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The missing model

January 22, 2015 by Brenda Leave a Comment

During various training programmes, I often play a game which involves asking participants to write down the first word that comes to mind when I say a certain word.  This is the beginning of an exercise in creativity and the purpose is to show individuals how differently we link words with perceptions.  For example, if I say ‘set’, some people may write down ‘tea’, others choose ‘tennis’ while ‘maths’ is often given as a response, too. 

In this first step of the game, another word I sometimes use is ‘model’ and here again, examples of the first set of responses from different participants could be ‘car’, ‘ramp’ or ‘coaching’.  Let me clarify:  you could be thinking of the ‘model’ of car you wished to buy, the ‘model’ showing clothing on the catwalk or for those of us who are integral coaches we might instantly link to the ‘models’ we almost unconsciously use in assessing our clients. 

So we need to stretch our minds and see how differently others are seeing the world.  And the words we use can often be a clue to this.  And of course we express ourselves in so many other ways, too.  To many of us, colour plays an important part.  So when I see an excellent example of an advert using words, colours and ways of appealing to different senses through different sets of words, I find this very exciting.  Below is an example of a poster which I find particularly appealing.

blog179

But going one step further, I had an ‘aha moment’  when I walked into our neurologist, Dr Zaheer Sacoor’s newly decorated rooms and found that his wife and their decorator had incorporated this magnificent concept into a mural covering a whole wall in their waiting room.  This is visually appealing and so appropriate with the work he does.  Well done, Dr Sacoor, you are not only a brilliant doctor, but you are thinking outside the box and ‘modelling’ the work you do.  Thank you for being such a wonderful inspiration. 

It might be a bit difficult to read the words on the image above, so here are the words: 

Left brain

I am the left brain.
I am a scientist.  A mathematician.
I love the familiar. I categorize.  I am accurate.  Linear.
Analytical.  Strategic.  I am practical.
Always in control.  A master of words and language.
Realistic.  I calculate equations and play with numbers.
I am order.  I am logic.
I know exactly who I am.

Right brain

I am the right brain.
I am creativity.  A free spirit.  I am passion.
Yearning. Sensuality. I am the sound of roaring laughter.
I am taste.  The feeling of sand beneath bare feet.
I am movement.  Vivid colours.
I am the urge to paint on an empty canvas.
I am boundless imagination.  Art.  Poetry.  I sense. I feel.
I am everything I wanted to be.

As integral coaches, we use different models in assessing our clients in order to get a clearer picture of how they are seeing the world and how their ‘issue’ is impacting on their ‘way of being’.  And while the concepts embedded in ‘left brain/right brain’ are woven through other models, I have used the beautiful image above as a screen saver to remind myself to question my clients around these concepts.  This just could be my ‘missing model’! 

For more information on Executive Coaching or training in communication skills please contact brenda@146.66.90.172 or phone +27 82 4993311.

139: What is black?

November 6, 2013 by Brenda Leave a Comment

During a recent coaching session with one of my clients, I asked her what colours she could now picture on the blank canvas we used as a ‘distinction’ when starting her coaching programme.  She told me about the splashes of vibrant colours and then also mentioned the smudges of black and other somber colours. She appeared to be seeing these ‘in a negative light’.  This prompted an exploration of the importance of black and I thus introduced her to one of my favourite poems: 

What is Black?

Black is the night, where there isn’t a star

and you can’t tell by looking, where you are

Black is a pale of paving tar

Black is jet

and things you’d like to forget

Black is a smoke stack, a cat

a leopard, a raven, a high silk hat

The sound of black is boom, boom, boom

echoing in an empty room

Black is kind, it covers up

the broken pavement and the broken cup

Black is charcoal and patio grill

the soot spots on the window sill

Black is a feeling, hard to explain

like suffering, but without the pain

Black is liquorice and patent leather shoes

Black is the print in the news

Black is beauty in its deepest form

the darkest cloud in the thunder storm

Think of what starlight and lamplight would lack,

diamonds and fireflies if they couldn’t lean against black

Mary O’Neil

 blog139

Black is important.  Look at how vibrant this beautiful Mandala is against a black background!  The colours appear brighter. Just as my client at first was thinking of the black or somber smudges on her canvas as being negative, characteristics that we perceive as negative often ‘open up’ exciting possibilities.  And the opposite is also true.  Positive characteristics ‘open up’ opportunities, but they have the inherent potential to ‘close down’ other abilities.  So being aware of the potential of both positive and negative characteristics to ‘open up’ or ‘close down’ possibilities helps us to turn our ‘stumbling blocks’ into ‘stepping stones’. 

For more information on Executive Coaching using an Integral approach, please contact Brenda on brenda@146.66.90.172 or +27 82 4993311. 

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