In November last year I was in Japan, one of a facilitator team at an international development conference. We were working on the UN themes and my partner and I were leading the group on ‘Disconnection and Barriers to Engagement’. Now all of the themes are stated in this negative way, which makes them very difficult to get excited about and even harder to feel like there is hope or an answer. It didn’t surprise me at all that the sign announcing our space fell off on the first day and would not allow itself to become reattached to the wall! Through the five days the group worked on this topic, we had very interesting conversations, and one stayed with me. The group had been asked to take part in an Appreciative interview in twos and we had one group of three. The two young women agreed they got connected with other people first, then they got engaged. The young man said he got engaged first, then he got connected. They drew a little circular diagram that connected the words ‘connection’ and ‘engagement’. They then went further and defined ‘connection’ as something that happens to you — a feeling. ‘Engagement’ however, they defined as an action; acting on the connection you feel. I had never heard it defined so simply. The group went on the put ME/WE as the central part of our work (and if you can imagine ME on top of WE you will see that they are actually reflections of each other in word form) — that if ME and WE are beautiful reflections of each other, then the world is a beautiful place. This seems very simple, but, in fact is a very radical idea, if you place it in Japan, where WE dominates and overpowers ME or the in the US, were ME overwhelms and overshadows WE. Years ago there was a cover story on FAST COMPANY about Yahoo called ‘Love is the killer app’. I believe it is so. If we loved enough there would be no power plays at work. If we loved enough there would be no war. If we loved enough there would be no hunger or global desolation through our actions. Imagine a business where leaders loved what they were doing, where people loved each other into their best expression, where people loved working and clients loved doing business. Loving enough IS a radical act. Are you up to it? Submitted byMary Alice Arthur, New Zealand (www.getsoaring.com)
In November last year I was in Japan, one of a facilitator team at an international development conference. We were working on the UN themes and my partner and I were leading the group on ‘Disconnection and Barriers to Engagement’. Now all of the themes are stated in this negative way, which makes them very difficult to get excited about and even harder to feel like there is hope or an answer. It didn’t surprise me at all that the sign announcing our space fell off on the first day and would not allow itself to become reattached to the wall! Through the five days the group worked on this topic, we had very interesting conversations, and one stayed with me. The group had been asked to take part in an Appreciative interview in twos and we had one group of three. The two young women agreed they got connected with other people first, then they got engaged. The young man said he got engaged first, then he got connected. They drew a little circular diagram that connected the words ‘connection’ and ‘engagement’. They then went further and defined ‘connection’ as something that happens to you — a feeling. ‘Engagement’ however, they defined as an action; acting on the connection you feel. I had never heard it defined so simply. The group went on the put ME/WE as the central part of our work (and if you can imagine ME on top of WE you will see that they are actually reflections of each other in word form) — that if ME and WE are beautiful reflections of each other, then the world is a beautiful place. This seems very simple, but, in fact is a very radical idea, if you place it in Japan, where WE dominates and overpowers ME or the in the US, were ME overwhelms and overshadows WE. Years ago there was a cover story on FAST COMPANY about Yahoo called ‘Love is the killer app’. I believe it is so. If we loved enough there would be no power plays at work. If we loved enough there would be no war. If we loved enough there would be no hunger or global desolation through our actions. Imagine a business where leaders loved what they were doing, where people loved each other into their best expression, where people loved working and clients loved doing business. Loving enough IS a radical act. Are you up to it? Submitted byMary Alice Arthur, New Zealand (www.getsoaring.com)