Evocateur

There is more we have in common than we are told

This recording is one take, mine, on what we can all do to hold the center on all the issues that matter to our country. Conversations between people across the political spectrum are indeed happening in healthy ways. (go near the end if you want a moment of a beautiful American song on our gift of brotherhood) Bombarded with bad news and supposed truths about how totally terrible almost all on the other side are,[…]

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People Presence and Company Essence

The emotional force field at work and in M&A There are many force fields within companies: innovation and risk-tolerance force fields, or the shared knowledge force field across an enterprise that carry specific languages all their own. Fundamental to them all is the emotional force field (EFF) of trust and respect and inclusion that employees sense in their bones as they experience work dynamics day by day, zoom meeting by zoom meeting. Much of this[…]

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Innovation, Neuro-science, and Thich Nhat Hanh: Right-Hemisphere leadership as the next step

Thich Nhat Hanh is the ultimate team builder and he lives with an emotional intelligence that most leaders need more of. If you have not seen his name alongside Jamie Diamond, Mark Cuban and that Tesla guy– Elon is it?—Thich Nhat Hanh is a much respected Eastern spiritual teacher, second to the Dalia Lama for recognizability in the West. He is referred to in many a circle of mindfulness practitioners. He is Vietnamese, has sold[…]

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Apologies to Eckhart

[Brief foreword: I have been mostly quiet since COVID hit and then the George Floyd tragedy. Too much change and gravitas to offer much (one exception here on my other blog as I hope we think big for the bigness of the times), and the channels are clogged with everyone having thoughts and opinions, many good ones, some not as much. So I resume with a little modest thought, not equal to the gravitas of[…]

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The Inner Game of COVID-19

Poets know… Be patient. Let’s teach each other how to wait, like TS Elliot taught us. I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hopeFor hope would be hope for the wrong thing…Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought:So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing. And Jan Richardson offers a map for uncertain times. This is not any map you know. Forget longitude. Forget latitude.[…]

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Coaches empower the smaller systems we so need: Frederic Hudson speaks

Re-reading The Adult Years by Frederic Hudson, co-founder of the Hudson Institute of Coaching, I was struck by how prescient it was (much of it could be written today) and how accurately it describes the tasks and the dilemmas of adults constructing meaningful lives in times of change (he was onto this 30 years before David Brooks very current The Second Mountain. Frederic’s vision for change is profound….here is how he positioned coaches as needed[…]

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The 3 P’s of Wisdom: polarity, paradox and poetry

Evidence-based thinking needs its opposite sibling What wretchedness: to believe in only what can be proven.  Mary Oliver The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.  F. Scott Fitzgerald.  Wisdom is discernment in action. It deepens as we learn to make more useful distinctions. We gain wisdom from experience that we reflect upon, finding patterns[…]

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Pay attention, Find the Joy, Tell About It

Mary Oliver tribute Last month we lost one of the great poets of our time. Mary Oliver has seeped into the culture with lines like “your one wild and precious life”. She took her leave of the physical plane at age 84. Prolific, profound, much celebrated, she was rooted almost always in nature first. What a trove of poetic gems she has left us. The title for this post—pay attention, find the joy, tell about[…]

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