Chapter 9 Lighting
a Spark
Certain things in life are better done
in person. When you are trying to sell someone on an idea of yours or you want
them to perform, you must make every effort to meet with them face to face.
This type of commitment to your idea will demonstrate your passion for the
project. In the face-to-face communication you, and only you, will create the
same passion in the person that you are seeking to help you resolve your issue.
You are "enrolling" the person, generating a spark of possibility for
others to share. As they share with others you soon will create the fire to
fuel your passion. To practice enrollment you must: Imagine that people are an
invitation for enrolment; Stand ready to participate, willing to be moved and
inspired; Offer that which lights you up; and, Have no doubt that others are
eager to catch the spark. The life force for humankind is, perhaps, nothing
more or less than the passionate energy to connect, express, and communicate.
Enrollment is that life force at work, lighting sparks from person to person,
scattering light in all directions. Sometimes the sparks ignite a blaze,
sometimes they pass quietly, magically, almost imperceptibly, from one to
another to another.
Chapter 10 Being
the Board… the board where the whole game is being played:
I am the framework for everything that
happens in my life. If I cannot be present without resistance to the way things
are and act effectively, if I feel myself to be wronged, a loser, or a victim,
I will tell myself that some assumptions I have made are the source of my
difficulty. This practice helps us to remain on track. When things happen to us
we are able to take a graceful journey through life. The grace comes from
owning the risk for everything that happens in your life and leaves your spirit
whole, with the ability to choose again. Instead of questioning all the bad
things that happen in you life you change the way you look at those things and say
that's just the way things are. Remember that to play the game of "should
and ought’s" is a blame game that you might still have control over. Those
things occurred in the past and you have no control over your past. Being the
board requires courage and compassion. The rewards for being the board are self-respect,
connection of the deepest and most vital kind, and a straight road to making a
difference.
Chapter 11 Creating
Frameworks for Possibilities
Inventing and framing the
possibilities: It is about restructuring meanings, creating visions, and
establishing environments where possibility is spoken… where the buoyant force
of possibility overcomes the downward spiral. The steps to practicing framing the
possibilities are: Make a new distinction in the realm of possibilities, one
that is a powerful substitute for the current framework of meaning that is
generating the downward spiral…enter the territory. Embody the new distinction
in such a way that it becomes the framework for life around you… keep distinguishing
what is "on the track" and what is "off the track" of your
framework for possibility. The story of the second grade girl is my favorite
way of remembering this practice. The little girl has had chemotherapy and
comes back to school with no hair. The kids make fun of her and won't play with
her. The next morning the teacher comes to school with her head shaved. All the
students went home and begged their parents to let them shave their heads. The
framework the students had functioned in changed when the teacher removed the
downward spiral. The vision we have becomes our framework for possibility when
it meets certain criteria that distinguish it from the objectives of the
downward spiral. The criteria that enable a vision to stand in the universe of
possibility are: The vision articulates possibility, A vision fulfills a desire
fundamental to humankind, a desire with which any human being can resonate, It
is an idea of which no one could logically respond, "What about me?",
A vision makes no reference to morality or ethics, it is not about the right
way of doing things. It cannot imply that anyone is wrong, A vision is stated
as a picture for all times, using no numbers, measures, or comparatives. It contains
no specifics of time, place, audience or product. A vision is free standing… it
points neither to a rosier future, nor to a past in need of improvement. It
gives over its bounty now. If the vision is "peace on earth," peace
comes with its utterance. When "the possibility of ideas making a
difference" is spoken, at that moment ideas do make a difference. A vision
is a long line of possibility radiating outward. It invites infinite
expression, development, and proliferation within its definitional framework.
Speaking a vision transforms the speaker. For that moment the "real
world" becomes the universe of possibility and the barriers to the
realization of the vision disappear. This practice of framing possibility calls
upon us to use our minds in a manner that is counterintuitive.
Chapter 12 Telling
the WE Story
More often than not, history is about
conflicts between an "us" and "them".
The WE Story defines a human being in a
specific way. It says we are central selves seeking to contribute, naturally
engaged, forever in a dance with each other. The WE appears when, for the
moment, we set aside the story of fear, competition, and struggle and tell its
story. The steps to the WE story are: Tell the WE story… the story of the
unseen threads that connect us all… the story of possibility. Listen and look
for the emerging entity. Ask: "What do WE want to have happen here? What's
the best for US? What's our next step?" When we remove our “me,” “me,”
“me” statements and turn them into the “WE,” “WE,” “WE” story, everyone wins.
The goal of each of us is to remove those things that impede our progress
forward as a great leader.
3 comments:
Great summary of the reading. It is about finding the WE in us and removing the barriers between us.
You summarized, "Speaking a vision transforms the speaker. For that moment the "real world" becomes the universe of possibility and the barriers to the realization of the vision disappear. This practice of framing possibility calls upon us to use our minds in a manner that is counter-intuitive." I wonder...and think that whether or not it is intuitive depends on how each of us is used to thinking. As an artist, I work extremely intuitively, dreaming of constantly fluctuating possibilities, becoming objective realities but that process is very intuitively achieved. I will try to post a sculpture I made this way, framing the idea that individuals are the "we energy" (a Zander reference), flowing as waves and patterns of rhythmic beats coming together to make effect. I didn't know what I was doing when I made it-the process of folding became almost a meditative drumbeat. I kept folding, loving the way that a list of individual names became overall waves of energy so large that the spine which held it (its framework-a phonebook) bent back on itself curving cylindrically. The previously flattened spine became a tunnel and the pages spread out thickened, filling up space, enabling the sculpture to free stand on its own. I realized a shift had happened-as individuals organized together, creating overall patterns and enlarged mass as it shifted dimension-literally! It went from 2d to 3d through my process/by my hands. Sometimes life is like that as we experience it. It happens in our classrooms everyday as we orchestrate it. As much as we plan, we have to act spontaneously, too, and somewhat intuitively, with flexibility, to see even a predetermined logical (lesson) plan become successful as its applied in real life situations.
Wonderful overview and analysis of the reading that touched you. Thanks for sharing.
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