PowerPivot

"You can do a lot things with ash, but what you can't do is get more heat out of ash. Because all of the heat, all of the calories stored, have been released. Often we get to dive into a project and work on it really hard. But then we need comp time. We need the break. If we don't take the break every day, we need to take the break in chunks. And our system is not set up to allow us to do that."

Burnout is not natural. It is a natural reaction to unnatural demands. And the demands are getting worse. How to create space to recover from burnout; and how do we create a world that prevents it?

note: the Intensives Institute Salon mentioned in this episode was originally scheduled for September 13, 2023 but was moved to September 20th, 2023.

Transcript and notes:

https://dev.intensivesinstitute.com/captivate-podcast/burnout

Recorded 11 September 2023.

"There was one seed that just got it into its head that it was going to take over the world. And it did."

Growing things that will thrive in the conditions that exist; and also, creating the conditions that allows us to thrive and grow. Sometimes in unexpected places.

Transcript and notes:

https://dev.intensivesinstitute.com/captivate-podcast/tomatoes-I-didnt-plant

Recorded 11 September 2023.

"If you have complicated grain, if you're complicated, you need extremely sharp tools and extremely skilled craftspeople.... You need to understand the sharpening as a part of the process, not an interruption of the process."

CN: contains some discussion of the events of September 11, 2001 in the first 65 seconds of the episode.

On the humble cabinet scraper, American identity, reaching for excellence, being deeply intimate with the sharpness of the tools we use, and directing our work towards compassion and away from fear.

Transcript and notes:

https://dev.intensivesinstitute.com/captivate-podcast/intimate-with-sharpness

For more on Garrett Hack, furniture maker:

http://www.garretthack.com/

Recorded 11 September 2023.

"Here's what I want to give you. I want to give you the low slant of light as fall creeps in. I want to give you a double handful of freshly picked raspberries too soft to do anything but eat immediately. I want to give you the persistent, ridiculous abundance of dandelions. I want to give you fresh strawberries in August, and other small miracles...."

A poem for the sunset of summer and the dawn of autumn.

Transcript and notes:

https://dev.intensivesinstitute.com/captivate-podcast/gifts

Recorded 24 August 2023.

"When it comes time for us to harvest, when the air and the sun and the water and the sky all shift in the direction of fall- it is also time to turn toward rest."

Harvest can bring a sense of certainty- "here is what I have, this is what I don't. Now I can prepare for what will come. Here's what I can share with my community, and here is what I must ask my community to share with me." And hopefully, along with that certainty, can come a sense of peace and rest. And perhaps joy.

Transcript and notes:

https://dev.intensivesinstitute.com/captivate-podcast/the-harvest

Recorded 24 August 2023.

"We're going to build connections, we're going to build community. We're going to build common care into the fabric of our lives. And I know this sounds like more work. But this is the nourishment we need."

Sometimes we need stiffening, resistance. Sometimes we need to move with the energy of whatever it is that's challenging us. Always, we need community to connect with and share our ideas with.

Transcript and link:

https://dev.intensivesinstitute.com/captivate-podcast/nourishing-ourselves

Recorded 24 August 2023.

"My most effective habit building behavior is to build it around pleasure. I have to tap into that future pleasure, that sensation of possibility of pleasure, in order to build the habit."

On building habits around pleasure, both for ourselves and in the spaces where we have power, so that our brilliance can flourish.

Transcript and notes:

https://dev.intensivesinstitute.com/captivate-podcast/the-habit-of-pleasure

Recorded 11 August 2023.

"Reminders that I have choices have saved my life, literally and figuratively, so many times. You have choices. Remember, always, that you have choices."

Our environments are full of urgency, real and manufactured. The manufactured urgency of a flash sale or a sales funnel. The real urgency of external circumstances. The inner urgency of the muse or from the perceptions of pressure. These things are all real, and they can make us forget that we have choices. How do we make reminders in our lives and in our organizations so that we remember we can take time, and evaluate our choices, before plunging into a decision that might not be the best? Jumping off a cliff should feel like flying, not like taking your life in your hands.

Transcript and notes:

https://dev.intensivesinstitute.com/captivate-podcast/orchid

Recorded 12 July 2023.

"I learned when I was a child that it was better to be lichen. It was better to be hardy and durable and scrappy, and a little rough. It was better to look inedible, lest you get eaten. But what if I'm an orchid?"

You're tough. You're resilient. But what if... what if you are also an orchid, who needs just the right shade, the right place to perch, the just right amount of water? It's ok. And you might need to hire someone to do the (metaphorical) misting for you. And also- in your employees or teams you might have orchids, lichens, pine trees, cedar trees, thick grasses. How do you meet the needs of everyone, and get your own needs met? The good news is- it's possible.

Transcript and notes:

https://dev.intensivesinstitute.com/captivate-podcast/orchid

Recorded 12 July 2023.

"There's something about trust, about being able to trust that something or someone will just be there, that we have lost in this whirlwind of creation and destruction and absorption of companies. It's like we're living through a sort of corporate Big Bang. With so much matter flying around with so much energy, that it's hard to know what we can know. And what we can't."

Change is part of existence, of course. But how do we build and maintain organizations that are persistent- that we and our customers and employees can trust to be there for us in years to come?

Transcript and Notes:

https://dev.intensivesinstitute.com/captivate-podcast/trust-and-persistence

Recorded 12 July 2023.