A few days ago, I shared more on the Quadrants from Integral Theory: 4 dimensions of life that exist in every circumstance and situation. If you have missed the post but would like to take a look, please, check my previous article. Using Quadrants from Integral Theory to broaden your perspective.

Today, I offer you to play with it and indeed map it to another concept that I love: Non Violent Communication (NVC) - a way to communicate with the other person and with yourself in a way that leads to connection as opposed to disconnection.

NVC consists of 4 steps:

1. Observations

2. Feelings

3. Needs

4. Requests

and they can all be mapped to the quadrants (see diagram).

This is also why,

Conflict always happens on the level of strategies, in the context of NVC, Non-Violent Communication.

What is a strategy according to NVC?

• A specific action that is taken to fulfil one`s need

• Is attached to a particular person or activity: I would like to do a specific thing with a specific person.

What helps me to manage tensions or resolve conflict is simply mapping what are my feelings and needs right now, guessing or checking with the other person, what are theirs and exploring the options to find a common strategy that will meet both our needs.

Let`s say,

How often have you been in the same situation with other people and yet it seems that you have a very different experience than them? 

Yes, people are somewhat wired in a different way and have different perspectives. 

A simple model to illustrate that are the 4 quadrants of Integral Theory. These are 4 dimensions of life that exist in every circumstance and situation:

• The “I” -  How I personally see & feel about something

• The “WE” - How I and others see that same thing

• The “IT”: The objective facts about something

• The “ITS”: The systemic view and processes

Let`s take a work meeting, for example.

“Reinventing Organisations” is indeed what it says on the front cover of this book:

• A game changer

• A guide to creating organisations inspired by the Next Stage of Human Consciousness

I got inspired by the upcoming 10 year anniversary of the book to write about my story on how this book has influenced me over the years.

The book is a massive source of knowledge including:

• inspirations from different theories and so many other books;

• real organisational examples of how organisations can be managed in a successful, conscious and evolutionary way;

• tons of best practices.

What happened after I have read this book:

I had the pleasure of attending a great talk by Debbie Ison from Tranquil Awakenings during the Newark Wellbeing Show last weekend.

I often hear people referring to NVC as Nonverbal Communication.
That's the issue sometimes with using abbreviations, you see...

⚠️ Nonviolent communication, aka NVC, was developed starting in the early 60s by the American psychologist and mediator Marshall Rosenberg. It is a powerful 4-step communication framework that helps people to connect with themselves and others through empathy.

⚠️ Nonverbal communication is the process of conveying information without using spoken words: e.g. body language, facial expressions, eye contact.

Both terms are related to communication and although they are different concepts, there is a relation between them.

🍃 Going through some sort of transformation:

🍃 Acquiring new skills

🍃 Developing new capabilities

can be a real shock for our system even if we deeply desire this change. 

I see this every day with my coaching clients and with myself.

I would like to share something very personal and close to my heart with you today which is what's behind the “Firefly” logo of Mander Coaching.

I guess the story starts with a beautiful memory of mine when I must have been 5. I am on a summer holiday with my granny and grandpa in a resort not far from my home time called: Stara Zagora Mineral Waters. It's very warm and yet not too hot as it`s about 8 o'clock in the evening. We are in a park and it's dusk. Suddenly, I see a sight that I will never forget.

I bet you have heard this quote before: “Change is the only constant in life” ~Heraclitus

What do you think about it? Do you agree/ disagree with it?

Looking into my life, I can definitely relate 100%.

There was always something happening: adapt to a kindergarten, adapt to a primary school, a secondary school, uni, a new job, another new job, different people, different countries, the loss of a loved one, the birth of a loved one, new relationships, loss of contact, re-gaining contact etc.

Everything around me is also changing:

• The most natural

Recently I spent some time elaborating on the importance of proactively and continuously aligning the purpose, vision and strategy of an organisation to the choices we make on what we do and the goals we set for ourselves on every level of the organisation. People naturally would like to contribute to something bigger. Relating what they do with the mission of the organisation creates an environment of involvement and collaboration.

Another equally powerful aspect besides the relatedness to the purpose, vision and strategy for employee engagement and retention are the values of an organisation and to what extent the values that live and motivate an organisation meet with our own values: what is important for me, what is important for my team, for my organisation, for society?

Values are an integral part of our company culture and if you would like to start shaping the identity of an organisation, you need to shape its values. Is what you do in line with the company values

After writing about ways to come up with a company vision and strategy, giving 5 simple steps to execute your company strategy and sharing a model that enables your successful strategy execution called Obeya, next stop is reiterating on the principle of Continuous Improvement as a mindset. 

If you are lucky, there will be some structures and practices in your organisation and you will have a great strategy, you will be writing your Objectives and Key Results every three to six months, maybe you will even have an Obeya. In that sense, the Continuous Improvement cycle will be integrated in your way of working as well. At the same time if you are not in a position to have those, to the very minimum make sure that you stop and reflect at the end of each quarter. You can do that on any level: gather your

How does something come to life? “Seeing is believing”. If you can see it, you will believe it. You have proof, you can talk about it etc. 

Following my previous article about 5 simple steps that will help you to successfully execute your company strategy, I would like to focus today on one in particular that is a game changer for your Strategy Execution. It is called Obeya: from Japanese, “large room”, which is a visual management instrument, leveraging on transparency and collaboration, that connects strategy to execution. By entering in a physical Obeya space or a virtual Obeya Whiteboard, you can immediately see a 360 degree overview of the current strategy of an organisation, understand immediately where they stand and what is the direction they are heading towards.

Many companies that have implemented the Obeya concept share that this results not only in successful strategy execution and engagement across different levels but also in

Two days ago, I wrote an article which gives ideas on how to start to collaboratively draft/ review your company mission, vision and strategy. I also shared thoughts from my experience on the benefits of relating regularly to the company mission, vision and strategy. Scroll down to the bottom right in case you have missed How far you can see = How far you can get.

The focus of today's article is how you can actually translate this strategy from paper to execution in a way that supports the success of your business. Let's assume that you have already made some great work on identifying your mission, vision and strategy. How do you further align your strategic goals with the daily activities of every employee? This is one of the most critical leadership skills, if you ask me, and is key for any organisation to thrive as opposed to trying to survive. Here are 5 steps made simple which will help you do

that:

1. Visualise and communicate your

How much do your employees relate to the vision and the strategy of your organisation? If I stop them in the hallway, do you think they will be able to share what your company mission is and how they contribute to its success? If the answer is “No” or “I am not too sure”, keep reading.

I don`t know about you but for me, as a purpose driven individual, it is essential when joining a new organisation to check the purpose, vision and mission of that organisation and find as much information before I make my decision and sign the new contract.

A transparent and clear communication on the company mission, vision and strategy will result in:

1. Attracting the best talent

2. Motivating your employees to fully engage in what they do and give their absolute best for the company success

If you are a new business,

Earlier, this year, I wrote an article about Purpose: what is it and how it supports you to have a life full of meaning and fulfilment. If you have missed it, have a read: https://www.mandercoaching.co.uk/blog-3-1/purpose-to-be-or-not-to-be.

In today's article, I look at how we can align the individual, team and organisational purpose together so that individuals, teams and businesses can thrive.

Individual:

I take as a prerequisite that you already have done some purpose work and you have clarity on what is deeply meaningful to you, you know what motivates you, gives you energy, excites you and in what way you would like to contribute to this world. If you did - amazing! Don`t you just love the clarity that comes with it? Your work does not stop there though…What could you do further to make sure that you will align your personal and professional life to it?

When I was a child, I spent a lot of time reading, learning loads of different things, trying to know everything. Needless to say, I was quite introverted and in my own world which was not a bad place to be to be honest 🙂. And then, as part of growing up and as part of being exposed to socialising more and more, the following realisation hit me one day as I was passing by my school when I was probably around 14 years old: “Well, I can certainly learn a lot but it is impossible to learn absolutely everything. I learn so much from people as well and they can learn so much from me!”  

I guess this is one of the things I really love about working with/in a team: that we can all learn and grow together.

What`s first: the chicken or the egg? This expression always pops up in my head when I am with teams and leadership teams who are about to plan next quarter and someone asks: shouldn't we do our planning first and then decide on our objectives?

For me the main question worth exploring is: “Are our objectives and planning connected to our strategy and vision and will they help us make a difference?”

I love the cycles of nature, the seasons, the quarters. It naturally reminds me that nature is changing, that it is time to reflect on how the previous season was and to adapt to the new one, make some short-term plans for this season and balance between the known and unknown and align my actions to my purpose and dreams more in the medium and long term.

With businesses, it is similar.

I can bet money that at least once a month you are in a meeting and you actually want to tear your hair out. You wonder: what am I actually doing here. This article will provide you with tips on what to do to prevent you from being somewhere where it is not needed and also help those who are running meetings to take into consideration a couple of simple but crucial points so that they can facilitate effective and efficient meetings.

Tips for facilitators

Before:

• Ask yourself: do we really need this meeting and if not, can it be an email, a group Slack message or a quick phone call

• Schedule the meeting preferably well in advance in the calendars of the participants clarifying the purpose and the desired outcome. Closer to the event, you may want to add more details and agenda

• Consider who needs to be involved: are all 10 people who

Have you been in a situation where you are in a great team who has established a regular continuous improvement process, you get the benefits out of it by trying out small improvements frequently and at some point you are out of ideas? If you are in such a team, celebrate and share your success stories to inspire others.

As a facilitator and a coach, I have experienced such teams and also some that are not in that stage of high-performance yet and at the same time, they also feel stuck as it is still very difficult for them to come up with new ideas on what to improve on regular basis. Let's face it, it is not always easy to think continually of how you can become better and better individually or as a team. Maybe sometimes enough is more than good enough as well…

If teams are short of ideas, I would recommend

Retrospection, or the act of recalling things in the past can be such a powerful experience when done regularly. You get to reflect on different aspects, taking a step back, acknowledging all the great things that have happened, noting lessons learnt and taking preventive or improvement action.

I personally love retrospection and am happily practicing it on a regular basis at work and in my life. I recall so many Fridays when I was in the train and scribbling thoughts: what went well this week, what I wish went differently and can I do something about it? This mindset helped me over and over again to try out different things, to learn and grow. Also, it really helped me to tame my inner critic and acknowledge all the great things that I am doing.

At work, as a team member, facilitator and coach, I have experienced many retrospectives on a regular or ad-hoc basis. Usually everyone