Blog: stories from the field

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Empty classroom with rows of wooden student desks and navy blue chairs, and a large whiteboard that reads "Have a great weekend!" with a smiley face and a heart, a bulletin board, a window with trees outside, an American flag, and a wall clock.

School Leaders, If You Don’t Tell Your School’s Story, Who Will?

The stories that are told after school shape how families see what happens inside. Teachers do creative things to help students learn. They sit on

Cover of Middle Level Learning, May/June 2003, showing a stone lantern and purple irises in the Zen garden, with the headline Service Learning and Social Studies

They Mocked the Lesson. Then They Built an $18,000 Zen Garden.

I learned how to make the ask from a class of eighth graders. It began on the day they mocked my lesson. The day my

Navy ink sketch of a person in a sun hat kneeling with a trowel, growing a row of orange carrots

When to Stop Volunteering: 6 Questions to Ask Yourself

Knowing when to stop volunteering is hard for people who love to serve. I am one of them. Volunteering has given me a great deal.

One Ask, One Connection, One Resource: Day 1 at StartupCincy Week

I could have paid to attend StartupCincy Week in Cincinnati. I asked to volunteer. That is The Art of the Ask. I volunteered at StartupCincy

A black hiking backpack hangs from a moss covered tree stump beside a rocky mountain stream, with its padded hip belt hanging below.

How Does the Bag Know?

A story about asking better questions, told from a nine hour hike in Banff. I used to ask one question before every walk. “What’s the

A hiker seen from behind stands on a rocky shore at the edge of a turquoise mountain lake, wearing a light knit hat, navy puffer coat, and black backpack. Snow covered peaks, forested slopes, and a blue sky reflect in the still water.

No Poles for Me: The Help I Almost Left Behind

A poem about asking for help, written after a first hike to Victoria Glacier. On my very first long hike, from Lake Louise up to

Woman in a dark blazer smiling at a laptop at a desk with a blue and white mug, notebook, glasses and flowers

Stay Out Is a Rule. It Is Not a Lock.

An AI agent was blocked by an Australian government website and found another way in. Here are seven safeguards I would put in place before letting one roam.

Leila Kubesch smiling as she writes a checklist titled Event Planner Requests on a whiteboard with a blue marker, a cup of tea on the desk beside her.

What I Want to Know Before I Speak to Your Team

When an event planner reaches out to me about a keynote, I have questions before we ever get to a contract. Quite a few of

The Wrong Eyes Don’t Buy: Why More Visibility Isn’t the Answer

By Leila Kubesch The wrong eyes don’t buy, and they don’t buy into you either. You can spend hours creating content, attending networking events, making

Pen drawing of a woman with a briefcase resting her head against a door marked NO under a Grant Foundation 1 sign, beside an open orange door marked YES under a Grant Foundation 2 sign.

What If “No” Leads to a Better “Yes”?

A $3,500 grant request got a hard no. The same proposal won $35,000 from a second foundation. What a rejection can teach you about the path you chose for your ask, and the story of the 120,000 Tassel Tapestry.

What People Forget When They Make an Ask

What do people forget when they make an ask? Themselves. A volunteer story from MidwestCon in Cincinnati about reciprocity and the small gifts that make a request land.

Four men seated on a small stage for a panel, one speaking into a microphone and another holding one, in front of a column marked UC and 1819 innovation hub and a screen reading Mid West Con, Opening Keynote Panel: AI as Economic Development, with audience members in the foreground

AI Amplifies Whatever Your Organization Already Is

What I heard from the opening panel at MidwestCon, and what it means for the people you lead The opening panel at MidwestCon started with

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