Systems Theory, Coaching and all of us

Thoughts:
I have been reading some really interesting stuff in the last few days, about Sytems Theory, in particular "Family Systems Theory" The idea is that there is no value in looking at or working with a person in isolation from his or her environment (the systems he or she is part of in other words), because one can't be without the other.
This idea ties in with a lot of thoughts and insights that have been swirling around in my brain for a while now, and also draws a line to the article i published on this blog a couple of days ago.
All of us are part of a whole, and everything we are and everything we are part of is inextricably linked to us and vice versa. So often we think of ourselves and the people we relate to in isolation of everything else around us and them. What I think of as my reality is only my reality because of what I am part of. My influence on that system is just as great as it is on me. I am really keen to explore that further and how that thinking impacts on how we look at the world and those we work and live with.
At a very basic level it simply means that if you deal with stresses and challenges in a work environment, it is all very well to put enormous amounts of energy coming to grips with that stress, for example, but it is unlikely to be effective unless you put the same amount of energy into affecting the system that creates the stress. Because if you don't appreciate that the work you do on yourself to come to grips with the stress has an equal impact on the system as a whole you are ignoring one whole side of the equasion.

Interesting thoughts for me as a business coach, I wonder if anyone is keen to take up this discussion with me and bounce that thought around a bit further.
ciao for now
roland

Blogging, the brave new world

New Perspectives Business Coaching joins the Blogging world.

It really will be too tempting to polish up all my old soapboaxes now!

I hope that this blog will lead to useful discussions and thinking on Coaching and Business and how develop the concept that Coaching is an essential tool for sustainable business growth.

Topics I plan to write about and Blog about will include:

• Integration of Solution Focused Brief Therapy models into business coaching
• Staff motivation and internal motivation and commitment rather than external commitment
• Harnessing the power of imagination
• Business planning and how to make it have a lasting impact on business
• Business process systemisation

just to name a few

Let the fun begin.............

Your Business and the Universe

If you do what you usually do,

you get what you usually get

Or what the Universe and your Business have in common.

Those who know me, know I have a penchant for soapboxes. I have a large variety of these wonderful contraptions and can get very excited about all of them (not always appropriately I might add)

One of my favoured soapboxes revolves around this question:

Who do you need to be, to have the business you want to have?

I have done a lot of reading, studying and reflecting over the last few of years, and it has become abundantly clear to me that there is no such thing as “I”.

Some of you might have seen “The Secret, and the Law of Attraction” recently or that mind boggling movie “What the bleep do we know” and come away with a frown on your forehead; Or some of you might just have observed at times that what you think about somehow becomes real.

Telepathy and Love
How many of us have been in love at some time in our life and it seems uncannily as if you are telepathically connected to your lover; Suddenly it seems as if they can read your thoughts, they ring up moments after you flash on them, and you find yourself finishing your lovers sentences. These are merely some of the most obvious real-life examples of the concept of our connectedness, but there is no reason to believe telepathy only works when we are in love.
Have you ever wondered how for some people things always just seem to happen? While for others, nothing ever works out.

The simple truth is that we don’t exist in isolation from everyone else or from the world at large, we are an integral part of it, and where “I” starts and stops is simply not a discussion worth having anymore.
The evidence for this statement is clear, all branches of science have started to come around to this view of the world and us in it, especially in the last 10 years and new evidence is piling up by the day.

What does it mean?
So what do we do with that as business owners in 2007? What does that mean? How does that make a difference to us? There is never enough time in a day as it is, without taking up navel gazing as well.

There are many implications of these thoughts but as business owners I would like to focus you on one implication in particular: The idea that your business is a reflection and an expression of you. In other words, your business is what it is precisely because of who you are today. The state of you and the state of your Business are inextricably connected. (By the way this statement is equally true for everything that you are a part of; for example your relationships are what they are today, because of who you are today, etc)

If you accept that statement, there are 2 obvious questions that follow:

Who do you need to be to have the business you want to have?
What does your business need to look like to be a reflection of who you are?

Hence my soapbox: To work on the growth of your business, you must at the same time work on your own growth. If you want to have a business that is twice as big, twice as efficient, twice as much fun, twice as well organised or twice as profitable, you have to make the matching shifts in your own brain at the same time.

Helen’s Brain
This explains why in small and medium business especially the traditional “business consulting” approach often fails. Business owners and consultants as a rule do not appreciate this concept of the intricate connection between the owner and his or her business.

Let’s take a business owner named Helen; the process goes something like this for Helen: We have a problem or a challenge in my business; let’s get a consultant to tell us what to do. The consultant looks at Helen’s business and its challenges and makes his recommendations. Often this involves proprietary systems and tools owned by the consultant. There are templates and processes for Helen and very clever IP. Developed in and for other businesses and based on the latest research and management science. All great stuff, but it misses out on the vital ingredient, namely, Helen’s brain and the connection between it and her business. Invariably, what worked for John, John’s brain and his business, is totally inappropriate and unworkable for Helen, Helen’s brain or her business.

The first step in any business change process must therefore be for Helen to be ready to step up to the next level. Helen has to appreciate that there will be no business change in isolation from her own change.

Threats of violence
A friend of mine hits me whenever I make this statement: “If you do what you usually do, you get what you usually get” and although I appreciate her point that clichés can be nauseating, there is real value in this particular one for us as business owners. You simply can not continue to work, behave and think as you are if you want your business to be something more than it is now.

This article describes the "New Perspective" of New Perspectives Business Coaching. It is this approach that explains how my clients achieve so much more in their business when they work with me and how they sustain their growth.

Further Reading and resources:

• http://www.whatthebleep.com.au
• http://www.whatthebleep.com/create/
• http://www.thesecret.tv/
• “Mind into matter” by Professor Fred Alan Wolfe
• “The Hole in the Universe” by K. C. Cole
• "The Mind of God” by Professor Paul Davies
• "Science and the Akashic Field" By Ervin Laslo
• "The Field" by Lynne McTaggart
• "A Brief History of Time" by professor Hawkins