Dispatches

“If you want to work on the big stuff, sweat the small stuff”

“Leading without owning”

“Go slow to go fast”

“Going forward by working backwards’

‘‘If you want to engage differently externally, you have to think and act differently internally”

“Process is product; form is substance”

“A good way to a good place”

“Two ears and one mouth send one message”

“The world is a village; the village is a world”

“Values are the lens through which we see the world, and the world sees us”

“Values are who we are; power is what we can do to each other”

“People act in accordance with how they perceive their interests; changing perceptions is the energy of negotiations”

“Safespace”

“What you see depends on where you stand”

“Think big and small, not big or small”

“Being ‘open’ is the essence of dialogue”

“Dialogue is about discovering and discussing the reasons behind what we do, and won’t do; we all have ‘our reasons’”

“Seeing the road ahead takes both high beams and low beams”

“The river that divides the land gives the land its strength”

“Government – too small a word for too big a thing”

“Governments think slowly, and act clumsily”

“Governments think programmatically, not transactionally”

“Organizations are just a bunch of people; institutions are just old organizations”

“Sustainability is an ‘order of magnitude word’ – like capitalism and socialism, freedom and democracy – that can embrace many things in different ways in different places at different times”

“Being good is good, but not good enough: what creates value is doing and being seen to do good by others who see the world differently than you do”

Is the “ostensible problem” the ” real problem”? Problem solvers know that is the most important problem.

July 15, 2022

My Viking Lady of the Lake new ebook

My Viking Lady of the Lake is a Collection of short stories inspired by the pandemic. It takes its name from the signature story. As the momentum […]
June 12, 2021

The Exploratory Dialogues: Breaking First Trail for the Pathways and Principles of Reconciliation

I first shared this story in my 2014 Memoir Vikings on a Prairie Ocean , an excerpt of which you will find below. The recent discovery of […]
May 27, 2021
Figure 1The Sun Rising Over Pimachiowin Aki ( The Land That Gives Life) a UNESCO World Heritage Site on the East Shore of Lake Winnipeg

Dispatch 1: The Case for ESG+I

“It’s time to put the I into ESG!” This was the call to action from Indigenous Tahltan Elder Allen Edzerza, a prominent leader, colleague, and friend, […]
December 7, 2020

“Building a Better Country”: Riverton Brings Home a Second Order of Canada

On November 27, 2020, shortly after I had received the press release announcing appointments to the Order of Canada, the telephone rang, and an excited voice […]
March 19, 2018
Berens River

The Heartbeat of Reconciliation: “Your Dad and Auntie were such good friends”

My dad, Stefan Sigurdson, passed away in 2012. Our close collaboration in the years prior to his death was invaluable to me in writing Vikings On […]
November 15, 2016

Reconciliation: What Will It Take? (Part One)

Voices in Ojibway, Icelandic and English, Side by Side in the Fishing Sheds How can we move towards reconciliation? What can history teach us about the […]
November 10, 2016

A Career in the Spaces Between

When you Work in the Cracks, You See the World Differently Glenn Sigurdson has helped others reach tough decisions, and resolve deeply embedded differences in a […]
November 7, 2016

So What Do You Do? “I Lead Without Owning”

This excerpt is taken from Vikings On A Prairie Ocean, in which Glenn Sigurdson takes readers inside the wisdom of Lake Winnipeg that has guided his […]