The priest Ryokan… asked Zen master Bukkan… for an explination of the four Dharma-worlds…[Bukkan] said: “To explain the four Dharama-worlds should not need a lot of chatter.” He filled a white tea cup with tea, drank it up, and smashed the cup to pieces right in front of the priest , saying ” Have you got it ?” The priest said: ” Thanks to your here-and-now teaching, i have penetrated right into the realm of Prinicple and Event.” – Trevor Leggett, Samurai Zen: The warrior
A learning agenda defines what you want to learn. By creating a learning plan, you accelerate learning – translate learning goals into a specific set of actions. Identify promising sources of insights, and use systematic methods to deepen your understanding of the new organization progressively.
Diagnosing Questions
- What are the biggest challenges the organization is facing / will face?
- Why is it facing these?
- What are the most unexploited opportunities for growth?
- What would need to happen to exploit them?
- If you were me what would you focus on?
- Analysis – Carefully listen
- Who points fingers?
- Who takes responsibility?
- Who is evasive?
- who answers directly?
- Who has a broad view? who is narrow and stuck?
Communication is a kind of war, its field of battle is the resistant and offensive mind of the people you want to influence. The goal is to advance, to penetrate their defences and to occupy their minds. Anything else is ineffective communication and self-indulgent talk. Learn to infiltrate your ideas behind the enemy lines, sending messages through little details, luring people into coming to the conclusions you desire and into thinking they’ve gotten there by themselves.
The most superficial way of trying to influence others is through talk that has nothing real behind it. The influence produced by such a mere tongue wagging must necessarily remain insignifacant. THE I CHING,CHINA
Some you can trick by cloaking your extraordinary ideas in ordinary forms; others, more resistant and dull, must be awaken with extreme language that bristles with newness. At all costs, avoid language that is static, preachy, and overly personal. Make your words a spark for action, not a passive contemplation.
Cyclical learning
- Collection of information
- Analysis and Distillations
- Developing and testing hypotheses
- Repeat (1)
When you are trying to communicate and can’t find the point in the experience of the other part at which he can recieve and understand, then, you must create the experience for him. I was trying to explain to two staff organizers in training how their problems in their community arose because they had gone outside the experience of their people: that when you go outside anyone’s experience not only do you not communicate, you cause confusion. They had earnest,intelligent expressions on their faces and were verbally and visually agreeing and understanding, but I knew they really didn’t understand and that i was not communicating. I had not got into their experience. So I had to give them an experience. RULES FOR RADICALS, SAUL ALINSKY,1971