As I feel the feelings
As I stop, breath and listen to the feelings
---- what grips me, what burden me, what ... anything that affects me... any affects
as I stop, I can feel my feelings
And I feel the pain... and I feel the fear and I feel the weight and the burden
There are there... palpable
they have been there all the way
they were there
--- even when I was fleeing, escaping, hiding from them.... in hiding somewhere in braveland - the country where the coward can pretend to be courageous and never scared... because they are too scared and would not face it
Face what?
It is NOT ABOUT FACING YOUR FEARS
IT IS ABOUT FACING YOUR FEELINGS WHEN YOU ARE DAMN SCARED
Feel the pain, the panic, the sense of being at a loss, disappearing, scrambling
Feel the panic
Feel the heavy look - feel the heavy gaze - of yourself to yourself
What is my fear
What are my fears... this or that... some ideas
What is real is....
the sense of being less less less less, ... minus minus minus, losing losing losing ground, losing touch
alone,
NOW, Oh now, here they are... Now ho now I can recognise them
Here they are... darlings, ... dare I?, darlings!! My fears
As I feel my feelings, then they appear,
more perceptible, more domitable
MY FEARS... here you are
Here you were
As the rain stops
the sun sets
As the sun clouds, the rain falls
and cleanse the air, and the valley, and the house, and the room and the heart... and the Hearts
In this game lies my strenghth, my balance
my love, my love
my dove
**************
Facing your fears is meaningless until you can face your feelings
Feel your feelings and you will tenderly embrace your fears
The emotions will pass - as any cloud -
The storm will clean the air
Feelings are like thunder, wind or sunshine
Emotions are like smoke, clouds or shadows
emotions are not real but complex creations
feelings are real
Shall we learn to feel our feelings
as they speak the truth
so may we
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Learning and racing
(Quoted from an interesting website listed below)
"In racing, the consistent winners have learned that assembling the most knowledgeable and motivated people is not sufficient. Rather, the key is whether the working group becomes a learning group. The diagnostic ability of the driver–crew chief pair is critical to making the right choices in more than a dozen adjustments on the car. The pit crew, through its elaborate choreography, seeks to save a tenth of a second. Back at the garage, the 20 or more engine builders, chassis builders, test and instrumentation people, and their respective suppliers must collaborate at the idea level regarding design and fabrication as successfully as the pit crew does at the physical level.
The challenge in creating a team learning culture is to harmonize competition and collaboration. Many a highly talented person, fiercely dedicated to winning in competitions, simply cannot collaborate in doing, let alone in colearning by doing. Transforming a person’s values to team winning without suppressing the urge to innovate is key. Personal and group learning must meld into a specific “feel” that permeates the team.
To carry the automobile racing analogy just a little further, consider that an engine uses air and fuel to produce horsepower for the drive wheels, which, barring loss of traction, overcome both inherent inertia and motion-induced drag to maximize the speed of the racecar. Often the fastest car does not win because the engine fails, the tires overheat, or some other weak link becomes overstressed. The winner is the fastest car that finishes. In business, air is ideas, fuel is cash, drive wheels are the products and services that carry value to customers, and traction is the strength of the network of relationships throughout the team. Horsepower feels a lot like enthusiasm, which can overcome both structural inertia and dynamic drag, also known as fear. Enthusiasm, coupled with a learning culture, can even transform negative energy into increased motivation, which leads to superlative results.
Where is the learning? Learning is everywhere and happens every time someone wonders which ideas to pursue, what proportion of profits should be used for what purposes, how to generate enthusiasm, or whether the wheels are spinning because the right relationships do not exist. However, lack of knowledge or integrity—or too much greed—can overstress any one of these factors and create a loser.
Most organizations cannot get a grip on learning. Learning is necessarily multifaceted, but most organizations are filled with linear thinkers (this event causes that result) or scenario thinkers (these related events combine to cause that pattern of results) but few thinkers who consider entire systems (when salespeople overcommit our production, the factory output is actually below full capability). Besides, when joining the race, most organizations believe that business is about generating profit, not about learning."
"In racing, the consistent winners have learned that assembling the most knowledgeable and motivated people is not sufficient. Rather, the key is whether the working group becomes a learning group. The diagnostic ability of the driver–crew chief pair is critical to making the right choices in more than a dozen adjustments on the car. The pit crew, through its elaborate choreography, seeks to save a tenth of a second. Back at the garage, the 20 or more engine builders, chassis builders, test and instrumentation people, and their respective suppliers must collaborate at the idea level regarding design and fabrication as successfully as the pit crew does at the physical level.
The challenge in creating a team learning culture is to harmonize competition and collaboration. Many a highly talented person, fiercely dedicated to winning in competitions, simply cannot collaborate in doing, let alone in colearning by doing. Transforming a person’s values to team winning without suppressing the urge to innovate is key. Personal and group learning must meld into a specific “feel” that permeates the team.
To carry the automobile racing analogy just a little further, consider that an engine uses air and fuel to produce horsepower for the drive wheels, which, barring loss of traction, overcome both inherent inertia and motion-induced drag to maximize the speed of the racecar. Often the fastest car does not win because the engine fails, the tires overheat, or some other weak link becomes overstressed. The winner is the fastest car that finishes. In business, air is ideas, fuel is cash, drive wheels are the products and services that carry value to customers, and traction is the strength of the network of relationships throughout the team. Horsepower feels a lot like enthusiasm, which can overcome both structural inertia and dynamic drag, also known as fear. Enthusiasm, coupled with a learning culture, can even transform negative energy into increased motivation, which leads to superlative results.
Where is the learning? Learning is everywhere and happens every time someone wonders which ideas to pursue, what proportion of profits should be used for what purposes, how to generate enthusiasm, or whether the wheels are spinning because the right relationships do not exist. However, lack of knowledge or integrity—or too much greed—can overstress any one of these factors and create a loser.
Most organizations cannot get a grip on learning. Learning is necessarily multifaceted, but most organizations are filled with linear thinkers (this event causes that result) or scenario thinkers (these related events combine to cause that pattern of results) but few thinkers who consider entire systems (when salespeople overcommit our production, the factory output is actually below full capability). Besides, when joining the race, most organizations believe that business is about generating profit, not about learning."
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Emotional intelligence by Daniel Goleman
Social awareness — the ability to sense, understand, and react to others' emotions while comprehending social networks.
(Mixed) models of EI (taken from wiki - see link below and )
The model introduced by Daniel Goleman focuses on EI as a wide array of competencies and skills that drive leadership performance. Goleman's model outlines four main EI constructs:
1- Knowing your emotions - Self-awareness — the ability to read one's emotions and recognize their impact while using gut feelings to guide decisions.2-Managing your own emotions & Motivating yourself.- Self-management — involves controlling one's emotions and impulses and adapting to changing circumstances.
3- Recognising and understanding other people's emotions as well as Managing relationships, ie., managing the emotions of others.
Relationship management — the ability to inspire, influence, and develop others while managing conflict.
Goleman includes a set of emotional competencies within each construct of EI. Emotional competencies are not innate talents, but rather learned capabilities that must be worked on and can be developed to achieve outstanding performance. Goleman posits that individuals are born with a general emotional intelligence that determines their potential for learning emotional competencies. Goleman's model of EI has been criticized in the research literature as mere "pop psychology" (Mayer, Roberts, & Barsade, 2008).
Measurement of the Emotional Competencies (Goleman) model
Two measurement tools are based on the Goleman model:
1) The Emotional Competency Inventory (ECI), which was created in 1999 and the Emotional and Social Competency Inventory (ESCI), which was created in 2007
2) The Emotional Intelligence Appraisal, which was created in 2001 and which can be taken as a self-report or 360-degree assessment.
EI Competencies as criteria for success at work
Dr Goleman asserted that “The criteria for success at work are changing. We are being judged by a new yardstick: not just by how smart we are, or by our training and expertise, but also by how well handle ourselves and each other. This yardstick is increasingly applied in choosing who will be hired and who will not, who will be let go and who retained, who past over and who promoted…”
Goleman’s definition of emotional intelligence proposes four broad domains of EQ which consist of 19 competencies:
Self-Awareness
Two measurement tools are based on the Goleman model:
1) The Emotional Competency Inventory (ECI), which was created in 1999 and the Emotional and Social Competency Inventory (ESCI), which was created in 2007
2) The Emotional Intelligence Appraisal, which was created in 2001 and which can be taken as a self-report or 360-degree assessment.
EI Competencies as criteria for success at work
Dr Goleman asserted that “The criteria for success at work are changing. We are being judged by a new yardstick: not just by how smart we are, or by our training and expertise, but also by how well handle ourselves and each other. This yardstick is increasingly applied in choosing who will be hired and who will not, who will be let go and who retained, who past over and who promoted…”
Goleman’s definition of emotional intelligence proposes four broad domains of EQ which consist of 19 competencies:
Self-Awareness
- Emotional self-awareness: Reading one's own emotions and recognizing their impact
- Accurate self-assessment; knowing one's strengths and limits
- Self-confidence; a sound sense of one's self-worth and capabilities
- Emotional self-control: Keeping disruptive emotions and impulses under control
- Transparency: Displaying honesty and integrity; trustworthiness
- Adaptability: Flexibility in adapting to changing situations or overcoming obstacles
- Achievement: The drive to improve performance to meet inner standards of excellence
- Initiative: Readiness to act and seize opportunities
- Optimism: Seeing the upside in events
- Empathy: Sensing others' emotions, understanding their perspective, and taking active interest in their concerns
- Organizational awareness: Reading the currents, decision networks, and politics at the organizational level
- Service: Recognizing and meeting follower, client, or customer needs
Relationship Management
- Inspirational leadership: Guiding and motivating with a compelling vision
- Influence: Wielding a range of tactics for persuasion
- Developing others: Bolstering others' abilities through feedback and guidance
- Change catalyst: Initiating, managing, and leading in a new direction
- Conflict management: Resolving disagreements
- Building bonds: Cultivating and maintaining a web of relationships
- Teamwork and collaboration: Cooperation and team building
There is general agreement that the factors that Goleman and his colleagues have identified are indeed emerging as a key element of workplace success. This is because the way that most organizations work has changed in the last 20 years. There are now fewer levels of management than there were and management styles tend to be less autocratic. In addition, the move towards more knowledge based, team working and customer focused jobs means that individuals generally have more autonomy, even at fairly low levels within organizations.
taken from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotional_intelligence
http://www.psychometric-success.com/emotional-intelligence/emotional-intelligence-in-business.htm
Emotional intelligence - a sound enterprise
Emotional intelligence...how should this notion be approached?
Intelligence has long been thought to be the matter of the intelligible, ie the logos. Whereas emotions are derived from the world of passions, ie the pathos.... Schematically, intelligence would be about what I think, emotions about what I feel.
The notion of emotional intelligence seems to dispel the idea that the distinction is clear-cut and straight-forward.
It is not just intelligence on one side, emotions on the other and nothing in-between. Emotional intelligence is telling us about a mix, a bridge between two worlds. Descartes, the French XVII century philosopher, was applying his mind in ways to discover an intelligible world - a world of what we are sure about, as opposed to what is only illusion, superstition or ever-changing.... "Cogito" - the thinking mind - became the angular stone of what defines human being - cogito ergo sum - I think therefore I am.
Towards the end of his life, Descartes was hard-pressed to think and write on the domain of passions, emotions... He too had to deal with this question, whether and how we can either separate or combine thoughts and emotions.
In a simple way, intelligence is what helps us coming up with decision, for which we need to clarify issues, try to understand, share and communicate, using various tools like languages etc...
Emotions are a complex, unclear network of thoughts and feelings... It is important to distinguish between emotions and feelings as emotions are usually expressed... in "body-form": shaking, blushing, smiling, crying, as well as through language... words, signs... Feelings are anchored into every human being without taking any form... they are felt within... in our core.... As such they are felt. They are not perceived by the five senses. Feelings are not about seeing something, hearing or touching... it is an inner-perception. Feelings are just that. They may be triggered by senses or by something we get, some discussion, some ideas coming or passed on to us... Nonetheless feelings will always be of an inner-invisible-intangible-substance: fear, joy, anger, peace, plain satisfaction, plain discomfort...
Emotions will be a result of our feelings... In the same way as light is produced out of electricity, emotions are born out of feelings. You see the light but not the electricity. You see the emotions, but not the feelings. Another way to put it is to look at feelings like fire and emotions like smoke. This analogy highlights the primary aspect of feelings over emotions. It also helps understand the complex nature of emotions: complex in the sense that they are the result of a mix, something equivalent to a combustion, the combination of feelings with thoughts and langage.
These distinctions help us understand the role of emotional intelligence: trying to understand better, to decipher what rules the world of emotions... trace back to the feelings, look at expressing what happens (the mechanisms behind the "combustion"), make sense out what happens, ie allow the intelligence - the meaning, the intention - to emerge in this typically human language.
What does it take to understand the human language being displayed via our emotions and feelings?
What to see through the smoke?
It may be that feelings are not easy to describe. Besides, feeling are states of being, from which actions will follow. Whether I sleep, eat, work, rest, study... many actions are driven by what we see, think and feel.
Whenever we think or see, we also feel. Feelings are there at all time...
Feeling what we feel - becoming aware and conscious about it - is a powerful way to free ourselves from the pain and burden of many heavy emotional states... like stress, fear, worries, or over-excitement, or even intoxication. As we feel our feeling, we take ownership for them and can intelligently, rationally, come back to sound decision making - and it could be simply deciding to stop for a while, to relax or to suspend any action... A French writer - Michel Tournier - used to say that anger always triggers action, but it is always the wrong action which is being triggered by anger.
Emotional intelligence may be the skill, the art and science of understanding - listening to - what links our feeling to our thoughts and while acknowledging our emotions, in the meantime avoiding the trap of falling into confused emotional states while favoring and fostering true self-expression of what we feel and light-headed, sound, intelligent decision making.
Intelligence has long been thought to be the matter of the intelligible, ie the logos. Whereas emotions are derived from the world of passions, ie the pathos.... Schematically, intelligence would be about what I think, emotions about what I feel.
The notion of emotional intelligence seems to dispel the idea that the distinction is clear-cut and straight-forward.
It is not just intelligence on one side, emotions on the other and nothing in-between. Emotional intelligence is telling us about a mix, a bridge between two worlds. Descartes, the French XVII century philosopher, was applying his mind in ways to discover an intelligible world - a world of what we are sure about, as opposed to what is only illusion, superstition or ever-changing.... "Cogito" - the thinking mind - became the angular stone of what defines human being - cogito ergo sum - I think therefore I am.
Towards the end of his life, Descartes was hard-pressed to think and write on the domain of passions, emotions... He too had to deal with this question, whether and how we can either separate or combine thoughts and emotions.
In a simple way, intelligence is what helps us coming up with decision, for which we need to clarify issues, try to understand, share and communicate, using various tools like languages etc...
Emotions are a complex, unclear network of thoughts and feelings... It is important to distinguish between emotions and feelings as emotions are usually expressed... in "body-form": shaking, blushing, smiling, crying, as well as through language... words, signs... Feelings are anchored into every human being without taking any form... they are felt within... in our core.... As such they are felt. They are not perceived by the five senses. Feelings are not about seeing something, hearing or touching... it is an inner-perception. Feelings are just that. They may be triggered by senses or by something we get, some discussion, some ideas coming or passed on to us... Nonetheless feelings will always be of an inner-invisible-intangible-substance: fear, joy, anger, peace, plain satisfaction, plain discomfort...
Emotions will be a result of our feelings... In the same way as light is produced out of electricity, emotions are born out of feelings. You see the light but not the electricity. You see the emotions, but not the feelings. Another way to put it is to look at feelings like fire and emotions like smoke. This analogy highlights the primary aspect of feelings over emotions. It also helps understand the complex nature of emotions: complex in the sense that they are the result of a mix, something equivalent to a combustion, the combination of feelings with thoughts and langage.
These distinctions help us understand the role of emotional intelligence: trying to understand better, to decipher what rules the world of emotions... trace back to the feelings, look at expressing what happens (the mechanisms behind the "combustion"), make sense out what happens, ie allow the intelligence - the meaning, the intention - to emerge in this typically human language.
What does it take to understand the human language being displayed via our emotions and feelings?
What to see through the smoke?
It may be that feelings are not easy to describe. Besides, feeling are states of being, from which actions will follow. Whether I sleep, eat, work, rest, study... many actions are driven by what we see, think and feel.
Whenever we think or see, we also feel. Feelings are there at all time...
Feeling what we feel - becoming aware and conscious about it - is a powerful way to free ourselves from the pain and burden of many heavy emotional states... like stress, fear, worries, or over-excitement, or even intoxication. As we feel our feeling, we take ownership for them and can intelligently, rationally, come back to sound decision making - and it could be simply deciding to stop for a while, to relax or to suspend any action... A French writer - Michel Tournier - used to say that anger always triggers action, but it is always the wrong action which is being triggered by anger.
Emotional intelligence may be the skill, the art and science of understanding - listening to - what links our feeling to our thoughts and while acknowledging our emotions, in the meantime avoiding the trap of falling into confused emotional states while favoring and fostering true self-expression of what we feel and light-headed, sound, intelligent decision making.
Monday, December 21, 2009
Looking forward - thinking ahead
Taken from "Looking Backward" (1996) last chapter of the Accidental Theorist by Paul Krugman
The world as viewed in 2096 and Five great economic trends in the XXI century
The world as viewed in 2096 and Five great economic trends in the XXI century
- Soaring resource prices (superrich will be, more often than not, prime land owners or those with access to mineral)
- The environment as property (no more free air)
- The rebirth of the big city (urban density favoring the kind of close, face-to-face interaction that turn out to be essential... the most effective mass-transit system yet devised: the elevator)
- The devaluation of higher education (many of the jobs that require a college degree today have been eliminated, while many of the rest can, it turns out, be done quite well by an intelligent person whether or not she has studied world literature.... academic credentials will have hardly any monetary value... Harvard has become - as it was in the nineteenth century, more of a social institution than a scholarly one - aplace for the childrne of the wealthy to refine their social graces and make friends with others of the same class.)
- The celebrity economy (although business gurus are proclaiming the predominance of creativity and innovation over mere routine production, in fact the growing ease with which information is transmitted and reproduced makes it even harder for creators to profit from their creations.... creations must make money indirectly... by promoting sales of something else....)
Krugman is without pity for the stereotyped but too common futuristic views of the coming of an "information economy", mainly producing intangibles, and where the good jobs would go to "symbolic analysts", who "would push icons around on computer screens".
As Krugmans puts it - quoting Marvin Minsky " what people vaguely call common sense is actually more intricate than most of the technical expertise we admire." And Krugman adds: "it takes common sense to deal with the physical world - which is why , even at the end of the XX century, there are still no robot plumbers."
Who then wants to think with me and prepare the future of education? You know how to find me :-)
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Attributes of servant leadership, a powerful driver to enhance teamwork
Selected text from Wiki on Servant leadership
Greenleaf , in his classic essay, The Servant as Leader, described the servant-leader in this manner:"The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions…The leader-first and the servant-first are two extreme types. Between them there are shadings and blends that are part of the infinite variety of human nature.
The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant-first to make sure that other people’s highest priority needs are being served. The best test, and difficult to administer, is: Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants? And, what is the effect on the least privileged in society? Will they benefit or at least not be further deprived?"
The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant-first to make sure that other people’s highest priority needs are being served. The best test, and difficult to administer, is: Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants? And, what is the effect on the least privileged in society? Will they benefit or at least not be further deprived?"
Models of Servant Leadership
Most writers see servant leadership as an underlying philosophy of leadership, demonstrated through specific characteristics and practices. The foundational concepts are found in Greenleaf’s first three major essays, The Servant as Leader, The Institution as Servant, and Trustees as Servants.
Larry Spears, who served for 17 years as the head of the Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership, identified ten characteristic of servant leaders in the writings of Greenleaf. The ten characteristics are
Most writers see servant leadership as an underlying philosophy of leadership, demonstrated through specific characteristics and practices. The foundational concepts are found in Greenleaf’s first three major essays, The Servant as Leader, The Institution as Servant, and Trustees as Servants.
Larry Spears, who served for 17 years as the head of the Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership, identified ten characteristic of servant leaders in the writings of Greenleaf. The ten characteristics are
- listening,
- empathy,
- healing,
- awareness,
- persuasion,
- conceptualization,
- foresight,
- stewardship,
- commitment to the growth of others,
- and building community.
Leadership experts such as Bolman, Deal, Covey, Fullan, Sergiovanni, and Heifitz also reference these characteristics as essential components of effective leadership.
The Center for Servant Leadership at the Pastoral Institute in Georgia defines servant leadership as a lifelong journey that includes discovery of one’s self, a desire to serve others, and a commitment to lead.
The Center for Servant Leadership at the Pastoral Institute in Georgia defines servant leadership as a lifelong journey that includes discovery of one’s self, a desire to serve others, and a commitment to lead.
Servant-leaders continually strive to be trustworthy, self-aware, humble, caring, visionary, empowering, relational, competent, good stewards, and community builders.
Dr. Kent Keith, author of The Case for Servant Leadership and the current CEO of the Greenleaf Center, states that servant leadership is ethical, practical, and meaningful. He identifies seven key practices of servant leaders:
Dr. Kent Keith, author of The Case for Servant Leadership and the current CEO of the Greenleaf Center, states that servant leadership is ethical, practical, and meaningful. He identifies seven key practices of servant leaders:
- self-awareness,
- listening,
- changing the pyramid,
- developing your colleagues,
- coaching not controlling,
- unleashing the energy and intelligence of others,
- and foresight.
James Sipe and Don Frick, in their book The Seven Pillars of Servant Leadership, state that servant-leaders are individuals of character, put people first, are skilled communicators, are compassionate collaborators, use foresight, are systems thinkers, and exercise moral authority.
Unlike leadership approaches with a top-down hierarchical style, servant leadership instead emphasizes collaboration, trust, empathy, and the ethical use of power. At heart, the individual is a servant first, making the conscious decision to lead in order to better serve others, not to increase their own power. The objective is to enhance the growth of individuals in the organization and increase teamwork and personal involvement.
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