An old Egyptian folktale says that the sky and the earth were once combined- they were one. Later when a child was born to them, the child stood in the middle, pushing them apart. And thus they became two.
The lack of the tale’s scientific veracity notwithstanding, it does show how much the sky and the earth have been central to human thought even in olden times. And these two elements provide relevant analogies when we think of transformation of change agents and organizations, and its necessity.
A transformation is beautiful, as much a matter of the heart as it is of the mind
The mind is the sky, with vision blocked by dark clouds
The mind is like the sky, with thought-clouds hovering, passing across the tranquil surface. Unfortunately, the modern era is one rife with distractions too numerous that it’s easy to lose focus of what’s important and what’s not. This in turn has an effect on your thought processes. In fact, distractions and thoughts have a direct link- the more the number of distractions, the more the number of thoughts that cloud your mind.
Thoughts in themselves are not bad. There is even the point to be made that exercising your mind is a sign of good intelligence and also a practice that one should do frequently to maintain that level of intelligence.
But it’s not wilful thinking that we are talking about here. Rather, the problem we face here is the proliferation of thoughts that intrude into your mind because of external stimuli which aren’t always a positive influence. These externalities are not in your control and that makes things worse.
This proliferation of thoughts is akin to the sky getting over-crowded with dark clouds. These clouds block the sun’s rays from reaching the ground. But the problem is that you need the bright light to see things clearly enough and make the right decisions.
Decisions are based upon a vision- a view of the future which you are aiming for. Sticking with our analogy, the vision is the solar light. And many a time, you need access to it if you are to take the right decision, sans confusion.
So, how do you reach at your True Personal Vision which is clouded over thanks to the myriad distractions that the world presents?
Temenos Vision Lab or TVL is a unique session developed by Temenos+Agility that helps change agents discover their True Personal Vision and teams their Compelling Shared Vision- the common vision towards which the team members should move as a unit. Developed based on 25 years of business consultancy experience and psychological insights, TVL enlists some of the best leadership coaches in business to help guide you to your vision.
The earth you tread on, but progress only when you leave fears behind
The earth. There are many connotations to it. For one, it’s where we stand- this could be analogous to an ideology we base our actions on. For another, the earth is a great source from which we derive nourishment. We grow our food on the earth.
This could be considered as analogous to creating ideas, ideas that are necessary for the continued progress of an organization, ideas which are created inspired by the earth-spirit: creative spirit of the earth.
The modern economy is predicted to a great extent on knowledge, or rather information. Also, the level of competition in free markets is high, to say the least. Club these two factors together and you can see why idea generation is significant in the modern era.
For one thing, it’s hard, if not impossible, to always stay ahead of your competition by using the age-old strategy of ‘producing more than the competition and selling at lower price.” Not only may such a strategy be impractical because of production constraints, it’s also hard to imagine a scenario where there is a perennial demand for something that would make the scenario desirable.
On the other hand, it is more important to stay ahead of the competition these days than ever before, simply because customers have more choices than ever before. Customer loyalty is rather flimsy in such a situation and if you’re pushed back by competition for even a short period, that may be enough time to push your business out of the customers’ mind for good.
This necessitates continual innovations that would help keep the customers’ interest in your business afresh. This in turn makes ideation very important.
Only a clear mind could produce strong ideas. A mind in turmoil is more poised to make the wrong decisions etc. than a clear mind. A clear mind, in many ways, is synonymous with your fullest potential. For only when you are in full possession of your skills, wielding the full power of your mind is it completely clear.
Unfortunately, many change agents are pulled back from reaching their full potential by their own misapprehensions and fears. These negativities may have been born from some poor past experience- either professional or personal. Often, these prevent them from doing something new, something that’s essential to their evolution, something which would help them achieve their true potential.
The Clean Slate session is included in TVL for this reason.
In the session, change agents are encouraged to reflect on their own self, identify the negativities and their root causes, and uproot the negativities once and for all. Experienced trainers guide them through this one-of-a-kind session which combines the best mindfulness techniques with an amicable setting.
The change agents come out of the session renewed, invigorated, standing on their own piece of ground- the earth- with more confidence than ever before.
