Soft Feelings

Soft Feelings

Nov 11, 2022 | Spoken Poetry

Soft Feelings

by Robert Levey

Soft feelings are hard to let go,
especially when they bleed
into dreams
and streams
of consciousness
that meander and flow
into places I do not understand
or know.

Broken people made whole
inside the hole
within the sphere of the heart
of the soul
and liquid dreams,
streams
of tears,
cascading fears,
the undulating,
rapturous years
bent around
a tree
and its roots,
offshoots
of self
and sky
and earth,
the branches of time,
the hidden,
unforeseen,
the sublime,
the hands of time…

…constructs of mind,
the lost,
the blind,
the dreams of humankind
held inside the womb
of space and time,
floating free
within a revery
of a man who asks himself,
to be or not to be
and how it came to be,
and the feeling lingers,
rests on his fingers
and fills the hole
in his crimson heart…

About Spaciology

Spaciology is not abstract theory; rather, it is a practice you can feel.

  • Inside: Pause, breathe, notice.
  • Outside: Design rooms, rituals, and agendas that slow the spin and invite care.
  • Between us: Make dialogue a place where different truths can live together long enough to teach something.

Ultimately, leadership is the art of making space for what’s important (for everyone) and letting that clarity shape the next step. When we change the spaces from which we lead, our strategies change with them.

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Motivation

Motivation

Jul 18, 2021 | Leading Change

We have all heard it. “If I were you, I would…“

Is such a statement meant to motivate, or is it instead a strategy by which we assert our position in life? Is it motivation at all?

What is our positionality? Positionality is the idea that one’s personal values, views, and location in time and space influence how one understands the world.

In the context of motivation in an organizational setting, one way to think about ‘the other’ is to simultaneously recognize and balance the idea that he, she, them possess as much reality and/or validity as you. ‘They’ are you insofar as they are nothing other than themselves, which is an ontological idea with a specific, although loose, claim on the nature of existence.

What is ontology?  One of the longest standing ontological questions in philosophy concerns the existence, or not, of God or some sense of a higher being.

This seems abstract except when we frame this concept within our social, shared reality. Does reality exist independently from an observer, or is it something to be negotiated with others?

How we answer the above question is important, because it will inform how we think we should motivate those around us. If we believe there is an objective reality, we may not feel we need to understand another’ s positionality in order to advise them. If, on the other hand, we believe reality is a construct, one created with others, our belief in our ability to motivate others will be shaped by whether we think we understand their position in life.

The extent to which we feel the need to understand others is a reflection of a worldview, one that informs behaviors. Our worldview is often hidden from us. We often react, act, make statements, and conduct our affairs as if there is a bottom line that supports our rationale.

When we seek to motivate others in the workplace, it may behoove us to consider what it is we think we know and feel before we lay claim to what is needed to perform in a particular role.

“If I were you” could be reframed into something like, “I’m not you, but here is what has worked for me. Would you like to hear my view?”

There is a direct correlation between the effort we can make to consider the thoughts and feelings of others and what we receive in return. Is that statement a fact, or just the opinion of the writer? Does the writer believe what he/she/them writes?

What is their motivation? What is yours?

About Spaciology

Spaciology is not abstract theory; rather, it is a practice you can feel.

  • Inside: Pause, breathe, notice.
  • Outside: Design rooms, rituals, and agendas that slow the spin and invite care.
  • Between us: Make dialogue a place where different truths can live together long enough to teach something.

Ultimately, leadership is the art of making space for what’s important (for everyone) and letting that clarity shape the next step. When we change the spaces from which we lead, our strategies change with them.

Spaciology Learning Commons

Want to go further? Join the Spaciology Learning Commons.

Membership gives you free access to community conversations, courses, introductory resources, and the complete Field Guide.

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Objectives

Objectives

Jun 29, 2021 | Uncategorized

Interpretation, though, can be dangerous, in business. Isn’t this why managers seek to control the variables in any equation?

Without measurable objectives, our staff may end up achieving any number of goals, none of which, however, may be the ‘right’ one. Perhaps, though, there is a way to reframe such discussions about objectives.

Is an objective a truth, or is it relative to the understanding or perspective of the individual (manager) who has conceived it? The very word, objective, implies something truthful. What if we hit all our objectives along the way toward a goal? What if we achieve our goal only to discover that what we envisioned as success does not work?

Whereas it may be easier to dictate the objectives to others, such a rationale reinforces the limited ways of thinking that plague not just business, but thinking in general.

When managers hatch their proverbial plans, there is an underlying assumption that the goals and objectives therein defined are somehow true. More than that, these goals and objectives are viewed as (the) truth.

Is there such a thing as truth? Perhaps a better question is whether there can be more than one truth at one time.

One possible answer to this question could be found in the perspectivist view of science, which Alrøe H. F. & Noe E. (2014) indicate implies there are many scientific truths about any complex problem. The question for them is not how to select the correct one, but how to appreciate and use what Longino says is “the nonunifiable plurality of partial knowledges” (2006).

The next time you enter a meeting — virtual or in-person — pay close attention if the conversation veers toward the predictable ‘goals and objectives.’

About Spaciology

Spaciology is not abstract theory; rather, it is a practice you can feel.

  • Inside: Pause, breathe, notice.
  • Outside: Design rooms, rituals, and agendas that slow the spin and invite care.
  • Between us: Make dialogue a place where different truths can live together long enough to teach something.

Ultimately, leadership is the art of making space for what’s important (for everyone) and letting that clarity shape the next step. When we change the spaces from which we lead, our strategies change with them.

Spaciology Learning Commons

Want to go further? Join the Spaciology Learning Commons.

Membership gives you free access to community conversations, courses, introductory resources, and the complete Field Guide.

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Love(s)

Love(s)

May 29, 2021 | Big Questions

Love is something we discuss with others (or at least should). We point to it, demand and laud it. But what is it? Are all loves the same? When we teach our kids about love, we explain it in a way that encourages them to think on it as if it were a timeless sort of thing. It is exists as some sort of truth, as if any deviation from it represents a failure on their respective part. What if love is a construct? What if how we experience love results from cultural constructs that reinforce a worldview, a theory about human life? What if love is not a definitive thing at all, but rather itself a theory that frames our experience in a way that allows us to try and make sense of it? Are all loves the same? Do you love the same way now as you did 20 years ago? Is what you felt 20 years ago not love? In 20 years, what will you think about how you love now? Perhaps love is only defined in context and in relationship with others and, in turn, our very selves. Is love a verb? Is it a noun? Is it necessarily something we can satisfactorily describe in words to others? Is love the ability to answer the demands of others in the ways they say they need? What if we think their worldview is wrong? Is love the ability to do for others in the way they need even if it contradicts our own views? Is that love, or is that disturbing? Is your version of love better than mine? Can we both be correct? Do we love the same way and for the same reasons in all circumstances? Which kinds of loves matter? What if they all matter? Do all loves ask us to do the same thing(s). Love may indeed be real, but perhaps it exists in the plural, which may in fact call into question whether any of us exactly understand when another says, “I love you.”

About Spaciology

Spaciology is not abstract theory; rather, it is a practice you can feel.

  • Inside: Pause, breathe, notice.
  • Outside: Design rooms, rituals, and agendas that slow the spin and invite care.
  • Between us: Make dialogue a place where different truths can live together long enough to teach something.

Ultimately, leadership is the art of making space for what’s important (for everyone) and letting that clarity shape the next step. When we change the spaces from which we lead, our strategies change with them.

Spaciology Learning Commons

Want to go further? Join the Spaciology Learning Commons.

Membership gives you free access to community conversations, courses, introductory resources, and the complete Field Guide.

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Perspective

Perspective

Aug 15, 2020 | Leading Change

If we are to understand an organization, we must ask certain questions first, right?

What are your job descriptions? What is your employee retention rate? Do you offer benefits? Are you profitable? What is your mission?

These and so many other questions are most definitely important, but does it make sense to jump right into an analysis of an organization before, in fact, we take a step back?

We are talking about perspective, which we define here for our purposes as the ability to see something in its largest context.

What are you as an organization now? Where were you before? Where are you going? Is it working well? Are there problems and/or challenges you would like to overcome? What connects all staff with one another? What might be driving them apart?

This line of questioning entails that we observe as well as reflect on what we see and hear before we jump into the kinds of questions that have binary sets of answers. If A, then B. If not B, then A. It is more complicated than that, of course, but answers to questions like, “Do you have benefits?” are easily answerable.

To gain perspective, we need to go into the gray areas of an organization in order to uncover clues to the ‘how’ and/or ‘why.’

Perspective of an organization does not begin or end within its proverbial walls. Rather, we must also consider the actual lives of the people who work there.

Are they motivated? Is this their first job? Their last? Are they parents? Grandparents? 

The roles we play outside the office have a direct bearing on how we conduct our behavior within it. Whether our staff work within an actual office or virtually, organizations operate by unwritten rules of behavior.

“This is the way the handbook says things work, but this is how it really works,” an incoming new hire might hear from a well-intentioned supervisor. Is this something we really want to hear?

Perspective is the ability to see things from many angles. It seems like an art, but it is a science, one grounded in philosophic inquiry.

If we spend actual time each day thinking about the ‘how’ and the ‘why,’ there is a better chance we will gain insight not just into a business operation, but our very selves.

Ever work for a boss who was unable to offer you perspective? There may be nothing more uncomfortable in work, or personal, life for that matter than individuals unable to contextualize to any degree the behaviors around them…

About Spaciology

Spaciology is not abstract theory; rather, it is a practice you can feel.

  • Inside: Pause, breathe, notice.
  • Outside: Design rooms, rituals, and agendas that slow the spin and invite care.
  • Between us: Make dialogue a place where different truths can live together long enough to teach something.

Ultimately, leadership is the art of making space for what’s important (for everyone) and letting that clarity shape the next step. When we change the spaces from which we lead, our strategies change with them.

Spaciology Learning Commons

Want to go further? Join the Spaciology Learning Commons.

Membership gives you free access to community conversations, courses, introductory resources, and the complete Field Guide.

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Spaciology Learning Commons

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Membership gives you free access to community conversations, courses, introductory resources, and the complete Field Guide.

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