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Back to the World

August 5th was the last entry here. Hard to believe that a month has past since I last sat down to consider things from this electronic format. Since then I have been in Hawaii and Washington DC and St. Thomas, in the US Virgin Islands. I have many adventures and misadventures, sailed on Chesapeake Bay, and sat on the beach in two beautiful places thousands of miles apart. the idea of PULSE BEACHes was never far from my mind.

Since August 5th, the US has had their political conventions gearing up to and this morning the writ was dropped here in Canada for an October 14th election. Most of you know my political stance. I was most impressed this morning by the Green Party and their leaders plea with people to vote, to give up apathy and learn the issues and be aware of what their choices at the polls will mean for the future of the country and the planet.

It is true. People need to take politics seriously in this day and age, to get involved enough to understand the ramifications of choosing more of the same and the opportunity that these elections give us to change the world if we choose to. Beyond the rhetoric and the mud slinging there is a real choice to make.

Choices are the gift of PULSE. We ask people to consider their options and choose the ones that create a better future for them. At no point do we involve ourselves in that decision. We are impartial with respect of the outcome because we believe that people know what has to happen and when all of the information is on the table, the future becomes obvious. So it will be with these elections. The people will decide. PULSE practitioners and professionals will hold voters capable of making a decision that will work for them and the future of our countries and our planet.

Our role in mediation and in election readiness is to make sure that people are informed, that they know the process or Prepare for the Conversation; that they understand what is at stake or Uncover the Circumstance; that they understand why it is important to them locally and globally or Learn the Significance; that they consider options or Search Possibilities; and the VOTE or Explain in writing their plan of action, their commitment to the future.

It is good to be back in Canada and in Calgary. I look forward to blogging more regularly and to being settled and centred for a while. The good people of the US Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands and the District of Colombia are perhaps better prepared to deal with their own working realities after their PULSE practitioner training and I am holding them capable to do what needs to be done to change their corner of the world, one conversation at a time, to step back and value the choices of others while teaching them how to hold themselves and others to account for a more positive and appreciative future.

Here’s to you

The title for this post has not appeared yet. What I am thinking about is a little scattered but it definitely has to do with the DVD’s I watched on the plane home yesterday. It was, gratefully, a rather uneventful return to Canada and Calgary. The DVD’s were interviews with come of the people from the conference talking about how they type people and their were some interesting observations. I was still left with the question “Why type at all?” I remain of the firm conviction that you only need to know what BEACH they are on at the moment to effectively work with them so that they can manage their situation. The rest is up to them.

Before I left the conference I attended a morning session which was based on improvisational theatre. It was fun. It reminded me that life and especially conversation is improv. You respond to what is being said. Your role is some what defined by your default Enneagram setting and Enneagram practitioners can see your type and your centre quickly with their observer eye.

I also chatted with some people who had attended my session on conversations who asked about why I had done things the way I did. I explained the purpose of the one exercise was to show people, when they are present to the listening, they can quickly arrive at the essence, the BEACH of another person … in a two minute story. She related it to Blink, a book by Malcolm Gladwell and I said “Yes- the Theory of Thin Slices”. Until then I hadn’t realized to what extent that is part of the PULSE practice.

During the session others had asked about the structure of the Frame. I have been thinking alot about the PULSE Prism and so I began to explain my thinking aroung the four sides as Green Content or Thinking, Yellow Process or Doing and Red Response or feeling and that the base was the Blue of Insight. That feels like the right names for the dimensions. I also found myself talking about Appreciative Inquiry as the quide for the Green dimension, Brief Solution Focused Therapy – holding people capable as the quide to the Red dimension and the Zones of Perception which is based on Dan Dana’s retailiatory and conciliatory cycles and forces toward harmony as the quide for what to do in the Yellow dimension. The base or Blue Zone of insight is quided by the knowledge of the Enneagram. Understanding people and quiding them to their next level of potential is the goal and, more than a base, it is florescent bulb that runs up from bottom and lights the whole prism, from the inside. People come into the conversation as white light and are refracted to the many colours of the rainbow. They see themselves and others differently on the other side.

Really this whole series of entries about the Enneagram and the illusions is that Blue Zone where we work to understand people and enlighten them as to thier own capabilities and potentials. It is about myth and Illusion busting, about managing perceptions and reframing with the PULSE Frame the way people see and act, feel and think in the world. And it happens in a 90 minute conversation. Each time someone experiences the conversation they experience the path from stress to healthy to growth points on the Enneagram. The conversation represents a microcosm of what they will experience through out their lives. The lessons will be repeated … until they aren’t … until the illusion is finally understood as an illusion and the lesson about ‘self’ is learned.

All we can do for others is show them a path to that possibility. We are guides, conversation guides, Delta’s… the Agents of Change. Here’s to you PULSE professionals and practitioners. Your work is important and you are changing the world and the people in it – one conversation at a time.