I enjoyed a recent thread in FYM that highlighted the reason the regular keep returning. I enjoyed reflecting on the last 4 years of participation in what is by and large a civilized debate.

But, I've also come to understand why some loathe FYM. The cynicism, the hypocrisy, the pontification of personal feeling as fact, the instance on tolerance and love that is spat at the reader are daily occurrences. The cost of experiencing this diminishes the value of what we celebrated....

A management consultant ran my meetings in Las Vegas last week. One of the interesting concepts presented dealt with our own level of participation in meetings. As I looked at the materials, I realized that it also applies in FYM.

In a self-evaluation mode, how do you participate in FYM? The idea is to rank yourself honestly, then make a commitment to increase you rank by a point or two.

The ranking systems are as follows:

Listening – What is our approach...