The Potentiality

John Horn's Website for Community Builders

John Horn

A Recovery Haiku

Recovering slow. Torn Achilles in a boot. Having perspective. – A haiku about what it takes to be resilient when, well, we’re getting older and the body breaks down…

Five Professional Lessons from Captain America: Civil War

Last Friday night Kurt and I saw Captain America: Civil War. The summer’s hottest movie taught us a lot about international diplomacy, teamwork, spandex, friendship, and ourselves, too. Here are five professional lessons from Captain America: Civil War that you can…

Three Ways to use the Waysfinder Model for Career Development

The Waysfinder Model provides a simple and flexible way to navigate worklife complexity. Its founder, Sonja Blignaut, suggests that the model expects multiple ideas or products to be simultaneously and collaboratively attempted based on the potentialities from each starting point….

A Failure Haiku

Feeling like failure. Learning happens everywhere. Failing is learning. – This is a Failure – or a failing is learning – Haiku because it’s been a tough month and I’ve learned a lot (humans always do!)

How to Talk About Death at Work

For the last decade I’ve worked for two of Canada’s leaders in financial services (Vancity Credit Union) and pension administration (BC Pension Corporation). Through activities like estate planning and benefits changes many of my colleagues are required to talk about…

A Travel Haiku

Travel to learn. Culture. Knowledge. Connection. Oh, and lobster rolls. – A travel haiku written to reflect on the Horn family’s recent awesome trip to Nova Scotia

10 Professional Lessons from Dancing

In April 2015, 25 colleagues and I danced to Bruno Mars’s “Uptown Funk” as part of the entertainment for V After Dark, Vancity Credit Union’s annual employee recognition and celebration event. Here’s the video and a blog post about 10…

Five Ways to Triumph Over Jerks

This article tells the story of five ways to triumph over jerks and other mean people who will infect your community. Recently, I encountered a wide variety of jerks. Let me tell you, it took adaptability, creativity, thoughtfulness, and great…

A New Friendship Haiku

Basketball* feelings. Infinite conversations. New friendship is here. – A haiku about new friendship, which started with *basketball feelings and has grown into the best vibes on Vancouver Island!

Four Lessons in Interdependency from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

In their excellent book, Laziness Does Not Exist, Dr. Devon Price argues that the myth of the heroes journey highlights how individualistic problem-solving and world/galaxy-saving is wrongly elevated in pop culture. While I take issue with some of Price’s examples (the…