First place = Home. Second place = Work. Third place = Social. I’ll say this. Third place is not an extension of the environment of the professional class. I don’t like academic descriptions. My apologies, Richard. You are right to bring attention to Third places as beneficial to Artisans. Academic descriptions makes me feel like a number. No one goes to a Third place sporting their professional persona. No labels allowed there. They go as a human being. Third places are natural networking places. I hang out, optimum word, at two or three here in my little community. There is the local coffee shop where I talked to this community college student. Outside of this space, we carry labels. Inside she’s Kay and I’m Ed. We chat, another optimum word, about random stuff. There is a group of guys who show up at our local hardware store at 8am on Fridays. We talk about random stuff, but all in the context of what is happening in the community. Most of these guys would never cross my First or Second place path. Then, on Friday and Saturday nights, I go to the local distillery down the street. As new person to this community, it is where I have made my friends. I talk to everyone who enters the place. It’s my Third place and I want it to be theirs. The people who show up are not professional people. They are truck drivers, house cleaners, shoe store managers, and the owner of a metal recycling business, who happens to be a member of the town council. And the distillery owner. These are the people who are putting on cookout to celebrate my birthday. When you go into a Third place, you are just you. You share your artisanship as the gift that enriches the place where we live. My friend L who has the house cleaning business, listens to my podcast while she cleans. When she told me that, no greater honor could have been given to me. If this is not effect of the Third place, then it isn’t. It is just a place.
Thanks Ed. I find the education “template” a valuable provocation. How might we take the principle to create a safe “label free” place that they can benefit whilst preparing to take action that, by definition, carries risk?
Somewhere that exists alongside butvseperate to the unsatisfactory work that currently shapes them.
1. Resist the tyranny of marginalization by labeling. As Bob Newhart said in his famous sketch, "STOP IT!"
2. Reverse the implied meaninglessness of work by personally deciding that each act of work is one of gratitude.
You will remember a little contest that I found myself in as a finalist. Dan Pink's Johnny Bunko write the seventh lesson. My lesson was "Say Thanks Every Day." After the Spectacle was over, I had a lovely conversation with Dan while I was on a road trip. Within the hour, I had in place what would become Say Thanks Every Day: The Five Actions of Gratitude. I share this because I want us to imagine doing these things in whatever Third place we are in.
The Five Actions of Gratitude
1. Say Thanks
2. Give Back
3. Make Welcome
4. Honor Others
5. Create Goodness
I traveled with this construction trying to convince business owners and managers that if they had their workers measure the number of times a month they did these five actions that it would change their life and their business. In the end, I was not very persuasive. I wonder why?
I think it is time to start talking about this again.
As always, Richard thank for being the provocative genius that you are.
First place = Home. Second place = Work. Third place = Social. I’ll say this. Third place is not an extension of the environment of the professional class. I don’t like academic descriptions. My apologies, Richard. You are right to bring attention to Third places as beneficial to Artisans. Academic descriptions makes me feel like a number. No one goes to a Third place sporting their professional persona. No labels allowed there. They go as a human being. Third places are natural networking places. I hang out, optimum word, at two or three here in my little community. There is the local coffee shop where I talked to this community college student. Outside of this space, we carry labels. Inside she’s Kay and I’m Ed. We chat, another optimum word, about random stuff. There is a group of guys who show up at our local hardware store at 8am on Fridays. We talk about random stuff, but all in the context of what is happening in the community. Most of these guys would never cross my First or Second place path. Then, on Friday and Saturday nights, I go to the local distillery down the street. As new person to this community, it is where I have made my friends. I talk to everyone who enters the place. It’s my Third place and I want it to be theirs. The people who show up are not professional people. They are truck drivers, house cleaners, shoe store managers, and the owner of a metal recycling business, who happens to be a member of the town council. And the distillery owner. These are the people who are putting on cookout to celebrate my birthday. When you go into a Third place, you are just you. You share your artisanship as the gift that enriches the place where we live. My friend L who has the house cleaning business, listens to my podcast while she cleans. When she told me that, no greater honor could have been given to me. If this is not effect of the Third place, then it isn’t. It is just a place.
Thanks Ed. I find the education “template” a valuable provocation. How might we take the principle to create a safe “label free” place that they can benefit whilst preparing to take action that, by definition, carries risk?
Somewhere that exists alongside butvseperate to the unsatisfactory work that currently shapes them.
And most of all, how do we make it accessible?
There are two things we can do.
1. Resist the tyranny of marginalization by labeling. As Bob Newhart said in his famous sketch, "STOP IT!"
2. Reverse the implied meaninglessness of work by personally deciding that each act of work is one of gratitude.
You will remember a little contest that I found myself in as a finalist. Dan Pink's Johnny Bunko write the seventh lesson. My lesson was "Say Thanks Every Day." After the Spectacle was over, I had a lovely conversation with Dan while I was on a road trip. Within the hour, I had in place what would become Say Thanks Every Day: The Five Actions of Gratitude. I share this because I want us to imagine doing these things in whatever Third place we are in.
The Five Actions of Gratitude
1. Say Thanks
2. Give Back
3. Make Welcome
4. Honor Others
5. Create Goodness
I traveled with this construction trying to convince business owners and managers that if they had their workers measure the number of times a month they did these five actions that it would change their life and their business. In the end, I was not very persuasive. I wonder why?
I think it is time to start talking about this again.
As always, Richard thank for being the provocative genius that you are.