Insights From the Field

by Ten Directions

Insights, essays, perspectives, and lessons learned while working in the field of facilitative leadership. Authors include our staff, as well as guest contributors.

Featured Articles

blog
Rebecca Colwell

Facilitator’s Dilemma: Owning our mistakes

Today, I’d like to share some feedback on an interesting dilemma that’s come across my desk.   As you read this, see if you can find in your own experience a moment when this might have been true for you. You might also engage in thinking about your immediate response and whether you’re “listening to fix

blog
Alana Felt

Innovation, Freefall and Not-Knowing

“The bad news is you’re falling through the air, nothing to hang on to, no parachute. The good news is, there’s no ground.” ~Chögyam Trungpa A friend shared his definition of innovation with me the other day. Innovation, he said, means we are going somewhere new and when we innovate, we never know how we

All Articles

availability
Sarah Marshank

Whole-Self Development: Rethinking Corporate Culture

I was in my mid-twenties when I made the conscious choice to find the answers to some very important questions. An unexpected pregnancy had thrown me into an existential crisis and forced me to come to terms with my life choices. It became clear that I needed to begin to make decisions from my own

authentic leadership
Maria Bailey

The Truth About Women and Power

  One morning in 9th grade I showed up to school and none of my five closest girlfriends would speak to me — they wouldn’t for the rest of the year. The following year, one of them finally broke the stand off. The first thing I asked her was, “Why? Why did you drop me

adaptive leadership
Nina Jensen

How to Succeed Fully in Failure

“I didn´t like what you did – it felt wrong.” “We are disappointed about the result of the group process – this wasn´t what we expected.” These are actual quotes from my clients. This was not the dream feedback for me as a proud, skilled facilitator! The fire alarm in my brain went on with

embodiment
Gracy Obuchowicz

Self-Care for Facilitators and Other Visionary Leaders

A few years ago, after working with a business coach, I decided that self-care would be the central focus of my work. I chose a group coaching model where I bought 20 women at a time through a 10-week self-care reconditioning.  This process included web content, group phone calls, and culminated in a three-day in-person

Emergence
Dave Jacques

Let Emergence Facilitate You

  Emergence.  A word filled with openness, possibilities, and novelty.  I often witness it with teams I work with, and it is truly beautiful to see a group of people unlocking new ideas that will carry them a little further.  The resulting burst of positive energy and motivation creates momentum and amazing outcomes.  As a

Anxiety
Marcia Kodama

Big Fear, Big Opportunity

  While I’m not aware of my fears all the time, when facilitating groups, my “big fear” becomes very alive. Will I be able to serve this group well?  Will I be able to intervene when necessary?  Or, will I fall into my habitual pattern and avoid getting messy?  And so it goes, on and

Collaboration
Lisa Gibson

Listening beyond the Great Divide

  “I hate this exercise,” she announced in moment of quiet as the group sat working diligently on their own.    “I am sick of having to use my own oppression to teach white people about their privilege,” one of the only women of colour in the group angrily proclaimed, sitting back, arms crossed, challenging

Courage
Alex Streubel

Clarifying purpose. Being mindful. Cultivating resilience.

  I have been trying to find purpose and meaning in my life for a long time. Looking back, I would say at least since high school. What is it that we, and in particular I, am here for? What is it that will bring me passion and fill my heart? I searched for it

Complexity
Nina Nisar

Notes from the Field: Presence as the Ground of True Preparation

  As a psychologist and political scientist, I always felt drawn to two “acupuncture points”;  engaging systemic structures and causes that give rise to deeply challenging societal conditions, and serving individuals in their own evolution into “being for life.”  In my work right now I’m addressing both of these expressions through several new and exciting

Anxiety
Amanda Suutari

The Liberating Question We Don’t Ask Ourselves

  A few years ago, I was asked to work with the board of a housing co-op who were having issues around workload equity. Resentments were brewing because a few members had become burdened with the lion’s share of the work. Before our first meeting, I was warned about the board’s ‘problem child’: a longtime

agility
Amy Pasquale

Leveraging Our Past

  “Let’s have a working lunch so we can make sure to get through all the content.”   When a client says something like that to me, I experience contraction and agitation. Why? Because this frame places a premium on the “content” (or the “it”). I am now simply a “content” dispenser and the groups I’m

Fuel inner growth. Drive outer impact.
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