Mindful Meetings = Results and Gratification

Beginning - Middle - End.  A long time ago, I organized my meetings with this structure.  It accomplished two things - 1. Gave order to the meeting and 2. Allowed me to the opportunity to feel productive.

The Beginning - Setting the tone and creating the framework are important to give the participants clarity and confidence that the meeting will be productive.  The purpose and size of the meeting will dictate how I set the tone and create a framework:

• Need an icebreaker?
• Need visuals?
• Need to update from a prior meeting or experience "Why are we here?"
• What exercise and opening remarks will encourage participation from group? "What is the plan and what are expectations for this meeting?"

The Middle - Meetings should no longer be frontal presentations.  Meetings should be a verb - people are meeting, interacting, discussing, planning, thinking and working together.  I look around at failed meetings and I see participants on their phones playing games, checked out, talking to each other, lost  in their own thoughts and it frustrates me.  This is the critical portion of the meeting and all need to be engaged.   

• What documents/visuals/tools will encourage conversation?
• Which participants can present and help ignite creativity and results?
• What will motivate the group to foster collegial partnerships?

The End - Every meeting needs to end with the next steps.  I try to link every meeting to the one before and the one I plan will follow.  

• Clearly state results and review important issues that were addressed in the meeting.
• Highlight the ideas that were generated from this meeting.
• Determine the next steps as a group and put them in writing (post it board).
• Give positive feedback and thank everyone for participating.
• After the meeting, send email with gratitude and recap.

Fostering positive feeling among colleagues helps the individuals be more productive and nurtures creative collaboration.  Think big, dream big - every day, with every meeting.

Lessons from Meditation - May 28, 2016

Surprise, enrichment, fulfillment, and gratitude are what I feel as I think about the learning that was shared in this morning's Meditation Plus.  Guided by teachings from Rabbi Shefa Gold and Rabbi Kerry Olitzky, our discussion included a wide spectrum of ideas, experiences and reflection.

Rabbi Shefa Gold - Torah Journeys/Behar

Rabbi Kerry Olitzky - MyJewishLearning.com/B'har

With great focus on the land and rules, how does this elevate us spiritually?  How in modern times can we carry out the Shabbat of the earth, the shmita year?

Can reading this help us deepen our spiritual commitment to our weekly Shabbat?  Can it help us look at how we engage with the earth?  Like the earth, can we take a sabbatical to pause from our lives and come back a year later renewed with a new perspective?

For me, this is an opportunity to embrace transition, to feel secure in life's journeys and to understand that change is just that - change. In this past week, I celebrated with colleagues who are taking the next step in their professional career, wished a colleague joy and happiness as she takes the next step into marriage, mourned the death of a dear family friend and shared with friends the many graduations and births announced either on Facebook or by email.   What a week.  Just a microcosm of our community.  Happy, sad, exciting, and all can produce anxiety.  Shabbat and meditation allow us to pause, recalibrate, regain our center and by doing that invigorate our soul, our mind and our relationships to each other and G-d.

While saying goodbye to our colleagues this week, I read "On What-Ifs" Day #176, page 155 from Dr. Erica Brown's "Take Your Soul To Work, 365 Meditations on Every Day Leadership."  She quotes graphic artist Miggs Burroughs, "What if hurting, leaving and ending are just mirror images of healing, arriving and starting?"  I read this line twice.  Could we look at the sadder, more difficult transitions as an opportunity for growth, happiness and new adventures?  I will keep reading this line and try to live it.

Shabbat Shalom.

Power of a Great Memory

Have you ever had that feeling of sitting in a meeting and a random, yet powerful memory pops into your mind?  Why that memory?  Why at that moment?  I often remember the worst of my memories with such perfect detail and in some cases, I become flooded with the same raw emotion that I had years before.

In a recent meeting, as part of an exercise, we each shared something that inspired us.  During this time, my family was going through a difficult time and the community came through for us.  It was easy for me to share that.  And then something else happened.  More good memories popped into my head.  At the end of the meeting, I stayed to talk to the Rabbi to share about the joy of these memories.  As we talked about the exercise, another good memory came and then another and than another.  I haven't had that experience in a long time.

In the weeks since that meeting, I had some more moments like this.  As I listened to great music and let my mind wander, I try to recall positive memories.  With my focused attention and meditation, I have been remembering so much.  I'm not sure my memories are completely accurate, but they bring me joy and comfort and sometimes a good laugh.

For fun, think about a moment in time that brought you joy.  If you need help, put some old music on from that time in your life.  Close your eyes and remember the good times.

Shabbat Shalom.

Mindful Management

Over the past four years, my Shabbat meditation practice spills over into my work and management.  And really, all these opportunities to learn mindfulness and to study Torah have given me strength and tools to be a strong employee, a thoughtful partner to my colleagues, and a firm and encouraging manager.  As a supervisor, I try to follow the "growth mindset" as described in Dr. Carol Dweck's book Mindset.  I wrote the post Mindset will enhance your life over 3 years ago and it has stuck with me.

I love what I do both professionally and as a volunteer.  I realize that for some people, coming to work is literally their job and when the imaginary whistle blows, they are out of the office and not thinking about it again until they walk in at 8:30am the next morning (or whatever their hours are).  I'm not like that.  I want to know more - what else is out there that can help us be a better team, what kind of speakers will interest my donors, what are other organizations doing to address the same issues and who can inspire me to think more creatively regarding time and project management.

Often in meditation and Torah study, I'll think, "I can use this in my staff meeting." My learning and personal growth in deepening my Jewish spirituality has helped my find balance in my work.  Throughout my career, I have been supervised by a wide variety of managers, all with different personalities and styles.  From all of them, I have learned how to incorporate the best of their styles and learn from their mistakes. 

While there are so many books about professional development, take a moment to find a class or two on mindfulness.  It will help you be more reflective in all areas of your life and will enhance your participation in your professional circles.

Maybe it is time for a wider discussion about mindful management and an opportunity for us to learn together.  Stay tuned as I develop this.

The Day Before

In one of my Rabbi's recent sermons, he spoke of the day before is actual birth as one that haunts him.  We are so focused on the day of our birth, how happy and how joyful it was and is every year that we get to celebrate.  When I heard my Rabbi talk about the day before, I heard the anticipation of what is to come, what potential can be fulfilled and what hopes and dreams may or may not become reality.

In the days and weeks since that sermon, those words have haunted me.  A simple phrase - The day before.  It has entered my mind at almost every significant moment both personally and professionally.  It has added a new depth to each experience whether planned or unexpected.  Now in the past week, two significant moments made me repeat this line over and over again in my mind.

My husband got great news about his health.  The day before I wondered, I panicked, I meditated and I got through the 24 hours.  Fear, curiosity, patience, demands for information, frustration in our heath care system and accept being powerless - all of it while still managing the day to day operation of my life.  The day before I felt like I was going 400 miles an hour for the entire day.  Images of the hamster running in a wheel, cats chasing nothing, and dogs chasing their tail, all ran through my mind.  I was an anxious mess but I threw myself into work and my kids and wanted to be strong for my husband.  By the time we walked into the doctor's office the next day, we find out that my husband's tests are all negative. There are no joyful tears, no clarifying statements, because now we have to figure out what is wrong.  It wasn't until 48 hours later that I began to feel the relief, the joy, the elation and connection to something bigger.  In this case, the day before was the separate from the entire month.  It feels that every day was connected to the next one.

Today is my son's birthday - But this week, we were able to have the day before celebration.  My daughter was in school, so the 3 of us just spent the day together.  It was a real day before moment.  We had lunch at IHOP, a few errands and some of the best conversation we have had in a long tie.  He shared his recent love for music, his insight that God is our mega good luck charm, and his most entertaining perspective on live.  One of the highlights was when I shared with him the great story of how he was born.  As with most people, our usual tradition is to celebrate the actual day.

The day before - it means just as much as the day after.