The posts are adding up.  I sometimes go back and read over the ones about the BEACHs as I work to complete the BEACHs book.

Today we outlined a possibility for a PULSE Conference this summer in Vancouver.  I love the idea of gathering together PULSE folks from around the world to share.  Austin Gamey from Africa; Maria Hegarty from Ireland; Lynda Mann and Shalom Staub from the US.  Add to that our Canadian experts like Mel Blitzer and Peter Snow and Steve Critchley and Marjorie Munroe and Lois MacNaughton we have quite a line up.  PULSE is used for more than just mediation and a conference would be a great way to showcase the various applications like mediation, negotiation and coaching.  We could also showcase the QuickHit webinars that Mel and I have been working on … 70 titles that apply PULSE to leadership and the military applications that Steve is working on and the Aboriginal Work that both Marjorie and Peter Snow are doing.  The work with agencies in the US Federal Governemnt is also very interesting and Lynda Mann is now spearheading that. Post Secondary institutions are benefiting from the work of Shalom Staub.

Internationally, Africa is abuzz and Austin Gamey has committed to coming to Vancouver for the event.  We also hope that Maria can make it from Ireland wher eth ePULSE 60 hour program was approved by the Mediation Institute of Ireland.

The conference will be held August 15th to 19th in Vancouver.  Mark the dates and plan to attend.  We are looking forward to gathering all of the PULSE followers together so that you can meet each other and learn from each other.  POWER listening, listening with HEART and lots of Gentle, Honest Open Specific Talk.

The detailed program will be available on our new website soon.  Mornings will be an opportunity to learn about PULSE in the World and here in Canada from our guests.  After coffee a chance to renew our knowledge and commitment to the PULSE Frame as we go through the elements of the Tetrahedron – the  3D Complex  Frame.  The afternoon will be dedicated to practicing the Frame and the skills with coaches.  We will have practice sessions for mediation, negotiation, coaching, performance management and other leadership conversations.

If you have other ideas about what a conference on People Using Language Skills Effectively might include please contact us at www.pulseinstitute.com

Thanks, Nancy…

I had the pleasure of sitting through a fundraising dinner last night here in Calgary where Rick Mercer was the speaker.  I laughed so hard.  He is a great Canadian and  Newfoundlander.  His way of making fun of people or allowing them to make fools of themselves is interesting and I am sure some find it offensive.  You have to know enough about what he is talking about to call bull on him.  I was disappointed that he didn’t talk about the election. He probably knew better than to do that in Calgary where politics is not really up for discussion.  It is a for gone Conservative conclusion.  I do miss REAL debate amongst people on real issues.  I am hoping that the Vote Compass thing on CBC is going to get people to really talk about the issues, to really consider what their stand is and how it compares with the parties.  I am really disappointed by the name calling and the insinuations that parties make about each other.  Gilles is the only one who just says it like it is. “Stephen Harper is a liar” according to him. Canadians are so tired of the accusations and the direct hits they are making on each other.  There used to be more subtilty and more finesse. Some of the clips that Mercer showed last night were more engaging.  They showed politicians being real and makign fun of themselves.  That was fun.  They were using language in a way that we seem to have given up during the election time. I would love to get back to the days of true debate and a consideration of the people of Canada as real participants in this debate.   Just give us policies that we can examine.  Let us make up our mind.  If only we could get the PRESS to be neutral in this.  If only…..

I love elections.  They are a joy to me.  They represent a time when democracy is truly alive.  Fortunes change on a turn of a phrase and no one really knows how or when someone will say or do something that will shift popular vote.  It is so much fun to watch as the interpretations and the strategies emerge.

The press are incorrigible.  In the service of the people of Canada they PRESS for answers to questions that they image people to be wondering about.  They are indeed the fifth estate at a time of election and they truly hold a certain balance of power.  Media chooses what message to emphasize, which clip to show first and what part of the speech becomes the clip.  They are the ones who mold the images of the leaders to news worthy, controversial or confrontational pieces that will create NEWS.

I like Elizabeth May’s idea of creating a space for agreement.  I am not sure if the PRESS or the Parties will participate but what if they did?  What if we could generate some agreement and understanding on issues of import to Canadians without jeopardizing the Party stand or platform.  What if candidates could show Canadians that there are points of agreement on criteria for a better future?  What a revolution that would be.

Yahoo! I’m back in Calgary. It is hard to believe how difficult it can be to travel when you are wounded. I’m happy to have that behind me.

The good parts of the trip are coming into focus. People are great. They help you when you need it. And my biggest lesson was asking for what I needed. I am so used to getting what I need myself or assuming that others would understand my needs and that asking would be rude that I did without some comforts that might have been readily available but I didn’t ask because I already was feeling the weight of my dependence on my friends. Even here at home I am loath to make too much of a fuss.

This is the ultimate test of relationship. Suddenly the rules and the roles change. In my pained state I couldn’t decide what to do and my friend admitted later that she was hesitating and second guessing herself because she wasn’t clear what I wanted. She knew how to behave when it was her husband but what to do with me was more complicated. We know now that everything worked out well and I am home safe and sound. The lessons are many and varied for everyone involved.

Hopefully I will be in a position this week to type some of the beaches book in for your scrutiny. I am thinking now about including something around the responses to sudden shifts in roles in relationship. What do you think?

I have been in the Washington area for a week now. I had a great opportunity to work with an agency here and Monday and Tuesday went well. Tuesday evening I slipped on stairs in a parkade. I was transported via ambulance to hospital and completely checked out before being discharged with bruises and painkillers. Five days later I am still very very sore. But on my way to recovery. An injury really changes your perspective on things. I had to depend on others completely for the last five days. My wonderful friends have been amazingly available to me and have made it possible for me to get what I need to begin the recovery. I am so grateful for their friendship and for the degree to which they have adjusted their lives to accommodate.

This next week I will be working with trainers so that they can become pulse trainers. It will be a little more casual and I should be able to work through the week sitting down.

Anyway I couldn’t really write this week but I could spend some time thinking and I am very pleased with the progress I made on the beaches book in Hawaii. I like the way it comes together as a way to describe the perspectives people have on the world using color coded beaches. I will begin to share pieces here once I am back in Alberta.

Thanks to everyone here who helped and to those who sent wishes. I’ll be back soon.

Let me apologize for the brief post last time.  I was working on the ipad and the letters did not appear as I typed so I really couldn’t tell what I was writing.  I am such a bad ytpist  that I didn’t want to post something I hadn’t read over so you just got one sentence.  Sorry.

Day 5 in Kauai.  There was rain storm earlier but it looks like there is a possibility that it will clear so that we can have another BEACH day today on the south shore. And then to Roy’s for dinner.  I love Roy’s.  The food is always good.

I have been writing and have made progress on Perfection BEACH.  It is not complete yet because of course it has to be PERFECT.  And there are a few distractions here, like the pool and the scenary and the people and the food and teh wine.  It is beautiful.  We met a photographer who was selling his amazing shots of the Island.  I wish he had been around to catch the rainbow I saw on Monday.  It started and ended in the water and had a very low arch.  It was gorgeous.

sunday morning on the island of Kauai.

The calm before the storm …. that place where things are going well and yet you know that something is about to break loose and reek havoc.  Sometimes I feel like I am just waiting for the other shoe to drop, for the race to begin.  “And they’re off …”   2010 has been a bit of a horse race.  The winner is yet to be determined.  What if PULSE Institute was put out to pasture?  What then?   Would Dr. Nancy Love still have her loyal following of 10 or 12 people who read the blog more or less reularly???  Would the world as we know it cease to exist?

We are closing the downtown office of PULSE on January 31st, 2011.  WE have had office space in Calgary since August 2002.  WE still have offices in St. Albert and Vancouver and we are all working out of home offices, but this will be a bit of a milestone.  We have been talking about making some other changes too.  Right sizing I guess you would call it … moving to a place where our expenses are manageable.

Efficiency and Effectiveness and a letting go of what could have been.  It is a little sad really.  I had such hopes for hte PULSE Institute.  this year we are on receive.  We have planted the seeds and are waiting for them to germinate and grow.  Menawhile we write and respond to clients who know and love us and to new clients who learn about us from others.  We give up the push.  We have never been good at the hard sell.  We don’t know how to do it.  Our best sales tool is to have people attend our sessions and learn what it feels like to learn like that.

How do you spread the word?  Do YOU knkow anyone who needs to know about PULSE???