Stay longer. Move faster.
Find momentum in what seems to be holding you back.
Coaching and hands-on partnership for executives leading ambitious technology initiatives.
What this work is about
How we make sense of a situation and how we respond to it can have a profound effect that goes beyond the immediate situation. Bringing this into view is part of this work.
To following principles describe what we are going to look for. They serve as orientation, for contrast and do no all apply in the same way.
Not one story.
We use stories to create our world and actions. They enable us to move consistently, at the same time the can become what is limiting us. We respect those stories. But we are aware that we could also tell another story. No one story gets single authority.Emotions just are.
Our emotions are not right or wrong, they just are. We can not control them, but we are responsible for them. When we feel them and give them an appropriate place, they give us vitality and energy.Don’t take your thoughts only on face value.
Our thoughts arise from different parts of ourselves. We can not control them, but we can respond. Often these parts of us do not express their needs and ideas in respectful ways. Because the form can not be split from the content, we respond to this self talk to both.Our movements bring us forward if have footing in ourselves.
We look for two qualities.
Self-authored: If we do a move that we chose, we might get what we want and if not, we will learn something valuable.
Non-coercive: A move that does not require us to push a part of us aside, will allow our whole self to simply do what seems right. No trying.Our three centers brain - heart - gut and their alignment determines our capacity
Our brain holds he capacity to discern truth from falseness. Our heart holds the capacity to feel emotions. Our gut holds the capacity of our nervous system to stay present with what is alive. When all three are alive and up for the situation at hand, life can flow from us freely.Our models of the world are wrong, some of them are useful.
?Respect the autonomy of others and get yours.
Our wishes can lead us to demand that the world and others do what we want them to. Stating what we want without requiring the other person to react in predetermined ways, we give ourselves autonomy.Knowing how you organize, means knowing how to re-organize
We learn to organize our experience in certain ways, to be able to respond in the world. What was the basis for our success, often becomes the reason we run in patterns and reproduce what we don’t like. By getting aware of this organization, we can adapt it to fit our current needs and stay in contact with the situation.
What this work is about
How we make sense of a situation and how we respond to it can have a profound effect that goes beyond the immediate situation. Bringing this into view is part of this work.
To following principles describe what we are going to look for. They serve as orientation, for contrast and do no all apply in the same way.
Not one story.
We use stories to create our world and actions. They enable us to move consistently, at the same time the can become what is limiting us. We respect those stories. But we are aware that we could also tell another story. No one story gets single authority.Emotions just are.
Our emotions are not right or wrong, they just are. We can not control them, but we are responsible for them. When we feel them and give them an appropriate place, they give us vitality and energy.Don’t take your thoughts only on face value.
Our thoughts arise from different parts of ourselves. We can not control them, but we can respond. Often these parts of us do not express their needs and ideas in respectful ways. Because the form can not be split from the content, we respond to this self talk to both.Our movements bring us forward if have footing in ourselves.
We look for two qualities.
Self-authored: If we do a move that we chose, we might get what we want and if not, we will learn something valuable.
Non-coercive: A move that does not require us to push a part of us aside, will allow our whole self to simply do what seems right. No trying.Our three centers brain - heart - gut and their alignment determines our capacity
Our brain holds he capacity to discern truth from falseness. Our heart holds the capacity to feel emotions. Our gut holds the capacity of our nervous system to stay present with what is alive. When all three are alive and up for the situation at hand, life can flow from us freely.Our models of the world are wrong, some of them are useful.
?Respect the autonomy of others and get yours.
Our wishes can lead us to demand that the world and others do what we want them to. Stating what we want without requiring the other person to react in predetermined ways, we give ourselves autonomy.Knowing how you organize, means knowing how to re-organize
We learn to organize our experience in certain ways, to be able to respond in the world. What was the basis for our success, often becomes the reason we run in patterns and reproduce what we don’t like. By getting aware of this organization, we can adapt it to fit our current needs and stay in contact with the situation.
[Headtag]
When protecting momentum starts costing you real progress.
We often push difficult thoughts and emotions aside to keep things moving. Keeping them out takes energy, and we can miss concerns that need attention.
Our team and partners take their cue from us. If reservations seem unwelcome, important feedback arrives late. People play it safe. Progress takes more effort.
It is what it is.
The meaning you give it, shapes what happens next.
Making real progress means concrete outcomes that serve the business and organization. To achieve this the initiative needs to find how its idea can take shape in the reality of the people.
So resistance, difficulties and reservations, from team members, users or customers, are all signals. Some of them justified observations, some of them skeptical initial reactions. Some of them critical for the outcome, some of them a question of perspective.
As an executive, you are responsible for the outcomes. At the same time, you can not control what happens.
You can make a difference from your position of power. And you can not not participate. If you don’t show up, it will say that you don’t think it’s important. The way you show up will be amplified to your team and the whole initiative.
How these signals are interpreted and they enter decisions and activities is the key difference between real progress and it is not really taking off.
As you are in a position of power, the way you show up will be amplified to your team and the whole initiative.
[Headtag]
[Second section: title to develop]
Title brief: Connect real progress with staying in contact with the reality in which the initiative needs to work. Convey that engaging with difficulties helps the outcome take a workable shape.
Argument ingredients, not finished copy:
Real progress: moving closer to an outcome that makes a difference for this business and the people involved.
We cannot know every requirement in advance. As the idea becomes concrete, we discover what making it work actually requires.
Difficulties and reservations can reveal those requirements: how people will use it, what they can support, what they need, and what the organization can sustain.
People's experience is part of that reality. Their understanding, willingness, fear, and capacity affect what can be carried through.
Taking a signal seriously does not mean accepting its interpretation or letting it determine the decision. Examine what it calls for: clarification, investigation, accepting a risk, or adjusting the arrangement.
Working with those discoveries gives people firmer ground to act from and helps the initiative fit its context as it develops.
This is why it can be faster: less work built on assumptions that will not hold, less late rework, and less effort retrofitting a completed solution into the circumstances it needs to serve.
[Headtag]
Give it a place. Decide what it calls for.
When emotions can enter and reservations are voiced, you can work with what they mean for the initiative. You might accept a risk, investigate a concern, or give it attention elsewhere.
Your response helps establish what matters, what people can expect, and what they can act on.
Important ideas and concerns can surface earlier. You can adjust plans and ways of working sooner, before misunderstandings become commitments and concerns become setbacks.
Don’t ask if the story is real. Ask what’s real in your story.
The last phase …
The way a difficult phase looks while we are living through it is often strikingly different from what later turns out to have mattered.
The last phase of a project at work. The argument with a partner around home duties. The dissatisfaction with how you spend your off-work time.
Those can be genuinely uncomfortable und difficult periods in our lifes. Ironically, if we look back at them later what eventually changed is often quite different from what we thought would make things better.
It is kind of funny, when we settle serious doubts about our how we spend our evenings by eventually re-reading an old favorite book.
But it has real consequences, when we have put a lot of pressure on ourselves and others to make something work we feel is necessary.
Relationships suffer. Resources are wasted. People burn out.
My work is around that gap in perception between “in a difficult phase” and “after a difficult phase”. Entering this gap has the potential to:
Change and make a difference every day by becoming clearer on what is now and find ways to move forward that create lasting progress
Avoid damages and risks to what is valuable by becoming less identified with the necessity of stories that keep us bound
Confidence without the need for perfection by accepting the your full experience and not getting attached to future outcomes you can’t control
Emotional - cognitive - presence coherence by reflecting and modulating your responses progressively