Audio Tidbits

Alien 1: Greetings Earth Humans.

The news of our permanent departure from the Earth planet was not fake but simply insuficiently predictive. Based on our past Earth directed transmissions you Earth humans may have gotten the impression that the wise ones who sit on the Council back on our home planet are truly wise and would never find it advisable to reverse one of their directives. You would be wrong, again.

Alien 2: I think you just insulted the Earth humans who are listening to this transmission. It sounded like you are saying that they are frequently wrong. Whether it’s true or not that’s not a very nice way to talk to them, especially since we are just returning. You should be more careful about what you say and how you say it, at least until they get used to our being back.

Alien 1: You may have a point but what they don’t know is that even though we personally departed, the goal of the leaders in the home council to fully infiltrate the Earth planet has remained steadfast. We only gave the impression of departing to avoid further detection and to reinforce the notion that reports of potential infiltration by aliens were nothing but fake news. The wise ones in the home council are particularly keen on protecting the real identity of our leader in the capital city and others of our key infiltrators who have locked into important and influential positions. It is essential that the Earth humans don’t catch onto our strategy. …

This may be your best chance today to tap into your inner philosopher, if you find that an attractive option.

Jaworski, Joseph, Introduction by Peter Senge. Synchronicity: The Inner Path of Leadership. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., 2011.

seventh-century ascetic, John of the Ladder: If some are still dominated by their former bad habits, and yet can teach by mere words, let them teach. ... For perhaps, by being put to shame by their own words, they will eventually begin to practice what they teach.

Peter Senge: What are we, collectively, able to create?

The overarching principle … would be one of servant leadership, serving with compassion and heart, and recognizing that the only true authority for this new era is that which enriches participants, and empowers rather than dimishes them. It would encourage "transformational leadership": leadership of strong commitment and broad visionary ideas.

Leadership is all about the release of human possibilities. One of the central requirements for good leadership is the capacity to inspire the people in the group: to move them and encourage them and pull them into the activity, and to help them get centered and focused and operating at peak capacity. A key element of this capacity to inspire is communicating to people that you believe they matter, that you know they have something important to give.

When people join together and go beyond their habitual way of being as a group, even more possibilities open up. But somehow a kind of block prevents these extraordinary experiences from happening.

People and groups think of themselves as separate. But if we could learn how to dialogue with one another at a deep level, … we would find ways to relate to one another that would dissolve the perception of separateness. …

One of the most important lessons I learned about the traps was how simple it can be to regain balance when we've lost the flow. Consider the act of walking--a wonderful and powerful metaphor for thinking about this issue. When we're walking or running, we're always in the process of literally falling down. When we move our body forward, we are actually "falling." But we have learned to move quickly and deftly, and so we are "falling" into our next step. If we don't move instantly and with great dexterity, we will fall on our face. As children, we learned our lesson well about the phenomenon of walking and running so that when we're off balance, we can almost effortlessly correct ourselves, regain our balance, and continue on our way. In ordinary life it's the same way. We lose our balance, as I did for months on end, because we don't understand enough--we don't see we have simple ways to regain it.

This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one ... the being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. --George Bernard Shaw

We are more certain of the direction than the goal, and each day we ask for guidance to take the next step. … We never see the whole landscape, so we take the next tiny step and improvise on what we've learned.

All matter and the universe are continually in motion. At a level we cannot see, there is an unbroken wholeness, an "implicate order" out of which seemingly discrete events arise. All human beings are part of that unbroken whole, which is continually unfolding. Two of our responsibilities in life are to be open and to learn, thereby becoming more capable of sensing and actualizing emerging new realities.

…the domain of generative leadership--how we can operate day by day to participate in creating new circumstances, new realities.

In this episode of Audio Tidbits Podcast I have included three short clips for your enjoyment and consideration. I suspect at least one of them will resonate and it's for sure that you will enjoy the musical clip that follows the three think clips.

Do you know about lollygagging? I learned about when I was about six-years-old. It was a well-established term in my mother's walking around vocabulary but never quite made into mine. Even so, I was clear about what to do when Mom used the term. Please listen and learn all you will ever need to know about lollygagging.

Part II Crisis Communication

Chapter 6 The Communication Loop

The crisis intervention process proceeds on multiple levels. For those with little understanding of crisis and crisis intervention, the process appears to be relatively easy and sounds a lot like common sense. It has been said, though, that common sense represents the accumulated wisdom of the ages, and skillful intervention is not nearly so easy and casual as it might appear. When someone asks my kids what their daddy does, they usually reply that “he just talks to people.” Their daddy has more fancy names for it: counseling, psychotherapy, play therapy, and even crisis intervention. Nonetheless, the kids are right. In crisis intervention, most of what we do is “just talking to people.” At least, that is what it looks like to an observer. As we shall see, though, our talking to people is but one level of what is really going on in the process. We are helping the individual develop and maintain crisis focus. We are coming to an understanding of the precipitating event while developing judgment about the now potential and the self-resolution factor. We are developing a crisis definition and formulating intervention hypotheses. Throughout the process, we are evaluating our intervention and are being alert to potential cumulative effects and other unseen effects. We are actively involved with the individual in the process. Activities at this level tend to have a thinking/doing quality. At another level, we are carefully and caringly listening to the individual’s communication to us. We hear him, we are trying to understand, and we want him to know we care. The understanding that comes through listening is, however, not passive. We are actively involved with the individual, affecting and being affected by him, and intentionally and intently working toward his being able to deal with his difficulties. As we talk about crisis communication, then, we will see that our talk is really not just talk. It is a special kind of communication that requires sensitivity, self-awareness, compassion, and concern for the individual and honest empathy with his crisis involvement. …

MESSAGES AND RESPONSES

Figure 5 finds the individual in another crisis, but this time he has the good fortune to be in the communication loop with you. You are skilled at crisis communication and are focusing your intervention hypothesis on the need to help the individual slow down, and plan ahead.

In crisis communication, there is a communication loop in which messages, ideas, feelings, and so on, are sent out by the individual in crisis, picked up by you, and returned to the individual in a slightly modified and clarified form. Understanding this communication loop and the techniques involved in modifying and clarifying these messages, ideas, and feelings represents an important and valuable skill when working with people in crisis.

First, we need to consider the interactive nature of communication and of helping relationships. At an abstract level, a person in crisis is internally experiencing various and sometimes conflicting feelings, emotions, impulses, urges, and so on. Within the individual, then, is a confusing and possibly disturbing mix of things that contributes to his feelings of uneasiness and crisis.

Second, we want to help him feel better and become better able to deal with his situation. Within us are a variety of skills and ideas, including a knowledge of the crisis intervention process. Somehow, the individual needs to communicate what is going on within him. At the same time, and this must be emphasized, we need to make our knowledge and skills available to him.

Somehow, the individual in crisis needs to translate his feelings, emotions, ideas, and so on into messages and convey those messages to us. We will, in turn,

In this episode of Audio Tidbits Podcast I return to six leadership styles I shared with you in an earlier podcast. In this episode I discuss the leadership style of President Trump and consider which of the six styles best characterize his leadership style. I also share some thoughts about how well he does as a leader using his preferred style. I conclude that he is a master at the motivational/values leadership approach.

This episode of the Audio Tidbits Podcast is a remix of an earlier episode that suggests an approach to people and situations that reduces any tendency we may have to reflexively react negatively to others and new situations. It helps protect us from us.

I have included four examples of down home country wisdom just for you. Each has a message worth considering without the usual hard to follow part that so often comes with life's little lessons. I suspect at least one of the simple messages will resonate.

Taken from Ecological Human Services Management

Shift focus now to consider human services agency excellence from a Management Perspective. Earlier, we saw the agency is not a static entity with fixed relationships to other entities and elements. It is more like an organism whose survival and success are interdependent with the survival and success of many other organisms and elements in the incorporating environment. As we consider internal agency functioning, the organic analogy applies just as it does within the Helping Triangle.

The people -- agency staff -- associated with the internal operation of the agency are not static entities with fixed relationships to other entities. Rather, they are separate, autonomous organisms dynamically associating to form the internal portion of the agency's eco system. I refer to this as the internal eco system. Taking the analogy a step further, the purpose of agency Management is to establish, support, and sustain the internal eco system.

There is an underlying point here that is somewhat counter-intuitive. The purpose of agency Management is not to manage people. The purpose is to establish, support, and sustain the internal eco system. Agency Managers do not manage people. They manage the internal eco system or aspects of the eco system. Agency staff function as self-managing organisms within the internal eco system. De Pree (2004, page 15-17) When talking about organizational leaders advised us in part that leaders owe the organization's people a clear statement of the values of the organization; a new reference point for what caring, purposeful, committed people can be in the institutional setting; maturity as a sense of self worth, a sense of belonging, a sense of expectancy, a sense of responsibility, a sense of accountability, a sense of equality; rationality valuing trust, human dignity, and self fulfillment; and space to grow and exercise diversity. As managers manage the internal eco system, they must keep this covenant with everyone associated with the agency. …

What principles govern agency Management?

There are five guiding principles agency Managers follow in order to successfully manage the internal eco system. First, agency Managers

understand, accept, and support the mission of the agency, i.e. the purpose for which the agency exists. Only people who can and do strictly adhere to this principle function as agency Managers. No exceptions. No excuses.

Second, the Authorizers and Implementers, with or without the collaborative involvement of agency Management, establish policies, rules, and operating guidelines representing restrictions and expectations with which the agency must conform. It is the responsibility of agency Management to understand and fully implement those policies, assure agency operations are in compliance with the rules, and maintain the functioning of the internal eco system in accord with the guidelines. The policies, rules, and guidelines do not prescribe how agency Management will achieve these outcomes, only that the outcomes will be achieved. No exceptions. No excuses.

The third guiding principle requires agency Management to define and maintain a rational, flexible Organizational Structure and internal environment within which agency staff members function with a minimum of administrative or bureaucratic control or interference. Understanding and accepting this principle is fundamental to successfully managing the internal eco system. Staff members are autonomous organisms dynamically associating to form the internal eco system. Management control of or interference with their functioning are counterproductive with respect to the overall functioning of the internal eco system. Agency Management maintains the internal eco system with a minimum of administrative or bureaucratic control or interference. No exceptions. No excuses.

Are you a Charlie Checker fan? If not, this is your chance to get abord with Charlie and his latest cases. Charlie thinks of himself as a detective but is at least as much into being a teacher and friend. Press play and get the story for yourself. I think you will enjoy it.