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Appropriate Response

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Last month I attended a remarkable event called the MIX (Management Innovation eXchange) Mashup, hosted by Harvard Business Review and McKinsey Consulting. Two hundred business leaders from around the globe spent a day together at an artist's studio in San Francisco, listening to a showcase of radical, innovative ideas and practices for transforming the workplace.

 

One of the themes I heard again and again was: "freedom brings responsibility." This was stated to explain that bold, non-hierarchical, leaderless, even location-less structures and strategies are not meant as license to goof off. Rather, giving people freedom from traditional schedules and structures provides an opportunity to step in, step up and take responsibility.

 

The notion of freedom is the clarion call of Buddhist teaching. But the Buddha focused less on changing the external situation, and instead taught a process for cultivating freedom from the inside out. In Zen, this is described by the image of a snake trapped inside a bamboo pole, depicting how it feels to have our authenticity and expression restricted.  The image poses a challenge:   how can we discover freedom, even when our external circumstances are pinched and unyielding?

 

It may be that true freedom brings real responsibility. But it is also true that real response-ability means being free from the prison of our habitual patterns and reactivity. Freedom means being able to respond intentionally rather than getting caught in our knee-jerk reactions.

 

And how do we do that? "There is a way," the Buddha declared, "for becoming free..." He described that "way" as the path and practice of mindfulness.

 

Mindfulness is simple: it's about paying attention; tuning in to notice what's happening moment by moment-in the mind, the heart and the body. When we pay attention this way, we begin to see ourselves (and others) more clearly. And in our clear-seeing, we can engage new possibilities. It's the difference between noticing we are angry and pausing to take a breath, and getting swept away by our anger and blasting our horn, or yelling, or storming out of the room.

 

Mindfulness allows us to act rather than react.

 

I had several favorite moments during the MIX event:

  • At the end of the day, our mindfulness-based leadership program (PEP) won as a "runner up" in the year-long management innovation contest.  
  • During the event, I led the audience in a guided mindfulness meditation (see photos.) It was a rich and poignant experience-watching the energy in the room shift from buzz into stillness.
  • But my favorite moment came during the closing reception. A young man sought me out to thank me for leading the meditation. Earlier in the day, he had asked a challenging, provocative question of an established, esteemed, slightly intimidating speaker. "Doing the meditation practice gave me the nerve to raise my hand and speak up," he told me.
Bamboo poles come in many shapes and sizes. And oppressive structures and systems in the world and in the workplace are well worth challenging. But let's not forget that while freedom brings responsibility, it's also our responsibility to be free.

 

With appreciation,

Pam

 

 

UPCOMING APPROPRIATE RESPONSE EVENTS:


Fall Insight Meditation Retreat
This ten day retreat will be held at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Marin with Jack Kornfield, Pamela Weiss, Eugene Cash, Anushka Fernandopulle, Trudy Goodman and Will Kabat-Zinn.

Admission is by lottery, and registration through Spirit Rock opens on May 18, 2012. For more information contact Spirit Rock.

Dates: October 18 - 28, 2012

Liberating Intimacy
Mindfulness teaches us to become intimate with the experience of our life and humanness. On this retreat we will focus on the practice of mindfulness and the liberating possibility of moment by moment awareness.

To register, contact Spirit Rock Meditation Center.

Dates: December 11 - 16, 2012

  

 
Pamela Weissis the founder of Appropriate Response. She is a coach, meditation teacher and recognized pioneer in integrating the principles and practices of mindfulness into leadership development and organizational transformation