Introduction
This White Paper will help you create partnerships that work. You will learn 3 Simple Secrets that you can use with partners and colleagues in your own company or from other companies.
We live in an Age that is perfect for partnering - the Information Age. With the click of a button, we can talk with people from all over the world and work together to solve common problems and create a better world.
Partnering enables us to do what we do best and offer more value to our clients and customers through the unique specialties our partners bring. In this way, we expand our service to the world.
These Secrets are easy to understand and at the same time, take practice. Work with them in the same way you train yourself to excel in a hobby or sport.
Each Secret includes at least one Action to help you integrate it into your life.
For coaching using these Secrets in your business, email oshanaben@yahoo.com.
The First Secret
Practice the Law of One.
The Law of One is the most ancient law in the world. It asks us to create only that which is for the highest good of everyone.
Let's use an example from the field of real estate. Let's say that you are a real estate developer and you have just received a permit to develop a school in a neighborhood in which 50,000 people have lived for over 100 years. Building the school means that 5% of the population will have to relocate.
How will you handle this? Will you hold meetings with the residents who have to move and offer them several viable options? Will you provide generous compensation? Will you listen to their ideas and feelings about how the project is affecting them? Will you adopt green building practices? What does the ‘highest good' mean to you and what does it mean to the residents who have to relocate?
Simply having the intention to act for the highest good of everyone opens many new avenues. Using this Law frees you from having to compromise or negotiate. The highest good becomes the next and most natural thing to do. Your actions then bring multiple benefits for everyone.
When you practice this Law with the groups you are working with, you create results beyond what you once thought was possible.
Actions
Hold Law of One Planning andProblem-Solving Sessions
Set aside an hour for a Law of One Planning and Problem-Solving Session with your partners or colleagues. You may want to share a meal together or have quality social time together first. This helps you to relax and become more receptive to the new ideas that arise during the Session.
Use the Law of One whenever you want to generate the most expansive results and in situations in which you feel stuck.
This is how it works:
Sit facing your partner. Have some paper and a pen at your side. One partner asks the following questions and the other partner takes notes and acts as the scribe.
The Law of One Process
1. What is the situation or action we want to take?2. Who will benefit and/or who will be harmed?3. Now sit in silence for 10 - 15 minutes together.4. Share aloud your reflections and insights from sitting in silence.5. Ask if what you want to do is for the highest good of everyone.6. What are your next steps?7. How and when will you take them?
When your intention is for the highest good of all, you naturally create solutions which benefit everyone.
The Second Secret
Set Aside Time to Think and Plan Together.
Many of my clients tell me that they are too busy to take time out of their busy day to vision and plan together. They think that it is a luxury. I remind them that it will shorten their workday and help them make much better decisions.
There are multiple benefits to this approach. It saves you time by cutting out the activities which do not support your most essential goals. It gives you time to think through and plan important conversations and the actions you will take. When you"fine tune" what you do in this way you create laser-like precision which you can use in every aspect of your work.
Actions
When is the best time for you and your partner to vision and plan together? Some partners have morning meetings before they begin their work. This can be a short meeting which lasts only fifteen minutes or it can be longer.
The First Step
Talk with your partner about setting aside the best time for both of you to vision and plan. It is a good idea to have daily, weekly and monthly Visioning/Planning Sessions. Each of these serves a unique purpose and emphasizes different aspects of your work.
Daily Visioning/Planning Sessions
Here are a few ideas for daily sessions. Create them to fit your own management style and needs.
Share with your partner the activities you are planning to focus on that day. This includes asking questions and sharing problems that came up the day before.
If you do not have time to talk in-depth about these, set aside time during the weekto do this.
Weekly Visioning/Planning Sessions
Weekly Visioning/Planning Sessions can be 1-2 hours in length. Set aside all of the time that you need. This will save you hours of work.
Have an agenda for the meeting. Allow enough time to discuss issues and ideas deeply.
Weekly Visioning/Planning Sessions often include discussing the status of projects, administrative issues, problems and new opportunities.
Monthly Visioning/Planning Sessions
Monthly Visioning/Planning Sessions are often 2 - 3 hours in length. If you like, experiment with having them outside of your place of business. This can free you to be more innovative and find fresh solutions which work.
Monthly Sessions are a good time to review your vision, status of projects, and quarterly and yearly goals and to update and revise your actions for the coming month and quarter.
I feel that it is good to review your purpose and vision monthly as you will have new insights every time you do this.
The Third Secret
Have a Method For Solving Issues As They Arise.
Practicing this Secret increases the possibility that your partnership will succeed.There are 2 processes I'd like to share with you. One is for solving issues and the other is for sharing daily what you are thinking and feeling with your partner.
If you do not have a method for solving issues when they come up, your decisions will be influenced by the way you and your partner are feeling that day. This can lead to actions you may regret. Why not use a method that works every time and leads to creating positive results which everyone can enjoy?
The Solving Issues Process is one method for solving issues as they arise. One of the most important aspects of this process is the way you listen to each other. When you listen free of judgment or opinion, your partner begins to share at deeper levels and arrives at their own answers easily.
Actions
The Solving Issues Process
Use this process when there is something you want to solve or you have an important decision to make. Here are a few examples of situations in which this Process can be helpful.
- You and your partner disagree about what materials to use in developing a new product.
- You need to decide whether to accept or decline a new contract.
- You have an employee whose performance is affecting the productivity of his department.
In all of these situations, one partner states the following questions aloud and the other acts as the scribe and writes down the answers that you both share.
The key to the success of this Process is the way you and your partner listen. Listen to each other as if the other person is offering you the key to a room filled with gold. In this process, you do not respond in any way to what your partner is sharing.
Here is the Process.
1. What do we want to solve? 2. How do we each think and feel about it?3. What is for the highest good?4. Sit for 10 - 15 minutes in silence.4. Share your new reflections and insights.5. What actions will we take?6. How and when will we take them?
If you practice this method at least 5 times a week, you will find that within 90 days, you will regenerate your business in ways you could not have imagined before. Use it for issues and problems as well as new events and opportunities.
The Sharing What I Think and Feel Process
This process is for sharing what you are thinking and feeling daily. It requires no action from your partner except to listen and thank you for what have shared.
We all have conversations inside of us which we would never think of sharing. Often they are negative thoughts and feelings about another person or situation.
However, some of these can be shared constructively when they are shared and received without judgment.
I recommend using this Process as a part of every meeting. Here is how it works.
Your Partner: "Is there anything you would like to share?"
You: "Yes. I am feeling anxious because the engineering project is moving more slowly than anticipated."
Your Partner: "Thank you for sharing."
Notice that what you shared is free from blame. You did not say "I am feeling anxious because you are working too slowly on the engineering project." You simply shared that you were anxious about the speed of the project.
When you want to discuss what your partner has shared with you, set aside a special time just for this. Continue to listen in a mode of discovery.
This Process enables you to release negativity in a healthy way. It frees you to be more creative and successful.
Conclusion
We would like to know how these Secrets are working for you. Call us at 480-353-7312 or email oshanaben@yahoo.com.
© 2007 Oshana Himot, MBA, CHT. All Rights Reserved.
Oshana Himot, MBA, CHT, management consultant, works with companies and entrepreneurs to help them develop more successful partnerships within their own company and with other companies. She also works on work-life balance issues as well. Oshana has a Masters of Business Administration degree in Corporate Finance from Golden Gate University in San Francisco, California and is also a Certified Hypnotherapist. She has been working in the field of management for sixteen years and is currently a member of the Institute of Executive Development and International Association of Coaching. Oshana is the author of It's All About Joy, a book which helps groups and individuals achieve extraordinary results through joy. She is presently facilitating workshops and retreats for executives based upon her book. To contact her, visit her website at: www.itsallaboutjoy.com
