This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --------------F821AE5164C16BAB20EAD1DB Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="------------577AC425BCC24E95D5DA9079" --------------577AC425BCC24E95D5DA9079 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Dear friends, Several of you have been kind enough to send me personal notes thanking me for the thoughts I penned in the note from Sat 19 Aug on "grief, despair, and anger" that was a response to Jack brittain's note of the same title on the previous day. Thank you for your feedback. It is helpful to know that my thoughts made sense to you. Some questions that you have posed to me have caused me to reflect more deeply about the "epiphany" process that I discussed in my note. I even went back to my "American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language - 3rd Edition" to make sure I was using the word appropriately. It turns out that, in this case, I believe I was!! My mother would have been proud of me!! (She was a school teacher with high standards of English language useage.) The relevant meanings cited for epiphany are three: #2. A revelatory manifestation of a divine being. #3a. A sudden manifiestation of the essence or meaning of something. #3b. A comprehension or perception of reality by means of a sudden intuitive realization. The example I cited of an epiphany in the previous note was regarding the death of my wife and son in 1985. As the events were unfolding I was fully in the grip of the first list (grief, despair, anger, fear, uncertainty, ambiguity, doubt)(I would also add helplessness and hopelessness to that list). On the first night as these events unfolded I could only sleep a couple of hours. I arose at about 2AM and went on a "walk-about." I was restless and unsettled and had to meditate upon and ponder about my circumstances. It was a great agony and wrestle of a couple of hours. But something occured in that period of time. "And that has made all the difference." (Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken, 1916) That epiphany unfolded my purpose and role in the situation with great clarity. I even knew something of the process for moving forward, but the process was less clear. It was the purpose and role that had become crystal clear. I had moved to the second list (letting go, forgiveness, hope, core values, dedication, service, selflessness, humility). As is typical of the mourning process I cycled back and forth between the first and second list from time to time and needed reminders to get me centered again. But the path opened up a step or two at a time. As I think about my consulting engagements over the last batch of years I have come to realize that this same process is a part of what I try to help my clients experience. I am usually trying to help folks understand the essence or meaning of some situation. I am trying to help them comprehend or percieve reality differently. Usually by an intuitive, insight-based process. In other words, I am trying to create a setting, context, or circumstance in which they can experience an epiphany in their work and personal life. I cannot create the epiphany for them. I can try to create the conditions under which the epiphany can occur. AI is a structured process that helps people experience epiphany based on the foundation of that which is positive, good, and uplifting. The foundation of the process is the what-is-working foundation. A foundation that is oriented towards growth, development, and becoming -- fulfilling potential. One that is based upon inclusion, free will, enlistment, engagement, and commitment. It is ultimately aimed at creating long term achievement of desired outcomes by getting at the heart and roots of cause. AI at its best deals at the level of often invisible systemic relationships, rather than dealing with just the symptoms and what is visible. One of the things that I am continuing to ponder is the role of humility in leading and changing organizations. I am often running into pride, arrogance, hautiness, selfishness, self-absorption, conceit, deception, and duplicity in people's action and character in organizations. Those seem like things that go in the first list, or perhaps a correlary list to the first list. These characteristics stand in opposition to humility and the second list. They are blocks to the epiphany process. Getting people who display action and character that is "anti-humility" to engage in a productive change process, like AI is difficult. I need more insight on how to do that. Somehow, the "business case for change" needs to be created and presented to focus them on the potential positive outcomes of the process -- and the merits of the process itself -- so that they can suspend their "list one feelings" long enough for the process to draw them in and calm their spirits. Ah! Resistance, you are a friend who shows me where the pain and doubt reside. But I have difficulty embracing you for what you can help me do! May you create the setting in which your epiphanies may occur! Pete. --------------577AC425BCC24E95D5DA9079 Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit <!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en"> Dear friends,Several of you have been kind enough to send me personal notes thanking me for the thoughts I penned in the note from Sat 19 Aug on "grief, despair, and anger" that was a response to Jack brittain's note of the same title on the previous day.
Thank you for your feedback. It is helpful to know that my thoughts made sense to you.
Some questions that you have posed to me have caused me to reflect more deeply about the "epiphany" process that I discussed in my note.I even went back to my "American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language - 3rd Edition" to make sure I was using the word appropriately. It turns out that, in this case, I believe I was!! My mother would have been proud of me!! (She was a school teacher with high standards of English language useage.)
The relevant meanings cited for epiphany are three:
#2. A revelatory manifestation of a divine being.
#3a. A sudden manifiestation of the essence or meaning of something.
#3b. A comprehension or perception of reality by means of a sudden intuitive realization.The example I cited of an epiphany in the previous note was regarding the death of my wife and son in 1985. As the events were unfolding I was fully in the grip of the first list (grief, despair, anger, fear, uncertainty, ambiguity, doubt)(I would also add helplessness and hopelessness to that list).
On the first night as these events unfolded I could only sleep a couple of hours. I arose at about 2AM and went on a "walk-about." I was restless and unsettled and had to meditate upon and ponder about my circumstances. It was a great agony and wrestle of a couple of hours. But something occured in that period of time. "And that has made all the difference." (Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken, 1916)
That epiphany unfolded my purpose and role in the situation with great clarity. I even knew something of the process for moving forward, but the process was less clear. It was the purpose and role that had become crystal clear. I had moved to the second list (letting go, forgiveness, hope, core values, dedication, service, selflessness, humility). As is typical of the mourning process I cycled back and forth between the first and second list from time to time and needed reminders to get me centered again. But the path opened up a step or two at a time.As I think about my consulting engagements over the last batch of years I have come to realize that this same process is a part of what I try to help my clients experience. I am usually trying to help folks understand the essence or meaning of some situation. I am trying to help them comprehend or percieve reality differently. Usually by an intuitive, insight-based process. In other words, I am trying to create a setting, context, or circumstance in which they can experience an epiphany in their work and personal life. I cannot create the epiphany for them. I can try to create the conditions under which the epiphany can occur.
AI is a structured process that helps people experience epiphany based on the foundation of that which is positive, good, and uplifting. The foundation of the process is the what-is-working foundation. A foundation that is oriented towards growth, development, and becoming -- fulfilling potential. One that is based upon inclusion, free will, enlistment, engagement, and commitment. It is ultimately aimed at creating long term achievement of desired outcomes by getting at the heart and roots of cause. AI at its best deals at the level of often invisible systemic relationships, rather than dealing with just the symptoms and what is visible.
One of the things that I am continuing to ponder is the role of humility in leading and changing organizations. I am often running into pride, arrogance, hautiness, selfishness, self-absorption, conceit, deception, and duplicity in people's action and character in organizations. Those seem like things that go in the first list, or perhaps a correlary list to the first list. These characteristics stand in opposition to humility and the second list. They are blocks to the epiphany process.
Getting people who display action and character that is "anti-humility" to engage in a productive change process, like AI is difficult. I need more insight on how to do that. Somehow, the "business case for change" needs to be created and presented to focus them on the potential positive outcomes of the process -- and the merits of the process itself -- so that they can suspend their "list one feelings" long enough for the process to draw them in and calm their spirits.
Ah! Resistance, you are a friend who shows me where the pain and doubt reside. But I have difficulty embracing you for what you can help me do!
May you create the setting in which your epiphanies may occur!
Pete.