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The bear teaches reflection and insight...
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I. Increased Awareness
II. Purposeful Action
III. Extraordinary Results
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"When we create places where community can be experienced: where people can be together without fear of each other; where learning can be based on a creative exchange of experiences and ideas...then people who come from these places of community can go into the world and help everyone relate to each other in a more peaceful way.”
---Henri Nouwen
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OUR UNIQUE APPROACH
Consultants, like all people, are unique. Since shared values, mutual respect and trust are fundamental to any relationship, it is as much who we are as what we know that makes the difference.
Here is a glimpse into our approach and the values that drive how and why we do things.
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PERSPECTIVE
To live is to change. To embrace change we need to keep perspective. Perspective comes with truth, wisdom and humour. Here are a few quotes about common themes...
AWARENESS
"Master, how should I practice the Tao?"
"Eat when you are hungry and sleep when you are tired."
"Isn't that what most people do anyway?"
"No, no. That is not what most people do. Most people entertain a thousand desires while they eat, and untie a thousand knots when they sleep."
---Zen Saying
"80% of success is showing up."
--Woody Allen
"All wisdom traditions identify three basic virtues: humility, charity, and veracity. Humility is not self-abasement. It is the capacity to regard oneself in the company of others as one, but not more than one. Charity shifts that shoe to the other foot; it is to regard one's neighbour as likewise one, as fully one as oneself. As for veracity, it extends beyond the minimum of truth-telling to sublime objectivity, the capacity to see things exactly as they are."
---Huston Smith
"We give people value by how we listen to them."
---Jean Vanier
ACTION
"The significant problems we face can not be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them."
---Albert Einstein
"Progress should mean that we are always changing the world to fit the vision, instead we are always changing the vision."
---G. K. Chesterton
"It is not enough to do your best. You must know what to do, and then do your best."
--W. Edwards Deming
“Our business is not to speculate what we would do in other circumstances, but to perform the duty of the moment, the one true preparation for the duty to come.”
George MacDonald
"If you come to a fork in the road, take it."
---Yogi Berra
"A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."
---Margaret Mead
RESULTS
"A leader is best when people barely know that he exists. Of a good leader, who talks little, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say, 'We did this ourselves.'"
---Lao Tzu
"Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever."
---Mahatma Gandhi
"The part can never be well unless the whole is well."
--Plato
Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.
--Albert Einstein
"All my life, I always wanted to be somebody. Now I see that I should have been more specific."
---Lily Tomlin
"I've had a wonderful time, but this wasn't one of them."
---Groucho Marx
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I. INCREASED AWARENESS
Your people already have the answers you need. We create safe climates, focus and structure individual and group thinking, merge different perspectives and work with the mind, heart and spirit so that you can discover your own solutions and commit to doing them.
This takes a higher awareness. It means:
1. Being awake to our true motivations, values, beliefs and assumptions.
2. Being authentic and seeking truth without judging others.
3. Being engaged - dealing with what is most important, and being responsible for our actions and inactions,
4. Being focused on purpose and facilitating the task, relationship, group spirit, and method to that end.
5. Knowing our close connection to others and translating this humility and compassion into peaceful interaction.
6. Discovering the truth of the situation and working on what will lever the best results.
II. PURPOSEFUL ACTION
Generating ideas is the easy part. Harvesting ideas and moving them into action takes clarity and rigor.
When people have been listened to and truly involved, they can make informed and wise decisions, and commit to implementing the agreements.
We act efficiently when we:
1. Are clear why we are working together.
2. Have a shared vision of what we are trying to accomplish together.
3. Know how we will track our progress.
4. Know what is expected of us.
5. Have the right resources for the quality required.
III. EXTRAORDINARY RESULTS
Results are the consequences of quality processes. Processes are based on people. And people want to do their best. Therefore, successes must be celebrated and mistakes used as learning opportunities.
Results come at the end of the cycle. They act as a rear-view mirror to tell us how we did. If we haven't measured and tested what we did, we won't know how to replicate our success or what capacity our system has for improvement and growth.
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The turtle teaches ancient wisdom, patience, and perseverance...
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OUR VALUES
This anonymous quote summarizes the values we do our best to work and live by...
"People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered - Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives - Be kind anyway.
If you are successful you will win some false friends and true enemies - Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you - Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight - Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous - Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow - Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough - Give the world the best you've got anyway.
You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God - It was never between you and other people anyway."
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The eagle brings inspiration, vision, and clarity...
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