What are your values? We all have them; as individuals we have values, the social groups we’re a part of have values. The organisations and businesses that we’re a part of have values too. Though values aren’t always easy to articulate, they define who we are.
hat’s why we’re shining the spotlight on ourselves and explaining Farscape’s values. Together they form our philosophy, which underpins everything that we do. That philosophy directly impacts the work we undertake with your senior leaders. And that affects the outcomes your organisation see as a result. In later blogs, we’ll look at our values of ‘place’ and of ‘reflective experience’. To begin, we’ll look at how consciousness forms the basis of our work.
Raising consciousness is the foundation of development
To gain the heady heights of effective leadership, it’s necessary to start with the foundations. In any development programme, raising consciousness is the starting point. Likewise, it’s the foundation of our philosophy. In order for the work to be truly effective, each part of our philosophy must be brought to bear on the process. Yet the process must begin somewhere, and starting with consciousness means the work has the greatest chance of success.
The reason that improving people’s consciousness is so important, is because it opens up a range of possibilities to an individual, to a team, that they were unaware of beforehand. Leaders, particularly senior leaders, are often so busy ‘doing’ that there’s no time to stop and notice. In sticking with what they’ve always done, leaders see the same results.
Raising consciousness is about that moment of pause: stopping to think, to observe, to notice. That’s the moment when leaders take a breather at the top of the stairs, rather than simply reeling onwards and bumping down them forever more.
Improving awareness, raising consciousness? you might wonder what that really means. There are three critical elements that we explore with leaders when doing this work: values, personality, and emotions. For individuals to move forward, on their own or in a team, a strong understanding of these things is key.
Values – Our values define why we do what we do. Our values are central to who we are as people, and are the thing that most people are least clear about. This can prove challenging, especially as our values are often defined by a very early age. They are largely influenced by things like our family, community, faith or school experiences. The ingrained nature of values means we’re often unconscious of them – they simply are.This gives rise to tension. Everybody has their own unique set of values.
Personality – Personality is the way we do what we do; it outlines our preference for how we do things. Sometimes, in development work, the subject of personality is mishandled and the exploration can be facilitated quite clunkily. It’s important to note that personality is not about ability, nor does it equate to a particular job title. Just because your personality indicates a preference for introversion, it doesn’t mean that you’re not able to borrow the behaviours of an extrovert. By borrowing behaviours, trying on various personality traits, leaders can increase their range of behaviours and generate different outcomes.
Emotions – Emotions are what physiologically happens in our bodies. If you start to feel sweaty palms, if your heart starts beating faster, and your stomach knots tightly, you realise the emotion of fear is playing out. Emotions tend to generate a behavioural reaction. When we’re unconscious of our emotions, we don’t notice what is going on internally, and what’s on the inside emerges as behaviour. Without consciousness, it’s easy to become subject to the emotion. By raising consciousness and being more aware of what’s going on around us, and within us, we have a better chance of turning the emotion into an object.