"The visioning workshop offered me a way to get clear about what I want in my life."

I met Linda Vanderlee in February 2004 when she and Helen Patterson ran a ‘visioning’ workshop. At the time, I had only a fuzzy idea about what visioning was, but figured it was something I needed. I have always been a person who has resisted goal-setting. When people talk about setting goals and “following through”, my eyes glaze over. In fact, prior to this workshop, I held the position that the goal setters of this world lead blinkered lives, deceiving themselves in their belief that everything can be controlled and managed. I also felt that this approach to life did not allow for creativity, passion, spontaneity.

To my surprise, the visioning workshop offered me a way to get clear about what I want in my life in a way that allowed me to tap into more creativity, making space for me to live more fully, to accept my humanity and to connect with my community. In other words, the workshop was valuable for someone like me who resists goal-setting. Perhaps what was most enlightening to me was the way in which the workshop offered me tools for examining my own resistance to having clear goals.

One big reason for my resistance to traditional forms of goal-setting is my negative reaction to the message that we must do everything for ourselves--that somehow we can be masters of our own universe. Linda and Helen’s approach to visioning takes into account the complexity and richness of both our independence and our interdependence, and helps us reflect on ways we can maintain our voice within our community, create a community of support,  and play a role in fostering our community’s growth.

Since the visioning workshop, Linda has offered me coaching support in my work as an academic advisor and mentorship program coordinator in a program for “at-risk” students at Carleton University.  I never knew what “process consulting” meant before this experience.  In my work in a program for “non-traditional” students, we have set lofty goals for ourselves: “to offer equity and access to high education”; “to create a sense of community”; “to provide learning support”, etc. Linda has supported me in my efforts to operationalize these goals by gently challenging some of my assumptions, by encouraging me to take on the considerable task of negotiating change within my organization, and by helping me find concrete ways to articulate and share my ideas and values with colleagues and students. The result has been that I now have a more tangible plan for working towards these goals. But perhaps, more importantly, I am more energized  and optimistic about activating our program’s potential and motivated to take on a leadership role to make this happen.