By Kathy Hollingsworth Have you ever had to decide whether or not to keep something secret? To make a choice about whether sharing information would keep your customers informed or create concern about the future?

I have.

A few months ago, I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. (Anyone who has looked at me closely over the last eighteen months may have noticed a tremor in my right hand or extra shaking when we shook hands.) When the neurologist gave me the news, I was faced with a choice: Be authentic or protect my image.

I chose authenticity.   

The choice was easy—and didn’t come without hours of ping-pong self-talk. I’d go back and forth between protective thoughts like, “What will people think of me?” and “I’ll be viewed as a weak coach because I am ill.” and more open thoughts like, “If I’m authentic, I won’t have to worry about hiding my tremor,” and “Holding a secret takes time, energy, and focus that I could use to move my life forward in the best way possible.”

The process that allowed me to make the decision to be open is the iiChange® Process—the core of my work as a coach and facilitator. Letting the process work within me, I knew what I would do even as I second-guessed myself. I knew I would choose authenticity, because it creates trust. Withheld information will be “found out,” creating suspicion that you have been withholding other information.

I also knew that I didn’t want to carry the burden of remembering who knew what about me. There is freedom in being transparent.

Finally, I know that I’m not responsible for what others think. It is my wish that if someone is concerned about my ability to coach or teach that we talk about it so that I can explain what my diagnosis might mean to our professional relationship.

I love the freedom that the iiChange® Process gives me, even when my favorite saying, “Life is what happens when you have made other plans,” happens.

In his recent book “Inner Peace,” the Dalai Lama wrote: “I have found much that is impressive about Western society. … On the other hand, a number of things … cause me concern. People there are inclined to think in terms of ‘black and white,’ and ‘either/or,’ ignoring the fact that everything is interdependent and relative. They tend to lose sight of the gray areas that always exist between two points of view.”

On one level, we can see how differences cause friction in our personal and professional lives. On a larger scale, polarizing differences often play out on the world stage with more serious consequences—as they are in the Middle East. Libya, for example, is fraught with “either/or:” Either the rebels back down or Gadhafi keeps launching airstrikes; either the government stops attacking the rebels or international military intervention will continue. As each side become further entrenched in its point of view, the conflict will escalate, and the cost is more lives lost.

If we embrace the Dalai Lama’s concept of gray areas, we change our thinking from “either/or” to “both/and,” and we become inclusive and appreciative instead of exclusionary and argumentative. With curiosity and appreciation, we can begin to accept and see value in all sides and seek inclusive, satisfying solutions.

In the case of the conflict in Libya, we could accept that the current government could be “both” right in its desire to stay in power “and” wrong in its methodology in achieving that end. Could a solution be that the current government remains with much stronger citizen representation?  It’s just one possibility of many.

Where are you? Closer to home, what has been your experience?

If you want a higher level of engagement both personally and professionally, seek out where you have agreements, where you are already inclusive and appreciating. Allow your team to be both right and wrong; then, look beyond the right and wrong, and you will see the possibility of greater creativity and engagement, and solutions will appear more quickly and more satisfyingly.

It is so easy to live life on auto-pilot in the twenty-first century, isn’t it?

There are vacuum cleaners that run themselves. Mobile phones auto-correct our text messages. We don’t even have to read maps anymore or visualize how to get from point A to point B—just punch the address into the GPS and go along for the ride.

Sure, technological advances can save time and increase our efficiency and productivity. The downside is, we don’t have to pay as much attention as we used to. We can “mindlessly” go through our days, letting gadgets do the thinking for us.

Mindlessness is such an easy habit to fall into—and it doesn’t take technology to push us over that edge. In fact, our brains sorta like it when we rely on our subconscious, automatic responses to do certain things—it leaves more energy to process new information and take on new tasks, which require our full, conscious attention.

Problems can come when we allow our subconscious to take control of activities that can have negative consequences when left unmonitored. We do have the capacity to take that control back—whether it’s from our subconscious or even from other people to whom we’ve relinquished it. It’s called “mindfulness,” and it can change the way you live and work.

Curious about how mindfulness can help you? Register for our May iiChange Intensive after you check out the stories below from two Intensive alumni. This three-day workshop is for people who sense there are obstacles in their personal or professional lives and aren’t quite sure what to do about them.

Dave’s story:

“I’ve been using that Intensive every day, and I’ve lost 23 pounds.

“What I’m trying to do is become aware of how I was wired: To consume mass quantities. My grandparents? Every time they looked at me, they said I was hungry, and I obliged them. My grandmother didn’t think people were healthy unless they were fat.

“And my mother always said, “Don’t eat that snack—it’ll ruin your dinner.” Now I think of it not as spoiling my appetite but satisfying my appetite. If I eat a healthy snack before a meal, that will discourage me from packing away too much food.

“When you eat a little bit of food and you could stop eating but you’re still hungry? That moment in time? I need to tough that out. So I get going doing something else, and I forget about being hungry.

“It’s not hunger I’m fighting, it’s appetite.”

Dave Requarth,Requarth Custom Millwork, Dayton

Stacy’s story:

 “As a management and marketing consultant, I constantly feel pressure to deliver. And it’s very easy to fall into automatic-pilot behaviors that help me get work done quickly—but not optimally.

“The iiChange Intensive greatly improved my ability to recognize when I am in auto-pilot mode and to assess when that is not helpful. I’ve also learned to recognize when I am not giving someone my full attention, and I can choose to change my actions to make my interaction with my internal team and external clients more effective.

“Most important, I’ve noticed drastic differences in my ability to recognize my emotional reactions and internal dialogue, which get in the way of my creativity, ability to collaborate, and success. I can now spot when my feelings and self-talk are causing me stress, undermining my confidence, and affecting my courage to be authentic.

“I am much more present now, not worrying about what just happened or what’s about to happen. I can just focus on how I can be the best at what I am doing, right now.”

Stacy Sheldon, Strategic Data Systems Inc., Dayton

A number of years ago the National Science Foundation estimated that our brains produce as many as 12,000 to 50,000 thoughts a day, depending on how deep a thinker each of us is. Other estimates run as high as 60,000 per day.

What’s even more interesting about our thoughts is that, according to a recent Google search, approximately 80 percent of those thoughts are habitually negative. We often dwell in the past or fear the future, obsessing about mistakes we might have made, battling guilt, or worrying about some future event. We constantly drift in and out of fantasy, fiction, and what we believe is not working in our lives. The human mind, it would seem, is wired the opposite of the old Johnny Mercer song, “You’ve got to accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative.”

When our negative thinking creates fear, we activate that same portion of our brain that feels physical pain. Often our solutions are to avoid or numb the pain, yet avoiding or numbing also inhibits our good feelings and positivity. How can we be and become our creative best when most of our days are filled with such negativity and avoidance?

A healthy first step would be to increase our awareness of our negative thoughts and our tendency to avoid. This is part of what’s often referred to as mindfulness: being aware of what is happening in each moment. We all are going to have negative thoughts; we need simply be aware of when they occur and chose to think differently.

The iiChange® “finding positives” tool allows us to focus first on what’s “right” with our world before we address what isn’t working. Sequence is key here—activating the positive energy first keeps us open to positive ideas later.

When we recently worked with a group of architects, the negative idea that was causing a lot of stress among them was, “Our fee income is too low!” When challenged to think positively about that, the stream of statements was creative and fun: “Our fees can only go up!”; “We can create more efficient work models.”; “Hire and inspire young interns.” The energy of the room shifted from somber to highly engaged.

It simply starts with being aware—being mindful—of what our thoughts are and then choosing to use a tool such as “finding positives.” If we can think of one positive thought, we can think of two; two leads to three, and if we can think of four we can begin to change our thinking from habitual negativity to habitual positivity.

A friend of mine is getting a Ph.D. in a field that doesn’t lead to a long list of obvious career options. It’s one of those subjects many people end up teaching to others, who end up teaching others, and so on. This friend happens to like the prospect of working at a university—so it’s a good match for her.

What’s really cool, though, is that she’s immersing herself in the process of learning while she’s developing an expertise that will get her a job. “I’m doing it for the journey, not the destination,” she told me. “I really like what I’m doing in this moment. … It’s allowed me to see ahead to other opportunities.”

There are two things about her mindset that strike me:

First, in not focusing completely on the outcome, she’s able to experience the path she’s on more fully, and she believes it’s made her vision of the possibilities clearer. When you predetermine the outcome, it can cloud your vision of other options along the way.

Second, she’s made the learning itself a goal, which isn’t something we often do. We live in a world that emphasizes ends more than means—it’s all about what we’re going to get out of the process, not the steps themselves.

When you appreciate the destination and the journey, you’re more likely to absorb nuances and details you might miss if you were tunneling toward a finish line. You’re also more likely to study something that interests you, which will pay off in a deeper appreciation of the pursuit, as well as in knowledge and where it may lead you.

We are born learners. Our minds are designed to expand by making new connections. And the more we exercise the muscle, the better and faster we get at integrating new information in any context—whether it’s in a formal classroom or workshop, a weekly staff meeting, or just during a daily routine.

iiChange is the process that allows us to learn quickly and more holistically. When we let this innate process operate, we access, accept, and adapt to a wider range of available information. iiChange keeps us grounded in our original (authentic) selves, which lowers our defenses, piques our curiosity, and increases our creativity and tenacity—elements critical to learning.

While it accelerates our learning, iiChange also enhances our awareness and appreciation of ourselves and others—leading to continual transformation.

If you’re familiar with this process and would like to go deeper, you might enjoy attending one of our 2011 iiChange Intensives. Attend for the sake of attending—and for the skills you will hone that will increase your critical, creative, and holistic thinking.

If you’re new to iiChange and want to know more, give us a call. You might learn something.

By Steve Haber
steve@steve-haber.com

Business blogs and columns are abuzz these days with conversation about how to maximize minimal resources. A recent posting on a LinkedIn architectural group was pondering the process of squeezing twice as much juice from a lemon and then asked, “How much juice can you squeeze from an architect?”

A lot of the responses were what you might expect: Treat your employees fairly; promote advancement; provide adequate training; reward them properly; let them maintain balance between personal and professional activities, etc.

These are all effective ways to create a culture that inspires and supports creativity and productivity. And my take is a little broader.

I believe what really drives people is a desire for authenticity—a need to belong to an organization in which everyone is allowed to be who they really are and not who they think others want them to be.

In such an environment, people will freely give their best because trust is high, they are open to appreciating each other’s differences, and they’re able to use their imaginations to discover possibilities instead of dreaming up worst-case scenarios.

In such an environment, we can choose to continue to learn and transform. We go to a whole new level.

So the next time you want to get the most and the best results from each other at work, start with mutual respect and authenticity and see where it goes. You might get what you’re after without having to “squeeze” anything.

I went to a conference a few weeks ago, and I’m still unpacking my brain.

(You know that feeling—when you go to a seminar and you cram so much information into your head that you have to sit on it to zip it shut?)

My colleagues and I attended—and presented at—the national Organization Development Network conference in New Orleans last month, and we came back with piles of notes and new ways of thinking about how people can bring their best selves and their best work to their organizations.

As I sort through it all, perhaps the most compelling message for me was this: Our brains are capable of a whole lot more than we might think they are. Researchers continue to discover that as we change thinking patterns and behavioral habits, we re-hardwire our minds, unlocking more of our natural ability to communicate, make decisions, problem solve, appreciate ourselves and others and be more innovative.

In his conference keynote address, author and consultant David Rock talked about breakthroughs in neuroscience and psychology that allow scientists to observe during brain scans how thoughts, feelings and emotions affect our brains and in which areas.

This research has profound implications for how we perceive—and modify and improve—human behavior and performance.

In an article in Strategy + Business magazine, Rock and his co-author Jeffrey Schwartz explore the science in more detail, focusing specifically on what needs to happen within our brain’s neuronetwork before we can make positive, lasting change.

They write that in quantum physics, for reasons I’m not sure I need to understand, subatomic particles become more static the more they’re observed; likewise, “concentrating attention on your mental experience, whether a thought, an insight, a picture in your mind’s eye, or a fear, maintains the brain state arising in association with that experience.”

In other words, the more we observe and focus on a particular state of mind, the more constant that state of mind becomes. And the brain circuits necessary for creating that state of mind “eventually become not just chemical links but stable, physical changes in the brain’s structure,” Rock and Schwartz say.

So the question becomes, how do you create the mental condition you want to hold onto in the first place? Is there a cranial toolbox?

Short answer? Yes, there is.

It’s called the iiChange Process, and it’s a natural process that works within us when we’re at our best. It’s what allows us to be the programmers of our own minds instead of relying on the wiring installed by our culture, our parents, our schools, etc.

Practicing iiChange skills helps create new connections in the brain’s so-called C-System, which is where we make decisions—based on facts, logic, and reflection—about what we’re going to think and do. This process strengthens the C System’s ability to balance out and sometimes override the X System, the part of the brain that reacts automatically to likes and dislikes, threats and potential pleasures.

We can mindlessly allow our brains to be configured by outside forces, or we can intentionally play a larger role in who we are and who we become.

For related information, click http://www.iichange.com.

If you’re a Gen Xer like me, you probably remember when Saturday morning cartoons were the Holy Grail of television.

Three networks. Three or four precious hours of Sylvester dodging, Scooby snacking, and Wonder Twin powers activating. That was it.

There was no 24-7 Cartoon Network, no Internet, no instant messaging or texting. The only other electronics in my house in the late 1970s were the typewriter, the calculator, and the blender—none of which was very entertaining after about five minutes. So the threat of missing Saturday toons if you didn’t do your homework had teeth.

Honestly, though, my parents didn’t usually have to twist my arm about homework. I liked school. I was eager to learn.

Apparently these days, many students aren’t. Earlier this month, Washington Post columnist Robert Samuelson cited a sobering statistic: “Sixty percent of incoming community college students and thirty percent of freshmen at four-year colleges need remedial reading and math courses,” http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/05/AR2010090502817.html.

New York Times writer Thomas Friedman argues that this weak performance stems from a shift in American values, http://nyti.ms/bShYlF.  He says we no longer care to do the hard work it takes to get a solid education because we just don’t like hard work. In general, Americans are suffering “a national epidemic of get-rich-quickism and something-for-nothingism.”

Were we more motivated to learn in the ’70s and ’80s when I was in school? Did our values have more oomph?

Continuous self-improvement, self-discipline, and patience certainly felt like a given around my house. An unspoken expectation my parents set through example.

They both were constantly reading, taking classes, and engaging each other (and me) in deep discussions about big-deal issues. I learned how to live creatively within my means by watching them squeeze blood from many a turnip. And they taught me about accountability by following through on their commitments and not blaming others for their problems.

They talked about their values to me, and then they modeled them. That’s how you get the behavior your want from your kids, your students, your employees, even your colleagues—you walk your talk.

First, though, you have to decide what your values are and where they come from. Do they stem from a belief that true satisfaction comes from external validation or from the internal barometer that tells you what’s right for you?

Kids aren’t any less capable of learning and sticking to meaningful values today than they were when I was younger. I just think in this fast-moving, high-tech culture we’ve gotten distracted by lots of shiny objects that look like Holy Grails.

By Scott Dannemiller

“Kids today!”

Have you ever heard yourself saying that? At the age of ten, I made a solemn vow never to utter those words—or anything else that my parents said, for that matter. Signed in blood. I’ll make a new language if I have to, but I’ll never say that.

And largely, I’ve kept this promise.

Until I read this article: http://www.newsweek.com/2010/07/10/the-creativity-crisis.html

Vow broken.

Kids today? I tell you, I’m worried.

In the days before sunscreen , we played outside. Like MacGyver, we built forts out of dry noodles, three paper clips, some string, and mom’s old housecoat. We made up stories and monsters and whole worlds where vegetables didn’t exist and animals spoke soliloquies.

What happened?

To hear Newsweek reporters Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman describe it, it appears the youth of our country are two standardized tests away from turning into parrots. The data in the article suggest that creativity is on the decline, especially among primary school aged students. Unfortunately, the cause is unknown. Sounds like good reason to worry.

But my worry isn’t that kids today have lost their creativity. My concern is that we adults, while we know what creativity is when we see it (beautiful art, technological marvels, the Snuggie), still aren’t sure how to teach or model it. Remember what Gandhi said, “You must become the change you wish to see.”

Observe your next corporate meeting. What’s the most typical reaction to a new idea? Do people take it and make it something workable and innovative, or do they criticize what they don’t like about it until it resembles something that looks like the status quo?

What about the interpersonal interaction in the room? Is it authentic, or do people twist phrases into vague, politically correct statements that lose their meaning and significance?

Do people share the best they know, or do they sit on information and ideas as a way to secure power or save face?

And what about problem solving? Do people jump to solutions in a nanosecond, or is there enough comfort with ambiguity to allow them to fully explore the problem and derive multiple potential remedies.

 With the advent of functional MRIs, we now know the effect that certain behaviors have on the brain. We know which behaviors can open our minds to learning and innovation, and which behaviors limit our thinking. We must learn these skills ourselves, and use them daily. We must practice until creativity, critical thinking and holistic thinking become second nature. And most important, in our schools and in our homes, we must teach these skills to our kids.

Today.

In a recent survey by Regus, an international operator of remote business centers, “Forty percent of U.S. professionals are thinking about quitting their jobs after the summer vacation.” The survey cites such reasons as:

• Lack of communication and involvement by top management

• Lack of promotion despite good work results

• Overwork

• Lack of company “vision”

• Lack of belief in colleagues’ competence

• Lack of administrative support

• Rude colleagues

• Boss takes credit for their work

The study also quotes a Department of Labor report that says, “Productivity dropped at an annual rate of 0.9 percent during the second quarter.”

Wow! Hard to believe all of this when you consider how many business leaders and managers with MBAs behind their name are supposedly applying the skills in the workplace they learned in business school.

What’s also troubling is that “lack of communication” has been at the top of these kinds of surveys for almost fifty years. What is it about communication that, apparently, makes communication so hard? Are bosses really taking credit for the work of others? Rudeness from one’s colleagues? What’s that all about?

I would suggest that all of these are symptoms of a much deeper, systemic issue: Leaders and managers can’t develop in others what isn’t developed in themselves.

Since 1960, when Douglas McGregor wrote his groundbreaking book The Human Side of Enterprise, business leaders and managers have been exposed to the importance of understanding and managing the people side of any business. Apparently, exposure isn’t enough.

The leadership challenge in the transition period from post modern to global takes a new way of thinking and being. The fate of businesses and even governments hangs in the balance of understanding and meeting that challenge.