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Going to Meetings - a creative involvement

Zohar D & Marshall I (1993)
The Quantum Society; Mind, Physics and a New Social Vision;
Flamingo; ISBN 0006547931

The way that we look at ourselves, the way that we perceive ourselves, is defined by our attitudes. The attitudes that we adopt in any situation partially determine how that situation will unfold. Our attitudes hold the key to the kinds, and the extent, of relationships that we can enjoy, and hence to the kinds of communities that we build. Consider how your attitudes might affect your inputs to a meeting.

 

the don't listen attitude

 the don't speak attitude
If you go into a meeting with a proposal that you want the group to approve, you are adopting an attitude that you want to use the meeting for your own ends. You will be less open to the suggestions of others, more alienated from any group dynamic that evolves during the meeting. If, at the other extreme, you go to the meeting with no ideas to put forward, if you adopt an attitude that you will allow yourself to be carried along by the will of the group, then you will make no creative contribution as an individual.

Neither of these attitudes helps with the emergence of a community spirit within the group. This can only emerge when the members trust each other and, while they each have a point of view to put forward, they are willing to change it in the light of free and open interaction with the points of view of others. Some of the characteristics of this middle way are indicated in the following table :

 

Rigid attitudes leading to alienation from the group

Poised stance compatible with creative freedom

Rigid attitudes leading to alienation from your self
obsession love promiscuity
fanaticism loyalty following
role playing character anomie
habit style trendiness
ideological open-minded totally receptive
parochial imaginative adrift
single-minded sense of value anything goes
observation participation being taken over
separate involved overwhelmed
independent dialogue conformity
my way our way your way

So what are your attitudes when you go to meetings? Are you content with them? Are you willing to change them?

Are you ready to contribute to the creative evolution of whatever it is that you go to meetings for?

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