Every Job, A Game; Every Worker, A Gamer - Part 1

I recently read the book, Game Frame by Aaron Dignan, a great read about game design with a nice slant on how one can better enjoy their work if they take a gamer’s approach.

Like anything in life, there are situation and then there are the stories we tell about them, and most of life’s experience is the story we tell regardless of the situation. Seeing work as a game is just a “story” alternative we have, and I have to say that my work is relatively more enjoyable and less stressful seen through the lens of a game, versus a job.

Dignan talks about the games as “structured and challenging systems that makes the process of learning rewarding, enables deep engagement, provides a sense of autonomy, and asks us to be heroes in our own stories.” (Read my post Every Worker, A Hero, for more insight on this last point.) Dignan says that games “force us to face facts, press on, and earn our way into the standings by completing tasks that match and then challenge our level of skill.” Games are good for us in that they teach us, allow us to develop new skills, new information and ultimately to master information and situations. The coolest thing about playing games, is that we are “playing”. You ever notice that, in our language, we rarely "work a game", nor do we "play a job"? No, we play games! :-)

A “gameful” approach to work enables our seeing the “game” in our work, and with it, new opportunities and approaches for learning, engagement and mastery. It also allows us to see many of the difficulties of work more positively as pushing us beyond our comfort zone as a meaningful challenge which purpose is to make us more masterful. It is interesting how at work we hate this pushing but in a game we relish it. Dignan says, “Some people do take low-challenge, low-control situations and turn them into wonderful experiences rich with engagement”, “creating a satisfying and escalating challenge instead of waiting for one to be given to them, and this approach literally changes their lives.” This possibility intrigues me and is one I reach for as I have worked to cultivate more and more of a “gameful” approach to my work allowing me to work less and play more. And we all know that play is healthier than work, and further is its own reward.

I invite you to take a read of this book, or maybe just the blog posts, review and videos about it and its author, and to join me in better enjoying and performing the game of work. I am convinced that our selves, our families, community and the world will all benefit from it.

Every Worker, A Hero!

Work is challenging and we all are the hero in our respective work roles though we rarely think so. For years I have been a fan of Joseph Campbell, the famed mythologist, and his theory of The Hero’s Journey. The Hero’s journey identified a pattern of progressive stages in cultural myths and stories which is fairly applicable to every life, career, job and project. This cycle is seen in epic lives and stories we all know like that of Jesus, Moses, Buddha, Prometheus, Oriris, Luke Skywalker of Star Wars, Frodo of Lord of the Rings, and even ourselves if we observe closely enough.

In the Hero’s Journey, which is divided in to three phases of departure, initiation and return:

1. The hero is leading an ordinary life when circumstances take a turn which call the hero to a quest.

2. Initially the hero is hesitant to accept the quest but alas does not resist.

3. On starting the quest, the hero finds mentors and helpers along the way to advise and assist.

4. As a part of the quest the hero faces ordeals and obstacles. The hero also discovers powers, within and without themselves, some resident and others obtained along the way which enable triumph.

5. By and by, with patient persistence, the hero wins the object of the quest along with the experience and benefit of overcome ordeals and newly discovered and obtained powers.

6. The quest object obtained, the hero is faced with a decision of whether they will return to the ordinary world they lived in before the quest began to bless the community with the experience, powers and questions object they have obtained. And so the cycle starts over again.

With reflection, we could all identify that at any given time, we ourselves are in some stage of this hero cycle in every areas of our lives, careers and jobs.

I have always found this reflection helpful as stories and myth are how human cultures makes sense of chaos whether in the form of success or failure, ease of difficulty, blessing or curse.

Seeing myself as the hero in my own life, career and job, I continually recognize quests I am called to, mentors and helpers given to aid me, ordeals and obstacles, powers and experience I am given to develop during my quest, and the decision and obligation to continually reinvest the fruit of my quests back into the communities I am a part of.

Seeing this cycle is the path all heroes have tread both humbles and encourages me as I see that as they have triumphed in the their circumstances so can I as I patiently and persistently make good use of every resource and opportunity every quest presents. Reflecting on the hero's journey also lends context and perspective to my present challenges and difficulties and reminds me that this too will pass, both success and learning, and that my job as hero is to be committed to and prepared for every next stage of this cycle.

So, shall I encourage us all to reflect on how we are all heroes on our respective life and career journeys and how the world relies upon and is blessed when we step us to the hero's potential in ourselves.

Everyone A Tool in the Hand of Providence, and especially in Tough Times

Reflecting on how tough times are and how they might get even tougher has me in a more grateful mood than ever for what is still being provided in the midst of this toughness, as well as what I can provide to help those who need provision. In my pondering, it hit me that everyone of us is a tool in the hand of Providence, equipped to provide for others out of our talent, networks, expertise, etc., and that it is in this provision that we sustain our lives.

From this perspective, I realize that Providence is always at work, not necessarily in ways I expect or desire, but at work nonetheless. I see every opportunity to provide as my being handled by Providence to bless someone, and everything and one I am provided as coming from Providence, especially those things that & people who are challenging and unexpected.

It seems to me that if there is any silver lining in tough and scarce times, it is that it calls us to be less independent and more interdependent, less entitled and more grateful, less impulsive and more mindful, less fickle and more resilient, all things that are good for the soul and relationships and which I imagine cycle back to good times in time, and makes for a greater degree of good times even in tough times.

I think that when we are not sufficiently mindful that we are all tools in Providence’s hand, we worry too much about if we will be provided for, and we are too self-absorbed to provide where we have opportunity to. If we had more confidence in this idea, we could worry less, be less self-absorbed, and by extension put more of our time and energy in figuring out how to better provide for one another.

As times get worse and institutions we have grown accustomed to providing for us, like government and corporations are less able to do so, we are going to have to figure out more and more how to provide for each other. Let’s not allow fear (from inside or outside) of this daunting change to twist us in ways that we do not remain open to Providential Innovation.

It is also worth remembering that the best provision is not money, but time, attention, encouragement, referrals, advice, research/insights, all intangible things which when handled and combined well, converts itself into many barterable currencies that sustain us.

Finally, look to provide for others individually and in groups/networks, as well as in volunteer roles as well as for income.

Here's to being the sharpest and most proficient tools Providence wields!

Everyone A Pawn on Someones’ Chess Board

As I continue to enjoy my evolving “big picture, middle age mind”, or so I have read, I relish the analogy of life’s relationships as all occurring on myriad overlapping chessboards. I further note that on every chessboard, both mine and those of all I am in relations with, I am a piece, sometimes queen, a few times king, most times pawn, and when in the zone, knight. :-) This consideration has caused me to meditate more and more on the reality that I, and so we all, am a pawn on every someones’ chessboard that I engage with. Everyone has an agenda for me. I play a role of getting everyone who values me something they want else they do not value me, else they probably do not perceive themselves as even being relationship with me, despite the fact that I might perceive otherwise based on my own chessboards.

Acceptance of this reality helps me to better tolerate being manipulated and used, sometimes even betrayed, by others. With this understanding, I am able to take all this less personally knowing that this is the nature of things. I can even have compassion on the idea that everyone is mostly just moving me around, sacrificing me, advancing me, promoting/demoting me, etc., in order to win some particular chess game they are playing against someone else, or maybe even themselves, or worst yet, me. Additionally, I work to understand what piece I am, queen, knight or pawn, and with this understanding to be the best piece I can be, as I understand I should, in order to help people win their (legitimate) chess games.

This is most challenging when you find yourself simultaneously a black and white piece on a board where 2 people are playing against one another and you want both of them to win. These paradoxical situation definitely require thinking beyond a zero-sum paradigm.

So remember, we are all pawns on someone’s chess board and may we have the grace, wisdom and guilelessness to be the best pawn possible in on every board we are being played in order to manifest the Great Commandment of “love” in the world.

Some good reads that compliments this one I wrote awhile ago are at http://www.delicious.com/cadelarge/wiseworking_games

Happy checkmating to you!

Being Proud of our Work Without Being Prideful About Our Work (or Ourselves).

Recently I taught a Natural Gifts workshop and the question of feeling pride as a barrier to using our gifts came up. When this question comes up, and it is common, I like to draw the distinction between two oft-confused ideas, proud and pride.

When we are proud of our work we do better with our gifts we have been "given", though when we are prideful, we do worst with gifts we think we "have" of our own virtue. This is a key difference. When we are "prideful" about our gifts, we tend to hedge, procrastinate, and engage, and more readily resort to defensive reactions.

Proud is rooted in the idea that I have been given a gift and I have a responsibility, as a steward, to make best use of this gift in order to manifest the genius of the giver, first God, then our families then our communities. Pride is rooted in the idea that I am self-made & cultivated and that I can use my gift, or not, based on my own selfish ends. And, yes, I am suggesting that not using our gifts out of fear, laziness, perfectionism, even out of a sense of humility, is a form of selfishness resulting from our failure to get past our own self-absorption to recognize that the "givers'" need for what we have to offer is more important than our need to be safe from looking bad.

When we work from a position of "proud", we are:
1. confident, not so much in ourselves as in the "Giver" and "givers" who have developed our gift in us, though self-confidence should grow over time,
2. persistent, committed to sharpening our gifts over time despite opposition, mistakes and adversity , with a sense of hope in future mastery
3. assertive, looking for opportunities to offer, and offering, our gifts, and yes, even in the face of rejection and (seeming) lack of appreciation
4. mindful of the Source and sources of our giftedness, a antidote to pridefulness, which proud always has the potential of easily converting itself into

When we work from a position of "pride", we:
1. lack confidence and then overcompensate for such lack by being brash, defensive, procrastinators, quitters, etc.
2. lack persistence, assuming that opposition and adversity are the normal weather of getting anything done, and hope in the idea that time improves whatever we practice consistently, for good and for neglect
3. envy others' gifts, believing that what others have been given is innately better than what we have been given, misinvesting energy that would be more productively spent "sharpening our own saws" (Covey)
4. blame others and circumstances for our neglect in developing and offering our gifts, seeing opposition and diversity as a insurmountable unfair impediments, which they are not
5. are unmindful of the Source and sources of our giftedness, and thus succumbing to pride think we are the source, and usually an inadequate one at that.

Clearly, we need more proudness and less pridefulness in the world. The world is starved every time we choose pride over proud. Let's study today to act of maintaining a greater stance of proudfulness, versus pridefulness, in how we go about offering our gifts in the world.

On Strength

Throughout late 2010 and into 2011, I have been making a study of Servant Leadership, as described by Robert Greenleaf, in his audiobooks, "The Power of Servant Leadership", and the book, "On Becoming A Servant Leader". Servant Leadership is defined as a philosophy and practice of leadership which gives priority attention to the needs of colleagues, reports and those they serve, with an emphasis on stewardship of organizational resources, use of informal (influence) versus formal (authority) power, and development and cultivation of the qualities of listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, growth and building community (Wikipedia).

This leadership approach piqued my interest as it aligns with second half life and career goals that have emerged for me in the last few years as an alternative intention to that of ambition, advancement and material growth for its sake. Servant leadership has proven to be a satisfactory paradigm to balance these primary drives of my earlier life and career.

In my readings I have been particularly intrigued by Greenleaf's concept of Strength defined as the ability to: 1) see a choice of aims to pursue, 2) to select the right aim, and 3) to responsibly pursue this right aim over a long period of time (Greenleaf, On Becoming a Servant Leader). Successful development of strength is relevant to one achieving their best potential in healing the world. It requires: 1) knowledge regarding one's choice fo aims, 2) judgment and wisdom in the selection of the right aim, a highly subjective matter, 3) discipline and discretion to pursue a chosen aim in a responsible manner and 4) patient persistence to carry on pursuit of chosen aims for a long period of time. This definition acknowledges the blessing and challenge of choice we have as to how we put our gifts to use. Greenleaf goes on to talk about the development of strength as an ethical imperative and even suggests that one who does not acknowledge this imperative in their own lives is ethically inadequate. Yikes!

This concept of strength resonated with me as it is summed up, in many ways, what my life, in retrospect, has been building towards though I did not realize it so cohesively as when I read it. This concept is also what my life continues to be about in my management and educational pursuits.

These musings take me back to a blog post I wrote in 2007 called, Evil as a Key to Career Satisfaction. As I think of this and that topic in tandem, I realize that a worthy aim is addressing some form of evil in the world. The trick then is to 1) select the right evil, 2) to pursue it responsibly (avoiding the corruption of that evil, or others) and 3) doing so for a long period of time. The difficulty and challenge of doing this is certainly an environment for building strength over a lifetime.

I write this to encourage us all to commit, and daily recommit, to a stance of pursuing our lives and careers from a position and intention of (developing) strength.

On Strength

Throughout late 2010 and into 2011, I have been making a study of Servant Leadership, as described by Robert Greenleaf, in his audiobooks, "The Power of Servant Leadership", and the book, "On Becoming A Servant Leader". Servant Leadership is defined as a philosophy and practice of leadership which gives priority attention to the needs of colleagues, reports and those they serve, with an emphasis on stewardship of organizational resources, use of informal (influence) versus formal (authority) power, and development and cultivation of the qualities of listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, growth and building community (Wikipedia).

This leadership approach piqued my interest as it aligns with second half life and career goals that have emerged for me in the last few years as an alternative intention to that of ambition, advancement and material growth for its sake. Servant leadership has proven to be a satisfactory paradigm to balance these primary drives of my earlier life and career.

In my readings I have been particularly intrigued by Greenleaf's concept of Strength defined as the ability to: 1) see a choice of aims to pursue, 2) to select the right aim, and 3) to responsibly pursue this right aim over a long period of time (Greenleaf, On Becoming a Servant Leader). Successful development of strength is relevant to one achieving their best potential in healing the world. It requires: 1) knowledge regarding one's choice fo aims, 2) judgment and wisdom in the selection of the right aim, a highly subjective matter, 3) discipline and discretion to pursue a chosen aim in a responsible manner and 4) patient persistence to carry on pursuit of chosen aims for a long period of time. This definition acknowledges the blessing and challenge of choice we have as to how we put our gifts to use. Greenleaf goes on to talk about the development of strength as an ethical imperative and even suggests that one who does not acknowledge this imperative in their own lives is ethically inadequate. Yikes!

This concept of strength resonated with me as it is summed up, in many ways, what my life, in retrospect, has been building towards though I did not realize it so cohesively as when I read it. This concept is also what my life continues to be about in my management and educational pursuits.

These musings take me back to a blog post I wrote in 2007 called, Evil as a Key to Career Satisfaction. As I think of this and that topic in tandem, I realize that a worthy aim is addressing some form of evil in the world. The trick then is to 1) select the right evil, 2) to pursue it responsibly (avoiding the corruption of that evil, or others) and 3) doing so for a long period of time. The difficulty and challenge of doing this is certainly an environment for building strength over a lifetime.

I write this to encourage us all to commit, and daily recommit, to a stance of pursuing our lives and careers from a position and intention of (developing) strength.

On Second Thoughts

While having a good discussion with a good friend on yesterday we got into the issue of our propensity for negative self-defeating, horriblizing self-talk. We delved into the topic of the need to move beyond those first negative thoughts to "second thoughts" where we challenge the first thoughts for their validity with an eye to rejecting and reframing them when appropriate to do so.

This we called, "Getting To The Second Thought". Its an excellent mental practice, good for reprogramming those tapes we have inherited through both nature and nurture. These tapes were intended to keep us from "getting too big for our britches" and worked too well. The result being that we too often undervalue our gifts, competence and influence talking ourselves out of much good we might do. We also devalue others and their intentions resulting in lots of lost opportunities for trust, cooperation, understanding and peace.

At the end of this discussion, my friend and I both recommitted to this practice of not stalling out on our first thought but moving on to the "second thought" where we right-size that first thought for benefit of the relationship with ourselves and others. And yes, we encourage you to do the same.

Be well and blessed.

Musings on Our Daily Bread

The Lord's Prayer, a popular passage of the Bible, asks that we be daily given our "daily bread". In my morning meditations today, I considered the question of what is my "daily bread". I have, since childhood when I first learned this prayer, always though of it in purely material terms; food, shelter, clothing, etc.. This morning it occurred to me that my "daily bread" is more those physical, spiritual and relational gifts that are provided that allow me to get my daily bread, as well as to enable and provide other's daily bread. This realization then led to the question of how well I use my "daily bread" to get, enable and provide daily bread. Hmmm.

Further consideration pressed me to inventory all the skills, relationships, knowledge, and wisdom I have to leverage, and all the needs, problems, dilemmas and evils in the world I can leverage my "daily bread" inventory on, in exchange for my "daily bread".

So often, we have enough "daily bread" but 1) we discount what it is, 2) we don't know who most wants to buy it, 3) we are unskilled in how to sell it, and 4) we can be lazy about continually improve it. I am convinced that we if we were more aware and skilled on all these points, our self-esteem, value to others, sense of purpose and meaning, and ability to provide for ourselves and others would improve, and not just materially either.

May we become better at using and offering the "daily bread" that we are all daily provided.

Waiting (Well) At Work (& Elsewhere) For What We Want

The last 2 years has put me through a difficult and edifying exercise in patience that has left me, well, more patient. I want to share it with you here as well as the list of lessons I learned in hope it will be helpful to you in your own trials of patience at work, as well as in other areas of your life.

In brief, I had a situation at my job where I deserved a promotion based on my performance relative to the requirements of my position, and I had been repeatedly passed over. Some of the reasons for this were known and others not but that is less the point than that at the end of the day, I was not promoted because, I believe, my maturity was more important than a promotion.

Its difficult to bear with not getting something you know you deserve. It hurt my ego, and in this case, my pocket. It was embarrassing on some levels (said my ego which is is embarrassed whenever its expectations are not met on its timetable). It was unfair on other levels (said my ego which is far from omniscient). I believe (and especially in retrospect) it is what was ordained for me though.

During this time of waiting, I persisted in working to understand why the promotion was delayed and doing those things required to obtain it. I was angry, and tempted to a poor attitude, but I was continually reminded by Psalms 75.6-7 that promotion comes not from the east or the west but from the Lord, by Jer. 29.11, that God knows the good plans He has for me, by Galatians 5.22-23 that the Fruit of the Spirit is patience and self-control (temperance), and by Romans 8.28 that all things work together for good. I am happy to say that recently my patience was rewarded with a promotion, and more importantly with the lessons below. Trust me when I tell you that the lessons are far more valuable than the promotion, though the promotion is not bad.

Lesson #1: God promotes, not our management (Psalms 75.6-7). I was angry with my management but was continually reminded that if there was anyone to be angry with it was God and that I should avoid the habit of being angry with people for situations that are ultimately out of their control but rather follow through with passionate detachment to do what I had been hired to do.

Lesson #2: Look to make longer term spiritual gains, when taking short term ego & material losses. In this case, I have gotten a result of a promotion but also another degree of spiritual maturity. In the short term, I lost money, but gained temperance, patience, perspective and a renewed confidence in God's plans for me.

Lesson #3: Align your story with God’s. Our wishes are not God’s command. So often we are frustrated by the story we tell ourselves about what we see of our situations. We forget that the story we tell is optional, either positive or negative, and that we never see the whole story. Sometimes waiting saves us from unseen grief and unwanted situations we cannot foresee. I found that telling myself a story of God’s benevolence and protection, rather than neglect and unfairness, helped during my wait. If we believe God loves us, we have to then work at telling loving stories to ourselves and others. We have to align our stories with God’s Word and not with our ego.

Lesson #4: Longer waits yield greater appreciation and maturity. Enough said.

Lesson #5: Behaving wisely while waiting provides advantage. Such wise behavior is credited to David in 1 Samuel 18.14 and a good model for us to study and imitate. When David was not getting what he wanted from Saul, he conducted himself in a manner which maintained goodwill and which God use to turn the king’s heart his way (Proverbs 21.1). We create the same effect when we do the same. Doing this yielded the result I wanted and an improved relationship with my management, I am happy to say.

Lesson #6: Make good with what we have versus what we desire. Luke 16.10-12 says that if we cannot handle a little, how will we handle a lot. So often we desire more money, status, titles, responsibility, etc., but are not handling what we have as well and gratefully as we could. I believe that waiting, challenges us to make better use of what we already have. In these cases, it is good to take stock of what we have, being more grateful for it, and making the most of it.

When in the midst of waiting these lessons were not apparent to me. It is mostly after the fact that they have occurred to me. I hope they are helpful to you in whatever situation you are waiting, whether at work, at home, in some relationship or otherwise.