The Practice of Recognizing

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90 minute design	8 hour design	5 half-day sessions
The purpose is to briefly introduce participants to the Practice of Recognizing, to let them experience and discover it for themselves through activity, reflection, discussion.	The purpose is to briefly introduce participants to the Practice of Recognizing, to let them experience and discover it for themselves through activity, reflection, discussion.	The purpose is to briefly introduce participants to the Practice of Recognizing, to let them experience and discover it for themselves through activity, reflection, discussion.
SET-UP AND DEMONSTRATION (15 min.) What do you think Nainoa and blind individuals faced throughout their life in order to trust themselves? Highlight any comments that make reference to the idea that there are often voices of discouragement that can sway one from taking a course of action. Individuals like Nainoa and the blind have learned how to listen and discern how much weight those voices have, and more importantly which ones to use to guide one's daily actions. This is the practice of recognizing. It is about observing and listening to oneself. Share a story from your first calligraphy painting experience. The first time I did a painting in calligraphy, I noticed that my mind, created something, the brush strokes I made would try to recreate it Often times, it did not. It took me many, many efforts to realize this. Sometimes, I would stare at the painting to see what it wanted to create. As if, an image was supposed to magically appear, then all I would have to do is color in the lines. Usually that was an okay experience, but not quite enough. It didn’t feel right. I didn’t know what it was supposed to feel like, but I knew that what I was feeling wasn’t it. So, I began to see if I could let the brush reveal the image without my mind trying to figure it out first. Again and again I kept trying. For many practice efforts, I tried. Each time my mind would somehow sneak in right as I started, and my brush would try to color in the lines that my mind saw Then, finally it happened. My mind got out of the way. The brush soaked up the ink, and I didn’t know what was it was going to happen. The brush moved towards the paper and I still didn’t know The first stroke was made, then another one wanted to be created, so it did. It was as if the brush contained all the energy and I was just a prop to support it. When I was done, I was surprised and inspired. It was a moment when I experienced the practice of recognizing. Demonstrate simple techniques, emphasis is on observing oneself as you choose and modify these techniques Layout the paper, smooth side up, find the top Place rocks where you feel is best Poor ink, just a little, it goes a long way Poor water in small plates, and water down black to shades of gray How to choose a brush How to hold a brush Making movements, brushstrokes, etc. Using rocks, paper towels, etc.	SET-UP AND DEMONSTRATION (15 min.) What do you think Nainoa and blind individuals faced throughout their life in order to trust themselves? Highlight any comments that make reference to the idea that there are often voices of discouragement that can sway one from taking a course of action. Individuals like Nainoa and the blind have learned how to listen and discern how much weight those voices have, and more importantly which ones to use to guide one's daily actions. This is the practice of recognizing. It is about observing and listening to oneself. As you set up the canvases, tell the story of when I paint, of what I think I should paint, of how I should paint, of what I should do when I'm faced with something unfamiliar, or relatively familiar. Logistics note: Set-up all the canvases in the center of the room, in one large grid, leaving space between for participants to walk and crouch next to their painting. For you, this translates in to observing the self, and observing the self in relationship to others. To help you get a sense of what this is and to develop your skills in this, you will be creating a group painting. You will each have an opportunity to work on a piece of this group painting, over several iterations. As you work on your individual painting, be mindful of both your painting and the collective's. You will be working on this painting until lunch, also as the basis for exploring two other practices. The process: I will introduce you to some very basic techniques. You will experiment with those on one canvas. You will choose a canvas, then work on your individual painting, being mindful of the practice of recognizing, observing and listening to yourself. You may return your canvas to the collective's at any point in your process, but more importantly, just observe and pay attention to others. We will pause, hear some thoughts and reflections, then I will set-up the next practice and you'll continue.This activity is about the process, not the result. Some technical guidelines: When we use the sticks, be careful about how you stir and move the paint, and how you take them in and out of the buckets, and where they get placed. We’ve been very careful to seal the edges of the tarp so that paint does not seap in between to the carpet. So, make sure paper towels are around you and that you are watching what happens on the canvas and the plastic, to catch moving paint. In a moment, we’re going to ask you take newspaper and set it around and under the edges of your canvases so that it absorbs some of the water. When you use the water-based paints, be sensitve about the volume that you put on your canvas. Because we have a special truck that we’ll ask you to move them in to, so that they have the time it takes to dry. So, the amount of paint that is on the canvases is going to shift as you walk out the door, which is the process of unfolding. Demonstrate the painting techniques Choose a blank canvas Draw on it with charcoal Then use the squeeze bottles, paint with a variety of colors Make sure there is enough newspaper at the end closest to you Pour white paint along the edge farthest away, just enough to pull and squeegee over the rest of the painting Take a squeege and demonstrate two techniques: when you pull lightly, and when you press down harder and pull Drag the paint almost to the edge or pull it off Then, use the bottles of water and pigment by either pouring lightly, spraying, dripping, etc. Be careful with this phase, so that you don't have too much water on the painting, because you will need to lift and move the painting to store later. So, the more water in the painting, the more fluid it will be for moving.	SET-UP (10 min.) What do you think Nainoa and blind individuals faced throughout their life in order to trust themselves? Highlight any comments that make reference to the idea that there are often voices of discouragement that can sway one from taking a course of action. Individuals like Nainoa and the blind have learned how to listen and discern how much weight those voices have, and more importantly which ones to use to guide one's daily actions. This is the practice of recognizing. It is about observing and listening to oneself. Conversations can be different when we have a different viewpoint of ourselves and of others. This is one of the most tangible ways we have to experience collective virtuosity inside of our organizational life, when we recognize ourselves in ways so that we can participate differently in a conversation. When it really works, we might even call it collective virtuosity. To give you an opportunity to observe and listen to yourself, you'll be creating a 3D model first as an individual, then as a group. Building a model also points to another aspect of recognizing, about making our ideas, feelings, and their interconnections visible. Sometimes what is within us is not as apparent for others to recognize what we can contribute or why we say what we do. Why is a model important? Models give shape to our thoughts, feelings, passions and interests, a structure that guides, that informs our response to the world. Models give us the opportunity to put things together, to integrate, create meaning, promote understanding. Today’s activity is about creating that model using a process called metaphorming. Metaphorming surfaces ideas and thoughts. It can helps to represents ideas and thoughts in ways that are difficult to first put into words. Sometimes the visual representation makes it easier for us to find the words that we want.
INDIVIDUAL ACTIVITY and DISCUSSION (15 min.) Explain these directions: Let's do an individual exercise so that you can become familiar with the brushes, ink and paper PAINT: "your source of action and contribution" This can also be anything simple about the individual, e.g., Who am I? Who am I as a leader? What is my role on the team? in the organization? Ask participants to observe themselves, imaging that they have this other set of eyes and ears that is watching them and hearing their thinking. Ask participants to wash their brushes and clean their water, to prepare for the next painting. Ask them to do these after each painting. Logistics: If a sink is too far away, or if there is too much of a risk of getting ink on the carpets, have buckets of fresh water and empty buckets so that participants can empty their water and rinse out their brushes, then get clean water DISCUSSION What did you observe, see, or hear of yourself as you did those paintings? Highlight the difference between Timothy Gallwey's Self 1 and Self 2 thinking (see Notes section at the bottom of the page).	INDIVIDUAL ACTIVITY (20 min.) Explain these directions: So, to practice that, you'll be working on a painting. Choose a canvas, use any of the techniques to work on that canvases part of the collective's painting. Work on your canvas in relationship to the canvas on all sides of you. This means just take your canvas and move it out so you can work on it, and be close to your neighboring canvases. This will make it easier for you to observe and give attention to the parts of the painting that are on all sides of you. But, remember: listen and observe yourself, and to others, too. You'll have about 20 minutes for this first round.	INDIVIDUAL ACTIVITY and DISCUSSION (45 min. - 1 hr. 15 min.) Explain these directions: Develop a creative, physical, 3D sculpture prototype that represents your ideal state for your personal or business challenge you wrote about earlier. Frame a question for the group or let them create some aspect of their personal or business challenge using all of the materials that have been gathered for you today. But, here's the important thing: practice observing yourself, recognizing your thoughts and feelings, maybe even some that you are sensing in your body. DISCUSSION Ask participants to briefly share their models (in the same configurations as they had their baseline conversation described at the bottom of the page in the Opening) in a few sentences, but to highlight any observations they made of themselves. As the Facilitator, try not to reinforce, affirm or question. If possible, not even a "thank you" before the next person. Just acknowledge with your eyes and at the most, say "Okay," or "anything else" before moving to the next person. At this point, it's important for participants to feel that they can share observations of themselves without judgment. Encourage everyone to listen without judgment as well, to not ask any questions at this point for clarification. Based on what participants say, review the ideas on the notes (below) to highlight nonjudgmental awareness, and that merely recognizing aspects of what you are immersed with is most important. The Practice of Recognizing is "non-judgmental awareness." Now, let's try to practice this as an entire group.
GROUP ACTIVITY (15 min.) Let's give you an opportunity to experience collective virtuosity and the importance of the practice of recognizing Ask groups of participants, 5 or more, to gather around one large sheet of rice paper, and to do a painting together. The only ground rule that I'd like to ask you to support is to not talk, but just to be silent, an to again be mindful of observing themselves, seeing and hearing what they do, feel and think. After the paintings are finished, ask, "So, what happened?" Quote: "Sometimes what artists want to explore is something created by another artist. Making art about something created by another human being is a way to engage intimately with how another human being believes or sees or feels or thinks or wants. It can also be really fun." -- Rebecca Brown In order to completely and fully engage with others, the practice of recognizing can help us learn what might be getting in the way, distracting us from giving another our full attention. And, if each of us is giving our full, complete attention, maybe then that's when you'll find that moment, of collective virtuosity.		GROUP ACTIVITY (45' - 1 hour) Let's give you an opportunity to experience collective virtuosity and the importance of the practice of recognizing In groups of 5-6, or as an entire group (facilitator's disgression), create a new model that reflects an important aspect of each person’s model. Similar to what you did in the individual activity, practice observing yourself again except this time, practice recognizing so that you are being as non-judgmental of yourself and others, as much as possible, by just observing what is happening.
REFLECTION, DEBRIEF, and CLOSING (15 min.) REFLECTION What did you observe, see, or hear of yourself as you did your painting? Did today's experience have any affect on how your personal or business challenge? What is the practice of recognizing? DISCUSSION Ask for any comments or thoughts from the group. Based on what participants say, review the ideas on the notes (below) to highlight nonjudgmental awareness, and that merely recognizing aspects of what you are immersed with is most important. The Practice of Recognizing is "non-judgmental awareness." How did the practice of recognizing help you to begin to sense what collective virtuosity might be? What was different for you when you painted as an individual or when you painted as a group? Collective virtuosity is about being connected to something bigger than who we are as individuals, and maybe even who we are as a department, a group. Collective virtuosity helps us begin to look for ways to find something common that we can work on together, to have the experience of wholness, together. CLOSING "The deepest level of trust when we really have enough self-trust in ourselves that we do not have to prove it or draw unnecessary attention to it. That we can trust that the wisdom is resident in our minds and our bodies, and that we will give ourselves the opportunity to act when moved." -- Stewart, Thomas A., “How to Think with your Gut,” Business 2.0, November 2002, p. 99-104.	REFLECTION, DISCUSSION, and CLOSING (20 min.) REFLECTION In your notebooks: What did you observe, see, or hear of yourself as you did your painting? Take a few minutes and note any thoughts or questions you'd like to capture. DISCUSSION Ask for any comments or thoughts from the group. Based on what participants say, review the ideas on the notes (below) to highlight nonjudgmental awareness, and that merely recognizing aspects of what you are immersed with is most important. The Practice of Recognizing is "non-judgmental awareness." If possible, draw attention to any comments that reflects an aspect of suspending, of being detached from oneself. CLOSING "The deepest level of trust when we really have enough self-trust in ourselves that we do not have to prove it or draw unnecessary attention to it. That we can trust that the wisdom is resident in our minds and our bodies, and that we will give ourselves the opportunity to act when moved." -- Stewart, Thomas A., “How to Think with your Gut,” Business 2.0, November 2002, p. 99-104.	REFLECTION, DISCUSSION, CLOSING and EVALUATION (20 min.) REFLECTION In your notebooks: What did you observe, see, or hear of yourself as you did your painting? Take a few minutes and note any thoughts or questions you'd like to capture. DISCUSSION Ask for any comments or thoughts from the group. What were the differences in observations you made? What did you recognize that was similar or different from the individual activity? Did anyone feel collective virtuosity? What was encouraging or constraining you? Ask questions of the group in order to generate content about the following areas, so that you can summarize and close this session. Internal sensing awareness Practice of recognizing can shift what one's capacity for listening because the mind is not distracted with self-judgments or judgments about others Impressions about what collective virtuosity might feel like CLOSING "The deepest level of trust when we really have enough self-trust in ourselves that we do not have to prove it or draw unnecessary attention to it. That we can trust that the wisdom is resident in our minds and our bodies, and that we will give ourselves the opportunity to act when moved." -- Stewart, Thomas A., “How to Think with your Gut,” Business 2.0, November 2002, p. 99-104. EVALUATIONS For the next session, The Practice of Suspending, please bring your favorite writing tool and a pillow to sit or lie on Please complete the evaluations handout/in your notebook and leave (in a designated location)
	Go to the Practice of Suspending	Go to the Practice of Suspending

Notes:

Timothy Gallway, The Inner Game of Work, p. 3-18.

I have found a better way to change.

… how to make change in the way we work. It is about how to make work work for us.

We are constantly told that we live in an age of change, and nowhere are we told more frequently that we have to change than in the workplace. The change may be a massive corporate reorganization of which you are a small part, or a mindset change “in the way we do things in this department,” or perhaps just an individual change by your manager after your latest performance review.

Observing the normal interaction between a student and his tennis teacher provides a window into the way we have all learned to make changes.

To accomplish this task, the teacher may use a great variety of instructions, but there is a single common context.

The common context is: “I will tell you what you should and shouldn’t do.”

Faced with this series of should and shouldn’t commands, the student’s pattern of behavior becomes quite predictable. Placing his trust in the judgmental feedback of the teacher, the student’s responsibility becomes merely to do what he’s told. Thus he tries hard not to do what he shouldn’t do and to make himself do what he should.

So it goes, over and over again. Change is viewed as a movement from bad to good, defined and initiated by someone other than the one who is making the change. It is done in a judgmental context that usually brings with it resistance, doubt, and fear of failure on the part of the student. Neither student nor teacher is likely to be aware that this approach to change underlines the student’s innate eagerness and responsibility for learning.

My first insight into another way came the day I stopped trying to change the student’s swing. Instead I asked myself, “How is learning really taking place?” and “What’s going on inside the head of the player when he hits the ball?” It occurred to me that there was a dialogue going on in the player’s head, an internal conversation not unlike his external conversation with me. In a commanding tone, the voice in his head would issue teacher like commands to his body: “Get your racket back early. Step into the ball. Follow through at the shoulders.” After the shot, the same voice, would deliver its evaluation of the performance and the performer: “that was a terrible shot! You have the worst backhand I’ve ever seen!”

Is all this inner dialogue really necessary? I wondered. I s it helping the learning process or is it getting in the way? I knew that when great athletes were asked what they were thinking during their best performance, they universally declared that they weren’t thinking very much at all. They reported that their minds ere quiet and focused. If they thought about their performance at all, it was before or after the activityitself.

My next question was, “Is this inner dialogue, who is talking to whom?” I called the voice giving the commands and making the judgments “Self 1.” The one it was talking to, I called “Self 2.” What was their relationship? Self 1 was the know-it-all who basically didn’t trust Self 2, the one who had to hit the ball. Out of mistrust, Self 1 was trying to control Self 2’s behavior using the tactics it had learned from its teachers in the outside world. In other words, the mistrust implied by the judgmental context was being internalized by the student’s Self 1. the resulting self-doubt and ovecontrol interfered with the natural learning process.

But who is Self 2? Is it that unworthy of trust? In my definition, Self 2 is the human being itself. It embodies all the inherent potential we were born with, including all capacities actualized and not yet actualized. It also emobides our innate ability to learn and to grow any of those inherent capacities. It is the self we all enjoyed as young children.

All the evidence pointed to the fact that our best performance happened when Self 1’s voice was quiet and Self 2 was allowed to hit the ball undisturbed. While Self 1 might be commanding the body with the vague instruction “Get the racket back early,” self 2 was doing something far more precise. Calculating the eventual position of the parabolic arc of the ball, it was issuing hundreds of exact nonverbal instructions to scores of muscle groups that allowed the body to hit the ball and send it to the desired location on the other side of the net, all the while taking in to account the speed of the ball, the wind, and the last-second movement of the opponent. Which self was more trustworthy?

It was like a dime-store computer giving orders to a billion-dollar mainframe, then wanting to take the credit for the best outcomes while blaming the mainframe for the worst. It is humbling to realize that the voice giving the controlling demands and criticisms was not really as intelligent as the one receiving them! The invented Self 1 was not as smart as the natural self. In short, the cartoon character Pogo was right when he proclaimed, “I have met the enemy, and it is us.”

The Self 1 dialogue doesn’t just plague beginners in their learning process. It occurs at all levels of performance. Even professionals who have enjoyed performing at the very top levels in their field are vulnerable to crises in confidence.

The Cycle of Self-Interference

Perhaps we all realize that as human beings we have a tendency to give in our own way, but I want to take a closer look at how it actually happens. Take the simple action of hitting a single tennis ball. The player sees an image of an approaching ball, then responds by moving into position and striking the ball, producing the results of the action. Perception, response, results. The basic elements of any human action are summarized in this simple sequence of events.

But usually it’s not quite so simple. Between the perception and the action, there is some interpretation. After the results and before the next action, there is yet more thinking. At each stage, meaning is being attributed to each part of the action and often to the performer himself. These meanings can have a huge impact on the player’s performance.

Self 1 introduces distortion into every element of the action. The distortion in self-image prompts a distortion in perception that leads to a distorted response that confirms the originally distorted self-image.

Finding a Better Way to Change

What would happen if the player’s judgment of himself and his performance could be replaced by a nonjudgmental observation of fact?

As I explored answers to these questions, a different and more elegant approach to learning and coaching emerged. It was based on principles that could be summarized in three words: awareness, trust and choice. Elaborated slightly, the principles were (1) nonjudgmental awareness is curative; (2) trust Self 2 ( my own and the student’s); and (3) leave primary learning choices with the student.

1. The Power of Nonjudgmental Awareness. Once I realized that my “should and shouldn’t” instructions were part of what was getting in the way, I began to explore ways of helping the student learn without them.

When my student complained about his faulty backhand, I would tell him that I wanted to postpone fixing it until later. All I wanted him to do now was to observe some detail of the ball. For example, I might ask the student to notice whether the ball was falling rising, or level at the moment of contact with the racked. I would hasten to say that I wasn’t asking him to make any change, but just to observe what was happening. As the student became absorbed in watching the flight of the ball, he would become “distracted” from his Self 1 efforts to control the stroke, and for the moment, all perceived threat would disappear.
“That ball was still rising when it hit the racket. That one was level. And that one was coming down from its highest point.” When I could hear the neutrality of observation in his tone of voice, I knew that his mind-set was no longer, a judgmental one, at least for the moment. What amazed me at first, but which I later came to expect, was that in this nonjudgmental mode of observation of the ball, many of the technical elements of his swing would change spontaneously.

Why did these positive changes occur? Was it as simple as getting Self 1 out of the way and allowing Self 2 to learn how to hit the shot? One answer is that when the initial perception of the ball as a threat was removed, the elements of defensive behavior (backward movement and slashing at the ball) vanished also. Instead, the body was allowed its natural response to the perception of the ball, which was to step into it and hit it. Sensing that the coach was not interested in judging his stroke, but simple in his observation of the ball, the student’s mind was, for the moment, relatively free of self-judgment and Self 1 type controls.

The same principle of nonjudgmental awareness worked when the focus was shifted from the ball to the player’s actions. For example, when I asked the student to pay attention to his movements – but without making any effort to change them – change would begin to take place spontaneously.

Thus the first step in this better way to change lies in a nonjudgmental acknowledgement of things as they are. Paradoxically, it is conscious acceptance of oneself and one’s actions as they are that frees up both the incentive and the capacity for spontaneous change.

2. Trust in Self 2 – perhaps the most difficult thing about this new learning process was that both the coach and the student had to learn to trust the natural learning process.

We had to trust that as our awareness increased, effective learning and change would take place.

Time and again when I was patient enough to let go of my desire to control the learning, it would take place at its own pace and in a much more elegant and effective way than ever could have happened using a teacher-centered command-and-control methodology.

I have found this trust easier and easier to come by. The more I trusted this natural process as the coach, the easier it was for students to trust themselves and their own capacity to learn from experience.

As the student sees continuing improvement take place with out the “should and shouldn’t” instructions, his self-trust grows stronger. Soon he realizes that learning in this way is a very different experience from that of being fit in to a preconceived model of correct form. It is the experience of learning from the inside out, instead of from the outside in, and it is always a beautiful thing to see.

3. Keep choice with the Choice-Maker.

The question then becomes, who is choosing the outcome.

I had to learn to give the choices back to the student. Why? Because the learning takes place with the student. The student makes the choices that ultimately control whether learning takes place or doesn’t. In the end, I realized that the student was responsible for the learning choices and I was responsible for the quality of the external learning environment.

What this meant was that I would ask the student what he wanted to improve and why.

My role was not just to make the immediate goal as clear as possible but to evoke from the student the underlying purpose and motivation for reaching the goal. Allowing the student to be more aware of the choices he was making and the reasons behind those choices was an essential part of this learning process.

Experience with the three principles – awareness, choice, and trust – showed that they were inextricably connected. They were three parts of a whole. Awareness was about knowing the present situation with clarity. Choice was about moving in a desired direction in the future. And Trust in one’s own inner resources was the essential link that enabled that movement.

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