Difference reveals collective capacity

I was on a call with a colleague of mine and we were discussing a recent workshop she had given. She was teaching systems thinking theory and practice. Instead of offloading a bunch of content to people she designed a highly experiential and relational workshop that allowed the group to discover what they already know about working in systems. At one point, relating to some learning around working with teams, a person in the workshop asked the question “What do I do when my team isn’t meeting me where I am at?” Instead of answering the question, my colleague invited others to share experiences they had that could help the questioner. Now this is not a radical approach to teaching by any stretch of the imagination. But my colleague expressed the same delight that I have whenever it happens to me. It is a helpful assumption for me to believe that a group’s capacity is always bigger than I think it is and often times all that is required is a question that draws on different people’s…