It’s hard to believe I posted my blog about the Living Alive Phase 1 and somehow forgot to mention the most critical relational part.  This past month I have been working with Toby Macklin.  This is the first time we have worked together leading a Phase and it has been quite enjoyable!

There have been a few near misses due to both of us being more big picture and less detailed oriented.  However, we did find a way to ensure that all bases (well most bases) were covered. It helped that we had a great team and even a few with strengths in the area of process and structure!

We are different and I am certain that there were moments when Toby may have wished for someone a bit less chatty.  Just tonight at dinner with Wayne Dodge (another Core Faculty leader who also leads the Living Alive Phase 1 with Toby at times), I had to laugh,  as they dove into a rich dialogue about the  Latin roots of a word. No, I have yet to have that type of word play with Toby and enjoyed seeing the two of them banter.  I imagined their evening reflections on the day to be  slightly different then ours have been.  Which of cause is the real essence of relational.  Finding our differences, our similarities and accepting and working with and through both.   I like that we often had slightly different perspectives on something and yet our styles seemed to be complimentary overall.

In the end I discovered what might be our true common link – we both have a love for Harry Potter books and films!  How perfect is that!

I am enjoying laughing, learning and leading with Toby.  He even does an amazing impersonation of CrisMarie that wish I had captured on video!