…heartbeat
of the positive revolution
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In this month of thanks, I feel especially grateful to you. By living the principles of the Revolutionary Agreements you are changing the world. This month, won’t you join me in re-reading and applying the Gratitude section of Revolutionary Agreements? Imagine a holiday season filled with gratitude – even for the challenges that can arise at this time of year! I Agree to See the Best in Myself and Others While learning the Enneagram I am reminded that tools like these have helped me immeasurably over the years to “respect our differences,” “honor our choices,” and certainly to see the best in each other. Years ago, Glenn and I used the Meyers-Briggs personality profile in our corporate teambuilding work. It turned out to be one of the most important foundational tools for our marriage! Before knowing the results of our own tests, I used to feel frustrated by Glenn’s disinterest in planning with me, thinking that he didn’t care about our future. A simple example was our disconnection from each other while planning vacations. After taking the M-B, I saw clearly how my personality type loves to plan all the details and know what’s going to happen. On the other hand, Glenn’s profile showed that he loves spontaneity and keeping his options open. No wonder he never wanted to set any plans in concrete! Armed with these important understandings about ourselves, I could then delight in my vacation books and plan to my heart’s content. During our vacation, secure in knowing what I had planned for that day, I would casually say to Glenn, “Honey, would you like to [do whatever I planned] today?” “Sure!” he would often reply to my seemingly spontaneous idea… or he might propose something even better. While I may have the intention to see the best in others and myself, tools such as the Meyers-Briggs and the Enneagram help me to see more clearly the gifts that each of us brings to our relationships at work and at home. Could your relationships benefit from taking the time to understand each other’s natural gifts? What tools do you have to help you see the best in yourself and others? How can you apply this–and the other three gratitude agreements--to create a less stressful, joy-filled holiday season? Happy Thanksgiving! With gratitude,
Your stories are the heartbeat of the positive revolution. Keep them coming! Agreements Assert Themselves in Business Joanne E. Cohen, M.A., senior leadership consultant for a major cable company, has twenty-six years combined experience in coaching, consulting, facilitation and professional speaking. For twelve years, she has internally directed and managed her teams to focus on successfully supporting strategic and tactical corporate initiatives. Among many other honors, she was featured on Denver’s Channel 9 News for bringing a creative and innovative process to a local corporation to help them better understand the different generations at work. I have designed and facilitated corporate team-building, leadership development and stress management workshops for years using the first version of the Revolutionary Agreements, developed in 1985. When these Agreements are practiced diligently, people can be more proactive and less reactive to the daily challenges inside and outside the work environment. Once we learn to communicate more effectively and manage our stressors, we are able to tap into a vast knowledge that is available to each of us; and we can express that knowing from a more powerful place. Multiply that by a whole team operating together from such a place and the possibilities are limitless. I am well aware that most participants come to my team-building sessions initially because management decrees they must. My job is to involve them in a simulation that morphs a group of colleagues into a cohesive team. In a half- to full-day process I present each with sample agreements created by other teams with whom I have worked, along with both the initial and latest versions of the Revolutionary Agreements. With these guides the team re-creates itself while discovering and demonstrating its teaming abilities. Working closely together, participants support each other in tearing down individual barriers and creating an item of focus such as integrity, respect, managing conflict, teamwork or making the workplace a place of fun (Lighten Up!). Ultimately, they design and draft a new set of agreements from which they will not only operate but for which they will hold themselves and each other accountable. Pride and a sense of accomplishment result from taking ownership for this process. The tremendous positive energy generated by the end of our time together is not only deeply satisfying, it inspires me to take this work to others. Each participant is given a copy of the Revolutionary Agreements book at the end of the session to help them reinforce the power of following agreements in their lives, both inside and outside of work. As the successful teams grow in numbers, positive change occurs naturally around them. People who have engaged in the process demonstrate their success as they “become the change” they want to see. My mission is simple: to be of service, to create value for others and to be part of a positive cultural change, one person at a time. I firmly believe that change begins with me, and to that means and end, I continue to practice the Agreements to which I was introduced over 20 years ago. Below are six agreements designed recently by two of the teams with whom I worked. TEAM DECLARATIONS OPERATE WITH INTEGRITY BALANCE KEEP COMMITMENTS TO EACH OTHER AND OUR CUSTOMERS DISCERNMENT RESPECT I agree to co-create solutions to resolve problems constructively at the earliest opportunity.
Thank you, merci, gracias, grazie, danke, mahalo, shukriya, arigato, spasibo, and many, many more. Agreements here, Agreements there.
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