The Direction of Intention

Truly Powerful People (371)

Posted on March 15, 2012 by davidrobinsoncreative

371.
Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

Today is a day of amazing quotes. The first came to me this morning from Beth and is by author Jonah Lehrer; I clapped my flippers when I read it. The second is from Martin Prechtel; read what this amazing man is writing – all of it! This is from his new book, The Unlikely Peace at Chuchumaquic.

“We now know enough to know that we will never know everything. This is why we need art: it teaches us how to live with mystery. Only the artist can explore the ineffable without offering us an answer, for sometimes there is no answer. John Keats called this romantic impulse ‘negative capability.’ He said that certain poets, like Shakespeare, had ‘the ability to remain in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason.’ Keats realized that just because something can’t be solved, or reduced into the laws of physics, doesn’t mean it isn’t real. When we venture beyond the edge of our knowledge, all we have is art.” Jonah Lehrer

“For the Indigenous Souls of all people who can still remember how to be real cultures, life is a race to be elegantly run, not a race to be competitively won. It cannot be won; it is the gift of the world’s diverse beautiful motion that must be maintained. Because human life has been given the gift of elegant motion, whether we limp, roll, crawl, stroll, or fly, it is an obligation to engender that elegance of motion in our daily lives in service to maintaining life by moving and living as beautifully as we can.” Martin Prechtel

I was reading Martin when Jonah arrived in my email; images inflected to tell a third story. These are images shared from opposite sides of the circle but both are looking to the center.

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Truly Powerful People (370)

Posted on March 14, 2012 by davidrobinsoncreative

370.
Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

There are those wonderful rare weeks that the dials of my mind turn a notch or two, the penny drops, the door of the safe opens, the apple hits my head, and something that I have been wrangling with for years becomes crystal clear. I always know the insight is worthy if it seems too simple. As I learned in school and experience in life, a complexity is never changed with another complexity; systems always change through local simplicities. I am living in one of those zones. The apples are raining on me everyday. Over the weekend I saw with absolute clarity how to create structures within organizations so that they might function as fluid, dynamic, self-organizing systems: systems for our times and not the 1860’s. It’s so simple! And, of course, it requires the creation of power-with-others – no managers necessary.

I learn something new everyday and ironically most of my new learning comes from those that I teach or coach. Today, another penny was dropped on my noggin by a brilliant class and this time it wasn’t a revelation about something new, it was an explanation of something old, a piece of a puzzle that I didn’t even know was missing. Here’s the reader’s digest version (or for those of you under 40, the blog version):

Master coach, teacher and author, Alan Seale, developed a simple but profound model he calls The Four Levels of Engagement. This model is extraordinarily useful for personal and/or organizational change – it’s the same thing.

According to the model we plug into life, into our conversations, into our thoughts at one of these 4 levels:
1) Drama – (to blame)
2) Situation – (to fix or to solve – to try to contain a complexity)
3) Choice
4) Opportunity

The rule is to get the third level as fast as possible: learn that you are always in choice. Always. Our actions will reflect which level we inhabit. Most of us run our lives from levels 1 & 2: driven by circumstance, reactive, blaming, problem solving, defending and justifying. If you doubt me, listen to yourself for 24 hours or pay attention to the conversations happening around you for a day; most will be blame stories, a few will be tales of fixing problems, occasionally you’ll hear someone in choice.

Here’s the apple that hit my head today: when teaching the 4 Levels most people will report that Choice and Opportunity feel powerful, but Drama and Situation are more comfortable. I’ve always explained to myself that Choice and Opportunity require personal power and responsibility: when you recognize that you are in choice every minute of every day you of necessity must own your choices – and it feels good to be powerful but not always comfortable. But, that’s only part of the picture –and this is what occurred to me: Drama provides an illusion. We go into drama when we are feeling powerless; blaming (Drama) provides the illusion of control/power. That’s where the comfort comes from: the illusion of power to soothe feelings of powerlessness. The same is true for the Situation: when you don’t know what to do, fix something. We enter fix-it mode when we feel helpless; the illusion of competence is most comfortable in the face of helplessness. This is the business world’s Achilles Heel. In the face of complexity (so we don’t know what to do), we reduce everything to a problem and pretend it can be solved, tested and fixed. Voila! Competence.

Living in choice is not always comfortable. Moving into power often requires releasing the security blanket of knowing. Growth, in all its forms is a step into not-knowing and that can be many things but rarely is it comfortable.

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Truly Powerful People (369)

Posted on March 13, 2012 by davidrobinsoncreative

369.
Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

I have the sense that happiness and wholeness are trying really hard to catch me. All I need do is stop for a moment, open my arms, and receive them.

In the midst of my running, Catherine reminds me to be still. She reminds me to stop and open my arms. She reminds me to know what I already know.

I know to be still and yet I find myself running and running. What is this gap between what I know and what I practice? What is my story of needing to run?

Story functions as a kind of structure. It is the medium through which we construct our version of reality. My story structure necessitates running. I cycle around and around and around this story of running saying to myself, “Be still.”

Scott told me of Hawking Radiation. In his description, two molecules are locked in single motion on opposite sides of a black hole. They orbit a black hole and serve to hold each other in place. If one of the molecules breaks, moves out of sync, a delicate balance is broken. One molecule flies off into space, untethered. The other is sucked into the black hole and with that motion, the hole collapses. All evidence, all history, all story of the hole is gone as if it never existed. A new story is possible.

One molecule moves out of sync and the story structure collapses. What two molecules hold my story in place? What molecule do I need to jigger out of sync? What history do I need to collapse to be still, as I know, and receive happiness and wholeness?

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Truly Powerful People (368)

Posted on March 12, 2012 by davidrobinsoncreative

368.
Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

I had a conversation today with Sylvia and many bulbs lit above my noggin. Things I have been chewing on for a few years came into clarity. We were talking about teams, particularly training people to work as more effective teams.

I have been saying to no audience in particular that “Time is money” is an antiquated industrial era notion; today relationship is money. That is not some woo-woo notion. Read any business magazine and count the number of times you see the word “nimble” or “responsive” or “flexible” or “fast pace of change.” These are the words and phrase used to describe the characteristics of a successful business; these are the words used to describe the business needs of the day.

In the old world the structure of a business was the management hierarchy, business as control. Control models slow you down, they restrict energy and innovation because that is what they were designed to do. Nimble is anathema to the culture of control.

What I realized today, what has been right in front of my face for ages, is that the structure of a nimble business exists within the relationships of a team. The structure of a team is concrete, it is in the agreements they make and hold and cultivate together. Nimble is a team that knows what they serve and why they serve it (they are oriented according to what they bring). Nimble is a team that can adjust and respond to rapid change; it is a form of flocking behavior: simple relationships that are capable of complex movement. Nimble is possible when the team holds itself responsible, when the individuals that make up the team hold themselves responsible, when accountability (one of my least favorite business terms) is personal and does not require any form of accountability police (otherwise known as management) to hold the line.

Relationship, carefully created around specific agreements, is the structure of contemporary business. Nimble is possible when powerful people empower people.

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Truly Powerful People (367)

Posted on March 11, 2012 by davidrobinsoncreative

367.
Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

“What walks you?”

I had a Bowenwork session with Scott and after a particularly powerful move he asked me to walk across the room to integrate the work. Watching how I walked after the adjustment, he asked this question, “What walks you?” At first I thought he misspoke or left a word out of his question. I thought he meant to ask, “What walks with you?”

He smiled at my look of puzzlement. Scott is 3 parts trickster, a joy monger with eyes that see behind the thickest mask; his questions pierce the sturdiest armor. This question was exact, a bolt from a crossbow. His grin blossomed to full Cheshire as my look of puzzlement slowly morphed into wide-eyed understanding.

Prior to the appointment I was feeling exhausted. I’ve been working hard, putting out lots of energy to create a new business and not yet seeing much return. I felt overwhelmed. This past year I have not had much room in my heart for play.

I carry within me the puritan story. My people are Iowa farmers and Colorado gold rush miners: work hard for little gain. Grind it out. Hard work makes honest people; little gain keeps people honest. However much I’ve tried to shed the narrative it is a story I have carried forward. Gain too much, live too easily and the story falls apart. Overwhelm is structural mechanism to keep the limiting story intact.

“Is it play that walks you? Anxiety? Is it ‘running late’ that walks you? Is it ‘do more’ that walks you? Is it fear?” He paused, eyes twinkling. “It’s just a story,” Scott said, reading my thoughts. “Is it what you want to walk you?”

You tell the story and in turn the story tell you. “Why not let play walk you?” he asked. “Why hold back what really wants to move you?”

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Truly Powerful People (366)

Posted on March 10, 2012 by davidrobinsoncreative

366.
Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

When I first started to write this blog I had severe doubts that I could sustain it for more than 10 days. Horatio said, “Hell! If you can write for 10 days you can write for a thousand.” He was, of course, correct.

I was concerned that there was a limit to my experiences, a finite number of things to say. I was certain that I’d exhaust anything of interest in less than a month – like an introvert at a cocktail party I’m okay at the opening but oh-my-god-now-what-do-I-say. Horatio laughed. He already knew that experiences are infinite, that each day brings a new gem. His message to me: pay attention: your only true limit is your idea of yourself.

There were days that I wondered why I was writing. It was for me, certainly, but why post my random thoughts about power. And then, Patricia would send me a reflection on a post, an encouragement, a question. She’d write: “This rang a bell for me!” or she’d thank me for the thought. So I’d post the next – a secret thought for Patricia and no more doubt about why I was writing. Once, Jill’s connection was broken and she didn’t receive the post. The subject line of her email to me was, “Hey! Where is it?” There were a few secret thoughts for Jill, too.

Then, there were the thoughts that came back at me. More than once Megan took my breath away with the depth of her insight, the expanse of her curiosity. Early on Ana-the-wise would teach me, “I read what you wrote and I have a question,” she would say. And then, “I think you are missing an important point.” And so a rich dialogue ensued. Tamara sent me stories, lyrics, and a piece of the sun.

Today, I crack open a bottle of bubbly to mark this milestone and an ever-growing community of Truly Powerful People. I can’t wait for you to meet each other and I look forward to what we will create together in the year to come.

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Truly Powerful People (365)

Posted on March 9, 2012 by davidrobinsoncreative

365.
Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

Ana-the-wise and I chatted today about agreements. She said, “All relationships are built upon agreements – conscious or unconscious. Harmony in a relationship is available when the agreements are conscious.” When people in any form of relationship – couples, business relationships, friendships make and honor their agreements, as Ana says, “there is conscious accord.”

Joe once told me that the universe tends toward wholeness; we want to make something better and we want to make it together. In fact, we can’t make anything better alone because “better” for us humans is a relationship aspiration. We lean in to connection. We are a pack animal. Making agreements is an attempt to make things better between people: it is a commitment to clear communication.

I’ve come to understand that we are all watching a different movie; I star in my movie and you star in yours – and although there are 7 billion different movies playing on earth on any given day we make the assumption that there is only one movie and it happens to be the one we are starring in. Thus, the need for agreements and clear communication. We can’t assume that our movies are remotely the same – even if we attend the same event or grew up in the same house; anyone who’s compared notes with their siblings will know what I mean.

Of course, the real work begins with the agreements you make with yourself. The relationship you create with yourself is the epicenter of all the others. It’s tough to make meaningful agreements with other people when there is warfare raging in your mind. When power games are rampant on the inside they are bound to show up in all the relationships outside. Stop playing power-over games with yourself and you will stop playing them with others. Ana said it this way: “First you have to learn to manage the ego.” And then, power-with is possible.

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Truly Powerful People (364)

Posted on March 8, 2012 by davidrobinsoncreative

364.
Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

It is one of my favorite paradoxes. No one is powerful alone – yet stepping into true personal power is something that must be done alone. Stepping into true power has nothing – and everything – to do with other people.

As is true in story cycles, when it is time to go into the belly of the whale, no one can go there with you; the final stage in the journey to personal power must be done alone. No one is going to hold your hand, Jonah! Luke Skywalker had lots of help along the way but the moment came when he had to face the dark side and he had to do it all by himself. The young wife stood alone at the mouth of the cave all through the night as she awaited the bear. She had to face her bear all by herself.

The paradox gets rich following this moment of utter aloneness, after the bear has been confronted, the dark side defeated, when the whale spits you out and you survive; the moment after the attainment of personal power, you must turn around and make a run for home. The new-you has no purpose if you stay out in the wilderness all by yourself; the entire point of facing the bear is to bring the boon back to the community. The whole point of personal transformation is to bring better service, more power, back to the community. You ARE the boon and you are without purpose if not shared. It is a nice thing to find your center, face your bear, and realize your capacity for power and it has no real meaning if it is lorded over others or hoarded; power-with is the point.

This is what I mean when I say, “You can’t possibly serve others well until you first serve yourself.” Service that seeks fulfillment from others is not true service. First you must find your true power; only then can you orient according to what you bring to the community as opposed to living according to what you get from the community.

The amazing Megan said it best: “When you walk toward others, you walk away from yourself. When you walk toward yourself, you walk toward others.”

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Truly Powerful People (363)

Posted on March 7, 2012 by davidrobinsoncreative

363.
Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

On my drive home a few days ago I caught a bit of an interview with Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson, Arun. He was explaining an essential idea that he learned from his grandfather: passive violence is the root cause of all physical forms violence. “When we see people in poverty and do nothing,” he said, “that is a passive form of violence.”

I immediately thought of how we fund our public schools. Each school is funded according to the tax base of the property surrounding the school. The schools surrounded by wealthiest homes receive more money; the schools surrounded by modest homes receive less; the schools that receive the least amount of money are in the poorest neighborhoods. India has its caste system; the United States has its tax code. Is not this what Arun Gandhi means by passive violence? Add to this the application of a standardized test applied equally to all schools with the jaw-dropping assumption that all schools play on a level playing field. Is this passive violence or something more intentional? Certainly the children know the difference; the children feel the impact.

Here is a question I asked in one of my first posts:

What world would you embody if your desire was not a response to personal lack but an impulse toward greater wholeness for everyone?

What would be your dedication? What story would you tell?

So I change the pronoun and ask it again:

What world would we embody if our desire was not a response to personal lack but an impulse toward greater wholeness for everyone?

What would be our dedication? What story would we tell?

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Truly Powerful People (362)

Posted on March 6, 2012 by davidrobinsoncreative

362.
Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

As I move toward the center I find a most profound stillness and a very special part of me: pure curiosity. It’s pure because it wants to experience simply for the sake of experiencing. It is at one moment the most human part of me and the most transcendent. Experiences powered by a pure curiosity need no translation. It is life as poetry.

As I occupy my center I also recognize that there are very few things I know with certainty. One of my certainties is this:

All humans are creative; it is what defines us. It is neither our opposable thumbs nor our walking legs that make us human. It is our insatiable curiosity and desire to see what will happen if…. Curiosity is the center.

Curiosity is the essential element that excites and ignites creativity. “What if…” is at the heart of every love story and every story of fear. It is at the center of every human story including the inner narrative: the story-you-tell-yourself-about-yourself. Curiosity is elemental to happiness: a curiosity satisfied, that savory sweet moment of understanding, the space between inhale and exhale, the perfect rest before the next “What if….”

It is impossible for you not to be creative but it is very possible to experience yourself as not creative. If you have labeled yourself as “not creative” it is a good bet that at some point in your life your curiosity got you into trouble: you went where you weren’t supposed to go, said what others would not say, sang for the joy of it and got slapped: it’s a good bet your curiosity got blanketed with sticky shame and you learned to put a lock on it. You developed an especially critical judge to make sure curiosity stays in the shadows.
The path to full expression and the recovery of your creative experience lies through curiosity. It is waiting for you at the center. All you need do is ask, “What if…” and follow curiosity’s lead.

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