the work I’m doing is different. Talk about purpose. The way I work, interact, value my time, organize my hours, and the way I am, is different.

I’m glad to be back. I’m also concerned about getting frustrated and giving up. Because there’s as much need as resistance. There’s as much fear as will to experience transformation. Both individually and collectively. To me, the way to keep going is going slow. And deep. And to infuse a culture of love where there’s fear. But that’s another article.

A favorite activity outside of work

Walking! I love walking in nature, connecting with myself, connecting with my inner and my outer worlds. I also love getting lost in a city, walking without destination, without a map, randomly finding new corners, lovely places, gorgeous little cafes, local shops. I love randomly finding new ways of getting to places, new ways of being.

What do you want to get out of this course?

My intentions for the course are:

- To give structure to what I know so far in relation to self-management and to what I’m doing at Yash Papers, the company I’m supporting in their transition to self-management. To learn new tools and practices. And to put them in action in real life, try them and see what works in this environment.

- To explore, to experience, to learn. To connect. To give and receive, to share. And to be part of a network of people who bring the future of work to the present.

And then, at the end of the gathering, we do a check-out

If you were a tree or a plant, which would you be?

I know pine trees are considered a pest in New Zealand, but they’re also an icon of my childhood. The smell takes me back to summers at my grandparents, and memories of picking, cracking and eating pine nuts. Still love doing it when I go back to Spain.

Also, I’m somehow an “introduced specie” in New Zealand :)