Meaningful Holiday Conversations + Applications Now Open for The Grand Quest!
The Grand Quest
We're excited to open applications for The Grand Quest on Making Big Career Transitions. The Grand Quest is an immersive professional development program designed to help you navigate big life decisions. Making career transitions can feel ambiguous and lonely, The Grand Quest gives you the clarity, confidence, and tools to make these decisions by providing structured guidance and a supportive community.
This Quest will be led by Caroline Anzur, a certified Professional Coach, and feature a number of renowned guest speakers including Cat Lee, Partner at Maveron Ventures, and Niki Choo, Head of Strategy and Operations at Lunchclub. If you're thinking about making a career transition in 2020, we invite you to apply for The Grand Quest. Applications are open now until January 24th. We are curating a selected group of participants, apply now to be considered first.
Upcoming Sessions
Co-Parenting: How To Be Equal Partners in Parenthood 1/9 - How do couples navigate co-parenting and share roles and responsibilities? If you're a current parent or a prospective parent, join us for a session with Grand Guide Michael Lander who will share his experience in two different co-parenting dynamics and the rewards and challenges of fully sharing parenting responsibilities.
Grand Insights
Last weekend, we hosted a Grand Guide Appreciation Brunch where we gathered our past Grand Guides to meet one another. The conversation was so rich and we were moved by how quickly bonds and friendships formed. One of the topics we spoke about was having meaningful conversations with family during the holidays. For many of us, the holidays are among the only times we gather with our families across generations and geographies. These weeks are not only sacred for the togetherness, but for the time they offer us to engage in long conversations, deepen our relationships, and create memories we'll cherish forever. As we head into next week, we're excited to share three unique ways to connect with and learn new things about your loved ones. We hope they inspire meaningful moments and memories for your family this season and beyond.
Discover The Experiences That Shaped Your Loved Ones
It may feel like we know everything about our loved ones, but there are always stories we haven't heard before. Discover them this year by asking every person at your holiday gathering to share a story, moment or experience that changed how they view the world and that no one at the table has heard before.
As this is a deeper question, it can be helpful to share it ahead of time and then model the type of sharing you hope will unfold with your own story. Author and facilitator Priya Parker writes about how trying this with her family not only unveiled unheard stories but a rare window to see family members, like aunts and grandparents, in a different time, light, and place.
Record Your Family History
We're passionate about intergenerational learning at The Grand and are inspired by StoryCorps' The Great Thanksgiving Project as a personal and collectively meaningful embodiment of connecting across generations.
The activity is to interview an elder in your family and record your conversation to create an oral history. You can, of course, engage in a conversation rather than an interview; The intentionality of an interview may simply encourage asking questions you might not otherwise. Their Great Questions List, which includes questions exploring everything from one's heritage and childhood memories to their earned wisdom, is sure to pave the way for an enriching conversation. Here are a few we enjoyed to explore one-on-one or around the table.
'How would you like people to remember you?
Are there any funny stories people tell about you from when you were growing up?
Of all the family members you have either known or heard stories about, who do you think lived the most interesting life? Why?
What do you see as our family’s legacy?
Who has been the kindest to you and why?'
Those who use the StoryCorps App can submit their interview to the Library of Congress where more than 100,000 interviews have been collected.
Honor Each Other With Toasts And Speeches
The holidays are a special time for reflection that when approached communally offer an opportunity to vocalize what we admire and appreciate about each other. In Hollywood producer Brian Grazer's book Face to Face he details his family's birthday speech tradition, which can be a wonderful addition to your holiday dinner table.
Focus on one person at a time. Then, make your way around the table with each person standing up, looking at that person in the eye, and sharing a few words about them. The speeches have no specific structure. They are simply small moments to honor the people we care about. A few easy starting points are: Reminiscing on a special shared experience, a time they inspired you or that you were proud of them. You might also assign a theme to the ritual, such as focusing on a lesson that person taught you, a trait you admire in them, or something you appreciate about them.
Happy Holidays From The Grand!