How does it serve self and others to share stories, particularly focusing on the positive? Here’s a quick response with a professional and a personal story.

Professional Story
Story Telling has become important in my work. My field of expertise is leadership and organizational development. I talk about corporate connections. We help leaders and their teams connect to the very best of who they are and what they do. Sharing stories is a big part of that; and I consciously direct the energy towards the positive. Organizations move in the direction of what we most frequently and systematically ask questions about. Our methods tap into what already works and what the existing strengths are. It brings into the open what people care about and what matters and gives them joy. When we access positive emotional states we have great chance of producing positive actions. For example:

• Joy produces playfulness innovation,
• Confidence leads to creativity and being open to possibilities;
• Love allows for deeper connections and relatedness

Love allows for deeper connection and relatedness. Follow your heart. That’s I did. So to my personal story.

Personal Story

I followed my heart to another country. It wasn’t the land that enticed me – although the land has great beauty – nor the need to escape to something different . It was a feeling of deep connection with another human being. A two hour meeting in Sydney, Australia, led to an email trail of story telling and even deeper connection to the point that separation was painful.

Many people have told me my story is inspiring. They admire my courage, my strength, my conviction and the honoring of myself. I am humbled by that. My story serves to demonstrate that sharing positive stories of success and joy brings out the best in people. It is an acknowledgment that everything we achieve is in connection with others. Passions and dreams are shared and commitments are made.

Concluding Story

When I get into a cab these day and after I have clicked into my seat belt, I ask the driver ” What’s the best thing that has happened to you today?” From my back seat I notice his ears go up, a slight movement in his skull as he lifts his eyes to the rear vision mirror. The tired, strained eyes begin to twinkle “the best thing that happened to me today?” he repeats, and then he proceeds to tell me.

Do you think I had a positive impact on his day. And I most likely had a positive impact on others who got into his cab later that day.

The value of positive stories.

Engaging with others through an appreciative inquiry is underpinned by a number of guiding principles, the foundational one being that we are all active participants co-constructing our world together.  Wow, what a responsibility that is!  I am co-constructing my world as I engage with it. Big responsibility to make it work for me and others!

A strong second principle is what we focus on grows.  The more we focus on what gives life and energy and success, the more we’ll find it ….. everywhere and in everyone.

I’m currently working with creative people, helping them transform their art form into interactive, dynamic content for iPad apps.  First off, they are passionate about their work and/or their message, whether it’s photography, filmmaking, writing, painting or leading in some way.  We work with them, not only to help transform their existing content  into this new, exciting interactive medium, but we engage with them to bring the very best of who they are as artists and leaders.  We want to know what excites them, what inspires them, what else they aspire to? How do we do that?   We seek to discover the stories behind the work.  We do it in a particular way.

Here’s an example.

We have just completed an iPad app, entitled FilmOneFest. It’s for a an actual film festival of one-minute films.  Yes, one-minute.  Imagine the talent it takes to tell a compelling story on film in one minute.  Our vision for the app was to have more than just a list of one-minute films that you could see on You Tube or Vimeo.  We wanted the world to learn more about the artists and their visions for their art. We wanted to give greater context and meaning to the content in the app that the users could connect to.

We invited the filmmakers to respond to the following questions.

High Points:

• What has been a real high point point for you in creating this film?
What excites you about your submission to the One Minute Film Fest in 2011?

About One Minute Films:

• As you think about one minute films, what kinds of possibilities are there for this medium?
• What does it mean to you particularly?

Influences:

• If you think about the gifts and skills you bring to film-making, what do you find energizes you most?
• Say a little about what inspires you or compels you in your art form. It could be subject matter or people, and in what other ways are you inspired?

What are your aspirations?

• What's your biggest dream as a film maker?
• What are you working on now, or what are you aspiring to do next?
• What else do you want us to know about you and your work?

The responses to these question were fabulous.  They are documented in the FilmOneFest app and they enhance our appreciation of the artists and their art.

These questions are developmental in nature, they help to bring new connections and new possibilities.  We connect at new and deeper levels. They are generative because they help build new insights and we experience the co-constructive nature of our relationships in action.

First time, we were at dinner with a couple when their three year old pulled out the iPad, tapped into one of her favorite apps and was immediately engrossed as she tapped, swiped, dragged and, from time to time, sat up, tilted her head confidently to reflect on the objects she was engaging with.  Her fullest absorption in her iPad totally attracted the attention of older people in the restaurant,  amazed at her competence with the tablet device.

Next day at a friend’s house for dinner,  their 3 year came up to the table with her iPad, opened the Netflix app, picked out a movie she wanted and downloaded it and started to watch it without asking help from any adult.

Earlier that day, I had offered my iPad to a three year old and she immediately took it out of my hands with a big smile, and started tapping and dragging and swiping, immersed in the content, participating in the cute animations and sounds that delighted her.

As described in Huffington Post this week,

“The iPad’s sensitivity to touch preserves the intimacy of the magazine-reading experience. It also puts the reader in control. You are the navigator. Because the content is non-linear, interesting connections become possible and immediate. ……..You can venture as deep into the experience as you like….[this] digital technology has enormous potential. It brings a new dimension to our storytelling, making the experience more immersive than ever. It’s exciting to think about where it will take us.”

I am very caught up in this new way of experiencing content, as a consumer and now as an author and content creator.  My first app is about to be launched.  Called “Embracing Change”, it’s a self development app that takes readers on a personal learning journey following the Appreciative Inquiry framework.  As a learning and development professional, I  advocate using all the tools we can, in all the ways we can, with as many others as we can, to create the best experience learning experiences we can.

In the tablet format, content, theory, charts, images, interviews come to life, in fullest color and sound with the consumer interacting physically as well as cognitively and emotionally.  No wonder kids love the aliveness of this new form factor.  It’s playfully engaging.  And as adults, we, too can we re-connect with our inner kid, as we discover what it’s like to  interact with content in this immersive, engaging way.

(Link to the full interview below)

Q: What do you see as the New Paradigm of Work?

Killian: The new paradigm is about Life. One life, and work is part of that life and increasingly these two blend like fluids. Much of this is driven by the exponential rate of technological advances, automation by machines of routine tasks and the unstable and unpredictable business climate (and in part, planetary climate conditions!) The technologies we use for work and for socializing blend; the devices we use at home and at work blend; our networks blend; our hours of work and home-time blend in a ubiquitously connected global economy; our work spaces blend and even the boundaries between our professional personas and our personal reputations blend. Increasingly, our employers blend as many people become self-employed or work on contract terms for multiple organizations, over time our careers will blend from one life stage to another, much like seasonal workers or the way in which actors work.

In this new paradigm of work, where work and life are inseparable, happiness will only be possible if work blends with play, if passion blends with purpose, and if creativity is as vigorously cultivated as profitability.

What about this interview so resonated with me? Annalie offers stories and insights for creating environments where people show up fully so their radiance shines.

And, it takes effort. It is about developmental work – as opposed to problem-solving work. In order to live into the new paradigm, it requires us to:

1. do personal inner work – develop our own inner capacities:
2. identify and invest in the appropriate structures to support and facilitate the development
3. recognize we can only make this shift to a “new paradigm about life” in relationship with others.

To read the full interview, please go to Michelle James’ fabulous blog, The Fertile Unknown and read her full interview with Annalie Killian, in her series of Creativity in Business

It was the “old days”, when life aboard a luxury liner in first class was still akin to what you read about in novels at the beginning of the last century and what we see in movies, such as the Titanic:  opulence, elegance, indulgence, style and sophistication.  I was 7 going on 37 – full of romance and imagination.  I was a princess in my own mind afloat this luxury liner setting out in the Pacific Ocean, crossing the Southern Ocean,  the Indian Ocean, up the Suez Canal into the glistening Mediterranean Sea.  I was 7, which I have since learned is a significant age in human development.  It sets the psychological thermostat for how you internalize beliefs about yourself and your relationship to others and the world.

So that how “change” started for me.  I was princess, aboard a luxury liner, afloat on the widest and deepest oceans, discovering a plethora of amazing realities and an abundant, cornucopia of choices.   I believed I could do anything.  I was Eliza Doolittle of George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion aka My Fair Lady. You know the story.  Professor Higgins made a wager that he could transform a young street flower seller from her lowly beginnings to an elegant sophisticated princess, and more importantly have English aristocracy believe it to be true.  We know the outcome of the story – he won his wager.

That’s the magic.

When you believe it, you see it. I believed I could swim across the pool on board that liner, and I did – I almost drowned, but I told myself I would do it and I practiced and practiced by swimming from corner to corner in that pool, lengthening the distance every time until I could swim the distance without having to reach out and grab the side of the pool.  I swallowed a lot of water in the process, but I did not give up.

My love of exotic foods happened in the magnificent dining room of that liner – I learned to love pepper and other spices.  I relished experimenting with food, especially if it were grown up food.  The pepper mill was a new discovery for me as was as Parmesan cheese.  I would ask the waiter to give me copious amounts, as it was so sophisticated. I wasn’t satisfied until my mashed potatoes were totally bespeckled with black pepper.  I learned myself into what I believed myself to be and desired to be.

Fast track to now – decades later. Here I am.  When people ask me my nationality, I say I’m a global citizen. My love of diversity and charting new territory has continued to grow. I consider myself very privileged to be alive today.  In fact, I say, we are the privileged generation.  My start in life was unique, just as all of us have had our own unique beginnings.  I’ve been through lots of change. Just as all of you will have been through lots of change.  Some of the changes I engineered myself, and some I would not have engineered for myself.  The common thread in all these changes: I faced them and embraced them.

There are many other facets to embracing change generatively, and I’d like to name one: the anticipatory principle -  cultivating the ability to hold a vision of the future that we want for ourselves, others and the world at large puts us in the starting gate.  To embrace change we want to be part of is to see it first in our imaginations.  I did as a 7 year old, Henry Higgins did it for Eliza Doolittle and you can do it for you.

Let me conclude here with a favorite quote about what change means to me:  ”I embrace emerging experience.  I participate in discovery.  I am a butterfly.  I am not a butterfly collector, I want the experience of the butterfly.” William Stafford. 1914- 1993.

How important?

To be doing something you are good at and having fun and involving others in co-creating fun.  That’s participation, collaboration and engagement and playing to one’s strengths!   The New York Times is talking about Matt Harding who seems to have fun doing what he’s really good at.  The article brings attention to a number of the positive attributes that living in 2010 is all about: having the internet to share one’s own creativity; involving our global village life-centric ways that unite us through music, laughter, activity, play.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlfKdbWwruY

“However you interpret it, you can’t watch “Dancing” for very long without feeling a little happier. The music (by Gary Schyman, a friend of Mr. Harding’s, and set to a poem by Rabindranath Tagore, sung in Bengali by Palbasha Siddique, a 17-year-old native of Bangladesh now living in Minneapolis) is both catchy and haunting. The backgrounds are often quite beautiful. And there is something sweetly touching and uplifting about the spectacle of all these different nationalities, people of almost every age and color, dancing along with an uninhibited doofus.

Children, not surprisingly, turn out to be the best at picking up on Mr. Harding’s infectious vibe. There’s frequently a grown-up, on the other hand — especially one in the front row of a crowd — who tends to ham it up and make a fool of himself.

The other remarkable thing about the “Dancing” phenomenon is that it is, to a very considerable extent, a creation of the Internet. It doesn’t just live, so to speak, on the Web; it was the Web that, more or less accidentally, brought it into being.”

All of the AI Principles are evident in her story.  She opens with examples of the Constructionist Principle: how words create worlds and the role we all play in co-creating our realities and defining each other.

She advocates the need to honor the wholeness, possibility and potency of ourselves and each other.  She asks us to open ourselves up to and embrace our adversities, rather than sweep them under the carpet.

She reminds us from her own story that we live up OR down to others’ image of us, and how positive imagery leads to positive outcomes.  She is such an example of nurturing the human spirit, keeping hope, seeing the beauty, valuing curiosity … and so much more.

I highly recommend this video.

In the city of Kolkata, an anti-noise campaign has started and Sunday has been declared a no honking day.  To quote the police commissioner of Kolkata, Guatam Mohan Chakrabarti, “...city police are embarking on a major campaign against noise pollution in general and bursting of high decibel firecrackers in particular.”

“After some progress in the campaign, we want to observe Sundays as no honking days. Motorists in the city often honk without reason.  Most of the time this is a manifestation of their impatience.  Sundays being no hurry days, drivers can desist from honking.  This would substantially reduce noise levels in the city.  Over time, the city has got noisier and at some busy crossings, it is completely maddening.”

What is also relevant in networked India is that this campaign has begun on a virtual plane on the blog kolkatacops.com.  The Police Commissioner continues, “enforcement alone cannot make the difference.  Only awareness can bring down the overall noise levels.  Since we already have a blog, we cannot have a better vehicle for such a campaign.

“We are inviting environmentalists and doctors to air their views on the ill effects of high-decibel fireworks on health and the environment.”  In addition, he wants to invite historians “to tell how and when the noise level increased to such a level”.  Furthermore, “sociologists should speak  on what social implications this sudden spurt of noise pollution may have on our social life.  We would like to have the views of economists if they can quantify the environmental damage and the financial loss incurred by this noise spurt.”

The Police Commissioner has not forgotten the common person.  He does not want the blog to be “an airtight zone for expression on one-way views.”  He is hoping for a range of views from regular citizens as well.  “We expect that eventually science, logic and enormous goodwill would prevail.”

Among already eminent citizens who have blogged, here are two comments:
“It is surely a good move, but I doubt if drivers will follow it.  In civilized countries, drivers do not honk unnecessarily, but here this is a custom.  Drivers should be trained properly.” Dr. Dulal Bose, Ent specialist and former sheriff of Kolkata.

“It has become a habit here to blow the horn unnecessarily.  If drivers stop doing this, noise pollution levels will come done.  For this, we need a mass awareness campaign and this is a good initiative to start with.” Devang Gandhi, cricketer.

Enthusiasm and passion can be transferred virtually, so here’s to the Kolkata cops.

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• Pilots and cabin crew exchange punches on flight (telegraph.co.uk)

The environment – nature in this case – provided feedback which supported my experience in the following ways: the embrace of the gentle sea breeze blowing my hair and cooling my skin; the sound of the waves roaring up onto the sand, and being sucked back again, and the noises and sights of the gulls squawking and swooping, and the tiny piping plovers scurrying a constant few feet ahead of me.  This tactile, auditory and visual feedback from nature contributed significantly to my feelings of well-being and my most satisfying performance. I felt supported by the environment.  Furthermore,  I overheard one woman say to another as I passed them, “this is so great.”  I smiled.  A couple of days later, when walking, a man wearing only bathing trunks walked toward me with arms outstretched with a huge grin on his face.  “This is beautiful.  This is the first time I have ever walked to the most north part of Sandy Hook.  It is just so beautiful.”  I congratulated him,  laughing with him as he exuberantly needed to share his feelings of elation and achievement.

Psychologically, I felt light and powerful, and in tune with nature all around.  I felt positive and supported by the environment.   I drew deep breaths to take it all in appreciatively.  I felt the blood pumping in my heart as my pulse intensified with my effort.  My breath quickened and the heat was rising in my body in proportion to the energy I was expending.   I felt fortunate to be in such a place at that moment with an increased sense of well-being just as the other people had expressed.

Then there were the electronic devices that provided me feedback.  I was wearing a heart rate monitor strap around my chest and a watch on my wrist.  I knew exactly my heart rate as I walked, my “lap” time, and the calories I was consuming.  The feedback from these tools helped me track my performance.  Not only was the HR monitor providing me valuable feedback,  I also had my iPhone with an app called MotionX-GPS, in my short’s pocket.   This app tracked my walk. I could see where I was going on the map, the GPS co-0rdinates, my pace, if I chose to look at it in the moment.  My pace was 3.9 miles per hour and if I wanted to get to 4.00 mph, I knew what I had to do!  At the same time, I was listening to music, that inspired me and helped me find a rhythm that worked with my pace.  I also took this photograph with my iPhone.

Would I have enjoyed my walk without my feedback tools – the environment, my psyche and electronic devices.  Yes, and I think the feedback these tools provided me in the moment enhanced my enjoyment and my performance.   Moreover, I can now make choices about my next walks – the conditions of the environment and how they impact my psyche, and the data that I later downloaded from my heart rate monitor and iPhone app, MotionX-GPS to my computer.

Being conscious of my performance helps because it’s in my nature to want feedback – to know how I am doing , how I am serving myself and others, how I am in nature, and in the world at large.   It helps my performance to know how I relate to the context itself and to others.  I learn more about what supports me;  what I value;  how I can evaluate and improve and take corrective action.   I can make choices about the feedback.  It is all information and I can chose to ignore it or use it as a benchmark for something different.

It seems to me that our participation in, and contribution to this world is hugely dependent on the quality of feedback we get from a variety of sources.  We don’t live in isolation; there are feedback loops that that continually inform us.  How much attention we pay to all the feedback that is available to us and what we do with it, is our choice.

That there is good passion and bad passion is not new.  But appreciating the psychological impacts of good and bad passion is of interest. Of even greater interest is how to cultivate more good passion and why does that matter?

Robert J. Vallerand, Professor of Psychology at Universite du Quebec a Montreal defines passion “as a strong inclination toward an activity that people like, find important, and in which they invest time and energy.”

Vallerand’s model posits the existence of two types of passion – harmonious passion and obsessive passion – each associated with different outcomes and experiences.

1. “Harmonious passion originates from an autonomous internalisation of the activity in the individual and leads people to choose to engage in the activity that they love. It is expected to lead mainly to more adaptive outcomes”, such as improved psychological well-being, health, relationships and performance. “An autonomous internalisation is driven by one’s own chosing;  it’s important to pursue the activity without any contingencies attached to it.  Motivation is intrinsic; it satisfies the needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness.” These activities come to be so self-defining that they represent “who you are” in the world.  The harmoniously passionate person has a natural, authentic congruency.  Think of some people you know personally or  well-known athletes, artists, professionals and business people, who exhibit harmonious passion.
2. “Obsessive passion originates from a controlled internalisation in the individual’s identity and leads people to experience an uncontrollable urge to engage in the activity. It is hypothesised to predict less adaptive outcomes”, which could be conflict with self, others, competing activities, thus leading to possible disatisfaction, stress and burnout. “Obsessive passion may be displayed as a rigid persistence toward the activity”, as with such passion, one cannot NOT engage in the acivity. This happens because “ego-invested rather than integrative self processes are at play with obsessive passion leading the person to eventually becoming dependent on the activity. While such persistence may lead to some benefits (e.g., improved performance at the activity), it may also come at a cost for the individual, potentially leading to less than optimal functioning within the confines of the passionate activity because of the lack of flexibility that it entails.”

What role does competition play in the cultivation of obsessive passion?

There are too many examples of the negative consequences of obsessive passion spanning the history of our human species and in all areas of human endeavor – from politics, to business, to sports.  If you think about athletes (and others) who feel the need to take performance enhancing drugs, you’d have to ask which type of passion is internalized in them – autonomous or controlled?  And if not them, their managers, coaches or promoters?  What role does competition play in the cultivation of obsessive passion?  How does such obsessive passion play out in our personal well-being, long term success, health, relationships and performance?

How to cultivate harmonious passion and why does it matter?

• Love what you do, persist and practice. People who love what they do generally use a blend of their talents, gifts, strengths with a big shot of harmonious passion that keeps them doing what they love to do – even against all odds.  They get better at it, through persistence and practice and society benefits.   Think of the legacies left by painters and musicians, writers and scientists.  Van Gogh, Beethoven, Shakespeare and Marie Curie come to mind.  By the way there are no age, race, gender, culture barriers to loving what you do.   How many septuagenarian rock stars, or seven year old poets are out there?

• Take responsiblity to make it happen. If it’s you, then recognize which activities play to your talents and strengths and matter very deeply to you, not because something or somebody outside you tells you to, but because the activity or actitivies make you feel alive: they are instrinsic to your identity.   Take responsibility to cultivate and nurture them.  If you are a parent or boss, notice which activities enliven your child or staff member when they are at one with the activity.  Encourage their deliberate practice.

• Notice the impact your good (harmonious) passion generates in relation to:  your own well-being – your sense of vitality, aliveness and purpose in the world; your relationship with others – what and how you relate to others;  your physical health and energy levels;  your performance and outputs – the quality and quantity and your satisfaction levels.

When you pursue your passion, is it harmoniously integrated, creating a kind of peace within?  And how does that matter?  Your comments are welcome.