I spent three days last week chairing and participating in the Tangible Ireland Summer School. It was interesting, challenging, heartening, stimulating and fun! It also reminded me, in a very tangible way (forgive the word play) of the inestimable value of spending time around positive people. Bear in mind that when I say “positive”, I do not mean rose spectacled Pollyanna types who are relentlessly cheerful no matter what the circumstances. For me, positive people are those who consistently look for, and focus on, solutions to whatever problems or challenges they encounter.

So it was that over the course of three days I had glimpses into the numerous ways people are working to help others achieve more of their potential. Be that through leadership with Anthony McCann, Empowerment with Eve Earley or culture change with Eoin Barry. I was heartened by Catherina Casey’s story of success and new challenges in connecting the global Irish through our shared cultural heritage and by Brian O’Boyce’s perspective on some of the excellence within our health services. I was intrigued by Gerry O’Sullivan’s story of a Limerick man in the Shanghai police…perhaps enough to buy the book! I was grounded by Stephen McNulty’s focus on the numbers and Robert Baker’s analysis of the opportunities out there. I was inspired by Chris Gordon’s ideas, passion and energy and by John Webb O’Rourke’s relentless drive and positive focus in the face of obstacles. I was called to action by Donagh McKeown and his timely initiative to encourage all of us to talk about mental well being. And to finish it all off Alan Gallagher showed us how we can all play our part with passion, positivity and connections to the global Irish network.

So I am celebrating my good fortune to have (or create) opportunities to spend time around other positive people and I am reminded of the value of this to my own mental wellbeing. Of course I can’t claim that this is a new insight, indeed I know it so well that it features on my essential tool kit! Nonetheless it is an insight worth refreshing on a regular basis and, after last weeks interactions I am certainly facing into September thoroughly refreshed!

originally posted 28 Aug 2013 14:04 by Carol Conway

A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has. Margaret Mead

People often ask me what BizCamp is. An unconference. What’s that? Quite simply: it’s a labour of love.

Congratulations to the BorderBizCamp team; the day was brilliant, every detail was attended to and operations ran like a well oiled machine. The speakers were outstanding, the range and quality was excellent.

It was as it should be everywhere. A small group of motivated and determined business people took what works best about their relationships with each other,  the local enterprise agency and the M:TEK  location  and modeled it for the world. You genuinely brought the best out in everyone.

Thank you also to the Monaghan Enterprise Agency staff for volunteering on the day; business is business and I have often heard it said that agencies “don’t get it”.

Not this MEA team; look at enterprise defined and it could be seen in the energy and enthusiasm of every volunteer.

[ √]  A project undertaken, especially one that is important or difficult or that requires boldness or energy;

[ √]  The participation in such projects;

[ √]  A company organised for commercial purposes

[ √]  Boldness or readiness in undertaking; adventurous spirit; ingenuity.

Among the synonyms suggested:

[ √]  plan, undertaking, venture

[ √]  drive, aggressiveness, push, ambition

They definitely ticked those boxes.

Thank you to the sponsors who fed us and to the young volunteers. In the end it’s about the children. They watched more than 100 people come together to create a prosperity to allow for enough jobs on this island. They’re entitled not to have to leave home!

That’s leadership.

In organising BizCamps, support and networking groups and now Carlingford Forum, the mission has been to create a safe space and to start a conversation that gets us thinking about ourselves and our communities in a new light.

Think of this place as a fertile field. Our children are the seeds. Their yield will sustain our communities for another generation. Will they grow in seasons of dearth or abundance? Will we move on, leaving overplanted fields stripped of nutrients? Or we will dig in, hoe, clear the rocks, enrich and prepare a better field to ensure the future.

We can clear the plots defined by our acres and that is good. How much better would it be if we collectively prepared our own and helped our neighbours? Village wide, county wide, country wide and island-wide.

My grandmother was a simple woman. She shared her wisdom with “old sayings” that come to me often. Her response s were predictable.

• to my pained experience of mastering the sewing machine or kitchen gadget: “it’s a poor workman who blames his tools”;
• on my frequent whinges about my lot in life: “offer it up”;
• on any matter of importance: “two heads are better than one, even if one is a cabbage”.

The last was confounding. Was my opinion as valuable as veg?

Creative problem solving can’t happen in a vacuum. That was and is the most important lesson she offered.  It is what I seek to offer via this blog.  “Who does she think she is?” is the message I often hear when I raise issues. And the answer is: “No one and everyone”.

Once uttered, thoughts, threats, fears – all lose their power.  No more nighttime monsters under the bed. When we give voice to an issue, we throw open the windows and let in the light. The situation may remain scary – but we are no longer alone in the dark to imagine the demon, or to slay the dragon with limited weapons at hand. We’ve called in reinforcements. Reinforcements with a fresh perspective. They may be unarmed ones or ones who clear the debris obscuring the escape, the ones who resupply, or the ones who rework the strategy.

Perhaps, even a peacemaker who will whisper our demons to sleep.

So lest I be misunderstood, I am merely an observer and a facilitator. At best I seek to point out that we are undermining our collective potential. At worst, think of me as a mild annoyance. Often, it is my ignorance that is displayed – and your feedback serves to educate me.

The agricultural metaphor is not born of poetry but experience.

A client – twenty years ago, was delighted that we’d produced a resume she’d struggled over for months. She smiled when I abbreviated my grandmother’s thought – “two heads are better than one”.

“Even if one is a cabbage.” She startled me, I’d never heard that part elsewhere.

“Did it make you feel as dumb as a vegetable?” I asked. “No” she said – pooh-poohing that sentiment.

Her grandmother always generously finished the thought with, “because if all else fails, you can eat the cabbage”.

Food for thought. Wise women.