Category Archives: Uncategorized

Celebrating What’s Right with the World

This video was absolutely amazing and a fantastic choice for the culmination of this class.  Not to mention, after the day I had, I found it grounded me once again.  As I think about the practice of AI and the techniques we have learned, I find myself wondering what my purpose in life is.  I have no problem with taking a risk and getting outside of my comfort zone.  I am innately good but I too, am afraid to look in the mirror to know and accept myself.  I always seem to think I might be ashamed of what I find and who is looking back.  Professionals tell me to thank my mother for that but that’s something for another day and something I work to make peace with daily.  The irony of it all is I work to find good in everyone and my mission is to elevate the experience for myself and others.  Ai has become the new foundation for me and that’s just the beginning of the new house (me) I plan to build.  I have a vision, I have the tools, I dabbled in technique but I am certain I will find my beacons to help me navigate the road ahead.  Truth be told, I cried when they showed the family Reunion.  I have great intuition and that example hit so close to home.  I need to have faith, believe, and accept myself as I continue on this journey.

Michele, I can’t thank you enough for being my first beacon 🙂

The Power of Positive – Appreciative Leaders

Diana Whitney offered a solid perspective of the power of positive.  After surveying leaders who embrace AI, they discovered four key themes:

  • The leaders were willing to engage with people
  • They believed in the positive
  • They were learners in the process
  • They cared about humanity and people.

Diana and team then decided instead of interviewing a top leader for her book, which is very common,  they took a different approach.  They wanted to understand what the people wanted.  They wanted to gather the voice of the people.  I thought that was brilliant.

Diana also spoke about 5 strategies:

  • Inquiry; the power of the question
  • Illumination; how to bring out the best in people
  • Inclusion; don’t talk about me without me
  • Inspiration
  • Integrity; beyond just being honest

I appreciated and valued Diana’s perspective.  I believe her thinking and approach is sound and an approach I could adopt in my own organization.  I can’t think of a better leader to work for than one who is positive, confident, and enthusiastic.  Let’s face it, we all love engaging leaders who can relate to the people.  It’s empowering and makes us want to do more for the common good.  When we are all focused on the good, we can accomplish great things together.

Happiness for People who Don’t Like Positive Thinking

This was a different discussion and not one I am sure I resonated with.  So, if you do not believe in positive thinking then consider thinking about mortality and in the right vain, you too could be moved to success. For me personally, I am trying to consider broad perspectives and views because I do believe in the power of positive thinking. That said, it hasn’t helped me accomplish all of my goals because the negative person on my shoulder keeps beating me down. So if the positive does not motivate you, consider the alternatives.  Look, I get that we all beat to our own drum but if someone is considering the negative, could that not lead them down a dark path and a point of no return? I think about the old news reports about music and how it had satanic influence.  Now that’s an extreme example but could the same context apply to this video discussion? If you do the opposite of what Appreciate Inquiry suggests you should do and you be negative in everything you do, the outcome is negative, narrow minded and narrow focused. Your possibilities would become limited and evolve around the negative story you are creating for yourself.  Maybe that’s where my head is at.  IF it is true that we are the authors of our own story, focusing negatively, making negative choices will lead you to a negative life. I don’t believe happiness can be found amongst a field of negativity but maybe, it’s just me.

Ron Fry and Gervase Bushe Video Reflection

I was thankful that we were only required to watch a short portion of this presentation.  I will be honest, I felt bad for the people in the audience.  When I think about Appreciative Inquiry and practitioners, I expect to see individuals who model the behaviors and leadership style of my vision of what can be.  This video demonstrated the complete opposite for me.  All the more reason to identify practitioners that DO resonate with your dream.

When Gervase shared that he was consulting to a firm with 80 engineers to help create leadership, and no one had strong leadership stories, he laughed at the fact that he would not be invited back.  I didn’t find that funny.  If I was that organization and it took us to get to the Summit to realize this wasn’t going to work, I would have been appalled.  In my mind, I leverage consultants for their expertise.

This was one of the worst presentations I have seen on this topic.  I don’t think either of the speakers were funny or well prepared.  I certainly would not be reaching out to hire either of them for my firm.  As it relates to the question they were trying to address; positivity versus generative connection – I did not have a connection with these two presenters and found myself struggling to keep focused on what they were trying to position.  I know, a little out of context but it does play to the importance of connectivity.

I liked the statistic that 90% of the people who come to an event leave volunteering to do something.  The summits, with the exception of the engineers, do create an environment for brainstorming and an opportunity to connect intentionally and build on each other’s ideas.  Just make sure you have the right practitioner to help navigate the journey with you and your colleagues.

 

 

 

Accentuating the Positive

What an incredible video this was.  My reaction?  It mirrors the work we are doing at my company with high potential programs.  The program I have been part of specifically includes 4, 6 month rotations anywhere in the world, in any one of our business units.  Rotations are selected based on our assessment of apprentices development needs. The messaging can be a challenge as apprentices have an agenda.  We our challenged with guiding them through learning about themselves, how they react in certain situations, how they show up and we give them tools to help them manage themselves.  We provide an executive coach that the can basically share anything with confidentially.  And we provide them many stretch opportunities to grow, learn and demonstrate they are putting into action what we are teaching them.

What we don’t offer is a physical fitness component but ironically, most of our apprentices are high achievers and have personal commitments to fitness.  It is amazing how many marathon runners I have met in our classes. It also amazes me that if you think about the military, they embrace the running and yoga to help balance the stress.  That’s what really struck me is not only the positive, the resilience, but tools to manage stress and find balance.

The growth in Louie and Eve was tremendous.  It brought a tear to my eye to see Louie achieve the top 10.  It made me reflect personally on my choices and how I might reset the button in certain areas.  The one disappointment for me was Kathy Ann.  I wish someone spoke to her parents.  She would have gained so much from the opportunity and her insecurity will probably, unfortunately, rule her and the outcome of what she is able to accomplish.

I loved the experiment and if Timbertop was near my home, I would consider for my daughter. I’d have trouble letting her go at 14 but if you think about the environment, the skills, and the gift you are giving your child, it may be worth it.  Isn’t that what we as parents strive to do?  Give our children the best education, the best opportunity, and the tools to deal with life.

The Pygmalion Effect

After viewing the video in this weeks lesson, I realized my manager used me as a test case. So what does that mean?  I have worked for Ted for 2 years and he immediately took a shine to me.  He knew I loved an overflowing plate and challenging work.  When I asked, he kept filling that plate and I kept delivering.  He always put me in challenging situations. For example, I have been working on my public speaking throughout my career.  Last year alone, he had me get certified in facilitation, explaining it was a terrific way to broaden my skill set. I struggled but I did not give up.  I remained focused, was allowed to skin my knee and came back stronger than I ever imagined I could – I actually posted the highest facilitation scores out of any of our facilitators certified in the class and did this my first class out.  Fast forward 6 months later and the senior leadership team was looking for a volunteer to facilitate our All Hands Meeting.  Ted informed me at our next 1-1 that he told them I would love to do it.  Now of course I could decline, he said, the choice was mine, but what a great brand building opportunity. He shared he knew I could do this.  I could have died on the spot, facilitating a meeting for 200 people,  but I knew I needed to do it, so I agreed.  I spent the entire Thanksgiving break practicing and trying to keep the negative self talk out of my head. I stayed positive, practiced on my family and you know what, I nailed it.  Even when I didn’t necessarily believe in myself, Ted did, and I found myself working hard to not let him down.

If I could just shift that energy and power to myself -would I always win?

Is your happiness dependent on your genes?

I can share with you that mine is not and I believe that is true for all of us.  We are the creators of our own world, our own success and our own destiny.  Unless you were born with a silver spoon in your mouth and your choices are made for you, you own your choices.  Even then, you own them, you just need to accept that and take the plunge.  Choices..it’s all ours and we need to be accountable and own that.  Until we do, we cannot find our own happiness.

I made  a personal decision at the age of 8, to make my life happy.  At that time, my world was crumbling around me. I was the baby of 3 girls, my parents were going through a divorce and life as I knew it became hell and very lonely. I focused my attention on the things in life that made me happy.  My dog, Oliver, was one of them. He always loved me, always had a kiss for me, never asked me to make a choice, and always made me smile. Life didn’t get any better than that and from that day, that’s what I focus on, the things that make me happy.

My challenge, as I get older, have my own family and try to figure out the happiness, I spend too much time focusing on making others happy and not me.  I have observed the shift but haven’t yet mastered how to fix it. Instead, I have made some bad choices, I own them and I remember that the choices are mine and I own them.

I also accept I am a work in progress. We all are and with that, I can not be perfect.  I continue to make my mistakes, skin my knee, and next time, try to make the next best choice for me.

Lesson 2 -Marcus Buckingham

Marcus Buckingham shares a very compelling outlook on the power of focusing on your strengths versus your weaknesses.  I could totally relate to being the parent who focuses on the 20% we are not doing well or being raised that way.

As a parent myself, I find that we gravitate towards investing more time on the areas where my daughter does well.  we do invest time in the other areas as well but we try not to make it a negative or demotivating experience. She becomes frustrated when others in class are doing well in an  area that she is challenged with.  We have the discussion of how we all have our gifts and some things come naturally to some people and to others, you need to work a little harder. Not everyone is good at everything, just do the best you can.

Personally, I am in a job where my strengths are leveraged every day-it’s my dream job and I feel fortunate that I have the opportunity.  I am much more motivated to continue to drive the experience for my clients. I enjoy going to work and doing my job and honestly, it feels good to perform well every day and be recognized for it.  It took me  a while to get to this place in my career but now that I have arrived, I wouldn’t want my work situation to be any different.

Bring that back to my daughter and I hope that she too can have the same experience in her learning’s and career.

Lesson 2 – My Glass is Always Half Full

So, you ask; what is my personal paradigm? My glass is always half full.  I look at each opportunity/challenge as a chance to raise the bar.  Elevate the experience from yesterday, last time, or next time.  I am a firm believer that if I approach things with a positive attitude, positive results will happen, and that has served me well my entire life.  It does mean I am required to roll up my sleeves and invest sweat equity into everything I do, but it works!  And, in my opinion, it beats the alternative.  If I always looked at the glass as half empty, I’d be wallowing in my sorrows rather than driving solutions.