Evolutionary Provocateur

Indicators of a Cultural MisMatch

The real source of stress comes from three places: 1) a wrong belief which is typically a limiting or limited one, often pre-conditioned or inherent in social conditioning; 2) repression of expression- the fuel for creativity and innovation, 3) the presence or absense of love, recognition, acknowledgement, a sense of belonging, purpose and capacity to contribute.

The indicators naturally show up in the personal and company life as:

1)stress-related illness: addiction, depression (anger turned in) or aggression (anger expressed out),

2) task fatigue: way too much to do in not enough time and under pressure. This is often a result of the external pressure on a company to adapt being passed on to the employees by leadership who are not equipped to recognize that a task-driven response will not make the pressure go away. The pressure is passed on and the HABIT of action over sensing what is really going on over-rides any intuitive~gut feel read of the situation.

3)gaps between generations: in reality the thread that ties all the generations together is all desire to do what they care about and do fulfilling work. The wonderful news is that the millineals CAN'T physiologically, psychologically or any other way divorce feeling from action. Congruency is natural. To see each other in a more generous, compassionate way, to Love, will bring out the best in everyone.

4)engagement levels: when you are unsuccessful at creating space for people to contribute their creative talents they: leave, play dead, lay low (which ultimately creates stress-related illness) or get mad. When you focus on controlling creativity you mess with the creative process. It isn't hard to engage people. Letting go of control is a start. Listening with the intention to understand is essential.

How does the culture create the space? the systems and processes used can open the space for collaboration. Combine that with personal growth and expansion and you have the recipe for rapid innovation. Next up...How the relationship between management and supervisors is key to closing the gap. The importance of personal growth to professional peace. 

Personal Spirit-Play and Prosper

The whole role of spirituality in business and its value has been pooh-poohed alot quite simply because it is associated with woo~woo and intiatives that were not tied back to meaning. If you set aside that personal spirit is an expression of outlook (lens on life), initiative (taking action) and sense of control (even in small measures) you can allow that personal spirit shows up as global initiative like the work being done by Communicopia and The Elders Or the increasing percentage of social enterprise businesses who are all about all three.

Meanwhile, traditional businesses drones on thinking it is business as usual when in fact the world is changing rapidly. Who is ready for the ride?

Millineals are. Indigo kids are. Gen X~ many are. Boomers~ some...depends on how much personal growth they have done. Traditionalists~ well you can find the odd person who has opened their mind to raging new ideas but for the most part the mindsets are pretty fixed. Mindset and spirit are not the same but they are related.

The impact of mass collaboration is that when people can freely express themselves, they do. Not rocket science but not yet fully absorbed at the executive and management levels. The flip from command-control style to participatory management is about releasing the human spirit so people can do what they naturally want to do.

When people repress themselves they create either depression or get aggressive. The energy has to go somewhere and spirit is energy lets face it! It makes sense then that companies are creating their own health and stress-related illness just by repressing people's desire to contribute to results. This makes no sense, or if it does someone please explain.

A recent interview with Dr. Nelie Johnson lays out the scientific and medical knowledge that supports this. To listen to the audio of the one-hour discussion where she lays out her journey from doctor to healer, the definition and root cause of disease (from research done in France), blocks to healing and how to help people engage click here  : http://www.audioacrobat.com/play/WB1TDGm4 

To download the audio and listen at your leisure click on this link: http://dawnajones.audioacrobat.com/download/DrNelieDoctorTurnedHealer.mp3

In the end, you wind up being pointed to the need to evolve, grow, adapt, flex, let go, embrace and how to know the difference. Absenteeism, addictions, stress-related illness are indicators of a culture of repression not expression. All of this in unconscious and invisible unless you know how and what to watch for. More indicators up next.....

Increasing Employee Engagement-Pt.2: The Heart of the Matter

Dr. Bruce Lipton, profiled on this blog in previous articles, did a wonderful job of explaining how cellular biology informs corporate performance in a series of six ten-minute interviews done for InSight Out Consulting in June, 2006. In these interviews, he explains how our subconscious beliefs (which amount to around 90%) drive our actions. Most of these are downloaded from birth to six years.

From then on we just add to the pile forgetting to take a close look to see what is old baggage, useful or useless. Take that and mutiply it by the number of employees you have in your company and you see a community of unconscious potentiality~powerful or powerless.

It is a sure bet that some of what operates undetected is based on limiting notions about what is possible, what is not, what works, what doesn't, what is true and what is not.  Recognizing this simple scientific reality helps point the way to why we have been talking abour corporate culture change for the last ten years or more; why participative leadership is the only way to achieve performance and then leaders roll right on back to command and control as the default programming.

It would be easy to blame corporate executive leadership for this, but where is the manual for renewing and redefining oneself outside of the boundaries of commander of a fleet of employees? Letting go isn't easy especially when you aren't sure what will wander into the gap created. Trust then becomes the core issue. Trust in the self, in one's sense of what makes sense illogically but intuitively and trust that at the deepest level, employees come to work to do good work - unless of course the initiative has been beaten or repressed out of them.

Previous blogs have covered personal spirit and its role in fueling performance. When trust is broken, talent repressed, or contribution unsupported the human spirit takes a beating. One or more of the measures: initiative, outlook on life, sense of control, are weakened and creative initiative goes underground. What happens then? Pt. 3 covers that question.