We Must Be Blind

What motivates me is that everywhere I look I see people suffering in toxic climates–in toxic emotional, spiritual, intellectual, physical, and financial climates–created by poisonous Shared Spirits.
I see people in nonprofits suffering. I see people in government agencies suffering. I see people in churches and religious organizations suffering. Perhaps saddest of all, I see families [...]

An Unmanaged Shared Spirit Spawns Jerks

According to a January article in the Wall Street Journal Online, rudeness in the workplace is on the rise:
http://www.careerjournal.com/hrcenter/articles/20060119-chao.html
I have found over and over again that organizations who directly and intentionally manage their Shared Spirit are likely to spawn fewer jerks and much less rudeness. Today’s workers at all levels face a rate of change [...]

What If Nobody Wants to Work on Shared Spirit?

Recently, I was working with a management team with whom I have worked previously. Some recent changes in organizational structure were put in place by the CEO without the team’s input, and some of the members seemed hurt and angry during our session. In the CEO’s defense, since the changes were going to “shrink” the [...]

A Beautiful Equilibrium

A healthy Shared Spirit creates a situation in which all the people involved, collectively and individually, get the optimal result and in which no individual or subgroup could have discovered a more beneficial strategy for themselves. This is related to the work of John Nash, the main character in the movie “A Beautiful Mind.”
John Nash’s [...]

Beyond Self-Improvement & Teambuilding

The shared spirit management approach goes beyond traditional self-improvement and teambuilding efforts. We don’t have to fight the selfish motives that are always there in both of those traditional approaches. Instead we use self-interest as the primary motivator. Healthy shared spirit optimally satisfies both team and individual needs.
Fingerpointing and blame are not an option, since [...]

Personal Growth vs. Shared Spirit Growth

I don’t buy the idea that you have to ‘work on’ yourself before you can be successful in your relationships within a group or family. I don’t subscribe to the idea that the ‘private victory’ comes before the ‘public victory.’ The two ‘victories’ are sweetest when they are pursued and won simultaneously.
I think each of [...]

Harness Selfishness

We’re not going to do away with selfishness. In fact, selfishness is probably the flip side of a positive human attribute that we wouldn’t want to lose:  drive and desire.
But we can–through intentional awareness of a group’s shared spirit–leverage that selfishness into a form of selflessness. When people get the vision of what’s in it [...]