Emergency Preparedness on the Inner

If we want to be grounded and calm in a crisis, we need to cultivate this capacity, the way a person wanting to climb Mount Everest needs to build up physical and mental stamina.

For years I have used the simple breathing exercise below as part a daily practice of setting my energy and intentions for the day. I also do the practice whenever I feel out of balance or off-centre. I encourage you to try it.

When you experience the immediate benefits — how your energy centres and settles — you might be inspired to take a few moments for this way of breathing before a big phone call, or meeting, or task.

The more you are able to integrate this centring practice into your daily life, the more it will be available to you in a time of crisis. You will have self soothed with figure of eight breathing (or a similar mindfulness practice) for so many smaller storms that it will be your automatic response to bigger ones.

Let me know how you find it.

Figure of Eight Breathing

1. Optional: take off eyeglasses, any heavy jewellery, and footwear made of rubber or plastic.
2. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, eyes closed, and your attention on your breath. Sitting or lying down works too, but standing is the easiest way to start.
3. Inhaling slowly, bring your awareness to your heart.
4. Exhaling slowly, imagine your breath is traveling down the front of your body and penetrating to the centre of the Earth.
5. Inhaling slowly, imagine you are drawing energy up from the centre of the Earth and up the back of your body, and into your heart.
6. Exhaling slowly, imagine that your breath is going from your heart up the front of your body as high as it can go – to Ether, the stars, heaven – whatever works for you.
7. Inhaling slowly, imagine you are drawing energy down from above, down the back of your body and into your heart.
8. Repeat this “figure of eight” as long as feels right – perhaps 5-20 cycles at the beg
   inning. When you are familiar with this practice, four or five cycles is enough to feel quite grounded.

To start, I suggest tracing the figure of eight shape with one hand, as a way to help your awareness move.

Value Quality More Than Quantity

Our mainstream society is addicted to growth and is caught in the myth that more is better. Rather than setting your compass to growth or success defined monetarily, aim to be in alignment with Life.

Small acts done with pure love have more value than grand accomplishments based in ego or competition. Being true to yourself or to your organization’s vision, how ever small the act, has more value than great accomplishments on someone else’s agenda.

This is not to say that great accomplishments don’t have value. Rather that the quality of intention and alignment matters more than the quantity of impact. To make the greatest contribution, take time to know your life purpose and calling. Become familiar with the texture of when you are on track. Trust that quality of energy, and allow it to guide you. This the best way to serve any group you are part of.

As you bring forth your authentic contributions you will open space for others to do the same, helping to bring your group and organization into alignment. As you pay attention to the quality of your essence, you will have the clarity and strength for “choiceless change”. It is no longer a struggle to bring forth your perspectives and offerings. You simply bring your best and release.

Making your authentic offering is fulfilling in itself, and releases you from needing a particular outcome. Letting go of outcome, paradoxically, is what creates the most space for co-creation. You help create conditions for magic. Find the quality of being that is most aligned to you, and cleave to that.

Supporting Change Agents

Here is a story of a successful change initiative at a conservative Dutch-based bank, thanks, in part, to the Chaordic Design Framework. It is an excerpt of my forthcoming book: Make Light Work in Groups.

In 2003, two women internal to the bank wanted to make positive change. One worked in the Human Resources department; the other had the “Sustainability” brief.

Their first move was to invite everyone in the bank to a meeting to discuss, “What legacy would you like to leave?”. To their delight, seventy-five people showed up from all corners — across departments, generations and genders, and from bottom to top of the hierarchy.

With this strong response, and thanks to high-level champions, the original pair brought in two consultants to launch what soon gelled as a “Personal Leadership and Change Community”.

Listening for what had attracted people (the need), the group framed its core purpose:

“To live, plant, and support action at [the bank] towards more meaningful and inspiring work/life.”

They also identified ten guiding principles, including:

• We are nourished by successes and mistakes along our way
• We support and inspire each other
• We investigate and connect to other initiatives in [the bank] of a similar intent.

The group was not a department. It had no head honcho, and no budget. Instead what it offered were “spaces” — an intranet site, monthly circles, and quarterly World Cafe or Open Space events, where people were invited to share their ideas and dreams and to find others to join them in taking action.

The Change Community became the “go to” place for people with an idea, and spawned initiatives ranging from events and programs all the way to policy change for the bank as a whole.

Taking stock after five years, here is how they articulated their successes:

Benefits to the Business we saw…

• Nurturing internal innovation capabilities
• Shaping and igniting leadership capacities
• Engaging across diverse business units, functions, and cultures
• Developing design and hosting skills
• Attracting and motivating key employees
• Activating dialogue
• Expanding imagination and generating creative solutions
• Exploring and responding to tomorrow’s opportunities
• Developing collaborative potential
• Experiencing intergenerational discussion and wisdom
• Building trust, relationships and accountability
• Fostering internal personal and institutional resiliency

Supporting change agents supports change. When the purpose is making a difference, beneficial initiatives can come from anywhere in a system. Chaordic Design is a powerful framework for creating an environment that nurtures and connects change makers, whether for an organization as a whole, or for a self-selecting community within a larger context as in the Dutch bank.

In this particular story, a 2009 merger swept in new management. There was no longer high level support for the Change Community and there ceased to be monthly meetings. But the genie was out of the bottle. The ripples had made changes in forty-five departments of the bank. The new skills and experience of working “chaordically” cannot help but be part of ongoing stories of everyone involved. In fact, several of these Change Community members are now entrepreneurs using the Chaordic lens in designing their new ventures.

Related posts:

• Trust is the foundation of healthy groups (and everything)
• Effective Group Decision-making
• Why I’m writing “Make Light Work in Groups”

Scrabble Wisdom

The other day my friend Saskia Wolsak talked about “Scrabble Wisdom”: the insights she has distilled from playing (and winning) dozens of recent games. She’s now taking these insights off the board, and finding them to be a great guide for the game of life too.

Here are her highlights:

• Use what you have. Get the most out of the letters that the game gives you.
• Don’t hold back certain letters hoping to get better combos. I.e. don’t hang on to “I” “N”, “G” hoping to make a fancy word. Keep things moving.
• If you find a great move, look for at least two other options. Challenge yourself to find a better option.
• Don’t be afraid to open up the board. Creating opportunities for your opponent also creates opportunities for you.
• At the end of each day, don’t worry if you’ve won or lost. The real goal is to keep playing, including enjoying the company of your fellow players.

Listening to Saskia, I realize that I have “Swimming Wisdom” — insights distilled from 40 years of swimming laps. Here’s one of my favourites:

• Just jump in! Standing on the edge doesn’t get you anywhere, and putting it off doesn’t take away the need to get into the water.

I bet, if we scratch a bit, that each of us has grounded, super practical wisdom from noticing what works and what doesn’t from some aspect of our life. And because this wisdom comes from within, it is generally custom-tailored to the particulars of our situation. Saskia’s Scrabble Wisdom might or might not be meaningful for you, but the practice of noticing what you notice (flirts) is gold for most of us.

Redirecting Attention

On a recent ferry trip from Vancouver to Victoria, my husband and I bumped into our good friend Mike, a wise soul who has turned me on to wonderful books and videos.

In fact, I have to sidetrack to mention an earlier one, just in case you or someone you know is plagued by back pain: The Mind-body Prescription, by Dr. John E. Sarno. I read it five years ago and have been pain free, leaving behind — simply by reading the book — what had been decades of chronic neck and back pain, and hundreds of visits to a chiropractor. May it be as beneficial to you and yours as it has been to me.

Based on my experience with Sarno’s book, I paid attention when Mike mentioned Catherine Ingram as an author he quite likes, and later sent this link to an interview. The video is long (53 minutes), and it think that is part of its effectiveness. The slower start helped me trust her, and gives a helpful context.

What I particularly love is how Catherine speaks of “redirecting attention”. It’s a phrase that resonates: attention is like a train on a track and tends to trundle along where the track takes it. These past few days, thanks to Catherine’s inspiring talk, I’ve been more able to flip the switch when my mind is caught in unhelpful grooves.

No fuss. No muss. Just simple redirection.

One of the great benefits of doing inner work on a regular basis is (A) you more quickly realize that you are caught in an unhelpful groove, and (B) you are more able to “redirect” your attention — quickly, simply, and with minimal effort.

Some grooves are deeper and more compelling than others, but with practice one can cultivate a habit of redirecting to the present moment — free of tracks and grooves, and much happier for it.