Tag: new perspectives

No Judgment, no anger, no pressure for action – principles for a magical conversation?

On By paulinecrawfordpcIn Changing the Rules of the GameLeave a comment

Change is a constant and as Mark Manson in The Subtle Art of not giving a F*ck says “uncertainty is the root of all growth and opportunity”. What we do know with certainty is that the workplace, be it corporate or enterprise, entrepreneur or academic, management or worker bee, is changing and therein lies out opportunity to create a future unlike the past blending life and work, society and family, giving back and making profit.

11849231_379372528927960_1427513343_nFor me, careful consideration needs to be given to the conversations (and awareness within every word shared) as to what that future will evolve into…within four years half of the workforce will be a lot younger than me (according to latest research the Global Workforce will be Millennials), and I believe it is not about just letting the young take over. I don’t believe either that the world would be better if only women ran it, I deeply know that everyone counts and that we need to value and understand the mix… men, women, young, old, every skin-tone, creed and sexual orientation, every diverse factor of who we are as human beings, needs embracing. Not so that we can win every argument or be a walk over. Indeed, I dream of a world without arguments – lively debates yes, interesting dialogues, knowledge input but not without quests to learn relevance, valuing our differences to weave that tapestry of ‘the good life’ we’d all like.

Magical conversations – run by new principles – no judgement, no anger, no pressure to action, a sacred space, the desired round-table environment, time sensitive, topic focused, remembered learning for the right reasons, a place to freely contribute and create value for all. I have been called naive in my life, ‘Mollie Sunshine’, too positive… hey I don’t apologize for any8482996_f496 of those reviews. In 10 years, my grandchildren will be teenagers on the verge of …. running their own business, contemplating a trip to Mars, taking up further learning (and not at college) or maybe something I cannot even imagine.

Let’s use our imagination, more powerful than knowledge, to be here right now in the moment, life is precious. Do you agree?

pauline@pauline-crawford-omps.com

More information on what I believe in, my vision, my passion and purpose.

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CHANGING THE PLAYING FIELD – Part 3 of 3

On By paulinecrawfordpcIn Changing the Rules of the GameLeave a comment

THE NEW BLUEPRINT HAS ARRIVED…

By Dr Pauline Crawford International Speaker and Facilitator

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The Time Is Now …

The much discussed and fabled playing field that so many of my gender seem so committed to changing, is the one that we all walk out onto as we prepare to challenge the men of the world to another round of “He Said … She Said!” There is one word that I would like to define before we start to choose up sides, appoint referees and crouch down into that menacing stance as we prepare to go head-to-head. That word is procrastinate. According to the highly vaunted Oxford Unabridged, it is as follows: pro·cras·ti·nate (prō-krăs′tə-nāt′, prə-) –  v.intr. To put off doing something, especially out of habitual carelessness or laziness.  v.tr. To postpone or delay needlessly.

Okay, let’s get down to business. Wait a second … that’s the game we play that is so badly in need of changing, right? I think we can agree that, while the list of male-female inequities is not be growing at an alarming rate at this minute, nothing much has been done to reduce it over the past few years. We know, for example, that the pay gap issue remains, the opportunities continue to narrow for women as they move up the corporate ladder, and that life and work are uncomfortable playmates when women choose to have a family and work outside of the home. In that regard it’s interesting to note that in the US many companies do not offer employer-sponsored maternity plans while Nordic countries both dads and mums are given paid time off around the birth of their child. Such policies are there to help women succeed but they vary widely across the world if they are offered at all. It feels very piecemeal as it applies to core issues.

Religious and cultural pressures often defuse the female’s ability to be more independent. Everybody does something so that they can say, “We did something.” Large corporations hire token numbers of female applicants, governments, true to their heritage, establish “reasonable” quotas then throw money at the problem, while the companies, businesses and individuals that are left provide a few of the right sound-bites after which they will procrastinate in the hope that, by just leaving it alone, the problem it will go away. I mean … remember the advice your mum gave you when you found your first pimple … “If you pick it, it may become a boil … just leave it alone and it will go away.”

The Un-Level Playing FieldSo why, given good evidence to support changing the playing field by changing the rules of the game, do so many traditional corporations choose to follow the same path they have always followed? Why, when virtually everything around you has changed so fundamentally over the last 200+ years do they choose to cling so tenaciously to rules and policies and a paradigm that no longer works? Simple! The corporate world is run by men who lack common sense and the energy to re-engage life and change. The education system that led them there is unchanged and un-level when it comes to boys and girls. Yet girls are now in the lead both in numbers and qualifications in so many subject areas.  Maybe men have lost the entrepreneurial spirit that created ‘business’ in the first place 200 years ago.  Many have got caught up in ‘doing things right’ (i.e. to the rules of yesterday) and not paid attention to ‘doing the right things’ (i.e. acknowledging women are making the same or even greater contribution to current profitable markets as men do).

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Common sense must rule the changes and an intelligent mutually beneficial blueprint put into action. Procrastination can no longer be tolerated. The time to rethink and rewrite the rules it TODAY … not tomorrow!

 

 

PHOTO CRAWFORD-OMPSCOMING TO THE UK FROM JUNE 14TH – 13TH JULY  AUTHORS PAULINE CRAWFORD AND JAMES OMPS WILL BE SHARING THEIR BLUEPRINT FOR SUCCESS AND PREVIEW OF THEIR BOOK ‘WHO’S IN CHARGE?’  Their approach is invite you to share the conversation by stepping onto a new blueprint that encompasses men and women of all shapes ans sizes, personality types and ages. It is a blueprint core to business and life and addresses all diversity issues that current challenge organisations today.

For details of their tour schedule during that time, available in Brighton and London, please email paulinecrawford.pc@gmail.com or what’s app +60132352225

CONFERENCE OPPORTUNITY WITH VOICE AT THE TABLE IN THE UK JULY 8TH LONDON

Join us for an opportunity to explore the dynamics of the playing field and how you can engage in the evolution revolution of a mutually beneficial future.

The DNA of Gender Dynamics© Part 6 . Learning to Engage One Another.

On By paulinecrawfordpcIn Gender Dynamics DNA The StoryLeave a comment

By Dr Pauline Crawford, International Speaker & Facilitator

hand_shake_m_1Ask any audience the question “ARE MEN AND WOMEN THE SAME?” and you will always get the same answer. NO! In every biological kingdom across the world – be it human or animal – the male and female of each species are designed to be different genders and to come together to create new life. No argument there. We laugh at the obvious differences as in this picture.  However, not all men behave the same, nor do all women behave the same, and the reasons for this are myriad.

I realized within a short period of time that I needed to take ‘what I knew’ back to the drawing board. I was learning that within each gender there was a range of physical body shapes that had a direct correlation to identifiable gender specific behavioral patterns that linked directly to left-brain, right-brain patterns and configurations. Beyond that, it was my belief that these patterns began to develop from birth. What I was witness to was the emergence of various types of women and men quite literally coming out of hiding, if you will, due to the necessity to survive in a world that struggled to make sense of the chaos of this gender evolution.

article-1364014-00BEEEF8000004B0-177_468x286Society at large continues to try to squeeze everyone into neat little boxes that men of great power and stature created centuries ago, long before women even began daydreaming about the possibility of working alongside men in the business world. Now, however, women, technology and changing needs are forcing us to rethink the playground we all live and work in. Nowadays the differences within each gender, especially women, are out in the open. Women now clamber to hold their place without truly understanding the biases that exist between women and women, and men and men, let alone between men and women. Each, in their own way, struggle to make sense of the influence required by those in charge.  New leaders are emerging; men and women alike who recognize that the players, as well as the ground rules need to change as the marketplace and life itself changes. The playground has both boy and girls in it. Why, then, do we choose to keep approximately half of our available human capital from participating in the growth and development process to become leaders. Why do we arbitrarily include and exclude at random?

boys_and_girlsLook in the playground, you see the girls play together, often in circles with their heads together. You see the girly girls sitting pretty and the tom-boy girls climb trees and playing football, ‘all girl’ and yet tough in their own way.  You see the boys hustle and tussle, playing running games, football and the like. You see that the more reserved, quiet and perhaps gentle boy plays football, but does not easily take to the more physically challenging parts of sport such as risking bodily injury and hitting opponents harder. Yet both are ‘all boy’ as they deal with their individual DNA and spirit.

As the girls grow and mature, they may well have the opportunity to become leaders like Chancellor Angela Merkel or Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, very different types of women.  Boys may well have the opportunity to become the next President Bill Clinton or world leader Nelson Mandela, again very different types of men. Imagine them each these different types of boys and girls in the playground, and let me know your views?

Men and women around the table making the future grow in innovative ways
Men and women around the table making the future grow in innovative ways

As I began to recognize these variations of leading men and women in the boardroom, as leaders in government, as entrepreneurs hiring the next generation and in society at large, I observed changes afoot that lead us to new ways of working, using mixed gender teams and feminine leadership styles, where maybe the focus becomes people rather than profit, customer rather than cost savings. The playing field starts to change to a more collaborative end game where men and women share the playground with a dynamic harmony and results that suit all.  Such things are not out of reach.

What impact can Gender Dynamics© create in today’s world?

On By paulinecrawfordpcIn WHAT GENDER DYNAMICS© IS ALL ABOUT...Leave a comment
Young businesswoman and young businessman side-by-side in starting position and determined to win. Concepts: competition; corporate race; power struggle; battle of the sexes.?
Is it a battle of the sexes? Or can we play a new game and both win?

Gender Dynamics© is an approach to communication that creates a natural blueprint for how men and women can understand each other with more clarity, engagement and healthy collaboration.. Whatever backgrounds, ages, cultures, ethnic groups and sexual orientation, men and women are influenced by natural gender attributes and defined by natural talents.  These inform key aspects of each person’s personality, presence and performance. Gender prejudices are put under pressure from well-established stereotypes and learned gender bias. These prejudices can block the growth of enterprises across the world. All natural gender factors plus our own experiences to date create our inter-gender communication, interactions and performance.

The new lens of Gender Dynamics© provides a real-world, real-time, understanding about our ‘male-female’ biological differences and much more; it assesses the impact those ‘born’ characteristics have on our natural behavior and communication styles and allows us to behave differently where necessary to the long established stereotypes that gender can engender!  Our gender biology is merely a starting point.  There is far more depth to the gender challenge and that is within each gender as we overlay onto the biological impact those traits that come from our natural internal preferences. These are named here as descriptive terms of ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ appropriately.  These traits that can be observed and recognized in words, and actions which differentiate the patterns we display as men and women in every context, within each gender culture, and applied to social, domestic and business arenas.  The combination of our biological print and our internal preferences transcends other diversity factors such as age, culture, ethnicity, disability and sexuality. As more and more women enter the business arena and especially the entrepreneurial and SME markets, the influence of these more complex Gender Dynamics© become more apparent. Becoming gender intelligent with our choices in business and in life is key to a more collaborative and sustainable future..

In creating a new perspective for business today, an employer whether male or female, must take into account the importance that gender and diversity take in creating his/her workforce and in understanding the changing consumer base business he/she is facing in a constantly evolving world. It is critical to recognize, value and leverage what men and women bring to the growth and sustainability of the workplace today.  Clarification of this subject adds enormous natural power to how men and women meet, discuss and create conversations that matter.

The ultimate goal is that people better understand their unique contribution as a man or a woman and bring that to the business environment.  It is said that in today’s business world, 95% of what men and women ‘do’ is the same. We all use technology the same, mobile communication the same, we connect with knowledge in the same way, we all drive cars, go to work, travel the same, eat the same, learn the same business skills – yet the 5% that makes men and women perform in different ways often makes the critical difference in how circumstances and situations, relationships and success happens. It is in that 5% that the critical emotional reactions take place, where minute to minute reactive responses change the path that person takes.  It is in that 5% differential, we can expand our possibilities of working together, men and women bringing a new working practice and better results. This is when we start to appreciate it is not the players that are stuck, there is no glass ceiling, however there is a traditional male playing field that needs re-framing so we don’t get stuck in the past.

Of course all of this new gender intelligent- “gender dynamics” -perspective can bring a new harmonic to life itself and impact our most intimate relationships within familial and social communities as well as business. Everybody is connected through their gender cultures, male and female, and together become inter-connected in daily existence. Please join me on this journey of discovery and add your views and perspectives, experiences and learning from connecting and relating to your own and members of the opposite gender. Let’s set our intention to create a better future together. Thank you.

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