The Intern Diaries: Lessons Learned

The final four gave their presentations this week, talking about what they did, what they learned, how they changed.

Learning is changing.  I think they expected to learn but I a not so sure they expected to change.  The biggest change, for all of them, is how much more they now want to change.  To grow, to experience, to learn – all is to change.

I learned and changed too.

I had to laugh when one of the interns remarked that she learned she liked working with older people.  The funny thing is, I learned to like working with younger people – those who are coherent, strong in their Role, and like working on teams.

I learned, most of all, that the basic principles of building and supporting a Coherent Human Infrastructure are not dependent on age, experience, or ‘rank’.  Value is value, quality is quality, synergy is synergy.  And trust, respect, and faith in the Vision are still the alpha and the omega.

When Visions Meet

Do you remember those sped-up photos of cells dividing and multiplying until they reach the point where they change direction and something new and different emerges?

It’s like that with visions.  When two visions come very close, when they are mergeable in some way, if they are fed the energy of both sources they too become something new – a living, breathing organism of some sort.  Whether that is one being or an enterprise involving thousands of individual organisms acting together is less important than the mechanism: two original, pure visions, each dedicated to bettering the world in some way. coming together in an ecosystem that supports the human spirit, producing revolutionary progress that benefits the far off future.

I think sometimes when it is about to happen, one or both visions are overcome with the fear that they will be engulfed or destroyed by the other and the natural drive to merge them fails.  The trick is not to erect walls to keep fears out but to make them visible for what they are: the hobgoblins we keep alive with our distracted energy.

I’ve just started working on one – I think of it as a VisionMeld – and will keep you posted on my progress.

Arrogance, Greediness, Fear – Oh My!

If the economy isn’t improving, neither is the stuff of the headlines.  Downsizings are bad enough: some can’t be helped and some are probably long overdue if the company is to achieve adequate productivity.  It’s the ones where the golden parachutes are opening and nothing’s trickling down the food chain that sadden me.  And of course there’s always Bernie Madoff.  And Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.  And the suicides – German billionaire speculator Adolf Merckle  the latest. Gordon Gekko must be chortling in his celluloid grave.

Arrogance, greediness, fear – oh my!  The lions and tigers and bears that threaten to bring our world to collapse are on the prowl.

They are a cycle because they are cut of the same cloth: the greedy denial of reality, the arrogant illusion that you are the only one of importance in the world.  You can’t have the infantile arrogance and greediness without the fear that leads to worse and worse decisions.  And the evidence says it’s rampant in what e think of as our leaders.

Arrogance, greediness, fear: it’s always a down cycle when these rule.  The things that go bump in the night reside inside.  Time to out them.

The World is Textured

Kevin, our SVP Sales, and Loida, our bilingual trainer,  are on their way back from Sao Paolo, Brazil having worked very hard with our friends at Kienbaum, our reseller there.  At the same time, Madhu, our technology guru, is on the way to New Delhi and  Noida, India, hopefully to return with new business relationships.  As I send up prayers for their safe travel, I recall Thomas Friedman’s assertion that The World is Flat and think, no, it’s textured.

The nuances of our relationships across cultures give our lives texture. Nothing is taken for granted, no two places are exactly the same, and yet all are part of the same network.  That is what gives it texture.

I hope that is what our new logo says to you: Our arms reach out to each other, texturing our lives with trust, respect and faith.

The end is coming

Of the year, that is, not the world.

I usually don’t think about my New Year’s resolutions until at least the 29th of December, but I was interviewed by ExecuNet on “A New Career for the New Year?” for their CareerSmart Advisor and the article came out a week or so ago, so I’ve started early. It’s easier to give advice than take it, of course, but I’m going to try to give myself some advice on my big resolution for 2008. I’m finally going to write the magnum opus on the theory that underlies all the products and services of The Gabriel Institute. So, here forth, my advice to myself, which I hope you might find applicable to whatever it is that you are going to resolve to do this year.

• It doesn’t have to all be done at once. There is a writing standard I followed a long time ago (when I wrote my other books) of doing five new pages a day. What I learned was that doesn’t add up to 35 pages a week or even 25 so you may as well be realistic and double your overly optimistic time schedule. This particularly applies to losing weight.
• It will be better if you don’t try to control it. A book, like many other projects, needs to develop a personality of its own. It has your voice, but it’s an individual. Actually, this need it will have to “breathe” is going to be responsible for some of that time you’ll need in the last point. If your resolutions involve other people, like a child, a spouse, a friend, this definitely applies to you.
• The more people involved, as long as they are truly invested in the outcome, the better the results. This will, of course, be a team effort. My earlier books were too, but the team was formed to get the book out, not before. Investment takes time – and trust, respect and faith. If you have that, whatever your resolution, it will be more likely to succeed.

Okay, I’m ready for the end – and the beginning!