Fontainebleu Forest

The profound metaphor that seems to resonate with so many of us is the analogy he uses about comparing his energy when he is walking through the forest of Fontainebleau in spring and when he is visiting his home town of Calcutta in the summer.  He challenges us to go to the forest in spring and try to have a leisurely walk.

There is something in the air, in the smell of the forest, that can’t help but put a spring in your step that will want to make you jump, skip and run.  When he visits Calcutta in the summer, it is very hot, and very humid.  He is tired most of the time and stays indoors most of the visit.  He generally has a lot of energy, and in Fontainebleau, he has even more.  In Calcutta,  his energy is much lower and his “kick in his step” is diminished.

“Most of us have created Calcutta in the summer inside our organizations”

especially in larger organizations.  And then we blame it on our employees that they won’t want to change, or they’re not motivated or engaged the way we want them to be.

He goes on to describe the four main differences between a “Calcutta in Summer” organizational tone and a “Fontainebleau in Spring.” They include shifting from:

• Constraint, Compliance, Control, & Contract instead to:
• Stretch, Discipline, Trust & Support

He gives examples of what each of these mean and I encourage you to listen to his examples and see what resonates with you as it relates to your own organization.

The real power in his message comes when you invite others to join you  in a dialogue to think together about what this means to you, your team and your organization.

Questions me and my clients have been pondering:

I encourage you to give this inspiring and thought-provoking video a look and bring it to your next team or leadership meeting and invite a conversation and see what comes up.  The beautiful thing is, as Professor Ghoshal points out, even if you do have Calcutta in the Summer in your organization, it IS possible to change it to Fontainebleau in the spring. Here’s the video. And following it, are my gushing appreciations to a few colleagues for introducing me to it and some other resources you may be interested in if you’re as fascinated with social and corporate culture and tone as I am.

Thanks to Dorian who originally introduced me to this video.  Dorian learned of it from Glennie.  I have the privelege of working with both Dorian and Glennie as colleagues of Dialogos.  Dorian is many fabulous things and my favorite is her ability to connect people who need to be connected to create great things and her never ending generosity in bringing fascination and inspiration to the world.  Glennie is simply, to me, one of the absolute best facilitators and coaches I have ever met  and every minute I’m in her presence is like a life time of mentoring.

If you’re interested in organizational culture, check out anything by Ed Schein, particularly Culture and Leadership, or The Corporate Culture Survival Guide.  Professor Ghoshal himself has publications in the MIT Sloan Review as well and you can find his bibliography at:

Professor Ghoshal Wikipedia

I don’t know what stars were aligned yesterday that allowed me to pause and notice that I was getting triggered, but I’ll take whatever it was because it prevented me from doing the less conscious thing:  react immediately and say something I might regret.

Think of a trigger like an internal switch.  It gets switched on when we react to something.  It’s usually something we don’t like or have a negative reaction to.  Triggers left unattended can turn into anger, sarcasm, or other negative or potentially harmful consequences.

Learning to become aware of when we’re triggered is an important part of increasing our self awareness and emotional intelligence.  It also increases our ability to communicate honestly and authentically with others, and build and foster trusting relationships.

Trigger Management

“Trigger Management” requires a certain level of inner quiet and self reflection to understand what the trigger is about.  But first, a few things have to happen.

1)  We have to notice in the first place that we’re being triggered.  If we have a certain level of awareness, we should notice a change in our body somewhere.  Some examples:  tightness in the chest, lump in the throat, stir in the stomach, sweat in the palms, racing in the heart.  Our bodies can be a first signal/communication that we’re being triggered and we don’t like what we’re hearing, experiencing, or seeing.

2)  Once we recognize that we’re getting triggered, we have an opportunity to pause.  A very helpful thing to do is simply breathe. One deep breathe is good, three is great.  This gives us some separation from the trigger and allows us to recognize it and not avoid it through reaction.

3)  After we pause, you can then explore the trigger, but the exploration process depends on the situation you’re in.  The ultimate situation is the one I was in yesterday.  I was with two of my dearest friends, our level of trust with one another is as high as it can get, we’ve known each other for years, and we have no hidden agendas with one another.  So I was able to actually state out loud, “I’m getting triggered by something you just said and I’m just wondering what that is.”  We paused, I recognized the exact statement that triggered me and what it was triggering (in my case, my feelings were hurt), and we talked it through.  And 3 minutes later, my trigger went away, we dropped it and moved on.

Other situations, like in the heat of things at work or when you’re with your boss, aren’t conducive for saying, “I’m getting triggered by something and I’d like to explore what that is.”  Saying that in certain situations can get your job triggered!  In those situations, here’s what I recommend you do:

• Notice you’re getting triggered
• Take a few breaths
• Be careful about your next move:  words, reactions or making  decisions. Most important:  don’t act or react from a place of being triggered.  It will most likely be a heated or energized response that could be blurred or lack objectivity.
• Try to contain your trigger and separate from it, and deal with it later where you can explore it.

The Exploration Process

When you do have time to explore the trigger, ask yourself a few questions:

• What was the exact thing (words, actions, experience, etc.) that started the trigger?
• What is it about that particular thing that triggers me?
• What is my story about that kind of thing?
• Have I ever been triggered by this in the past, or something similar?
• Where might that pattern come from?
• What would it take for me to not be triggered by this “thing?”  (remember, the answer can’t be anything like:  that person goes away, that person stops the behavior, that person/thing/situation changes – so I don’t have to deal with it!)
• What’s at risk if I let go of my attachment or belief to the story I have about that “thing?”

Projection

The most important thing to remember about triggers is not to project on to others.  You know you’re projecting when you wish someone or something would be different.  You hear yourself saying things like, “If only they weren’t like x, y, z.”  ”If only she were a different.”  Whenever you project, you’re avoiding your own stuff, and probably not taking ownership of your own triggers.

I encourage you to pay attention in the next week and see if you can recognize when you’re getting triggered.   Also, do some reflection to ask yourself if there is a pattern in the types of things that cause you to get triggered, and explore that pattern more deeply.   When you “strike when the iron is cold” you can separate from the story/trigger/pattern and see what it will take to shift that pattern for yourself so you’re no longer triggered by it.

I have learned a few things over the years about listening and communication.

• People want to be heard and if you give them a chance to share, they will.
• The quality of your questions determine the quality of the conversation.
• The quality of your energy and presence has a direct impact on what is shared.
• The way you listen determines what you really hear.

In a world of sound bytes, rapid pace, and electronic connection, we’re losing our ability to listen. It is only through this ability that real innovation, change, and relationship can happen.

Here are some suggestions on how to enhance our listening skills at home and in our organizations.

People want to be heard

Most often I find that my clients, who really feel they’re good listeners and generally are good listeners, have not set up the right structures or environment for listening and sharing to really happen. Intentions are good, but we unconsciously block what we’re trying to allow.

Here are some easy changes you can make:

Meeting structures and agendas: do we allow time to check in and check out and let people share what’s going on in life as well as work before we “get down to work?”

Do we have spaces in our office that invite conversation and sharing to happen? Not meeting rooms: conversation rooms – places to rest and share and reflect together without tables or physical barriers that come between people?

Do we commit to and stick to one on one time with each other and allow ourselves to witness, learn and share?

Are our large scale meetings set up for sharing and conversation or just top down feedback and data dump?

When have we last asked the question:  “what would it take for us to create an environment that increases our ability to listen and share?”

Quality Questions

Learning how to ask quality questions takes years of practice. Quality questions are those that cause someone to pause….to take a deep breathe and reflect. You know you’ve asked a quality question when the person responds, “Wow. That’s a really good question.”

As part of my consulting process, I conduct stakeholder interviews. By asking a group of individuals the same questions, we can discover patterns in the system and understand what is trying to emerge. I have found that the order of these questions also makes a difference as we want to create a safe and comfortable place for storytelling to happen and for truth to be spoken.

Here are some of my favorite questions (many from which came from The Presencing Institute.) What are yours? Be disciplined about reflecting on your inquiry skills and think about what questions change conversations and create connections and which ones don’t.

1. Describe your leadership journey and how you got to “here”
2. What significant challenges have you experienced in this journey and how did you deal with those challenges?
3. What are your core values in life? What’s most important to you?
4. If you were to give your child advice for living in one word, what word would you choose?
5. What is a life motto or words you live by?
6. In order for you to be successful, what do you need to learn and what do you need to let go of?
7. What wants to happen here? What is waiting to emerge if we just let it?
8. Why are you here and what do you want?

The quality of your energy and presence

I just had the privilege of spending the day with Otto Scharmer from the Presencing Institute, an event hosted by The Heartland Institute.

I believe he said it best:  we need to move from “I think, therefore I am” (Descartes) to “I attend this way therefore it emerges that way.”

I have learned time and time again, that what I do before a conversation, interview or a day with a group, affects the quality of my energy and presence during the interaction.

Too many times I had an early morning interview or session and my typical habits got the best of me: I’m not a morning person, I wake up late, I have to skip meditation and yoga practice, and I rush out to the door to walk in right when we’re about to start.

NOT GOOD.

In fact, it’s down right irresponsible of me.

I’m still learning, but what I do know is that spending time to tend to the quality of my own presence has a direct impact on every interaction I have. So, at a minimum, I take a breath, try to find a quiet space by myself, and clear my head. Ideally, I spend 30 minutes meditating, do my yoga practice, sip my coffee slowly, fuel with a healthy breakfast, and create a sense of presence.

But this is just the beginning.  A great beginning, but just the start.  This requires a life review in many respects.  How does our life style impact our inner state?  Do we create space for reflection, exercise, balance, creativity?  Do we have routines in place that allow for reflection and growth.  You’ll be amazed at how your state of mind affects how you see the world AND the energy and the interactions around you.

We need to slow down to speed up. Our bodies, hearts, mind and spirit are dying for us to give them some breathing space. When you do, you’ll be amazed at how different your experience and outcome is.

The Way We Listen

Listening is a skill that is learned. Leaders and practitioners who are skilled at listening, can clear the way for greatness to happen.

Otto, in his book The U Theory, describes four levels of listening. I think most of us get stuck in the first two:

1. Downloading: listening from a place of knowing and reconfirming your own world views. “Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know that already” is the inner voice.
2. Factual: paying attention to facts, words, data only and comparing it to what you already know – is it similar or different. “Look at that: this is similar or different to what I think” and you respond based on that similarity or difference.
3. Empathic: we listen from a deeper level of understanding – a place of connection with someone else or something else and connect from a deep place. This is where true dialogue can happen and often, when it does, profound shifts are made in both parties. “I know how you feel” is often the sense.  We forget ourselves in the conversation and create space.
4. Generative: By the end of the conversation, you’re no longer the same person. Generative listening changes people because it requires us to listen from a source deep within us – one not controlled by our head or even our heart – but from a capacity to connect to the highest future possibility or something that wants to emerge.

Every time I talk to someone, I try to check in on my quality of listening. If I catch myself in stages 1 or 2, I take a deep breath and try to lean into empathic listening. When I do, the conversation takes a turn, we drop to a deeper place, and it’s like the whole world around us goes quiet. That’s when the real stuff starts to come out and only when it’s real, can we transform.

As you finish reading this, I encourage you to reflect on your own listening skills, the quality of your attention, the quality of your inner state,  and pay attention to your next conversation. The act of listening is one of the greatest gifts we can give to each other.

So February 2 is Groundhog Day and all eyes are on the Groundhog – will he or won’t he see his shadow?  If he does, he will retreat back in his burrow and winter will continue for six more weeks.  

I wish I could do that every time I see my shadow;  hide under the covers and rest for awhile.  But unfortunately, it’s not that easy.

Some of us are familiar with the concept:  The Shadow.

In Jungian psychology, the shadow is a part of the unconscious mind, consisting of repressed weaknesses, shortcomings or instincts.  

In every day life, our shadow can emerge in self-sabatoging, uncontrollable behaviors that can muck things up.  

It all starts innocently.  As children, we develop coping mechanisms to deal with the world around us.  It doesn’t matter how healthy, happy or tragic your childhood was, we all did it.  We created stories and mechanisms to protect ourselves.  As we get older, some of those stories no longer serve us, but we play them out in unconscious ways and create patterns or behaviors that get in our way of our authentic self.  The more these patterns play out, the farther away we are from our true self.  

Here are some simple examples of how our shadow plays itself out in daily life.

• You learned as a child that the best way to get approval from mom and dad was to keep your head down and get good grades.  So you do that at work and avoid taking risks and stay with what’s easy, or secure vs. doing what you love to do and is unfamiliar.
• You use distractions to avoid feeling what you’re feeling:  watching TV, cleaning/organizing, staying busy all the time, having a glass of wine, unconscious eating, addiction to checking email or surfing the net, overworking.  You know you do it, and you don’t necessarily like it, but for some reason, the pattern persists.
• You keep finding jobs or bosses that are difficult to work with, every where you go, so you either stick with them and are miserable, or hop job to job/boss to boss, determined to find the right “place” but there’s always something wrong every where you go.
• There’s something about a certain type of person that triggers you every time, you’re not sure why, but the trigger is always there.

I could go on for days with the list – heck, my personal list of shadow behaviors would be long.  

The trick is creating some awareness of our shadow and embracing it – not judging ourselves for it, but understanding it, inviting it into our lives as a way of going deeper into understanding of self.  When we’re aware of something, we have more ability to control how we respond to it.  When we’re unaware of it, it tends to control us.  

I hope we can all be inspired to  ”Embrace our shadow” and own our “stuff.”  We all carry baggage around, but it’s those that take the time to unpack it that I admire most.  It’s not easy, it’s not always fun, but it gets us closer to the most authentic form of who we’re meant to be.  And in the end, I’m not sure what’s more important than being true to ourselves.   When we are, we’re better off and everyone around us is as well.

When we’re authentic, we’re in flow, time is on our side, we’re happy, healthy, and can serve others with higher abilities.  We get more “done” and we love what we’re doing.  It feels right.  It feels good.  

So, how do you start this dance with your shadow?  

Here are some suggestions:

Journal - start writing every day and reflecting on what’s coming up for you – what patterns are you witnessing in yourself that you feel might not be serving you well.  Here are some great questions to explore through journalling:

• What patterns am I starting to notice in myself?
• what or who tends to trigger me or cause strong reactions in me?  What might that say about me?  What can I learn from it?
• What fears do I have and are they based on old stories?
• What do I avoid doing and why?
• What do I do, and who do I hang out with that feeds my energy?  What are some patterns you notice in this list?
• What do I do, and who do I hang out with that drains my energy?  What are some patterns you notice in this list?
• When am I most in flow or feel most alive?  

Start meditating or reflecting daily - give yourself some space to just “be” – sit and breathe for a bit, even five minutes a day, helps create some space in your head to let new thoughts and ideas emerge. 
If you have an Insights Discovery profile, use it to discuss with your coach or facilitator to understand where you shadow behaviors come from.
Read - see my list of suggestions under Resources.
Take a class – Debbie Ford has great classes/lectures (www.debbieford.com) as does the Shadow Work Center (www.shadowwork.com)
Learn about Jungian Psychology and Archetypes - go on Wikipedia, or read “A Short Introduction to Jung” by Stevens.
Get a coach that has a psychological background
Find a Jungian Therapist (they specialize in shadow work)
Call me – anytime, I’m happy to discuss or get your started

I’m not sure what will happen on February 2nd when the ground hog comes out.  All I know is, I’ve lived in Chicago my entire life,  and as much as I’d like this ground hog to have an affect on shortening our miserable winter, I’ve learned that it ain’t over ’til it’s over.

I love them so much that I thought about getting a tattoo on my wrist that was a big green question mark to remind me to always be curious.  But then my friends told me I would look like The Riddler from Batman so I scrapped the idea.

Asking great questions is an art and takes skill, but with practice, anyone can be a great and curious inquirer.

Questions alone don’t create great conversations.  Balancing them with skilled advocacy can help people and teams get UNSTUCK in a meeting or avoid repeating the same old conversation.

Advocacy is expressing a view or making a statement about your position.

Inquiry is exploring the views of others through questions.

Advocacy and inquiry are the basic elements of any conversation.  

HOW you advocate and inquire determines the quality of the conversation.

When advocacy reveals the steps in your thinking and gives specific examples, it promotes learning.  When inquiry is effective, it seeks alternative views, probes others’ thinking and invites others to challenge your own thinking.

Reflection:  How much time do you spend in advocacy and inquiry?  Do certain people, meetings or situations bring out one more than the other?  Why do you think that is? What does that help you learn about yourself?  How effective is your team at balancing advocacy and inquiry?

Here are some suggestions to help you and others get better at these essential conversational skills:

Advocacy:

General rule:  making your thinking process visible to others

1. Share your data and what you know.
2. Tell others about your reasoning and thought processes.
3. Be aware of your assumptions and acknowledge them to others (this takes practice and self awareness).
4. Test your conclusions rather than treating them like fact.
5. Invite and explore alternative interpretations of the data.

Sounds like:  ”Here’s what I think and how I got there.  What do you think about what I just said and what can you add?   What flaws/missing links do you see?”

Inquiry:  

General rule:  ask open ended questions to promote further exploration 

1. Ask questions that surface reasoning and data.
2. Seek alternative views.
3. Stay curious.

Sounds like:  ”What are we missing?  Can you give me an example? What assumptions are we making?  What obstacles could get in our way of success?  What would it take to ________ ?  What’s everyone’s definition of __________ ?”

Action:  Pay attention this week and see how much time you and your team spends in advocacy or inquiry.   At your next meeting look for patterns of being higher in one or the other.  Ask yourself, and others, “What would it take for us to balance these?”  Start a dialogue by asking, “What would it take for us to change the quality of our meetings and our conversations?”  Use this blog and the resources below to help educate yourself and your team on how to be more effective at leveraging your meetings to promote learning, creativity and innovation.

For additional resources on advocacy and inquiry, you might want to check out:

• Dialogue:  The Art of Thinking Together by William Isaacs
• and the article from the Society of Organizational Learning:  http://www.solonline.org/pra/tool/inquiry.html which gives specific examples and verbiage to use when practicing these two skills in a conversation.

Robert Redford isn’t here but his energy and creativity is.

I just finished working here with a client.  They’re a leadership team, who in my opinion, “gets it.”  They’re really grounded in doing the right things to achieve their goals without sacrificing employee engagement or development.

Our objectives were to maintain and increase the leadership team effectiveness and plan for 2009.  When you work with teams who are already great, you need to focus on the highest leverage points to help them sustain that level of mastery.

As with most leadership teams at the moment, the focus is on the ’09 business in light of this “economic downturn.”  The most common reaction, of course, is to “reduce or minimize costs.”  I’m sure in some cases there is validity in this approach.

During times of uncertainty, organizations cannot afford to lose productivity due to distracted or fearful employees. It causes a reinforcing loop of reactive behavior on leadership’s part.  Employees start “comparing notes” on what they heard, surfing job boards, and lose energy.  Leaders then see productivity decrease, sales drop, they blame it on the economy, and cut more costs.  Meanwhile, they can get so distrcracted at “watching the numbers” they forget to communicate.  The gap between leadership and everyone else starts to grow and employees can feel left in the dark.

No matter what your ’09 plan is, make sure that you leave enough time to communicate. And I don’t mean more email communication, I mean COMMUNICATION & ENGAGEMENT.  Here are some suggestions:

1. Meet with teams more regularly and add check-ins at the beginning of every meeting.  A simple, “how are you?” is effective.  Letting people talk about their thoughts and feelings is a powerful way of letting employees feel heard.  Let each person speak without anyone responding or “fixing.”   Just naming what’s going on makes a significant difference.
2. Town Halls from Leadership – the more you can gather everyone together to talk about what you know AND let them ask questions and dialogue with you, the more collective your organizaitonal efforts will be.  Don’t make the mistake of speaking to the employees without giving them a chance to talk with you. This doesn’t mean a typical Q&A.  Most employees, especially during uncertain times, will not ask questions in a Town Hall.  The real dialogue comes in small groups.  Ask them to speak at their table about three things:  What do you like about what you hear?  What concerns you?  What questions do you have? Then, ask them to share with the larger group, or, ask them to write things on sticky notes and have a facilitator gather them.  Read them outloud anonymously.  The points is to name what people are thinking and feeling so the unknowns and unsaids don’t take over the tone and energy of an organization.
3. Be sure your communication and talking points are consistent throughout the leadership teams and management. Many times leaders are charged with “bring this back to your team.”  That’s tricky if everyone delivers it differently:  different timing, different tones, different information being shared.  Be diligent about being 100% in sync with messaging and timing.  Coach leaders who have a weakness in communication.  This is crticial to your success as an organization.
4. Last, but most important, make sure your message and your means match.  Employees will listen to what you say.  But if your behavior doesn’t line up with your message, it’s the behavior that communicates more loudly than your words. THAT’S what will be heard in the end.

Post your thoughts or questions.  I’m happy to help anyone provide the proper communication plan and would love for all of us to share our stories and learn together.  And by the way, I highly recommend Sundance as a great venue for your offsite meetings.  It was my first time there and after being in thousands of meeting facilities, this will be one of my top choices.  Cost effective, fantastic and friendly service, great meeting and lodging spaces and most of all, a stunning setting for planning, thinking teambuilding and creativity.