In workshops with diverse and polarized community groups, we often use an “environmental scan” to map what is going on in the room. Using four quadrants we ask participants to write and post their individual responses to four questions: What are we proud of, or what are the successes in our community? What are our complaints or frustrations? What are […]

A highlight of a recent visit to Minneapolis-St Paul was a tour of the Rondo neighborhood by Steve and Catherine Dickinson who came to live there in 1979 and used their home as an Initiatives of Change center. For decades in the 20th century Rondo was the thriving heart of the black community. Many who arrived from the southern states […]

I sat down to write this column the day after Justin Trudeau won a second term as Canada’s prime minister. He lost the popular vote and his Liberal Party lost its majority in the House of Commons. To the surprise of many observers, the Bloc Québécois, a party that promotes Québec independence and which had appeared very weak early in […]

Susan and I are now Texas residents! After four days of driving, our little Honda brought us safely to Austin, capital of the Lone Star State. As Susan remarked, we feel as if we have traveled through time and space and woken up in another land. (We arrived to experience Austin’s second-hottest August on record with 27 days at or […]