1. How do you want to be remembered?
Fondly… as a compassionate person who cared from himself, those near him and helped others to engage life well… also as the ice-tree, kiteboarding guy
2. Who’s going to play you in the movie of your life?
Kumail Nanjiani from “the big sick” would be a good fit…. He is tall, slightly awkward and funny…
3. How did you come up with your idea, and how did you develop it into something shareable?
I took a course years ago on the topic of polarity management which was inspirational. I then adapted some of my learnings from my work as a workplace mediator and linked this to my love of the ocean and water sports. I am particularly interested in making insights into personal, interpersonal and team dynamics memorable by connecting them to a concept from another field, a game, a physical movement or a graphic, that effectively illustrates the dynamic.
4. What famous historical person would you most like to meet at a dinner party?
First 2 to jump to mind are:
Manitoban, Elijah Harper – his courage to stand up for justice and go against the flow.
American, Madeleine L’Engle – author of “wrinkle in time” and much more. Her creativity and deep scientific, philosophical, theological and social imagination.
5. The last time you wanted to give up on something, what made you keep going?
Does this questions assumes that giving up is bad? Sometimes giving up stuff is great… I believe there is a time to prune your tree, to cut back on the business, to tighten your focus so that what matters can have space to grow.
But for the other times, when you need to keep going, I have found it helpful to remember the past benefits of staying engaged and pushing through… and also remembering that my first world problems are nothing compared to what my grandparents faced… so I sometimes seek to find their strength to hunker down and get it done.
6. What is your greatest fear?
While I tend to be an optimist, my greatest fear is societal collapse. The potential for us to collectively fail profoundly in our attempt to navigate the current massive shifts in culture, economics, ecology, technology, global inequality/power and climate. Fortunately this fear has been significantly diminished by the recent March for our lives.
7. What TED Talk do you think everyone should see?
Brene Brown – I continue to be amazed at how many people outside the TED family have not heard of her… despite her books and the power of Oprah.