Working Words

The magic of words is just amazing. The writer of the biblical book of John said "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the word was God"... and the word WAS God.

In a book about human biology, the voice box was presented as odd anatomically, because it caused more chances for choking. Why then, would the voice box be there if it had no function for living? It does have the function to make sounds, and from sounds-words, and from words-meaning, and from sharing meaning- shared meaning. That, I propose, is the foundation of human superiority in the universe. The only known life we know of is on this planet and the dominant species on this planet are humans, and humans dominated species more physically deadly through words. We build relationships through words. We build agreements and community through words. We build products, solutions, services and transactions, all through words. 

In the beginning was the word. One of the first tasks man was given in the Bible was to name the animals. Even without the Bible, we have words for every species and subspecies. We have words in every language for every animal, every thing, feeling, idea, and concept. Pan back, take it in, and appreciate that. We have words for all of those things. Having words allows people to describe ideas, logic, persons, places, stories, laws, chisme, ...Chisme: the Spanish word for gossip, which is a great practice for story-telling. A person good at storytelling is interesting and informative, a source of inspiration.  Story tellers interest people through words because of their ability to capture attention and imagination, tension, and feelings, relationships, and context. 

Business writing has a new appreciation for storytelling, like it has been dormant and someone just tripped over it and rediscovered the very human dimension of the medium of interaction and interesting interpersonal verbal conversation. The English training you received in school in narrative storytelling has made a new genre of book writing, right there in the middle of books that were all written. I saw a scene in the TV series  Dutton Ranch of two leaders of two ranch families telling the story of each of their families creating their ranch business through generations and the challenges they faced and overcame. The buyer was so enamored with the cowboy culture, that he had natural interest from childhood, he was hooked into the business. That is an example of how a well-created story hooks human imagination and interest. Human interest and imagination are powerful, the clay of creation.

I love a good story. My mind pops when I read and come across an interesting idea, concept, or human drama and development.  I read the Game of Thrones and looked forward to every episode, the stories of the characters inside my mind, coming up with possible escapes and strategies. Lost was another series that stoked my imagination.  Reality and non-reality, backstories, the setting of the mysterious island and its secrets. Character development and decision-making.

All words. Set in different combinations. Relaying, bit by bit, ideas and feelings, linear unfoldings, relationships. How powerful words are. "And the word was God". How then do we master words and the power we have been given? Practice, study, trial and error, coaching, are all good approaches. How to form ideas and feelings into words. That is the work. The constant challenge and unending wonder. Songs are written even after all the songs that have been written. Articles and books are written, even after all of the paragraphs that have been written. An unending and limitless playground.

Embracing the light and releasing the darkness

My chair faces the sunrise. I so enjoy how I get to see the day start with the sun rising, the light on my face. The red, then the orange, then the yellow. I love getting a cup of coffee and reading. My mind stretches with each new insight and knowledge. I love books and writing. I start with one book and then find another and another. 

Lately, books of interest have been about listening to voices; my own and that of other people. I am reading on how to let go of thinking and live in the flow of thoughts. Many times when we lose the moment when someone is speaking to us or that we are speaking to ourselves, it is because we have become stuck in thinking and not present in the flow of thought. When we release from thinking and stay present in the thoughts of our own making and that of others, we can keep moving in a stream of consciousness instead of being bogged down in a swirl of repetitive patterns. It is an interesting concept of always flowing forward by releasing the thinking that bogs us down. I think of creativity and creative people and how they create using momentum and flow to keep moving toward their vision. The thinking that gets critical tends to slow them down or stop them. 

I wonder if the adapting to the critical thoughts but keep moving like a river bending around the contours is a more adaptive way of thinking about creative thinking. Instead of fighting thinking keep moving but adapting to the terrain. This way you incorporate the feedback and learn to keep moving forward. I need to employ this in my planning and communication writing. Instead of being defensive and critical, use it as a waypoinot turn and adapt. To dance with the environment while moving toward the goal.

Life is project-based learning

I used to read for hours. I would read all afternoon, stuck in a story that was so fascinating I could not put it doen. I needed to know the end. I remember reading the Bible form beginning to end when I was eight years old. I was so engorssed in all of the stories. From the flood to Joseph to Moses  through the Kings into the New Testament and all of the letters and finally the mind-bending prophecies of the Revelation. I remember reading the Black Beauty series and then Tom Clancy, then Centennial, Hawaii, Texas,...

I enjoy a good story. Now I read mostly business books. I like when an insight or statistic sparks the mind. It feels like lightning in the brain. I would like to share that joy with other people. I would like them to gain knowledge and insight. I would like them to light up when they read something interesting. I believe I have overcomplicated it. With the pressure to get results I have succumb to the pressure to push. The magic is lighting a spark. I have gone through all kinds of training, the latest formulas to stand here and say this. I don't know if giving people a positive learning experience isn't more powerful in the long term.

Let's say we did teach them how to answer questions right. We taught them the tricks of filling in missing knowledge, going through the logic process to eliminate answers or come to the right conclusion. Then, at the end of one year after the other of tests, there is no test. Now for the rest of your life you don't have test questions, you had projects to do. You have to choose what projects you want to do out of all the possibilities. You have to think through the tasks. You have to get other people to help you. There isn't one right answer so now you have to evaluate it yourself. Insn;t that a weird way to set people up for life. 

Life as an experiment

I have been through many types of military training. It was when I was put into those situations and had to decide and act that I learned what worked and what didn't work for me. I didn't believe I was capable of planning a train movement with a 60 vehicle unit comprised of tanks until I did it the first time. I also didn't realize I could outthink and outmaneuver someone who had more rank and experience. I also realized that when things get heavy I get quiet and people need their leaders to communicate. Right or wrong, be bold.

I have been through business training and have a business degree. As much as I learned about the parts of a business, it is only through launching a business that business leaders learn how to lead businesses. What worked in business last year could very well be ineffective in the change of internet marketing, social media, data science, and artificial intelligence this year. Many business owners fail repeatedly before they figure out how to succeed. I have been through doctoral level work on educational leadership and I still fail at leadership in different areas. It is through doing and reflecting that we learn ourselves how we learn and refine on a practice that works for us. 

Performance coaching of scripting and role-playing bite-sized parts to prepare for actual conversations and getting feedback to refine your approaches is valuable. Sales training does this where they role-play sales calls and go through the possible responses to try different tactics before making calls. Supportive schools do this with teachers to help them practice and prepare to succeed at lessons. That is actual practice at the actual work with a way to improve. I learned a lot by trying a coaching conversation using a sparse script, then doing it with a provided script and resources to point to for examples. That full preparation makes a world of difference. I learned that by trying it both ways.

In the animal kingdom animals learn from watching a hunter hunt, then they hunt. It could be that throwing students into a problem or a writing first could help them learn faster than teaching them your method first. They could be a good writer or problem-solver and you just have to refine their work in specific places. They could find a novel way to solve a problem or think or write you did not consider. Either way, the habit of not putting it off, the Do Now, and learning by doing gets reinforced. Then, they may pay more attention when they realize they need more information to be a better performer and pay attention to what you have to share. 

There is a saying I heard in a Kung Fu movie growing up: When the student is ready, the master will appear. I thought that was some mystical wisdom. However, until you relaize you need help you aren't looking for a teacher. Creating a need for help through failure may be the best way to make a good student. Motivation is key for learning and preventing the uncomfortable feeling of failure works after you have experienced failure. Another reality is that each person will likely fail at something in their life if they are taking risks.Google admits they accept that many of their projects will fail, but the ones that succeed more than make up for the losses and the knowledge they get from the ones that fail are valuable. They also know they will get passed up standing still. Creating a healthy relationship with failure as an opportunity to learn by trying something boldly and courageously help people live fully as we talk about the reality of the concept of a growth mindset. To one who seeks to live and learn, encouragement of the experimental mindset is the best recommendation. 

"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himeslf in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."  - Teddy Roosevelt

Truly Seeing

I have been reading Look, about phenomenology, the practice at looking at a phenomenon, without judgement, to try to see what most miss, to draw insights other people don't because they stop looking and start analyzing, judging. In my data science classes, I am learning the process of coding information for comouter processing. In our stream of consciousness, I am thinking we are doing collecting and processing at the same time, continuously switching from one to the other. I wonder if trying to analyze and process the things I miss seeing and collecting information. I wonder if in overthinking, I miss seeing. Daniel Kahneman in Thinking Fast and Slow, talks about how our brain operates at two speeds, fast automatic thinking or slow deliberate thinking. While fast thinking is useful in ordinary and automated, slow deliberate thinking leads to deeper and wise decision making.

How do we instill deep slow thinking and thought-free observing into our practice? It would seem to be more effective to work it that way. Would scheduling journaling and deep-thinking questioning help with letting go in the moment and collect information better?

Love Justice

I have a sense and hope that there is coming a tipping point in the greed and audacity of the rich and powerful. I hope that it is in time to stop much of the exploitation of the leverage the rich have to set the rules of the economy to benefit them. This week Congress is planning to pass a tax plan that will grossly benefit the rich and ultimately cost the middle class and poor in income and social supports. In the same week they took away Net neutrality rules that allow those with the control of access to the internet to tax those without for access.

The problem with happiness in this country according to economists is not the lack of wealth at the top. The problems with happiness have to do with corruption and lack of social supports according the World Happiness Report 2017 (http://worldhappiness.report/ed/2017/). The argument for the Republican candidate in the last election was the corruption of the elite in Washington. Now the elite in Washington are capping a decade where we all spent digging out of a recession they created by taking more of the wealth. This is with a backdrop of already having the majority of the wealth already.

I hope that the wins in Virginia and Alabama are a harbinger of a populace sick of being squeezed. Last week, I was shocked that some medicine I had to buy for my daughter was over $200. After calling the doctor, she wrote a prescription costing $17. Imagine the lack of morality it takes to upcharge $200 on a prescription that a child needs to get well. The sad part is that other life-saving drugs have been raised much higher. Medicine was once a profession one got into to help other people get better, not to maximize profit.

The mindshift of seeing capitalism as a feature of Americanism is at the point of being strongly questioned. It has been assumed that capitalism is an American feature. That stands in contrast of the commonwealth that Christian communities first built in the New World. Christianity is primarily a "give to those in need" , non-material philosophy. Younger generations are heavily questioning the capitalistic/materialistic values of their parents and grandparents. They have seen the lack of happiness it creates. Bernie Sanders spoke to the younger generations and in that he may hold the future as people tend to get hardened in their positions as they get older.

Culture and symbols

This weekend we were honored to present the "arras", the coins representing wealth in a marriage ceremony. I hand the chest of coins to the husband, who then hands them to the wife. It is a showing that marriage is sharing our gifts with each other. It is what the essence of a marriage is defined and dependent on: giving of ourselves and our gifts and wealth to another. We cannot be assured that the gift will be returned. We can only give in faith and love because that is what we believe.

In organizational leadership, it is good practice to show sacrifice to the organization. Whether it be time or money, the important point is that we set the example of giving to others in order for the expectation to be followed throughout the rest of the organization. People want to believe that they are living and working for something good, something worthwhile. Giving is a noble act and creates a positive emotion in the organization that the group that they are working with is good.

Jesus spoke of his sacrifice, of how it was necessary for the holy spirit to come and help the church to succeed. That model of sacrifice was repeated over and over throughout the establishment of the church. The more the enemies of the church tried to kill the church, the more the church grew due to the willing sacrifice of those followers. Now even the military speaks in terms of shaping hearts and minds rather than body count because they have learned the futility of stopping a movement through the physical death of any number of followers.

Another interesting thing to know about sacrifice is that it is enjoyable. Though we believe that the truth "It is better to give than to receive." is only on a spiritual level, psychology has done experiments on giving and have found that spending on others gives us a more positive feeling for a longer period of time than spending on ourselves. According to the article, it has to do with reinforcing our self-image as a giving person.

As a leader, how do you sacrifice to others? What are some ways you can make sacrifice and giving to others a part of your organization's culture? Do you enjoy giving? What are new ways that you can give that you are not doing currently? What kind of giving will have the biggest impact on the people you serve?