>Ray Evans Harrell wrote in LO15812...
>
>>The meaning of my company name, "The Magic Circle" is that circle of
>>attention where everything can be experienced by the audience and known.
>>Finding that physical space is a balance between ensemble size and room
>>size. We are constantly in pursuit of the ideal balance where everything
>>can be perfectly perceived. Walk in balance.
>
>"Experienced and 'known'."
John replied to Ray: in LO 15834
>This short paragraph speaks so much more than one can imagine. I sensed
>that the moment I read it, that it contains the answers to things I've
>been seeing and pondering. And it is unlocking new questions even as I
>sit here. It's amazing how learning occurs.
Hi John and other LO-forumdwellers,
The reply to Ray inspired me to the following addendum to his "experienced
and known":
"Wanted and done"
(stepping on my soapbox):
There are four "magical" questions like a kind of public secret hidden in
the combination of these four words: 'experienced' & 'known', 'wanted' &
'done':
What did I experience?
How did I understood it?
What do I want with it?
How can I do that?
If I place myself in the centre of these four questions, I am suddenly
walking in the middle of a timestream. The two first questions help me
cristalize the past I leave behind me. The third and fourth question help
me realize my future which is coming towards me while I walk. In the
middle, within me, _I_ connect the past with the future in a threefold
mannor: through my thinking, my willing and my feeling (please note that I
use verbs here). Which brings me to the fifth most magical question: What
do my feelings want to tell me right now?
This is what feelings -despite all the complicated theories- are: nothing
more or less than "A mixture of uncristalized thinking and unrealized
willing". I Use my feelings as a kind of cristal ball within me. The right
questions help me to sense and transform my feelings into conclusions and
decisions. Sensing my feelings helps me ask the right question at the
right moment and makes me do the right thing at the right moment. But Oh
God, so difficult that is!!!!
IMO the main goal for Leadershipsprogrammes is to train managers to
transform their feelings into "the right question". All the
leadership-expertise and -skills they need are already within them, not in
books, papers or software. Besides the usuall stuff like policy,
strategy, values, etc., all leadership-programms should address explicite
training in this direction. If not, we are doomed to repeat ourselves over
and over again and keep on designing more complex models and write more
complex books.
In presentations for potential clients I often draw a cartoon on the
flipover showing a crossroads with two fingerposts. In the fingerpost
directing to the right I write "Path of Learning and Developing". On the
post to the left I write "Lecture about learning and Development" Then I
ask them which way they want to go and what they want from me....?
In my view the core of consultancybusiness is not so much about
complicated modells and theory but much more about banal things like
'dealing with contraries', 'changing problems into processess' and 'asking
questions'. This will make a consultant to a trustfull partner who helps
a client on in his process.
(stepping down from my soapbox).
Where does such a strong heretic conviction comes from?
About ten years ago I had a dream.
My wife was pregnant from our youngest at the time.
I dreamed I saw this little child walking towards me. He wasn't alone.
Right behind him, on the boy's left there was another person walking with
him, old, tired, long hair, his face showed a deep, deep, dark pain and
fear that scared me. On the right side there was a figure that carried a
kind of pure intens light I had never seen before. The looks of this
figure could best be described with 'trust', 'love' and'hope', it was
beautifull and I wished to become one with that figure. When I woke up I
was in tears, shocked, relieved and happy at the same time, but I didn't
understand the meaning of the dream.
Three months later my son was born and I recognized him from my dream. He
was healthy, strong and wonderfull.
Two years later he suddenly became very ill and we almost lost him. The
doctors told us he had a very, very unusual form of cancer in the spinal
marrow (holochordastrocitom) that damaged very slowly his total
neurological system. Our little singer and dancer slowly missed his
abillity to run and jump, see, sing, speak and understand. His life
prognose was six weeks. -- We still have him with us. The process is
irreversible and it's incurable. And we don't know how long he will be
with us.
It turned our whole life upside down, as you can imagine. It had and has
big influence in how we vision the future: with fear and hope. It was a
hard school in which we had to ask many, many questions; we had to deal
with many contraries. We had to change a lot of problems into processes.
It deeply changed my view on life, leadership and consultancy. No model
helped me there. It was the dream that did and still does "the trick".
Every time I feel desperate and depressed the dream helps me find "the
right question". The dream pointed out the path on how to learn to use my
feelings as a kind of cristal ball within me.
Every person has his desperate and depressed moments.
I coached a number of CEO's and managers in the last seven years. Most of
them were able to find a dream similar to the one I described to you. They
discovered their personal 'secret' source of leadership. I never presented
the latest trend or model. I just provide them with the means to give a
function to their feelings and the means totransform them into questions.
Soory, but I couldn't make this addendum with less words!
Keep it Simple!
Winfried
--Winfried M. Deijmann - Deijmann & Partners - Zutphen - The Netherlands Artists, Consultants and Facilitators for Organizational Learning and Action Learning Events <Winfried@universal.nl> Phone: +31-(0)575-522076 Fax:+31 (0)575-527310
"An educated mind is useless without a focussed will and dangerous without a loving heart" (unknown source)
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>