Welcome to the latest instalment of ‘Nourishing Waters’ our monthly newsletter.

With so much employee disengagement, ill health, and disruptive external influences on the workplace we’ve never felt more committed to and convinced that the long term sustainable solutions to these dilemmas lie in unlocking the power of purpose and belonging in company cultures and everything achieving that entails.

Nourishing Waters is just one of Emei’s offerings where individuals can come and reconnect with their hidden or diminished potential and also be a place where leaders can find provocations and enquiries into what can inspire themselves and deeply connect and unlock the potential in those around them.

We have a guest columnist every month either offering their own deep insights and experiences around personal and organisational change, or a heart-felt individual story of change and purposeful practice leading to latent and hidden potential being released.

And we aim to deliver this content in a range of mediums from video and visuals to the written word in order to cater for different preferences. We hope you enjoy and drink deeply of these waters and we welcome anyone that is willing to share their own experiences and reflections.

If you would welcome a conversation about how you or your organisation could benefit from Emei’s deep knowledge and experience in this field then feel free to get in touch.

—
Andrew & Matthew.

Replenishing

A collection of the developmental insights and provocations that we have found particularly motivating this month.

1. The Secret to great health? Escaping the healthcare "matrix".... Oh, and a deep sense of purpose, belonging, and identity. A wonderfully holistic report on better health from The McKinsey Health Institute that feels like it should be essential reading for....well everyone really. There’s a lot in here, and let me bring your attention to Exhibit 4 in particular, a tour de force of summarising the inter-related dimensions of great health status. Where would you rate yourself on each of those dimensions?

2. Leaders - what do you really believe? It's very important to know... This might seem an obvious statement, but as coaches and facilitators, because most of our beliefs and intention are subconscious, we often find considerable gaps in clarity, (and at best vagueness), about what leaders think they believe. Many, (not all), just haven't done the hard yards to bring into their conscious awareness their deepest beliefs. For example, take a moment to ask yourself whether you believe in "work-life" balance, in that there are two separate versions of yourself, one at work and one at home. That we can keep work and the rest of our life separate? That work is a means to an end, that of a life. Maybe you've not even thought about it. Or at least not for a while. There's no right or wrong answer here, it's not a trick, there's just what you believe. Not what everyone else thinks, or what your mentor told you, or what seems cool to say you believe...actually what YOU believe. Whatever your belief in this example it transpires that it will be having a significant impact on your overall well-being and the well-being of those you lead. So it might be useful at some point to do the hard yards and get clear, as we would hazard a guess that one of your beliefs (if we looked for it) is that you want to live a long life. What you believe informs your thoughts, and your decisions stem from your thoughts. So where do you truly stand on this belief for example? This interesting article from McKinsey might help you inform, update, refine, or reinforce your current belief on this particular example. Or maybe it might stimulate some personal enquiry into getting clear on what you really believe about the matter. And better still what you really believe about other important life and leadership considerations. Getting clear on what you truly believe will be the first step in helping you understand the impact of the belief you hold. See past the noise in the information ecology, the expectation of others, the zeitgeist, and most importantly your own busy and controlling mind, and see if you can really surface what you truly believe. Clarity could change your life.

3. Nobody has passion and long-term perseverance unless what they do aligns with their values. Recently we’ve purposefully been posting a lot about the power of purpose. We thought it might be valuable to come up a level and talk about the value of values (see what we were trying to do there?!) Anyway, alliteration aside, as a leader, how clear are you on your own personal values, and those of your employees, and how well do these values then inform and align with your company values? Do you even know, (or care), how important, healthy and useful values awareness and affirmation is? If not, this short but powerful article from Angela Duckworth at Psychology Today might be worth a read and bit of reflection. Maybe it's time to tool yourself up with the insights and knowledge that will help you stand out as a leader...?

Guest columnist

In each issue, we'll either invite a guest to write a column on something related to personal well-being and inspiring leadership, or spotlight amazing companies that we've noticed doing great work around their employee experience and organisational culture.

In this issue, we welcome Alison Wooding.

Alison Wooding is a Marketing & Business Development professional with depth training in systemic coaching and intelligence. She has 25+ years’ experience in delivering strategy, brand development, communications campaigns, media storytelling, product/service innovation and multi-stakeholder projects. Co-founder of The Whole Partnership, a systemic training organisation and consultancy, and a co-pioneer of the GenerativeWork conscious business approach, Ali supports the evolving edge of business.

With depth skill in consciousness models, TheoryU and creative facilitation, Ali uses field-sensitive practices and embodied intelligence in business and leadership work. A ‘loving disruptor of business as usual’, she supports people engaging in vision, innovation, development and transition processes, to hone new potential and translate ideas and into words, visual images, media and purposeful action. A wife and mother, Ali has volunteered on projects with former combatants and given spiritual care in a hospice setting, as well as offering open workshops in self-awareness and relaxation.

A Good News Story…

When faced with unprecedented turmoil, rising costs and levels of disruption to supplies, public services and financial markets, it is easy to lose our sense of security and wellbeing. However, these occurrences are also the visible signs of much-needed change now at hand. The way in which we’ve organised our human systems has reached its limits at local and planetary levels. Precisely because these gaping holes have visibly widened, we understand that patching the existing system is no longer an option.

The way we live, work, and organise our reality is undergoing a very real upheaval and purposeful redesign. So, if you’ve been feeling frustrated and limited for some time within your existing organisational culture, or in forging a place in new markets, it may help to know that your pioneering energy is needed now for the conscious restructuring underway.

All around the world, initiatives, projects, and practices are springing up, which put goodness and hope right at the heart of work. Breaking through inherited patterns of competition, scarcity and ownership, a growing number of awareness-based businesses and pioneering global communities are responding quite differently to the ‘wicked problems’ of our time. They share a conscious intention to care for life and re-humanise work. 

Operating on a basis of trust, sharing and abundance, such communities are hubs of applied learning that prototype ideas and practices together across the world. Working within the realities of capitalism, and yet, with a different relationship to wealth-creation, they model an emergent form of open-source human capital. Energy and resources are allowed to circulate freely, catalysing and inspiring action across discipline boundaries and borders.

This clearly contrasts with the limited action of governments and existing international organisations struggling to gain agreement for coordinated global change, in part due to their many conventions, pulls and vested interests. Where top-down approaches are failing, self-organising initiatives are springing up, fuelled by the energy and spirit to do what is needed – both practical and visionary. We see the value of healthy, conscious practices in action, and they are beginning to seed alternative models of economics and forms of future work. 

Examples of pioneering global networks include:

• Regeneration International, a non-profit organisation formed to draw up a blueprint for an international movement united around common goals relating to reversing global warming, tackling world hunger and restoring deteriorated social, ecological and economic systems. Now engaging with 250+ international partners, as well as other Regeneration Alliances, they are enablers of a transition to regenerative food, farming and land management. Find out more

• uLab hubs, practitioners worldwide applying the TheoryU methodology pioneered at MIT with online training platform. Hubs form around specific local/geographic interest areas (health, education, parenting, governance) comprising diverse communities of innovators, change makers, activists, educators and social entrepreneurs. Find out more

• Benefit Corporation ‘B Lab’, a non-profit network aimed at transforming the global economy with people, communities and planet in mind. This coordinated business movement focuses on sustainability, offering members certification, resources, knowledge to make business a force for good. Their influence is leading to changes in law in some US states and for example, a pivotal change in Italian corporate law allowing businesses a stated purpose beyond profit. Find out more

This global knowledge sharing is being fuelled by a sense of shared purpose and it is underpinned by love and the motivation to safeguard precious life. Indeed, this is not just knowledge, but ‘wisdom sharing’ and it reflects a more sensitive, connected intelligence, and some of the very best aspects of a caring humanity.

In short, there is good reason to be excited about the emergence of initiatives and businesses worldwide that are ecologically aware, solution-focused and heart-led. This level of active agency and prototyping is a wonderful expression of systemic intelligence and evolution. It builds on the best of business entrepreneurship and restores accountability and conscience, by overturning the acceptance of negative externalities, harms shipped out of sight, and practices of off-setting, and instead drawing up healthy blueprints and codes.

With new discoveries in the quantum sciences, we are set for a major shift in understanding about how life functions. For many, this awareness is already creating and renewing the connection to ourselves, to each other and to the living world. So, we may well be seeing the shoots of a next Renaissance in our social, cultural, ecological and economic systems.

It’s a good time to be questioning work practices, culture, policies, flows of value, and ways of engaging with business ecologies, as we each play a part in co-designing and creating future fit systems for a new era.

Soul on Deck

Our blog, Soul on Deck, is a personal reflection of our own dreams and aspirations at Emei. We know our art is our life and our lives are our art and our invitation to you is to connect and explore the unknown unfolding in front of you through this art. We wholeheartedly encourage you to embrace and yield to the unknown seas and landscapes we traverse together to help your soul to shine and to inspire and light up others.

We are on the journey with you.

At The Helm

We all learn in different ways, and at different speeds. Our YouTube Channel, At The Helm delves deeper into our purpose, values, and beliefs to help navigate contemplative thought and develop purposeful practices that support our ability to enlighten ourselves and others in our day-to-day. Providing inspiration to grip the wheel and stay the course and nurture your inner courage.

Beyond The Horizon

A fully lived life requires the constant exploration of the unknown. It is scary and fulfilling at the same time. Beyond The Horizon is our Podcast aimed at helping individuals, teams and organisations unlock their deepest intentions, get in touch with their purpose and bring all their potential and talents into the workplace and into the world in service of other people.

Thank you for reading

Our wish is for individuals and leaders like you to take nourishment in our words, practices, and provocations to help support you in accessing your hidden resourcefulness and helping change the workplace.

Change is rarely a straight line or straightforward journey and we hope we can help unlock that powerful source of trust and belief for you in a different future where your brilliance is realised.