Language - how important are words?

Had a most interesting discussion with some of my colleagues this morning. We all work with the Genuine Contact program, which is a holistic approach for development of organizations. It contains different tools, some of them meeting methods. You know, if you facilitate for example a board meeting around large tables, it tells the participants one thing and if you facilitate it in a circle of chairs with no table, it says something else. What process you choose has a big impact on the results. What we offer are processes that creates a life nurturing climate in the organization or meeting and by that creates far better results than you ever expected. Short explanation of something that is better experienced than talked about.
This morning we discussed the name of the program and the name of one of the meeting methods, Whole Person Process and what it means to use English words in Sweden. We talked about how you can translate names, if it is even possible. Do we need to have the names in our own language and why? Some people said it was almost impossible to market or discuss the program because of the difficult English name. Is that really so or is there something else that stops us from talking about these great tools we use? Do we think that we can not speak from our hearts in a business environment but have to conform to what we believe this environment wants? Or is it something else that prevents us from naming the tools we work with?
Is it the same with other tools you have in your toolbox? Or is it maybe because the GC program works also on the spiritual and energetic level, and I assume many tools facilitators use are working on these levels.
Thinking about working at a spiritual and energetic level - I think it is essential to discuss the foundation and values of a program or tool, because every tool or process you use, also when you are leading a regular board meeting, has its underpinning values. Those meetings I call regular board meetings, around a big table, with a chairmen and a list of speakers, are based on how men speak. In this kind of meeting, the decisions are actually made somewhere else, in a small group of people or by one person and then presented for the board to make the formal decision. Very rarely are the participants protesting against what is presented to them. Very interesting that we seldom think about that this kind of meeting was designed in the industrial era when men were in charge of the business and political environment.
So why do we need to adjust our conversation and words to that kind of environment? I believe we need more heart and spirit in business.

If you have not yet learnt about the program you can read more on www.genuinecontact.net or in Swedish on my website www.gatewayc.com

"En droppe droppad i livets älv
har ingen kraft till att flyta själv
Det ställs ett krav på varenda droppe:
Hjälp till att hålla de andra oppe!”

("A drop in the river of life, does not have strength on its own to float

So there is a demand on each of the others: Support everyone to stay on top". My try to translate the content of  a qoute from Tage Danielsson, who was a wonderful deep thinking Swedish poet. )

Organizational Body Language

Have you ever thought about body language of an organization? We often say that body language can tell more than thousand words. When someone talks to you, you might feel something is not matching the words. Their body language is saying something else than what comes out from their mouth. Our human body language consists of how we move our physical body when communicating with other people. In a discussion it shows the other person if we understand, if we are interested and if we are really present. Clothes, jewelries, haircut and makeup could also be part of the body language since they say something about how we understand ourselves.

The body language of an organization also consists of physical things that tell us something about how they see themselves and the values they work from. It contains houses, offices, furniture, pictures etc. A large jacaranda table breaths prosperity and power. An open landscape could say that “we have no secrets here”. It could also say “we want to see that you are really working all the time”.

That the organizational body language consists of principles, protocols, control systems and unwritten rules might be quite obvious, but it also consists of the way they arrange their furniture, the way they hold their meetings and how they handle their budget. When an organization say “our staff is our greatest asset” and then put in a new control system and cut the budget for training, do you believe them? It is a little bit like when you tell your teenager that he is doing fine, with your arms crossed over your chest, a raised eyebrow and tapping your foot. He knows for sure that he has done something you don´t like.

Walk your talk is as important for organizations as it is for us human beings. Our body language will show when we do as we say. We will be calm, grounded and successful in achieving our goals. Most of all, our honesty will allow people around us to use all their wisdom and be the person they truly are.

              What does this placement of the chairs tell you about what the sponsors want with their meeting?