With the current financial climate, resources are too scarce for our leaders to continue doing what they fancy and hoping for the best - we urgently need clarity of thought.

Despite the wealth of knowledge available to us from diverse disciplines, there is still considerable confusion among professionals and politicians about the best way to manage and approach all manner of things.

The Human Givens Charter provides a positive vision of how this situation could be changed for the better, along with a brief, insightful look at how we've got where we have.

Recently updated, the Charter now has its own website in order to draw more people's attention to the principles it sets out, where you can download the full document in PDF format. Please circulate it and forward on the website address (www.humangivenscharter.com) to everyone who has influence – in the media, education, health (mental and otherwise), politics and private and public sector management – and anyone you know who is interested in the human condition.

Who knows... if word got around that politicians and managers need to work in tune with nature, rather than against her, as they so often unintentionally do, it might help raise the current level of public debate about how to run human affairs.

And that might help decision makers make better decisions on our behalf.

Visit: www.humangivens.ie for more information

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How an inspired use of metaphor helped a senior manage solve an intractable problem

Our thanks to HG practitioner Veronique Chown for sending in this inspiring case history which shows just how powerful one metaphor can be.

"During my conversations with a senior executive of a large telecommunications company we would touch on many things including on one occasion how the metaphorical brain works and how it is possible to tap into the creative right neocortex. We also spoke about how to motivate his teams and create an environment where he and his staff could get their needs met. This is the story of how he used his new understanding of metaphor:

For 3 years he had been working on a telecommunications project worth many millions of pounds and it was due for completion in 4 months time. He had 300 people working on the project in the US and 200 in the UK. Everyone knew that the project had to be completed on time otherwise there would be huge penalties to pay; penalties running into millions of pounds which could threaten the very survival of the company. My client had made frequent trips to the US and met up with his managers there; with only 4 months to go they were not on target to complete within the time frame neither was the team in the UK.

So he arranged for his managers and team leaders to meet to work out a plan, inviting them all to join him in the UK for a weekend starting on a Friday afternoon and working through till Sunday lunchtime, by which time he hoped they would have a plan and a strategy for completing the project.

He invited each manager to describe the difficulties their teams were having and why they weren't able to complete on time. As the hours went by more problems were uncovered. Although they had tried to find solutions as a group, by the Saturday evening everyone was completely demoralized; they had come to an impasse. The complex issues seemed intractable and no one had suggested a workable solution. They all agreed on one thing however; they needed more time to complete the task.

On the Sunday morning they only had a few hours together before they were to travel back to their teams. It was then that my client addressed his managers thus:

“I want you to forget all the conversations we have had over the last couple of days, everything, because in 4 months time we will be launching a ‘ship’. And this ship needs to be able to sail and to navigate the high seas. Does this ship need to be painted to sail? No it doesn’t. Does it need a flagpole, handrails, or a bar to sail? No it doesn’t. It can sail perfectly well without these.”

He then addressed each manager in turn asking them:

“What I want to know from you is: what do you need to do to launch the ship?”  As he listened to their replies, he frequently interjected with, “Yes, and is this necessary for the ship to sail? We are only interested in what the ship needs in order to sail.”
 
At the end of the Sunday morning each team knew exactly what they had to do so that the ship could be launched in 4 months time.

The project was delivered on time and the metaphorical handrails, paintwork and bar were completed while she was at sea and no financial penalty was incurred.

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One last thought...

“You can never solve a problem on the level on which it was created.”  Albert Einstein

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We hope you've enjoyed this latest newsletter. Please feel free to forward it to anyone you think would be interested to learn about the human givens approach.

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With best wishes from all of us at the HGI.

Jane Tyrrell
Human Givens Institute
www.hgi.org.uk

Further information:
Useful publications: www.humangivens.com
Courses and training:www.mindfields.org.uk
Talk about the human givens: www.vimeo.com/754995
Registered charity:www.hgfoundation.com
Blog: www.mindfields.org.uk/blog
Website about depression: www.lift-depression.com





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