Vast and Endless Sea

I’ve been using this quote recently.

If you want to build a ship,
don’t drum up people to gather wood,
divide the work, and give orders.
Instead, teach them to long for the vast and endless sea.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery, French Writer and Aviator

I’ve been using the quote to invite attention to the vast and endless sea that is people in connection and learning together.

I’m glad to be a person that can offer nuance, detail, and practice of participative leadership and community engagement. I’m glad for circle. I’m glad for other forms that shape not just what, but how, people are together.

I’m also glad to know just enough of the endless sea that is people remembering who they are together, and who they want to be together, with honesty of what inspires, and, what is hard.

It is the sea that I long for, and that I think most long for. Often, in our teams and organizations, we just need a bit of permission, or perhaps suspension of the norms that so lock us into the details, to once again, enjoy the way the sea changes everything.