Coaching for "Essential Well-BE-ing" in Business
Workshops for Developing Employees in a Wave 5 Environment
“Today, workplace success is about developing healthy
and authentic interpersonal relationships.”
Futurist Alvin Toffler in his books, Future Shock, and Powershift: Knowledge, Wealth and Violence at the Edge of the 21st Century points to “waves” (i.e., periods in history) in which change abounds — political social, and economic sea changes. Waves also exist in the business environment. Common waves have been:
Wave 1: The Agricultural Revolution
Wave 2: The Industrial Revolution
Wave 3: The Technology Revolution
Wave 4: The Information and Communication Revolution
Wave 5: The Intrapersonal Revolution (Morris Shechtman, author of Working Without a Net, How to Survive and Thrive in Today's High-Risk Business World and Fifth Wave Leadership: The Internal Frontier crafted the term Wave %).
One of the broad categories that is addressed in a Wave 5 business environment is learning and development but not just learning for the sake of the organization. Learning and development in a Wave 5 business environment focuses on Life Balance — self-discovery first, and then a move to critical areas of relationships, commitment and accountability. Growth and development in a Wave 5 environment require introspection, self-reflection, and a willingness to eliminate dysfunctional behaviors that negatively affect the workplace atmosphere. Personal change and transformation start with an exploration of personal beliefs, unconscious assumptions and values regarding the nature and purpose of work, of management, of leading, of the organization. Knowing oneself involves seeking the thoughts, feelings, reflections and feedback of others. Employees with a healthy sense of self-esteem seek out and create healthy and successful relationships with others.
SpiritHeart’s Interactive Workshops focus on the soft skills of business — the skills and abilities that enable employees to show up authentically, in integrity, and in a way that they inspire one another to do their best and create a workplace environment in which everyone can thrive. SpiritHeart Interactive Workshops support employees to discover their personal challenges that get in the way of successfully working with others. SpiritHeart’s Interactive Workshops are designed to support employees to use their real-world examples of life at work to explore and create solutions that foster healthy relationships and effective teams.
Let's be very clear. In Wave 5 business environments, it will be interpersonal skills and personal awareness, not a policy, not a system and not a program that will enable people to work successfully with one another. Change will take place effectively only after people know how to talk with and interrelate to one another. No memo, no policy, no manual, and no system will ever make up for those who are deficient in people skills. SpiritHeart’s Interactive Workshops address these deficiencies and these skills.
Workshops for Developing Employees in a Wave 5 Environment
Gossip — “The Harmful Word" — Gossip is one of the most insidious challenges in the workplace. “Everybody does it.” Maybe not — maybe you don’t want to and don’t know how to stop. Or perhaps you want to know how to stop others in the act. Awareness through understanding is the doorway. Come explore. What is gossip and why do people gossip? What does it mean to say that gossip is "harmful"? What personal needs are met through gossiping? Why do people gossip even when they feel gossip is inappropriate behavior?
Self-reflective exercise: What is my history around gossip, in choosing to gossip or being the target of gossip? How can I free myself from the habit of gossiping?
Integrity at Work: How Are You Showing Up? — Integrity is your personal “bottom line.” Integrity is living your values. While integrity is a simple matter, it is the practice of living and working in integrity that is difficult. Why do some people act unethically? What causes you to be in conflict with your personal values at work? Who are you at work? Are you living your real life or are you living a lie?
Self-reflective exercise: What are my core values, my personal code of conduct? Am I compromising my core values at work? If so, how? And, why?
Stress Relief and Well-Being with Self-Massage — The answer to stress is in your hands. Would you like to have more energy and a greater sense of well-being? Would you like to get rid of your aches and pains? Would you like to have a better relationship with your body? Would you like to feel more relaxed? Would you like to quiet your mind? With a combination of acupressure, massage, healing touch and breath work you can have the power to alleviate the build-up of everyday stress and enhance your overall well-being. Discover an easy, practical way to nurture your self and care for your body. Through self massage you can melt away your tensions as you discover the key to accessing a state of comfortable relaxation and a greater sense of harmony, balance and well-being for your body, mind and spirit. (A literal “hands-on” experiential wellness activity.)
Five Roadblocks to Effective Team Building — Are you really a team player? What are the eight shared values of a team? What's the difference between a "group" and a “team"? Because teams are made up of individuals, they are inherently dysfunctional. Team success results from a conscious awareness of, and a conscious effort to, overcome the five obstacles that get in the way of effective teamwork: the absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability, and inattention to results. Learn about workability — making “work” work — for your self and your team.
Self-reflective exercise: How do you approach your team? Which tools can you master to reduce and eliminate issues that lead to frustration and dysfunction? How can you create a winning team?
Anger Management: Two Tools That Work — Anger shows up in the body and the mind. Emotional maturity is about "having" anger but not "acting it out" (e.g., tantrums, road rage, desk rage, verbal abuse, stonewalling etc.) Diffusing the mental and physical energy that accompanies anger is a learned skill set. Both Guided Visualization and the Heart Focus Technique are two effective tools that can allow you to move from a state of anger/frustration/upset to a state of neutrality, serenity and peace. Empowered from within, you can speak with and respond to another in a heart-felt and respectful way that allows win-win conversations and mutually-supportive workplace relationships.
Self-reflective exercise: Choosing a recent upset, you will use Guided Visualization and Heart Focusing to help you move from anger to a place of neutrality, inner peace and calm. Centered in your own heart, you will find the intelligence, understanding and action that lead to a win-win resolution.
Dissatisfied at Work? Perhaps It's You — Are you living “by accident” or “on purpose”? Why do people choose to do the work they do? What motivates the choice of job, career or profession? Are you suffering from the common work-related ills of stress, boredom, “presenteeism,” burnout and "rustout"?
Self-reflective exercise: Do you have a life vision, mission or purpose? What are your beliefs, assumptions, and values regarding the nature of "work"? Does your work allow you to express your Self? Do you have opportunities to experience personal growth and wellness at work? Does your work have meaning for you? What would make your work more meaningful?
Bringing Your Soul To Work — When we bring our soul to work, we operate from the "inside out", that is, we look into our deeper self for guidance with respect to how we relate to others, how we determine "right action" in dealing with all stakeholders, how we look to merge personal values of honesty, integrity, sincerity, kindness, compassion, empathy, humility, dignity, respect and self-responsibility with organizational values in our day-to-day interactions, tasks and responsibilities. So, in this context, “spirituality” means the vital force, the energy that emanates from deep within our self and which manifests as joy, happiness, will, strength, courage, discipline, purpose, creativity, and right knowing, right action and right understanding which culminate in our "do-ings" and "be-ings" at work which reflect our true and real, honest and sincere connectivity with everything and everyone. When we bring our soul to work, we live and work from the perspective that organizations don’t have to exist solely for products and services. Organizations can also be fertile soil where we can support people to grow and develop as they create products and services.
Self-reflective exercise: Do you bring your soul to work? If so, how? If not, what gets in the way of doing so? How would you describe your relationship to your work? With your colleagues? Do you support others to grow and develop?
Stealing Big & Small: Ethics in the Workplace — In many organizations, corruption and scandals seem to freely flow down from the executive suite into the cubicles, poisoning entire organizations with dangerous doses of bad behavior, dishonesty and a results-justify-the-means mentality. While a big scandal can bring the risk of lawsuits and indictments, chronic dishonesty tends to have a corrosive effect on just about every aspect of an organization — from recruiting to workplace morale. Corporate crime ranges from fraud and embezzlement, submitting phony invoices for payment, skimming revenue before it is recorded in the books, scamming customers with deceptive sales practices, altering quality and safety tests of products, creating silos to avoid scrutiny, doing whatever it takes to bring in an order, stealing in various ways — from intellectual property to paper clips. Low morale, an atmosphere of cynicism, top-driven pressure to meet unrealistic earnings goals and too-tight schedules are major causes of ethical problems. Companies need to pay less attention to rules and more attention to transforming their cultures. In many organizations there is an absence of core values, coupled with confusion about what is the right thing to do.
Self-reflective exercise: Make three columns on a sheet of paper. In the left column, list what you want your values to be, and then in the middle column list the ingredients for your ideal life — money in the bank, a new expensive car, etc. In the right column, list the conflicts between the left and center columns. What did you discover about yourself in this exercise?
Trust: How to Keep It, How to Lose It — Is low trust affecting your organization? Are there disconnects between what people say they will do, what they promise to do, what they say they are committed to doing…and their actions? Openness, honesty, reliability and acceptance are critical elements of the trust equation. Creating a culture and environment of trust requires creating a culture and environment of commitment, transparency and participation. What obstacles stand in the way of commitment?
Self-reflective exercise: Are you aware of your team's/organization's goals and the strategies? Do you know how both your performance is scored and rewarded? Do you know the rules or operating principles of your team or organization and are you permitted to question whether commands or decisions are consistent with these principles? Do you feel you are being treated fairly? Are you given special treatment and are the reasons for this special treatment known and justifiable? Do you keep your promises and follow through on your commitments?
From the Language of Complaining to the Language of Commitment — What sorts of troubling, defeating, diminishing or constraining things at work — if they were to happen less frequently — would you find more supportive of your personal and professional development? In other words, what are some common complaints, disappointments, or criticisms you have about your workplace? How do you experience work as obstructing your growth and development? The language of complaining, wishing and hoping is common, but seldom leads to personal learning, growth and development. Complaining never changes anything. However, complaining does have potential — we don't complain if we don't passionately care about something. Beneath the surface of complaining, lies caring, that which we most value or that to which we are most committed.
Self-reflective exercise: What commitments, convictions or values are actually held beneath your complaints? What does your complaint say you care about most? What are you doing/not doing that keeps you from realizing your commitment more fully? What belief or assumption is getting in the way of moving toward what you say you are committed to? What one or two (baby) steps can you now take to move in the direction of your commitment or conviction?
For more information on these workshops or a workshop "by design," contact Peter or call 770.804.9125.
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