Listening to other people
Listening to other people talk about what they are passionate about 10/10.
Seriously. Great Activity.
And thanks to the other people for sharing.
I literally study Innovation In Society, so you can talk to me about whatever and I’ll learn something, pick up something.
I spoke to my childhood friend who I haven’t spoken to in ages. And I loved it.
We spoke about psychology, and she was opinionated and thoughtful and had her own beliefs and was working hard and smart. The best thing was that she talked about psychologists as “we”. I asked her about Better help Online Therapy, and she said “it’s good for accessibility, but you miss the in person connection”. Then she started talking along the lines of “oh but we have a lot of work to do. Therapy has been individual and somewhat group forever, but for the demand we have, we must diversify and honestly that’s a whole n’other thing”.
Wow. Not only is she learning the content, but the whole community. Hearing her talk the subject started to feel alive to me. Leaping off the pages. Then she says “psychoanalysts [a particular branch of psychologists] is a very insular community and they mostly talk to themselves” and I say “yeah, they are in a echo chamber” she says “yeah exactly”.
The thing about my degree is that it’s very new and very interdisciplinary. My university is one of the only universities in America that offers it - it itself was born out of a think tank at Arizona State University. So, what does it look like to synthesize this field? What does it look like for the subject to be a field?
There is one fellow called Victor Sarat. He studied Innovation in Society too and wants to educate people on the information eg. foresight tools [e.g scenarios as I detailed] I saw his venture, and saw holes in his work and an opportunity. I started by thinking how can I “network” with him, can I send him my article? But now I see a different opportunity: How can I make his work better? how can I contribute or “coach” him (very specific meaning below)? who can I fit with him? can I point him to someone interesting? Even me sending him my article about Austin (innovator and scenarios expert) is now a different intention of look here’s someone else doing this work, what can you learn from him? How can y’all have ‘synergy’? it’s building a team, a global network, a very powerful force actually.
And a shortcut to this is listening to people talk about what they are passionate about. Background information can be learned, but passion, intrigue, that’s the vein of gold. That’s what’s new dynamic, extra. It’s the site where the intellect combines with personal experience, with hope, with desire, with existing systems and practices, with questions, with pushing with exploration. And it’s a shortcut. Learn more around passion.
On this note of listening to people talk about what their passionate about – read their damn blogs! It’s a great trend. You don’t need to find famous/powerful/correct people. Just read all about what people are passionate about and you have that same vein of gold. Plus, people with smaller readership might actually be easier to talk to and form a relationship with. Read all the things!
Anyhow. The other thing is it gives me is use for a talent in myself I use apprehensively. Sometimes I meet two separate people in two different contexts (usually online) and I introduce them to each other because they will benefit. But sometimes it stings me, and I have to say -no I surrender this over, this is a good thing to do. Do it. And then I am irked if one of them now follows the other on twitter and not me. Sometimes. Okay. Not that often! Don’t judge me. Or judge me accurately and tell me what my problem is. Either or.
Anyway, this is like is now I want to introduce people in my field on crack to each other. Build it up. Build discipline, build the field. I really love interviewing people and personal life lessons, and how to deal with adversity etc are cool, but my focus has really become on what people are working on. And I could write or direct you to a very good book on getting started (and keeping going) on your authentic path and blah blah. But I’m focused on the work. I want to know what that paradigm shift was, what was that reasoning? How did you overcome x y z obstacles in the field? And really capture that.
One important part of this is to put the other persons “passionate thoughts” in the proper context so anyone can access the insight and passion. This is one way traditional podcasts can be improved. I worked my socks off to really capture the paradigm shift of scenarios planning in my article with Austin.
Knowing people’s work and showing it and connecting it to others, with some overreaching purpose, that’s creating a “field” but more importantly an active, expansive “we”. And my subject is innovation in society, so I’m listening and keen to listen. What’s the “we” in your field? If you are a college student can you even identify with a “we”? Or does the field feel distant and dry. Is there some subset of this legion of academics that resonate with you?
Also, after talking to my childhood friend, she indirectly convinced me that young people with opinions backed by good thought is amazing. I would totally read a blog with her opinions on the stuff she learnt that week in college, though she herself doesn’t see why those thoughts would be valuable.
Writing is a medium to carry your purpose. Not in a vague overarching sense but in a very specific way it is how you can create change. I started the “distribution” of my scenarios article. Though I had identified relevant people, the follow through wasn’t there because the purpose wasn’t strong enough. Yes, I can send it to a school but if I’m not going to follow up and have a meeting or chase down the lead and actually help them implement it, what’s the point? Similarly I started debating the use of scenarios with someone who also uses the tool, but a little differently and though technically I was participating in “discourse” on my subject matter it was largely pointless and didn’t go anywhere.
Try connecting your writing to what you actually want to make happen. Remember the difference between your audience and your readers. Your reader is anyone who reads your writing. Your audience are the people who have the power to make a change on the thing you are writing about. When you write, keep asking yourself: 1) What is my purpose 2) Who is my audience. Then follow through.
*“coaching” will explain more later. But a cursory explanation. Coaching – seeing how you can support others to reach their potential. Eg. You are football coach to Messi. You are going to tell him what he needs to do, things you see that he might not, challenge his assumptions. You are not going to tell him he should quit and play basket-ball instead.