The Wheel of Awareness
A communication model to learn in an hour and practice for a lifetime
Welcome! Lathyrus.ca is the former business website of Lynn Thorsell. My new site is at LynnThorsell.net. If you want to read some of my thoughts and musings, feel welcome to stay and browse through these Notes.
The practice of change
When we begin a change journey, we generally can’t anticipate all the events that will arise along the way — or even all the emotions and changes of perspective we’ll experience. And yet there is [...]
Not a moral judgement
How do we know whether a change is good or bad? How do we know whether to resist or persist?
Embracing the unknown
The first challenge in making a change is whatever change we want or need to make is not just an external event. The next challenge is that once that change happens, we enter the unknown.
Our immunity to change
Why is change so hard? What can we do to make it easier? And should we?
Why we don’t change
When we want something or someone to change, we often malign the status quo — but to change well, we need to recognize the many benefits of not changing.
Thinking better
Both System 1 and System 2 thinking are prone to errors. Recognizing that can be the key to becoming a better thinker.
One body, a thousand brains
Understanding how we think helps us think better. And thinking isn't just about our brains -- our bodies play a key role.
Five kinds of problems
Identifying the kind of problem we have helps us make sense of where we are and where to go. This is where the Cynefin Framework is an invaluable compass.
What’s the problem?
Feeling stuck? Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg thinks that's because we don’t really know what the problem is — and I think he could be right. Here's how to reframe it.
October 10, 2020: Countdown
On August 16, I said good-bye and began my very slow journey back to the west coast. What a change it’s been to now have a pause in Calgary. Yet even entering the bosom of familiar territory and [...]
A mirror from Malawi
Their clothes are well-worn and tattered t-shirts, pants, and dresses, some badly ripped. Their feet are bare, of course, and they have the range of expressions any group of children would have [...]
From the outside, from the inside
After a short time of arriving in Lilongwe, I noticed that I was not really seeing black people in the same way I saw white people. It was as if we co-existed in parallel, but different, worlds.
Underground
In 2010, I bought a dark blue 1994 Jeep Cherokee, packed my belongings into a small U-Haul trailer, and drove from Vancouver to Ottawa. Ten years later, recent events have me reflecting on one [...]
Painfully learning to share
The greatest and most persistent challenge I experienced in Malawi is encapsulated in the word, "karibu". Since returning to Canada, I've been thinking about that challenge as it relates to COVID-19.