Horizons

In this post I weight what I can release right now to turn this new year from defragmentation into presence and impact.

Bringing Back my Blogging Mojo

I have not blogged for months. Time to bring back my blogging mojo to share my observations, deep thoughts and reflections.

I barely micro-blog since I left one social network, the blue bird aka Twitter.

Mastodon is where I share what I read, hear, see and think out loud when time allows. Here is my Wrapstodon 2025.

LinkedIn is where I check out what my network notices and amplifies. I sometimes engage over there, too. But it is clear that the social dynamics is asymetrical here. What is left with reciprocity?

In this deep post from Lisa Oborne, The Autumn Pressure Cooker.

“Autumn invites us to:
– Set boundaries: Not every opportunity is worth the nervous system cost. Saying “no” is a skill.
– Celebrate: Recognition isn’t indulgence, it’s nourishment. When people see their work matters, the nervous system eases out of survival mode.
– Rebalance energy: Breaks, breath, movement, mindfulness, small rituals create stability amidst pressure.

Autumn can feel like, where you recognize both the fruits of your labor and the importance of rest.

Your nervous system, your leadership, and your team are all stronger when you balance drive with recovery.

The leaves remind us: letting go is just as important as holding on.

What weight can you release right now to turn this season from pressure into presence?“

“Phronesis is both practical wisdom and the ethical force that humanises the event. It is the passage from the potential to the actual, from value to life. Phronesis is the intermediary that connects what happens with human being, doing and becoming, so that the event does not merely pass, but gains significance and depth, meaning and duration.” – Kenneth Mikkelsen

Setting Boundaries

In 2025 each quarter has been hectic and intense.

I find joy on free time while being much more cautious for those specific activities:

1. Doing things with others and engaging with them.

Whether it is a gathering over a meal, a workshop or a F2F community event.

2. Making individual activities.

Reflecting on what bring me joy. Go for passions.

3. Doing things that are valuable/that really drive me joy.

4. Diversifying my professional and personal activities.

5. Protecting my time.

Marginal hours at home and outside. Block time for specific activities and hold on to them.

6. Using my commuting time meaningfully.

Such as listening to a podcast on workplace learning, higher education, future trends, food, music, business innovation.

Hearing brand new music tracks and albums.

Reading paper books and ebooks.

Those activities are done offline.

7. Unplugging

I also try to take at least one day, or half a day, off work each week to really disconnect.

It may be tempting to keep working. Teaching can be endless and can lead us to a rabbit hole. From scoping, designing, coordinating, hosting, evaluation, debriefing and improving learner experiences.

Hence having time blocks in my agenda to be off matters. To take care of myself.

Celebrating My Impact

What a fulfulling year so far. Some of my students have shared prays, recognitions, kind words on the ways and which I teach and support each of them.

Via Linkedin recommendations and sometimes via personal notes I received through other digital channels. I am grateful and honor them in this feedback page. Uplifting!

This peer feedback could be part of my work fingerprints as Taruna Goel plugs in her interview.

Rebalancing Energy

To be all over the places can be draining. So recalibrating is key to be back in full forces every week/day. Especially when it comes to teaching.

For only one learner experience, that can last half a day, all day long, for weeks or months, preparing and hosting take some much reflection, patience, calmness, relevance and energy. Whether it is done remotely and/or in person.

“In education, as in other fields, new technologies are often first adopted by individuals on the ground—the teachers running micro-experiments every day in their classrooms. Their collective wisdom about what works and enables a better learning outcome is an invaluable dataset.” – extract from a FastCompany’s article.

The bigger the cohort is the more the energies and movement may flow inside and outside the room.

The smaller the cohort is the more the attention and movement may not be dynamic inside and outside the room.

It may depend on the ways and which people know how to communicate seamlessly, collaborate and cooperate responsively, and share knowledge without quiproquo.

The host can be a booster, MC, a nudge and gentle, kind and tough guide. If the cohort is not willing to learn by themselves, by mistakes, continuous improvment and adaptation, the host may not be impactful one learner/sparring partner, one cohort at a time.

So just doing nothing can also be a way to bring back the energy as a host. To let emerge the failure, the input and the output from the cohort, that had the scaffolding put in places through digital platform and within the physical room/the hours.

Weekends and OOO often are also a way to let go work and social dynamics that happen during the work week. At least for a while/a period I decide. Disconnect to connect as Whitney Johnson said.

“We see progress in complex systems by watching shifts in behavior and engagement, not by a fixed destination or output.” – Rachel Happe

Rachel suggests in her blog post that we should stop trying to design the “perfect” system and instead focus on governing behaviors and patterns. For a learner experience designer and host like moi, this suggests that the “boundary conditions” of a workshop – the environment, the rules of engagement, and the nudges – are more important than a rigid, minute-by-minute linear curriculum.

Working on the devotion-friction matrix would also help me to focus and recalibrate. I intend to review this matrix every quarter.

“The Devotion-Friction Matrix of devoted action has four states:

Flow (high devotion, low friction) where action feels natural and repeatable;

Strain (high devotion, high friction) where caring is high but the cost of doing it is high too;

Coasting (low devotion, low friction) where you keep going mostly because it’s easy;

Avoidance (low devotion, high friction) where the task feels both unrewarding and hard to start, so it gets postponed or completely dropped.”