Practice? Podcast

Over 200 individuals have engaged in discussions with Dave, exploring the distinctive essence of their practices. The catalyst behind these conversations was Peter B. Vaill, who requested Dave's assistance in completing his manuscript entitled "On Practice as a Way of Being." Despite Peter's deteriorating health, these determined educators launched a podcast to convert words from pages to sound waves. Sadly, Peter passed away in March of 2020, and his voice is deeply missed by Dave and others.

Recovering from COVID when he recorded this conversation, Dave knows first-hand what it means to Practice drained of energy. Martin Goldberg's new book Out of the Workplace Trap rolls out a different map (the works of Wilhelm Reich) for releasing natural human reservoirs of what Martin calls work energy. To Dave, this opens fresh ways to foster organizational development and Practice development tying in with On Practice as a Way of Being. 

Entering his seventh decade, David Mansfield looks back at his years as CEO of a major UK media corporation, his satisfying times as an advisor/coach to senior leaders, and now, ahead as a student of effective decision-making. Hear Dave's conversation with this Monday Revolutionary.  

Diagnosing is a practice we rely upon in many fields. It takes 'a keen ear". Since his early teens, Dan Oleksiw has built and repaired PCs for his family's small business Computer Heads.  Now, he chairs an IT department at a Connecticut Technical High School. Still helping out on weekends, Dan 'heard" Dave ailing PC's more profound problems and enacted a fix prompting this conversation. Dan's depth of experience told him "something was still not quite right," even after several part replacements. This very computer now works like a charm.  

Perhaps John Hibbs was walking an Island of Guernsey beach when the first ideas for his company, CoEfficient, came to him. His practice is as a Maker, a co-maker of companies that help us see a business as its workers see it. This one is several Guernsey beach rock-skips along, but Dave finds it fascinating and promising for his Organization Development community. 

Here is my conversation with my son Dave asking him to take me back to his learnings from George Herbert Meade.  As you will hear, all there is about Practice happens at the moment we ACT. Picture holding your finger above the Send key. Then, send it! This ACT commits us to know what happens now and not know what will come next. The thrill of figuring out how to ACT upon what comes next energizes the associated Practice. Like it or not, we are 'caught in the ACT' and must change.   

Dave discovers something else about Practice. Music is at the core of Rijon Ericson's way of being, yet today he works as a people-gatherer. He draws people together for moments of free expression in the Open Space; not unlike a wandering troubadour of an earlier time.  Yes, change can be wrenching and difficult, but why not try sheer fun with the singing Purple Person, Mr. Rijon? 

Dave relishes this conversation with a professor whose career, like Peter Vaill's, began among the taproots of thinking, writing, and managing Organizational Behavior. Ian Mitroff is still drawing hope and energy from those who believe in the power of the human spirit. Dave and Ian -a leading thinker on Crisis Management - agree there has never been a better time for each of us to supply that power to the world.  

Dave has a lively conversation with fellow Management Educator Richard Boyatzis.  Richard's research practice informs his highly regarded teaching, writings, and consultations. His current interest is coaching which helps people make timely changes. This dovetails with Dave and Peter Vaill's focus on changing and growing to keep a practice viable in times of constant change. 

Action IS the point of Hilary's research and of her Action Research peers. A Zoom call connects Dave with Hilary in her home in Ireland for a conversation where you'll hear her joy in convening people to apply collective thinking and caring to understand better and solve world problems.