Productive extension of the existing range of one's sensing, remembering, imagining, authenticating, and
expressing abilities can occur if one becomes consciously aware of the implicit beliefs and intrinsic assumptions
that have been limiting them. A coach can help one do this, and experienced leadership coaches can suggest
ways of processing data already known to us deepen our insights into the situations bothering, perplexing, or
otherwise disturbing the equanimity from which we know that our best choices and decisions are made. Such
coaching empowers one to enhance his or her natural pattern by adding (a) depth (capacity to gain insight for
the development of more thoroughly practical options), or (b) speed (capacity to realize more immediate
tactical flexibility).
Expanding the range of our existing "Theory U" pattern adds to our natural learning and intuiting powers.
These powers can engender either vitality or morbidity in our communications with others. So ethically
minded leadership coaches help us become consciously aware of the limitations implicit in our natural pattern
in order to grow in the capacity to lead, either by initiative or by silence, in ways that are beneficial to all
involved. When we become aware of these limitations, we have gained the emotional freedom we need to
choose healthier and more generative ways to develop both ourselves and others. Moreover, we have learned,
consciously, to be aware of the warning signs that we or the people working for us are losing the inner balance
known as equanimity.
Out of balance, we become vulnerable to the productivity-sapping leadership disabilities of our time:
workaholism, which health professionals say now afflicts between 55 and 85% of post-industrial populations,
and narcissistic presumption of entitlement. But in the measure we are able to stay in balance, the prerequisite
for which is being able to distinguish accurately between unaware ignorance and aware equanimity, we are
able to help optimize the learning rates of others.
By discerning accurately where each person is on his or her pattern of cognitive performance, leaders can
calibrate our calls for growth optimally. We and our leadership team can then operate closer and closer to our
optimum levels of performance in the team of which we are a member -- a state coaches call "team flow":
expressing abilities can occur if one becomes consciously aware of the implicit beliefs and intrinsic assumptions
that have been limiting them. A coach can help one do this, and experienced leadership coaches can suggest
ways of processing data already known to us deepen our insights into the situations bothering, perplexing, or
otherwise disturbing the equanimity from which we know that our best choices and decisions are made. Such
coaching empowers one to enhance his or her natural pattern by adding (a) depth (capacity to gain insight for
the development of more thoroughly practical options), or (b) speed (capacity to realize more immediate
tactical flexibility).
Expanding the range of our existing "Theory U" pattern adds to our natural learning and intuiting powers.
These powers can engender either vitality or morbidity in our communications with others. So ethically
minded leadership coaches help us become consciously aware of the limitations implicit in our natural pattern
in order to grow in the capacity to lead, either by initiative or by silence, in ways that are beneficial to all
involved. When we become aware of these limitations, we have gained the emotional freedom we need to
choose healthier and more generative ways to develop both ourselves and others. Moreover, we have learned,
consciously, to be aware of the warning signs that we or the people working for us are losing the inner balance
known as equanimity.
Out of balance, we become vulnerable to the productivity-sapping leadership disabilities of our time:
workaholism, which health professionals say now afflicts between 55 and 85% of post-industrial populations,
and narcissistic presumption of entitlement. But in the measure we are able to stay in balance, the prerequisite
for which is being able to distinguish accurately between unaware ignorance and aware equanimity, we are
able to help optimize the learning rates of others.
By discerning accurately where each person is on his or her pattern of cognitive performance, leaders can
calibrate our calls for growth optimally. We and our leadership team can then operate closer and closer to our
optimum levels of performance in the team of which we are a member -- a state coaches call "team flow":
Services to Leaders
CCDC: Leadership Capacity Development & Coaching
CCDC: Leadership Capacity Development & Coaching
Authentix Coaches
div. SRL Systemtree Resources Ltd (est. 1980)
div. SRL Systemtree Resources Ltd (est. 1980)
Testimonial
Dishon Limited is a Toronto-based manufacturer of component parts for mission-critical equipment
such as undersea oil rigs, nuclear reactors, and spacecraft. Its customers include such global design
and manufacturing leaders as AECL, McDonald Dettwiler, GE, and Cameron Controls. Its productivity
and quality levels are, and must be, world competitive in its field. Says Ilan Dishy, second-generation
owner, and President: “Continuously raising productivity while meeting escalating standards of quality
assurance is continuously demanding. To avoid becoming workaholic heroes requires uncommon
increments in leadership capacities to fuel steadily rising team productivity at all levels, and we must
accomplish this amongst skilled people who come from many different cultural backgrounds and
technical disciplines. Eight months ago we hired Authentix Coach Angus Cunningham. Attending
weekly or bi-weekly sessions with Angus, my senior people have maintained impressive growth in
monthly shipment volume and per-person productivity, and also gained insights into the meaning and
practice of high-performance teamwork. Our progress is an inspiration to me personally, and in
particular has enabled me to recognize more accurately the latent talent that, once evoked, enables
each of us to enjoy growing. We no longer have to keep twisting ourselves into conventional
psychological prescriptions for personal change. Our culture is transitioning organically to a more
trustingly and prudently constructive and empathic one and I believe the best is yet to come. Angus’
approach, in which vital truth is simultaneously an enlightening beacon and a practical objective in all
our conversations, is helping the senior people to tap the capacities we have as leaders to evoke more
of the potential for present initiative and productivity in every Dishonian. Despite the difficult market
conditions facing Ontario manufacturers, our team is moving ahead to double our floor space this
year” -- Feb 2008
Dishon Limited is a Toronto-based manufacturer of component parts for mission-critical equipment
such as undersea oil rigs, nuclear reactors, and spacecraft. Its customers include such global design
and manufacturing leaders as AECL, McDonald Dettwiler, GE, and Cameron Controls. Its productivity
and quality levels are, and must be, world competitive in its field. Says Ilan Dishy, second-generation
owner, and President: “Continuously raising productivity while meeting escalating standards of quality
assurance is continuously demanding. To avoid becoming workaholic heroes requires uncommon
increments in leadership capacities to fuel steadily rising team productivity at all levels, and we must
accomplish this amongst skilled people who come from many different cultural backgrounds and
technical disciplines. Eight months ago we hired Authentix Coach Angus Cunningham. Attending
weekly or bi-weekly sessions with Angus, my senior people have maintained impressive growth in
monthly shipment volume and per-person productivity, and also gained insights into the meaning and
practice of high-performance teamwork. Our progress is an inspiration to me personally, and in
particular has enabled me to recognize more accurately the latent talent that, once evoked, enables
each of us to enjoy growing. We no longer have to keep twisting ourselves into conventional
psychological prescriptions for personal change. Our culture is transitioning organically to a more
trustingly and prudently constructive and empathic one and I believe the best is yet to come. Angus’
approach, in which vital truth is simultaneously an enlightening beacon and a practical objective in all
our conversations, is helping the senior people to tap the capacities we have as leaders to evoke more
of the potential for present initiative and productivity in every Dishonian. Despite the difficult market
conditions facing Ontario manufacturers, our team is moving ahead to double our floor space this
year” -- Feb 2008
Otto Scharmer of MIT describes the “inward-outward” process by which
we sense our environments and bring ideas into reality as“Theory U”:
we sense our environments and bring ideas into reality as“Theory U”:
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How can we grow our capacities to assess our environments accurately and generate practical
ideas for affecting them positively? This question is critical to answer in both strategy
development and the development of every organization's leadership team.
The ways we sense our environments and bring ideas into reality have distinctive patterns. Each
of us has a pattern from nature and our nurturing that is unique, and each of our patterns has
dimensions of depth and rhythm – from reactively shallow but faster to consciously deep but
slower. Yet one can, if s/he so needs or wants, grow one's pattern to develop a greater range of
trade-offs between speed and profundity of response than one received from nature and nurture.
Indeed, any achievement-oriented person will do this in the ordinary course of his or her income-
earning life -- through the "school of hard knocks". But that is a haphazard school at best: it takes
unmanageable amounts of time, and its graduates are not always functional in the service of
organizational aims and goals.
So can you, as leader of your organization, direct the learning of your leadership team more
consciously and efficiently to meet the needs your organization?
ideas for affecting them positively? This question is critical to answer in both strategy
development and the development of every organization's leadership team.
The ways we sense our environments and bring ideas into reality have distinctive patterns. Each
of us has a pattern from nature and our nurturing that is unique, and each of our patterns has
dimensions of depth and rhythm – from reactively shallow but faster to consciously deep but
slower. Yet one can, if s/he so needs or wants, grow one's pattern to develop a greater range of
trade-offs between speed and profundity of response than one received from nature and nurture.
Indeed, any achievement-oriented person will do this in the ordinary course of his or her income-
earning life -- through the "school of hard knocks". But that is a haphazard school at best: it takes
unmanageable amounts of time, and its graduates are not always functional in the service of
organizational aims and goals.
So can you, as leader of your organization, direct the learning of your leadership team more
consciously and efficiently to meet the needs your organization?
(c) 2007-2008 by Angus Cunningham. All rights reserved. Email for attributable permission requests.