The Potentiality

John Horn's Website for Community Builders

Year: 2017

Four Project Management Lessons from Our Major Renovation

This summer we began a major renovation in our home. Over the course of a month and a half, we worked closely with a contractor and a range of tradespeople as they gutted, tiled and rebuilt – from the cement floor up…

Five Collaborations Lessons From Minority Governments

British Columbia is in new political territory. This week the BC Greens and BC NDP political parties announced that they will collaborate to govern the province for the next four years. Minority and coalition governments are my favourite kind of…

Five Tips for Successful Paternity Leave

For the past three months I’ve been on paternity leave. Heading into it, I was nervous about how I’d happily fill my days with a six-month-old. Boredom – sometimes exhausting boredom – seemed a distinct possibility, especially because I so…

Seven Collaboration Lessons from Shipping Containers

Shipping containers fascinate me. It’s an invention that human civilization agrees on more than anything else. Around the world, people who disagree on politics, Internet access, fashion, art, and what side of the road to drive on. No matter how…

Four Lessons I Learned When I Cycled from Seattle to Portland

Earlier this month my friend Godfrey and I set out by bike from Seattle, Washington and slowly made our way towards the Oregon Coast and then back inland to Portland. Over the course of five days of riding, we covered close…

Six Tips for Thriving after the Collapse of Western Civilization

A few things happened last week. My wife and I watched Mad Max: Fury Road on Netflix (it’s really good) and Rachel Nuwer wrote a depressing article for the BBC Future about how Western Civilization could collapse. Facts are facts…

How to Give Feedback

A focus of this blog is to help you have better conversations. Enhancing dialogue at work, in classrooms and throughout neighbourhoods makes our communities more engaged, diverse and healthier. Accepting and offering feedback are essential elements of great conversations. Giving…

How to Ask for Feedback

A focus of this blog is to help you have better conversations. Enhancing dialogue makes our communities more engaged, diverse and healthier. Accepting and offering feedback are essential elements of great conversations. Giving and receiving praise or criticism isn’t easy,…

Professions Learnings from the Movie Logan

Logan is the latest into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  It tells the story of a gritty, future where mutants are on the verge of extinction. Logan is aged and weak and Charles Xavier, his mentor and friend, is an old,…

Five Collaboration Lessons from Our Debut Album

I love Dave Shumka and Graham Clark. They are Canadian heroes. Stop Podcasting Yourself is a trailblazing form of the medium that’s been making hearts smile since podcasting was a thing. And their latest project, Our Debut Album, in which…