SYZERGY - Executive & business coaching, personal evolution

[Emergence] June 2006, Speak the Truth, New Directions and Resilience.

Do we at Syzergy think our work is important? You bet we do! We only have to look at world politics and some of our leaders to recognise that speaking truth seems to have low currency these days. Actually, if you want to get elected as a president, please pass the test on how to lie first. Either that, or be unable to tell the difference between truth and lies.
(In my local paper today, a great cartoon, the Premier of the State of Queensland handing out an L plate to the minister who is about to deliver her first state budget. She asks, “Is L for learner?” and the Premier says, “No, it is a lying permit, we all have one now.”)

Monthly tools and discussions on how to speak the truth with compassion.

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Welcome-what have we been up to? And where are the truthful conversations being had?

Welcome.

Yes, yes, I know, this newsletter is very late. We have been busy. And I do mean ~we~. On July 1st, 2006, Syzergy will have two directors and one very valuable assistant (Janine has been with me for 6 years.). My very good friend and colleague, Audrey McGuinness from Sydney, will be joining the company. Audrey brings years of coaching experience, and years before that of investment banking experience. I am the creative visionary, Audrey is the ~make it happen~ kind of person. Just what we need J Audrey also completely impresses me with her language ability. She speaks Mandarin, Portuguese, Italian, French and Russian. She is a mother of 2 children. People say we look like sisters, same height, blonde hair.

For those of you joining us for the first time, welcome. We have had a big influx of new subscribers.

Just a heads up..this next 6 months will be a transition period.
As you will see from below, we are looking at changing the business name, changing the newsletter name, the web site…
What we have decided on clearly, is to get very precise about what we offer in the market.

We are very excited about the Dare to Care program. This program has been launched in the last 6 months in Brisbane, Sydney, Auckland, and North Carolina. We had fabulous people attend, and they have all made the exercise a great success. We learnt a lot, and are constantly seeking to improve what we do. We received great feedback and are now working to deliver Dare to Care to the world.
After years of staying in the question… what do we want to do better than anyone else…we have finally decided on what in retrospect was the obvious.

We are building a boutique business that’s specialty and excellence is in enabling people in organisations to speak the truth with compassion.
This is the work behind Dare to Care. It is what I have spent my life engaged in the learning of and the discovery about.

We are completely passionate about this subject. We want people to care enough to speak the truth. We want to support people to understand both the importance of this, and the skills to be able to do it. The more people who can speak the truth with compassion, the more individually empowered you and I are to do this, the faster we move to creating solutions to the problems that behest us.

What does this mean in practical terms? What is the cost of not speaking up?
Well, think of all the issues and energy drains and work upsets you have experienced of late.
What percentage of them had something to do with either being unable, or unwilling, or another person being unable or unwilling, to speak the truth? If I know enough about this subject, and I know a lot, I would guess that not speaking up, or speaking up without skills, is at least involved in 90% of all the issues you and I face. More like 100% to some degree.

Sometimes our not speaking the truth is because our organization punishes those who speak up, sometimes it is because we have learnt that silence is the best way, sometimes it is because of peer pressure…we want to be liked. Sometimes it is because we have never been taught the skills to do this well. No matter what, there are always consequences. And those consequences can be serious, even fatal.
Take Enron for example. While it may be true that the leadership are seriously at fault, it is also likely to be true that many other people were aware of something fishy going on. How many of those spoke up? How many were silent? How many colluded? What price to them? We victims always need a fall guy, someone to blame. And we all play victim sometimes. (When was the last time you said..
“Look what you made me do!” “I don’t have enough time!” “Its not fair!” etc all words of the victim). Yes the leaders of Enron should be charged, and, I would suspect, there were many other guilty parties who got away this time.

How does not speaking the truth affect us?
Well it always starts with the self. How truthful are you to yourself? Hmm…most of us…pretty poor in this department. We lie to ourselves every day. “I will get up an exercise tomorrow. I really will!” And do we? Mostly not.

Why do we do this? Great question? It doesn’t make us feel better. And there are some things we will never do, no matter how many times we think we will. Better to just call a spade a spade and have a whole lot more personal integrity. Few of us really choose this path though. I think we like to live in the dream of…

Other ways it affects us…this not speaking up, not telling the truth…
We don’t ask for what we want. We don’t stand for what we believe. We let others get away with being small. We condone poor service, low accountability, broken promises, and neglected agreements with our silence, and then complain about it ad-nauseam. The world has gone to pot! And then when we get a Bush or an Enron, we wonder what happened. We happened. It does start with us. That is ultimate truth, and responsibility.

In an earlier newsletter, many years ago, I wrote about the collusion of the Jews with the Nazi’s. Sensitive issue this one. I ask the question, what if the Jews, on day one, said to the Nazi’s, no, we will not wear yellow arm bands? And no, we will not take this kind of treatment. This is what the King of Denmark did, who said to Hitler that if the Danish Jews had to wear distinguishing arm bands, every Dane would also wear an arm band. In the great book, Abilene Paradox, by Jerry Harvey, this story is mentioned, and reference is made to the Jewish writer, Hannah Arendt, and her work on this subject matter. See “Eichmann In Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil.” (To read the original article on this, go to. http://casts.webvalence.com/sites/Emergence/Broadcast.D20001103.html)

The truth will set you free, but first it might really P you off. (By the way, a good sign that you are close to a truth, is when you get really upset, or angry.)

We are dedicated to the work of truth. And there is good news. The truth really does set us free. It really does lighten our load. It gives us more choice, not less. We get to like the reflection in the mirror a whole lot more. We get to feel like we can make a contribution, every single one of us. We can make a difference. We can be the change.

We at Syzergy have our work cut out for us! And we are excited. Thanks for coming along for the ride.

We ask you to do two things for us.

? If you think our mission to enable more people to speak the truth with compassion, is important, if your organization could do with some work on speaking the truth, do let us know and we can arrange to do a free 1 or 2 hour telesession with a group of your decision makers or staff.

? Forward this newsletter to anyone you think would get something out of this.

Your feedback…please help.

Dear Friends, Clients and Colleagues.

Audrey McGuinness and I are about to form a business partnership to take Dare to Care and other similar products to the world.
We are very excited about this new direction, deciding that our company wants to become known world wide as the expert in enabling people to speak the truth with compassion. We have chosen this as our specialty, choosing with great happiness to give up anything else we do reasonable well, so that we can do what we do with excellence.

We would very much appreciate your support in the branding conversation.

What do we call ourselves? What is our business name?

Here are all of the possible combinations we have considered so far.

Syzergy-Radical Truth with Compassion

Syzergy-The Center for Transformational Conversations. Enabling people to speak the truth with compassion.

Speak the Truth

Radical Truth

The Center for Transformational Conversations

Dare to Care-Transformational Conversations

Dare to Care-Radical truth with compassion.

As an FYI, we have the following domains already registered to us.

Syzergy.biz
Dare-to-care.com
Daretocare.biz
Speakthetruth.biz
Radicaltruth.biz
Thecenterfortransformationalconversations.com
CenterTC.com
CenterFTC.com

Audrey and I have been steering away from Dare to Care as our company name, because it is our main product and we may have others.

Please send us your thoughts and favourites, or an idea we may have missed. We ask that you do this by June 20th2006.

Many thanks,

warmly, Christine
PS. There will be a prize for the best 3 ideas. One hour of one on one coaching. This is worth $440.

Where in the world is Christine?

This month sees me back in Auckland for four days, then in Sydney for a few days.

Since I last wrote, I have been to Broome in Western Australia, Sydney, Auckland, Boston, New York, Washington and Raleigh NC.

Another Marathon. Boston-been there, done that.

An FYI for the regular readers, I did run the 110 Boston marathon on April 17th. This is my third marathon in my ten-year goal of running a big world marathon a year for 10 years. (Previously New York, Honolulu and now Boston). I have run over 14 marathons and a few ultra marathons (anything longer than 42.2 kms, 26 miles), plus an Ironman triathlon. Not completely mad, just slightly crazy.
I learn something new about myself every time I run a marathon. Boston was about commitment. I suffered terrible stomach cramps and diarrhoea for 32 kms. Not once did I think of quitting. I did spend a lot of energy on trying to find toilets!
Any marathon is about resilience. Interestingly, I train with many marathon runners who have little resilience. They quit at the first sign of anything not going their way. I have pretty much decided that in a marathon the exception is when something goes my way…so just get on with it. Sounds like life!