What Is Dialogue?

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Purest Form Of Generosity

purest form of generosity

Attention is the rarest
and purest form of generosity.

Andrew Weil

I had a radical thought the other day. When I say radical I’m speaking about the thought being radical to me, though I’m sure there are a few people in the world that would also find it radical.

Earlier this morning I sat comfortably watching my breath come and go while engaged in my mindfulness practice. It was then that I started thinking about how I needed to shake things up a little within my practice. I thought about how repetitive my practice had become and while repetition within practice can have profound benefits it can also create profound spaces of being stuck. Repetition can if you’re not careful whittle down your attention..

So while pondering if I perhaps was in a rut or enjoying the comfort of the routine a bit much, maybe it was time to throw out the breath and start listening instead. Instead of feeling the soft air come in through my nose to fill my lungs and then reverse itself and with each exhale I’d instead use my hearing as my focus.

The breath becomes to those of us who practice mindfulness meditation even for a few minutes every day a reliable tool for developing our focus on a single activity and delivering us from the incessant stream of noise that is made of our thoughts.While in practice the breath becomes a plateau to anchor our mind to and observe what’s going on within and without, what’s going on everywhere really.

I got up from my old chair with it’s wonderful woven seat and walked around the house for a few minutes while listening to whatever came my way. If I noticed I was caught in a thought stream just as with the breath I gently brought myself back to (Radical Thought) Listening. And as I would if I was watching my breath I left judgment of my thinking out of the discussion and listened.

Back and forth, back and forth from thinking to listening and back to thinking, Hmmm I wondered was that a the mail truck stopping outside to drop off today’s mail? Of course it was and off I went out the door and down the driveway to retrieve it. These wonderful distractions seem to visit me at the right time, the right time being anytime I’m willing to latch onto one of them and take a ride on the distraction express. It never ceases to amaze me how often I’m so willing to crumble under such little pressure as a thought, and how often I’m willing to relinquish attention for a ride on a carousel. Gotta smile, right?

Listening as an alternative to watching my breath during my sitting practice turned out to be way more difficult than I’d expected. It is after all a radical shift so what did I expect, right? But my little walk to retrieve the mail showed me a way to integrate listening into my practice without tearing my hair out or yelling at the neighbor cat (just kidding).

I’ve started using listening while I’m out for a daily walk and occasionally while I sit in meditation. I’ve found that when I notice I’m about to be caught in a thought stream I breathe in and out a couple of times and then switch to listening while I continue walking. Each time my thoughts return I go to the breath briefly before I engage my listening. by going to the breath first I become grounded and then I can better use listening as I would the breath.

When I’m listening I just listen without labeling what I’m hearing and I also try and let the sounds come to me and not go searching for what might be making noise around the corner, I find this helps me to clear and expand my mind.

Does this help in listening to people? I think it does, it allows me to become more aware of my assumptions when they pop into my mind as well as other distractions that happen while in a conversation. Overall I my listening is more impartial and open to the ideas being shared with me. I still have lots of work to do but what I once thought of as a radical idea has now become part of my mindfulness practice.

Even if you don’t have regular mindfulness practice you can still exercise your listening muscles and become a better listener. Try and breakaway from what ever your doing for a few minutes a couple of times a day and listen to everything going on around you. things like music playing, traffic sounds, sounds from nature or people talking. See if you can separate what your hearing from your thoughts by not labeling anything.

This is a great exercise to do during a coffee break or while at your desk at work, close your eyes and listen. Five or ten minutes a day and you’ll start to see yourself becoming a deeper listener.

 

Check out the growing collections of image-quotes about listen on our website Listening Creates. And feel free to use or share any of the images.

 

 

We Are Stronger When We Listen

stronger when we listen

We are stronger when we listen,
and smarter when we share.

Rania Al-Abdullah

I think if I were to ask a large group of people about the subject of doing exercises to become a better listener, few would tell me they’d thought about it. But I think these same people would mostly agree with the statement; we are stronger when we listen. The key word is here is stronger, and indeed there are exercises to help us become better listeners.

Let’s start with the benefits of becoming a better listener before we look at the how exercises can help us become stronger when we listen. There is little debate that businesses thrive when they excel at communication both with their customers and internally with their employees. And there also is little debate that most businesses have room to raise the level of their listening proficiency.

Stronger listening leads to a myriad of benefits that easily could cover this page, but here are 5 I think will be easy for everyone to relate to. Think of them from the point of view of both the speaker and the listener. If you can’t relate to these 5 benefits of better listening then I guess I’ll have to do more listening exercises. 🙂

  1. Expands What We Know

  2. More Rewarding Interactions

  3. Increased Efficiency In Problem Solving

  4. Grows Trust And Respect

  5. Bolsters Customer Relationships

 

You cannot truly listen to anyone
and do anything else at the same time.

M Scott Peck

handprint word cloud

Tips

  1. Put yourself in the right space to listen. When we bring our awareness to a task and set our intention on the path forward, which in this case is listening it becomes easier to ignore distractions and focus. Do some quick relaxation exercises before the meeting and remind yourself of the importance of listening.
  2. Connect with the person speaking. Let the speaker know you’re listening by keeping eye contact (don’t stare) and adding nods and smiles when they fit. In other words; if you’re engaged with the speaker and the topic it will be apparent to the group and the speaker.
  3. Leave your assumptions at the door. Bring a clean slate and open mind to the meeting. Forget what you know (or think you know) about the speaker or the subject and let the experience of listening wash over you as if you’re hearing the subject for the first time. Give the speaker a break.
  4. Look for pearls to appear. Try taking notes of useful and new points the speaker shares in the presentation.
  5. Always Empathize. The best listening exercise is to listening to someone like you’d like them to listen to you. Put yourself in their shoes and situation while they are speaking.

The above 5 tips for improving your listening muscles will open up whole new levels of communication success within your team, your group as well as in personal relationships. I’ve add a short video below that I hope will fire up your thinking about listening and make you smile at the same time. and remember that we all are stronger when we listen to each other.

 

Listening Is an Act of Love from StoryCorps on Vimeo.

Directed by: The Rauch Brothers
Art Direction: Bill Wray
Producers: Lizzie Jacobs & Mike Rauch
Animation: Tim Rauch
Audio Produced by: Michael Garofalo, Nadia Reiman, & Katie Simon
Music: Nick Yulman

Check out the Listening Creates Blog for some really great images with quotes that you are free to share around the web.

Weekly Snippets – 06-20-16

 

How Mindfulness Benefits CEOs

Meditation Benefits for CEOs

Relaxation and recreation are great outlets for any busy CEO. But as Emma Seppala, Ph.D. and Science Director of Stanford University’s Center for Compassion and Altruism, shares with us, meditation seems to benefit them more. Hence a growing interest within the C-Suite to use mediation as a foundation to cultivate leadership skills and achieve business goals.

Recent research suggests that meditation not only sharpens attention, memory and emotional intelligence, it builds resilience; improves focus; and strengthens relationships – all very important capacities in today’s intense, volatile, fast-paced business environment. READ MORE

5 Ways to Improve Your Listening Skills

listening

Everybody’s talking; but few are listening. Partly because society rewards speaking as a highly desirable, sought-after skill. With all the focus on talking, listening tends to get ignored.

Fortunate for us, Harvey Deutschendorf, an emotional intelligence expert, and writer for Fast Company, gives us 5 ways to enhance our listening skills:

  1. Be fully present. Don’t engage in a conversation until you are ready to listen.

  2. Put yourself in their shoes. What people share with you is important to them; imagine yourself in their situation.

  3. Pick up key points and let the speaker know you did by mirroring back what you heard.

  4. Practice active listening. Focus on what people are saying vs. planning your response.

  5. Develop an open mind. People who are curious see any interaction as an opportunity to learn and discover something new.
    READ MORE

 What 5 Minutes of Silence Can Do for Your Brain

5 minutes of silence for our brain


Elisha Goldstein shares with us in Mindful Magazine, sometimes the tiniest habits make the biggest difference.

In an age where there is virtually no room for solitude, taking time out of your day – even five minutes – has tremendous benefits.

  • Solitude provides an opportunity to balance our lives between what is demanding and what is relaxing.

  • Creating solitude in your life is both a mindful and self-compassionate act.

  • Solitude reduces stress and anxiety.

Creating some “me time” helps you to feel better. And that’s great for you and the world. Because when you feel better, so does everyone around you. READ MORE

 

Vulnerability as a Business Strategy

marcus lemois

At a recent iCONIC-DC conference, Marcus Lemonis of CNBCs The Profit, took the stage to share the personal story of his childhood – a heartbreaking tale of adoption, molestation, eating disorders and thoughts of suicide.

Why?

After baring his soul, Lemonis informed the audience that he told his story “to create a connection with each person in the room.” In an effort to get people to be completely honest, Lemonis feels he must “take off the window dressing” — be totally raw — and authentic. He then chose two people from the audience to share something they have never shared before.

On making his point about what it is to be vulnerable, Lemonis acknowledges that he does all of this to understand the psyche of his clients. In making a decision about who to do business with – who will you choose?

Someone who is vulnerable or someone who plays it safe? READ MORE of this fine post by Kimberly Weisul and tweet her to let her know you liked her post @weisul

Wicked Problem Solvers

wicked problem solvers

As the emphasis on innovation grows, this Harvard Business Review article by Amy C. Edmondson, teaches us some lessons from successful cross-industry teams. The fact that multi-sector teams can generate radical innovations is well-defined. How to build and run them is another ball of wax.

From an adaptable vision to promoting psychological safety to enabling knowledge sharing and learning through execution, organizations today need to frame people’s differences as a source of strength or advantage for the team. As cross-industry teaming becomes the norm, leaders will need to encourage social bonding, emphasize professional values and force face-to-face interaction. Read More and let the author know you liked her post @AmyCEdmondson

 

 

All Photos are sourced from the original articles.

Building Connection With Dialogue

 connecting with dialogue

 

The first introduction to the Generative Dialogue Process is a bit like climbing aboard a bus for an excursion. The bus now named Dialogue is not any old bus mind you, but a gleaming bus with an aura of promise and adventure. 

 

The promise is one of deeper connection with each of your team members. The adventure is one of discovery in the land of creativity and innovation.

 

In the excitement of boarding the bus you and your team may not have noticed the destination on the front of the bus. So in the spirit of full disclosure I want share the destination with you, it’s called, Change.

 

Once you’ve found a comfortable seat and everyone has smiled at each other the journey begins. The bus rolls out of the station toward Change, a destination that now may seem rather ominous.

 

After some getting to know your teammates better a few bumps in the road may start to appear. A few on the team may find the bus morphing into a whitewater raft. A raft barreling along atop a road of thunderous water instead of a smooth superhighway. But the destination remains, Change.

 

It’s as equally important to listen as it is to speak 
Sarah Kay

 

Resistance Grows From Thought

 

Change is one of those destinations few of us embrace with abandon, oh sure there are those of us who soar off cliffs without a second thought. And others who seem to start each day with a bowl of change along with their cup of joe. For most of us change remains the realm of the unknown. It’s one subject schools leave off the curriculum and that’s a shame.

 

With a bit of work we can come to see that it isn’t change that makes us uncomfortable. It’s our thinking about change that creates our trepidation and emotional uncomfortableness.

 

The resistance bubbling up within us as we approach our destination, as we approach Change, comes from thought.

 

Generative Dialogue embraces change with the abandon of the cliff flyer I mentioned above. The Dialogue process guides you around and through the craggy peaks and dizzying canyons as you make your way to Change.

 

Dialogue will help you map a connected journey to see and feel things you’ve never dreamt about. With the dialogue process you’ll forge living connections between team members that will help you morph ideas into new and exciting innovations.

 

 

10 Unusual Places To Practice Mindfulness

places to practice mindfulness

Bring Your Focus Back To The Present Moment

Incorporating the Dialogue Process successfully into your Team is a bit like adding jet fuel to a skateboard. Dialogue can open up previously unknown channels of knowledge,insight and communication that puts your team on the superhighway of innovative and creative success.

Who you may ask has the time to add yet more things to their lives? Who has the time to relearn how to work within a team environment all over again? It’s a valid question and one I hope the suggestion below will help show you how to use the time you already inhabit to learn some new skills, and energize you to practice mindfulness.

When you practice mindfulness within the seemingly mundane tasks you do each day you develop a deeper and richer connection to your own self awareness.

Instead of watching or counting your breath when you practice mindfulness meditation try observing what you are doing each moment without judgement or self talk. Trade watching the breath for watching your actions with each moment. No books, videos or thoughts are need, just watch your actions closely.

TIP: Don’t forget to breathe, you’d be surprised how many people tend to breathe shallowly or skip breaths altogether when in the midst of active mindfulness practice. 

When I first started practicing mindfulness I became aware of two rather annoying things. First I noticed I had a flood of thoughts filling up my mind far more frequently than I’d previously noticed. Second I became aware that my shoulders, neck and hands seem to be tense and tight for no immediately apparent reason, it was as if I was tense most of the time and has not been aware of it.

During my introduction to mindfulness I was introduced to the practice of placing small colored sticky dots to unusual places around the home and office. The sticky colored dots you can get at any office supply store are used as reminders to smile and breathe deeply.

As we go about our day we often do many of our tasks while thinking about other things, and when we see one of these small dots we are reminded to check in with our minds and body to see if we have lost focus of the present moment. these dots can become wonderful reminders to relax and breathe as we go about our day.

Get a pack of sticky dots and place a few at home and work to trigger your self awareness about what’s going on in your mind and body. 3 or 4 are all you need in each place. I have one on the door of the fridge along with one on corner of the bathroom mirror and finally one on the key-holder I see every time I leave the house.

1. Washing Dishes

Seems like whenever you read a book or hear a lecture about embracing mindfulness you’ll inevitably hear the suggestion that washing dishes mindfully is a great place to kick off your mindfulness journey.

So many books and lectures have extolled the power of washing dishes that its value may have become diluted.But it is a classic suggestion precisely because it works. Washing dishes gifts you with a few moments to step outside the swirling distractions bombarding you all day.   

See the water falling from the faucet onto your soapy hands as you direct the sponge round and round the plate or casserole dish. Breathe in and breathe out as you focus on the task at hand. If you find yourself wandering in your thoughts gentle refocus on the task of washing the dishes.

For a few minutes you can leave behind work, traffic, and a myriad of pulls and tugs that have been nagging at you. For a few minutes you can watch yourself do something with your whole attention letting the motion unfold moment to moment.

2. Journaling

Writing even a tiny amount each day will help you reach a deeper part of yourself. Writing your thoughts, ideas, dreams or plans for a better you into a notebook you carry with you everywhere, and I mean everywhere will open your mind and spark your creative side.

Journaling is a bit like watching your breath and observing your thoughts as they form on the pages of your notebook. Letters combine to form words combining to form thought streams and illuminating unknown colors and caverns of your mind.

Each sentence can be like breathing in then breathing out to help calm and stabilize your mind.

3. In Your Car

You most certainly want to focus on your driving and not on how deep your mindfulness is becoming when you’re driving. That being said, there are a few opportunities to practice before you turn the ignition on.

When you first get into your car take a deep breath and focus on how the seat feels, focus on putting on your seat belt, and next notice if you are carrying any tension in your legs, arms or shoulders. Take another deep breath and release the tension before you start the car.

Ok, you’re ready to go, bring your attention to the act of driving the car to get you where you want to go. Try driving without the radio or phone for distractions, allow your attention to be on the act of driving itself and always remember to check in with your breathing.

Oh, and remember to smile as you motor down the road. Can you remember how wonderful driving was when you first got your license?

4. Waiting

Most of us spend hours each week waiting for a myriad of services and products to be delivered, and without fail much of that time is unproductive and often accompanied with frustration.

While you’re waiting take a quick inventory of what’s going on with you at that moment. Try looking for pockets of tension and stress in your body. Recognizing where you’re carrying tightness and tension is the first step to releasing it

As you scan for tension also engage in breathing deeply which will help you to release some of the tension. Once you’ve relaxed a bit just sit back and actively observe what’s going on around you. Be aware of colors, sounds, furniture, temperature and  the people coming and going.

5. Play Outside. (Put A Dot On A Frisbee)

Get outside with friends or family for a vigorous game of Frisbee or something equally fun for everyone. Add one of the colored dots to the Frisbee or softball bat to remind you to center yourself every time you see.

When you see the colored dot smile and let go of distracting thoughts, don’t push them away just let them go by refocusing on where you are and what you’re doing at the moment.

Bringing yourself back to the moment takes practice, you’ll find your thoughts coming into awareness over and over, when this happens smile and breathe to remind you of the moment. No judgement is needed about the thoughts or content, thoughts are thoughts will slide in and out frequently.

6. Gardening.

Gardening is a great activity for sharpening up your mindfulness. Remember to take your time as you dig in the dirt really paying attention to how the dirt feels along with the feelings of the tools and plants you’re working with.

Put a colored dot on the handle of your most used tools as a reminder to bring your attention back from thinking to what you are doing in the moment.

7. On Your Bicycle

Put one of the colored dots in the center your handlebar stem. As you are pedaling along your route you’ll notice the colored dot as a reminder to bring your attention to your riding form.

Are you thinking about things other than riding, if so bring your attention to your pedaling motion, how your hands are gripping the handlebars, your sitting position. The more you focus on your form the more efficiently you’ll ride making the whole experience richer and more fun.

8. Looking In A Mirror

People have told me that putting a dot in the corner of their household mirrors is the perfect place to catch their attention and help them come back to the moment.

We often look into the mirror when we are worried or in a hurry, this makes it an ideal place to catch ourselves when our thoughts are racing. Take a few deep breaths are you gaze into the mirror and let go of the stress you’re carrying.

9. While Hiking  (Place A Dot On A Water Bottle)

I like to keep some of my focus on the feeling of each foot touching the ground and lifting off for another step. I keep the rhythmic touch in my awareness yet I still can look around at natures beauty. I also have a colored dot on my water bottle as an extra way to remind me

10. Change Your Icon

This is an easy change to do. Change a few of the app icons on your phone into some that will remind you to smile and breathe deep when you see them. Try having one reminder icon on each page on your phone, that way you’ll be reminded to focus on the moment each time you look at the your phone.

Envelop yourself with verve and passion each day and always remember to loosen your grip on your thinking mind and move deeper into being present as you practice mindfulness.

 

Click on this Infographic and download a larger copy of it to keep on hand… And please share it.

practice mindfulness

The 4 C’s of Generative Leadership

generative leadership

What is the true meaning of leadership? I guess it depends upon who you ask.

Some may say that leadership is about authority. Others may define leadership as the capacity to have a vision and inspire others to support it. Many speak to leadership from the standpoint of direction and decision-making. And still others define leadership simply as influence.

When I consider my own definition of leadership, admittedly, I struggle. I find that I can’t limit leadership to a single “thing” like authority, direction, vision, decision-making or even a title. I believe this is because I see leadership not as a noun – a person, place or thing; but rather, I see leadership as a verb – a state or action. From this perspective, leadership becomes a journey. And an inner one at that. An exhilarating and frightening internal expedition completely intermingled with your own life’s path.

This is why I resonate so much with the term “Generative Leadership”. When you are generative, you are creating. You are bringing forth — giving rise to — continuously renewing, advancing and developing. You are producing. You are learning. You are evolving.

Generative Leadership

In 1990, Peter Senge wrote an article called The Leader’s New Work. The article was written on the premise that human beings are designed for learning and advancing. We are meant to evolve.

From this point of view, Senge makes a clear distinction between leadership that is motivated by challenges or problems which he refers to as adaptive leadership — and generative leadership which he coins as a “higher form” of leadership.

Often times, leaders turn their focus towards a challenge or problem – the very things that keep them up at night. As part of the solution, they try to adapt to the issue at hand. It’s true that this kind of leadership is crucial for the survival of any organization or community that wants to remain viable. But Senge contends that you also need generative leadership — the difference between the two being the sources of energy that underpins them.

In organizations today, the focus of leadership tends to be underpinned by problems. After all, someone has to step up to the plate and take accountability to solve those pressing issues. Yet once that critical problem is solved, most often adaptive leaders withdraw, receding into the background until the next major issue arises. This creates a fragmented way of leading.

On the other hand, Generative Leadership is underpinned by vision. And vision funds movement. If you are going to have continuous movement, you need a robust vision. Generative leaders create their future instead of reacting to it, moving a company beyond reaction and fragmented problem solving to a more forward looking, advancing organization.

The 4 C’s

Generative Leadership fosters innovation, organizational agility and high performance over time. More traditional perspectives on leadership are based on a leader’s individual characteristics. Generative leadership focuses on the interactions between leaders and team members with a focus towards building organizations as communities for learning.

The role of the generative leader is to lead and take accountability for the collective learning of their organization. Their function is to challenge people to recognize the lenses through which they view the organization and any personal biases or influences they hold that may impact thinking. Illuminating potentially limiting beliefs and assumptions before delving into significant dialogue promotes self-awareness and creates the conditions for more generative thinking and innovative solutions.

“Only one who devotes himself to a cause with his whole strength and soul can be a true leader.” – Albert Einstein

Generative leaders are fully committed to continuous learning; and that commitment is unwavering. They see it as their duty and responsibility to personally develop themselves and their people in order to guide the organization in identifying steps that can be taken to unleash the energy, intelligence and creativity from within the entire system in pursuit of the shared reality they hope to create.

“You know you are in the presence of a powerful leader when you walk away feeling greater.” – Susan Taylor Click To Tweet

Generative leaders are connected to and engaged with their people; you feel appreciated by them. That’s because they place value on building interpersonal relationships, welcoming the involvement of many and tapping the intelligence of all. They are active listeners. They are good communicators. And they are great collaborators, appreciating the diversity of ideas and opinions that exist within the system.

“A great leader’s courage to fulfill his vision comes from passion, not position.”

— John Maxwell

Winston Churchill believed courage to be rightly esteemed as the first of human qualities because it is the quality that guarantees all others. It’s not groundbreaking news that leadership takes courage; but generative leaders tend to be more courageous than most. They have the tenacity to take risks and the guts to be decisive — often in the face of great opposition. What they are trying to achieve involves radical, tradition-defying ideas which are often met with a lot of resistance. Yet they stay the course. They are passionate about their vision, knowing they will better achieve it from a place of purpose over position. They trust themselves. They trust their instincts. And maintain unwavering faith in what they feel called to do.

“It’s simple. Love is about helping another to complete himself.” – William O’Brien

Generative Leaders are complete. They are complete first within themselves — and from that place — help to complete others. And they do this with unabiding love. Yup! I said it – the “L-word”! Because love is essential to leadership. In order to create sustainable organizations that will lead us through the future, love and leadership must unite. The energy that exists between people when they feel seen, heard and valued is vital. Generative leaders know this because they do not see their employees as a means to an end but instead as a means unto themselves. Generative leaders therefore do the requisite personal work towards self-realization; and from that place of wholeness, help others to develop their highest potential.

generative leadership

6 Tips For Increasing Workplace Focus

 

Stop and Refocus – Increasing Workplace Focus.

Simple, Right?

If you were told that in 2015 a huge number of people took a survey (Global Corporate Challenge) and over ⅓ of the respondents reported feeling overly-stressed at work I’m willing to bet you’d think that number was low. I can see most people jumping up from their desk to yell “wait wait, my vote wasn’t counted.” How about you?

Often we don’t notice that we are running on stress fumes from a constant backlog of responsibilities filling our lives, and seemingly erasing all of our time. Life can be a stressful endeavor even for the most dedicated and strong willed among us. Stress and lack of focus sidelines pretty much everyone more than we realize or care to admit.

pay mortgage, feed kids, fix car, estimate ROI, clean the gutters, call grandma, plan vacation, grocery shopping, doctors appointments, give presentations, do laundry, demand raise, focus focus focus, training session, on what I’m working on right now… Deadline looming over my head, monthly reports,  crash bang boom my head’s pounding like a jazz solo… can’t focus

Remember it was only a couple of years ago that Twitter erupted with the news that France had banned companies from sending employees emails after 6:00 PM in an effort to help those employees un-stress. Many rejoiced and wondered how they could get a law of the same ilk passed in their country or state. The reaction was one of backlash against the feeling that work was invading our home and family life. Something had to be done.

A few days into the story the window was finally opened and the air of clarity came rushing in with news that we hadn’t got the whole story. The Economist quickly told us the story was “Not What It Seemed.” Nevertheless, the stories wildfire viral march highlighted a common problem manifesting itself in all corners of the working world. We’ve Lost Focus.

 

“Simplicity is ultimately a matter of focus.”
― Ann Voskamp,

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There is hope, of course. Managers and Team Leaders can immediately Implement the following.

  • Wash The Windows.  Employees often don’t have a clear idea of what duties and responsibilities belong to them. Clarify what part of the job belongs to who and what’s most important and what requires less of a priority.

  • Put Out The Fires. Create quiet areas within the workplace where employees can decompress, meditate or even work with no distractions and no WIFI.

  • Create Feedback Opportunities.  Schedule regular times where employees can express their feelings and thoughts about what causes unproductive stress in the workplace. Make these discussion spaces safe for everyone to speak their mind.

  • Exchange Explorers.  Exchange employees with other companies with the goal of finding and sharing what works and what doesn’t work within each organization. Make this an ongoing exploration.

“Be on guard. The road widens, and many of the detours are seductive.”
― David Foster Wallace,

Best 6 Tips for Increasing Workplace Focus

I can remember as far back as Kindergarten the teacher suggesting I needed to focus on the task at hand, of course at that time I had no idea just how important her words were. Today all of us are surrounded by a sea of information actively trying to distract us from “the task at hand.”

If you find yourself often distracted or maybe losing focus is becoming an issue I think these 6 tips will help you achieve a deep focus and hold onto it once you’ve got it. I easily could have made a list with dozens of tips on increasing workplace focus, but that might seem like I was asking you to run through a maze to find a prize, and might seem like an unfocused list.

 

  1. Keep A Daily Journal: Keeping a journal helps to declutter your mind along with giving you space to untangle all the info that has streamed in over the course of the day. Another great thing is that it’s not digital, this allows you to set aside time when you are disconnected, a bit of quiet reflective time and time to just be with yourself. Standing back from the whirl of each day will help you shed the unimportant and focus on what’s really important to you. Now that’s focus. And here’s a post about journal writing Journal Writing Paradox Burnishes Dialogue

  2. Work In Blocks: Studies have shown that the longer we stay focused on one task the easier it becomes for distractions to succeed in their nefarious attempts at (What Else?) distracting us. Focusing on the task at hand in blocks of 25, 45, or 60 minutes and then taking a short break will help us resist distractions and get more done.  One of our favorite evangelists of working in blocks are The Pomodoro Technique people, and they’ve been around for years. Taking a break between blocks of as little as a couple of minutes can revitalize your focus and help keep stress and distractions at a distance.

  3. Trash Multitasking: You probably heard it before, but I”ll say it again, successful multitasking is a myth when it comes to tasks more complicated than raking the lawn while talking on the phone. Our brains switch from one task to the next and back again when we try to multitask leading to lower focus and productivity. NPR’s Ira Flatow hosts a short podcast looking at The Myth of Multitasking, it’s worth the distraction time of 18:00 minutes.

  4. Create Task Lists: Some of you might think this sounds boring or way to geeky to take seriously, but I promise you if you take it seriously it can transform your workplace focus. A task list gives you power over how you spend your time. You can put mundane boring tasks into time slots and not have to think about them outside of those time slots. Things like email can be relegated to 20 minutes in the morning and forgotten till the next slotted time. Some business have switched to a new system where if you need an urgent answer from another coworker you call them on the phone and not use email. What this does it allows workers to not worry they are missing an important email.

  5. Create A Quiet Area: A quiet room or area has no WIFI access and phones and other disruptive tech are shut off before entering. People use the quiet room to work on their laps tops, meditate or maybe even just think for an 30 or 60 minutes at a time. When you really need to focus you can signal management that you’re working in the quiet room and no one will contact you during that time slot. Many businesses are finding this increases focus, productivity, creativity and cuts down on workplace stress.


  1. Use Tech To Control Tech: Start off by shutting off most if not all notifications on your phone and tablets, this will dim the noise a bit. Next get to know what apps are available to help manage the noise and distractions such as Stay-Focused which set aside time to indulge and not be focused using Chrome browser. Focused Writer sets up a distraction free environment. Focus At Will brings music specially programmed to increase concentration. The next two are apps that I’ve used and endorse wholeheartedly. Buddhify has dozens of mindfulness audio meditation in the app for that quick refresh at your desk. Offtime has always been one of my favorites and the people behind it love what they have created.

workplace focus

 

Each Moment Is Motion

each moment is motion

In the mid 1980’s I managed a catering – wholesale foods operation which gave me the opportunity to reinvent everything. I researched the competition from the Canadian border to NYC looking for trends and new thinking, I spent time wondering, pondering and brainstorming with abandon. Some of my mad stirring of the pot paid off, and some deepened the dent in my forehead from repeatedly connecting with the desk. And no it doesn’t feel good when you stop.

Early on I learned that motion is connected to opportunity and that everything is always in motion, each moment is in dynamic motion spinning and churning without ceasing. What’s this have to do with running a busy catering operation you may be asking right about now? I’ll tell you.

During the 80’s business coaching and personal development schemes where taking off, you couldn’t turn around without being offered an opportunity to take your business or even your life to a higher level. If you couldn’t make it to a live seminar there were VHS and audio tapes + CD’s  available for home study. Remember this was not only before the internet it was also the same time compact discs had just come on the scene,and people could for the first time rent movies for home viewing. The information revolution was rolling through towns and cities as never before.

Excitement about the possibilities to create something new was everywhere, you could feel the motion revealing itself. I happily allowed myself to be talked into taking a 12 week Robert Fritz course 0n expanding creativity and vision. So for 12 weeks it was me and the teacher spending 3 plus hours teaching me to crack open my creative side and how to embrace the vision. Wow, how could this not be worth all that cash I paid. I was learning to tap into the moment and find my higher self and learned how to attach vision to motion even though I didn’t know that at the time.

“Don’t be so loyal to your mind; the mind is not loyal to You.”
― Bert McCoy

A couple of months after completing the course I got all my employees together in a local deli for a creative jam. I asked everyone to think about where they thought the business could grow and how we would go about implementing their ideas. Of course the joke was on me because I never bothered to ask if they even had ideas or cared one way or the other. I had the vision thing and I was going to make sure everyone else joined me.

Six of us sat in the local deli and discussed their roles in the business with a few ideas peppered in between. The big ideas soon came from an outsider I’d invited to sit in with us for her business experience along with a wildly fertile imagination I hoped would help move the group forward. I was right about P. having a fertile imagination and before long the group had enthusiastically got on board with her ideas for serving our market.

Before I knew it I was free falling without a net, I had yet to share my vision and I was bereft of ideas to insert my beautiful technicolor vision with a group that was congratulating P. for her wonderfully stark, simple and easily understandable B+W plan.

Technicolor Technicolor I cried inside my mind as I gently shook while clinging to resistance from a place of fear. My vision was stalled and my grasp of motion derailed. P. knew the space I was in and touching my arm she smiled with compassion telling me we could always do Technicolor next.

In Motion The Moments Unfold

I didn’t then know about mindfulness, noticing assumptions, reserving judgement, active listening and it would be quite a while before the power of Generative Dialogue would cross the threshold of my consciousness.

Motion is what’s happening right now, right here. There is no past to retreat to, no future to rush to. What we have is one moment moving smoothly into the next. Each moment is motion and it is only when we are distracted that we miss connecting with the motion embedded within each moment, always unfolding and always arising.

Within each unfolding moment is an opportunity to pivot out of the deep chasm of ego we often find ourselves in. It was not knowing about using mindfulness to pivot that tied me in knots and doomed my vision. I clung to my vision ignoring the group as they moved forward. I was left in a heap along the side of the road not knowing how to listen or dwell in the motion of the moment and my employees moved on without me.

Part of being human is to attach to our memories, our brain runs more efficiently when it can repeat the same actions over and over, and ignoring current reality in favor of efficiency. What’s happening in the here and now becomes stalled, and we kill motion.

 

“It’s only when you’re forbidden to talk about the future that you suddenly realize how much the future normally occupies the present, how much of daily life is usually spent making plans and attempting to control the future. Never mind that you have no control over it. The idea of the future is our greatest entertainment, amusement, and time-killer.”
― Erica Jong, Fear of Flying

 

Below is a mindmap I created with a moment at its center. The map shows how the past and future are but memories and hopes we’ve created in our minds. Using mindfulness with this knowledge can aid us in living and functioning in each unfolding moment giving us access to new levels of creative collaboration and dynamic innovation.  

Don’t get me wrong, memories are wonderful and help us to navigate and live a much richer daily life but they become distractions when we live our lives through our memories. Mindfulness can be like a new set of windshield wipers making your vision clearer and richer.

There is a warning sign along this road that’s label Shinny Objects, these are the distractions we all are exposed to 24/7. Unplug when you can and don’t forget to turn off those bleeping notifications living on your connected devices.

motion and moment mindmap

 

See a larger version of this mindmap? Click here A Moment by craig daniels