Lessons

Lesson Info

Team Building & Guided Meditation

Can anybody point to any companies that grew dramatically that didn't have investment at some point so those people have to buy into our our vision and that's why I said encourage all of you to start thinking that way right now that whatever it is you're making could be something you sell later on uh with you as part of it or not or it could be something that you need investment to grow so um have you framed your offering in a way that would be appealing you know, it's very interesting that you know, several of the ones I've heard like sarah's budding company and anne's company you know, these sound promising, right? You know, there's a feeling of like, yeah, we could put we could we could get some people in here and they would go like, okay, what do you need to do that on? Do you have to show them what they're gonna what they're gonna get out of it? So the next uh, issue here is team building and this is like a relation and program, you know, if you're one person operation which a lot...

of you out there are probably at this point, but we shouldn't think of that as the end goal of where we're gonna end up the most if a business is successful it's not going to be one person operation certain point um even if you're one person operation, you still have a network of people working along with you choose your team wisely and this is incheon this includes lawyers and accountants and you know, these people like for example, choose the wrong accountant um several examples where people have been cheated you know, by an account that was not ethical andi if they're not really paying attention that you don't notice it for a couple of years were very reputable people uh ostensibly so we should choose wisely and every time we put somebody on the team you know really make sure we're vetting them properly and getting other bids for that position like we've done our homework or is it just you know, my sister knows a lawyer you know, my sister's married to a lawyer whatever you know, I don't take the easy road on that because everybody who had to the team is gonna create future and I I don't must take the extra step of visualizing what kind of a problem you're gonna have when I when I hire people go okay there's a sort of people have their best it's like the first day of their best clothing on their the most magnetic but it can be helpful in this in this regard to be to allow negative thoughts to arise like what could go wrong here you know, with this employee or this or this person not to dwell on it you know not to dwell on it because eventually you have to take a leap with that person and live with them but it's great to not be surprised um uh you know, three, six months a year later and go you could have seen that coming could have seen that coming maybe there ah a little slippery you know, maybe they don't want their blustery and then have the chops that they purport to have that could be very common thing um maybe they have other ambitions and you're going to be uh in a sense a step for them to fulfill their ambitions but there's not very much loyalty there you know? So this assessing of the team is a very very important point and as you grow all of a sudden you find yourself with larger business thing is successful but now it's weighted down by sort of you know kind of difficult situations that you've created the seeds of as you grew it um so looking to the future that way um I thought maybe this point well maybe we have a little discussion first and then I want to do a guided meditation about interdependence how's your teamwork everybody yeah right. Well mold says I have a disrespect for authority including my own so I have found it very difficult to transition into self employment which is something that I have wanted you to do for year what a common I have a disrespect for authority even my own wow that says a lot doesn't it seldom uh what's that person multi multi like m o l l a mall mozzie mozzie okay grimes with a lot of things um so mozzie, what are we gonna do about that that's what? I don't know it's great in this workshop but I've been trying encourage already to figure out where you're stuck and you're giving a very clear indication of being stuck because it sounds like you would like to do a on entrepreneurial oh every but you don't trust yourself. What do you think the remedy is that his for that, um that's a ah powerful statement you're making there um and it's almost like I would throw it back if we were in dialogue it throw it back to a person. Say what? What you proposed in new with that so well she can she can write back to us. You made similar no, miss rose was saying in terms of teamwork I was raised to be a worker bee but I have the personality of a boss but I work well if other with others if I could be heard and that's very similar to an was saying knowing your interview off that she was I have difficulty with the boston till she kept bringing him problem she started bringing him ideas yeah um that was an answer is that there was a susan susan piper oh susan you okay? Yeah yes indeed graham the different types of the ways people who receive information you know that's a very astute thing I called the universal translator you know you think you're speaking english but there hearing something else and you want to figure out what words mean to that person that you're talking to so um we don't want again on let's see if we can get a little bit at mr everything I was raised to be a worker bee right? But I have the personality of a boss right? I work well with others only if I could be heard yeah, well, you know that's the thing is there's an assumption there that she's not being heard and uh you know is that really true in every situation or is that kind of something that you know is a self fulfilling prophecy because you might be being heard better than you think you somebody might be hearing the whole thing actually, um I think what we have to do is look to ourselves first before we try to change the external environment and change the situation around us and just see what we've created um first and that's alchemical that actually shifts when we do that on we're clear about that somehow the blame kind of dials tiles weigh down in terms of what other people are doing uh if if you're not being heard it maybe partly because the way you're saying it you know if you're pushing your agenda too hard people tighten down so I think you're right jake doyle that wasn't barbara the other day was addressing that thing you might want to reframe your language or your attitude or whatever but start from oneself let's say start the process of exchange with oneself you know thomas what I find is also important that we all know what we working for as a team and I remember when I was working in corporate and we did a lot of things that working where whenever we walked in a very large corporation and we did quite a few things that weren't exactly off comprehensible value I didn't feel committed but when I go and volunteer for no money in my meditation community where we cook big meals for one hundred and fifty people suddenly I'm inspired and I work and I subordinate to to somebody who's half my age but you know how they know how it goes and do dishes and I was kind of sprays there then no it's for the right purpose so I think if everybody knows that I know there's this saying about the ship and the vision you know there's this famous you know teach people how to build the ship vs tell him that the ship's kind of sailed the ocean something like this I think that's exactly what it's doing is giving somebody fish or teaching them how to fish everyone it's about it's, about the vision? Yeah, okay, we all know what we're walking. Yeah, um, that's a great point, because sometimes you get in a situation where people go to a job during the day and there are unmotivated and unfocused and the energy is not sort of conducive. And then they go home and do their volunteer thing, and they're cooking and having a fantastic time. That's such a good point, you know? And of course, once money is involved it then there's who's getting what in the competitive competition and comparison, one phrase that I love is your job is as good as your boss, and you might be your own boss, really? I mean, even if you're digging a ditch, if you're volunteering of washing dishes, or if you're doing something much loftier still only as good as your boss, they say also a parent is only as happy as their happiest child similar kind of thing. So anymore from the online people still chatting and then again they'd gone into their own conversation because we're beginning comments there up throughout their multi we would love to hear from you, maybe we'll continue that dialogue. Songbird was saying it's very hard for them to collaborate with others on project so they end up spending a lot of time doing it'll themselves a zoo a result of that they feel they never expressed themselves get somebody wasn't comfortable in that team environment that brings up another great point of micromanaging right and you can see this is a heaven on earth issue to when when the boss comes down to low in terms of like you know taking over and doing all the smaller projects that creates a tremendous amount of disharmony so that's an interesting thing of the notion of empowerment and you know giving people room to make mistakes and to learn and grow but also that they may have uh it's often the case I found the most companies said you know as you go into the middle and lower ranks that those people really know what's going on you know they know the actual operational thing so that's again having pulling too far away if heaven comes down too far into micro management the thing collapses and if heaven pulls too far away and doesn't really know where the paper clips are for example what they do you know then then you have another kind of disharmony I thought before we go on a little further there's some other sort of ideas that were goingto bring into this as we go along this group this group dynamic element of it that we could introduce this idea and tar meditation practice so there's something you may have noticed by now about meditation who is meditating me? No, but me meaning oneself right it's it's a solitary practice even though you're doing it in the group you're sort of working on your own internal process your breath, your thoughts so where does that practice meet this interpersonal area that we're talking about and in the buddhist tradition there's a tremendous segway of beginning to take the practice into the arena of working with others and it's technically called the mariano the big vision stuff you know and you're very sense of your meditation practice is how well you work with others, which is interesting interesting point ah lot of people go well, I'm not interested in that that's not spiritually, but we think there's another step up in the spiritual growth department where you're very sense of your own well being is connected with the well being of others in facts called interdependence interdependence. Um my son ethan has a group in new york all the interdependence project and interdependence project dot or give if those of you out there want to check it out and um the idea is that everything and actually has a book which I'm going to recommend called a declaration one city the declaration of interdependence ethan nick turn and uh if you start to look at the interface between us and others, you realize that it's ongoing uh irreversible there is no actually place where we begin and end and somebody else begins and ends so you just look at the clothing your wearing and all the people for example that were involved in making that clothing you look you think about the food that we just ate and everything that went into everybody's efforts that went into creating that but where's that food now you dumped it into garbage cans right somebody's coming and taking those garbage cans and then taking them to the dump or to the recycled area that that that compost that we put into the bin is laid out on the ground and then insects are eating that compost and creating a kind of fertility from it and then we use that too teo fertilize the next year's crops right and so there's this ongoing cycle we think just well I just had my meal but actually wasn't your meal and actually it was a long interdependent production off all these different beings including animals beings off creating this sort of chain of activity so our notion of being isolated individuals is actually not accurate and that's another way of understanding eagle is nece uh eagle listens and interdependence are sort of the same two ways of saying the same thing we don't exist as isolated, self contained individual uh, containers at all, even if we're entrepreneurs and we have a big sense of meaning me, I do this and look at me. Everything we're doing is, you know, you're on the internet doing your thing. How did that get there? You know, who's, who's operating, who do you call when your internet goes down? You know, so we're in a long, long chain of if you want to get completely crazy about it, even your body is about twenty percent other beings could you know that little micro organisms organisms with their own consciousness, you're just the ceo of a corporation that you think is the kind of unified entity? So this idea of us loosening up our notion of self, you know, of self importance, and then bringing that into the that's, what spiritually practices you're supposed to loosen up your sense of self importance, and not in a realistic way, you know, not by lowering your sense of self importance, but by recognizing the porousness of it in the first place, and the fact that everything we do is always influencing other people andare environment, and this view, you see, will take us to a different kind of relationship to environment, it'll take us to a different relation to other people, and, you know, it is essentially a spiritual view if you want to look at it that way but it's it's really it's not we're not talking about something that's a sort of fantasy uh where did you get your scarf? Uh my stepmom gave me a sign yeah it's got a big image prince john so it's an artist made of they think and is it silk yeah so how did the silk coming to me why me? So worms like worms yeah yeah so you know, somebody else might look at those worms and go what we could school we should squish them you know, um you know, a lot of our a lot of our toys gadgets, devices come from china right? Is that true? You know, any people in china? One point two billion people were into pet dependent with them if we look at those people you know, and just on ly see the kind of dualistic dimension of our relationship with people, the whole thing starts to collapse in on itself and wall we're left with is a very brittle sense of self existence, you know? So this idea of in business of reckoning using is a forum and using the families a form to recognize interdependence is, um is something that we're going to look at here for a minute um and key point is what is it? What isn't independence not it's, not co dependence okay so that's when you have unhealthy dependence into independence you know and people you don't want to you don't want exert your individual strength ah in a situation so you want to borrow somebody else's you know and that's that's not healthy but interdependence is not only healthy it's wise and it's what it is already so the more we recognize that kind of the more healthy our organism becomes and our organization becomes our society becomes of course there's a lot of this is summing up a lot of what people are working on these days to bring some kind of sanity back into organizational life uh and societal life and it's not really possible to undertake one zone liberation without taking this into account or even one's own prosperity you know? So that's that's kind of something I thought we could do a little guided meditation in relation to that and uh thinking about the well being of others so sometimes we meditate we think about our own well being right? So this meditation is going to just take us a little bit out of that or but we'll start there because if we're not grounded in sort of president it's going to very hard to work in the same way for the benefit of others so we start by taking a seat this could be a great way to start a business day get everybody together for five minutes and has always when we do a meditation practice first thing to do is check our posture our relationship to our body come fully into your body you know you could do a little body scan and feel your shoulders and make sure you have a good connection with your seed and the cushion or their chair firm connection between your feet on the ground if you're sitting on the chair really feel the element of earth how strong it is how much support there is for us and then elongating the spine so that we have a nice upright posture without being too tight or too tense and again moving into the realm of the sense perceptions just to soften your focus but stay awake and aware of your environment so we have a soft downward gaze with the eyes lacks case yes we do this we're becoming more and more present simply aware of where we are how we feel right now and having established our seat in this way it's okay to feel kind of rich and good in your body healthy strong if you have little aches and pains or things you're working with or cold or whatever you can just include those feelings too just allow your breath to flow naturally then begin to bring your attention to the feeling of the breath going through you would be simply aware of your breathing and as your mind wanders away which it inevitably will don't panic, don't follow it on, don't lead it so we're not trying to manipulate that thinking mind we also don't have to follow it out of the room, but when we notice that were lost in thought, just labeled thinking and bring your awareness back to the breathing have a sense of just letting all the storylines go for the moment they'll be back just let him go for right now feel the breath going in and out of the tip of your nose well, you can feel your stomach rising and falling with the breath you can feel the full cycle of breath going about your body. I have a feeling off being alive, healthy, strong content and continue to bring your awareness back to your breathing. When you notice that it's gone in that space, use your imagination and bring into your mind uh a person who's close to you too, with whom you do feel interdependent and connected could be your parents or your kids or your brothers or sisters or good friend or a mentor teacher pet? Bring that president your mind, let them sort of cohabitate the space with you, take a moment and choose somebody and notice the feeling in the heart center has you feel their presence with you there's a softening on opening as you expand your world to include them, and that presents simply send them the wish may you be happy may you be happy taking somebody you love and wishing making a wish for their happiness and thinking about it any way you could contribute to that and would that make you happy too? So at this point your practices center in your heart area actually being brave by willing to feel what you feel could be somebody at work on your comrades and you actually letting yourself wish for their happiness if it makes you sad that's okay we're letting somebody touch our heart wait that that person dissolve and come back to the awareness of the breath that feeling is still there but now there's no particular imagination or object we just are there with ourselves breathing and now we could think of somebody else maybe we could stay inside the workplace for now let's stay inside our work situation somebody we work with every day but we don't know them so well maybe we haven't really got to know them yet seen them across the cafeteria not really aware of their life story qualities but there's a feeling there and even though we don't know them that well we're sending them the wish may you be happy maybe happy really coming from the heart imagine that person to be present may be happy and then allowing that person to dissolve for a moment we always come back to have had a feeling of just purely being present with our breath very relaxed and now we're bringing to mind somebody who has been a little naughty lately irritating person maybe they're too loud too pushy maybe they're gunning for our spot maybe we think they are maybe they're always making our work more difficult and allow that person to come into your mind is that they're sitting right in front of you two and look at them look at that person look at them in the eyes and we could also send them the same wish may you be happy if your mind wanders tried to bring it back right now to that person maybe it's a little bit challenging to wish happiness for that person maybe if the consider the ramifications of that but try to keep your energy centered in your heart that is a human being may be happy and then finally we can just let that go handra return to the awareness of the breath breathing in and breathing out then finally imagine everybody all the people that you're working with there now beyond that all of their family is your family the community home city of san francisco whole state of california countless beings that you are interdependent with definitely including animals very interdependent with the animal kingdom extending that out like rays of light coming out of your heart so far as you can go whole united states canada south america the world has a lot of strife right now, all because of our interdependence of economic ties with people, emotional ties, wei have disputes, all interconnected, all those beings around the world. The those you consider to be your friends, those your neutral, too. And those who think of us currently think of is your enemies may be happy and recognizing the connection we have to hold. Ah, heart space, that's open, not naive, including all of the challenges, all the conflicts. Still, with sending on a wish for all beings to be happy. Focus as you can, as much from the hard as you can, and then gradually, just begin to return to an awareness of your breathing.