Evolutionary Provocateur

Do you hear what I hear?

The Institute of Noetic Sciences has launched a wonderful series of interviews with thought leaders one of who was Jim Garrison from www.wisdomuniversity.com. Jim is currently working with Paul Ray of www.culturalcreatives.org to update research on a group who do not know they are a group. They are defined by having shared values, may not all be found at the same coffee shop and who, if their collective wisdom were applied, can move mountains and realign the planets.

So what does it take to unleash that kind of potential into organizations?

It calls for a suspension of judgement for starters. Listening to discussions of Gen Y,  X, Boomers or Traditionalists inevitably draws up character profiles of each group. All of this can be helpful until labels get applied. Labels like, The Entitlement Generation, distract from what talent, mission and purpose lies beneath.

Non-performers are judged as being non-performers rather than taking a more informed view to see that the non-performer is really an unengaged performer. This morning at a business meeting the whole conversation about psychopathic employees came up. Psychopath is a pretty harsh label to apply to someone and does not actually inspire anyone to reveal what they can really do. The word would appear to be closely associated with parasite.

Engaging employees boils down to seeing what lies at the heart of the matter. Earlier posts on this topic speak to the need to have a receptive mind so one can actually hear what has passion, meaning and purpose. Perception shifting as a skill is a huge part of this as is recognizing and eliminating judgmental language, thought and action.

Over to You! Have you ever been in a situation where you held yourself back because the working environment was so loaded with judgment that it was not safe to be you? 

Follow the Joy

This week on www.management-issues.com on the Evolutionary Provocateur podcast is an interview with Nick Zeniuk called Follow the Joy. The conversation is part of a larger dialogue through the recent Knowledge and Innovation Network meeting in Tucson which really points to the imperative to turn the hierarchical organization structures on its side, literally, in order to see the horizontal nature of accomplishment. Dennis Sandow, Anne Murray Allen and Nick Zeniuk have all done or are doing work in this area and are the Inspirators for a different model of supporting and enabling accomplishment or performance.

The implications for executives and managers are pretty clear. It means arriving at a much higher comfort with not knowing. In other words, embracing the notion that you don't know what you don't know. In the gap between knowing and not knowing thrives curiousity which creates a climate where discovery replaces convention or habitual patterns.

This is as applicable to personal lives as it is to organizational dynamics. What drives curiousity in your experience? What is the value of curiousity to eliciting joy?

Your comments are welcome!

2008-Shift in Action

I apologize for my absence. I got highjacked by Christmas holidays, a series of family events, and meetings in the U.S. which took me away from reflection and writing. Here we all are at the start of the new year well in motion along with the reminder that shifts in consciousness, in the evolution of humanity, in how we support and enable performance and people to contribute are at a tipping point.

Each one of you reading this is a part of that shift, otherwise you would not have been drawn to this site.

To start off the New Year's entries I have the permission of Richard Wilson, a brilliant poet/librarian and individual, to reproduce a poem he offered those in attendance at the Knowledge and innovation network meeting held at the Rex Ranch near Tucson, Arizona this past week.

Creating Community

We have an opportunity to create community
find a place for every age, religion, and race.
Humans individually searching for identity
collectively gathered here by design or fate.

Facing an alien future where
imagination dumbs
stagnation comes
abominations numb
sensations succumb.

Each person is vulnerable.
All children are valuable.
How does the future you want feel?
Do you wish for the pursuit of purpose to be real?

Risk your significance
to evoke emotion
provoke potential
give voice to vision.

Heart guides mission
memories teach
dreams reach,
and expectations become.

If it is believable,
then it is conceivable
for sustainable co-existence
to be achievable.

Posted by Richard Wilson Sat. January 19th, 2008