The whole and its parts

The whole & its parts

Beginnings and Endings

Humans are used to things having a beginning and an end. However, they may not always make themselves aware of them.

That is especially true when there is something they like or want to achieve. And it is as true, whenever there is something they don’t like or fear. Said differently, when people become attached to a state or a result they forget that things come and go. Once they have become attached to it, it is as if the thing that is dreaded has become stable and what is hoped for has become unstable.

Take for example discomfort. It appears and it goes away. It has a beginning and an end.

But once it appears, people want to make it go away, not noticing that the simple act of resisting it, gives it more strength inviting it to stay for longer.

While working with a team recently, my task consisted in helping them sense how safe they felt together. It also consisted in assisting them as they stepped into discomfort to share their perception and objective with the other team members. Which meant to make them aware of the discomfort.

At other times, when their sharing had released the group’s discomfort, my task was to help them see that the discomfort had disappeared. Which meant highlighting how at ease the group felt again.

After the beginning, there had been an end.

It became clear to the team that they most probably would even have forgotten the presence of any discomfort the next day. What would stay with them was that they had enhanced their ability to work together.

The team had been reluctant to step into discomfort as they enjoy their constructive and joyful atmosphere. Now they had learned that by practicing stepping into discomfort early enough and with their ability to listen to one another they would quickly forget that discomfort even had been present in their exchange.

 

 

 

Share this post:

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *