By Krysty Wideen

Imagine your morning cup of coffee. You are likely waiting impatiently in line for a fix at Starbucks only to rush off to work. That’s one way to have a cup, but switch to a different picture. You’re sitting with some friends, maybe you were lucky enough to get one of those couches in the corner. In the second instance, you are not just getting your caffeine fix; you are getting nourishment in the form of conversation.

The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (The RSA), is a society essentially built on this idea. In 1754, intellectuals were getting together in England for coffee to discuss the country’s problems. They realized that should for formalize it and bring in other members, and this 270,000+ member society was born. The premise is to talk about what’s on going in the world and ideas about how to shape a better world. Pretty cool concept.

Learning about this organization has really inspired me. It has inspired me to reach out to my network in a different context and to have different, meaningful conversations. All I’m hoping is that I can inspire similar conversations at coffee houses all over BC!

Additionally, they put out great videos under the tagline of RSAnimate. Take a look: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AC7ANGMy0yo

Krysty Wideen is a learning and organizational development consultant with The Refinery Leadership Partners, based in Vancouver. Her professional interest and expertise is in emotional intelligence, type psychology (MBTI), conflict, team dynamics, learning design, and program evaluation. An emerging practitioner in her field, Krysty is actively seeking new information, ideas, insights, and experiences and loves to share them with the online community through the BCHRMA and Refinery Leadership Partners Blogs.