When my daughter was younger we watched Sesame Street together and I remember a song from the show that resonated with me. The song was about people in your neighbourhood and it was a happy, feel good, community connected kind of song. Had that song been written today, the word “neighbourhood” could be changed to the word “tribe”.
I had the song running through my head after a recent get together with some of my professional colleagues and friends. It was a gathering of like-minded learning and development people and the ideas that we generated were golden. It was a delicious collaboration of hearts and minds and I felt very connected to my tribe.
As I looked around the room at that gathering, I was reminded of all the truly wonderful people I had met in my 12 years in L&D. As you go through your daily life it is easy to forget the connections you have made and the tribe you belong to. This is the stuff of life – connect, collaborate and change the world!
Why not take a moment to think about your tribe – how do you connect with them? If you connect via an online medium, why not invite members of your tribe for an old-fashioned face to face get together (where possible)? It’s a happy, feel good, community connected kind of thing to do…
The Sweet Spot 
Dec 14, 2011 @ 07:48:06
Judy, I love being part of your tribe! it was just brilliant to exchange ideas with such a great group. I agree – belonging is so important.
Dec 14, 2011 @ 10:46:08
I couldn’t agree more Judy. I walked away with a real buzz. Ironically, I was singing that neighborhood song to my daughter only this morning for no aparent reason! Spooky!!
Dec 15, 2011 @ 06:18:55
Thanks Heather – I am not surprised that you were singing that song – I feel that we are totally connected!
Dec 19, 2011 @ 13:37:13
I use to watch Sesame Street and loved it although don’t quite remember that song! But yes belonging to a “tribe” is important but keep in touch with them is much more important especially in this day and age of social media!
Dec 19, 2011 @ 23:44:56
Thanks for your comment Clem. I agree that face to face contact is even more important now that most of our conversations seems to happen online.