meetings

Gestures Influence Invisible Infrastructures*

“Invisible infrastructures” include our states of mind, emotions and physiology. They are parts of our infrastructure in that they are components of interrelated systems that are essential to our living and interacting. Like the infrastructure of the United States, it usually receives little attention, especially in meetings. When we lose track of our infrastructures—proliferating thoughts, fluctuating emotions, and varying physical sensations—we can unconsciously influence a meeting for good or ill. In addition to the practices … Read more…

Invisible Infrastructures in our Interactions

“Infrastructure” usually refers to the physical components—structures, systems, and facilities—needed to operate an enterprise or sustain a society, for example, buildings, bridges, roads, water supply, sewers and electrical grids. Interactions—or meetings—need their own infrastructure to operate successfully. Some of the components for interactions are as tangible as buildings and bridges, for example the people and the place you meet or the telecommunication system through which people will interact. Developing the less tangible elements is just … Read more…

Well-Being in Meetings #4: Generosity

Generosity turns out to be its own reward. According to neuroscientist Richie Davidson, “There are now a plethora of data showing that when we individuals engage in generous and altruistic behaviors, they actually activate circuits in the brain that are key to fostering well-being.”         Generosity is one of the four building blocks of well-being identified by Davidson. The other three ingredients are resilience, outlook, and attention. They were the focus of the last three … Read more…

Well-Being in Meetings #3: Attention

Years ago a colleague remarked, “Attention is a limited resource.” Although I agreed with her at the time, I could not have appreciated then the deeper truth of her words because 25 years ago we did not know much about how attention worked in the brain. We now know that focusing attention and inhibiting or avoiding distractions uses lots of energy in the very part of the brain that plays an important role in paying … Read more…

Well-Being in Meetings #2: Outlook

According to neuroscientist Richie Davidson the four factors or ingredients of well-being are resilience, outlook, attention, and generosity. Last week we investigated resilience. This week let’s look at outlook and its role in meetings. Outlook refers to our customary point of view or frame of mind. Do you maintain a high level of interest and engagement even when things don’t go your way? Are you able to appreciate and even dwell on positive experiences? Do … Read more…

Well-Being in Meetings #1: Resilience

Based on extensive research, neuroscientist Richie Davidson identified four constituents of well-being during a recent talk at the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley: resilience, outlook, attention, and generosity. Davidson, in addition to being one of my favorite neuroscientists, is the founder of the Center for Healthy Minds at University of Wisconsin-Madison where he and his colleagues are identifying the biological and behavioral underpinnings of well-being. In this and the next three posts, I … Read more…

Last of the Human Freedoms

Vicktor E. Frankl’s words bring to mind a traditional Buddhist story captured by Christina Feldman and Jack Kornfield. “Buddha tells a parable about a man traveling across a field who encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, … Read more…

Karmic Conversation

When I feel tired, scared, angry, or even joyful, it is easy to forget that what I say and how I say it affects others. Everything any of us says and does has consequences. It is instant karma. Not in the Hindu or Buddhist sense that actions in current and past lives decide our fate in future existences but now, in this moment and the next. All we have control over is what we say … Read more…

Pygmalion Effect

People’s beliefs about us influence how we behave. This is known as the Pygmalion Effect, after George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion (1916). In it, Professor Higgins transforms a Cockney flower seller, Eliza Doolittle, into someone who passes for a duchess. As Shaw has Higgins express it, “The great secret, Eliza, is not having bad manners or good manners or any other particular sort of manners, but having the same manner for all human souls: in … Read more…

A Chance to Change

If you could change one thing about meetings at work or in your community, what would you change? If you could change one thing about the way you interact with others, what would you change? I’d like people to listen more attentively so they could understand one another better. And I’d like to be less impatient with and critical of people who tend to talk over others. Here’s the good news: we can change both … Read more…