Two nights ago I was in Hartford, Connecticut to hear Emery play. Living in Vermont, I don't get much chance to hear Seattle post-hardcore punk, and the bonus was to hang out with the band along with Business and Culture/Environment Developer, Caity Fransen, before the show. After an early meet and greet for the band members and dedicated fans followed by pizza in the green room, one of the founding members, guitarist and keyboardist Matt Carter, and Caity took me out to the streets of Hartford to talk Kairos in the two hours before the Emery set.
Emery is a creative and business partnership that's acknowledging now twenty years of making new music and bringing it to audiences -- along with offering their expertise to other creative organizations. Matt experienced the Kairos Assessment through our Getting Things Done work and tells me it profoundly impacted his self understanding. He shared the Kairos Assessment with Caity and their colleagues. What's exciting for me is the way all of them have integrated Kairos thinking into their daily understanding of themselves, each other, their creative processes, and their business processes.
Deeply meaningful for me as I write this, is that Kairos emerged after Patricia Alberg Graham brought together researchers and practitioners to observe and share observations of learners learning. In those days, I was the practitioner. Friday night, I was the Kairos researcher learning from these practitioners about their experience of the thing that's been my life's work.
Here's what Matt and Caity taught me.
First and most powerful for them: pay attention to what raises your energy and what depletes your energy. Don't judge it in yourself. Don't judge it in others. It just is. Some stuff raises our energy: some depletes it. Observe it; know it.
Second, be conscious of the three ways we humans experience time; anticipation, activation, reflection.
Anticipation: richly imagine what you think will happen.
Activation: be richly aware of what's happening now.
Reflection: richly remember what happened and draw learnings from it.
Here's where I want to start talking without stopping until Groundhog's Day.
Next week, I'll ask you about your experiences.
Today, Caity and Matt have the last word. For more, find them here: hello@emerymusic.com
Warm regards,
Francis Sopper
REFERENCED IN THIS LETTER:
Emery: https://emerymusic.com/