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PROBLEMATIC OC/CO PREFERNCES ___________________________ ____ _______________________ ___________________________ ____ _______________________ ___________________________ ____ _______________________ ___________________________ ____ _______________________ ___________________________ ____ _______________________ If you have a large group, you will need a big "Post It" tablet to put up on the wall. If this is a small group, you will be able to work from your individual pages. Choose only one area to work on at a time. Write as much as you can think of, within the space of a few minutes. Then let one person write on the tablet everything that the team feels is currently problematic or impossible to deal with. Larger groups will pick one area for the entire group to write on:
Small groups will write about whatever is currently problematic or appears to be impossible in a specific area you want to work on:
Perceptions There may be people in your group who are very concerned about being too negative. The most harmful energy that runs amok is the energy of what remains unspoken or gossiped about near the water cooler or lunch room. People who have a negative point of view simply have a perception that has not had the opportunity to be looked at and examined. We are so busy pushing negative people and their energy away, i.e., a negative response, that we miss the mark on what's trying to happen here. Until we look at it the problem area, we cannot decide differently. Most importantly, we are not doing anything different about it! We are not approaching the problem from a different perspective. So, undercurrents continue to be undercurrents. Resentments and fearful, skewed perceptions remain fearful and skewed undercurrents which then remain buried and therefore, continue to be problematic. You want to transform the energy of a group and you do this by getting it up and out on paper. Why paper? Because paper is non-resistant. It's just paper. And now, they are just words about problematic areas that need creative solutions. Who Is in Control? Once your team has been purged of all the negatives and problematic areas of concern, members will then decide whether or not each item listed is in Our Control (OC) or in the Control of Others (CO). On the tablet, beside each problematic area of concern write either OC "our control" or CO "control of others." Now, just so you know ahead of time, there won't be one item on the tablet that is not in your control - OC - whether you all want to admit it or not. Your group may struggle with this ...and this is a good thing. Why? Because it's a powerful (real time) illustration of just how powerless you, as a group, think you are! Check Your Energy Levels Stop for one moment and ask the group members to check in with their energy levels. Do they feel tired, irritable, depressed, overwhelmed and / or angry? Because we tend to collapse into powerlessness at the mere realization of all the weight of all the problems we are carrying around, our energy tends to be very low at this point. It's how we collapse energetically. So our physical awareness of energy is very important in letting us know how we are thinking and perceiving any problematic area of our lives. Chances are, we are not thinking: Great! Another Thrilling Opportunity to create something Wonderful! No... that's not what most of us were taught to think first! Yet therein lies the jump-start, energy-boosting answer to all that we will need to solve these challenges. Thinking where we've been thinking, keeps us in a state of powerlessness. Jump-starting our thinking with the next phase of this group exercise is where the fun begins! There is simply a creative solution waiting to be found. Now Focus on Preferences Next, rip the Post-It sheet off the tablet and put it up on a wall nearby where you can refer to it. Now begin focusing on preferences. That's right, you read it right. Preferences. If you really want to unlock the door on creativity, start talking about preferences. We're afraid to do this because if there have been new guidelines passed down from the higher-ups in a business / corporation, what happens if our preference is that the new guideline be changed back to the way it was? Well now, that creates an interesting mental dilemma. This is exactly what we want! For this is when the mind starts charting new neurological pathways which ultimately lead to new creative solutions. This, again, proves to us that we give our power away based on our beliefs about authority figures, whether that figure is our boss, a doctor, the government or even the IRS: whomever we give away our power to. We collapse quickly when we think we are less than the situation requires. If you will just stay with this part of the process, again putting every preference on the tablet, ultimately it will lead you to some extremely valuable realizations. What I've seen happen, 100% of the time, when a MasterMind team stays with this phase of the process, is that their preferences take them to amazing new ideas and innovative solutions. Releasing A Pressure Valve You will find that putting all of the negatives, problematic areas and impossible situations on the tablet first is like releasing a pressure valve. Team members will realize how de-energizing it has been to hold in all of those valid concerns and feelings of powerlessness. When you start down the path of answering whether or not something is truly in your control, you will find that every member of your team begins to experience a renewal of power. And when you rip the sheet off the tablet, set it aside, and focus on preferences, you will find your team becoming cohesive and synergistic. Large teams, small groups and one-on-ones alike will experience the same renewal of their minds and their power.
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Mary Robinson Reynolds, M.S., Educational Psychologist, Author and Producer of the world renowned Internet videos,