Integrate!

Have you heard about VUCA ? If you're not a business guru, you may have missed this management acronym. It stands for volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. It's a slightly terrifying description of what is really business-as-usual in a world of change and interaction. Management theorists might think VUCA is new, but here's how the 19th century poet John Keats described the quality that made writers great: 'At once it struck me, what quality went to form a Man of Achievement, especially in literature, and which Shakespeare possessed so enormously- I mean Negative Capability, that is when man is capable of being in uncertainties. Mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason.' VUCA has been with man a long, long time, and the best of our thinkers have found ways to embrace it. If it's still too complicated for you: consider this picture. Is it health food? (No). Is it healthy food (Possibly). In one category or f...

Photo credit: Mikka H I have often sat in an airplane before take-off, listening to the safety presentation. When they show parents putting on their own oxygen masks before helping a child, my first reaction is always "not likely." It goes against all my fiercely protective instincts to take care of myself before making sure a child (anyone's child, really) is safe. But the safety presentations make a good point. This weekend, I am running a workshop on Dealing with Anxious People. Of course this means that I have been surrounded by anxious people for several weeks (it's not just confirmation bias: it's end of term at college). And here's the thing I absolutely, down to the toes, know is true about handing other people's anxiety: how well I do it depends on my own state. If I don't have my oxygen mask firmly in place, I catch anxiety faster than I catch colds from the toddlers I love. If someone else's anxiety is driving you nuts, the...

This herd of deer was very aware of us as we stopped to watch them graze. Deer are interesting because we think of them as symbols of both calm and caution. There's a fine line between mindful and anxious. Language, at least the English language, defines anxiety as worry or nervousness. We are all familiar with people who get stuck in this kind of worry and face it everywhere they go. Like deer, they regard all change with caution: all movement could lead to disaster. And yet, if they are anxious to do something or anxious for something to happen, it means that same feeling is also a mark of desire for change. Anxiety doesn't tell us whether the world is good or bad: it tells us that change creates stress (either because we want it or because we fear it). If you are feeling anxious, imagine being a deer. Imagine that your heightened sensory awareness allows you to scan for danger and for the presence of your herd. Imagine that scanning allows you to put your head down an...

Think for a moment about being a tree in winter. You have LOST your leaves. Your branches are BARE. You SHAKE in the wind. You are one stressed tree. Think for a moment about being a tree in winter. You are FREE of leaves. Your branches REACH for the skies. You STRETCH in the wind. You are a tree who loves a challenge. Which tree are you?

I took this photo before training last weekend. The trees are mostly bare now, and although the days have been warmer than usual for this time of year, they are still getting shorter. For many people, the shorter days mean hours spent working in the dark. There is no less to do. Often there is more to do as people prepare for the holiday season and carry the same load as always at work. Students prepare for exams, but they are not the only group to feel that December is stressful. Most of us find that the darkest month of the year is a time for anxiety. In a time when short, dark days meant less time to work and less work to do, people found hope in focusing on lights. We have the lights of Christmas and Hanukkah as focal points that remind us that darkness is temporary and not as powerful as it seems. And yet, these lights have come to also remind us of long to-do lists and the pressure to celebrate in a way worthy of Facebook likes. If a focus on the lights we make isn'...

Have you ever tried to solve a tough problem by digging deeper and thinking harder? How did that work for you? Most people find that the deeper within they dig, the more complexity they uncover. They are emotionally engaged in contradictory ways. They want incompatible things. The evidence points in different directions. With every turn, the maze becomes less familiar. There's a better way. When you notice that digging is not helping you get clear on a decision, let go. Let your imagination carry you out of the maze so you can survey it from high, high above. Rising above a problem does not begin with taking the moral high road. It begins with moving to a perspective that is free, moving, and distant. Imagine trying to tell a seagull what to do. You can watch them on the beach. Even other seagulls have little success in being the boss of a seagull. Now imagine watching that gull take flight. What would it feel like to simply lift yourself away from the squabbles and bumps?...

We had a storm in Toronto yesterday. Not a storm like they're having in Buffalo this week, but enough snow to turn a one hour commute into a four hour commute. We all expected a little light snow. What came was more than that, and many drivers hit a little ice and everyone else was suddenly trapped in a car that had nowhere to go. That happens in life, too. Out of the blue, there's a storm.  And little girls all over the world are celebrating those storms because of one Disney princess.   She causes a storm by exploring the full nature of her power. I watch my 3 year old niece singing "Let it Go" and I know she gets it - there's energy and there is also joy in finding out what you can do. It would be cool (pun intended) to follow Elsa's lead and sing "The cold never bothered me anyway." The cold is the price that comes with letting go and risking the consequences of finding your own power. I'm running a conference on November 29 on the th...