Humanity

Mindfulness deepens our awareness of reality in all its aspects. Observation and reflection help to draw meaning and coherence from a stream of incoherent experiences. With mindfulness, we gain the distance we need in order to experience reality without premature judgment. Stillness as well as individual and collective reflection cut through habitual thought patterns or preconceptions. We become more responsive to what the future needs and our actions become more helpful for sustainability.

What you can do to enhance Mindfulness

  1. Explore ways of stilling the mind such as meditation, yoga, or gardening
  2. Become aware of your fears, the need for self-protection, and the desire for recognition
  3. Create space for stakeholders to get to know each other as people
  4. Cultivate opportunities for collective reflection

Here are a few questions that help guide us towards Mindfulness

  1. How do we integrate phases of stillness into our days?
  2. In what way have we established collective reflection for our team?
  3. When we think about our next stakeholder meeting, how could we ensure people meet as people in the beginning?

How does Mindfulness show up ?

Self-reflection; stillness; collective reflection; deeper evaluation of experience; insightfulness; observation; connection with our or others’ stories; gratitude; multi-level awareness (reflecting while acting); search for meaning; finding coherence; awareness of fears; looking beyond surface reality; attention to human encounter; mastering the mind

Tools that further Mindfulness

  1. Mindfulness

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Balance is a dynamic movement and an essential feature of life that integrates different spheres for the benefit of the whole. Whether these are personal and professional aspirations, the interests of the individual and the collective, or a rhythm between our passion, our commitment, and the time we set aside for reflection, depends on the context. Getting the balance right furthers clarity in our collaborative sustainability initiatives and helps us stay relaxed in complexity.

What you can do to enhance Balance

  1. Pay attention to personal or social imbalances
  2. Notice and alleviate power imbalances
  3. Commit, persevere, and nourish yourself as well as your project
  4. Nourish passion individually and collectively
  5. Attend to renewal in collaboration initiatives - a mix between collective reflection and having fun together

Here are a few questions that help guide us towards Balance

  1. How does my pattern of passion, commitment, and renewal look like?
  2. What helps our team to follow through and sustain our shared path?
  3. How do we schedule fun into our collaboration initiatives?

How does Balance show up?

Well managed integration of personal and professional life; negotiating between the interests of the individual and the collective; attention to alleviating power imbalances; integrating opposing views; attention to personal relationships; attention to life goals and meaning; knowledge on how to operate best; taking care of health issues; finding a rhythm between passion, commitment and reflection; cultivation of individual and collective times of renewal

Tools that further Balance

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Empathy furthers seeing our shared humanity and the interconnectedness of life on our planet. Embracing the perspective of others can lead to better solutions and opens gateways for reconciliation. When we see the person behind the task, recognize the story behind a difficult to accept person, or reach out to the humanness in other people, we have gone a long way to making collaboration work. Respect for differences, even if we disagree in content, is one of the most important ingredients for trust building – an essential fuel for effective collaboration.

What you can do to enhance Empathy

  1. Become aware of your judgments, and then inquire into them
  2. Acknowledge the humanity in another person, even, if you disagree on certain issues
  3. Seek to understand a system of collaborating actors by engaging people in attentive and inspiring one-on-one conversations
  4. Ensure stakeholder groups listen to each others concerns in a structures dialogue

Here are a few questions that help guide us towards Empathy

  1. When we focus for one hour on noticing our judgements, how often do we judge?
  2. How do we consciously schedule time for storytelling into our teamwork?
  3. How do we schedule inspiring and informal preparatory conversations before stakeholder meetings or other engagements?

How does Empathy show up ?

Stepping into the perspective of somebody; attention to each other’s humanness; reconciliation; listening to the story behind a difficult to understand situation; giving appreciation; basing actions on love and compassion; giving respect; acknowledging the dignity of another person.

Tools that further Empathy

  1. Empathy

I want to share a tool

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