As this year comes to a close and a new year and decade begin, we wish you all the good things you worked for and wish for yourself. Living is the greatest gift there is. There is no owner manual. You write your own as you proceed. We wish for you that the next chapter you write is as adventurous and fulfilling as you hope it will be.

I consider myself one of the luckiest people in the world. There are many things that deserve and have my gratitude. In particular, in this season of giving thanks, five things that I am grateful for are:

1. My family. They allow me to be the person I am and give me meaning and purpose.
2. My clients. They give me opportunity and trust me in our collaborations.
3. My community of friends. They help me grow and enrich my life with significance.
4. My teachers. They remind me I’ve only just begun and challenge me to new developments.
5. Acts of kindness. They make life possible. I was helped by a million acts of kindness, by many people on many occasions, many of whom were strangers. Some helped my next step. Some opened a door that was locked. Some brought comfort. Some rescued me when I was at the end of my rope. Some have literally saved my life. I am here today because of a million acts of kindness. Thank you.
   

Read the Key Here.

© Aviv Shahar

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Aviv Shahar :: Dec.01.2009 :: Blessings, The Key :: 1 Comment »

Carlos Ghosn CEO and President of Renault of France and Nissan of Japan, is credited with turning around Nissan. As an outsider in charge of one of Japan’s largest companies, Ghosn has been extremely successful. When asked recently by Charlie Rose, “what is the mindset of a global leader in the future?” he replied: “A person that is open-minded, capable of understanding different cultures, respects and loves different cultures, is able to understand and connect with people and is empathetic.”

Here are some questions to reflect on as you seek to cultivate the mindset of a global leader:

1. What new countries and cultures have you recently explored and learned about?
2. In what situations would you engage in a conversation with a total stranger? Can you recall a recent experience and summarize what you’ve learned?
3. What new activities will you engage in and explore in the coming year?
4. Where in the world will you go to observe and immerse yourself with new impressions and learning?
5. What fascinates you? What do you want to learn about and understand?

© Aviv Shahar

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Aviv Shahar :: Nov.30.2009 :: Leadership :: Comment Now »

Last week I worked with a brilliant team on a strategy for the 2012-13 horizons. They are the best in the world at what they do – the undisputed world champions.  You know you are dealing with champions because of what is present at the point of engagement and also because of what is not present. Here are some of the characteristics I observed and experienced with this team. They are…

1. Focused on goals and on realizing the intended future state.
2. Open in communication. Ready to challenge each other’s premise and ideas.
3. High on value. Low on ego.
4. Present in the moment. Fully engaged.
5. Ready to speak their mind and to try new ways.
6. Not defensive. Not political.
7. Agile and ready to change and adapt.
8. Fast to reframe problems as opportunities.
9. Capable of active listening and intense ideation and collaboration.
10. Committed to turn setbacks to learning and growth experiences.

Developing strategy is about delineating a series of plausible future states, creating options and aligning a course of action. Our “Hot Seats Exploration” process helps us accelerate the conversation, create high engagement and rapid prototyping of ideas.  In this exercise we guide the conversation through divergence and then convergence phases as the object we explore comes into focus.  We shift from expanding the range of ideas and options (divergence) to aligning on a preferred course of action (convergence).

In the divergence phase we practice framing open-ended questions. I was asked this week: “What is the difference between HOW and WHAT questions?” Here is a simple way to think about it:

1. HOW promotes prescriptive answers. WHAT promotes explorative responses.
2. When you are in (A) and seeking to arrive to a KNOWN end-state (B) – use HOW questions: How do we get from A to B?
3. When you are in (A) and are seeking to discover a new UNKNOWN end-state (B) – use WHAT questions: What opportunities are available to us in a new end state B?
4. Language is important. Your words, your narrative invoke images. Images create feelings that impact the brain chemistry and state of mind of the people you engage. When you ask: “How can we extract value?” you invoke the image of a dentist (extract). When you reframe the question to “What value capture opportunities are available for us?” you evoke the image of a fisherman (capture). Dentists and Fishermen bring up a very different set of associations in our unconscious mind where creativity and innovation comes into the picture.

High performing teams are adaptive. They are capable of holding open-ended conversations, ready to coalesce and agree on a course of action and are committed to follow through and execute. Thank you.

© Aviv Shahar

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Aviv Shahar :: Nov.24.2009 :: Consultant Journal, Organizational Development :: Comment Now »

Most of the currently available training methods in businesses are accented on brain learning. This is evident in the rampant usage of four-quadrant frameworks. There are dozens of strategies based on the four quadrants, the ‘important/urgent’ being one of the most popularized. Many of these are useful but are limited because they miss the insight communicated by The Vitruvian Man drawn by Leonaro da Vinci. Namely, that the human soul is five-fold as expressed by five fingers, five senses, five extensions of the body and so on. The Vitruvian insight points to the five-fold information processing and learning of the human.

By analogy, the human is a radio-set designed to process and interpret five dimensions of intelligence which is codified by the colors: Green, Yellow, Blue, Red and White. Soul learning is five-fold.  It goes beyond brain learning (four-fold) and creates faster, deeper and more sustainable results. So many of the intractable problems witnessed in organizations today and in the world at large are a symptom of brain fixation on outdated systems.  The next frontier of learning and development design is in reintegrating the five dimensions of intelligence. Together with our network of colleagues, we have been for three decades on the forefront of developing advanced coaching modalities to help professionals meet 21st century challenges and thrive. The Ten Faces of Leadership is one aspect of this body of work, which has helped create breakthrough results in Fortune 100 companies around the world.  This body of work also includes:
* The five color intelligences
* The leader coach and the five steps of coaching
* The five colors of learning and process inclinations
* The five emotions (higher and lower)
* Overcoming the five resistances
* The five elements of resilience
And more.
© Aviv Shahar

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Aviv Shahar :: Nov.14.2009 :: Coaching, Organizational Development, Personal Growth :: Comment Now »

A new decade is here, just a few weeks away. Extraordinary! Is time speeding up? Or is it just me?  This Key is about “Who will you be?” in this threshold decade. The run up to 2020 is likely to be relentless, surprising…with complex challenges and hopeful breakthroughs. Our message is twofold:

1. Start as you intend to go on. Be in 2010 the greater person you hope to be in 2020. In wisdom, impact, generosity and more.
2. Co-create the future you choose to live in.

Read about the Age of Transformation, including five key Transformational Strategies.

© Aviv Shahar

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Aviv Shahar :: Nov.01.2009 :: The Key :: Comment Now »

What can you learn from Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s former and first Prime Minister, about leading your organization?

Lee Kuan Yew is the person who inspired Deng Xiansheng to lead china to open its market and create large scale economical changes. His reflections about Singapore in his conversation with Charlie Rose carry a wise message to all leaders:

Lee Kuan Yew says about Singapore:
“It has to be a place that is useful for the world, otherwise it wouldn’t exist. We have made ourselves relevant to the world.”
Asked: “How do you maintain relevance?”
“You keep on changing. You cannot maintain relevance by just staying put. The world changes; watch it and ride the surf.”

When asked: “what’s the most important thing you’ve learned in the last 20 years?”
Lee Kuan Yew replies: “The impossible can happen.”

The message for leaders:
1. How is your world changing?
2. How must you and your organization change to stay relevant and be useful for the world?
3. What “impossibles” will you make happen?

© Aviv Shahar

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Aviv Shahar :: Oct.26.2009 :: Entrepreneur, Leadership, Special Person :: Comment Now »

“What will this next decade be like?” We asked at a recent future-think-tank meeting. It quickly became clear we are looking at a Threshold Decade.

Why is the run up to 2020 a threshold decade? Our think-tank articulated key big questions that converge in an unprecedented way. Consider that during the coming decade, most of these will be addressed and possibly answered in one fashion or another:

1. Energy - Are we on course to stop burning things to produce energy? Have we found elegant, ubiquitous and affordable energy-harvesting solutions (solar, ocean, algae, ammonia, thermal, wind, vibration and kinetic harvesting, and more)?
2. Nuclear – Has a nuclear event (terrorist or state sponsored) been averted? Have we secured the world from nuclear weapons? Or are we back in a new, yet similar, mutually assured destruction balance-of-terror?
3. Capitalism – Has Capitalism updated and renewed itself? Has it found a more sustainable and wiser path? Did market economy evolve to credibly embrace and benefit the other four Ps in addition to profit (People, Planet, Progress and Purpose)?
4. China – What role has China taken on the world stage? How is the China experiment unfolding? Is the Party able to promote market economy and sustain its control?
5. Middle Class – Has there been a resurgence of the Middle Class in the US and Europe? Is the Middle Class growing in China, India, Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia, Russia and other countries? This is likely to determine the stability of the democratic framework and how democracies evolve around the world.
6. Currency – What is the new currency regime? Has it taken the form of a basket of currencies? Two or three universal currencies? A new dollar arrangement? Or a complete fragmentation of the system, leading to pockets of bartering economies?
7. Islam – Are Moslem women enjoying freedom and equality? Has there been a credible moderate Islamic leadership that captured popularity and harnessed the hopes and aspirations of engagement and progress? Have younger generations chosen a moderate Islamic leadership or followed a militant path?
8. Global Institutions – What forums serve efficaciously global and planetary needs? How effective is the China – America collaboration? How are the G2, G8, G20 and other global institutions producing results?
9. Middle East – Has there been a Middle East resolution that gave hope to Israelis and Palestinians? Or are we entrenched in non-solutions and demographic impossibility?
10. Health & Medicine – What is the evolving integral understanding of health? What are the new game-changers in medicine? How is personalized medicine evolving and is it delivering on its promise? What forms of integrated medicine are embraced and bring results?
11. Obama – What has become the Obama legacy? Has he fulfilled or disappointed the young generation that brought him to the White House? How have the relationships of citizenry with the state changed, or not?
12. Culture – How have culture and beliefs about life, wealth, wellness and what’s valued shifted and evolved, or not?
13. Women – With the battle of the sexes over, have we moved to a new quality of leadership and creative collaboration between the genders? Have we transcended the gender equality battle and the love/hate syndrome that accompanied this struggle to mature negotiation, ready to explore anew the significance of the genders working in creative mutuality?
14. Philosophy – What ideas and thinking can narrow the chasm between science and religion and offer relevant guidance to political and social debates? Are we able to hold a coherent integral conversation about the divisive issues of the day?
15. Poverty – Is Muhammad Yunus’s vision of eliminating poverty (and creating a poverty museum) any closer? Can the planet’s resources support a continual population growth? Or is the trend reversed and the population is shrinking?
16. Africa – Which countries in Africa were able to emerge and begin to escape the history of pillage and failure? What meaningful and hopeful game-changing breakthroughs are seen in Africa?
17. Education – Modern education was first shaped by the industrial age and was then aligned to meet the technological age – what education templates best integrate and prepare the whole-person to realize their creative and spiritual potential in the age of transformation?
18. Climate – What are the conditions at the poles? Is there global agreement about climate questions? Have there been definitive global policies enacted?
19. Spirituality – What forms of spirituality answer the needs of the time and the calling of new generations? Are the impulses of self as source, universal consciousness and conscious evolution emerging and capturing mindshare, or not?
20. Time – How are people using and applying increasing freedom and time? What are they doing on their fifth day?
21. Galactic Life –How are we exploring anew nearby and distant space? Have we made contact with intelligent life outside our planet?
22. You – How have you transformed your world?

© Aviv Shahar

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Aviv Shahar :: Oct.23.2009 :: Future :: Comment Now »

You do not have to be Sir James Galway to play the flute and you do not have to be Sergey Brin or Larry Page to start a successful company. You do not have to be Michael Phelps to swim. You do not have to be Kristi Yamaguchi to get on the ice. You can do all of these things.

Listen to an excerpt from our seminar: Discover Your Sweet Spot.

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Aviv Shahar :: Oct.20.2009 :: Podcasts :: Comment Now »

The Economist writes this week in Hating What You Do about the epidemic of unhappiness at work. It claims “the most obvious reason for the rise in unhappiness is the recession, which is destroying jobs at a startling rate and spreading anxiety throughout the workforce. But the recession is also highlighting longer-term problems.”

We find the analysis superficial and narrow minded. The recession is a big trigger for anxiety but not the cause for unhappiness. Unhappiness is an expression of multiple factors and currents in the lives of people. These include:

1. Loss of the sense of control
2. Unpreparedness to adjust one’s expectations
3. Inability to cope with change and adapt through transitions
4. A sense of disenfranchisement, isolation and lack of support
5. Energetic depletion
6. Chemical imbalance
7. Loneliness, alienation and missing companionship and intimacy
8. Inability to connect with and impact your environment (work, social, culture…)
9. Loss of autonomy and the sense of dignity
10. Spiritual deprivation and hunger for meaning and significance

Happy teams and happy organizations are able to integrate and foster the five Ps. In addition to Profit they benefit and help: People, Planet, Progress and Purpose.

© Aviv Shahar

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Aviv Shahar :: Oct.16.2009 :: Happiness, Organizational Development :: Comment Now »

True success is not simply getting to the top. You do not need to win a gold medal. Not at all. True success is doing what you love to do and doing it fully well to create results that last beyond you. Success is to find your sweet spot and express your passion and capabilities in ways that make a difference and create significance.

To succeed is to do what you have chosen to do and to be free to do it fully.

© Aviv Shahar

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Aviv Shahar :: Oct.12.2009 :: Happiness, Personal Growth :: Comment Now »