Transform!

It really is all about relationships

Recently, I was thinking about a deputy principal I worked with in the UK some years ago who was incredibly student (pupil!) focused.  It was a joy to see her engage so easily and unconditionally with young people as she encountered them around the school.

During a coaching session, she had the realisation that she was highly judgemental of her colleagues but not at all judgemental of young people.  She was perplexed by this apparent paradox when she knew that there would be so much less friction with - and amongst - staff if she applied what she knew how to do with young people to her colleagues.

Then, today, I was talking with a principal who was part of a group of schools trialling the introduction of a mindfulness app.  The other principals agreed that the use of mindfulness practices had been helpful for them in facing up to the uncertainties of school life this year but that their main problem was unhelpful behaviour amongst staff that caused all sorts of frictions.

It seems this is still a problem.

Gavin Meynell - The Crowd

Mindfulness practices are certainly part of the solution, but they are not, typically, collective practices.

What I have been trialling is the use of Inquiry, both individually and in small groups, that seeks to stimulate insight and thereby reframe how we think, feel and respond to other people to reduce friction and deepen connection.  Feedback is showing that when done in small groups, this practice is having a transformative effect on relationships between the members of the group.

Interestingly, concentration meditation and mindfulness meditation together strengthen our ability to have insight.  So packaging these practice together makes sense.

You can still download a pdf version of Why We Teach here which builds the case for the value that comes from transforming relationships.

John Corrigan is an expert in helping individuals to bring their whole of mind to their daily life and increase their effectiveness and the effectiveness of those around them. This expertise scales from the individual to the team to the organisation. At the core of this work is the practice of encounter.  Earlier blogs can be found here.

• To purchase a copy of Red Brain Blue Brain, Student Feedback or Why We Teach go here