“Speed Reading” on my Lumina Travels

By SJ Han - Product Developer at Lumina Learning

I have just come back from my travels across Canada, which started in Montreal and ended in Vancouver with three weeks in between.  My agenda included chasing my favourite band, Pearl Jam, on their 20^th anniversary tour from gig to gig and more conventionally, getting some much needed fresh air to the brain, mind and soul.

Needless to say as I was hiking in the grandeur of the Rockies, this space I am now back to inhabit called “the office” felt very far away - well, as a matter of fact it was very far away, an Atlantic ocean away.  However, even as I ventured across this bewilderingly vast country - “to get away” - there remained a guy sitting in a chamber in my brain, busier than ever, speed-painting one Spark portrait after another.

With each human encounter, I picked up on the ebbs and flows of the individuals’ behaviour and energy. This was not only indicative of the fact that it was about time I got out of the office for a while but the way I was able to apply it every day on my distant travels speaks volumes for the resonating power of Lumina’s Spark model.

Travelling exposes you to such a rich variety of people, the ability to speed-read others is a very useful technique.  I found the inherently humanistic approach of the Lumina Spark framework really shone because:

1) It helped me embrace each person’s complexities and contradictions and develop a profound appreciation of people’s lives even in the most fleeting of encounters

2) It reminded me to value diversity - breaking me out of cycles of cynicism and stereotyping and keeping my mind open to all experiences

3) I could speed-read others quickly - people I met who possessed a lot of yellow seemed to glow with infectious energy, those with green washed over me like a warm tide with quiet intensity, those with red spurred me on with their combative purposefulness and drive, and blue… well they made sure I was always safe sharing their maps, laptops and timetables!

Lumina Spark is a powerful tool for organisational development, but I’d like to applaud it once more for the ways it can profoundly enrich your personal relationship with the world.