Sometimes a random act of kindness sneaks up and taps you on the shoulder when you least expect one!

Here’s the story:
I attended a certification training for program leaders on Coaching for Great Work – Toronto, October of 2010. I got a lot out of attending the training and it was fantastic to meet some new folks from across the globe with whom to share the journey of mastering the materials, marketing and delivering the workshop. I was impressed with the generosity of Michael Bungay-Stanier, the developer of the program, who sent us home with not only the training materials we needed for delivery of the program but also lots of extras in the form of books supporting the underpinnings of the program. In time, I finally got around to reading most of them, including Marshall Rosenberg’s Non-Violent Communication and Winning Body Language by Mark Bowden. Gems really. But it wasn’t until a month ago that I dug down to the bottom of the resource bag and pulled out a little book called All My Friends Are Superheroes by Andrew Kaufman.

“What’s this?” I wondered. I picked up the little book…and literally didn’t put it down until I finished it!
OK, I admit it’s a short book.
But, maybe you’ve had that experience? You suddenly get so wrapped up in a good book it takes over your whole sense of time and what’s possible?
And, OK, I admit I was a writing and literature major in college, so I’m a sucker for great writing.
And…the most fantastic thing about the whole experience was that it was so unexpected.
It was the last thing I would have thought to have found in a pile of resources for a training program.
(I’ve written before about the power of the unexpected so I won’t go into it again here.)

Maybe it was there because Michael now lives in Toronto, where Andrew Kaufman hails from? Or maybe it’s just one of Michael’s favorites? And maybe it even has something to do with Great Work, although I haven’t sorted that out yet.

Most important, I saw it as a random act of kindness. Just a gift. Sharing something great with others.
So now I’m sharing this gift with you!
If you like it, pass it on.

Tags: All My Friends Are Superheroes, Andrew Kaufman, Coaching for Great Work, Mark Bowden, Marshall Rosenberg, Michael Bungay Stanier, Non-violent Communication, Random acts of kindness, Winning Body Language

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 18th, 2011 at 1:46 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.