Archive for the ‘value’ Category

The way of Authenticity – Part 1

Monday, August 23rd, 2010 by Angelo Luidens

Right after posting my article about the “Birth of a Young Movement” I receive an email from Peggy Holman about her new book, Engaging Emergence:  Turning Upheaval into Opportunity, one of her latest projects.

It has been amazing how many things are happening and the way they are coming together.  Actually, as the saying goes, “Everything happens for a reason”, comes to mind, and the feeling is exhilarating.  Well, we are all and everything is connected.  That is a given to me now.  It all depends on the degree of our awareness of this, the perspective we happen to be seeing from, and also, how open we are, and to a great degree, what we choose to see at any given moment.  So the question is, are you tuned in or not tuned in?

There is overwhelming evidence to me that we are at the dawn of a new era.  An era were more and more people are becoming aware of live beyond 3th /4th dimension and are opening up to exploring, providing greater understanding, and guidance on how this phenomena, perhaps a new dimension, can be tuned into; the evidence: The Celestine Vision by James Redfield and also his discussion of “2012: The Energetic Countdown Is Happening Now.“  The following: The 5th Dimension – Heaven of Now, beautifully reflects what both James Redfield, and Eckhart Tolle refer to as a shift in our plane of existence.

I pre-ordered a copy of Peggy’s book, as it provides a perspective that further adds to my understanding of change in general and the shifts that are occurring and how these manifest and can be integrated at different levels.  Again everything is connected.

It makes things easier to cope with at times when we choose to simplify and focus on one aspect, tuning out the vast number of changes that occur in our own life, family, organizations, and communities, or globally, and be satisfied and comfortable with the answers we encounter.  We shift our awareness from appreciating all that is going on all around us with no prejudice, and most of the time, resist  tuning back into those aspects that are pre-judged less desirable.  Remaining satisfied with answers derived from the limited perspective endangers our greater understanding of the purpose of these changes and how we can be at our best in response to them.  An alternative is to put our attention to one thing at a time as it comes to our attention.  Like stopping and smelling the flowers… at least for a moment,  without prejudice, and to dance with them as they come.

What interests me most of Peggy’s book is that it provides experiential patterns of change and practices, principles, and forms to participate and collaborate in raiding change rather than being a bystander.  I look forward to receiving my copy and reading it.

VN:F [1.1.3_449]

Tags:
Posted in Social Media, Sociol Networking, authenticity, leadership, obama, oprah, sustainability, value | No Comments »

Birth of a Young Movement!

Monday, July 5th, 2010 by Angelo Luidens

Youth Vision 5000 is one of my latest projects, a movement organized by youth for youth between 15 and 24+ to create their own vision of Curaçao in twenty years (20) and to systematically realize this vision, with consideration for the factors/matters that binds us to the island and how we can stimulate these factors/matters; a bottom up approach to “Nation Building”, instilling passion and responsibility (individual maturity), global mindset, and broad stakeholder’s participation.

In September 7th, 2007 a seminar with a break-out session in World Café format, sponsored by SEDA (Sentro pa Desaroyo di Hende Muhe i su Famia, Center for Women Development) headed by Mrs. Meyrtha Leetz, as a Five Star Curaçao project, was held, with the title “From Chaos to an attitude of non-violence” with the keynote speaker, Dr. Karolyn Snyder.  Dr. Snyder is the author of the book, “Living on the Edge of Chaos: Leading Schools into the Global Age.”  That evening at the Hilton Curaçao hotel, she presented the six lessons of her book, then in its first edition, on how these apply to “Improving the methodologies applied in women centers for increasing awareness on violence in house-holds and families.”

From Chaos to an attitude of non-violence

Those present that evening were several members of the Five Star Curaçao movement, who in turn were members of different and at times multiple organizations, such as, members of the education sector of Curaçao, members of the Curaçao Leadership Forum, including members of the public and private sectors.

The six lessons state, that:

  • Growing Systems Respond to Environmental Changes
  • Disequilibrium Promotes Change
  • Energy Builds Through Connections
  • Natural Systems Self-Organize
  • New Systems Evolve from Complete Prototypes
  • Change Is a Dance of Life and Death

This seminar not only inspired many projects under the Five Star Curaçao umbrella, such as the project to make Schools of Curaçao – Global Learning Centers through the program developed by Dr. Karolyn Snyder’s organization, International School Connection, in collaboration with Five Star Curaçao; it also left Dr. Snyder with an inspiring impression, which she wrote about on the Five Star Curaçao website, “Impressions from my Visit in Curaçao“.

During a break that evening, Mr. Victor Pinedo who is a member of the private sector, an organizational change consultant behind Five Star Curaçao, and Mr. Ivan Kuster, one of the principle facilitators of the Curaçao Leadership Forum, in discussing that leadership is essential to realizing a vision. They challenged each other that their should be a follow up on the effort done in 1999 and subsequently in 2004 to create a vision for Curaçao, “Vishon Kòrsou”, at which, as many that were present that evening, both were participants as well. Their discussion lead on to the idea that this time the visioning effort should be done by the youth of Curaçao, since they are the ones that most likely will be living out that vision of Curaçao in 20 to 30 years. Mr. Pinedo challenged that the number of youth should be 5000 to make it a wildly important goal, which would have a large enough and significant impact to create a more active and engaging movement, driving action towards the created vision. Mr. Kuster reciprocated that this effort should be organized by the youth themselves for themselves. As a young member of Curaçao Leadership Forum (2005, co-core facilitator) and Five Star Curaçao (2007, project integrator) I, was listening. Then Mr. Pinedo explained about a meeting format that could accommodate in the range of 2000 people or more, and introduced Open Space Technology by Harrison Owen to us. It was decided that the Curacao Leadership Forum should take the lead in following through with this idea.

Youth Vision 5000 (YV5K) was born.

Mind you that according to the one law and 4 principles of the Open Space Technology meeting format and methodology: what happened during that break that lead to the discussion on the ideas from where Youth Vision 5000 originated, is a typical example of an Open Space Technology meeting session.

Connect with the Youth Vision 5000 movement as well through:

VN:F [1.1.3_449]

Posted in Uncategorized, events, leadership, sustainability, value | No Comments »

Achieving what matters most.

Wednesday, November 4th, 2009 by Angelo Luidens

What we do value most or better yet, what we are passionate about largely depends on our core values. Once we understand our own core values and those of others, it becomes much easier to achieve results we seek, achieve success that we feel good about. Then the path to create those results also becomes clearer, whether this may be for personal or business achievement.

More often than not we make choices without thinking about them. What are your most important values? Whether we aware of it or not, whether we accept it or not, it is our core values that define our preferences, thus what we value most and to what degree; to the point of being very passionate about it. Clarity on your core values is an essential leadership skill for direction and to achieve sound sustainable success.

Even when it comes to, for instance, determining the value of a tangible item such as a car, a house, or a piece of jewelry, there could be as many opinions as there are people in the world. In the case of something intangible such as developing a new service, creating a software application, or a vision for an organization, it could be much more subjective than that. This is because we each have our own set of values through which we perceive the same exact things and what it means to us at any one time. This is the second fundamental cause of all obstructions towards achieving success, in particular, achieving commonly shared success, the alignment of values into shared values.

Through our values we make our decisions and it is what carries a person, an organization, or community to greatness or mediocrity. It is what influences our buying decision to get that new car we want, or that nice jewelry for a loved one; or, to buy-in or not to buy-in into an idea.

Although in the end, we do make our own choices, we do certainly also get help. One way this happens is well illustrated in the following presentation delivered through TED.com, where Rory Sutherland, “makes the daring assertion that a change in perceived value can be just as satisfying as what we consider ‘real’ value — and his conclusion has interesting consequences for how we look at life.”

What do you value most? Once this is clear, it is much easier to build, create, buy, and go after what we are most passionate about and reach the results that we seek. Here is a perspective that points to one possible starting point to answer that question:

“Out of love making and birth; so chaotic, messy, with vast improbable possibilities; comes such a one and only miracle that is, U!”

If we value our own most inner essence, we are most likely grounded in valuing other aspects of our lives in a way that allows us to make the choices and achieve more sustainable success, which makes us feel good.

So, to more effectively get the results that really matter to you or your organization and that really makes a lasting difference:

  1. Clearly define and communicate the values that you seek. In the case of an organization, ensure that these values are also commonly shared through a consensus building dialog process such as Open Space Technology (OST).
  2. Then map out a path to align to and meet those values.
  3. Get the resources necessary.
  4. Then take action, guided by these core values.

After all, achieving results that makes us feel good is an important aspect of what matters most to us. That provides us with the inspiration and enough passion for the next challenge.

VN:F [1.1.3_449]

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in leadership, sustainability, value | No Comments »