Book Excerpt from ting!

It was raining the next time Tony ran up the stairs to meet in Hermilla's office. He noticed the soft sounds the drops made on the windows that soothed him. He was looking forward to today. These authentic conversations were like the beginning of a new adventure to him and although he couldn't see it coming together yet, he felt he was on the right track.

As they sat down together Hermilla asked him to talk about some of the things he wanted to focus on in his career and position. He talked at length about how clients who used to take up a lot of his time weren't calling as much and when he called them, they weren't really communicating. Despite this, he continued to persist and maintain a friendly rapport with them. He just didn't feel he was getting anywhere. Hermilla asked him about the other Account Managers and what the sales results were. Tony replied that they were down slightly overall, but that his performance was consistent. "What does your intuition say about this?" he asked her generously. "I'd really like to know because frankly I just don't see the linkages here."

"Hmmm," she said. "They aren't always easy to see. But let's consider how intuition used to happen in early mankind."

"Well," Tony remarked, "from what I understand it was a kind of visceral instinctive sense that they used to warn them of danger or predators in their environment."

"That's right," affirmed Hermilla. "What happened when they got it wrong?"
"I guess they either got good at it or they died. The threats were severe enough that they didn't get second chances."

"Yup, and the gene pool didn't carry their errors too far. But it's a lot different now. Most of the dangers we face, aside from an abrupt accident or something that's mortally obvious, don't kill us right away. Instead they work bit by bit, over time, by turning up the stress level, until we find some warning sign of heart disease or other illness. Similarly, if we make mistakes in life through improper handling of money or relationships, they don't all break down at once, but over time, until one day we find ourselves buried in debt or suffering a relationship breakdown. In the workplace or in business the same thing happens. If we make small mistakes, they may go unnoticed. But over time they add up to a performance breach which becomes a self-limiting career, a job loss, the loss of an important client or contract or even, when it involves many people, the death of a whole organization or part of it."

"So," Tony interjected, "Are you saying that being more intuitive will help us to anticipate these small changes so that we can make decisions to go forward in different directions?"

"Yes, absolutely. How many projects have you seen go bad, because they were already bad in the early stages, not deeply thought through enough?"

"Lots," he replied.

"What did you learn from these experiences?"

Tony laughed. "Mostly to avoid getting involved in another one or avoid the risk of working with that same project manager again."

"So, how did this contribute to the whole organization or team or what they learned from it?"

"Negative impact," Tony answered.

"Right. And the overall impact of this is repeated many times. Each time the organization fails in a small way, it impacts the individual motivations of everyone involved in it. It's a descending spiral that starts off slowly and ambiguously."

"Let me tell you what I learned from a walnut tree one summer. It was several years ago now and I was 8 months pregnant with my son Daniel. The doctor had ordered me off work and with complete bed rest because I was retaining fluid and there was a medical risk. I absolutely hated it, keeping still and not being able to do things, like I was used to. I thought of all the things I wanted to do before the baby came. But I couldn't or the next step would be a hospital bed.

"So I sat in the back yard on a lounge chair under our walnut tree. Now the tree had always been there, and I hadn't really noticed it much. But, when you see it day after day, you notice things. I knew it was a very fast-growing tree and noticed that the tree had so many little branches that continually died, and so many new branches that continually grew to compensate for it. And I began to realize that the new growth was always so green and so healthy, it didn't matter how old the tree was, it was always young where the new branches grew. It became an analogy for me about life and organizations. You always have to look for the new growth. And intuition definitely has a role in helping to find it and reminding us of where to look."

She continued, "These days, we all want quick answers and simple solutions. As the world grows more complex, our intellect struggles to try to find them, but can't, because it's too slow. Meanwhile, all the media, images and ideas we're exposed to tend to starve off our quieter intuitive knowing. We get stressed trying to figure it all out.

"Early man relied on a primitive kind of brain, also called the amphibious or reptilian brain. But this 'turtle brain' can't handle complexity because the control center for finding intuitive solutions has migrated further up our brain stem, where higher intelligence, reasoning and learning skills reside. And having all that stress muddles up the signals."

Tony interjected, "So we need to learn more about intuition so we can be more perceptive about the early warning signs of a wrong direction or approach."

"Yes, logic, analysis and all our streamlined operations protocols rarely give us this information early enough. Intuition does, but we all need to become better listeners of the ways intuition speaks to us."

Reprinted from ting! A Surprising Way to Listen to Intuition & Do Business Better by Arupa Tesolin.

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Arupa Tesolin has written a book on using intuition in life, work & in business called "ting! - A Surprising Way to Listen To Intuition & Do Business Better." A ting! is the “sound” of intuition striking an open mind. Arupa & her colleagues, which include both best-selling authors & intuition leaders, are offering special gifts valued at $7300+, plus discounts for Arupa's Intuition Coaching Programs, when you purchase ting! from Wed. Oct. 3 to Fri. Oct. 19 at www.intuita.com/ting.htm.

"ting!" recently received a 4-Star Rating (the highest) by Training Magazine US. It's a great story along the lines of "Fish" & "Who Moved My Cheese", a personal intuition tool, learning resource and conversation starter for intuition at work. "ting! - Unleash Your Intuition Smarts" Training Program is available for teams, professional groups & organizations. For ting! Training Leader Certification, please contact Arupa. Please join us in advocating a more intuitive and authentically whole world!