I recommend clicking this link and playing this song "Whatever it is" by Ben Lee while reading this post…

Firstly, THANK YOU!!

Natalieshell.com has been quite a ride since 2005 (and before). And you’ve been great company & support!
After 3 years blogging thanks to Sarah, Jochem and Thomer I guess i’ve grown out of this shell a bit. So, the last months some other friends Kat, Alice and Zern (& Michael) have helped me through a blog re-fresh/re-design process

…I can’t pretend I’ve made it easy on them. I’ve been a bit of a crazy client - and they’ve been great support even through that!

Over the next week or so, you’ll see the new design of this blog. Don’t worry, the content on my blog will still be here for you to find, though the navigation structure will change for the better and there will be some more pages/ sections dedicated to my storytelling (I’ve been busy the last years on that) and writing, as well as a more focused space for the subject of ‘change’.

I wanted to share the news with you and also let you know that in the first week their may be a few bugs/bumps as we are transitioning ‘live’ - just like real life…when you make changes they ahem, don’t always run so smooth. As I’m trying to loose my perfectionism streak this approach seems even more apt.

that’s also partly why I’ve chosen this image - I looked on flickr for spirals and saw this spiral staircase and went to grab it - and then saw a note saying there was a crack in the top left hand side corner…which makes it even more beautiful really…and true)

Looking forward to your feedback in the coming weeks! 

Image source - (c) philipp klinger 

A recovering perfectionist, I find this an important maxim: "Always make new mistakes"

 
Thanks to hugh @ gaping void & esther.

Me loving my computer at any point of the day:

 (love the replacement of ’speech bubbles / ‘thought bubbles’ with balloons )

I would like to invite you to watch "The Story of Stuff".

Have you ever wondered where all this stuff comes from…and where it goes when we throw it out?

Created by Annie Leonard (and a team…) The Story of Stuff details exactly that - how stuff travels through our system! And it presents extremely complex and large bites of information in bite-sized, simple words & delicious visual language - without the oversimplification that tends to happen when models are reduced to three words / images.  Thus where the 20mins explanation comes in… Which you can watch in chapter slots if you want to break up the time across say a week…

I know in our ‘time-poor’ world 20mins seems like a really long time, but I really can’t recommend "The Story of Stuff" enough.

Perhaps another way to look at 20mins is to think of the 20years experience & learning that Annie has managed to condense for us to understand why things are getting the way they are - and why and how stuff works they way it works… In the context of her 20years the time seems minor. And  frankly, the earth has been here longer than us and I suspect that if we don’t start becoming more educated on what we are doing to this poor planet of ours, and using our rights as citizens, consumers and employees and so forth…we may find we don’t have an earth to stand on. Put shortly - the earth has given us far more than 20mins…so perhaps we can start giving it at least the same. And I am not saying I agree with everything that  is said. But I think it gives all of us access to a lot of important terms and language to help us start thinking even a mm differently…and acting a mm differently…

I wish I could make a story about things I have learned as simply…well maybe one day I will. In the meantime, I would like to again invite you to watch The Story of Stuff. And perhaps, also let us / Annie know your thoughts…please.

And for those of you who want to do something about all this stuff, afterwards, here are some things you can do:

- Many ‘10 things you can do’ lists - all put on one webpage - how helpful! 

- Become Carbon Neutral, curtosy of David Suzuki
(I am beginning to realise I need to plant a rainforest personally…anyone know of one I should adopt?)

-50 Things you can do… 

-Save the Earth top 10

-Buy less…or things that will last longer 

A long time ago, or so it seems, I heard about a lecture. And though I never attended it, I can never forget it, either.

I was visiting NY for the first time. After magical visits to Austin and Boston I found myself in Manhattan…

While waiting in a bagel shop somewhere for my friend, Motti - who had excused himself to take an important phone call - I found myself sitting at a table next to a man and his small son. And a conversation was struck…

Pretty soon we were talking about all sorts of things and it transpired that this man was a Doctor who worked for the UN, in the Public Health section. Among other things, he shared a story from when he was in Medical School. Though I don’t remember the teller’s name, or much else, this story of his has stayed with me:

"An important visitor was giving a lecture at our university and all the medical students were invited to attend. I found myself sitting in a crowded hall as D. A Henderson* gave a lecture on the eradication of Small Pox…after the lecture was finished, question time began, with journalists firing questions at the Dr…

 Then one man asked "Dr. Henderson, now that you’ve tackled small pox, what is the next disease you will work on eradicating?"

 He paused for a moment, and considered the question. And then answered: "Mismanagement."

I was reminded of the story today at lunch, and thought I would share it more widely than my lunch table. Of course you may also find it a helpful story when speaking about ‘Healthy Leadership’ in Organisations…

Oh and the Dilbert cartoon above. It actually relates to a story of mismanagement I experienced: A leader of an organisation whose Marketing Committee I was asked to sit on (pro bono) actually told me ‘it’s a secret’. And it wasn’t just me he wasn’t sharing it with…his staff hadn’t seen the plan since the day they made it together in a strategic planning session…but that is whole other story.

* Though I am not 100% sure the man was Donald (D.A) Henderson I am pretty sure it was as ‘Dr. Henderson’ is the name I recall from the story I heard…and given the role D.A Anderson played in the eradification of small pox (see literature) suggests the story is a true one. If you were there - well do let me know!

What does real change look like? 

I drew this up to amuse myself the other day while musing on real change at the same time as writing about organisational change processes for a client…and watching/dealing with the changes thrust upon people close to me …

I actually think I first ‘created’ the doodle while working in the States a few years ago, but I never got around to sharing it.

Today I thought to share it on the inkling you would be amused too!?

I mean, when has your change at work / home ever looked like an 8 step management model (eg Kotler) ?

In hindsight, I am thinking my life is even messier than the blue squiggles  I ‘drew’ above, but you get my point…

While on representing thoughts simply and visually - this also gives me an opportunity to blog about Indexed - a great blog whose author writes her life and musings through venn diagrams on index cards…

And also to reference my grandmother, Ruth: "life doesn’t go in straight lines, darling" and something I often share with clients/friends when we think of our life story - life told in hindsight is deceptively linear / incremental. And incredibly messy and nonlinear when lived…

Perhaps better phrased by Kierkegaard: "Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards" - Soren Kierkegaard

My final word today - try and enjoy the mess! 

 The other week I posted my favourite quote at the moment "Relax - Nothing is under Control" …

Ok, so let’s say we accept that as true. Nothing is under control. But what if your situation feels more extreme than usual. If things really are spinning away differently from how we ‘planned’ or ‘assumed’.

How then do you relax? And what is the next step? And the next after that?

I don’t know about you, but my natural response is not to stop and go ‘thank you’ accept and move on to what’s happening now… 

On a related note, I was sitting on my couch having a long-distance conversation yesterday with Friend-Colleague-Client Neil. We shared some stories about what seems to happen in workplaces when it suddenly dawns on leadership that "things are going bad". The typical response seems to be: "let’s make our system rigid" "let’s take away all the measures that were brought in to improve office happiness and worker engagement…and replace them with face time"…One company went so far as to, rather than deal with two or three people who were abusing a policy of working from home to abolish it completely…"and while we are at it, let’s do more of what we have been doing before, but even more seriously…"

I wonder if anyone thinks "Maybe if we do more of what isn’t working we can ride it out?"Now Neil, and I, and you - We can laugh about it and say gently to clients -

"Is it possible that the solution isn’t to become more controlled?...What could be another way?"

Perhaps you will think "It is, somehow, to let go more…and trust more. To Stop. Together." And Neil and I being from the Appreciative Inquiry bent, may suggest the organisation takes a serious look and ask: "what IS still working, what we still enjoy working on, and grow that… What future do we want to realise from that space?…"

But then it happens that it is YOU who are the leader. Or your life isn’t ‘working’. And when you are in it - as a leader, and for each of us leading our day to day lives, are you really able to make this shift in thinking and action? …And when you are in it, does relaxing actually feel all that clear/wonderful/wise a thing to do…? (Which is why external support for clarity can be useful…)

I’ve been thinking a lot about these concepts personally, and professionally, lately

…In an ever changing world you read a lot how we are ‘meant to live in the present’…and ok, let’s say I agree ‘let’s also let go of our perceptions of control" well them how do you at the same time move forward, be open to possibilities and I hope carrying on like a healthy human who feeds and grows and nourishes a healthy future and honours the past…what is the next step? Am I missing something? 

I stop writing for a moment. I go back to the initial quote.

I breath.
And I smile. 

I realise I need a coffee.

I look around the room for a waiter and order a coffee. For now, that’s what…

I think I have been avoiding blogging (and you all) a bit…like a lot of my creative works…including storytelling… As such I would like to give you a present as thanks for your patience and readership: here are two beautiful art-pieces that have been passed on by the ever wonderful Alice Tang of think/feel that in their visuals relate to themes from my family story project "The Family Forest" - Trees, their imprints/echos/signs …and Webs - weaving repairing and more… 

Tree Drawings - by Tim Knowles

Oak on Easel #1(c) Tim Knowles 

 ‘The project is loosely - A series of drawings produced …by the tree’s branches and the wind’s effects on the tree - recorded on paper’

 
 And Nina Katchadourian’s "Mended Webs

- A part of her series on ‘uninvited collaborations with nature’ - Nina created a spider web repair kit and a range of photographs recording her experience/experiement mending spider webs that appeared in her vicinity…

Hope this finds you smiling.

From a weaving wanderer in the forest of family and memories… 

Over three years ago I made a statement in print (via email) that I wanted to go around the world and collect people’s stories. To some extent this is true of what I have done - with the odd consulting career, living in three (or more countries) and more thrown in for a bit of fun - but it isn’t until now that I realise I may actually be able to reaise it! (Easy technology/improved ways to spread the stories has also  become more accessible over the time…youtube social networks etc).

As I move to evolving this site the coming months to include a Story-Storytelling section I thought you may want to see some other people’s stories I’ve enjoyed…that are produced by traditional media (though not television — newspapers) but have a ‘real’ feel to them.

Globe Docs: Globe and Mail - multimedia section -Scroll down to the DOCS part - I discovered this when I was stuck at home sick - it is BEAUTIFUL stories, image and words, made by journalists and photographers who work at the Globe

NY Times Videos: my favourite is the wedding section - simply go here and put ‘weddings’ into the search box. Or scroll down to ‘videos’ on the weddings page…I still remember when I used to sit in NY on the weekends and laugh at the 1950’s style wedding announcements (like here -recommend reading in newsreader voice). Now they have extended this service to short video stories of how people met / came together. Ok maybe ‘real’ is a strange way to describe them. But…

PS Does someone PLEASE want to give me a job making these?!?!

PPS I am actualy starting to make some of my  (type of thing) anyway - stay tuned as I get the hang of the editing part ;)  

PPPS for some interesting things to read on Storytelling and Social Change, also related to Digital content, read here.

That is the premise of Pangea Day, an event that takes place globally this Saturday night May 10th, on- and offline.

I’m always a fan of public events that bring people together and show them something new / different…especially when they try and sync the times…I love that idea of lots of people having similar experiences/exposure across the same time in different space.

I wrote about it before last year, but thought given that it Pangea Day is this week,
you may want a reminder - and to find a public event, or host one yourself.
There are events in Cairo, London and Rwanda. As well as many other cities. 

You can also go to the Pangea Day site and watch the video/trailer. Or view it here, on youtube.