RedShift Blog

Dear reader,

If you’ve reached this post I have a request of you. Please change your bookmarks, feed address etc. I’m committed to taking my content to a higher level which, hopefully, will increase its value to you, my community.

I was so happy with my initial foray into WordPress that I searched for, and found, a premium theme that allows me to integrate my web site and my blog. Its terrific, but results in some DNS changes.

Although its frustrating to potentially lose audience, I believe that in the long run the payoff (value to you!) will offset the trade-off (change, time, effort, energy).

The new site is not perfect, but I recently heard a great quote: “Better done than perfect!”

Thanks for your patience and precious time and attention! - Mary

My main site home page:
http://marywynter.com/

My blog home page:
http://redshiftblog.com

My blog feed:
http://marywynter.com/main/feed/rss/

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Sometimes being a solo professional service firm (psf) is one foot in front of the other incremental baby steps. Other times, like the past week for me, its immersion and big leaps and bounds and creative bursts into new things and uncharted territory. Both are equally valuable.

Web 2.0 strategy: holon

It started with Twitter, and ended with a new, self-hosted blog. One was easy and the other was a tough job. I don’t plan much (too linear) and generally dive right in but like to hold a mental picture of everything integrated and aligned. Getting to this level is the result of having given myself the time to be an experiential autodidact..self-taught, learn by doing, accept failure, radical self-trust.

I want the same for myself and my business as what I want for my clients and their large or small businesses: to increase our influence in the conceptual economy and connected world.

With that in mind, the holon is the metaphor I chose to guide my Web 2.0 development so that I didn’t lose sight of what I wanted as I got caught up in all that I had to do.  That’s a project trap, whether directed, managed and developed by one person, or by many.

A holon (Greek: holos, “whole”) is something that is simultaneously a whole and a part. The word was coined by Arthur Koestler in his book The Ghost in the Machine (1967, p. 48). Wikipedia

Tags: conceptual economy, connected world, holon, Web 2.0

“To shift” is becoming a popular phrase with marketers, advertisers and coaches who use it with respect to attitudes, preferences and perceptions. Friday, while watching the terns from my beach chair on Briggs Beach in Little Compton, RI, I thought about the difference between those usages and what I mean by “to shift”.

The flock of terns shifted direction in perfect unison either towards what they wanted, like food in the water or in the wet sand, or away from what threatened or interfered with them, like people, dogs or larger birds. They moved like a single instinctually guided entity in response to their environment.

photo “Shorebird Synchronicity” credit: stevevoght on flicker

I saw the terns as a metaphor for how the 50 trillion cells of our bodies respond in unison to the environment we create with our beliefs. Our beliefs direct and we shift accordingly.

Like each tern in the flock, each of our individual cells is aware, receptive and collaborative, moving towards growth or towards protection. When we’re consciously directing this movement, there’s a shift. But we don’t see it, we feel it. We’ve changed.

The challenge for everyone now is to resist the temptation to direct ourselves too far towards protection because we feel threatened, unsafe and insecure because of everything that’s going on around us. That’s when we miss the proverbial school of minnows in the shallow waters and wet sand and we become undernourished in spirit, devoid of joy and blocks to the fulfillment and results that we’ve been desiring and working towards.

Technorati Tags:
intuition, metaphor q, metaphysics, natural influence, personal coaching, self-awareness, solo professional service firm

We hear a lot about the importance of asking the right questions when solving problems and making decisions related to change. Unfortunately, the right questions are rarely asked although there’s a lot of lip service paid.

The greater the challenges, the greater the likelihood of default, reactive, political and ego-driven change response, often couched in buzzword expressions like “out of the box”.

Asking the right questions requires consciousness raising about your knowledge zone. The costs of not being aware include: weak competitive strategies, resistance and low morale, being at the mercy of fate or luck or external conditions and forces.

Whether you’re leading your personal, team, divisional or organizational change, you’ll turbo-charge the question-asking process with the courage to examine your individual and collective knowledge beliefs.

Technorati Tags:
alignment, business coaching, empathy, executive coaching, leadership, personal coaching, self-knowledge, meeting facilitation

If everything you read or hear about money and finance contradicts your present experience, what you want and where you’re going, why look or listen? Think about it: do you want the so-called “experts” to determine your worth? You may protest, saying you have $100 in the bank and owe $20,000, so you know you’re toast. Really? By what criteria? Most of the financial valuation criteria was designed for a world economy that bears little resemblance to the present and maybe none to the near future.

So perhaps:

You’ve heavily invested in your physical well-being that will likely prolong your life for 20 years. Is that not a high-yield investment?

(click image to enlarge)

You’ve created a global micro-branded business that is not generating much revenue. What about the many intangible assets that can be amortized? How much? How long?

You’re beginning your encore career and are concerned with making yourself and the world better. How do you value your present and future impact? On how many lives? For how many generations even after you’re gone?

You’re sticking out, for 8 more years, a job you despise to meet your financial goals. How do you value what you really owe for that 8 years, or beyond?

The probable scenarios are countless. What does yours look like?

Remove your attention from the 100% negative financial reporting and boldly claim and create the value of you. Its not a fantasy. Its creative authority. Perhaps your -$19,900 negative worth is actually +$4 million. Which will you intend?.

Technorati Tags:
alignment, conceptual economy, creativity, encore career, global microbrand, intuition, metaphysics, natural influence, personal brand, self-awareness, solo professional service firm

In Neil Young’s video conversation with Charlie Rose he talked about his song writing process and how sometimes he gets little melodies, or hooks, rolling around in his head, like “little reminders”. Curiously, I often use “getting hooked” as a metaphor for repeatedly getting caught up in unwanted experiences.

Conversely, the music hook is a sound, or phrase that grabs a listener and sticks with them as a positive experience. That’s a result all marketers desire. And we’re all marketers. So I see the hook as a creative metaphor for the traditional pitch, or “elevator pitch“, a term that’s always turned me off because most sound to me as artificial and uninspiring as a resume’ or powerpoint presentation. On the other hand, I understand the importance of getting a point across quickly, like in 30 seconds. I’ve just never figured out how to effectively do that for myself or for my clients to naturally influence the audience.

The next time I develop personal and business micro-stories (can’t bear to call them pitches) I’ll do so from the perspective of my inner songwriter.

DA DOO RON RON….

Technorati Tags:
career transition, creative process, marketing , metaphor q, natural influence, Neil Young, personal brand, RedShift Professional Services, solo professional service firm

Coaches often get asked if they cross the line into psychotherapy. My answer is no, except when it comes to the shadow, which can really trip up, or disturb, an otherwise very self-aware coaching client’s progress. A tip-off is an experience or interaction that the participant can’t let go of, that spins in the head and feels emotionally intractable. To the coach, or observer, the participant’s reaction seems way out of proportion to the event and has become an energy drain and distraction.

These disturbances show up in many forms: A brief confrontation with an angry driver upsets you and you’re still fuming and thinking about revenge a week later. A co-worker or manager throws a hissy fit and now your work life feels like a living hell. A family member pushes your buttons and it eats at you night and day. A team member shoots down your idea and now you want out of the project and permanently away from this idiot. Everything about the person you sit next to in the conference rubs you the wrong way and you can’t think of anything else. Countless story lines and forms, always projection.

A psychotherapeutic approach may be to examine, trace back and re-experience the parts of the self that have been repressed and projected “out there” because they bring up shameful and anxious feelings or traumatic memories. A coaching or facilitative approach is more of a turnaround, or holding up a mirror, in the present, and within the context of a specific annoyance that’s got you hooked. I find 3-2-1 journaling an effective tool and I usually do the exercise along with my client. Its quick and works best with minimal thinking and effort.

The first step is to describe the experience in the third person: this is what happened, he said, she did, I got p.o.’d etc.

The second step is to second person dialog with him, or her - being open, listening, learning and getting his or her perspective.

The third step is to first person exchange so that you imagine you “are” him or her - saying this, doing that, ticking off others and the reasons why. You might realize: “I’m” the trouble-maker, or the control-freak or the cold fish.

Reading these back to each other feels surprisingly refreshing and light-hearted. There’s often a great sense of relief that comes with integrating important aspects of yourself that were lost to you for a long time. You’ll find that making friends with them results in a lot less suffering and misery from getting fixated, and a great deal more energy, time and attention for where you’re going and what you want.

Technorati Tags:
alignment, empathy, personal coaching, self-awareness, solo professional service firm, shadow work

I get some of my best ideas right after waking up, and sometimes lapse in my commitment to write them down immediately. I grab a coffee, sit at the laptop..and they’re gone baby gone. That happened over the weekend.

So it was no accident that I came across this terrific Charlie Rose conversation with Neil Young (I’m a lifelong fan) during which Neil describes and gives examples of his creative process, although he’d vehemently deny it is a process.

If you are seriously practicing being more creative you must watch it. And if you have an iPhone - get the Jott application which will get you closer to 100% idea and inspiration receptivity and practice. And don’t forget the “the box“.

My summary points:

you gotta be ready whenever it happens when an idea strikes - if you don’t get it its gone - you can’t ignore it - if you don’t pick up the gift its gone - wherever you are or whatever it is you’re doing you can’t ignore it

there are no dry periods - you know and trust its going to happen so you stay open to it

if you think too much about it its not going to work- no trying to figure anything out

ideas are a gift - there’s no way you own them - its a gift that keeps on giving if you accept it

just be there

respect the source

transcends into the mind of who he’s song writing about

I’m in the habit of doing things I feel like doing

can be just as creative in other ways - mechanical and technology - set a goal: eliminate roadside re-fueling

corporations - they’re not as free as I am - they’re constrained in structure - me: I’m not scared to fail

Technorati Tags:
alignment, intuition, metaphysics, self-awareness, solo professional service firm

Dear Friends of RedShift,

I want to take this opportunity to thank you for your interest, feedback and support and to bring you up to date with what’s going on at RedShift. This past year I’ve re-organized my coaching, consulting and creative service programs and re-designed the RedShift Web Site. Additionally, I have some announcements and specials that I want to share with you.

- Mary

Update: I apologize for the first email and the broken links!

A New Office

I’m happy to announce that after 9 years working from a home office, I now have an office in a professional building in Belmont MA. and conveniently located near Fresh Pond in Cambridge. This allows me to work face-to-face with individuals, small groups and teams who need a private office setting and/or conference room. Parking is easy and free.

Summer Special! Get-it-Done!

The RedShift Get-it-Done! Program, which mixes and matches coaching, consulting and creative services, is popular with both individuals and business clients because its fast, effective and results/action oriented. From now through Labor Day 2008, get a $200 discount and Get-it-Done!.

RedShift Referral Program

Are you a connector? Refer RedShift Programs to Save On Future Registrations!

Forward this RedShift Newsletter to your friends and colleagues, and receive a $50 credit towards your next RedShift Program, for each program order placed by them, for any RedShift Program, in the next 6 months.

New! Free (Optional) Personalized Resource System for RedShift Coaching Clients

I’ve been successfully using a simple, private and user-friendly Web project system with RedShift Consulting and Get-it-Done! clients. I’m now offering the same system to RedShift Coaching clients to further increase the value of the program. Examples of what can be posted and shared on each client’s private, password-protected area include: resources, messages, notes, schedules, notifications, session summaries and insights, reminders and creative, customized deliverables.

Complimentary Consultation Offer

If you’re interested in learning more about how you might benefit from a RedShift Program, please feel free to contact me for a 20 min. telephone or face-to-face consultation, free of charge. I’ll be happy to answer your questions and provide you with a sample session.

Technorati Tags:
business coaching, executive coaching, marketing , personal coaching, project alignment, RedShift Professional Services, Get-it-Done!, creative services, qualitative research