The Direction of Intention

Truly Powerful People (251)

Posted on November 17, 2011 by davidrobinsoncreative

251.
Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

Each week in class we do a review of peer calls – coaches coaching each other – and we talk about what they learned from each other. One of the coaches was unable to connect with her peer but came to class very excited to tell us of her experiences in life during the past week. She said, “I think I’m more conscious!” Her excitement was palpable.

What do you mean by that,” I asked.

“I’m connecting with people in a different way.”

“How do you know? What feels different?”

She paused for a moment and offered, “I am less guarded – no, I am not guarded at all. I don’t feel the need to protect myself all of the time. I am much more available. And, here’s the thing, I am listening to people at a much deeper level. What people say is not always what they are saying.” And then she added, “It feels like life is an invitation.”

Extend an invitation to the world, and the world will extend an invitation to you. It is how things work. It’s the same notion as empowered people empower others simply because they step into the world as truly powerful.

I’ve suspected all along that life is really as simple as a Beatles lyric: The love you take is equal to the love you make.

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Truly Powerful People (250)

Posted on November 16, 2011 by davidrobinsoncreative

250.
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 huge revelation last week helped along by two experiences.

On a walk around the park, Megan and I bumped into Amy who had a new iphone. Amy was delighted and a bit mystified by her phone. She showed us how she could ask the phone (Siri) any question and the phone responded: Siri, a lovely female voice, gave her the answer. “So what,” you might say, “Everyone will have one soon, it’s the newest, latest, best-est, craze.” Yes. This technology is incredible and already ubiquitous; and it is not going away. In fact this technology, like all technologies is doing more than impacting us, this technology is changing us. What is it to have a device in your pocket that can answer most questions that pop into your noggin the very moment the question pops in?

Megan is in college, all of her classes are on-line, her connection to peers and teachers is virtual, she does research through Google, the entire experience is about access through technology UNTIL it is time to test what students have learned. The test is about the knowledge retained or contained in the noggin of the student even though the student, up to the moment of the test, has never needed to contain/retain or be the source of information anytime during the process.

The concept of “student” has for centuries been defined as a receiver (container) of information; we know how much knowledge has successfully made it into the container by testing the memory of the student. Memory has high value in the student-as-container paradigm. The role of “teacher” has for centuries been to pour the information into the student’s head. Teacher as source made sense until recently.

These roles and definitions have bugged me for a long time; I knew it was old world thinking but couldn’t put my finger on why or what the new world notion is or could be. Megan and Amy helped me see it. We live in the age of interconnectivity. The internet is greatest connector ever invented. The web is the greatest source of information in the history of humanity and anyone can plug into it. In fact, to work and live in the modern era you NEED to plug into it. Knowing how to access information and determine if it is relevant, substantial and useful is now the most necessary skill to master. Student’s can’t be passive receivers and no longer need to be containers. Mostly, they don’t require a teacher to pour information into their heads; they need a teacher who can guide their pursuit and help them learn to discern substance from blather. The teacher can no longer be the source (they can be a source). Student-as-container is the old paradigm; student as the “pursuer” of information is here to stay. The way we educate needs to catch up to the realities of life in this century.

As an educator said to me last year, “The kids are going around us. We’re standing in the way.”

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Truly Powerful People (249)

Posted on November 15, 2011 by davidrobinsoncreative

249.
Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

Power is like the sack in this Sufi Story:

Mula came upon a frowning man trudging along the road to town. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

The man held up a tattered bag and moaned, “All that I own in this wide world barely fills this miserable, wretched sack.”

“Too bad,” said Mula, and with that, he snatched the bag from the man’s hands and ran down the road with it.

Having lost everything, the man burst into tears and, more miserable than before, continued walking. Meanwhile, Mula quickly ran around the bend and placed the man’s sack in the middle of the road where he would have to come upon it.

When the man saw his bag sitting in the road before him, he laughed with joy, and shouted, “My sack! I thought I’d lost you!”

Watching through the bushes, Mula chuckled. “Well, that’s one way to make someone happy!”

Power-with-others is not something you acquire. It is something you have and do not appreciate. People rarely see their own power when they have it but are very aware of it when it is missing. They find their great gift when they stop trying to be clever, when they stop trying to have power over others. Power-with is natural; we only have to work hard to lose it.

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Truly Powerful People (248)

Posted on November 14, 2011 by davidrobinsoncreative

248.
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 clean out my files I am discovering notes and stories that I have no memory of writing or receiving. Here is a piece that I found tucked in the dark corners of a file marked Perspective. Someone must have sent it to me a few years ago because they knew I’d pass it along someday! Today is that day:

One day a father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip to
the country with the firm purpose of showing his son how poor people
live.

They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of a very poor family. On their return from their trip, the father asked his son, “How was the trip?”

“It was great, Dad.”

“Did you see how poor people live?” the father asked.

“Oh yeah,” said the son.

“So, tell me, what did you learn from the trip?” asked the father.

The son answered:

“I saw that we have one dog and they had four.

We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they
have a creek that has no end.

We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at
night.

Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon.

We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that
go beyond our sight.

We have servants who serve us, but they serve others.

We buy our food, but they grow theirs.

We have walls around our property to protect us, they have friends
to protect them.”

The boy’s father was speechless.

Then his son added, “Thanks, Dad, for showing me how poor we are.”

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Truly Powerful People (247)

Posted on November 13, 2011 by davidrobinsoncreative

247.
Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

Among his many clients, Mitch Hammer consults with the military. A few years ago he was talking about The Ground Truth and I asked him about the phrase. The Ground Truth is term used by soldiers to describe what is actually happening on the ground (of course) despite what the politicians and generals think or decide should be happening. It is the actual experience as measured against the ideal or the abstraction.

The creation of power begins when you take a look at the ground truth. What is actually happening versus what you think should be happening? Can you let go the ideal long enough to locate yourself in your ground truth? What do you see when you drop the list of should-do and should-be and simply see what is?

The ground truth is often obscured behind a wall of judgments and expectations, manipulations and enabling. The ground truth lives beyond belief and faith. Can you allow yourself to suspend the judgments, set down the expectations, let go of the resistances and simply describe What is?

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Truly Powerful People (246)

Posted on November 12, 2011 by davidrobinsoncreative

246.
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 two quotes that populate my old website. I love them both and together they are the bookends of what I value. Tonight I recognize that they are the acorns for this meditation on power.

The first is from Reynolds Price: “The need to tell stories is essential to us, second in necessity to nourishment and before love and shelter.” Reynolds Price was precise in his choice of language and it was not an accident that he chose the word “essential” in reference to our need for story. Story is how we make meaning of our lives; we story ourselves every minute of the day. Without the story we would wither and die just as surely as if we were deprived of water. The story that you tell yourself can be generative or toxic; it can support your growth or stunt your potential. Either way it is a story that you tell.

The second quote is from Glade Byron Addams: “Chase down your passion like it’s the last bus of the night.” Today, I spent the day in a high school and many of the kids (and teachers) have let the bus leave without them. They’ve forgotten that there was a bus to catch. I thought about this quote a lot today and wished I had the Promethean spark to rekindle their heart fire. I wanted to shout, “The bus is here and it is leaving, run now! You can catch it if you run now, bang on the door and force it to stop for you!” I wondered if they know that their passions are worth chasing.

I wondered if they know that there are passionate people in the world like Lisa, Jill and Megan that believe in them and are willingly throwing themselves in front of the bus because they think passions are worth chasing. They are amazing and carry with them that sacred spark, reigniting hearts and reminding students and teachers alike that someone cares about their passions more than their performance scores.

They know and live boldly the essential power of story. Those voices you hear as you chase that last bus of the night are these three incredible people cheering for you to run like the wind and catch your hearts desire.

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Truly Powerful People (245)

Posted on November 11, 2011 by davidrobinsoncreative

245.
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 1978 and I am miserable in high school. I have learned to jump through the hoops to get my requisite “A” yet the closer I get to graduation the more untenable the hoop jumping becomes. I do not yet know there is another way and although I am at the top of my class I am considering dropping out. And then I sign up for a class in comparative religions taught by a most unusual man. His name is Robert Place and unlike most of my teachers he seems to love his job. Everyday he enters the room whistling and I am always surprised by what we do. Actually, to be clear, I am surprised because we do more than listen to him and take notes; we explore, we question, we challenge, we reach, and are encouraged to think for ourselves. I work harder in his class than I have ever worked in a class because I am more than a mere receiver of information; I am engaged with questions that matter to me and for the first time in my path through education I believe that what I have to say matters. In fact, in Bob Place’s class, what I have to say seems to be just as important as anything he has to say. What we say together is never an end result – an answer – it always leads to a new question and a necessary action. It leads to a powerful engagement. My classmates and I are bonded in our pursuit; we become powerful together.

I am thrilled and I suddenly understand what learning is all about: it is the quality of the pursuit, not the rightness of the answer. I tell him of my insight and he winks and says, “It’s a funny thing, that is also what life is about.”

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Truly Powerful People (244)

Posted on November 10, 2011 by davidrobinsoncreative

244.
Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

Here’s a call and response from Judy. She took a look at http://www.trulypowerful.com and sent this thought: “Just a quick musing at this unworldly hour. Power in Spanish is ‘poder.’ Poder also means ‘to be able to’. So ‘disabled’ is ‘without power’… not a fair title when you look at the power within the disabled in our lives. Not sure how it all relates; perhaps you can finish my thought.”

And my idea back at her: “Do you know the term ‘label-libel?’ It is from Marshall McLuhan and means that once we slap a label on something we no longer need to think about it. Isn’t it true that we have a progressive history of labels leading to this latest word ‘disabled?’ Perhaps true poder is in the capacity to peer beyond the label, to see the potential, the possibilities, and the abilities in each and every unique human being.”

I’ve worked with and known many, many people who wear the “disabled” label on their lapels in the eyes of society. They are miracles of perseverance and power, love and gratitude, generosity and courage. They have a lot to teach the rest of us otherwise disabled folk about true power if only we have the eyes to see it.

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Truly Powerful People (243)

Posted on November 9, 2011 by davidrobinsoncreative

243.
Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

Mark works for a government organization and he told me of a great revelation he had a few years ago. For the first 14 years of his career he got into a lot of trouble. He couldn’t figure out why he was in so much trouble all of the time because he was performing his job to the best of his abilities. And then, one day in the shower the reason hit him like a thunderbolt: his superiors didn’t really want him (or anyone, it wasn’t personal) to do the job. They didn’t want anyone to improve things because, as Mark so beautifully said, “Improvement makes waves.” He did an experiment and stopped doing his job and almost immediately his approval ratings began to rise.

Years ago I had a conversation with a banker, a vice president. I was doing work in system’s change and he told me that if I worked in his department he’d have to fire me. He said, “My job is to keep the status quo. The people that work for me want to come to work and go home with a paycheck. They don’t want change – even if it actually made things better. They want consistency.” I challenged his position. I haven’t met very many people (outside of management) who desire routine over effectiveness. And, his big misperception from my point of view is that change lives in opposition to consistency. In today’s world of business, the only consistency is change.

Recently I heard a speech by the outgoing Washington State Auditor. He’s been around for 20 years and told us that he can’t audit the departments of state government unless they request it; he’s the auditor but he can’t audit anything that will reveal waste and corruption unless the wasters and corrupters request it. You can guess how many requests he’s received in career.

Do you see the pattern? This is thinking of a time-gone-by. Compartmentalization and control are dinosaurs in a digital age. The only thing consistent in our world is change and the pace of change increases every year. Compartmentalization and control are power killers; an expansive economy requires expansive thinkers who know how to engage with multiple possibilities. The folks in the executive suite need to learn a new pattern of empowerment and fluid motion. We have a job to do and pretending that we’re doing it is flushing a ton of potential, time, energy and creative ability down the tubes.

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Truly Powerful People (242)

Posted on November 8, 2011 by davidrobinsoncreative

242.
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 is a simple image that I love from the book, Brain Rules: a researcher places a toy just outside the reach of a very young child and then places a plastic rake nearby. The child wants the toy and soon recognizes that the rake is useful in reaching the toy. Once the toy is acquired, explored, and scrutinized the child tosses the toy away so it can reach again with the rake. The toy is repeatedly raked within reach and just as quickly the toy is hurtled farther away.

The fascination is not with the toy, the thing, but with the challenge, the process. Left to his or her devices, the child will create greater and greater challenges; they will seek limits so they can expand beyond them. It is in their nature. It is in your nature. It is in our nature. Curiosity, exploration of the unknown, and mastery of greater and greater challenges is what we are designed to do. Boredom is unnatural and an acquired taste.

For reasons beyond my comprehension, we make education so convoluted and disturbingly difficult. We educators have designed and continue to support a system that is about the toy (the attainment of the “A”). What’s more, we teach students that we are the rake; the “A” is reached through us by performing what is expected for us – they look to us to see if they’ve reached the toy or not. Contain the curiosity, prescribe the exploration, eliminate the unknown; define the hoop and teach the student to jump through it – and call that learning. Is it any wonder our dropout rates are astronomical? You’ll find the kids in the park repeatedly falling off their skateboards – breaking bones if necessary – until the new trick is mastered.

Hoop jumping is controllable; true learning has nothing to do with control and everything to do with focus directed at an intention. It only takes a toy and a rake and the capacity to understand the difference between the two.

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