Thomas Friedman shares some sobering thoughts in this long but interesting presentation. Yet another respected futurist who reminds us that 'good enough' will no longer cut it in our highly networked, technological world. Friedman is both an informative and highly engaging speaker and this presentation is a masterclass in how to share observations, ideas, statistics and beliefs using story - without PPT.
Integral Perspectives On Personal & Professional Development
New World Economics - Thomas Friedman
Thomas Friedman shares some sobering thoughts in this long but interesting presentation. Yet another respected futurist who reminds us that 'good enough' will no longer cut it in our highly networked, technological world. Friedman is both an informative and highly engaging speaker and this presentation is a masterclass in how to share observations, ideas, statistics and beliefs using story - without PPT.
Being Human Inc 'Dissed' in the Media!
If we believe everything in the news media then being a human being is not something to be proud of.
Read, watch or listen to the news anywhere in the world and all you'll find are stories of bad humans doing bad things to themselves, others and the environment. We are constantly being trashed, slandered, vilified and misrepresented. So much so that if Being Human was a brand and you are genuinely, ethically and ecologically minded you really wouldn't be working for Being Human Inc. The testimonials on Glassdoor.com would read like a vision of working in Hades. But is it true? Are we all really that bad? Of course not.
Most of us realise that people working in the media are in the news business and they know that bad news gets our attention much quicker and for longer than does good news - it's just a fact of life. We humans love a scary horror story that makes us feel our own lives are not so bad after all. We can sit safe and smug in the knowledge that people are a lot worst of than us, or at least, knowing that we're not like those bad people. Good news just doesn't sell as well. In fact there's a website called Happynews.com. Looking at it today, the last update was five months ago.
But does the brand name of Being Human deserve such bad press?
Not if you believe the research outlined Steven Pinker's book The Better Angels of Our Nature. However, recent studies carried out by a diverse group of researchers from Harvard and Yale suggests that while we are not intuitively selfish creatures the truth about the human condition is not so clear cut. If we're not intuitively selfish then are we cooperative? The study seemed to reveal that the drive to cooperate only stabilises if there are rewards on offer for cooperative behaviours. So, it's not a given. Oh dear! This particular piece of research was conducted on 2,068 people so we may assume it was fairly thorough and we can only hope it was conducted with rigour. Even so, the evidence did not answer the question as to whether humans are innately good or bad but it did seem to suggest that we are an "overwhelmingly cooperative species, willing to give for the good of the group even when it comes at our own personal expense."
Personally, and regardless of what I see, hear and read in the news I have to believe we are fundamentally good. While human beings have done, and continue to do, many terrible things, we also have achieved and created a plethora of good and beautiful deeds. Our desire to survive through acts of creativity far out weighs our destructive impulses. I am very hopeful and still optimistic about the future of Being Human Inc so I for one will not be handing in my resignation anytime soon. And yes, I would still recommend this company to my friends.
The Ghosts In Our Genes!
Have you ever had the feeling that you may have lived before? What about Deja Vu? Maybe you have actually experienced specific and persistent memories from a past life.
The subject of reincarnation has always fascinated me and I have long suspected that it has more to do with psychology, genetic memory and morphogenetic fields than Astral Planes, after lives and floating souls. So, I've just been reading Jungian psychologist, James Hollis's excellent book 'Hauntings - Dispelling the Ghosts Who Run Our Lives'. In it he considers how we may all be living out certain impulses arising as a result of invisible, energetic forces (called complexes) that animate our four dimensions through genetic, ancestral and direct parental and cultural influences.
The interesting thing about these impulses is that they don't seem to belong to us at times and appear in our consciousnesses as inner voices, dreams, impulses, imaginings, sub-personalities and synchronicities. They are the occasional voices and ideas that pop into our heads out of nowhere and unbidden.
They can also be persistent patterns of physical feelings that rise up from within our bodies haunting us, by causing us to blush, twitch, sweat and tremble at the thought and sight of certain people, places and things. We can often be confused by these impulses, particularly when they lead to feelings of fear. Even though we may intellectually know a feeling or thought is irrational yet we are still driven to act on the impulse to flee or fight. In some cases these 'ghosts in the genes' can hold us back by preventing us from making important or necessary changes in our lives.
In the book James Hollis offers that there is a difference in the meanings of the words Fate and Destiny. According to Hollis our Fate is in the genes we inherit, and the experiences and effects of our cultural conditioning recorded by our body/mind system from birth to around 3 years old. However, our Destiny is determined by what we consciously decide to do with the physical, emotional, intellectual, environmental and social resources we possess and have available. He also offers some useful questions and exercises to help us understand the ghostly complexes and what life might be asking of each of us through them.
By consciously applying some focussed attention over a period of time we can begin to release the energy of these 'ghosts' and integrate them into our intentional dimension of self. As a result we will have more energy to create our destiny and consciously choose the impact we make in the world. I very much enjoyed this book, particularly as his insights support our model of the 4 selves.
Posted by Tom
Are You A Resilient 4D Human Being?
“I’m so stressed…!!” How many times do we
say this? Think this? Hear others saying it? In our busy lives, often. And whilst stress has very negative
connotations (and of course chronic stress is a bad thing both in terms of our emotional
well being but also our physical well being) a certain level of stress can be
healthy. Why? Well, stress can build up our ‘preparedness’ like a kind of
vaccination against future stress. In effect we can become more resilient. And it
goes without saying that resilience is a very good thing to have from our
mental well-being and performance as well as on our physical health.
So how do we become more resilient? The
key, as always, is to start with those 4 dimensions of the human being…
Physical – participation in physical
activity has been shown to build our resilience levels to stress, mental and
physical illness. Physical activity does not necessarily mean strenuous
exercise. 30 minutes activity a day will suffice (even broken down into 3 x 10
minute sessions) so whether that’s a power walk at lunch or taking the stairs
instead of the escalator, just get active!
Emotional – Experiencing a high level of positive emotions encourages a more resilient nature and whilst some of our ‘happiness’ levels are genetic there is much we can do to get happier! Watch a funny video, focus on your breathing to reduce negative emotions or take 5 minutes a day to feel grateful for what you have in your life (gratitude is a real ‘happiness’ booster!)
Intellectual - We naturally when faced with
a challenging event go into negative thinking traps and one of the main ways to
gain more resilience is to reduce our negative or pessimistic thinking. For example applying Beck's (1976) ABCDE
approach to thought process. Take a moment to think about a challenging experience or event from your life and write down some thoughts using the following guide:
- Adversity (What was the event?)
- Beliefs (What was going through your mind at the time of the event?)
- Consequences (What did your beliefs lead you to do, think or feel?)
- Disputation (What are your internal arguments against those automatic beliefs?)
- Energization (What do you think and feel now about the event?)
This simple, intellectualising process can help to significantly increase your
resilience levels by challenging and reevaluating any unrealistic or self-limiting beliefs.
Intentional – Viktor Frankl’s famous and
moving book – Man’s Search for Meaning identifies a theory of human drive (and
ultimately survival). The meaning we give to our live. We choose what the
meaning of our lives is and we also choose our reactions to events. And these
choices we make lead to the building of our resilience… or not. Start by
counting to 10 before you react or respond in a situation and take those
precious seconds to really choose your reaction consciously thinking about what
the effect will be both on you, and other people.
Finally, in terms of our shared culture or
environment – social support is critical to maintaining our resilience levels.
No man is an island and taking responsibility to surround ourselves with
family, friends, colleagues, mentors that are there for us in the good times
and the bad times and have a positive influence on our lives is paramount.
Posted By Penelope
A Case Study of The Four Selves
In this interesting interview the late, great Colin Wilson reveals a perfect example of developing his intentional self to manage a disintegration of his physical, emotional and intellectual dimensions.
Colin Wilson describes how, after becoming stressed and over worked early in his writing career, he began to experience anxiety and panic attacks. From the description of his experience it seems as if his physical and emotional selves had been put under pressure and exhausted while his intellectual self tried to over ride them. This seems to have created an inner conflict which manifested in the middle of the night when his fragile intentional self was offline. It's interesting to hear how he developed a more robust choosing faculty (his intentional self which he desrcibes as a 'higher Colin and school mistress' ) to manage his personal crisis and eventually integrate the other three selves.
The good life is...
Body, heart, mind and soul
Functioning as an integrated whole
Anonymous
How To Engage People In The Workplace
I think it's fairly safe to say that the key to success in life and work is having the motivation and energy to get up each and every morning and actually 'do' something that contributes to the achievement of your goals and objectives. This means being fully committed to, and engaged with a role in life, or a job of work. And that's where the challenge lies.
The employee engagement situation in UK businesses looks like it needs attention with a Gallup Engagement Survey revealing that only 24% of UK employees are engaged with their jobs. Also an online study of 2000 organisations by the Hay Group revealed that HR managers now rate employee motivation and engagement as their number one concern. But there is also research showing that less than 20% of managers have received any training in engagement skills or how to bring out the best in their people.
So if this is where we are today even before things start to get really rough in terms of the business challenges ahead, what are we to do?
As we often hear - and quite rightly so - that an organisation's strength is its people, perhaps a good start is to first look at what it means to be human and express yourself in life and work.
Communication between people involves four dimensions of behaviour:
- Physical - The health and fitness of our bodies and how effectively we are able to move and function in the world.
- Emotional - Our feelings about ourselves and our own circumstances. Also how we feel about other people with whom we share our lives and the environment in which we live.
- Intellectual - The knowledge and information we have acquired and refer to in order to live and work effectively.
- Spiritual (or Motivational) - Our deepest values, drives, ideas and beliefs about ourselves and how we fit in the world we live in.
At 4D our understanding and experience has led us to understand that people function most effectively when these four dimensions are fully integrated. That's why we became interested in a recent survey by the CIPD in the UK measuring engagement. Their research suggests that engagement has three components:
- Cognitive engagement - focusing very hard on work, thinking about very little else during the working day.
- Emotional engagement - being involved emotionally with your work.
- Physical engagement - being willing to 'go the extra mile' for your employer and actively 'do' work over and beyond expectations.
In this survey only 31% of employees who responded were found to be cognitively (Intellectually) engaged, and 22% were/are actually disengaged. Scores for emotional engagement were higher with 58% of people reportedly emotionally engaged with their work and only 6% emotionally disengaged.
And finally 38% of employees were physically engaged with their work, whilst 11% were/are physically disengaged. So that leaves one component (or dimension) missing.
Intentional engagement - Our personal values, beliefs and drives that generate the energy to engage with life and work. Arguably the most important dimension of all, as our intentions are indelibly linked with our emotions and the way we feel day to day.
Research into engagement has revealed that the emotional climate in an organisation has a profound affect on employee engagement. In fact it has been suggested that 'Climate' (or atmosphere in the workplace) is responsible for 80% of the negative or positive effects on engagement. Simply put, people enjoy working with and for people who have a positive attitude and who make their employees or direct reports feel valued, heard, involved and cared for. This means open and honest communication between employees, managers and leaders in order to build rapport and allow people to share ideas, have them heard and maybe even rewarded.This includes celebrating peoples successes however small, showing team members appreciation and ensuring people have the skills and resources required to achieve their expected professional targets and goals.
Sounds simple enough but tricky to implement when so few people in leadership positions (according to studies) are trained in the behaviours of engagement. But there is a fairly straight forward solution.
A simple behaviour of engagement that anyone can begin to develop right now is to increase your listening skills.
Most of us like people to listen to us if we have something to share, and if we are listened to we will automatically feel more 'engaged' with the person who is making the effort to listen.
Not only that but if the person actually hears our point of view and acknowledges the value in what we say our engagement quotient is likely to increase. Taking listening skills to the next stage would mean an 'Idea Sharing' initiative across an organisation and at all levels of the hierarchy. Creating an opportunity for everyone to be listened to and hopefully heard. In fact we at 4D Human Being have been engaged in organisational listening through idea sharing for some time now in our work with creativity and innovation and have discovered that while people 'brainstorm' around a product or service, other issues nearly always emerge and reveal surprising insights.
For example: say you are looking to help a team develop a new product range that builds on something already existing. The most effective approach is to begin with getting people to talk through the facts about the current product and overall context in which this product exists and into which the new product will potentially follow. This means taking a multi perspective look at the product idea and the context in which it will appear and this is when it is helpful to take the four dimensional approach.
The initial exploration will include all the Physical aspects like shape, form, materials used, packaging, texture, ingredients and ergonomics. Also talking through people's ideas and experiences of how the product physically moves through the business from manufacture to supply chain, then into the hands of the customer.
The next dimension is the Emotional impact of the product's branding for customers and employees alike. What types of emotions does it surface and how does it make people feel?
The Intellectual dimension - What immediate need does it meet technically and what other, unseen needs might it meet outside the obvious?
And finally Intentional - What value does it bring to people's lives and how, why, where, when and to whom will it become most important?
To do this the 4D team work our way through a number of processes that we have developed that utilises several tools to surface 'values driven' thinking styles. We work with the theory of Spiral Dynamics Integral (developed by Don Beck and based on the work of Clare W Graves) which means we are able to tap into the values and drives of each person attending an idea sharing session in order to get a unique perspective on an issue. There is plenty of information on the internet about the theory of Spiral Dynamics or you can refer to my article 'Spiral Dynamics and Creativity' (published in Integral Leadership Review) for an easy to read breakdown of the theory.
What is interesting about this particular approach is that if you thoroughly explore an idea from a values and drives perspective you will discover more than you expected about unexpected aspects of your business. Occasionally during our sessions we discover that some people in organisations have ways of doing things that are perhaps unorthodox and occasionally break some of the rules. This would be described as 'Orange' value set behaviours in the SDi model and surface when there is a need for an individual to break away from the collective to creatively adapt to a given situation, in order to meet a need. A person expressing 'Orange' will be focussing their energy on achieving results for material gain, status, success and recognition. However they are often forced into adopting these methods because the organisations infrastructure ( systems and processes) impede or stultify their ability to achieve their targets and goals by following the rules. The surprising thing is that these 'unorthodox, rule breaking methods' often go unnoticed.
How is that possible? Because of the high levels of disengagement and lack of four dimensional engagement in many companies today. In other words... too few people care enough to tell anyone!
But it is often in these improvised, unorthodox ways of doing things that future innovations can be found and it's becoming clear that what businesses today need are new and innovative ways of doing things. The good news is that all the new ideas are in the hearts and minds of some if not all of an organisation's people. But with up to 75% of employees disengaged at work how are these ideas ever going to be discovered? A good start is to get people talking together about what they value and what drives and motivates them in all four dimensions.
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