This is one of my favorite teachings. Playfully named for the bare bones needed to embark on big adventures, the simple things you can carry in your pocket. I often teach this at the end of a workshop. It is a marker for simplicity that can be applied at all levels of scale, whether working with self, and individual, a team, or a large scale multi-stakeholder engagement initiative. Though this teaching has been added too in many good ways, it began for me in a conversation with my friend Toke Moeller. We had just finished hosting an event together. I was looking for the simple, the most simple practice that I could apply in many situations. So I asked Toke, “If you had just one tool that you could choose, what would that be?” Presence was his answer. We continued to talk. I asked about a second tool. The result of that conversation is what became for me these hobbit tools. Start with presence. Have a good question. Choose a way to listen together. Harvest. There is much to say and practice in each of these. They are practices for a life time. I love being able to share some stories from each that help ground people and myself in some simple todos.
