Alan Atkisson: What Music Means (to Me)

Alan’s book “Believing Cassandra” was a great insight for me at the start of my sustainability journey.     What helps you nurture and sustain yourself?

A quick “body hack” for sustainability change-makers…

Changing your body will change your effectiveness.

I found Amy Cuddy’s TED talk about this last week, then was reminded in a training session the other day that 93% of human communication is n0n-verbal:

• 7% what you say
• 38% tonality
• 55% body language

So what your body says is the most powerful part of your communication – and it’s surprisingly easy to shift it.

Myers-Briggs insights for sustainable business change agents…

During my early coach training, I learned about the Myers-Briggs  temperament preferences – it helped me understand some of my frustrations in the world and gave me some insights into how I could operate more effectively.  It was like the time I found out about the basics of perspective and proportion in drawing – there were actually tools that could help me to create a better result with less frustration.

3 simple practices for success in the business sustainability game

GreenBiz.com recently released its 2013 State of the Profession report on the sustainability executive job market.  One of its findings was that there are key ways of being that support sustainability leadership success – particularly curiosity and an ambition to communicate effectively.

There is a trio of definable and practicable mindsets that support these ways of being. In the same way that Pilates builds core strength in our physical bodies, these practices build emotional resilience and are a strong foundation for career and life success.  The three practices are acceptance, ambition and curiosity/wonder.

What’s YOUR sustainability scope? Keeping focussed in the face of overwhelm…

In a recent interview for The CO2 Manager, I was asked how I stay positive and focussed when sustainability can seem so overwhelming.

Thinking about it, what works for me is:

• To remember that the fact that there are at least 150 million change-makers in the world.
• To be really clear on my sustainability scope  – what I’m working on and why.

For all its downsides, a global population of  billion people means that I don’t have to do it all. Even if only 1 billion have the freedom and resources of the Western world, and only 15% of those are innovators and early adopters, that means that we have a talent bank of around  150 million change-makers.

To me, this means that I’m free to do “my bit” in the sustainability game – and concentrate on doing it well. 

Regenerative business and coaching…

What’s coaching got to do with Regenerative Business?   In a collaboration with Alan Sieler of Newfield Institute, we explored this question in October 2010.  The detail has changed, but the value proposition hasn’t:

“A Business Opportunity for Coaches

We believe that Regenerative Business Coaching is an emerging area of business for ontological coaches and other forms of coaching. A significant challenge for organisation personnel who are committed to shifting the organisation’s mindset, be they senior leaders, middle managers or supervisors, is influencing others. Successful influencing requires excellent communication, and here is where coaching becomes relevant.

Ontological Coaching gets to the heart of how people function, learn and change. Ontological coaches facilitate advocates of regenerative business to become highly skilled communicators – able to communicate respectfully and clearly to assist people develop constructive new ways of thinking and behaving. However, Ontological Coaching on its own is not likely to provide sufficient support for advocates of regenerative business.

A conversational approach to innovation adoption…

So you’ve got a great idea, and you’ve come up with a proposal that will meet the needs of the people you want to use it. Your work here is done… isn’t it?

Well, no – it’s not a done deal until you have your invention turned into an adopted practice – that’s the real work of innovation. Your proposed change requires a community of people who do things in a particular way to change how they work together – and there’s a process to this.

Need an energy recharge? Here’s a quickie…

The most important thing we can do for ourselves and for sustainability is stay positive.  When we get stressed, anxious and resentful then we physiologically lose access to the most strategic and creative parts of our brains.  It’s not an optional extra to be able to be optimistic – it’s an essential learned skill for designing and implementing a regenerative economy.

Poetry and music are powerful ways to connect to our optimism and here’s something that works for me.

Going Places…

I found the Dr Seuss book “Oh, the Places You’ll Go” years ago and loved it.  I’ve given several copies as gifts over the years. A while ago, a friend shared the video “Oh, the Places You’ll Go at Burning Man!”  and I loved it.  Give it a try:

If you’re having trouble practicing optimism (keeping your head when all around are losing theirs), then our program Living Sustainably could be for you. Check it out at : http://www.balance3.com.au/files/programs/LivingSustainably.pdf

_________________________________________________

Leigh Baker is a Regenerative Business Coach specialising in super-charging sustainability practitioners.  Balance3 provides coaching and training programs on the opportunity side of sustainability and the innovation skills needed to turn ideas into new realities.

Blue wrens on Bourke Street?

(adapted from the August Balance3 Update)

Sitting in Kinfolk community cafe talking about Regenerative Business recently with a Melbourne Hubber, we got to the topic of creating positive visions. What would a regenerative City of Melbourne look like?   How would we know a deep and significant shift had occurred?  What small, tangible thing would we be seeing differently?

Maybe a truly regenerative Melbourne would be so connected to its original environment that we would see blue wrens in Bourke Street? (A major thoroughfare in Melbourne’s central business district.)

We weren’t talking about a transplant or a breeding program – we were talking about what it would be like to have the city so connected to its original ecosystem that it would naturally provide habitat that would enable these beautiful little birds to thrive (along with other original species). [ See one here ]

Imagine That!!!

We played the “I wonder” game – I wonder what would it take? I wonder who would be involved? I wonder how we could make it socially and financially sustainable? Because when you get right down to it, we wouldn’t be trying to do anything technically impossible… Hmmmm!

The ‘how’ of being the change…

“Be the change you want to see in the world” – Mahatma Gandhi

As an Ontological Practitioner I take this quote as more than a challenge to act sustainably.  Ontology is the study of how humans go about the process of being, and Ontological Coaching takes an approach to change and innovation that focuses on our Way of Being in the world:

• The language we use internally and in conversation with others.
• The moods and emotions we experience and how effectively we manage them.
• Our bodies and their interaction with our experience of ourselves and the world.

An ontological inquiry into “being the change”…

So Gandhi’s quote doesn’t just ask me to examine my actions, it also leads me to ask:

What are the Ways of Being that will enable me to generate the change I want to see in the world?