FRESH VIEWS
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FRESH VIEWS MINI E-ZINE

Published monthly by Sharon Eakes, Hope Unlimited, LLC
********************************************************** FOCUS: Go to the balcony
Disciplines: Personal mastery, Mental Models, Systems thinking

"Go to the balcony."
William Ury
THOUGHTS:

Going to the balcony is a way to collect your wits in the midst of conflict, to distance yourself from your natural impulses and emotions, according to William Ury. If you mentally go to the balcony....actually picture yourself walking up the steps to a balcony..... and look down on the stage of any troublesome situation, you see a bigger picture. Musashi, the great samurai, called this "a distanced view of close things."

When you're looking down from the balcony, you can often get above the emotions of the moment and see the relatedness of the parts, including you! When you're looking at the big picture, it is clearer that when something changes in one part of the picture, it affects the other parts. When you take the long view, you see patterns and natural cycles in behavior over time.

Going to the balcony can:
* Buy time
* Allow you to see the bigger system, or systems within systems
* Help you consider both intended and unintended consequences of any action you may take

Going to the balcony is valuable for individuals, families, organizations, companies and nations.

COACHING TIP:

Get in the habit of going to the balcony to help understand and resolve sticky issues. It is a metaphorical way to expand your perspective, literally.

Read William Ury's book, GETTING PAST NO, Negotiating Your Way from Confrontation To Cooperation.

INVITATION
Please join me for a 45-minute telegathering to talk in more depth about going to the balcony, when to do it, how to do it, why to do it. Call Friday, March 28 at 12 noon EST (11:00 a.m. CST, 10:00 a.m. MT, 9:00 a.m. PST)
(1-858-300-3030, Access code: 720720#). No need to register....just call at that time!) Reach me: 1-888-769-3494 or e-mail sharon@hopellc.com I am a personal and professional coach and would be happy to offer you a complimentary coaching session by phone.

Each month FRESH VIEWS focuses on a single topic, relates it to one of the five disciplines of a learning community, and offers a coaching tip and a follow-up telegathering. Please forward it to friends and colleagues. My purpose in writing FRESH VIEWS is to nurture, prod and encourage readers to think and talk about these topics with their families, friends and colleagues. Mine is only one view. Multiple conversations may deliver us to insights only hinted at here. Such a process sustains the vitality of learning relationships, learning families, learning organizations and learning communities.


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