On leaving NYC..

Each time I come to NYC I’m taken aback by the generosity of complete strangers. New York is a city that’s dedicated to capitalism and the contemporary but it’s also a city with a huge heart that remembers its friends. This time out I met up with some familiar faces – like Terry Semon at the American Management Association whose blog Here we are now what? I’ve been reading for some time. He, in turn introduced me to his colleague Bettina Neidhardt who has started a blog called Fearless Leadership. Both of these practitioners are at the coal face of integrating theory and practice and making it work outside the theoretical confines of academia. And then I caught up with Dr Jay Parkinson and his colleague Sean Khozin both of whom are going to turn the way health care is delivered in this country on its head by simply challenging the taken for granted ‘rules’ about the way things should be done. Then there’s Mark Hollander, whom I met a few years ago through blogging, who coaches creative thinkers, accommodates complete strangers, and is the best lunch partner a traveller could ask for in this town. These and many others (most of whom should be blogging because of the wonderful insights and stories they carry around about the work) gave very generously of their time and expertise to me on this trip. I’m grateful to them all (you know who you are :).
The final day of any trip is always a transitional one for me – reflecting, remembering and re-entering. Right now I’m reflecting on the depth of emotion I have felt on this trip. I’m familiar with this city, I know it well. I have developed relationships here – but this time out I have felt those relationships growing deeper – I can say with hand on heart that I have very good friends here, some old and some very new – I have found like minded colleagues here and the New York in my mind is both a construct and a reality at the same time. My parting thoughts are about the sense of privilege I feel to have found a place and people with whom I feel so at home, which makes going home a bitter sweet experience.
Until the next time.