Subject: [Partnerwerks TeamWisdom Tips] A TALE for your weekend part 2
> Attend Being Powerful In Any Team, Feb. 17-19
> http://www.beingpowerful.com
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Welcome to Partnerwerks TeamWisdom Tips!
by Christopher M. Avery, Ph.D.
January 17, 2002
Read by 3189 professionals in 50 countries.
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TeamWisdom(TM) Tips promotes individual mental skills and
behaviors that create highly responsible and productive
relationships at work.
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This week's line-up:
1. 10-Second TeamWisdom
2. Welcome Notes
3. A TALE OF TWO PERSONAL OPERATING SYSTEMS, PART 2
4. 5-Minute TeamWisdom Stretch
5. TeamWisdom Resources
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1. 10-Second TeamWisdom
We all fall below the line every time something's not right.
Noticing and climbing back up is what's important.
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2. Welcome Notes
Thank you for caring enough about responsible relationships
at work to read TeamWisdom Tips.
And thanks to all of you who wrote with kudos on the fable.
I'm glad you like it because you are getting more of it
today.
There are still registrations available for Being Powerful
In Any Team next month. Please tell everyone who could be
more effective about the opportunity.
http://www.beingpowerful.com
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3. A TALE OF TWO PERSONAL OPERATING SYSTEMS, PART II
We began a fable last week and continue it this week. To
refresh your memory, you can review PART I in the archives
at http://archive.mail-list.com/teamwisdom/msg00190.html
So, Below and Above, as much as we can tell, had pretty much
the same experience. How they respond to that experience
though, is very different and the difference is clear.
Below, whether by nature, conditioning, or choice, does not
own the role he played in the pile-up. Above, whether by
nature, conditioning, or choice, completely owns the role he
played in the pile-up. As a result of their respective
positions, Below will learn nothing, change nothing, and
improve nothing about himself; Above has already learned
something about himself, made a decision to change something
about himself, and will likely show improved abilities in
similar situations in the future. Below will invest
considerable energies in attempting to change others, in
attempting to hold someone else accountable, and in
attempting to decide right and wrong. Below doesnąt realize
that the more effort he expends in this, the less he will
grow personally. He wonąt learn, change or improve a thing
about himself and how he deals with similar situations in
the future. Below may get headlines, but Above gets the
lesson.
Below is trapped in an area of thinking and operating we
call łbelow the line.˛ The line is the mental and emotional
demarcation between not owning our own role in the outcomes
we experience, and owning our own role in our outcomes. One
need not stay trapped below the line as Below chooses to
(yes, we say Below chooses his position below the line, even
if unconsciously and even if he denies it). In fact, most of
us experience moving back and forth above and below the line
on a daily basis. Indeed, whenever you feel some angst
suddenly release and you sheepishly smile at yourself while
realizing how you created this mess for yourself, you are
likely experiencing the move from below to above the line.
Our learner Above was probably even below the line for
awhile during and after the pile-up, but somehow, Above
climbed łabove the line,˛ and saw how he participated in
creating the mess he was in, and, that he could obviously
have made different choices.
Even if Below successfully changes something about that
stretch of road or some government entity, Below will still
feel trapped. But he will define the trap as external to
him, rather than internally created. By attempting to solve
the problems łout there˛ instead of łin here,˛ he wonąt
experience the personal freedom, choice and power he so much
desires. He might feel the ego rush of wielding a mighty
sword and being able to control other people into
compliance, but heąll never feel the true personal power he
desires. Why? Because his point of view wonąt allow him to
see how powerful he already is in creating the outcomes in
his life. He might own the positive outcomes, but he
completely disowns any bad thing that happens to him whether
relatively tiny, like the loose lid in his hand from the jar
of pickles crashing to the floor that he yanked out of the
refrigerator, or huge, like the massive coronary that kills
him because the doctors didnąt react with medicine fast
enough to cure his obesity, blood pressure, hardened
arteries, and elevated cholesterol. He simply claims that he
didnąt do it (he didnąt know the lid was loose; he didnąt
know the lifestyle choices would eventually kill him), and
in these claims, he gives up his power, and thus his choice
and his sense of freedom.
He also puts into place a vicious mental and emotional
life-operating cycle of anxiety and ever-increasing need for
control in futile attempts to reduce the anxiety. The more
Below attempts to reduce his anxiety, the more he actually
creates for himself.
Stay tuned for PART III...
Get started with this week's 5-Minute Practice Tip.
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"'Teamwork Is an Individual Skill: Getting Your Work Done
When Sharing Responsibility' contains more practical
information and advice about the conditions under which we
humans optimize our work together than any other book you
are likely to have read"
~Terry O'Keefe, Executive Bookshelf
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4. 5-Minute Practice Tip
If we go below the line every time something does not go
right. What would you have to do to be aware when it happens
to you and to climb back above the line?
I wish you a world of responsible and productive
relationships at work.
Faithfully,
Christopher
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5. TeamWisdom Resources
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Based on years of research and testing, KTEP is now
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I will be traveling to and speaking...
- January 20-22, Seminar, Sasol NA, Inc., Lake Charles, LA
- February 17-19, Being Powerful In Any Team, San Antonio,
TX (http://www.beingpowerful.com)
- March 11, Seminar, KPMG, Denver, CO
- May 5, PMI/NJ Chapter Regional Symposium, Edison, NJ
- May 13-15, Being Powerful In Any Team, San Antonio, TX
(http://www.beingpowerful.com)
- May 22-23, 3rd. Conference on Work Teams, Centro de
Productividad, Monterrey, N.L., Mexico
Want me to speak at your company or association? See
http://www.partnerwerks.com/services_and_products/speaking.html
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