| Chant Construction, a dam-building company with 45 employees founded 7 years ago by Ted Chant, had been owed nearly $10 million for over three years by a ‘well-heeled’ client, an electricity utility. Not surprisingly Ted, its chief executive and sole owner, felt furious, and also alarmed because this unpaid debt was holding up launch of the Employee Share Ownership Plan he had long promised his employees. Although he had learned to manage these strong emotions extraordinarily well, Ted knew they were adversely affecting his decision-making. So, when Peter Wales (pseudonym), a consulting broker, introduced him in 2006 to the author, whom Peter knew had done good work in similar circumstances, Ted was intrigued. We began with an interview involving Ted's director of human resources, following which I prepared a substantial 7-section proposal that laid out a trade-off between desired outcome and investment by the client. Ted and I then reviewed this proposal and refined it into a firm contract. We then began weekly 2-3 hour coaching sessions over the course of which Ted described in increasing detail the circumstances he faced and I introduced him to the "I have X emotion now” (IHXEN) format of an I- statement. Because this linguistic, whose acronym IHXEN is pronounced 'Eye-Zen', is not commonly used, yet is also the focus of this narrative, readers unfamiliar with psycho-linguistics will probably want to know at least some of the theory supporting the use of IHXENs. I have therefore included in the following five paragraphs the briefest possible summary of the psycho-linguistic theory that supports their use, and trust that, before continuing to read this narrative of a coaching engagement facilitated by them, readers will want to study these paragraphs carefully. The IHXEN I-statement is foundational to what is becoming known as Rational Emoto-Linguistics. This is an approach to problem-solving conversation designed specifically by the author either to eliminate or to manage the timing of, assertions of what one otherwise could be risking one's interlocutor interpreting one's point of view as a presumption or an unwarranted prejudice, or of carrying forward conclusions that may be too personal and therefore inaccurate. The logic form of an IHXEN I-statement is an alternative to what is much the more conventional form by which we reveal our feelings today in English: it is an alternative to the "I am 'X adjectival phrase'" (IAXAP) form of I- statement. Many readers will not be aware of the psycho-linguistic significance of the difference between the IHXEN and IAXAP forms of I-statement. I have therefore provided, in this link, a brief comparison of the essential differences and their significance to serious problem-solving conversation. Acquiring the ability to resort to an IHXEN in situations when an IAXAP would 'feel more natural' gives a person an unusual power: to articulate his or her own immediate truth in a way that both avoids carrying forward errors of perspective and is verifiably and satisfyingly authentic from the points of view of all interlocutors present. Unlike the IAXAP linguistic form, the IHXEN form is devoid of any potentially prejudicial or presumptive ideation. That means that resort to an IHXEN offers the earnest participant in a serious discussion a sure way to avoid either misleading one's interlocutors or triggering any cause for their taking offence. At the same time, an IHXEN is experienced by one's interlocutors as quite self-revealing in an intimate, if also somewhat quaint, way. Since bravadoic attempts to convince and doubts as to one or another's authenticity are major sources of distrust and/or unintentional misdirection in problem-solving conversation, the practice of honest IHXENs empowers the earnest problem-solver slowly, but safely and surely, to build trust at the same time as modeling for his/her interlocutor how increases in trust can be reciprocated. From prior coaching experiences, I had learned that, if such reciprocation can be deepened to the point where it becomes more or less effortless (and thus 'natural'), the participants in a serious discussion facilitated by resort, in moments of noticeable emotion, to IHXEN exchanges can eliminate what Authentix Coaches call 'emoto-linguistic bias'. My use here of the term 'emoto-linguistic bias', instead of either of the more commonly used words 'presumption' or 'prejudice', may strike the reader as either intriguing or pretentious. If the latter, please be aware that I have introduced this term because labeling another's words as either 'presumption' or 'prejudice' implies that one is evaluating him or her as having a careless or cavalier intent; so my doing so here is neither to be pretentious nor to deny that intents can indeed be lacking sometimes in care or empathy. My intent is rather to share with the reader the reality that, in my coaching practice, I have often noticed that even intents of conscientious compunction can sometimes, and then very unfortunately, be interpreted as either offensive or quaintly irrelevant. In moments of anxiety, one is prone to worry excessively about offending when introducing something controversial. And in moments of anxiety's opposite, euphoric over-confidence, one is prone to neglect the risks of offending one's interlocutor while introducing an innovative, and therefore potentially controversial, perspective. The outcomes of such moments can play havoc with the relationship between two otherwise earnest problem-solvers. But, by resorting to an IHXEN in such moments, one learns deliberately how unfailingly to avoid risking such a misfortune occurring. Moreover, when exchanges of IHXENs begin to occur between problem-solving conversational partners, we discover that our conversations become progressively more free of emoto-linguistic bias -- not only in our speech or writing but in our thinking too. Indeed, resort to IHXENs in moments of difficulty, challenge, or euphoria makes the smooth continuation of either constructive or congenial conversation possible when otherwise the natural 'trotting out' of an IAXAP could inadvertently be interpreted as signalling either a hostile intent or a the occurrence of a loss of relevance. Since the perception of either of these signals is invariably an impediment to joint problem-solving, this feature of IHXENs can, as the present narrative can now illustrate, augment such problem-solving capacity as the members of an organization ordinarily exhibit. To resume the engagement narrative: Ted, an engineer by profession, worked with me, at moments of doubt or other forms of anxiety, to practice IHXEN exchanges in coaching sessions of two to three hours every week for a few months. This practice, by making our relationship an unusually safe place, facilitated release and sharing of a lot of intuitions and memories that would have been considered “bad form” in ordinary business conversation. We were then able to put this shared material to practical use by testing it against objective data, which in turn empowered us together to refine it into what seemed to both of us relevant and reliable insight into the survival problem of the overdue receivable. Ted, who, before founding Chant, had been a very senior executive in a large and very well known construction firm, found these sessions cleared and grounded his thinking. As our ease and confidence with the practice of IHXEN exchanges grew, we were able to focus our attention on exploring drafts of an email aimed at interesting the utility president in meeting Ted; and Ted soon felt enough confidence in this process to instruct the lawyer with whom he was working on the legal side of the issues, not to initiate any further activity on the utility file. At the same time, he acquired enough confidence in me to ask that I work with his corporate staff to see if we could feel comfortable proposing his Employee Share Ownership Plan in advance of the next annual general meeting. The ESOP was a major part of Ted’s founding vision for the company. It was, in fact, a project he and his senior staff had been working on with an ESOP consultant for two years. But, pending a satisfactory resolution of the outstanding utility receivable, no senior person had felt comfortable proposing to Chant employees at large the specifics of what had earlier been agreed as reasonable ESOP terms with the ESOP consultant. Indeed, at the time of my engagement, only Ted was able to retain any hope that the utility receivable would ever actually be resolved. In these rather unpromising circumstances I suggested that the existing ESOP offering terms would be more attractive to employees if they were to include a social contract binding employees and their leaders more closely in explicitly described shared aspirations. Such a contract could become a written commitment by all levels to personal growth by dedication to a desirable set of corporate value disciplines. Honesty might be an example of such a value discipline. It might be defined, as in fact Authentix Coaches had already agreed to define it in prior coaching engagements, as: Honesty: The discipline of avoiding either inaccuracy or deception and of being reciprocally open about intents and evolving intentions. By sharing with the senior group the Authentix list of eight definitions for such personal-professional values -- ones Authentix Coaches had developed and practised over many years as disciplines toward which Authentix clients and their coaches could both aspire in our relationships -- I believed Chant would be able to give practical form to the corporate social contract I was envisioning: hopefully, it would offer a blueprint for increasing the level of trust each Chant person would feel able safely to repose in other members of the organization. I therefore proposed inserting a preface to the existing ESOP draft – one that would explicitly commit Chant people to adopting defined value disciplines as an aspiration toward which all could work. I also suggested we start with the eight value-discipline definitions adopted in Authentix coaching engagements. Feedback on this idea from the senior group resulted in approval of all eight of the Authentix definitions, and a lively debate – one facilitated by IHXENs – then ensued concerning other value disciplines that the team collectively felt made sense for Chant’s particular 'economic niche'. These debates were concluded by a consensus around a total of 15 values – on the understanding that the 15 could be elaborated into a 'ladder' of disciplines to which all Chant people, both junior and senior, could usefully aspire. We visualized the ladder becoming a part of Chant's employee performance review process. The ESOP team then asked me to thread the descriptions of the new value disciplines into a preface to their document of Offer to Employees. When I had done this to their satisfaction, Ted added to the credibility of the new value disciplines by having their descriptions framed and displayed prominently in Chant's offices, and the ESOP team then went ahead with the ESOP launch. The results? First, everyone felt a surge of confidence that coherence between Ted and his prospective employee shareholders could more easily be found in the ongoing problem-solving activities of the company; and second, the ESOP launch attracted, without change to any of its pre-existing commercial terms, 'buy- ins' by 90% of permanent employees. (By way of comparison, 90% is about three times the average for ESOP launches in the United States). Shortly thereafter, our IHXEN-facilitated sessions culminated in a draft for the email to the utility president. But before sending it, we wanted to be very sure that both Ted’s and my states of being in relation to sending the email were, given the email’s significance for Chant’s survival, truly equanimity. This requirement was not easy to satisfy because neither of us was entirely sure how he could distinguish genuine equanimity from states of being close to it. We knew that equanimity lay somewhere between positive and negative emotions yet was not what one might call 'numbed-out' indifference or carefully controlled bravado. Moreover, from our practice of IHXEN exchanges we had become minutely aware of each of our emotions in relation to each significant part of our draft. Working in this way, our practice of IHXEN exchange eventually led to us both feeling satisfied that each of us had found equanimity rather than 'controlled indifference or bravado' in relation to sending the draft. Only then did Ted send it. The entire process took us almost six months. But, to our delight, the utility president responded immediately by visiting Ted and making a starting settlement offer of $3 million. As all lawyers know, this progress meant that Chant could safely assume that most of the remaining $10 million would soon be settled reasonably amicably, and this knowledge naturally relieved a lot of anxiety on the part not only of Ted, who was then able to pass the issue over to his lawyer, but also of Chant's employees. Ted had turned the corner for Chant Construction from what might be described as gamely but dudgeonly frustration at the top and anxiety below to fruitful negotiation and confidence in future "Team Chant" coherence throughout the organization. Our practice, at moments of particular difficulty in decision-making, of the IHXEN linguistic, which is the cornerstone of what I now call the 'Eye-Zen English' family of Rational Emoto-Linguistics, had made the 'critical difference'. It had empowered Ted to transform the energy of his anger and alarm – at the utility's unconscienable ignorance of the plight in which its executives had left his company – into rationally purposeful energy on a wide but coherent 'front' for Chant Construction. Practice of the IHXEN linguistic was not on its own responsible for this result, which was all the more astonishing because it was quite unexpected by virtually all involved. The people who used this practice also contributed many specialty skills of their own to produce the engagement’s success. What practice of the IHXEN linguistic had done was help the people involved become consciously aware of the emotions that from time to time would – had they not practiced IHXEN exchanges – have otherwise diverted them from focusing on constructive productive problem-solving. By acquiring some proficiency in exchanging IHXENs, they were able to transform the energy of their emotions into trustingly connected and purposeful teamwork. .. |
| Proficiency in the IHXEN Linguistic: Achieving Balance to Make a Big Pay-Off -- a summary narrative (c) 2007-2012 by Angus Cunningham President, Authentix Coaches |
A name in this summary narrative has been disguised to protect confidentiality,
but is available to interested parties on a need-to-know basis.
but is available to interested parties on a need-to-know basis.
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| .. Cost/benefit of the Authentix service: an investment of under $30,000, plus perhaps $50,000 to $80,000 in internal opportunity costs, had (a) resulted in recovery of a receivable outstanding that had been threatening the client's survival and (b)produced the solid base for a cooperative future provided by an ESOP launch that had generated much good will between the founder and owner and his enterprising employees. .. |