Thirty years ago, I was part of a team of about a dozen people who were charged as corporate trainers to change the work cultures of the nine American Skiing Company resorts across the USA. In that work, we developed eight educational principles which formed the foundation of our ski and ride teaching methodologies and the basis for our resort communications. The very first principle was to create safe space.
That can sound pretty unimportant to the polished, business-savvy manager, but it became one the most impactful principles in all of my work since then. My work as a director of skier services at Mount Snow… my work as a school teacher at The Academy at Charlemont… my work as department manager at Stratton… my work as a timber frame home designer for Vermont Barns and Vermont Timber Frames… my work as a leader of health and wellness programs for veterans ,and for other people with various disabilities at The Adaptive Sports Center and Abilities Plus… and my work as a yoga teacher and coach at Heart of the Village Yoga… all benefited when I remembered to make the people I am with feel safe enough to be themselves naturally and to express their true thoughts and feelings clearly and fully.
I have trained many ski and snowboard instructors across the country. And I have trained many yoga instructors here in Vermont. In fact, the educational principles in the HOTV Yoga teacher-training manual are based on my work in the ski inductry all those years ago. Create Safe Space. No one is going to be open to learning or changing or expressing themselves authentically if they don’t feel safe, or if they feel like they will be judged or made to feel not good enough.
I was involved in the development of these principles. They contain aspects of who I am and what I bring to my work. They are in many ways who I am today as a coach at Perspective Coaching.
Why is this on my mind today? Well, I am thinking about the classes I can bring to this community in the future. I am reminded that the basis of what I do should continue to resonate with who I am as a coach and teacher. Creating safe space. Identifying and enhancing strengths. Activating prior knowledge. Establishing personal relevance. Foreshadowing. Giving meaning. Focusing on less, not more. Rewarding positive change. Creating an environment where students feel free to explore, to be curious and to experiment taking risks.
This will not happen in an environment of judgment, critique, problem-solving, comparison, outcome-focused or competition.
Have you ever heard of the practice called “Talanoa”? It’s from the Pacific Island nations of Fiji,Samoa and Tonga. It is simply the practice of telling another human being what is actually true for you right now. It is inclusive dialogue, dialogue in which there is no agenda. It is not having meetings with outcomes. It is not a discussion designed to produce a decision. It is the deliberate practice of sitting with other human beings and speaking truthfully about your inner life in a safe space without fear of judgment or consequence. Nobody arrives with a point to make or a position to defend. There is no hierarchy; discussions go where they need to in a trusting circle of equally weighted voices, regardless of status, age or authority. In these circles, vulnerability is seen as strength, not weakness.
Modern neuroscience explains why Talanoa works. The speaker’s nervous system registers the experience of being fully seen, and the listener’s nervous system co-regulates with the speaker’s through neural resonance. People with regular access to vulnerable conversation - not small talk, not performance, not managed disclosure - live longer, show lower rates of cardiovascular disease, and recover faster from illness.
It’s about genuine connection. It’s having a space where performance stops, where the managed version of yourself is not required, and where speaking the truth about your inner life is safe.
Educational principles. Talanoa. Ubuntu (another article HERE) Who I naturally am as a facilitator, leader, teacher and coach. They all come together here. Relationship-building. Community-in-nature. Heartfelt presence. Personal and group safety.
And they all come together in a way that inspire my next steps, and my goals to facilitate more classes, workshops and retreats which give people these naturally life-enhancing opportunities to come together in circle, and find real moments to connect, to heal, and feel like they are part of something more powerful than our western culture allows us to experience easily.
My next steps are to plan regularly scheduled group circles, in-person and online. I will call them Wisdom Circles. I will use these classes as foundational and supplement to the classes I will start teaching again, The Way of the Humble Warrior, in which I integrate yoga and strengthening practice with the Four Directions, Body Energy Centers, Indigenous wisdom and the Four Elements of Earth, Water, Fire and Air.
Class will either be focused on Vertical Centering, Horizontal Movement, or the combination of both, forming our own inner N-S and E-W compass (and the basis of my Perspective Coaching logo) and the integration of the archetypes associated with each direction.
And they will all incorporate these basic educational principles, beginning with creating safe space, and they will have an opportunity to practice Talanoa in a very real, practical, and naturally healing way.
It is time to get going again on my own personal E-W axis, after a self-healing time of N-S introspection and healing. It is time to realize that all of my past endeavors, personal and professional, have miraculously led me here.