9Qs Resources for Q1

Temenos Vision 4126860 Session 7 As with the personal history map or Influence Map and Video: your Clean Slate Temenos-style maps. sharing your vision Introduction to map with others, ideally in a circle where each person pre- Session 7 sents their own vision map, creates a remarkably powerful context for deep insight, co-creation and collective intel- https://www. ligence. youtube.com/ As with the other maps, don’t worry if you don’t often draw watch?v=jQbHHBBzrx- pictures or if you don’t consider yourself good at drawing. o&index=7&list=PL-vE- Your images need only be shown to yourself and to peo- oc_0nuJjsvaDCVDx4u- ple you specifically invite and deeply trust to see them. It wPFyVcA6Syk is impossible to do this wrong. Give yourself time to create the map, perhaps 15 to 30 minutes. Give each person a good period, perhaps 20-40 minutes each, to present their map. If working with others, and also if working with yourself (as if you were an objective observer), listen deeply to what is said and pictured and the feelings, intuitions and embodied experiences behind the words. Share your insights and experience with other presenters, but resist trying to judge, evaluate, fix or ad- vise what others are sharing. Hold each other gently, lov- ingly, appreciatively. As a result of the dialogue and the insights of presenting and interacting with your trusted circle, what new things have you learned and decided about yourself, other peo- ple, and the forces acting on your life? What needs to hap- pen now? What will you do next? We invite you to save your map, and/or images of it, and record any insights, reflections and decisions in your jour-

1426807 Temenos Vision Session 7 Once you have made and presented your own vision map, if the dynamics of your group suggest it, you can make a collective vision map, reflecting a shared vision of the future as a co-creative weave of the visions of individual participants. Such a shared vision may be particularly appropriate if the group working together on Temenos also work together in day-to-day life, in which case this process may help them to attune their work to- gether, They may gain and share more insight into their sense of shared purpose, and may appreciate one another’s contributions and and unique gifts more. Physically work on drawing the map together, in real time. This team exercise can be a remarkably connecting and inspiring joint piece of work. You may choose to create a team vision even if the participants will not be working together in the future. The team vision will still reflect shared insights and new breakthroughs of understanding not seen individually, which each member can carry home with her. We strongly encourage you to keep your maps, individual and group, either physically or electronically, so that you return to them, reflect on them and compare them to maps you may make later. The Temenos journey, including this final visioning stage, is described powerfully and in more detail in the book Showing Up, by Olaf Lewitz and Christine Neidhardt (https://leanpub.com/showingup)

Inspirations from Agile 48 Session 8 At some point we may have a sense of a vision of the Video: future we want to create - in which case the next Introduction to question can be: “how do I make this vision come alive.” Session 8 The answer we are looking for might be some kind of strategy or plan (see also the Backbone below). If a vision is a long-range one, planning for it can seem https://www.youtube. daunting on one hand, and potentially time-consuming com/watch?v=w- on the other. We might ask ourselves how to plot out a 1W2M7M9-Gs&in- long-term future in great detail. dex=8&list=PL-vEo- One inspiration to help with this challenge, drawing on c_0nuJjsvaDCVDx4u- the Agile approach to software development (or to any wPFyVcA6Syk other kind of product or creative development) is as fol- lows. (See References for more information about Agile). Agile thinking’s precursors began recognising a few decades ago that planning large projects in excruciating detail for execution over several years was an ineffective way of working. Skilled practitioners in software development realised that, despite the hope of doing so, it is nearly impossible to forecast several years out what will actually be needed at that time in a dynamic strategic or operating environment. Equally, almost no one - not users, not designers - is very good at defining requirements for a major undertaking without seeing and working with the underlying product or output in practical use.

49 MIennsItpnalisrmpaoitridaoetnli:osinnfsrpsoirfmartoioAmngs AfirlogemilAegile Session 8 Video: Agile planning works by writing stories about the future, and then working in short bursts of activity iterative- Agile Product ly to bring small, usable parts of that future to life. We Ownership can then try these incremental “releases” out in the real in a Nutshell world. Each time part of the future is “made”, we have a chance to try it out and learn from our experience. As we https://www. learn, we create more and more of our future reality ... youtube.com/ and ... each time we move forward, we incorporate our watch?v=502ILHjX- growing knowledge and wisdom gained from using our 9EE&feature=youtu. prototypes in practice - including learning from mistakes be and failures as well as successes. The planning and exe- cution is dynamic and adaptive. Video: Accordingly, one way to create strategies and plans on the basis of visions of the future is to write the vision as a Laurie Young: kind of story about the future, and then to create “slices” What is Agile? of that future vision - small bits of the story - to bring to life early on, day by day, week by week, month by month. https://www. As you bring these parts of the future vision to life, you youtube.com/ can put them into practice and see how they perform. watch?v=PKDdbx- You can use your daily learning to make new decisions FzT-4&feature=you- about how the story of the future evolves, and to make tu.be new decisions about which parts of the future vision to build next. If some ideas are failures, we learn this fast and welcome the learning. We fail fast, and inexpensive- ly, in order to shape a more robust future.

Agile planning 50 Session 8 In your inspirational or purpose work, in this curriculum or elsewhere, provides you with a glimpse, or more than a glimpse, of a vision of the future, we invite you to write your vision as a story. It can be very short and sketchy at first. As much as possible, write the story in the present tense, and from the point of view of customers, users or beneficiaries (which may include yourself ) of the work or creative effort you have in mind. The story may have parts and sub-parts, for example parts of a business plan or dimensions of the inspirational star. You may want to create “swim lanes” or sections on a large piece of paper for each of the parts. You can hang the paper on the wall or lay it out on the floor. Write major elements of the story on large post-its or index cards and and place them (or stick them if on the wall) in the swim-lanes in their “right place”, reflecting what needs to be done chronologically, but also in the right spatial order to reflect importance. Notice any relationships that suggest themselves to you between key elements in the different swim-lanes. You may want to group activities in large buckets of time: this year, next year, or whatever is an appropriate scale for you. Don’t do this with a sense of rigid commit- ment, but rather in a spirit of play, experimentation and discovery.

51 ExAegrAciilsgeei:pleAlagPinlleanpninlnagninnging Session 8 We encourage you to keep the planning map you have created somewhere where you can go back to it, see it, develop it, play with it, change it. Don’t think of your future story as fixed: think of it as emerging and evolving, informed by what you are learning every day. For your near-term planning, choose some elements of the story (including each of its parts as appropriate) that you think you can complete in a period of a few weeks, perhaps one week to one month, whatever seems like the right interval for you. The Agile world has developed a bias for shorter planning cycles, to facilitate rapid learn- ing and adaptation. Whatever you choose for your own iteration cycle, be clear with yourself on its length. Break each story item down into actions or tasks you can do in less than a day, ideally in one sitting. Create a small card or a sticky note for each story item you have created in this way. Focus on delivering small but internally com- plete and usable parts of your long-term plan, or pro- totypes that allow you test parts of it in action, in each short-term planning period (sometimes called Sprints in the Agile world). Separately from your long-term planning document, make a large sheet with three columns: To do, In Progress, Done. Place your near-term planning cards all in the To Do column to start. As you start work on items, move their cards to the In Progress column. Try to work on only one In-Progress item at a time. As your items are completed, move them into the Done column.

Agile planning 52 Session 8 At the end of your personal iteration cycle, notice and reflet on what you have accomplished, and what not. What was good about this cycle’s work? What stood in your way? What have you learned for the next cycle? What have you learned about your larger, longer-term plan? Go back to it and make changes as needed. You may want to include significant others in this process to help you reflect and give you feedback. Start the itera- tion cycle again and repeat the process. This way of planning, working, delivering, reflecting, learning and adapting can be repeated over and over again indefinitely. It tends to make our long-term visions and plans living things, emerging daily, continuously informed and improved by daily learning.

53 ExPeerPcrisesoer:snPoaenlrsaolunStaohl biaeuilotdogbriaopgrhayphy* Bringing inspiration to life We invite you to write your personal autobiography, working in seven-year time bands. Seek to write each segment in no more than seventy words. If you are young enough to have only two or three seven-year seg- ments, you can work with these, or use three-and-a-half year time bands instead. Focus on the most emotionally important events in each time-band. What gifts did other people give you that shaped who you are? What challenges did you face, and how did you respond? What moments seem to illustrate you at your best? What things you have done that made you most proud? Alternatively, if there have been moments of particular pain, notice what these were, as inspirations for what would you like to do to create a world where these things would not happen again, to you or to others? Write your autobiography and keep it in a place where you can refer to it from time to time. What does your autobiography tell you about the person you are? About your strengths and achievements? About the person you want to become? * This exercise is inspired by the practice of the nowhere group, as described in their pulished works

Personal shield 54 Bringing inspiration to life Working from your personal autobiography, we invite you to make yourself a personal shield. You could use a round piece of cardboard or a round piece of wood as the background, or choose or make another shape that appeals to you. Divide the circle into as many sections as there are time-band segments in your autobiography. If you are young enough to have only a few segments, you might chose to use three-and-a-half year segments in the same way as in the autobiography. Choose one or two evocative symbols that capture the energetic essence of each time band and draw them onto the shield. What does looking at this shield tell you about your history? About the things that have been most important to you? About your greatest successes, accomplishments? About the things you love? About what has shaped you and your ambitions for the future? Share and describe your shield with others you trust. What does the telling of your story in this way contribute to your own understanding? * This exercise is inspired by the practice of the nowhere group, as described in their pulished works

55 Backbone Bringing inspiration to life We’ve been exploring ways to discover our personal sense of inspiration, and how these things can emerge from our history and current experience. We’ve also looked at some ways to crystallise our vision of the future. A natural question is how all these things can fit together. The leadership catalysts at the nowhere group have come up with a mental model we like a lot to connect these explorations together. They call it “The Backbone”: it is described on page 121 of both the “My” and the “Our” sections of their book, the Way of nowhere. Essentially, the approach calls for linking the elements we’ve been exploring in different ways in a relationship that builds up: from history, to what we stand for now, to our senses of purpose, values and inspiration. There is then a leap forward to a sense of vision, and then step- ping backward to fill in the details of a strategy: how to get there. The diagram on the facing page is a simplified version of the way nowhere draws this framework. Respecting their copyright, we won’t reproduce their beautiful and elegant diagrams here but we do highly recommend checking it out in The Way of nowhere book.

Vision 56 Strategy Linking history, present reality, purpose, values, inspiration to vision and strategy Purpose, values, Note inspiration The various elements support and underpin one another, like the What do I stand vertebrae in a backbone, hence the for now? name. The beauty of this conception is that it History can allow us to work from fundamental foundations to a sense of where we are going and to practical action steps to get there, all in a connected way, one we can visualise and occupy spatially.

57 ExWerWcoisroekr:ikWnigonrgkwinwigthiwthitthhtehthebeabbcaackckbkboobnnoeene Bringing inspiration to life If you have done some work in this curriculum on some or all of your past, present, inspiration, and future vision, you may want to explore how these insights tie togeth- er - and how they can help you create an action plan to call forward the future you envision. If you have some of the building blocks but not all, don’t worry, this process can build on what you already have, and also steer you in filling in the gaps. You might want to create some floor cards or write on pieces of A4 paper the words on the next page. You can do this exercise on your own, or in partnership with a coach, mentor, catalyst or trusted friend or colleague. If you have done a Temenos process in a group, you might want to invite one or more of your Temenos collaborators to join you in this work. We’d invite you to adapt the “Purpose, values, inspiration” card to your personal situation. If you have a sense that you have a personal purpose, you might name the card to reflect that sense. If you feel you have a number of threads of inspiration working, rather than a singular sense of purpose, you might want to label the card simply “Inspiration” (or have several cards). If you feel mostly in touch with your personal values, label the card in that way. If there is a combination of these influ- ences, use a mixture, or several cards. As you stand in the place of your History, what do you know? What do you experience? What do you notice? Notice your experience with all your “ways of knowing” - emotional, intuitive, sensory, the “felt sense” within your body - as well as your thinking, cognitive mind.

Working with the backbone 58 Bringing inspiration to life Vision Strategy Purpose, values, inspiration What do I stand for now? History

59 ExWeroWcirsokeir:nkWgionrwkgiinwtghiwtthihthtethhbeeabbcaakcckbbkoobnoeene Bringing inspiration to life Please be invited to record any insights in your journal, and to share them with any partners you are working with. Give yourself time to notice and record any insights. Next, move on to the second card, moving up from the bottom. What do you stand for now? How has your experience in the past shaped where you are today? What strengths do you experience? What questions are you holding? You may want to recall or physically hold records or artefacts of prior work you have done around your present situation, including any Temenos Clean Slate Maps. You might want to start out facing your history, and then turn to face toward your future. Once again, please be invited to record any insights in your journal, and to share them with any partners you are working with. Give yourself time to notice and record any insights. Next, move to stand on the third card. Invoking, and possibly physically holding or touching the artefacts of any work you have done on inspiration, purpose, and/or values, what do you understand or sense as you stand in this place? As before, employ all your “ways of knowing.” You might begin by facing the past and the present, and then slowly turn to face the future. What do you notice. Once again, please be invited to record any insights in your journal, and to share them with any partners you are working with. Give yourself time to notice and record any insights.

Working with the backbone 60 Bringing inspiration to life Next, perhaps counter-intuitively, leap ahead to the card that says Vision. We want vision to be out front as we face the future, and we need vision before we develop strategy. Using any vision work you have done, including a Temenos vision map, the results of an Inspi- ration Quest, and perhaps any stories you have created about your future, reflect on what you know about your vision of the future? As before use all your “ways of knowing.” What do you know, understand, and perceive about your vision for the future. Allow yourself to look out physically toward the future, even beyond your vision, as well as back toward your inspiration and your sense of where you have been and where you are. As with each of the other stages, please be invited to record any insights in your journal, and to share them with any partners you are working with. Give yourself time to notice and record any insights.

61 ExWeroWcriskoeir:nkWgionrwgkiinwtghiwtthihthethtbheeabbcakacbckkboobnnoene Bringing inspiration to life Finally, take a step back to stand on the card for your strategy. Touch in to any work you may have done on this topic, including creating Agile stories for implementation of your vision or any other planning techniques you have used (See section on Agile planning above). What do you understand from this place? Are there new insights about what’s needed in strategy and tactics to bring your vision to life? If your strategy has multiple streams, mentally “stand” on each stream and see what you notice. Do some parts feel exciting and motivating? Do some feel less in tune? What new insights are arising? As with each of the other stages, please be invited to record any insights in your journal, and to share them with any partners you are working with. Give yourself time to notice and record any insights. At any stage of this process, if you have not done work on the relevant area before, don’t worry. Go onto that space with an open mind, an open heart and an open will. Notice what insights arise - or what questions. The questions may be the most valuable gifts. Record what you are learning in your journal and/or share it with your partners in the exercise. You can also feel free to move back and forth across the cards. You can move in patterns that seem right to you and observe the learnings. We would suggest that you move slowly and mindfully, so you can pay attention to any changes that occur from one vantage point to another.

Working with the backbone 62 Bringing inspiration to life As you do the exercise, notice the relationship between the perspectives. Do they support one another? Is there a natural build, sequence or journey as you move through time? Do you notice disconnects or dissonances? As ever, be invited to use all your ways of knowing. When you are finished with each of the positions, you may want to stand or sit in a place where you can see the whole, and reflect on the entire process. As ever, feel free to share insights and record them in your journal. This exercise can help you to construct a sense of how your history and your inspiration can shape your desired future, in both visionary and practical terms, in an inte- grated and attuned way. You can return to the exercise at any time, come back to it again and again, and enter it at any point. Doing so may help to create new insights about how the whole system works together - and to re-tune elements that seem to be out of tune. The view of the whole may also give you clarity about what’s needed within any of the parts. You may want to keep your journal notes and any relevant artefacts in safe, memorable and accessible places where you can access them as you need them.

63 ExSCetoreCcviposeehvy:e’Ssnytfe’suCpnhfoueevnneraeCylro’saevleFxyeu’xsrncefeuirsrncaeeilsrael Bringing inspiration to life In his book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey invites readers to carry out this mental exercise. Imagine you are able to attend your own funeral, some years in the future. If you are a young person, or find the funeral image too morbid, you can imagine a celebration in your honour several years from now. Consider the various streams of activity and inspiration that are important in your life, possibly animated by our five points of inspiration. Consider who you would wish to be speaking at this celebration of your life, and what you would like them to say about you. Reflecting on these themes now, years before the point of future recollection you are now imagining, allows you time and space to consider what is really important to you. This is one way of gaining insight into what inspires you: what you think represents a good life for you, and what it would look like, sound like, feel like, to have that appreciated by others several years from now. For example, • What would you like to have someone say about your relationship to those closest to you: possibly your parents, your siblings, your partner or spouse, your children, your closest friends. What kind of a person did they see in you? What are their most touching and inspiring memories of you?

Covey’s funeral exercise 6126840 Session 7 Bringing inspiration to life • What would you like people to say about your Work? What have you created? How are you of service to customers, clients, colleagues, co-workers, stakeholders? What kind of professional are you? What are your special skills? What is your “art”? • What would you like people to say about how you have developed yourself? Your education, your skills and talents, your health, your fitness, your personal achievements? • What would you like to have someone say about your involvement in communities and ecosystems? Perhaps a company or organisation you have created or led, your role in your work community, community groups, a faith-based group, a charity? Are you involved in environmental work or do you have a particular allegiance to protecting nature? Are you involved in social projects? • What would you like people to say about your sense of your highest truth? Your faith, your spirituality, your personal philosophy or worldview? How have you developed these elements? How have you shared them? What does doing this exercise tell you about where you would like to be investing your time today, so that when your life is celebrated years from now, the dimensions of your life that you are proud of have been realised? What would you like to create or call forward in the world? How would you like to serve? How would you like to be remembered? Allow yourself to imagine what’s possible.

Conclusion: the first question. We hope that this first theme of the Curriculum provides some valuable stimuli and provocations for you as you seek to discover and bring to life your own sense of purpose or inspiration. Our intent is to provide you with a range and variety of resources, from which you can choose and adopt those that serve you, and leave the rest. Equally, if you are reading or working with this, we consider you part of our community, and we hope you will feel warmly invited to share feedback and creative suggestions for how the curriculum can be developed and improved. Far from becoming fixed in a static form, we want the curriculum to evolve, continually and elegantly, with regular new editions released, electronically and physically. Please help us shape and develop and grow this work. We particularly welcome a diversity of voices - culturally, geographically, politically, philosophically, economically and from every possible orientation - so the work can benefit from - and we can learn from and with - as wide and diverse an audience as possible. We invite you to share this work with friends, family, mentors, mentees, coaches, teachers, colleagues - whoever helps to shape your experience of inspiration and purpose, and whose experience of these things you help to shape. We have a profound respect - and a wondering and curious admiration - for the power of dialogue and collective intelligence in calling forward insight and breakthrough. We hope you will agree and that you will make use of those powers for your own learning and growth: to co-create, develop and then share the insights that arise for you. This edition, or release, of the curriculum includes only the first of our (currently intended) nine themes. We are at work already on the others … and … inspired by an Agile mindset, we want to offer you, our customers, colleagues and community members, early and regular opportunities to engage with the work, to use it in real life, and to help us, through feedback and collaboration, to make it ever better and better as we move forward together. Please enjoy the journey and please share your stories and insights with all of us.





Quotes, sources, readings Note to participants about quotations: These quotations have been gathered, and continue to be gathered, by the founders and participants of this curriculum, as examples of ideas and expressions that have inspired people we know, or called them to a sense of personal purpose, or drawn them to bring their gifts of crea- tivity and service to life in the world. They are from diverse sources and diverse perspectives. As you read them, some may resonate, some may not, some may repel. Some of the terminology may seem strange or for- eign or wrong for you. Please feel free to take what fits for you -- possi- bly including what challenges you -- and leave the rest. Also feel free to explore within the community any ideas or terms that do not seem clear or about which you would like to learn more. And finally, this list as it now exists is only a beginning: please be in invited to contribute your own inspiring quotations to this list!

Quotations The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. - Alan Alda My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style. - Maya Angelou You are the sum total of everything you’ve ever seen, heard, eaten, smelled, been told, forgot - it’s all there. Everything influences each of us, and because of that I try to make sure that my experiences are positive. -Maya Angelou The thing to do, it seems to me, is to prepare yourself so you can be a rainbow in somebody else’s cloud. Some- body who may not look like you. They may not call God the same name you call God - if they call God at all. I may not dance your dances or speak your language. But be a blessing to somebody. That’s what I think. - Maya Angelou

I think the underlying belief, through that opaque glass, is that we’re not enough …. I see timidity everywhere. But there is a place inside people where that doesn’t exist, and that’s really what I want to examine. - Nic Askew I realised that I had this compelling belief, not even a belief, just knowing, that we’re all inextricably connect- ed. No matter what. There’s no exception. There just isn’t. And that the person facing you has to be no one else. - Nic Askew. It Is a tragic fact that [our] present system of education fails to get across to our youth the simple, basic truth that each has within them the capacity for greatness, love and inner peace, and that this treasure can be claimed if self is made the servant of the Creative Spirit. - Lou Austin So many people say, ‘I wish I knew what I’m supposed to do in life.’ Well look for the clues. Source is leaving you breadcrumbs all along the path. If you but follow the breadcrumbs from one experience of Source to the next, you can lead your life as a never-ending flow of Source, following your soul’s design for your life rather than get- ting trapped by your conflicting ideations and confusing mind-talk.

Your body is a barometer of the soul. If you want to know if you’re on track, check your body. If you are experiencing any of the qualities of Source, give yourself a big pat on the back - you’re in touch, you’re in flow. In this way, your soul can guide you from one experience of Source to the next. [In my workshops...] I ask everyone what are some of the qualities that seem to arise naturally out of Source. People call out the various qualities, and the words are all put up on a big whiteboard at the front of the room.... below is [the content of ] a typical whiteboard “freedom, boundlessness, joy, clarity, abundance, for- giveness, synchronicity, awareness, peace, humour, fluidity, grace, stillness, fearlessness, openness, silence, divinity, surrender, beingness, alacrity, spontaneity, light- ness, wisdom, care, compassion, effortlessness, beauty, trust, inspiration, healing, vitality, fun, laughter, purity, playfulness, excitement, fulfilment, serendipity, oneness, humility, understanding, acceptance, delight, honouring, strength, courage, vastness, aliveness, vibrancy, passion, balance, timelessness, gentleness, curiosity, simplicity, pure energy, tenderness, wholeness, completeness, serenity, truth.” - Brandon Bays, The Journey [SD note: I like to ponder the quotation above, often substituting the word “Inspiration” for Brandon’s use of “Source”. Others might prefer to stick to her original word, or use mine, or invoke their own….] Pain pushes until vision pulls. - Michael Beckwith

In order to be a realist, you must believe in miracles. - David Ben-Gurion Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality. - Warren Bennis Vision animates, inspires, transforms purpose into action. - Warren Bennis Becoming a leader is synonymous with becoming your- self. It is precisely that simple, and it is also that difficult. - Warren Bennis In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clear- er than the windshield. - Warren Buffett We have reversed the usual classical notion that the independent “elementary parts” of the world are the fundamental reality, and that the various systems are merely particular contingent forms and arrangements of these parts. Rather, we say that inseparable quantum interconnectedness of the whole universe is the funda- mental reality, and that relatively independent behaving parts are merely particular and contingent forms within this whole. - David Bohm

My suggestion is that at each state the proper order of operation of the mind requires an overall grasp of what is generally known, not only in formal logical, mathemat- ical terms, but also intuitively, in images, feelings, poetic usage of language, etc. (Perhaps we could say that this is what is involved in harmony between the ‘left brain’ and the ‘right brain’). This kind of overall way of thinking is not only a fertile source of new theoretical ideas: it is needed for the human mind to function in a generally harmonious way, which could in turn help to make possi- ble an orderly and stable society. - David Bohm Some tension is necessary for the soul to grow, and we can put that tension to good use. We can look for every opportunity to give and receive love, to appreciate nature, to heal our wounds and the wounds of others, to forgive, and to serve. - Joan Z. Borysenko The irony is that we attempt to disown our difficult stories to appear more whole and more acceptable, but our wholeness -- even our wholeheartedness -- actually depends on the integration of all our experiences, in- cluding the falls. To love ourselves and support each other in the process of becoming real is perhaps the greatest single act of daring greatly. -Brene Brown

There are many tenets of Wholeheartedness, but at its very core is vulnerability and worthiness; facing uncer- tainty, exposure, and emotional risks, and knowing that I am enough. - Brene Brown Spirituality emerged as a fundamental guidepost in Wholeheartedness. Not religiosity but the deeply held belief that we are inextricably connected to one another by a force greater than ourselves--a force grounded in love and compassion. For some of us that’s God, for oth- ers it’s nature, art, or even human soulfulness. I believe that owning our worthiness is the act of acknowledging that we are sacred. Perhaps embracing vulnerability and overcoming numbing is ultimately about the care and feeding of our spirits. - Brene Brown There are four questions of value in life, Don Octavio. What is sacred? Of what is the spirit made? What is worth living for and what is worth dying for? The answer to each is the same. Only love. - Lord Byron

The usual hero adventure begins with someone from whom something has been taken, or who feels there’s something lacking in the normal experiences available or permitted to the members of his society. This person then takes off on a series of adventures beyond the ordi- nary, either to recover what has been lost or to discover some life-giving elixir. It’s usually a cycle, a going and a returning. But the structure and something of the spiritual sense of this adventure can be seen already anticipated in the pu- berty or initiation rituals of early tribal societies, through which a child is compelled to give up its childhood and become an adult -- to die, you might say, to its infantile personality and psyche and come back as a responsible adult. This is a fundamental psychological transformation that everyone has to undergo. We are in childhood in a condition of dependency under someone’s protection and supervision for some 14 to 21 years ... you are in no way a responsible free agent, but an obedient depend- ent, expecting and receiving punishments and rewards. To evolve out of this position of psychological immatu- rity to the courage of self-responsibility and assurance requires a death and a resurrection. That’s the basic motif of the universal hero’s journey - leaving one’s condition and finding the source of life to bring you forth into a richer or mature condition. -Joseph Campbell, with Bill Moyers, in The Power of Myth

People say that what we’re all seeking is a meaning for life ... I think that what we’re really seeking is an experi- ence of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonance within our innermost being and reality, so that we can actually feel the rapture of being alive. But if a person has had the sense of the Call -- the feeling that there’s an adventure for her -- and if she doesn’t fol- low that, but remains in the society because it’s safe and secure, then life dries up. And then she comes to that condition in late middle age: she’s gotten to the top of the ladder, and found that it’s against the wrong wall. If you have the guts to follow the risk, however, life opens, opens, opens up all along the line. I’m not super- stitious, but I do believe in spiritual magic, you might say. I feel that if one follows what I call one’s “bliss” -- the thing that really gets you deep in your gut and that you feel is your life -- doors will open up. They do! They have in my life and they have in many lives that I know of. And the other point is, if you follow your bliss, you’ll have your bliss, whether you have money or not. If you follow money, you may lose money, and then you don’t have even that. The secure way is really the insecure way and the way in which the richness of the quest accumulates is the right way. - Joseph Campbell (pronouns adjusted by SD)

If you can see your path laid out in front of you step by step, you know it’s not your path. Your own path you make with every step you take. That’s why it’s your path. - Joseph Campbell - quoted by Brene Brown. But I should caution that if you seek to plot out all your moves before you make them—if you put your faith in slow, deliberative planning in the hopes it will spare you failure down the line—well, you’re deluding yourself. For one thing, it’s easier to plan derivative work—things that copy or repeat something already out there. So if your primary goal is to have a fully worked out, set-in-stone plan, you are only upping your chances of being unorig- inal. - Ed Catmull In the matter of reforming things, as distinct from de- forming them, there is one plain and simple principle; a principle which will probably be called a paradox. There exists in such a case a certain institution or law; let us say, for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected across a road. The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, “I don’t see the use of this; let us clear it away.”To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer: “If you don’t see the use of it, I certain- ly won’t let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it. - G. K. Chesterton, quoted by Matt Philip. To be uncertain is to be uncomfortable, but to be certain is to be ridiculous.” - Chinese proverb , quoted by Mike Cohn

Remember your dreams and fight for them. You must know what you want from life. There is just one thing that makes your dream become impossible: the fear of failure. - Paulo Coelho I have seen many storms in my life. Most storms have caught me by surprise, so I had to learn very quickly to look further and understand that I am not capable of controlling the weather, to exercise the art of patience and to respect the fury of nature. - Paulo Coelho When a person really desires something, all the universe conspires to help that person to realize his dream. - Paulo Coelho My literature is much more the result of a paradox than that of an implacable logic, typical of police novels. The paradox is the tension that exists in my soul. - Paulo Coelho Be brave. Take risks. Nothing can substitute experience. - Paulo Coelho

Elegance is usually confused with superficiality, fashion, lack of depth. This is a serious mistake: human beings need to have elegance in their actions and in their pos- ture because this word is synonymous with good taste, amiability, equilibrium and harmony. - Paulo Coelho I believe enlightenment or revelation comes in daily life. I look for joy, the peace of action. You need action. I’d have stopped writing years ago if it were for the money. - Paulo Coelho We want to answer this classical question, who am I? So I think that most of our works for art, or whatever we do, including science or religion, tried to answer that ques- tion. - Paulo Coelho Elegance is achieved when all that is superfluous has been discarded and the human being discovers simplic- ity and concentration: the simpler and more sober the posture, the more beautiful it will be. - Paulo Coelho Estimating and planning are not just about determining an appropriate deadline or schedule. Planning—espe- cially an ongoing iterative approach to planning—is a quest for value. Planning is an attempt to find an optimal solution to the overall product development question: What should we build? - Mike Cohn

… I’ve come to believe that there are two approaches to life. The first, followed by most, is the “paint by num- ber” approach to life. You do what other people say. You follow a well-travelled path. You stay within the lines. And you end up with a nice, pretty -- and unimaginative -- picture. The second, followed by few, is to start with a blank canvas and try to paint a masterpiece. It is a riskier path, a harder path, a path filled with ambiguity and cre- ative choice. But it’s the only way to make your life itself a creative work of art. To paint a masterpiece requires a concept, a place to begin, a guiding context in the absence of the comforting numbers and lines in the pre- made kit. That guiding frame of reference is the highest goal…., and bringing it into your life with the help of Michael’s discoveries is what this book is all about. -Jim Collins, in the foreword to Michael Ray’s The Highest Goal Every human has four endowments- self-awareness, conscience, independent will and creative imagination. These give us the ultimate human freedom... The power to choose, to respond, to change. - Stephen Covey In the last analysis, what we are communicates far more eloquently than anything we say or do. - Stephen Covey

Most people struggle with life balance simply because they haven’t paid the price to decide what is really im- portant to them. - Stephen Covey The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities. - Stephen Covey A leader will find it difficult to articulate a coherent vision unless it expresses his core values, his basic identity. One must first embark on the formidable journey of self-dis- covery in order to create a vision with authentic soul. - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Each action we take is an act of self-expression. We often think of large-scale or important deeds as being indi- cations of our real selves, but even how we sharpen a pencil can reveal something about our feelings at that moment. Do we sharpen the pencil carefully or nervous- ly so that it doesn’t break? Do we bother to pay attention to what we’re doing? How do we sharpen the same pen- cil when we’re angry or in a hurry? Is it the same as when we’re calm or unhurried? Even the smallest movement discloses something about the person executing the action because it is the person who’s actually performing the deed. In other words, ac- tion doesn’t happen by itself, we make it happen, and in doing so we leave traces of ourselves on the activity. The mind and body are interrelated.” - H.E. Davey

Management has a lot to do with answers. Leadership is a function of questions. And the first question for a leader always is: ‘Who do we intend to be?’ Not ‘What are we going to do?’ but ‘Who do we intend to be?’ - Max DePree If you can dream it, you can do it. - Walt Disney Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes... but no plans. - Peter Drucker One always finds that the most obvious, the simplest, the clearest conclusion has not been drawn except by a very small fraction of the practitioners. One always finds that the obvious is not seen at all. Perhaps this is simply saying that we never see the obvious as long as we take it for granted. - Peter Drucker, quoted by Roger L. Martin. If we did all the things we are capable of doing we would literally astound ourselves. - Thomas Edison Vision without execution is hallucination. - Thomas Edison

It is a commonplace of all religious thought, even the most primitive, that the man (sic) seeking visions and insight must go apart from his fellows and live for a time in the wilderness. - Loren Eiseley The gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge. - Albert Einstein The world is all gates, all opportunities, strings of tension waiting to be struck. People only see what they are prepared to see. - Ralph Waldo Emerson No one’s going to care about our community as much as we do. So we are the ones who have to take ownership. -Cecily Engelhardt, Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation Create your future from your future, not your past. - Werner Erhard People listen better if they feel that you have understood them. They tend to think that those who understand them are intelligent and sympathetic people whose own opinions may be worth listening to. So if you want the other side to appreciate your interests, begin by demon- strating that you appreciate theirs. - Roger Fisher

Just don’t give up trying to do what you really want to do. Where there is love and inspiration, I don’t think you can go wrong. - Ella Fitzgerald The best vision is insight. - Malcolm Forbes To accomplish great things we must dream as well as act. - Anatole France We who lived in concentration camps can remember the people who walked through the huts comforting oth- ers, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a person but one thing: the last of the human freedoms--to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way. The way in which a person accepts her fate and all the suffering it entails, the way in which she takes up her cross, gives her ample opportunity--even under the most difficult circumstances--to add a deeper meaning to her life. It may remain brave, dignified and unselfish. Or in the bitter fight for self-preservation she may forget her human dignity and become no more than an animal. Here lies the chance for a person either to make use of or to forgo the opportunities of attaining the moral values that a difficult situation may afford her. And this decides whether she is worthy of her sufferings or not.

We must never forget that we may also find meaning in life even when confronted with a hopeless situation, when facing a fate that cannot be changed. For what then matters is to bear witness to the uniquely human potential at its best, which is to transform a personal tragedy into a triumph, to turn one’s predicament into a human achievement. When we are no longer able to change a situation--just think of an incurable disease such as inoperable cancer--we are challenged to change ourselves. - Viktor Frankl (pronouns adjusted) I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. - Robert Frost If you limit your choices only to what seems possible or reasonable, you disconnect yourself from what you truly want, and all that is left is a compromise. -Robert Fritz The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others. - Mahatma Gandhi My life is my message. - Mahatma Gandhi

Glory lies in the attempt to reach one’s goal and not in reaching it. - Mahatma Gandhi He allowed himself to be swayed by his conviction that human beings are not born once and for all on the day their mothers give birth to them, but that life obliges them over and over again to give birth to themselves. -Gabriel García Márquez, Love in the Time of Cholera A leader’s role is to raise people’s aspirations for what they can become and to release their energies so they will try to get there. - David Gergen Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Bold- ness has genius and magic and power in it. Begin it now. You can’t, if you can’t feel it, if it never Rises from the soul, and sways The heart of every single hearer, With deepest power, in simple ways. You’ll sit forever, gluing things together, Cooking up a stew from other’s scraps, Blowing on a miserable fire, Made from your heap of dying ash. Let apes and children praise your art, If their admiration’s to your taste, But you’ll never speak from heart to heart, Unless it rises up from your heart’s space. - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is with- in you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you. - Gospel of Thomas There is a vitality, a life-force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and be lost … It is your business to keep it yours, clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. - Martha Graham Silence is argument carried out by other means. - Che Guevara The only passion that guides me is for the truth... I look at everything from this point of view. - Che Guevara I don’t know Who -- or what -- put the question. I don’t know when it was put. I don’t even remember answer- ing. But at some moment I did answer Yes to Someone -- or Something--and from that hour I was certain that existence is meaningful and that, therefore, my life, in self-surrender, had a goal. - Dag Hammarskjold, in Markings, quoted by Gerald May

One of IDEO’s designers even sketched out a “project mood chart” that predicts how people will feel at differ- ent phases of a project. It’s a U-shaped curve with a peak of positive emotion, labeled “hope,” at the beginning, and a second peak of positive emotion, labeled “confi- dence,” at the end. In between the two peaks is a nega- tive emotional valley labeled “insight.” The problem is this: Often the heart and mind disagree. Fervently. Trying to fight inertia and indifference with analytical arguments is like tossing a fire extinguisher to someone who’s drowning. The solution doesn’t match the prob- lem.” Most of the big problems we encounter in organizations or society are ambiguous and evolving. They don’t look like burning-platform situations, where we need people to buckle down and execute a hard but well-understood game plan. To solve bigger, more ambiguous problems, we need to encourage open minds, creativity, and hope. In the identity model of decision making, we essentially ask ourselves three questions when we have a decision to make: Who am I? What kind of situation is this? What would someone like me do in this situation? When you’re at the beginning, don’t obsess about the middle, because the middle is going to look different once you get there. Just look for a strong beginning and a strong ending and get moving. - Chip Heath

One particular line of questioning that I found most useful, and research suggests is very revealing as to what motivates and drives an individual to eventual success, is as follows: When you were young, who was the person that was most influential in teaching you valuable lessons about life? What were those lessons the person taught you? What are those tapes this person put into your head that are still there today and have emerged as guiding princi- ples for you? Usually the person is a parent, an influential teacher, or some other authority figure. Often times, this person came into the individual’s life as early as grade school or high school. The lessons you are looking for are basic principles that suggest a high degree of self confidence, a sense of personal responsibility, a strong drive to achieve, and solid fundamental ethics. No hint of these kinds of traits should be a red flag. - Bob Herbold – former Chief Operating Officer of Microsoft Corporation, on the most productive questions to ask in an interview. Quoted by Mike Figliuolo The very essence of leadership is that you have a vision. It’s got to be a vision you articulate clearly and forcefully on every occasion. You can’t blow an uncertain trumpet. - Theodore Hesburgh

The essence of the Agile movement, whether in new product development, new service offerings, software applications, or project management, rests on two foun- dational goals: delivering valuable products to custom- ers and creating working environments in which people look forward to coming to work each day. Innovative ideas aren’t generated in structured, authori- tarian environments but in an adaptive culture based on the principles of self-organization and self-discipline. If your goal is to deliver a product that meets a known and unchanging specification, then try a repeatable process. However, if your goal is to deliver a valuable product to a customer within some targeted boundaries, when change and deadlines are significant factors, then reliable Agile processes work better. - Jim Highsmith Cherish your visions and your dreams as they are the children of your soul, the blueprints of your ultimate achievements. - Napoleon Hill I facilitated a session called “What is Education?” Instead of telling the campers what education is, I asked them to reflect on their favorite learning moments from the camp, and together, we drew out lessons on what education meant to each one of them. Each item on the list, connected to a specific activity, day, or moment throughout the camp, was truly remarkable: education is

fun, collaborative, personally transformative, equitable, aligning with personal passions, making us better peo- ple and friends, multiple ways of being smart, directly connected to our lives, looking inside and reflecting, connected to the community and environment, learning to be happy, and learning to love. - Tim Huang, from an experimental education symposium in Bhutan 2014 One of the most fundamental struggles for any leader -- in business, in organisations, or in public life -- stems directly from the separation that most of us feel that be- tween who we are as people and what we do as practical professionals. As I shall emphasise again and again, these things cannot in the end be separated. - Bill Isaacs A container is a field of exchange in which possibility is the answer and the question - not winning and losing and not even winning win-win. New possibilities emerge when the questions are more important than the an- swers. - Bill Isaacs The intention of dialogue is to reach new understanding and, in doing so, to form a totally new basis from which to think and act. - Bill Isaacs

The intention of dialogue is to reach new understand- ing and, in doing so, to form a totally new basis from which to think and act. - Bill Isaacs The greatest use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it. - William James Vision without action is a daydream. Action with without vision is a nightmare. -Japanese Proverb The kind of power I am talking about is entirely differ- ent. In fact, it makes you feel less manipulative of those around you, and certainly more loving. I am talking about power within the self. This means power over your perceptions of the world, power over how you react to situations in your life, power to do what is necessary for your own self-growth, power to create joy and satisfac- tion in your life, power to act and power to love. -Susan Jeffers

Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking, and don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart,..you’ll know when you find it. - Steve Jobs I also confirmed that necessity is the mother of inven- tion. To my surprise, when I asked women what they dreamed of doing, many responded, “I don’t have a dream” or “I don’t know that my dreams are within reach.” Many felt that it wasn’t their privilege to dream. This concerned me. These were highly educated, eminently capable women who are the bedrock of our society. I saw so many possibilities for these women. I knew I had to do something—and that something was creating the Dare to Dream blog (daretodream.typepad.com) a safe space where intelligent, articulate women could explore their dormant dreams. -Whitney Johnson The greater the tension, the greater is the potential. -Carl Jung

The artist is not a person endowed with free will who seeks her own ends, but one who allows art to realize its purposes through her. As a human being she may have moods and a will and personal aims, but as an artist she is “human” in a higher sense - she is “collective human,” a vehicle and moulder of the unconscious psychic life of humankind. - Carl Jung (pronouns amended) Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside awakens. - Carl Jung A vision is not just a picture of what could be; it is an appeal to our better selves, a call to become something more. -Rosabeth Moss Kanter The best way to predict the future is to create it. -Alan Kay The most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight, but has no vision. -Helen Keller A possibility is a hint from God. One must follow it. - Soren Kierkegaard

The agile approach is to plan for what is known and to iterate against what is not known. - Clinton Keith You don’t lead by pointing and telling people some place to go. You lead by going to that place and making a case. - Ken Kesey If a man (sic) is called to be a streetsweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted or Beethov- en composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause and say, “Here lived a great streets- weeper who did his job well.” - Martin Luther King, Jr. The important thing is not your process. The important thing is your process for improving your process. - Henrik Kniberg There is no end to education. It is not that you read a book, pass an examination, and finish with education. The whole of life, from the moment you are born to the moment you die, is a process of learning. -Jiddu Krishnamurti Freedom from the desire for an answer is essential to the understanding of a problem. - Jiddu Krishnamurti