Enlivening Edge Community Conversations  – A Refreshing Dip into a Teal Pool

By Hayden Smith for Enlivening Edge Magazine

and by Joriam Philipe for Enlivening Edge Magazine

Hayden:

In my journey to live an authentic and meaningful life in harmony with my purpose, I’ve found the Enlivening Edge community calls deeply nurturing. When most of your time is spent in service to transforming a largely “Orange” organization, it’s imperative to take a refreshing dip into a warm “Teal” pool.

EE Community Conversations are just that: a welcoming space where beautiful people share streams of consciousness to connect, explore, energize, and evolve.

In the June 26, 2019, call, I had the pleasure of reflecting with Doug Breitbart on the topic of  “conundrums and polarization in my work.” We found that our fears are often the source of our internal conflicts. If we muster the courage to move past them, the realization of our hopes and dreams lies just beyond.

This led me to discover that the perceived polarity underlying any of my choices was really an invitation to rethink my perspective. I’m moving forward with this newfound perspective to help the “managers” around me to unleash the power of our organization’s collective intelligence.

“Who am I committed to being? What’s my soul’s journey? How do I manifest this in my organization and life?” Thank you Will, Alia, Doug and all others that boldly make it possible to explore the answers to these questions through these generative conversations and deep connections. You make the journey worth the effort, even if the destination seems a million miles away.

Joriam:

It’s rare and precious to see a videocall that really goes out of its way to make people care about each other—and that’s the main gift of Enlivening Edge’s conversations. It’s not a rushed, task-focused experience, but rather a big soup being cooked by everyone together.

Hayden’s personal story told in yesterday’s July 4 call reminded me of a concept I heard many years ago: “If an egg breaks from the outside in, it means death. If it breaks from the inside out, it means life”. I’m grateful people like him fighting the good fight and facing the uphill climb that is changing the corporate behemoths’ DNA.

I left this, my first call, without really knowing people’s names or job descriptions, but having a solid first step into understanding how they feel this world—and I wouldn’t want it any other way. When was the last time you were on a call, the agreed time was over—and some people stayed for an extra half an hour just because they wanted to? Well, for me that was yesterday.

Hayden Smith is a recovering manager.  His 13-year career with Siemens has culminated in a burning passion to unleash the intrinsic potential within every individual, team, and organization.  Through his journey as an engineer, project & portfolio manager, and people manager, he has come full circle to realize his boyhood dream of making the world a better place as really all that matters.  He finds meaning in raising his children to do good in the world, and participates actively in building his community.

Joriam Philipe is a firm believer in the power of questions—particularly the really complex ones. Joriam’s work and research revolves around games, rituals, and online networks. He’s the founder of Hard Question Studio and creator of the cardgame JoJoJo.