Do I have a Sensei ?

I have been watching few days ago an enthralling report on French television about a training for Japanese executives and managers (you may find the video on the web).

I have been fascinated and scared by the strict frame of this training, directly borrowed from military and prison lives. The training aims to recall the fundamentals to the trainees such as writing, expression, politeness, memory, house cleaning, physical activity, team working (through an orienteering), etc. Objective is to turn them into efficient, respected and obedient managers. Psychologically very hard, it wrenches the trainee away from his/her social and professional environments. Very few participants succeed. And although a real camaraderie is developed between the trainees, the course is nevertheless very elitist.

I am very far from understanding Japanese culture and I can’t judge if it is suitable or not to the current context of economical recession in Japan. This training course has been created in 1979, and I don’t know either if it has been adapted since this time, or if it remained the same during the last 30 years. Nevertheless, respect takes a large place in Japanese culture, and even though I am occidental, I have no problem with conformism as long as it is respectful.

The bosses, who had sent their employee to this event, were at the last day of the training. Confrontation between employee and boss was moving. Employee was making his/her mea culpa, while the boss was obviously deeply touched. One of the bosses, after having commented he was already seeing a positive change, admitted in front of the camera that it was moving him.

As I was a bit impressed by the report, it brought to me an interrogation : who is my guide, the person who went through similar experience than me before me, and who can support and train me ? Do I have a Sensei ?

Answer is : no, I don’t.

I’m training and building myself through personal reflections, readings and exchanges with people. I don’t have any privileged mentor-student relationship with a single person, but a lot of punctual enriching exchanges with different people, mainly on the Web.
Still, apparently I miss someone to help me assemble the pieces of the puzzle I collect and to direct me with confidence. That might explain why I’m feeling a bit lost these days, hesitating to take my professional career to a new and much more higher level.

What do you think ? Do you rely on a Sensei ? Do you think this one to one and intimate relationship should be part of our professional life ?

What is your level of self-acceptance ?

I have recently highlighted, using a personal experience as support, that awareness is a decisive factor for change to occur positively. Handling personal aspects of a change would be expressed by the following interrogation :
“Inwardly, am I aware of what this change really means and implies to me ?“

To be truly capable of answering to this question, it makes sense that the starting point is “knowing where I sit at this very moment“. There is an incalculable number of parameters that led us to where we are, that provide us with options to go ahead, that wipe out opportunities, that shape our state of mind, etc… Although these parameters can be represented and analyzed in a certain proportion, most of them cannot be controlled.

There is nevertheless one set of these parameters that can be fully handled at our level : ourself !

Too simple to be ignored, right ? But not that simple to be managed…

We are not talking here about any material aspect – especially not money and carrier – but about what’s going on in our mind and in our body.
Do I listen to my body, to my emotions, to my deep thoughts, to my intuitions ? Do I talk to my body ? Am I conversing with myself ? How do I recharge my batteries with mental energy ? Wouaw…This is not as simple or as easy that one could think. True, otherwise there would not be so many different sports, games, hobbies, spirituality and meditation paths, religions, social networks, psychologists, coaches, etc…

But there is something here that can be clearly pointed out.

Interrogation started with “inwardly, am I aware of”. Whatever the ways your take to work on, with and for yourself, all starts with self-acceptance.

And you know what, self-acceptance also fluctuates ; when you feel high or depressed, when you are hurt or in perfect shape. Do you really see yourself always the same in the mirror ? Answer is no.
The key to listen to and to work with yourself, your dynamics, your character, your dreams, your thoughts… is accepting yourself as you are, as the unique, great and wealthy person you truly are. That will turn your personal and professional living into a quest, into an adventure, into a Life.

I hear you already thinking : “but I am not, yadayadayada”. Yes you are, of course you are ! Question is through which lens are you looking at yourself : your own inner eye or the deformed telescope of others ?
What makes the difference between these two angles ? Others are poorly informed about yourself. They judge and classify you as a matter of making it simpler for them to handle your existence. Using their telescope to look at yourself is dramatically simplistic.
Now, what if others also work on themselves, and start to look at you with this complete understanding that you are as complex and as rich as they are ? That would be great, respectful, wise, wouldn’t it ?

• Make the decision to go through this regular work on yourself : to accept yourself and to listen to yourself
• Consistently assess your current level of self-acceptance : it will give you an instant image of where you are and will provide you with clues to progress while respecting yourself
• Choose your path : there is no standard mean to achieve this, simply because you are unique. There are nevertheless a lot of marked out paths that you are free to engage or to leave if it doesn’t fit to you.
• Make it for yourself. It will benefit to others.

What Kind Of Tree Are You ?

When I want to think or recover, I sit in my garden under tall trees that have this particularity of permanently loosing leaves and generating new ones. They are always green and the ground at their foot is brown. As if they were indecisive deciduous trees constantly hesitating between autumn and spring.

In the region they live, sun is strong, rain is quite rare and soil is hard. The repartition of their thick leaves is optimized to catch the maximum of energy. With their dense foliage, they protect the soil from being burned, preserving a low yet sufficient humidity, and they constantly enrich the humus with their own leaves.

Is it mimicry that I do feel the same constant renewal ; a subtly mix of reevaluation, awakening, revitalization and rebirth ? Such as these trees, I don’t hesitate to recycle my knowledge, my thoughts, as per fertilizer for my personal development. I attempt to catch only the most valuable information to me – from documents, music, movies, communities and individuals, whether around me or on the Internet. Some will name that openness, synthesis or analytical skills. While for me, feeding my mind with pure energy and fresh water is vital. But it is not the most important.

The balance between collected information, reflection and generated wealth to proceed further, is the point. The true place in the ecosystem for biologists. The barycenter, for mathematicians. That’s the lesson these trees are reminding me of everyday.

Now, that’s me. That’s my environment. Plenty of tree species exist and have developed different and successful strategies to find this balance within their own growing environment.

What kind of tree are you ?

What Is Innovation ? Who Is Innovating ?

In our day to day usage, the following terms are overlapping each other : invention/innovation, inventor/innovator, to invent/to innovate. Now, if they appear to be similar, they are nevertheless distinct. Let’s try to reduce the confusion and to avoid misusing these beautiful words, so representative of the human being – which is over business buzzing and marketing I hope so.

While invention clearly represents an object, innovation appears to be more subjective.

Invention comes from Latin “in – venio,is,ire”. The prefix “in”, referring to a containing context, has been apposed to “venio,is,ire” which stands for to come. Invention implies a vision, a discovery and a realization.
Innovation comes from Latin “in – novo,as,are”. The prefix “in”, referring to a containing context, has been apposed to “novo,as,are” (novum : new) which stands for to make new. Innovation implies a change, a comparison and a novelty.

An inventor could be defined as someone, a group of persons that realize something new to their eyes, from their knowledge and their comprehension of the environment where the invention will be used.
Who does actually make this invention new, the inventor or the environment ? Who is the best placed to evaluate and to feedback about the invention, the inventor or the environment ?

Here comes the first statement : the environment decides about the innovative value of an invention.

Having said that, who is actually innovating ?

By extension, to innovate would represent the action of handling the transition from invention to innovation. Therefore, it would involve both inventor and environment. So we could indeed say that the inventor innovates when the inventor takes care about how the invention is answering and is introduced to the environment. And we could also say that the environment innovates as per its evaluation, acceptance, integration and promotion of the invention. Such as most of the transformation process, innovating is a result of combinations.

Nevertheless, somehow the innovation supplants the invention and, probably for a matter of preserving the ownership and the origin of the invention, we prefer saving the verb “to innovate” for the inventor, as per a recognized contribution to the environment. According to this, an innovator could be defined as someone, a group of persons that attempts to understand, foresee and handle the transformation of an invention as it’s introduced to the environment.

Here is the second statement : we innovate when we handle the process of transforming the invention to an innovation through the environment perception and adoption. It can be positive or negative.

Innovator is complementary to inventor, innovation is complementary to invention, while they are not necessarily directly linked. Both are valued through results, and the association of the two of them is one of the most exciting and motivating thing nowadays, whether on social, business or personal aspects.

Aware Environment For The Good Of A Change

How we communicate around a change is the key to its acceptance.

If it allows to raise issues that would be likely to become breaks, to uncover some related needs and consequences, the most valuable aspect of communicating about a change is to involve persons impacted by the change at a sufficient level to permit them handling themselves within this change. Doing so we switch from “impacted person by the change” to “a change partner”.

There is no communication model, nor single information to be broad-casted as we have to address different spheres. Unconscious communication (the body talks ; we make slip of the tongue ; walls have ears…) and indirect communication (there is information between the lines) are not negligible. Whilst children can read towards their parents and somehow follow the thread thanks to their perception, relatives, friends and colleagues can only gather unrelated pieces of information. Therefore, quality of the exposed information, properly targeting the audience and knowing when is the moment to communicate towards each sphere, are essential to the change.

On one hand, we don’t want to let our change partners assembling the puzzle without a picture model, and on the other hand, their actual contribution is to help us clarifying and refining this very picture model.

If we consciously raise the level of awareness of our change environment, we then reduce the risk of misunderstandings and unexpressed thoughts and feelings. We establish a more transparent and wiser communication between all change partners, including ourselves. Having deliberately put aside the disruptive factors, we become capable of accepting and analyzing each piece of puzzle we are given. We can judge then if it fits the puzzle that we are assembling, considering our change partners’ contribution as a unique and needed part of the whole of the change.

THETRANSITIONER

When I first found about this network, I was looking for general information about collective intelligence, as per my interest in collaborative work and communities of practice. I actually found references, documents, videos… about collective intelligence, wisdom and consciousness, but also much more !

“TheTransitioner is a network, a vessel of committed pioneers, a space for learning, a place for R&D and innovation. Last but not least we are committed to build the next free currencies.”

At last I can put words on some thoughts and feelings I’m having since the last five years. I have just joined this team and it already helped me to add sense to my personal project, to consider with a new angle both my professional environment and the community I live in.

I’m not promising that it will have the same effect on you, but I encourage you to at least acknowledge this ambitious, realistic and deeply human adventure.

Expatriation : story of a change

Preparing a relocation to another country and getting established there, are generally mainly considered as a matter of organization – personal involvement, time and money in other words. It’s also commonly admitted that once we are set up, then starts the tricky part of expatriation. I would like to illustrate through my own experience that the change actually starts at the very moment we are considering the relocation as a realistic opportunity, and that managing this change is a long-term process that should be wisely prepared.

It’s now one year I left Paris for a kibbutz in northern Israel, literally “at” the frontier with Lebanon. No need to say that there is a linguistic, cultural and environmental gap. Now, this move has been prepared several years before on both personal and professional perspectives. Besides practical aspects of this expatriation, I had a lot of interrogations, doubts, prejudices and dreams that generated an impressive amount of exchanges with my relatives, friends and colleagues. I remember even some short discussions with complete strangers, which illustrates if needed, how deep this change is. Think about it, how many times have you discussed with strangers about something that personal and emotional  ?

With my wife, we have discussed all aspects of this project together and made each related decision as a couple. We have done it quite naturally as we share and exchange a lot. But I realized after all that it was crucial that both pair and individual were respected : for our personal development, enrichment, well-being and couple balance. This expatriation then simply made sense, as part of our “life together” project. Our transparent, respectful and fluid communication became the main pillar of this change, and allowed us to focus on more inside interrogations.
During our own reflection phase, prior to definitive decision, we were not hiding our intentions to our kids. That would have generated or encouraged anxiety or frustration. Nevertheless, such as every parent willing to preserve their kids from adult concerns, we were not discussing about it in their presence. Which means that our children were informed with parsimony and mainly unconsciously.
When we were certain of our decision, we were ready to expose it to our young kids. Children are much more sensitive and attentive that we would like to think. I was astonished by their level of understanding. They actually had already started handling their own change, based on what they had felt and heard. My 5 years old son was already missing his friends : amazing how he was projecting himself through this change !

If we have naturally informed our children, sharing our project with others required more attention and control. We did the best as we could to make others aware enough of our intentions, motivations and progress, so that they positively contributed to our project. And we wanted this to happen while we still were in a safe place, surrounded by people that care for us or, at least, were familiar to us. It was a change for them too, of course. And we didn’t want to introduce uncertainty in this safe environment in which we were growing (i.e. positively changing).

Time for the physical move had not come yet that we had accomplished to my eyes, the most important part of our change. What gave us self-confidence, deep trust in our future, what ensured a sustainable support from our original environment. It ensured for us too that this experience would be anyway positive. Whatever the issue of this expatriation, this change would never be lived as a failure.