One of the things I love most about being a consultant is the relationship with our client partners and the opportunity and privilege to support their work while improving our own practice and knowledge base. They also are really quite funny and slightly irreverent which is important when you are trying to shift power and create a more equitable society. Here are some of the gifts they have given me over the past few weeks which have given me both pause and a giggle:

• It’s not as good as a day off but it’s better than being at work (about retreats)
• Strategy is not the same as planning. We need to stop conflating the two.
• Having voice is not the same as getting what you want.
• Transparency in decision-making is what it is, usually rather opaque.
• We’re all a little bit racist at times.
• I liked the model when we had an external evaluator. It’s hard to be evaluative when you are doing the work yourself.