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Date: September 3, 2020
Theme: A closer look at cycles
Prompt: Cycles are everywhere, but we keep trying to change or eliminate them. What do we lose in the process?
Thought-starters:
- “To Manage Wildfire, California Looks to What Tribes Have Known All Along” by Lauren Sommer at NPR, August 24, 2020
- “Be Careful What you Wish For: The Legacy of Smokey Bear” by Donovan and Brown for the Ecological Society of America, 2007
- “What if We Didn’t Need Sleep?” by Rachael Rettner at Live Science, November 3, 2014
- “The Fibonacci Sequence is Everywhere – Even the Troubled Stock Market” by Elizabeth Landau in Smithsonian Magazine, March 25, 2020
- “How Focus Became More Valuable than Intelligence” by Alex Petrache at alexand.ro, August 23, 2018
- “Is Our World Changing Faster than Ever Before? It’s Changing, but Not as Fast as People Think!” by Peter Fisk at thegeniusworks.com, April 4, 2019
- “A Chance to Catch a Breath” by Danielle Pender in itsnicethat.com, March 25, 2020
Pre-work: Read what you can and come prepared to discuss the topic.
Facilitation questions
- What are other examples of cycles that occur in nature and society?
- What are example where humans are trying to alter or eliminate cycles?
- What are some of the reasons that we try to control cycles? What does that indicate about us as a society?
- What are some of the downsides of these actions?
- Consider the analogy of “winter” as a time to rest, plan, and prepare:
- What might the idea of winter imply for our relationships?
- What might be the benefit of winter in business and within organizations?
- What are other useful applications of the concept?