The Optimistic Anthropologist Vol. 8

Announcing Our New Job Opportunity Round-Up, Lessons from Sabbatical One Year Later, and the Royal Wedding

May 24, 2018

 May 2018, Volume 8View this email in your browser

Dear <>,

The types of complex problems that I’m drawn to working on, are the types of problems that will take years, if not decades to solve. 

The timeline of this work has never bothered me, because I believe in the possibility of the future (there’s that optimism again). Yet, having a purpose with a long timeline has always made me appreciate things in my life where I can see change quickly.  It’s why I take an inordinate amount of pleasure polishing silver, or why my favorite hikes are the ones where in an hour or two, hard work is rewarded with amazing views –

,

.

The thing I’ve been learning over the years is that in working to solve seemingly intractable problems, we have to honor and even celebrate the progress we do make.  We need to find the joy in the work.

I will admit that I have not always been good about bringing joy into process or celebrating progress. However, today, in my work and in my life, it’s a practice that I’m trying to make more intentional. And what’s beautiful, is that I’m finding the more that I do it, the more it’s mirrored back to me! In the last week, I’ve had two clients reach out:

  • One, an individual who has been a sabbatical design services client, texted to let me know that she had incorporated one of the activities I recommended into her itinerary, and it had contributed to some big personal breakthroughs. 

  • Another, came from UCSF's Pediatric Leaders Advancing Health Equity program who I’ve been working with to develop an adaptive strategy focused on learning, improving, and disseminating their approach to training a new generation of doctors to advance health equity. The program director emailed me two amazing photos of the pediatric residents digging into their program's theory of change in order to provide feedback and help improve it! (Pic 1, Pic 2.)

I don’t always get to see the impact of my work, but I am so appreciative when I do – whether it is through  messages like these, or when you share your thoughts about these emails or something on the

.

So, I wanted to share my appreciation with you, remind you to celebrate and honor the progress you have made in your work, and encourage you to share your progress with someone who has contributed to it (but may not know of their impact).

Be well and do good,Alison

P.S. I’ll be unplugging to recharge and reconnect (at my beloved

in Scotland) from May 25-June 3. So, please understand if I am slow in replying.

Announcing the launch of a monthly round-up of job and consulting opportunities that folks connected to Optimistic Anthropology are looking to fill. It's free to submit, so find out how, check out our first listing, and help spread the world so we can, as

says,

Upcoming Events

Webinar on 6/11: The Power & Practice of Collaboration

Optimistic Anthropology's Alison Gold will be joining Diana Seung of Backcountry.com as the featured speakers on Camber Outdoors' June Webinar: The Power and Practice of Collaboration. Alison and Diana will explore frameworks and real-life examples of the leadership practice of collaboration and talk about how Diana has applied this work in promoting gender equity and business success in her company, and in the outdoor industry! June 11, 2018 at 3-4 pm ET/12-1 pm PT.  Register here!

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