Craig Constantine

On Castbox.fm — Cordelia Storm | Creating Community & Workability with Your Staff

How can leaders foster better communication and cultivate a healthy, effective team culture?

Effective leadership often starts with recognizing and challenging the automatic stories you tell yourself about others.

People’s concerns will tell you their commitments… People’s concerns are usually the pathway to understanding what they care deeply about.
~ Cordelia Storm (15:56)

The conversation explores the importance of reframing assumptions and biases that arise when working with teams or communities. One central theme is the way automatic labeling can create subtle divisions, which negatively impact collaboration. Addressing these issues through open communication and radical honesty can restore relationships and foster a healthier team dynamic.

A significant portion of the discussion focuses on creating a culture that encourages curiosity and trust. The conversation also touches on leadership development, using Parkour as an analogy for overcoming obstacles in communication and management. Additionally, there is a focus on larger cultural issues, such as using movement practices to address senior fall prevention.

Takeaways

Listening deeply — How reframing stories and assumptions about others can shape relationships and team dynamics.

Curiosity in relationships — Labeling people reduces curiosity and prevents deeper collaboration.

Commitments through concerns — People’s concerns often point to their deeper commitments and values.

Leadership development — Leadership programs can foster greater self-awareness and trust in teams.

Movement culture — Parkour principles can extend into everyday life, influencing communication and public health.

Resources

Cordelia Storm @coryjumps — Cordelia’s Instagram account.

Parkour Visions — A Parkour coaching organization where Cordelia Storm works as Program Director.

Art of Retreat — The Parkour leadership and education retreat where the conversation took place.

(Written with help from Chat-GPT.)

Cordelia Storm: Flips, competition, and representation

What does it mean to make movement more accessible and inclusive for everyone, regardless of background or athletic ability?

In this episode Cordelia Storm unpacks her thoughts about accessibility, the effects of a gym on a community, and her motivation for learning flips. She delves into her personal journey, as well as her relationship with competition. Cordelia mentions her documentary project, and finishes by tackling the concepts of gender, age, and representation in the parkour space.

In that moment I realized that my voice did matter. Now what? From then on, that just became a big passion— to have people love movement, love feeling their bodies, and like playing.
~ Cordelia Storm (30:55)

The conversation centers on the transformative power of parkour, not just as a physical discipline but as a tool for personal growth, inclusivity, and empowerment. Cordelia Storm shares her journey into parkour, starting from a background in theater and video games, and how the practice helped her overcome personal struggles, including bulimia. A large part of the discussion revolves around how parkour promotes accessibility and how Cordelia works to make movement available to a wider audience. She highlights how parkour shifted her relationship with her body, turning exercise from a punitive activity into a joyful and empowering experience.

Another key topic explored is the emotional impact of losing a community gym and how it challenged the parkour community to adapt and rebuild. Cordelia discusses the importance of outdoor classes and fostering micro-communities within them to maintain connection and continuity. The conversation also touches on gender representation in parkour, the evolving nature of competition, and the broader social and cultural implications of making movement inclusive. Cordelia’s passion for flips and overcoming fear is used as a metaphor for confronting personal barriers, showing how physical challenges in parkour mirror deeper internal struggles and victories.

Takeaways

Losing a community gym — The closure of Parkour Visions’ physical gym space profoundly affected the local community, forcing adaptations in teaching and community building.

Empowering coaches — Building smaller community hubs within classes strengthens the overall parkour community even in the absence of a central gym.

Flips as self-overcoming — Flips in parkour symbolize confronting personal fears and limitations, reflecting broader themes of self-growth and perseverance.

Movement for healing — Parkour provided Cordelia with a path to body acceptance and a healthier self-image after struggling with bulimia.

Representation in parkour — Having visible female athletes and coaches plays a crucial role in encouraging more women to participate in parkour.

The value of competition — Competitions offer opportunities for growth, but can initially feel intimidating and exclusionary, requiring a shift in mindset.

Accessible movement — Parkour needs to be reimagined beyond elite skills, making even basic movements relatable to those new to the discipline.

Emotional vulnerability — Parkour offers men and women spaces to explore vulnerability and overcome ego, fostering deeper emotional intelligence.

Resources

Parkour Visions — The gym and organization where Cordelia started parkour and continues to teach.

Art of Retreat — A parkour leadership gathering frequently referenced in the conversation.

Movement Creative — A community-focused parkour organization associated with Caitlin Pontrella.

APEX School of Movement — A parkour gym where Cordelia worked as head coach.

Vancouver Film School — The institution where Cordelia studied film before discovering parkour.

(Written with help from Chat-GPT.)