Hello, and I hope this edition of Leadership Notes finds you well and cheerful. Last week' sedition prompted some wonderful dialogue about visceral and vicarious living, and as I mentioned there, I've been inspired by a couple of speakers and a theatre experience in recent weeks.

The theatre experience was a 'show' at the PuSH Festival here in Vancouver, http://pushfestival.ca/  . It was called "The Human Library" and was presented at the main Vancouver Public Library. The idea was simple and profound; you go to a counter at the library and peruse a stack of biographies in looseleaf binders, and choose one, then 'checkout' the live person from the biography for 20 minutes. They then tell you their story. I 'checked out' a person who's biography title was "Funeral Director by Day, Comedian by Night" and then another called, "Born Again Christian". We sat 'knee to knee' for 20 minutes and they told me their 'story'. The Funeral Director/Comedian was wonderful, telling me about her need to balance the deep sadness she experienced every day with making people laugh. It was the Born Again Christian that surprised me the most and got me thinking about leadership.

You see, I have my own story about 'Christians' especially as I am one! My experience is that there are some 'Christians' who wrap their judgements about others, or wrap their sexism, homophobia or racism in a particular interpretation of the tradition, and then call themselves 'Born Again'. The title of the biography was therefore a trigger for me. As I sat down 'knee to knee' with this person, I was all set for a debate, if not argument! But, I realized, that's not what I'd do with a book, I'd read it! And so I consciously chose to listen to the story, before I challenged it or the person.

I'm so glad I did! The story was at times sad and painful, and at others inspiring and even fun. I found I had much more in common with the person than the title of her biography first suggested to me. And it was my focus on listening to the story that helped me get to that common ground. We didn't solve the issues of sexism, homophobia and racism, but by connecting at a deeper, person to person, as opposed to ideology to ideology level, we might find a way to journey into those darker waters together.

So how does this help us as leaders? I wonder if the metaphor of a library book might be helpful for us as leaders working with people who we don't 'like', or who are behaving in ways that we find challenging? Sitting down with a person who we find challenging might be easier if we think to ourselves I'm borrowing this book from the library to hear the story. I'm not  'buying' the  book  right now, but I am going to read it. And then, like reading a book, I have to read/hear what the author has to say, and in doing so we might find some common ground that will help move is into darker waters together.

May this week be an opportunity for each of us to read/another person's story.