Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action | Video on TED.com
I believe that when we begin to pay attention to the messages we are communicating in our daily lives, it helps us understand if we are being coherent with our beliefs. Simon Sinek suggests we will only be able to lead people - and if you are a leader (having the power to lead) you will be interested in understanding how you can improve your leading abilities - if we communicate from within... from our beliefs... inspiring others... because people buy our "whys", and not our "whats" and "hows". And people not only "buy" our "whys"; they also commit and adhere to it as well. We only commit and adhere to ideas/beliefs that we share or that we are inspired to start sharing.
Besides that I believe this is a key concept to achieve true happiness. In Gandhi's words: happiness is when what I think, say and do are in harmony.
Love and happiness to you all,
Renata
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Monday, August 30, 2010
Henrique Saraiva's dream come true
I'd like to share with you today something that is very special to me. The link is in Portuguese, and unfortunately with no translations available.
This is the story of Henrique Saraiva's dream come true. When he was 18 he got partially paralyzed when he was shot during a robbery in Rio de Janeiro. Instead of surrendering to his dreams, he decided to create an NGO that helps disabled people learn how to surf.
The link will take you to a TV show that made a story of his NGO.
Although it has nothing to do with communication, it has everything to do with re-defining our mindset's limitations. If we believe we can do something, we can do it!
http://video.globo.com/Videos/Player/Esportes/0,,GIM1327248-7824-PORTADORES+DE+NECESSIDADES+ESPECIAIS+USAM+O+SURFE+PARA+SUPERAR+BARREIRAS,00.html
I don't know how to activate the link... :-( I'm sorry! But following it you will get there! :-)
This is the story of Henrique Saraiva's dream come true. When he was 18 he got partially paralyzed when he was shot during a robbery in Rio de Janeiro. Instead of surrendering to his dreams, he decided to create an NGO that helps disabled people learn how to surf.
The link will take you to a TV show that made a story of his NGO.
Although it has nothing to do with communication, it has everything to do with re-defining our mindset's limitations. If we believe we can do something, we can do it!
http://video.globo.com/Videos/Player/Esportes/0,,GIM1327248-7824-PORTADORES+DE+NECESSIDADES+ESPECIAIS+USAM+O+SURFE+PARA+SUPERAR+BARREIRAS,00.html
I don't know how to activate the link... :-( I'm sorry! But following it you will get there! :-)
Friday, August 27, 2010
Lewis Pugh's mind-shifting Everest swim | Video on TED.com
Lewis Pugh's mind-shifting Everest swim | Video on TED.com
What Radical tactical shift do we have to take to stop enforcing and accepting predatory mechanisms to happen?
I think we should challenge ourselves to do exactly what Lewis did. Since I'm passionate about communication, please let me suggest a shift of our communication tactics/strategies. When we want to get/have something, we use communication strategies. I think we can begin to change this world by changing the way we address other people and the way we narrate our experience.
change our communication strategies... become more receptive to understand the complexity and interconnectedness of ourselves... forget about defensive strategies and care more about consensus strategies... being finally able to contribute to the building of a different human experience. I wish this new human experience to include all of us with the same rights and responsibilities... I wish this new human experience to be not defensive, but caring... not aggressive, but gentle... not tolerant, but receptive to differences. I believe we can do it. I believe in our potential to create whatever we are able to imagine.
Love,
Renata
What Radical tactical shift do we have to take to stop enforcing and accepting predatory mechanisms to happen?
I think we should challenge ourselves to do exactly what Lewis did. Since I'm passionate about communication, please let me suggest a shift of our communication tactics/strategies. When we want to get/have something, we use communication strategies. I think we can begin to change this world by changing the way we address other people and the way we narrate our experience.
change our communication strategies... become more receptive to understand the complexity and interconnectedness of ourselves... forget about defensive strategies and care more about consensus strategies... being finally able to contribute to the building of a different human experience. I wish this new human experience to include all of us with the same rights and responsibilities... I wish this new human experience to be not defensive, but caring... not aggressive, but gentle... not tolerant, but receptive to differences. I believe we can do it. I believe in our potential to create whatever we are able to imagine.
Love,
Renata
Thursday, August 26, 2010
How we define our borders...
I think we have a tendency (necessity?) to establish borders; not only geo-politically speaking, but through our speeches and argumentation strategies in order to make sense of our existence. I once had the opportunity to read some very interesting anthropological studies about people's ability to generate new cultural trends by assembling two or three different cultural behaviors in a new form of expression (James Lull, www.jameslull.com). In fact, we see it all the time through the internet, for instance: our own kids are generating new words and meanings that reflect their cosmo-vision that are far more complex than ours. My son has a couple of friends identified as sisters/brothers, and they really mean it, challenging the borders of family definitions itself!!!
In this talk, Political Scientist Parag Khanna proposes a different comprehension about borders... it made me think about how we create - through our argumentation strategies - borders that prove illusory afterwords, and maybe we are not fully aware of the consequences of doing so... just like the politicians that tried to establish borders that caused people's suffering and oppression, we ourselves may be helping to create oppressive environments around us through our communication strategies.
I hope this talk will be inspiring to you as well!
http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/645
Love, Renata
In this talk, Political Scientist Parag Khanna proposes a different comprehension about borders... it made me think about how we create - through our argumentation strategies - borders that prove illusory afterwords, and maybe we are not fully aware of the consequences of doing so... just like the politicians that tried to establish borders that caused people's suffering and oppression, we ourselves may be helping to create oppressive environments around us through our communication strategies.
I hope this talk will be inspiring to you as well!
http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/645
Love, Renata
Monday, August 23, 2010
Consensus
I believe that we should challenge ourselves to always generate grounds for reaching consensus whenever we face conflict situations.
Yesterday I was talking with my son. He is 11, and he was complaining about the new coach of his soccer team. He said the coach was stupid because he decided to make my son play in a different position he was used to play. My son told me he got so upset with the coach's decision, he played terribly. My son insisted on blaming the coach for his poor development on the match.
I listened carefully to my son. I wanted him to express freely all his anger and negative feelings that were intoxicating him. When he was done talking, I asked him: are you satisfied with the results of your experience?
He jumped and shouted: "Of course not! The guy is so stupid!"
With genuine curiosity, I asked him: Do you think things might have turned out differently if you had been able to calmly and respectfully reason with the coach why, in your opinion, you should play in the position you were used to play?
Although I could sense a doubt crossing his mind, my son kept on blaming the coach for his terrible performance.
Our problems with communication begin at early age. I'm afraid we care more about being right than winning a match, as in my son's case. The problem here is that we are losing more than just a match. We are losing unique opportunities to generate value together as a community.
I tried to show my son that he did not try to understand why the new coach insisted on putting him in a different position; maybe the coach saw in him a potential my son is not aware of yet, and will not discover it unless he accepts the challenge of playing in a different position at least once. I tried to make my son reflect upon his own attitude and that maybe he was also being stubborn about his point of view, and that his failure could have more to do with his decision to deny his coach's idea than to his supposedly lack of ability.
My son is only 11, but he already thinks and behaves as if he was supposed to know everything. My son is convinced that knowing all the answers and being right all the time is what grants him acceptance to the group he desires to fit in. My son is not acting differently from most of the executives I had the opportunity to coach or work with in my career as a consultant. And this is what really worries me.
My son finally came to the conclusion that he had lost a good opportunity to learn more about his new coach and he is looking forward to next Saturday, when he will have the opportunity to ask his new coach a lot of questions, and he is also curious to try and play again in a different position with a better attitude. My son is also aware that maybe he is eventually better in the position he is used to play, and he is prepared to try and reason his point of view with his new coach. Maybe he will find out that the coach is not ready for reasoning, but he will try to do it anyway. He knows as well that the coach is the maximum authority and he, as a player, will have to follow his lead. Let’s hope his coach will be a good leader and also learn from this challenging situation, and finally be able to inspire the kids to try something new without feeling threatened by it.
Reaching consensus is not a matter of being weak or giving in power; it is the most effective way of inspiring others to follow your idea. A good leader should think about it.
Yesterday I was talking with my son. He is 11, and he was complaining about the new coach of his soccer team. He said the coach was stupid because he decided to make my son play in a different position he was used to play. My son told me he got so upset with the coach's decision, he played terribly. My son insisted on blaming the coach for his poor development on the match.
I listened carefully to my son. I wanted him to express freely all his anger and negative feelings that were intoxicating him. When he was done talking, I asked him: are you satisfied with the results of your experience?
He jumped and shouted: "Of course not! The guy is so stupid!"
With genuine curiosity, I asked him: Do you think things might have turned out differently if you had been able to calmly and respectfully reason with the coach why, in your opinion, you should play in the position you were used to play?
Although I could sense a doubt crossing his mind, my son kept on blaming the coach for his terrible performance.
Our problems with communication begin at early age. I'm afraid we care more about being right than winning a match, as in my son's case. The problem here is that we are losing more than just a match. We are losing unique opportunities to generate value together as a community.
I tried to show my son that he did not try to understand why the new coach insisted on putting him in a different position; maybe the coach saw in him a potential my son is not aware of yet, and will not discover it unless he accepts the challenge of playing in a different position at least once. I tried to make my son reflect upon his own attitude and that maybe he was also being stubborn about his point of view, and that his failure could have more to do with his decision to deny his coach's idea than to his supposedly lack of ability.
My son is only 11, but he already thinks and behaves as if he was supposed to know everything. My son is convinced that knowing all the answers and being right all the time is what grants him acceptance to the group he desires to fit in. My son is not acting differently from most of the executives I had the opportunity to coach or work with in my career as a consultant. And this is what really worries me.
My son finally came to the conclusion that he had lost a good opportunity to learn more about his new coach and he is looking forward to next Saturday, when he will have the opportunity to ask his new coach a lot of questions, and he is also curious to try and play again in a different position with a better attitude. My son is also aware that maybe he is eventually better in the position he is used to play, and he is prepared to try and reason his point of view with his new coach. Maybe he will find out that the coach is not ready for reasoning, but he will try to do it anyway. He knows as well that the coach is the maximum authority and he, as a player, will have to follow his lead. Let’s hope his coach will be a good leader and also learn from this challenging situation, and finally be able to inspire the kids to try something new without feeling threatened by it.
Reaching consensus is not a matter of being weak or giving in power; it is the most effective way of inspiring others to follow your idea. A good leader should think about it.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Jeff Bezos: What matters more than your talents | Video on TED.com
Jeff Bezos: What matters more than your talents | Video on TED.com
Inspiring! He is also talking about choices! "Kindness is a choice", he says!
I hope you will enjoy it as I did!
Kisses
Inspiring! He is also talking about choices! "Kindness is a choice", he says!
I hope you will enjoy it as I did!
Kisses
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Fish rots from the head, as the saying goes...
"Fish rots from the head, as the saying goes. Organizations, too, degenerate from the top. Those who assume positions of leadership need to constantly strive to better themselves and to overcome the tendency to become arrogant." Daisaku Ikeda, in http://www.ikedaquotes.org/leadership.html
We, human beings, in our growth, look for examples to follow. This is not good or bad, but a characteristic of our nature. We tend to gather in groups, and we constantly look for points of connection amongst each other.
I once heard Fred Kofman talk about leadership in a time when things change so fast that it is common sense to feel that we surely don't know what to do at all times. In his Seminar "Complexity Made Simple", he made me reflect about one of our most important responsibilities as leaders: a leader is not supposed to KNOW everything, but he or she is supposed to LEARN all the time. This simple shift in one's attitude can make all the difference when we want to become positive leaders.
Learn how we are, how we react, how we interact with others. Observe the world around us. Without judgments. Absorb information with an open mind. Be truly interested to understand behaviors that are different from our own. As J.K. Rowling mentions at her speech above, we are able to use our imagination to really generate empathy with others, understand their sufferings and delights. It is a matter of choice: we choose weather to use or not our full potential to improve ourselves, to be better and more conscious people.
Positive leaders make conscious and responsible choices. Positive leaders inspire others. Positive leaders help create a better world for all of us. We all should choose to be a positive leader. We all can do it!
We, human beings, in our growth, look for examples to follow. This is not good or bad, but a characteristic of our nature. We tend to gather in groups, and we constantly look for points of connection amongst each other.
I once heard Fred Kofman talk about leadership in a time when things change so fast that it is common sense to feel that we surely don't know what to do at all times. In his Seminar "Complexity Made Simple", he made me reflect about one of our most important responsibilities as leaders: a leader is not supposed to KNOW everything, but he or she is supposed to LEARN all the time. This simple shift in one's attitude can make all the difference when we want to become positive leaders.
Learn how we are, how we react, how we interact with others. Observe the world around us. Without judgments. Absorb information with an open mind. Be truly interested to understand behaviors that are different from our own. As J.K. Rowling mentions at her speech above, we are able to use our imagination to really generate empathy with others, understand their sufferings and delights. It is a matter of choice: we choose weather to use or not our full potential to improve ourselves, to be better and more conscious people.
Positive leaders make conscious and responsible choices. Positive leaders inspire others. Positive leaders help create a better world for all of us. We all should choose to be a positive leader. We all can do it!
Monday, August 9, 2010
The Art of Communication
One of our most precious abilities is that of communicating with others. But we only communicate when we are able to receive and transmit a message. Although it may seem easy and simple to do it, we know that a great deal of suffering comes from misunderstandings.
Sometimes we choose words that hurt others. Sometimes we feel hurt by words from others. Sometimes we react to words, and hurt ourselves and others. Sometimes we create narratives to explain our experiences that exclude or hurt others.
If we are aware of our power with words, and if we make the decision to create harmony with our words, we will begin to create a better world for ourselves and for the ones we share this life with.
If we commit to pay attention to the words we say, we will be able to transform our life-experience, since we will willfully choose to interact with others in a conscious way. If we do so, we can choose weather to initiate a conflict or to inhibit its development.
I understand Gandhi's non-violence principle as a permanent commitment to choose words that define our reality as an integrated and peaceful one.
Be the change you want to see in the world! Choose words that inspire others to reach their fullest potential. Listen to the messages others intend to send to you and use your intelligence and creativity to build a better world through the narratives you create to make sense of your own reality.
Welcome to Integral-Comm Blogspot!
Sometimes we choose words that hurt others. Sometimes we feel hurt by words from others. Sometimes we react to words, and hurt ourselves and others. Sometimes we create narratives to explain our experiences that exclude or hurt others.
If we are aware of our power with words, and if we make the decision to create harmony with our words, we will begin to create a better world for ourselves and for the ones we share this life with.
If we commit to pay attention to the words we say, we will be able to transform our life-experience, since we will willfully choose to interact with others in a conscious way. If we do so, we can choose weather to initiate a conflict or to inhibit its development.
I understand Gandhi's non-violence principle as a permanent commitment to choose words that define our reality as an integrated and peaceful one.
Be the change you want to see in the world! Choose words that inspire others to reach their fullest potential. Listen to the messages others intend to send to you and use your intelligence and creativity to build a better world through the narratives you create to make sense of your own reality.
Welcome to Integral-Comm Blogspot!
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