Tuning in to the “River” Channel

August 31, 2006 by Mary Wynne-Wynter · Comments Off 

RedShift eZine
August 2006

In this month’s issue (and audio episode) I want to share a story of a recent peak experience related to rowing, which is a passion of mine, and to share how that experience has helped me shift from ’survive’ to ‘thrive’. I’ve discovered that as I align with nature, my communication skills improve and and my personal and professional relationships become more honest and authentic.??

Inspiration

After days of record breaking rainfall and high wind two weeks ago, the bad weather broke and I ventured over to my rowing club on the Charles River. It looked a little rough and there were warnings about water quality, but I decided to take my boat out for a short row in spite of feeling nervous. A friend of mine, Brooke, was in the locker room and she had just come in from her row. I asked her about the conditions. But first let me describe Brooke. In a nutshell she is a fantastic rower and competitor, a nature lover, and a truly lovely and gracious person that I love to be around. She responded "I just had to go all the way to Watertown Square because the river was so alive with swirls and eddies … just so alive!" So I launched, and for a mile or so the water was fairly calm. I was happy to be back on the water and out of the gym, and I was feeling pretty pumped and pleased with myself for being one of the few rowers on the river. But the calm conditions suddenly changed.

Change

Another mile down river, the wind picked up, the sky darkened and the water got choppy. I struggled crossing the river in turning around to row back to my club. Then the gusts started to blow me around, my oars were getting caught in the waves, I got tense and started thinking about how alone I was, and that it was at least 2 miles to row back, and what would I do if my boat flipped over and why the hell did I go out anyway? At that moment I suddenly heard Brooke’s words, "the river is so alive!"

Shift

My attitude and outlook immediately shifted and my facial expression went from grimace to grin. I thought about my great coaches who taught me how to row in crazy conditions and my years of training and practice. My confidence came flooding back and my strokes improved and my speed picked up. Then I started moving fast, really fast. I noticed the water around me and it was swirls and eddies and so alive..exactly how Brooke described it! It was fun and exhilarating all the way back to the boat club; one of my best rows ever. Rowing back, I thought about what the river had recently endured in the worst flooding and runoff in decades. If the river could clear itself of the debris and muck that had poured into it, then I could do the same with any old baggage or beliefs that keep me from being fully alive like the river, with all its crazy swirls and eddies.

I got a sense of ease as my attitude shifted from tense and fearful to fun and joyful. And my perception of the conditions and how they affected me changed. It started out as survival and fighting the elements, and then shifted to sensing and feeling the motion of my boat, the water, the wind and my body. But the shift in me that day was much deeper than attitude and perception. I began to release an old belief and to identify with a new belief. In a single stroke through the water I realized that peak nature experiences are not limited to a few in a lifetime; they are always available to us, and its simply a choice to be aware of them and to receive them with gratitude. Until that moment, I believed that powerful peak experiences were rare and fleeting. My response was to try to hold on to the positive effects for as long as possible, to wish the effects would stay with me longer, and to fall into a bit of a funk once the effects faded, and too soon it would be back to the status quo and "that’s life" thinking. I could release that limiting belief now, knowing that the experiences of nature are always available and accessible to me if I am attuned to them.

So what can we do to be more aligned with nature? Well, nothing really. There is nothing we have to do, or change, or get. In fact, the less we are doing (and thinking), the more space we have for awareness, willingness, intention and conscious choice to align with nature. That space may be cultivated in meditation, or through art, or music or rowing, etc. But most importantly, we can hold that space when we simply are going about our daily lives with all the accompanying storms and swirls and eddies and turbulence that are part of our relationships, responsiblities and communications. We can stay attuned and receptive to the continually available opportunities to shift our attitudes, perceptions and beliefs. One of my teachers explained that its simply matter of "changing the channel". I now think of mine as the "river" channel.

Resources

Would you like to listen to the RedShift ezine? It is now available as a podcast on iTunes. If you have iTunes, simply open your iTunes program and then click on the iTunes podcast link on this ezine’s menu. If you don’t have iTunes you can download the mp3 audio file by clicking on the archive link on this ezine’s menu.

My friends know I’m as much of a music freak as I am a rowing freak. Somehow I always find great music for my topics. This month, its Coldplay and the album is X&Y. Its great rock, the lyrics are inspiring, and it helps me keep my ‘river’ channel tuned in without effort and with maximum enjoyment. If you are an iTunes user and would like to buy just one song from the album 99 cents)..my favorite is White Shadows.

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Want great meetings? Ask a rowing coach!

August 31, 2006 by Mary Wynne-Wynter · Comments Off 

RedShift eZine
Sept. 2006

This month’s issue (and audio episode) is rowing-related….again. But its not about my rowing experience per se, its about a lesson in "how to lead a great meeting". I admit it. When it comes to meetings and presentations, I’m a tough nut, and tend to be equally judgmental of participants, leaders, presenters, facility, etc. So when I see someone do it right, I’m compelled to talk about it, and this month, to write about it.

Inspiration


Mayrene, my friend and awesome rowing coach, held camps for Masters women rowers here on the Charles river last week. She invited me and my rower friend Beth to drop in on the final camp session Saturday morning to say hello to old friends, meet new ones and observe her video coaching feedback session. As always with Mayrene, we had a great time. But it was more than our usual fun and camaraderie. It was also an opportunity to observe stellar communications leadership. The group was a total of 13 women and this is the nutshell of what was accomplished in 2 hours:
• introductions, icebreakers, catching up with each other individually and as a group
• watched detailed video of 8 women (plus coxswain) rowing together while Mayrene provided individual and group technical feedback
• discussed new ideas for programs and gave Mayrene feedback through survey
• a closing activity that provided enjoyment, humor and photos

It struck me that, except for the fun part, the meeting was similar in size and scope and time to typical business, team and organizational meetings or training sessions. So why are most so blah and unproductive when this one was so great? What learning could be carried over for both leaders and participants of meetings, workshops, group and one-to-one interactions? Thinking about this, I kept coming back to these 3 skills so beautifully exemplified by Mayrene, but so often missing: listening, shared learning, laughing. Everyone in the group was heard, valued equally and encouraged to express themselves in their own way and style. When questions where asked, Beth and I were invited to share our learning and unique perspective about building on strengths to meet the sport’s technical, physical and mental challenges. All of our diversity was appreciated, not discouraged. I found the lack of ego, will and control refreshing and very powerful.

Change


Coincidentally (or perhaps synchronistically?) while I was working on this, I came across some articles (see resources section for detail) that provided a big-picture change perspective. One article examines the American trend since 1976 to polarize, and how this shows up in the media as "shout TV". Another article was about the increasing loneliness and isolation of Americans, and how most adults only have two people they can talk to about the most important subjects in their lives. It appears that in the midst of profound societal change there’s not a lot of listening, sharing and laughing going on. So what can we do to lead our own growth and fullfillment and share that in the world?

Shift


Leadership competencies like communication, problem solving and self-awareness are important but are only part of the profile. We’ve all experienced presenters who have the abilities, but you just don’t "feel" what I call their core: identity, beliefs, values, consciousness. For example, from the time Mayrene first chose to coach masters women, to her initial camps with a small group, to where she is now with a large and growing group, her belief has always been "I love what I do". Clearly, everything she does and communicates, flows from this belief. Its not just words that are heard or affirmations that are repeated; it comes from the core, so its felt. And that is compelling and attracts allies, partners, clients, audience and success.

You may be thinking "sounds great, but its a lot easier to be authentic in a social setting than in the real world of business, organization and even family. I hear you. What can we do? We can practice communicating from our desired self (shifting to our own version of "I love what I do") in the easier setting. The improvements will show up, in some form, in the more difficult setting. I’ve recently learned about this law of correspondence from my teachers and I’ve found this is a huge benefit of belonging to social communities, whatever their size or structure. So when we are feeling stuck, frustrated, and thinking along the lines of "this meeting stinks, I’m taking over!", we know we have an alternative to this polarizing (shout TV) response. When I’m in that position I now have another option. Instead of responding as "tough nut" I can remember how I felt last Saturday at the MIT boathouse on the Charles river with a wonderful group of women who listened, shared, laughed, rowed and made the world less lonely.

Resources


I usually incorporate web articles in my blog and not my ezine. But these seemed to fit so well with the need for communications leadership that I decided to include them this month.

The Lonely American Just Got a Bit Lonelier

A Country Divided: Examining the State of Our Union

?George Stephanopoulos and ABC News Look at America’s Political Polarization
Since I live in small space, I give away most of my books after I read them. But there are a few that I will never part with. This one, by Pema Chodron, got me thinking years ago about how to open up to others to improve my communications and relationships.

Start Where You Are : A Guide to Compassionate Living by Pema Chodron. Amazon link
To learn more about Mayrene and her excellent programs, click here.

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BAPCPA: bankruptcy reform and small business

August 30, 2006 by Mary Wynne-Wynter · Comments Off 

This is a good article about a bad law but it does not talk about the effect on small business startups: what I would call “less startup insurance”. How can entrepreneurs risk startup investment considering most use credit cards to finance the startup period? The timing seems particularly insane in light of the previous post about labor devaluation. I can’t help repeating: where is the defiance? How do we respond? How do we redefine ‘ownership society’ so that its about independence, and not materialism? Hmmm a good opportunity to try out a new survey tool for my blog…coming soon!

Bankruptcy Reform Gave Creditors Too Much: “Reformed bankruptcy law benefits creditors and continues to enable abusers of the regulations while hurting those most in need of debt forgiveness protections.”

Under BAPCPA, fewer non-opportunistic debtors will file for bankruptcy because they cannot afford the high costs of filing. Those debtors will be worse off because they have less consumption insurance. But opportunistic debtors will continue to find bankruptcy worthwhile as long as they plan in advance and have good lawyers.

(Via washingtonpost.com – Columns and Blogs.)

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Devaluing Labor & the Great Upward Redistribution

August 30, 2006 by Mary Wynne-Wynter · Comments Off 

This is the ultimate change story, but sad and hopeless.’ Where’s the defiance?’ How bad will it get before we wake up? Is it just the world of ‘jobs’ going away?’ What will replace ‘jobs’?

Devaluing Labor: “Labor Day is almost upon us, and like some of my fellow graybeards, I can, if I concentrate, actually remember what it was that this holiday once celebrated. Something about America being the land of broadly shared prosperity. Something about America being the first nation in human history that had a middle-class majority, where parents had every reason to think their children would fare even better than they had.
“

For the bottom 90 percent of the American workforce, work just doesn’t pay, or provide security, as it used to.

Devaluing labor is the very essence of our economy. I know that airlines are a particularly embattled industry, but my eye was recently caught by a story on Mesaba Airlines, an affiliate of Northwest, where the starting annual salary for pilots is $21,000 a year, and where the company is seeking a pay cut of 19 percent. Maybe Mesaba’s plan is to have its pilots hit up passengers for tips.

Labor Day is almost upon us. What a joke.

(Via washingtonpost.com – Op-Ed Columns.)

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my hero: Dean Kamen

August 30, 2006 by Mary Wynne-Wynter · Comments Off 

It must be like…20 years since I first read about him.  He had invented the wearable insulin pump and made enough money to buy a small island (I believe in CT?) and printed his own money which I saw as a sign of independence and defiance. Many thought he was crazy; to me he was an amazing man. He’s been a huge supporter of bringing youths into the field of engineering, and he invented the Segway.  He is the epitome of innovation leadership and inspired me to work in engineering. 

The Segway Sage Speaks: Inventor Dean Kamen sounds off on Segway’s disappointing start and his other new projects

Kamen’s current projects include a water purifier and a power generator that is about as big as a washing machine. Here’s what he had to say…

About his water purifier… Our machine takes out bio-agents from shallow water without using chemicals like chlorine. It takes out ions and heavy metals and chemicals like arsenic from deep water without activated charcoal. It takes out salt water from the ocean without osmosis. It has no chemicals, it has no filters, it has no membranes, no consumables of any kind. It takes any input of water — you don’t even have to pretest it — and what comes out is pure, distilled water. It meets the U.S. pharmacopoeia standard for water that can be injected. It’s astounding. And it takes one-third the power of a handheld dryer to make a thousand liters of water a day, which, based on the World Health Organization’s standards, is enough for a village of 100 people. And if you’ve got a few hundred people, you put a couple of machines in.

What he plans to do with the purifier…

I will not [lose focus] of the primary goal: to alleviate the number one source of health problems and disease on this planet, which is water-borne pathogens… it may be that the fastest way to do that isn’t through a non-profit, but to do a for-profit piece and then double-use the knowledge, the technology and the tooling. If we need to do that, and it speeds things up, not slows them down, we’ll do that.

I feel he’s been given short shrift by the media which symbolizes how little we care about visionary inventions and engineering.  This is the first great story I’ve read about him in decades because it highlights not just technology innovation but vision focus and business model differentiation.

There really are just two basic needs to help people out of misery and poverty: water and electricity. So what if you could make point of use water with a little machine, instead of [depending on] municipalities? What if you could make point of use electricity, instead of waiting for the equivalent of Con Edison to build a massive infrastructure and transmission lines? Let’s build technologies that scale down to deliver point of use water, point of use power, that don’t have to get more granular than the village.

On whether there’s a commercial market for the power generator…

There probably is. Again, my rule is the same. If it’s go and do that, but it’s a distraction from the focus, I won’t go there. But if it’s, "Hey, how are we going to get the money to tool these things up?" there’s enough people that want a small quiet machine like this that’ll run year after year.

(Via TIME Magazine Online: Top Business Stories.)

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Another reason for going SoLo: your age

August 29, 2006 by Mary Wynne-Wynter · Comments Off 

He makes a great point: companies hire energy. There’s so much conflicting philosophy.  I remember getting into an argument with a doctor about anti-aging.  He said it was "unnatural".  I responded: "yeah, unemployment and poverty are unnatural too! My philosophy: thrive on change and you’re never old.

Is it discrimination, or righteous appraisal?

By Dale Dauten  |  August 27, 2006

My point here is to put age discrimination in perspective. Maybe there are, I don’t know, 50 percent of employers who won’t hire a 60-year-old. That would be massive discrimination, and yet there are those who think the percentage to be even higher. You can rail against it, and rightly so, but don’t get distracted from finding the 20 percent who think that being 60 is an advantage and who are prejudiced in favor of experience and wisdom.

Just be careful not to confuse age discrimination with a natural discernment against some characteristics that might be associated with age — being a know-it-all, having an income level ahead of the market, or being worn-out or out-of-date. Nobody wants to hire someone old — that is, someone used up . It isn’t age discrimination, it’s a righteous assessment of energy per dollar of salary.

But who’s old? Katie Couric? She turns 50 in January, but I hear she’s doing OK, careerwise. Is John McCain old? He’s 69 and a cancer survivor, but I’d love to work with him. And my favorite TV show (“CBS Sunday Morning") is hosted by a 73-year-old, Charles Osgood.

The problem isn’t being 50 or 60 or 70; it’s being old. So I have a few suggestions on how to not be old, and I welcome any others you’d care to suggest:

No one is old when planting flowers.

No one is old when singing.

No one is old when riding a bike.

No one is old when buying a new suit.

And, my favorite:

No one is old when telling a joke.

To age gracefully is to turn down a lot of chances to be old.

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Editorial Observer: What Is the Latest Thing to Be Discouraged About? The Rise of Pessimism

August 29, 2006 by Mary Wynne-Wynter · Comments Off 

I found this editorial sad, but also a relief. Its a relief to see it put into words; not that people are not saying this all the time, all over the world  But it expresses so well how I feel – "robbed of optimism".  Well, not exactly.  More like "attempted robbery". There’s less resignation, and more room for defiance, in "attempted".  In fact, I think I need to add the tag "defiance" and let the defiant stories, and the renegades who tell them, find me.

Editorial Observer: What Is the Latest Thing to Be Discouraged About? The Rise of Pessimism: "Part of President Bush’s legacy may well be that he robbed America of its optimism."

These are ideal times for the release of “Pessimism: Philosophy, Ethic, Spirit,” by Joshua Foa Dienstag, a U.C.L.A. political theorist.

President Clinton was often mocked for his declarations that he still believed “in a place called Hope.” But he understood that instilling hope is a critical part of leadership. Other than a few special interest programs — like cutting taxes on the wealthy and giving various incentives to business — it is hard to think of areas in which the Bush administration has raised the nation’s hopes and met them. This president has, instead, tried to focus the American people on the fear of terrorism, for which there is no cure, only bad choices or something worse.

Part of Mr. Bush’s legacy may well be that he robbed America of its optimism — a force that Franklin Delano Roosevelt and other presidents, like Ronald Reagan, used to rally the country when it was deeply challenged. The next generation of leaders will have to resell discouraged Americans on the very idea of optimism, and convince them again that their goal should not be to live with their ailments, but to cure them.

(Via NYT > Opinion.)

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Broadband Competition: its not just service, its choice!

August 29, 2006 by Mary Wynne-Wynter · Comments Off 

This is a good article about what cablecos, telcos and satellite providers are doing to improve customer service now that the competition is heating up. But I still see ‘choice’ as the glaring omission. Sure, I can see the point of doing whatever it takes to keep the $100-$140 bundle customer. But what about the customers who want choice, instead of a bundle? New, innovative business models are long overdue!

Learning to Love a Cable Guy: “Phone and cable companies are trying harder to please customers because they risk losing them forever if they do not keep them happy.”

(Via NYT > Technology.)

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Ideas and discoveries: limitless, not limited

August 29, 2006 by Mary Wynne-Wynter · Comments Off 

It happens to me all the time. I read an article that stops me dead in tracks and then I think of another that somehow ‘fits’ with the first and I have to backtrack and hunt for it.

Why these two? As a society, we’ve adopted a belief system around scarcity – that “its all been done before”. I read these and the insanity of holding such a belief, a world view even, hit me with tremendous force.

Here’s the first.

Ideas & Trends: The Math Was Complex, the Intentions, Strikingly Simple: “When Grigory Perelman refused to accept the Fields Medal, he was rejecting the idea that the discoverer is more important than the discovery.”

A purist would say that no one person deserves to stake a claim on a theorem. That seemed to be what Dr. Perelman, who has said he disapproves of politics in mathematics, was implying.

“If anybody is interested in my way of solving the problem, it’s all there — let them go and read about it,” he told The Telegraph. “I have published all my calculations. This is what I can offer the public.”

(Via NYT > Science.)

Here’s the other.

Team finds ‘proof’ of dark matter

By Paul Rincon
Science reporter, BBC News

US astronomers say they have found the first direct evidence for the mysterious stuff called dark matter.

Dark matter – which does not emit or reflect enough light to be “seen” – is thought to make up 25% of the Universe.

By contrast, the ordinary matter we can see is believed to make up no more than about 5% of our Universe.

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New books: differentiation, innovation

August 29, 2006 by Mary Wynne-Wynter · Comments Off 

Off the Shelf: Attitude Isn’t Everything, but It’s Close: "What separates one company’s employees from another’s? A series of books says that once you get past intellectual horsepower and experience, the difference is attitude."

The first is about changing attitude and I like the author’s change in thinking.

Mr. Maxwell says he used to believe that attitude was the only thing that mattered when it came to achieving success. But he realizes now that is not the case.

“If attitude were everything, then the only thing that would separate me from a successful singing career would be the belief that I could do it,” he writes. “But trust me, there is another factor that stands in my way: talent.” His point: “You cannot disconnect attitude from reality and expect success.”

Nonetheless, he contends that attitude can be your greatest asset, what he calls “the difference maker.”

But I disagree with his basic premise:

“Life often gives whatever you expect of it.”

I’ve learned that "life is what you believe."

The second book is about the effect of knowledge and experience on innovation.

Ms. Rabe, a former innovation strategist for Intel who founded Zero-G, an innovation and strategy consulting firm, contends that knowledge and experience can actually kill innovation. “When we become expert,” she writes, “we often trade our ‘what if’ flights of fancy for the grounded reality of ‘what is’ ” and so limit our approaches to challenges.

My model for knowledge sharing is based on a similar premise: the importance of awareness of the ‘what you don’t know you don’t know’ knowledge zone.

(Via NYT > Job Market.)

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