There is a book that I used by Julia Cameron as a guide to doing journaling when I first started journaling  in 1991.  it was called Finding Water and it was really based on her struggles to become a writer. In someways I related to her but her story was very different than mine so I just kind of filtered out the parts that didn’t apply and gained enormously from the parts that did.

After the last few days I’m wondering if water finds us.

So much is written about and known about water.  It has been studied and revered in poetry as the very essence of life.  We have had a very stark lesson on the destructive nature of water and on how quickly tides and water levels change.  Cougar Creek in Canmore is bone dry today.  A week ago it was a 100 meter wide raging torrent of destruction.

We are mostly water.  We are effected by the pull of the moon and the rotation of the earth. We ebb and flow through life.  We have floods and droughts.  We deal with high water and low tide in our daily lives.  There are lessons for us in this flood, the destruction that necessitates a new beginning and prevent measures for the next round of high water.

Life is good. Whether it is wet or dry, we notice and adjust looking for the right balance of  H2O in our lives and bodies. Not enough is bad.  Too much is also bad. Find your balance in the life giving water, the positive chi and remain in awe of the potential of water to turn on you and destroy allowing regrowth and renewal in waves. Harness its power when you find water.

Amazing the power of water over the other elements.  I am so lucky to have had somewhere else to go when the lights went out.  The time here in Canmore has been enlightening in many ways.  Yesterday we took a ride in to Banff.  Really …it is difficult to know that anything had happened.  The streets were full of tourists.  The bridge at Carrot Creek has been repaired and although there is evidence of fast, high water, there are very few signs that it is still there.  The Bow Falls were ferocious but the water had receded form the high water marks on the banks.  I was concerned that the yellow caution tape was being ignored and when I saw someone inflating a boat of some kind,  I wondered how smart that would be.  I almost used a Nenshi noun. I think we still need to give mother nature and the rivers lots of room.

Here in Canmore I have lots of books on Feng Shui.  Reading about the elements and how they work together and how they can destroy each other is fascinating.  Now I find myself trying to understand how the chi became so strong and so destructive in the rivers and creeks.  Everything is chi – energy. The killing chi was activated by the circumstances and changed the paths of the waters so that they can meander rather than flow directly and can slow down the fierce, fast energy that was flowing previously.  Fast water is too much chi or Yang energy.  Slow stagnate water is too little and represents Yin or dark energy. the Yin energy needs to be balanced with Yang energy or the stagnating water can kill too.

Balance the energy. Yin and Yang work together to create constructive energy in the right measure to create rather than destroy although both are needed.  Someone at Calgary City Hall should consult a Feng Shui master and figure out what needs to happen to protect it the next time.

When I started writing about Daniel Pink’s ideas for competencies in a whole brained world I had no idea that the world in Calgary Alberta would turn so upside down so fast.  The perfect storm created a record breaking disaster and an awesome opportunity for a city to prove once again that it can survive “Come Hell or High Water”

I have written about Design and Empathy, Symphony and Transcendence.  I have written about Imagination and Narrative and now I want to write about Yin and Yang.  It is not identified by Pink as a competency but it speaks to his overall premise of balance between the left and right hemispheres of the brain. There are so many balances we can talk about – nature-nurture, male-female all of them for me are on a continuum of  of this or that-ness.  It isn’t as simple as either or.  For me it is always AND.

The Calgary Flood 2013 is a curse and a blessing.  It destroyed things and it brought people together.  It brings out the best and the worst in us.  It reminds us of the need for balance in our own lives.  It can all end quickly.  Any state is temporary and soon this nightmare of clean up will be a memory of new friendships and amazing resilience.  Yin and Yang are always together in the same situation.  When you know that and act accordingly you are always prepared for what life has to offer and you can begin to define it for yourself.

DESTINY – are you ready?

AS I look for new ways to explain the advantages of the PULSE frame over other aids to conversation I am struck by the consistency of thought leaders around the significance of an approach like the PULSE approach that incorporates, in a deliberate way, the elements essential for good clear communication.  Leaders do their work in Conversation. It is often assumed that they know how to have successful conversations by the time they get to a position that demands leadership skills.  PULSE is a core competency for leaders and anyone else who does their work in conversation.  As a PULSE professional you are at a distinct advantage because you understand the nuances and the nuts and bolts of productive, generative conversation.

We are all of two minds – left and right.  There are two approaches to most things…. okay maybe three.  Daniel Pink, in his book “A Whole New Mind”  writes about the differences of each side of the brain and the necessity of a cooperative bridge between them in order for us to continue to thrive in our modern world.  The book was written in 2007 and listening to it again on my drive yesterday I heard the optimism of the time before 2008.  I was struck by the optimism as well as the wisdom of what he was saying about our modern world and the needs for BOTH hemispheres of the brain to work together in order to make the changes, the adjustments necessary for the human race to build or rebuild a world that works for everyone.

The other thing that struck me was the way that the PULSE Frame and the PULSE training work to join the functions of both hemisphere.  If you are PULSE professional you already know how to use both sides of your brain to meet the needs of your clients.  The right side of the brain is where empathy and story reside.  This side represents the creative, interpretive skills we gain as we learn about PULSE and GHOST and POWER and HEART.  The left side is more analytically and logical and is best served with the structure of the PULSE frame as it moves through time from past to present to future, using a script to ensure that no step is missed. So PULSE represents a whole brain conversation.  It considers text AND context in ways that lead to sustainable resolution.

AS we move into a future we can experience through language (left brain) and images (right brain) the PULSE Frame serves all of us well. WE can use our ” Whole New Minds”.

If you need a refresher or would like to learn about PULSE for the first time please sign up for our webinar series  –  90 minute seminars you can attend from your own computer.  May 1st and 3rd and May 8th and 10th at 10:00 AM.  If you are interested email nancylove@pulseinstitute.com for more information.

Today was my first day back at PULSE.  I have been on sabbatical working with Parks Canada for a year now.  It was different not to rise at 5 am and be at work in downtown Calgary by 7am, taking meetings with people in the east who were musch wider awake than you.  It was different to have time in my day to think about what I might do the rest of this week and next and for the rest of my life.  It is liberating and frightening all at the same time.  It seems that in my life that is often the case.  I am most frightened when I am most free.

I had meetings today to reestablish PULSE connections and redefine relationships.  It was very nice to be back.

A question that arose while we were chatting this morning was around a definition for a PULSE professional.  I have said before that my goal now is to serve those who have had PULSE training and would like some individual or team coaching on how to use this valuable and universal tool for conversations.  But what does it mean to be a PULSE professional?  When I say that or when I hear it the meaning I attribute relates to a set of attitudes, skills and knowledge that together mean you can calm a room just by entering it.  If you are dealing with a PULSE professional you are dealing with someone who understands the dynamics of human behaviour in a way that makes them skillful in leading conversations for sustainable change.  It is the sociological approach to defining behaviours and how to change them for positive changes that makes PULSE different.  If you are a mediator and not a PULSE Professional you will have a different sense of what is necessary in a conversation for everyone to feel honoured and for outcomes or plans of actions to be sustainable.  If you are a coach and not a PULSE professional your coach approach may lack the wisdom that comes from familiarity with the D.O. points, the sociological construct that defines and explains and can predict the human response in conversation.  If you work with people and your methods include words and conversation and you are a PULSE professional you see the conversation differently and you understand the essential elements of quality conversations for change.

I noticed this in my work with Parks.  I could calm a room just by walking in.  I could calm a client in very short time no the phone.  It was not just the attitude because a caring attitude without the knowledge or confidence to help will not have the same calming effect.  It was not just the skills because alone skills are missing the necessary compassion.  It was not the knowledge of theory alone.  Theory informs everything PULSE including the practice but with only the knowledge of how good conversations work and not the appreciative attitude or the  skillful use of language the impact is reduced.  the right combination of Attitude, Skills and Knowledge creates PULSE Professionals.  They are people who listen well, assess the situation well, know what to do and how to do it and who lead people to new decisions everyday with gentle, honest, open, specific talk.

I created a poll on linked in about PULSE professionals.  It is in a group Marjorie and I started a long time ago for PULSE Professionals.  If you have PULSE training or you are interested in what makes someone a PULSE professional please join the group and enter the dialog with us.  Help us build the definition.

And by the way… I am looking for work.

So I am transitioning back to my life as a consultant in the next couple of weeks.  It really never ended.  I just had one boss instead of many for the last year.  My work is still about being a conflict resources for people and helping them in and out of conflict which ever is appropriate.

I am looking forward to being back out there.  And as Randy Bachman has been heard to say …” When the curtain comes down and I looking for work again.”  He might say “unemployed”   I don’t think he is and neither am I.  AND I will be looking for work.

What can I do?  Many things.  I can consult and coach and train and mediate and facilitate and I can do all of them quite well.  Lots of experience from which I have learned what not to do as well as what to do, allows me to say that with confidence.  I am good at what I do.

I can also write and I will continue to create information in the written form.  It is my way of  sharing with others that which I have learned from them.  There are a number of writing projects in the hopper that will definitely keep me busy if not employed in the short term.

What would I like to do?  Help people.  If my expertise in managing relationships, the space between two or more people, might help you… let me know.  I enjoy the contribution that occurs when my expertise fills a gap for someone else.  Passing on the how to of organizational health is important to me.  Why should anyone have to make the same mistakes I may have made?

Coaching, Consulting, Writing, Facilitating Conversations for Change.

What will I do?  I am open to the possibilities.

Thanks to all of you who commented on the trip North of 60.  no other blog has brought out the stories in others like that one did.  It got me thinking about how people connect with what others are experiencing.

Recently I was asked to renew my membership in ICF and the questions I had to answer included “What kind of coach are you?”  I wanted to pick a “A damn good one” but it wasn’t’ an option and neither was “Conflict Coach”.  It is a funny term any way. What is a conflict coach?  Someone who coaches you in and out of conflict?  I guess that’s right.  It is what I do.  When people don’t know what to do in a conflict situation I help them get into it and then out again.  Anyway the ICF doesn’t have it on the list of options for “What kind of coach are you?” So am I a business coach? a leadership coach? a relationship coach? hmmmm …

I am the kind of coach that helps you make a difference.  I am the kind of coach who encourages you to increase the likelihood of success in what ever you are striving to achieve.  I help you manage conflict, giving you skills and confidence to create a change in your world.

How does that sound?  I need some feedback here.

I also started an on line program … a pilot for coaches to be coached to improve their business.  I am so looking forward to working with Yvonne Silver.  She is helping me get clear about my coaching business which has evolved over this past year as I was on sabbatical from PULSE.  I like the format of the on line coaching pilot and I like that Yvonne and I both of chapters in an upcoming book – Stepping Stones for Success.  Watch for more information on that coming soon.

So as my term at PCA winds down and I begin to pick up the threads of PULSE watch for a level one training opportunity in May and more opportunities to engage me as a coach for your conflict situations.  If you need to get into conflict and don’t know how OR you are in it and need some help getting out give me a call. 1-888-882-8804 I’ll be available April 8th, 2013.