Inner Truth

Today during my yoga practice I explored deep within the answer to this question: what is my inner truth? what is my soul trying to tell me? where do I get my light, my energy from?

As I sat still in the yin poses towards the end of my practice, my soul took me back to times when I was experiencing hardship; like a picture, those times were in front of me, and me in them, with the feeling, the emotion, the sense of hopelessness, the dead-end, and all that. Those times felt to me like I am vegetating, and be it the situation, or me, or both, they felt like there is no way out. Or, if there was a way out, I was not seeing it, and did not also see how I could get closer to it. I was not waiting because I did not know what to wait for. It was worse than that … A strange and uncomfortable feeling.

Then I saw myself in the present moment, very much feeling the same way.

And then I knew my inner truth, my source, what guides me, what never lets me down: strength and resilience. Very simple. I was looking for something bigger but suddenly I knew this is who I am: strength and resilience. Perhaps this is why my parents gave me the name of Nadejda (Hope in Bulgarian and Russian), which I inherited from my grandmother. Nadejda. Always to remind me there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Things will always change, perhaps tomorrow, perhaps next month, or next year, or in some years. They will do. Patience is not always the answer, especially to those like me who don’t have it. But my inner truth … yes. She will not let me down.

My message to you today is to dig in and find your inner source of light. Have in your mind, in your heart, and lean on to it when you need to.

Namaste.

On Kavanaugh, Dr Ford, and Empathy – What is Really Wrong with Our Political, Governmental, Economic and Social Systems

This post was triggered by what author A. R. Moxon posted on Twitter and its analysis by www. boredpanda.com.

I used to give Trump, his politics and his administration, the benefit of the doubt. Everyone around me, in my social circle, would openly criticise him. Not even this, they would plain dismiss him as a crazy man who somehow got to run one of the most powerful political and economic administrations in the world. Crazy, absurd, and all that. One huge blatant accident. This is what he is, they would say.

But then, I thought. Let’s wait a little. Accidents are often openings to transformation, and beneficial revolution. They are important in the course of life of anything, be it individuals, groups, companies, anything. It is just a fundamental principle to life. We all know this is true.

So I wanted to give Trump and his politics the benefit of the doubt. I am – still – convinced we are living a very important, and painful, period in the history of humanity and not just that, but also evolution of the planet Earth, of which we are part together with many other beings. We are all – spiritually, economically, socially and personally – birthing into something new and Trump is just part of the pain. To me, he and – also – Theresa May (you may think of others) are some of the most awkward, clumsy and out of place politicians we have today. They fall out of all political norm – for good or bad. And here I am not even talking of their politics (included, nevertheless). I mean first and foremost their demeanour, the impression they give, and what they embody as socially acceptable. I mean their social skills which I find poor at best, and let’s say ‘interesting’ to have in a politician.

So I thought Trump and his politics are just a symptom to soon give rise to what is to come, geopolitically, socially and environmentally.

In this line of thought, when Trump warmed up to Russia (and vice versa), I thought, ok. Better than fighting another war in whatever terms. When he engaged in a largely unimpactful but ultimately historic discourse with North Korea, I thought ok. This is interesting and better than fighting a war with them, as well. It is a beginning. …

When he pulled out of the Paris Agreement, I thought … oh boy. What a disaster. But then I said, we need leadership in this important plane, and this is what humanity ultimately lacks to overturn the course of climate change and bring a new kind of balance, and sustainability, across all our continents and inter-dependent systems. May be what Trump was doing was going to help, to stir up the largely bureaucratic governmental discourse that currently underlies climate change governance, and get the leadership we so badly need to emerge? This is what I thought. Right.

When he issued his famous family separation policy, I honestly did not see how something so disjointed come come from a human, and a government administration that is supposed to embody and propagate basic human values. But then, still, I gave Trump the benefit of the doubt. I did dislike (and still do) the policy but was willing to see the silver lining in it, i.e., could it be a vehicle to stop trafficking of adolescents and children? Sometimes, though problems need radical solutions.

But, when the Kavanaugh story came out, I was really listening. I heard some of Dr Ford’s testimonials live. It was fascinating. A psychologist myself, I could relate to Dr Ford’s precision in her testimonials. As a woman who was – quite violently (it is the perception that matters, anyway, and we should not have to quantify violence as ‘moderate’, ‘high’, etc., in order for it to be worth a hearing), with no-reason-for hitting, pain etc. – bullied by young boys as a child (just because they did not know how otherwise to get close to me, out of some immature love, or whatever, I have decided to think), I believe I could relate to how balanced Dr Ford was in her story, seeking truth, no vengeance. I could see in her the love, belief, and fight – all part of the survivor pattern I believe I know. And so her story resonated with me. Personally, I was and am still deeply convinced she and her story are authentic.

As I was listening to Dr Ford, I believe I could understand why she is terrified. I have not lived through something she has, but I know how healthy, strong and pragmatic humans deal with any kind of trauma. They box it. They frame it. And ultimately they forget the excruciating details. They do this to survive, to function, to emerge, and grow. Those who are strong enough, like Dr Ford, do it also so that they can fight back and change the system, when they can. It is simple. It is evolution. It is there for a good reason.

But going back to the experience is not pleasant to say the least. And we will avoid it at all costs.

Because I was still giving Trump the benefit of the doubt, I was very interested when the court ordered a deeper FBI investigation into the Kavanaugh sexual assault allegations. I honestly thought Kavanaugh is not going to be elected to the Supreme Court. I was triumphant thinking he would not be. And then he was.

On that point, Trump and his administration lost me. As a woman, I find that Kavanaugh was still elected plain disgusting. I feel angry and am calling for justice. As a human, I am worried, and wondering what kind of a birthing pain this is (see above reference), and what exactly we are being born into. As a member of civil society, I am voicing my concern over the lack of empathy in our political, social and economic systems, including judicial systems around the world. As a mother-to-be, I strongly believe empathy, which is the ability to turn issues around on their heads and put ourselves in the shoes of the other, is one of the most important qualities we need to nurture, more and more, in our generations to come.

What Kavanaugh is now matters not. What matters is what he has been, how and why he got away with it, and what message this sends out, throughout the US and the world. And how it would impact the judicial system in one of the most powerful political and economic systems, today, by having someone like him head it.

My blog post and message to you today is not really, or at least not only about the Kavanaugh case and the courage of Dr Ford. Enough has and will be written about this. My message to you today is that we need to take the Kavanaugh and Dr Ford case, and move forward from it with a solution in our minds, in our hearts, in our goals and in our actions.

Because, ultimately, the Kavanaugh case was concluded with no empathy in giving a verdict. It is simply that. Any judicial system is plain crippled because of this. Those calling for the importance of hard facts as the only evidence that matters in a hearing are either willingly or unwillingly corrupting that system.

Because Dr Ford could not remember all the excruciating details, it was judged there was no sufficient evidence to claim Kavanaugh guilty of sexual assault. In other words, no reference to human psychology was made. No help from a different discipline was actively sought. And, really, no attempt to see the truth behind the clouds, which is what empathy is ultimately about, was made.

We are only starting to talk about empathy, about what it is, and the importance of nurturing it in our children, and also in us as individuals. Sometimes, we also talk about the importance of empathy in our workers. We do not, however, yet even embark on a conversation about transforming our social, political, governmental (i.e., judicial) and economic systems with empathy in mind. And, we should.

We – as individuals, groups, organisations, governments, systems, all kinds of entities – are still too old-fashioned, too afraid, and often too pragmatic to embark on a transformation rooted in a concept we all deem important but are too afraid to embrace. A concept which is ultimately about an open-minded and open-hearted conversation and sharing between entities and disciplines. A concept which threatens the status quo and the securities and safety nets we rely on, but can no longer live by. We are change, and empathy is our guide.

The best tool that I know of to enable and guide a transformative empathy journey is Otto Scharmer’s U Curve. It is a beautiful tool that organisations, teams, individuals and administrations can use to embark on an empathy-driven transformation.

Let’s face it, empathy is not just the way to social justice. It is also the way to transforming our current economic consumerism into an environmental, social and governance driven sustainable economy, so very important to get to by 2030 (according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and their report that came out in October 2018). This new economy, new system, new order, new whatever we want to call it, is behind the clouds of muddled political discourse. Empathy is not only the way, it is also the shortcut.

Like Dr Ford, my biggest fear in writing this (and in her case, speaking up), is that I will not be heard. And yet I am doing this. I am writing to you. Because I believe in you. Do you believe in yourselves?

Corporate Sustainability Reporting: The Case for Change – Part 2

Reposted from: LinkedIn

Warning: Ideas discussed here are ahead of time. And yet, better be 20 years ahead than 20 years behind.

They say ships don’t sink because of the turbulent oceans in which they find themselves. Ships sink because of cracks that let the ocean within. Cracks form due to a number of reasons (captain’s inadequate judgement, team that is misaligned, and/or ship infrastructure that is poorly maintained – all of these intimately related).

Whatever the reason, a strong ship takes you through the storm, and a weak one takes you right to the bottom.

Similarly, companies do not go out of business because of challenging and shifting economic conditions, insufficient resources due to climate change, or poor integration into cultural and social landscapes. Companies go out of business because they are not fit within themselves to adapt to changing economic, social and environmental circumstances.

Just like people, companies need to build capacity on the within in order to stay afloat of adversity.

As Credit Swisse points out in their 2015 report: ‘Aiming for Impact: Credit Swisse and the Sustainable Development Goals‘:

‘the private sector is starting to realise the benefits of contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)’, those being the agenda to transform the world from 2015 until 2016, and which can be considered as the one and only path to the sustainability of our planet and the preserving of its biodiversity.

As Credit Swisse rightly points out, the private sector has been increasingly pressured by the public and all other stakeholders to include social, environmental and governance (ESG) factors in not only the reporting on the business, but also the business strategic planning, business model and operations.

Meanwhile, the private sector is – as always – expected to grow. However,

growth needs to be rethought in the context of the SDGs!

Innovative business models need to be found, such that create shared value for all business, society and the environment. And this can be incredibly tricky. Why? Because for businesses to do so, they need to work with all stakeholders, those being the United Nations System in its appropriate bodies, civil society, indigenous peoples, governments and regulatory forces. In fact, all these parties need to reach out and collaborate for sustainable growth, one that keeps profits on the rise but also preserves and enhances the biodiversity of the planet.

If businesses want to stay ahead of the game and afloat of current climatic and social adversities, this is the one and only way for them to do so and be here in another – let’s say – 100 or more years from now. And is it not what we all want, an agile yet profitable business that stays afloat and not only leverages, but also drives sustainability for growth?

What such a business-public sector-government-civil society collaboration means, ultimately, is not just a series of agreements between stakeholder groups, public statements, philanthropic gifts, etc. Such a transformative collaboration can not be achieved by planning and tools we have been using so far. It can only be achieved by innovation.

For businesses to truly stay ahead of the game, and afloat of current economic, social and environmental challenges, by embarking on a journey of growth that is profitable and sustainable, they need to transform on the within in terms of business models, operations, culture and collaboration practices. This is what makes them fit for the long-term.

In other words, businesses need to develop an internal fitness, or resilience, that puts, takes and grounds them on a path of sustainable and profitable growth.

Sounds good. How to do this?

Corporate sustainability reporting is the elephant in the room here. In a recent post on Corporate Sustainability Reporting: the Case for Change I explored the leveraging of corporate sustainability reporting as a change management tool that takes companies on a path of sustainable growth. And having further explored this with Albor360 (Sustainability Services for the Chemical Industry) and Meier Marketing Global (Helping Brands Stay Meaningful, Relevant, Flexible, and Happy), we can say the following:

• Companies should do much more with their sustainability reports than what they are doing currently. Staring with a business materiality assessment based on the SDGs, engaging stakeholders and reporting on sustainability is only the first step. The real opportunity to transform on the within and get the business on a journey of sustainable growth only comes afterwards.

To leverage this opportunity, companies should leverage the sustainability reporting exercise as an innovative journey of conversation, knowledge sharing and communications on the within and without of the business with key stakeholder groups.

• Innovative and powerful content marketing approaches and practices should be leveraged for internal communications, to ‘sell’ key messages to key stakeholder groups and achieve engagement and bottom-up action. Meanwhile, the same can be done on the outside to reach out and engage external actors and forces, not only to enhance the company brand image but also pave the way for its profitable yet sustainable transformation.

The corporate sustainability report targets and KPIs should be used to transform operations and integrate sustainability on the within of the business, that way making it fit and resilient.

• KPIs should measure performance at different levels, including cross-unit/department/division, as well as within units/divisions/departments. This way, the very fabric of the business is innovated for sustainable growth, not just pieces of it. This makes for a healthy and well-connected business and a sturdy ship that stays afloat of current challenges.

Qualitative and quantitative measurements should both be used.

• Examples of the former are stories and testimonials: they capture cause-effect relationships and make evident the heuristics that underlie performance, which heuristics in turn – by their engaging nature – create conditions for learning and innovation across the entire business to take place.

• Knowledge sharing and organisational development tools such as social network analysis (of the type developed by a partner company, Innovisor) should be further leveraged to determine who the key influencers in the inside and outside of the company are, and then work with those champions to design and speed up corporate change efforts. Why? Because transformational change ultimately starts, ends, and works (or not) because of people as change agents, not because of systems, processes, or other mechanisms. In this sense:

Design thinking approaches that look to co-create strategies and forge an emotional and spiritual connection between the business and those who make it happen, as well as those who determine its relevance and those who depend on it, should also be increasingly used.

• Last but not least, the right systems, in terms of infrastructure, IT and measurement, should be developed, co-created as appropriate and mainstreamed throughout the business in a participatory and engaging manner, leveraging content marketing and social media approaches and tools, and putting people at the centre.

With all this in place, a business is in for a journey of sustainable growth for the long term with a number of benefits: improved brand image, enhanced profitability, sustainable business models and systems, happy stakeholders, to say the least, and a lot more that can not be even projected to start with.

And, with all this in place, there is a growing and evolving conviction on the part of employees and stakeholders that this business, by growing, also develops the society and preserves the environment where it operates, in an ESG kind of a fashion.

The more the business can continually strike an ESG balance, and the more it uses the corporate sustainability reporting exercise as one key and integrative lever on this journey, the more we are convinced it is the kind of a business that is in it for the next 100 years at least which is, as you can imagine, very, very appealing to customers, consumers and investors. It is good for you now and it will be good for you tomorrow. And not only that, it makes you feel good too, no?!

Do you share these ideas? Myself, Albor360 and Meier Marketing Global would love to hear from you if you do. Do you have better ideas? Do you want to get on a sustainable growth journey? Please contact me.

We can travel with you, answer your questions and discuss opportunities for your business sustainable growth.

With you, we design and operationalise corporate social responsibility change management programs that leverage the various stages and opportunities of sustainability reporting. We empower you to get on a path of transformational discovery of what sustainable and profitable growth means for your business, and how about we do this for the 100 years from now?

Corporate Sustainability Reporting: The Case for Change

Reposted from: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/corporate-sustainability-reporting-case-change-nadejda-loumbeva

Companies of all types and sizes are increasingly being asked to produce non-financial (sustainability, corporate social responsibility, or called else) reports. Despite that this is not yet a legal requirement, it will be so in the European Union starting 2018. According to a new EU Non Financial Reporting Directive, all companies of more than 500 employees will be required to disclose ‘relevant and useful’ information about environmental, social, employment, human rights, anti-corruption and Board-level diversity topics as of 2018 (for 2017). (Source: https://www.ab-reporting.com/blog/got-teeth-eu-non-financial-reporting-directive/)

And even if not yet a legal requirement to disclose non-financial information, investors are clearly more and more interested in the non-financial aspects of company performance being reported, rather than only company financial information. Investors know and increasingly favour non-financial reporting frameworks like the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and Integrated Reporting Framework (IRF). This is because non-financial information about sustainability and corporate social responsibility is a much stronger predictor of future performance whereas financial information, as much as it is important, captures only the present and communicates nothing about the future.

If companies want to be taken seriously, and inspire confidence and trust about their future direction, they need to invest time and resources in the preparation of non-financial, or the usually called corporate sustainability (so called henceforth) or corporate social responsibility reports.

However it may not always be obvious to stakeholders what the value of such reports and the activities that go with them may be. Are companies getting the full benefit of their efforts?

Because, there is one extra mile that companies of all kinds and sizes do not yet walk with regards to corporate sustainability reporting: the CHANGE mile.

In other words, corporate sustainability reports are not only there for investors to judge about the potential of the company to remain profitable and stay in business for the long-term. These reports are – also – not only there for company management to reflect on past performance and strategise about future direction.

Corporate sustainability reports are importantly also there to be leveraged as a change management tool, through internal communications, business process redesign and content marketing directed at internal and external stakeholders.

And, what makes corporate sustainability reports particularly attractive with regards to being used as a change management tool is that the additional investment needed to leverage them as tools for change is small compared to the investment required to create them.

Take, for example, the 2014/15 Sustainability Report of the Danish company BESTSELLER – ranked as the best CSR report for 2015 by CSR Reporting.

One reason why it is indeed an excellent report according to CSR Reporting is because it not only presents a range of non-financial information (such as employee engagement, customer satisfaction, etc), but it does so in a way that appeals to a wide range of stakeholders. And, by doing so, it gives the reader a clear sense that BESTSELLER is on a ‘journey of sustainability’, that is constant change and adaptation in order to remain relevant as a business, use resources sustainably and yet ensure profitability and growth.

In other words, when a business communicates non-financial information in an Authentic, Material and Impactful (AIM criteria used by CSR Reporting to select best reports for 2015) way, it actually positions the report into a tool that can be used to market the need for change, internally and externally.

This makes for the Corporate Sustainability report to reach to all stakeholders and creates pertinence and urgency for BESTSELLER to realise the full value of their business.

And yet, is this all? It is a good start, but no, it is not all. A nicely written report does not do the change trick, and it does not yet take companies on a journey of sustainability.

What companies need is a system, guided by a framework, that allows companies to drive sustainability change throughout the company by using information and KPIs defined in the Corporate Sustainability Report.

We (myself and Albor360) are developing a Corporate Sustainability Reporting change management framework to meet this need. I will explore this in future posts … Meanwhile, please stay tuned and feel free to contact me for more information.

 

We Are Only Ready When We Try – Lessons From Yoga

As I was flowing on the mat this morning, something my first yoga teacher had told me kept crawling in: ‘In yoga, you have to start with what you like’.

I only marginally understood him at the time. Today, 2.5 years later, his words have a lot more meaning.

2.5 years into my yoga journey and I am nowhere as near as where I could be and yet so much further away from where I started ))))). Triconasana (triangle pose) used to be one of my favourites but today I don’t have favourites anymore. Today it is so much more about ‘integration’ in my practice, about combining, opening, challenging, soothing, in various proportions depending on the day, the period and my state of being ))))

However, I would not be there had I not started with, looked forward to and rejoiced in what I ultimately liked the most then: my triconasana – triange pose.

Triconasana Pose

Was I ready? No. Are we ever? No we aren’t. But then what made me do it? I took a decision to try, a decision out of hope, to try yoga out. Was I afraid? Probably, considering I had breathing issues, and wasn’t sure I can make it physically. But, I must have replaced fear with hope, and decided things can not really get much worse. (This is what we all ought to do when we are afraid. Recognise, then turn fear into hope, and do what made us afraid in the first place. … Because fear is human, and like all else, a source of energy to drive us or not forward.)

As I took this decision, I also trusted there were going to be things, people, situations along the way to help me on this journey, a journey I had no idea where it led. I had no idea what those things were going to be – I can only articulate them now – but I trusted, I had faith, I knew this CAN work, I wanted to try.

And this is precisely how it has been: there have been teachers, other practitioners, yoga mats that stick well so that you can hold on well onto a challenging pose, props, blocks, blankets, yoga studios, everything to help me get along the way.

And so this morning, as I was flowing on the mat, I somehow remembered all this. And I could also see a clear analogy between my yoga journey and the way we, or I try to go about life.

Because my yoga journey illustrates really well, with the deep mechanics of it, that the state of readiness doesn’t exist. Originally created by our brains to protect, and preserve us, ‘I am not ready’ often actually stops us not just from progressing, but also from living.

Perfection is procrastination, as I heard a communications expert say recently.

And so yes, or rather no, we are NEVER really ready for that new job, to start a new relationship, to fall in love again and make ourselves so vulnerable (but also live something beautiful), to move countries, etc. No, we are never really ready for that interview, or for the exam that’s coming, or for the workshop to facilitate tomorrow. If you think about it, you will see that probably most if not all of what you planned didn’t happen the way you planned. Or if it did, it was adding to, but not living.

Readiness is an illusion. What we do instead (apart from preparing) is making a choice between hope and fear and moving forward. (There is a third choice, prioritisation, not discussed here.)

If we choose hope, we are dancing. We might still fall but the light is on our side. We get up and try again. If we choose fear, we are frozen, and as much as this is also a kind of swap of energies and in that sense moving forward, we are making an active choice to stay away from the light (or enlightenment).

And, if we choose hope as I did on my yoga journey, we start with what we like and can do well )))) That is how we get into it.

Similarly, we start a new job by using our innate and learned strengths, and we use those to grow and learn more and more. We start a new relationship by (I guess …) trusting it will go well, by putting ourselves forward, by practicing the good we have known from previous relationships, by speaking openly about our fears, sometimes only to discover new amazing things about ourselves and our partner. … And this is how after a couple of years, we have a totally new experience in the bag, nothing like what we could have planned or thought could have happened.

And then as we do this – just like the props and the sticky mats -, there is plenty of helping hand along the way (colleagues, our partner, friends and family, to say the least). They are there if we only choose hope and try, try, try.

By Josephine Wall

So this is what my morning practice taught me this time around. It reaffirmed my deep conviction life is not possible without hope (like my name, Nadejda )))). That we are never really ready unless we take the plunge and try. That life on the mat is often life in real life.

… As I often wobble on the mat, I also struggle with these choices in real life. But, I am willing to try. And I think this makes all the difference.

Thank you. Namaste  🙂

On Why Knowledge Management is Just Good Management and How to Keep it Alive

My journey in the field of Knowledge Management has been an interesting one. Like many great things in life, it started by accident. Back in 2002, I was looking for an internship as part of completing my MSc in Human-Computer Interaction with Ergonomics. I had a couple of different opportunities almost secured (i.e., a heart surgery virtual training and a defence airplane virtual training system optimisation). As it happens, none of these worked out, out of circumstances outside of my control. And so, for a few weeks, I was left with no internship option, which was causing me no little distress considering I was not sure what I wanted to do with my degree and how to build a career on it.

Then, one day, an independent consultant (Malcolm Ballantine) – later to become one of my greatest mentors, for which I will always be utterly grateful – came along with an – at the time – vague need for input by a local intergovernmental agency. He was working with the agency on defining and streamlining a concept called ‘Learning Networks’, that is geographically distributed communities of practice driven by the passion to share and learn on a topic of shared interest. These communities had all been given a virtual collaboration tool to use for communication and information sharing, to ease the learning and minimise the need to travel across the country.

Problem was, not all of these communities were using the tools they had been given, or if they were, the exchanges were shallow and non-substantial. It was not clear why that was. To make matters more confusing, some of these tools were highly functional and allowed for many different things to be done online. Others were much more basic. Users however seemed to prefer the more basic tools, and did not care much about the very functional ones. The agency wanted a student to look into this, and dissolve the mystery, both from an academic and practical perspective. This student fortunately ended up being me and this internship marked the beginning of my fascinating knowledge management work.

More than 10 years later, I realise what held true at the time of my internship still holds true today, despite the great advances in social media and collaboration tools we have seen in last years. And that is, the enthusiasm and commitment of the people, the extent and quality of trust among them, both led and enabled by appropriate facilitation, is what makes such communities – or Learning Networks – work. While sophisticated tools are always welcome, they can do very little to stimulate exchanges and learning within a group of people unless there is shared passion, common dream, commitment to a strong purpose and trust in fellow community members they will stand by you and get the job done.

More than 10 years later, however, I also realise some things have changed in how I see Knowledge Management as a discipline. Having worked across different organisations, globally, and different teams, one maxima seems to hold true more and more, that is: Knowledge Management approaches and methodologies are not separate from the actual work, and should be brought to help more ‘core’ management disciplines. In other words, let’s not separate Knowledge Management from Project Management, Communications, Change Management and Strategy Development. These are all closely intertwined areas. In absolutely all of these people come first, and are key. They are our driving agents, our force for change. How to motivate and engage them in the work, in ways more and/or less structured, is all it takes to have a change management, a stakeholder engagement, or any other initiative rolled out successfully.

Because the more we try to keep Knowledge Management separate, the more it will die. Let’s rather integrate knowledge sharing, community facilitation/participation, use of innovative tools and methods to engage and stimulate learning, and capturing and reflecting on good practices, into the full project/programme cycle. Otherwise I fear we are separating the heart from the head, and taking the life out of any bigger or smaller undertaking we do in and across our organisations, in our work, and differences we try to bring onto the balance sheet.

Let’s start with people and end with people. Let communities of practice be created as part of change programmes, good practices be captured and reflected upon as part of defining and executing strategic roadmaps, and virtual and face-to-face dialogue tools and communities be used as part of asking – and exchanging with – our stakeholders about what they think. Let it all be a process with different – constantly evolving – milestones in it, leading us forward, rather than a means to an end.

That is not only the one way for Knowledge Management to survive. It could also be the one way for other related disciplines, like Change Management, Planning, Project Management, and Communications, to survive as well.

Reinventing Yourself – It All Starts With YOU

I have been doing a lot of soul-searching over the last months and year, and am transitioning in terms of career and private life. Because I think this is what lots of other people are doing, in their search for higher consciousness and ‘ forms of being’, I wanted to share my lessons and insights with you, hopefully as guidance to others who feel they are kind of ‘floating’ in their life journey at this moment.

First, what does it feel like, to ‘transition’? If any of the below are bits and pieces you are experiencing, then join the club folks! Nothing to be scared about, although I know, it feels pretty scary. 🙂

Below I mention three according to me major signs you are in a transition, and share a bit of how I deal with each, and how I use it to ride the wave of change. 🙂

– You feel like at least some of the people you know currently are somehow draining your energy. That is okay. This is because you are on a journey, and they are part of your past. They may not be part of your future when you reach your next destination point.

Either draw the boundaries while still remaining in touch and meeting up with those people, or just take distance. Explain it to yourself this has nothing to do with them, or you, it is a natural course of change in life. Accept, that is the only way to change.

Those who are really your friends will understand. Some of them, especially those who expect you to respect them, might get upset. Just accept all these aspects and remain in your bubble. You need your bubble to weave the threads of your new life. 🙂

– You are often gripped by fear. Oh well, that is a sign you are really doing some work on yourself and are on a journey.

When this happens, accept your fear. Then examine all the options. What is really the worst that can happen? Look into it, is it that you may not be able to stay where you are? Then think of where else you could go. Is that really going to be so bad? Probably not. Think of all the times you have been faced with something impossible and yet you have been able to make it. Dance with your fear, and transform it into something more positive and beautiful. Remember that unless we have fear we can also not have courage. So fear is actually a pretty good thing. 😉

– You feel like you are on the pulse of something, but that thing is yet to be discovered and created by you. Well that is the most exciting part, and a clear call you need to keep doing. Just keep on doing, but not senselessly, and be active, not just in your deeds, but also in your mind.

Explore whatever it is you wish to change. Is it life balance? Then live it, take risks from your current point of view, experiment.

Is it a new stage in your relationships? Then bring it around in a steady way, accepting that everything is about discovery and that all that happens is just feedback and feedback loops.

Is it about a new way of living your intimate relationship and love life? Well then, take a risk, watch how you feel and experiment with feeling good, no matter what. Focus on things that give you energy and remove the ones that are not.

What really helps here is making it clear to you what your life principles are, and accepting these might not be everyone else’s. And yes, we all have principles according to which we live our lives. It is our mission in life to proclaim these and as much as possible live our life accordingly.

At the same time though, we will come across people and situations that are not build according to the same principles, or just don’t have strong principles. When this happens, recognise, and move swiftly forward. It is no one’s fault. It is just not your thing. The Universe is big and with space for everything in it. We are best at remaining true to ourselves when we maximise our value, that is invest energy, but do not overload with it. That way we save ourselves for when we are truly in our element. Life is simple, we only need to enhance what we stand for in it.

All the above is a process and comes around through self-awareness. Yes, you can. If you are in a transition, then think of as a gift. You will learn so much. If you are in it, you can take it. You are meant to be in it because you are strong and worthy. It is your chance. 🙂

I find these help me on my journey. Are they also helping you?

Wishing you a great time being a mindful human being. 🙂

Why blog?

I know I have been silent for long – perhaps too long – and would like to apologize to my over 500 followers for my silence. Meanwhile, I would like to thank you all for following me. Thank you!!! I would not say I have been a proliferic blogger, but whatever I have posted, I have tried to make sure it is of good quality. I hope this has worked for YOU, my followers. A big thanks to you all, once and again. 🙂

I am currently going through a transition, and as part of that I am rethinking the focus of my blog and blog posts. As part of this, I would like to conduct a small experiement, and I would like you, those of you who follow me, to participate in it. Let us turn this blog into more of a multi-way communication!

By commenting on this blog post, would you please let me know the following:

– Why did you click on the ‘FOLLOW’ button on my blog? Why do you follow me? What resonates with you in my posts?

– What have you appreciated about my blog posts?

– What would you like to see more of in my posts?

– What have you not liked, what would you think I should improve?

I would LOVE TO KNOW WHAT YOU THINK. Please do let me know what you think by commenting on this blog post.

Can’t wait to hear from you. 🙂

Anorexia – What we can’t imagine …

Last night I went to a Starbucks coffee shop in Zurich. I went up to the top floor and sat down. I had had a long and busy day and needed some time with my own thoughts. And, then, I saw this badly anorexic girl. It took me sometime to figure out she was anorexic. It honestly felt like I was looking at a calm and quiet ghost sitting in the corner. I felt really eery.

I guess the girl was in the last stages of anorexia. So bad! You could see the skull through her skin. It was like she was both 16 and 80. I as so afraid like I have never been in my life, looking at her. I was both drawn to her, because the intensity of her element was so strong, and so afraid to look at her. She was in an element I could not understand, but I could feel its intensity. Felt like she is going down a tunnel from which there is no way back, and she knew it.

She was very weak, I think she was drinking her own saliva from a handkerchief. At some point she started crying. That was horrific to look at. Her face … was the mask of a ”dead person walking”, the alive mask of a dead body. I am so sorry. I felt so bad, so shaken, so moved by the whole thing. Nobody noticed her or seemed to notice her, everyone went about their conversations. If they did notice her crying, they pretended they did not see anything. Some people came to sit close to her, saw her, then moved away. Then at some point she asked about the hour, politely, and left. Very skinny, weak and all that.

The whole experience deeply disturbed me. First, It felt like she wanted to feel like we all do but could not. This is why she was there, to try to feel what it feels like to be ”normal”. She did not eat or drink anything. I think she knew she looked bad, and she knew I was looking at her, but was calm and thoughtful. She blank very little.

I know that in anorexia at some point there is a point of no return, your body actually rejects food, your digestive system gets out of practice, and even if you do want to eat, and even enjoy it, it feels so bad for you, your body actively rejects food. Often these people are also among the brightest, most creative and most intelligent. Anorexia has many causes, it is linked to a predisposition in the brain, but then the showing of the condition is unlocked by so many other factors, just one of which is the idea that we as women (or men) have to be skinny in order to be beautiful. (All of these advertisement sorts of things we are being bombarded with.) This is just one factor though. There can be other factors, like family problems, and all that mixing together.

Should I have done something more, should I have talked to her? May be she would have not understood my English. May be I could have gone down to the Starbucks staff, and talked to them about this. I assume she would/should be in hospital.

I was watching her closely, and anyway, felt could not do much else. But if she had started harming herself, I would have done something, I was also watching all around me, all these nice people. Really beautiful, nice people. Engaged in conversations. Zurich is new to me, so I am naturally observing everything, absorbing every aspect of the Swiss German reality. I do not know it very well yet and do not speak the language. That makes me even more open to whatever is going on, beyond what words can express.

I remember as I was sitting there, with the girl sitting diagonally to me, I only wanted to leave. I did not though. Then I was suddenly overtaken by a feeling of such gratitude and joy. I think it was a defense mechanism. What I felt there is a realization of how lucky I am. Sitting there, with my worries and concerns, I understood I have the privilege to live a full life on our planet with all of its ups and downs, which are all these awesome opportunities to live fully and grow. I also felt, I thought the girl knew this, and she simply could not belong to this world.

I am so very sorry. I thought the least I could do is write about this here. So that people know. Not sure whether I should have done something differently. I tell you, I have never been so afraid. Really. Because I felt what she knew through her serious psychopathological condition, we, the rest of us, do not know, at all, do not want to, simply can not. Most of us would say we are just blessed with not being like ”that”. Not being like ”that” always carries with it its own drama, and worries and concerns, but it is, to us at least, delightfully alive.

I am not at all angry, or displeased with all of the wonderful people around her who went about their conversations. I was in some way one of them, I went about my emails, and tried to focus in on my own thoughts. But I just could not forget about this girl. And I just wanted to share my experience here with you.

Let’s remember that challenges and worries in life are opportunities to outgrow ourselves, to focus and take the right decisions. 🙂 I wish all of you who read this well. Let’s remember to embrace life as it is, change it as much as we can do and where we want to, live it with our full hearts, have patience where it takes, and have love and sympathy.

 

To close off, a wonderful video by the Piano Guys –

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJ_fkw5j-t0&list=RD02fz4MzJTeL0c

When Choosing a Job, Culture Matters

I just read this really excellent article by Bill Barnett in the Harvard Business Review Blog. It is called ”When Choosing a Job, Culture Matters”. I highly recommend it not only to job seekers, but also to anyone who’s looking for herself/himself in the organisation where she/he works, especially those who are not that happy with these organisatons and how they do what they do.

Organisational culture, or organisational mindset, is something I have already explored in another post. The culture within the organisation, the team, and so on where we work, is key to whether we can be successful in it. It is a key determinant, almost as important, if not more important than what the organisation or the team actually does.

Despite this, when we look for jobs, we often look for such in organisations that do something we believe in, be it reducing poverty, feeding the hungry, saving the displaced-by-disasters, developing social businesses, driving the digital revolution, and so forth. As we do this, we rarely ask the ”culture” and ”mindset” questions.

Personally, having worked with a variety of organisations for already more than nine years, and having experienced a variety of cultures, and having struggled a number of times, I am at a point where I think culture is more important than organisation purpose.

Think this scenario:

You have high integrity. You are environmental sustainability minded. You believe in business that is both responsible and sustainable. You value and respect others and expect them to value and respect you. You are focused on doing the right thing, always, and are prepared to work hard by yourself and with others to figure out what that is and then implement it. You are open to learning and new experiences. You believe in that real, all-encompassing and overturning change is the result of many working well together, not just a few doing their own thing. You believe in working with all the stakeholders. You are competitive and like winning. You are exhilarated by the possibility of winning a contest based on nothing but your abilities and outstanding performance. You have a vigorous approach to both practice and research. You want to make a difference in this world.

You join an oil and gas company. Doesn’t make sense, right? How will you ever contribute to a business that is socially responsible and brings environmental sustainability to the world from within there? What this company does is in stark opposition with your values. But, think again, is it?

As it turns out, the oil and gas company has a culture that greatly suits what your personality needs in order to succeed. It is transparent when it comes down to promotions, and, because of the nature of the the business, there is a deep and shared commitment to health and safety. The people there want to do good (albeit it may sound like a paradox to you initially). They don’t want any spills. They want to innovate solutions to extracting the oil and gas in the depths of the Earth, solutions that do not damage it in the long term, solutions that do not cause and precipitate earthquakes, solutions that are clean and minimal in terms of impact. Furthermore, they are investing in renewable energy and are well familiar with how challenging is to produce such sustainably. They want to tackle this as a corporation. They are looking for the answers, together. There is respect for points of view different than yours. Knowledge sharing and knowledge management catalyse good practices emerging from the bottom-up, and scale them up through corporately adopted solutions. It is all bubbling inside that company, actually. There is urgency to innovate and plenty of commitment to doing good.

And so, surprisingly, culture-wise the company is a good fit for you, which is also why you took the job. You know it will be hard and challenging at times, but the culture is there to support you and carry you on its waves. Besides, a little bit of hardship and challenge is what you welcome to make things interesting and really make it possible for you to achieve your vision and goals.

Makes sense?

While this example is entirely fictitious, it helps to illustrate the point.

Culture, and not organisation purpose per se, is what creates conditions for us to succeed, to show and put to work what we are capable of, and to achieve our personal visions. The right culture is what brings it all out, connects us deeply with our colleagues and stakeholders, and makes it possible for us to run fast yet never be tired.

In a similar way, the people we work with, how they are, their aspirations and ways of working, their motivations and integrity are almost as important if not more important that what we actually do together with these people. And, this is because, if there is chemistry inherent to how we work together, we are willing to listen, learn together, change the course of action and even re-examine and change our values. If the culture is good, we are genuinely putting ourselves at work and positive growth can emerge. This is why culture, and that chemistry that imbues our teamwork with others, is by the far the most important prerequisite for us being successful, happy and satisfied at the workplace.

If you are reading this and are not happy with your work, think why that might be. Think what it is about it that is stopping you. Think of how to overcome it. If the only way of doing this is by joining another organisation (and leaving your current one), do that, don’t be complacent. It is all about growth in the end. Making yourself a success is the one most important thing you want to achieve in your life.