Yesterday Terry and I were talking about PULSE – the name of our company.  She was wondering about why we called it an institute.  Her curiousity was based in her own understanding and experience of what an institute is.  She thought that it might be misleading because we are not necessarily associated with a university, nor are we housed in a big building.  My understanding of Institute was more “think tank”, a place were people study and hone ideas on a certain subject and the PULSE Institute is a place where we study People Using Language Skills Effectively.  I thought if Terry who has been with us for more than a year is confused then others might be too.  So we looked it up on Wikipedia:

An institute is a permanent organizational body created for a certain purpose. Often it is a research organization (research institution) created to do research on specific topics. An institute can also be a professional body. The word comes from the Latin word institutum meaning facility or habit; from instituere meaning build, create, raise or educate.

PULSE is an INSTITUTE.  It is a permanent body created to promote the use of language skills, to resolve conflict and to prevent the need for conflict management at the root.  The guiding question for our Institute is how can people use language to build, create, raise or educate toward peaceful, productive families, work places, communities, societies?   How can we use language to create world peace – one conversation at a time?  Over the course of our work we have accepted underlying principles related to Appreciative Inquiry from the field of Organizational Development and an enhanced and enlightened understanding of people through the use of the Enneagram.  The search and the research for ways to spread the word of the institute and the evolution of the understanding continues.

My PhD is in Educational Research.  When we first began we also had a non-profit society that we called PIPER (PULSE Institute for Public Education and Research).  PIPER focused on ADR and was instrumental in initiating the Mediation Month Publicity Campaigns that continue here in Calgary each year. And the Research continues.  Marjorie were talking this morning about the research that we will need to do for the next book.  “World Peace – One Conversation at a Time”.  I have several articles in the works and am collaborating with three other authors on projects this summer.

The field research that I have done over the past 6 years will be done to a greater extent by others moving forward.  They will take the message to the clients, use the skills and concepts in the field and report back to me so that we can have PULSE conversations about how the thinking might change or how it applies in other fields or what other applications can be found.  They will be encouraged to write and share their experiences.  The PULSE Institute dialogue continues.  It is on our website, in our newsletters where Marjorie pulls together the thoughts and ideas from PULSE Professionals and other authors that support or challenge the Institutes underlying premise that WORDS CREATE WORLDS.

This summer we have invited the PULSE Professionals to gather again in Canmore to share their past year, their present projects and their future plans.  It will all relate to the PURPOSE of the INSTITUTE to promote People Using Language Skills Effectively.  If you would like to contribute to this dialogue please post a comment or send Marjorie something for the newsletter.  Is PULSE an Institute?  I think so.  What about you? What do you think?

Relationships change.  People move into PULSE, learn what they have come to learn and then move on.  Over the past six years I have watched as people contribute what they can, learn about PULSE  and themselves and then move onto the next adventure. PULSE as an organization manages many kinds of relationships.  What might be unique is that once people move on efforts are made to keep in touch and to redefine relationship rather than end it completely.  I like that about us. It isn’t alwaysthe case but most who have worked with us in one capacity or another do keep in touch and maintain a relationship based on the principles and shared criteria for involvement.

Terry, our Executive Director is moving on.  She will focus on her own company – TiLT.  Although that leaves PULSE with a gigantic space to fill, I am happy to see that she is following her own dream.  That is what PULSE is about empowering people to do what they do best.  It would be inconsistent of us not to wish her well and to provide what ever support she needs to reach her own goals.  Terry will become a PULSE Associate, offering PULSE products through TiLT. 

Redefining relationships is what we do in every conversation that we have in our lives. It is interesting to me to see the PULSE philosophy working especially within our own company.  A structured conversation makes even difficult conversations successful.  Terry’s criteria for a better future and our needs as a company are considered as we plan to transition to this new level of involvement in each others work lives.  The future becomes obvious when criteria are made clear and we move toward it. Best of luck to Terry and to PULSE.