Should I travel or not? Reflections on risk, return and priorities

June 9, 2020 Leave a comment

You haven’t been travelling for months, and now the world is (maybe) slowly opening up.  As you consider making long-delayed or long-planned trips, what’s the right choice?  Should you bunker down or get on the plane?  Forum can be a great place to talk through decisions that are multifaceted, involve conflicting emotions, and require you to coordinate with family members or business colleagues.

Invite each member to share one or two upcoming travel decisions (either personal or business) that they’ve made or need to make.  Possible questions to address:

  • Why do you feel you need to make this trip?  Why now?
  • What safety or other practical concerns do you have and how might you address them?
  • If your spouse/partner or other family members are involved, how do their approaches/philosophies differ?  How might you resolve any potential conflict.
  • How do you think about risk vs. return in making this particular travel decision? What weight do you give to different factors?
  • How do you think differently about business vs. personal travel?

Each member has 2-3 minutes (timed) to share their answers.

After all members have shared, open up to general conversation, including takeaways and possible accountability to report back to the forum. What new perspective, insight or question are you taking away from this conversation?  Do you expect to make the travel decision you shared in the next month?  Would you like the forum to check in to see what you decided at the next meeting?

Filed under Forum Exercises

Can we talk about race and racial inequality in our forum?

June 5, 2020 Leave a comment

I used to think that sex and money were the final frontiers in forum. If we are willing to share deeply about these topics, perhaps our forums have reached a level of trust and vulnerability that leads to transformational value.

In the America we now inhabit, I wonder if race and racial attitudes might be even more sensitive and taboo.  Some questions you might consider at your next forum meeting:

  • How has your upbringing influenced the ways you think about people from other racial backgrounds?
  • How would you describe the current extent and nature of your relations with people of other racial backgrounds? How do you feel about that?
  • What recent or long past personal experiences are you reminded of as you read about protests across America? Why?
  • As a business leader, how have you supported (or undermined) efforts towards racial equality and racial justice?

You may wish to read this excellent guide to Daring Discussions before you begin the conversation.

Two recent articles that forum members might read in advance:

“Who Gets to Be Afraid in America?” in The Atlantic by Ibram X. Kendi, author of How to be an Antiracist

“Don’t understand the protests? What you’re seeing is people pushed to the edge,” in the Los Angeles Times by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the N.B.A.’s all-time leading scorer

Filed under Forum Exercises, Forum Values