Marc Bolick’s Post

So, last week was a different week of work. Hurricane Helene disrupted our lives. We adapted, we helped one another, the community came together. At about 6:30 am on Friday Sep 27 Helene was whipping overhead in Greenville, SC, tearing a path northwesterly toward Asheville. The destruction was incredible. Last night, finally, at about 6:30 pm we got our power back. Many people in the path had it much worse. Western North Carolina will take years to recover, many places will be changed forever; homes, roads, landmarks, 100+ year-old trees, businesses...all washed away. And, hundreds of lives lost, people simply unprepared for such a destructive storm so far inland. "Hurricane's hit the coast. We only get the edges here." That was then. Things are now forever different. What happened all last week was miraculous. People came out to help neighbors. Donations of food, water and goods were quickly organized and shuttled to the Asheville area by local helicopter tour company. Our power company, tree removal teams, our local, state and federal governments, and all manner of humans stepped out and stepped up to help other humans. It was beautiful! This just shows that when we put our differences aside, when the petty and marginal things in our lives are stripped away and we are left looking around for support, or we see someone else in need, we show the best of ourselves. My faith in humanity is constantly challenged these days, but I'm equally inspired by moments like this past week when we show the awesomeness of the human spirit! p.s. That's me and my friend out clearing our local rails-to-trails bike path, getting some chainsaw therapy after helping folks closer to home clear trees off their houses and yards.

Take this in. Only 2.5% of water is fresh water. 69% of that is in the ice caps. The overwhelming amount of water humans use to survive is groundwater. We should probably take care of that stuff! I love a good visualization. This one communicates a ton of info, and you might see things others don’t. What do you see?

Co-creation. Co-design. What do these two words mean? Are they the same or different? - Shared Vision -Transparency - Trust - Respect - Accountability - Listening ....yes to all What I do know is they are more the same than they are different. And, reshift has designed a 𝐝𝐞𝐞𝐩-𝐝𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞 (link in comments) to delve into what co-creation and co-design are and equip you will approaches and tools to run co-creation projects and sessions. (link in comments) We wrote an article Unlocking the Power of Collaboration with Co-creation and Facilitation (link in comments) and we published a Co-creation Toolkit (link in comments). Come learn with the reshift team and bring your innovation and change making to a higher level of collaboration.

I'm super excited to announce our latest training course: 𝐂𝐨-𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐈𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦-𝐒𝐨𝐥𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠. 𝑺𝑬𝑬 𝑳𝑰𝑵𝑲 𝑻𝑶 𝑪𝑶𝑼𝑹𝑺𝑬 𝑰𝑵 𝑪𝑶𝑴𝑴𝑬𝑵𝑻𝑺. This is a 𝐝𝐞𝐞𝐩-𝐝𝐢𝐯𝐞, 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 to help you learn how to lead collaborative work that drives innovation and impact by 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡, 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐞𝐱𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬. The course is designed to share approaches, tools and techniques we have refined through dozens of client projects over the past 12+ years. 𝐂𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐒𝐄 𝐃𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐒: 12 - 14 & 19 - 21 November, 2024 / 1:00 - 4:00 pm EDT Early-bird and additional discounts are available for multiple people registering together; DM me if interested.

Strategic planning is a pain! So, how can you make it more fun, more enjoyable? I'm going to suggest something counter-intuitive. 𝐆𝐞𝐭 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐨𝐥𝐯𝐞𝐝! Yes, involve more people in the process of setting your plan. 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬𝐧'𝐭 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐜𝐡 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬, but find ways to go deeper into your organization to 𝐭𝐚𝐩 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐜 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐧 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐭. 𝑪𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒔𝒆 𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒂𝒄𝒉𝒆𝒔: 🏃♀️ 𝐑𝐔𝐍 𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐂𝐇 𝐒𝐏𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐒 - Form small teams to dive into key strategic questions where you have the biggest opportunities for growth or improvement. Give them 1 week and the time to gather data, and no more than 3 questions to explore. The answers will help direct decisions and the teams will feel part of the process. 👌 𝐈𝐍𝐂𝐋𝐔𝐃𝐄 𝐂𝐔𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐑𝐒 - Define key points in your strategic planning process to intentionally consult trusted customers. Ask their opinion on trends, competition, product decisions, etc. Customers will provide truth-testing to internal assumptions. ⚡ 𝐔𝐒𝐄 𝐂𝐎-𝐂𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 - Invite a diverse set of stakeholders into the process (cross-functional, suppliers, customers, community). Facilitate live conversations on key strategic topics and use the inputs to guide direction and decisions. You'll widen your perspective and gain support at the same time. All of these approaches, if done with honest listening and an open mind, will 𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐡 𝐡𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧, 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐮𝐥𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 based on a wider data set. Plotting your course as an organization is essential, but it doesn't have to be painful. Bring more people into the process. 𝐓𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐬𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐛𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐜 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐚𝐜𝐡 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐢𝐭 𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫. #StrategicPlanning #CoCreation #MakeWorkFun reshift, Steven Bosak, Ezequiel Williams, Bre Przestrzelski, Manfred Gollent,

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