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Dawna Jones 2010- Making Sense of Change at Home and Work by Dawna Jones Page [email protected] Twitter: EPDawna_Jones (Evolutionary Provocateur)Go to www.FromInsightToAction.com for programs/services to assist individuals and companies in their evolution.

Making Sense of Change at

Home and Work

By Dawna H. Jones

People have been brought to their knees by an inexplicable series of events in their personallives: financial loss, unexpected deaths, and health issues that ignore age. Businessorganizations face engagement issues, stress related illness, and ethical issues that provoketransparency and accountability, along with agile response to uncertain and complex marketand innovation conditions. Turbulence reverberates through the many planes of our earthlyexistence with rising awareness that doing what weve always done isnt enough. Planetarydisruptions, natural disasters increase in frequency and magnitude. Large complex globalissues like climate change, food supply and diminishing biodiversity openly confrontassumptions about our relationship with the world we live in: as above it or an integral part ofthe web of life.

The context for life and work is changing. Personally or organizationally, there is no escapingthe pressure to evolve. The global financial crisis has called into question existing approachesto corporate governance. Corporate collapse, disproportionate bonus payments and jobinsecurity have all contributed to a growing distrust of business. i Science offers insight.

In fractal geometry we find that the universe is actually built on self similar images meaningif you can understand one level of organization, say the level of atoms or molecules you can

understand the next level: cells, people, organizations, civilization. Patterns express themselvesthrough each of these different levels. ii-Dr. Bruce Lipton

There is much hope. Hearts open to help countries hit by devastating earthquakes. Businessleaders move to embrace conscious capitalism and stewardship principles. Rising to the surfaceis insuppressible desire from the hearts and souls of personal and professional lives tocontribute, to work with others and create solutions that improve our relationship with ourselves

as a global population and with nature's resources. The power is in our heartsand minds.

Day to day we live our lives in patterns, mostly habitual which reinforce alimited time-bound sense of our place in the world. As the pressure to become

more flexible increases, inflexible thinking relays it to employees who crumble from the stress orleave to find better balance. The majority of limiting habits operate beneath consciousawareness both personally, in the subconscious and organizationally, in the systemic beliefsleaving both poorly equipped to handle the unexpected.

Disruption serves the purpose of opening up portals: the space between one stateand another, where you can observe the value of the patterns and intentionally alter them

to better serve.

Experiences, whetherdeemed good or bad, all present openings for self-examination andreflection regardless of whether you are an individual or a company/organization. True to thereplicating patterns in nature, the need for growth and evolution is expressed by employees and

Natural and man-

made disasters are

increasing in

magnitude.


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pushed by increased complexity. What looked black and white is now grey. Complex issuesseem impervious to strategies designed for superficial problems. Deep change is underway andit compels deep learning and expansion.

We are part of a living system. By understanding how the scientific and spiritual principles applyto strengthen the human spirit, co-creation is facilitated and accelerated.

Dr. Bruce Lipton, cellular biologist, put it this way:If you can understand the dynamics of how 50 trillion cells can provide for a healthy human beingand apply this to a corporation, to a nation, to the world the rules for making a successfulorganization are expressed in the human body. It is important that corporations look inward beginto say. Can I find an understanding in there that I can apply to my corporation? They areparallels. Every living system has the same requirements. Whether it is IBM or the human bodyyou still need the same things to survive. I am hopeful that as we go deeper into the science andas corporations understand the mechanics of biology and physics that by applying theseprinciples to our business organizations that we will be able to create as successful communitiesas the human body.

My own experience proves this to be true. The twenty-five years of coaching personal growth

and facilitating group performance, turned out to be a learning lab for recognizing repetitivepatterns in people's behavior and in organizational dynamics. Universal human addictions werereflected in stuck organizational dynamics. I witnessed the repression of talent stemming fromthe belief that people had to be told what to do. As I observed organizational and teamdynamics move one step forward and two back, I realized that I was really facilitating energyand beyond that, the health of the human spirit. There were a lot of invisible forces operating

unseen. It called for a higher level of personal mastery since I neededto support the collective deep dive beneath polarized issues to exploreand learn from the apparent conflict. It was not easy to master, yet theconstant opportunities to practice allowed creative exploration of howto draw out and sustain the best.

Sometimes it was a simple matter of surfacing awareness that harmony is not achieved byavoiding conflict. With clarity, a more constructive approach could be adopted. The sciencemade even more sense when, after delivering a series of leadership programs, my colleagueand I became acutely aware that the client organization's default of centralized controlsabotaged any efforts to achieve the innovation they envisioned. Sure enough, when a crisis hit,all trust in management judgment was retracted and decision-making retracted to centralauthority. This was incredibly instructive. It told me that companies are like people: they operatefrom a set of beliefs and assumptions that, for the most part, they are totally unaware of. Giventhe fractal nature of replicating patterns, it showed that there were invisible set of beliefs andassumptions buried in the working environment that, as the subconscious does for people,produced the results.

All these observations combined to reveal the Big Picture with depth and breadth. Organizationsshowing signs of illness: stress-related, depression, oppression weren't healthy enough tofunction in ambiguity. Systemic beliefs were operating unseen and untouched by mentalmaneuvers on the surface. People were being fixed by training when the cultural containersetthe limits and impacted behavior. Opportunities to strengthen key relationships were beingmissed.

The innate intelligence of

a cell is replicated in the

human body, the

organizational body, and the

planet.


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I devoted all my time and energy to uncovering solutions.A couple of questions hatched: Whatdoes it take to realize our full unbounded potential? Why are we here and what can we docollectively we cant do alone? What happens when we take down the walls of limiting belief andto allow possibilities to run freely? The obvious starting point was to shift the level ofconsciousness through self-actualization. It required moving well beyond my comfort zone.

Then, the unexpected hit my life

Once upon a time I owned things. I had a retirement savings plan, a home, investmentproperties and a great place to live. Yet my inner world had too much drama and not enough joyor fun at least that is how I experienced it. Outwardly, it looked pretty good. At some pointhowever, my body let me know that a change was necessary. Too much energy was going outand not enough was coming back in, especially to my heart. Burnout. Then from 2003 onward,revenue and possessions began to fall away.

Internal pressures to express my creative talents were colliding with invisiblepressures to evolve.

Up to then, I had been running a reasonably successful facilitation and consulting business forwell over ten years. Yet I felt exhausted and trapped on a gerbil wheel. Something was missing.No matter what I did toward manifesting my dreams and my goals it didnt work. Worse, losswas often the result. Propelled into a confrontation with my shadow side, my fears, insecuritiesand deepest wounds came to the surface for transformation or transmutation. I noticedemotional patterns in my personal life I wasnt happy about and a dissonance between mynegative outlook and how others saw me. It became clear that in order to be more effective inlife and to serve from a deep place, I had to unite the lessons of the shadow side with the rest ofme.

It was time to get myself out of the way.

As all I had worked for fell away I needed more than inner strength and resilience to attain the

level of deep trust. I needed to let go, surrender to the process. Every layer I uncoveredrevealed another, then another layer where attachments disguised insecurities. As I identifiedand released each one, trust stepped in and inner freedom bubbled up. It was the biggest leapof faith I have ever done in my life. It was a series of leaps. Little did I know how much mypersonal process would directly inform how people and organizations can increase functionalitywhen the going gets rough.

There is no longer any division between personal growth and professional andorganizational capacity to achieve a higher purpose. Personal growth drives

organizational growth focused by higher purpose and service.

Never doubt the difference you make or underestimate the wake you leave as you move

through the world. If you are an entrepreneur and your business is less than one hundred andfifty employees, you are a walking culture maker. A small shift in your thinking makes a bigdifference to well-being and subsequently performance.

Business has always assumed its purpose is to be the economic engine and so hasconveniently left out variables that, when factored in, would widen perception of reality. Thehumanist value of care and compassion for others, including nature, has been dismissed as


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'soft' consistent with the Industrial era. Interestingly enough, it turns out that the qualitiesbusiness tends to dismiss as soft stuff are the qualities that power phenomenal results.Investment advisor and author, Jay Bragdons LAMP index (Living Asset ManagementPerformance) is comprised of seriously screened companies. He explains:

The LAMP index is a list of companies managed on an emerging new mental model where the firm

operates as a living organism dedicated to value creation rather than a profit making machine. Thisreflects an important distinction in the way companies value their assets. Living assets are peopleand nature. These are fundamentally different from non-living capital assets. This is premised on arespect for life.

Its a biocentric world view where the firm sees itself as integral to the web of life not separate fromthe web or above it. Thinking in evolutionary terms I see this as a major adaptation in capitalism; aradical departure from the bankrupt and now dying industrial model of capitalism where the total cost

of this system now arguably exceeds its benefit.iii

I first interviewed Jay in January, 2009. At that time, LAMP companies outperformed theMorgan Stanley Capital World Index by 11 basis points. At the beginning of 2010 when I askedJay for an update he said,

Globally, fewer than 4% of exchange listed companies operate from core values ofcare andcompassion. Most people believe this approach to business is "soft." But, when done with deepcommitment and professional competence, it produces hard results. In 2009, for example, the GlobalLAMP Index, which tracks such companies returned 44.56%, far surpassing returns on the S&P 500(+26.46%) and the MSCI World Index (28.01%). Over the past decade the Global LAMP Indexreturned 98.03% while those other benchmarks lost money.

iv

LAMP index companies align the ends with the means and while doing so embrace their role asstewards of Life serving to contribute through: better ecological stewardship, more stable employersand business partners, more reliable vendors from a buyer standpoint, better investments and we getbetter neighbors. The companies that practice Living Asset Stewardship are more responsibleneighbors and they are better generators of tax revenues.

v

By aligning core values with the intention to serve a higher purpose, infinitely beyond self-interest, they are rewarded by the market. Striving to survive is being replaced by stewardshipand reverence for all life. Profit (defined more broadly) follows. The deep level of trust thatunderpins all successful relationships, including economic transactions, is strengthened.

Care and compassion is a universal field of energy sourced in a larger vision: one much greaterthan us. There is huge opportunity. Jays research shows that 4% of public traded companiesand countless more privately held companies are on to something. There is still plenty of roomto grow. Companies with one foot in command/control and the other in the idea of triple bottomline feel the pressure increase as disillusioned employees leave or suffer from stress-relatedillness. The twenty to thirty year olds in the workforce bring high levels of creativity, no respect

for rules of limitation and a high value for collective and collaborative teamwork. To embrace thehigh level of creative collective talent available within all generations in the workplace, we mustimprove our capacity to use uncertainty to increase flexibility grounded in values, trust andpurpose.

The new consciousness must be intentionally and collectively nurtured.

A business leader who views business activities only as producing a product or service forconsumers in order to maximize near-term profit will look at social and environmental


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performance as discretionary costs. Business leaders who take a narrow view of social andenvironmental obligations will be drawn to quick communications fixes, largely symbolic charters,or purely technical compliance programs... What consumers, employees, and investors aredemanding is a conduct of business that takes into account the effect of its activities on all itsstakeholders. This requires creating a consciousness of greater connectedness with one anotherand with nature and an understanding of global problems that involves feeling and intuition aswell as thinking. The resulting mind-set will change planetary ethics from a blip on the corporateradar screen to a mainstream way of thinking and acting. vi

Compassion forms the connection between all living things. It is compassion for the Self and forothers, especially those whose view differs from your own, where the advanced skills of higherconsciousness and the ability to live "oneness" through compassion is lived; not as a figure ofspeech or ethereal concept.

There are three directions.1) There is a shift underway from linear thinking to seeing and perceiving holistically. This

engages creative thinking and agility to shift perspective in an instant in order to see thedynamic interrelationships and interconnection. The Big Picture and all the inter-relationships becomes the backdrop for decision-making.

2) By using interruptions in life to growtoward self-actualization, you achieve a stateof higher fulfillment which, in turn, releases

joy and deeper knowledge. Workplaces can progressively inspire and support fun, caringand high performance relationships through contributing innovation that matters.

3) Collaboration comes naturally making the complex issues we face become lessdaunting. Remaining open, even when skeptical, permits exploration, experimentation,and discovery of the core creative talents you hold. Trust deepens. Well-being expands.By understanding the importance of epigenetics: how the working and mentalenvironment influences genes and how DNA changes in response to its environment,the power to reclaim or maintain health and vitality is situated in your choices about howyou lead your life. By paying attention to the quality of working relationships and well-

being, businesses can intentionally sustain working environments that supportachievement.

During the many years I have been consulting, I have been advised many times to separatebusiness from personal. That logic works in a Newtonian world where all things are separateand not connected. It doesnt work now. To maintain separation defies biology, physics, spirit atwork, the dynamic of life, and the natural desire to contribute. After spotting Eckhart Tolles book

A New Earth: Awakening to Your Lifes Purpose on the dash of a police car, it felt like we wereready to see things differently at multiple levels to merge duality into a more unified state ofconsciousness - one that can see reality through a wide angle lens.

Knowledge cannot be contained within boundaries. Because knowledge functions in networks,

seeing the whole system and your place in it, cognitively and emotionally, frees insight andforesight to guide and direct. Mechanical engineer, Itzhak Bentov, was able to retain hischildlike vitality of vision and see the world as a single untangled web in which all parts areconnected in a grand pattern.viiBentovs work was grounded in knowledge of the self as theroute to all knowledge. He knew that the unfolding of consciousness, that is, spiritual evolu tion,opens up this latent knowledge. In Bentovs view, encoded in our reality, this knowledgeappears at first on the threshold of consciousness as vague feelings, eventually becomingcleareras spiritual evolution proceeds.viii

Global work teams remove geographic and political

boundaries freeing ideas to serve where they are needed.


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What exactly is the imperative?

First, the incidence of stress-related illness and stress has reached proportions that endangernot only individual well-being but also that of communities, businesses, and the planet itself. Weare unnecessarily creating many of those issues, mostly from unrecognized fear. The habit ofseparating things to the point where inter-connections are imperceptible means talent and

opportunity get overlooked.

Second, all but those completely absorbed in day to day survival are cognizant of the state ofthe world and our relationship with sustainability. Tim Flannery in The Weathermakers pointsout, Whether we are crossing the road or paying the bills, it is the big, fast moving things thatcommand our attention. But seemingly large issues sometimes turn out of be a slide show. ixThis naturally begs the question: What does the future hold? Fortunately, as the mystics say,the answers do indeed lie within.

Third, there is no shortage of crisiss to work with at all levels: natural disasters, corporate,organizational or personal. Unless we learn how to use those to evolve we miss the moment.Most powerfully, there is recognition that creative energy cannot function in a disconnected and

uncompassionate environment. When people do work without being engaged, or using the needfor financial security as a rationale, their health or some other indicator will ultimately sound thealarm alerting the need to align their personal intention or purpose with what matters.

Addressing the interdisciplinary and cross-sector issues globally or locally, calls forcollaboration. Mass collaboration is impaired when mired by mindsets that cannot stretch to theoccasion. The shift is underway and it is inevitable. Business is well positioned to take a higherlevel of leadership, by being empowered to contribute far beyond self-interest. Agility isessential and it is powered by each person who reads this article You.

The process of self-discovery increases ability to see and perceive through different lenses andto do so without instigating the rational mind to block the unfamiliar. Metaphorically and

statistically, one person is losing his eyesight every five seconds. One million people in theworld are blind... And a million morepeople are becoming blind... Lifestyle changes, pollutionare affecting the eyes, deteriorating our vision, causing early blindness.x Think of yourself at theeye doctor's as he or she flips up different lenses to check the accuracy and focus of your

vision. Through multiple lenses a more expansive picture of your world comes intofocus.

Activate the discovery of your true capabilities; instigate a higher level of leadershipfrom business or communities; accelerate the shift from individual self-interest tocollective collaboration on the most complex of problems. Expand capacity to learn

and lead your life with agility; so that you know your place in the world and can recognizesolutions that already exist, but do not operate within the old paradigm. By deepening

knowledge of your Self, you become the driving force behind endeavors that serve all Life.

Whatever the nature of the disruptions in your personal or organizational life, you can trust thatthey are there for you to dive deeper to retrieve your innate knowledge; expand the periphery ofyour vision on life; see the world within and beyond you as a living system with unlimitedpotentiality. It is about seeing holistically without limits. And it is a matter of choice.

The difference between what we are doing and what we are capable of doing wouldsolve most of the worlds problems. Ghandi

To see the world in a grain of

nd, and to see heaven in a wild

wer, hold infinity in the palm of

ands, and eternity in an hour.

William Blake


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iReshaping Corporate Governance to Incorporate Sustainability Neela Bettridge

iiAudio interview with Dr. Bruce Lipton, June, 2006.

iiiEvolutionary Provocateur interview with Jay Bragdon, January, 2009

ivConversation with Jay Bragdon, January, 2010

v

Evolutionary Provocateur interview with Jay Bragdon, January, 2009www.management-issues.com/provocateur.aspvi

Laszlo, Chris. The Sustainable Company, Island Press, 2003, page 24-25.vii

Bentov, Itzhak. A Brief Tour of Higher Consciousness A Cosmic Book on the Mechanics of Creation, Destiny

Books, 2000; Essay on Cosmology by Edgar Apgar, page 97.viii

Bentov, Itzhak. A Brief Tour of Higher Consciousness A Cosmic Book on the Mechanics of Creation, Destiny

Books, 2000, page 3.ix

Flannery, Tim. The Weathermakers. Harper Collins, 2005, page 2-3.x

http://sreedhareeyam.com
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