One Small Thing: Felt Sensing for Solutions

This exercise, by Dr. Kathy McGuire called "One Small Thing," helps you use right-brain information, alone or in a group, to find a doable first step in overcoming apathy and getting "buy in" to projects. You will pay attention to the "intuitive feel" of the issue and find new ideas and solutions arising.

Transcript

Hi this is Dr.

Kathy McGuire of Creative Edge Focusing.

Today we are going to apply Gendlin's focusing technique to a problem of overcoming apathy and creating buy-in from the bottom up in organizations and I call them Creative Edge organizations because hopefully everybody in the organization is being inspired to work from their own creative edge and this is powerful motivation and buy-in.

So we're going to do an exercise you can do it by yourself or you can do it at some point in a problem-solving group.

It takes about 20 minutes and if you're in a group maybe another 20 minutes for a kind of a brainstorming process afterwards and I'm going to invite you to close your eyes and go quietly inside and set aside all of your usual thinking about whatever problem of apathy you're having a problem of buy-in you're having in your organization.

Set aside what you already know and you're going to try to get the bodily feel or the intuitive felt sense of that whole problem and it's going to be coming in the center of your body not up in your brain problem-solving but more like your whole body wisdom of the situation and that comes initially without words just as a vague feel for the whole thing and then using Gendlin's focusing you'll go back and forth forth looking for words or images or a drawing of what has come to you intuitively and basically you're going to be naming the area you want to work on where there's some kind of apathy getting in touch with who exactly it is that you want to motivate and then you're going to look for the one small thing a step so small or just the right amount of effort that will allow people to get engaged without turning them off or overwhelming them but will will be exciting will be a small step that lets them start to have buy-in on the project you're looking at.

I'm going to invite you to have a pencil and paper handy so that you can write down ideas or if you try this in a group everybody can mind map or write down ideas as they go along and once you have your piece of paper and pencil I invite you to close your eyes and go quietly inside and just get comfortable in your chair.

So we're going to start Gendlin's focusing now closing your eyes letting your focus letting your attention drift inward letting go of your thinking and being willing to find the intuitive feel so initially just closing your eyes just let yourself notice your breathing going in and out you don't have to try to change it just notice your breathing as a way of coming inside.

And now take a moment to choose that area of interest or where you know there's a problem about apathy or need for buy-in and you might already know the name of this or otherwise just spend some time choosing the area that you're going to do your focusing on.

Place the problem that needs attention in relation to buy-in.

And again don't answer necessarily from your head if you don't already know just let your body sense start to form.

You you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you so ask yourself where is the apathy that I am concerned about?

Who is it that I want to engage in this project?

And just sit quietly bringing the whole concern into the center of your attention setting aside your already known problem-solving and letting the intuitive feel for the whole thing arise.

You So for example I'm thinking about how I would start empathy circles at a local high school.

Who would I be most likely to try to engage and what would be a first step that would be small enough take a small enough commitment that I could get people interested in beginning to have some buy-in that's my example you'll have your own.

And find some words or an image or use your paper and pencil to make a drawing to try to capture the intuitive feel of that whole thing and and don't worry if you don't get a clear answer you are drawing closer to the intuitive feel of the whole problem and where it might be stuck and what could possibly activate people.

So if you want to write anything down or use mind mapping or any other procedure just take a few moments to do so to make words or images or drawings for your first steps of what is the problem what is the apathy who do I want to engage and that's the first step.

And you can write that down in some way if you like.

And now I want you to go back inside closing your eyes paying attention in the center of your body and again ask yourself what could be the one small thing people could do one small thing this audience would be happy to do which could be a first step toward full engagement.

Give yourself some time.

What could be one small thing?

And again don't get into thinking the already known set aside what you already know and just pay attention to the creative edge the intuitive feel of the whole thing that is more than you are already thinking.

Just notice the unclear feeling that comes up and then take time to find some words or an image that capture that intuitive feel.

So in terms of my own issue of engaging high school kids in empathic listening training I thought well I could have just a meet-and-greet we would do the simplest of empathic listening exercises in small circles as just a way for them to get to know each other better and I think they might enjoy that and it wouldn't be a big stressful commitment.

It's just one thought.

So gather your own idea for one small step and write those down.

And if you're working by yourself at this point you can just go back and forth do a little bit of brainstorming with yourself trying out an idea in your mind sensing how the people might react to it imagining how it might work and going back and forth between trying out various possibilities and checking with your intuitive bodily feel.

Would that work?

How would that be?

And take notes as needed or desired and continue as long as you want.

And if you're doing this in a group now would be a time when you can let people finish taking notes and then you would use just a creative edge round-robin sharing structure for an initial go-around.

And the basic thing here as in any brainstorming is you're not going to interrupt or criticize anyone.

But different from some brainstorming we're going to just slow it down a little let each person have a three to five minute turn to say whatever came up for them whether they had the same problem area as they you thought they would or maybe different areas the audience they thought needed to be approached and whatever one small step ideas they came up with.

And everybody else can just take notes of what they think is important.

So first everyone gets their uninterrupted turn to speak from all that intuitive knowing that right brain knowing.

And then after that initial go-around you can turn to a more traditional brainstorming method or bouncing ideas off of each other just knowing that if it starts to get too fast-paced too argumentative anybody can say wait let's just go back to the non-interruption turn-taking structure so that we can really hear each person's idea and let something new arise just from carefully hearing each person.

And of course next step would be to try this out to actually come up with your plan test it out on some co-workers or ask the people to have a focus group ask the people what ideas they have or how they think it might apply how might be done and try it out.

Thank you for your attention.

Thanks.

Reviews

Thank you ⭐️⭐️⭐️very helpful and a new experience 🙏

Useful for me because it is another technique/approach to work I do with teams working in organizational settings - by definition, imperfect, conflicting agendas, constraints (real or urban legend), chaotic, diverse, connected thru the IoT, changing and in dire need of rapid reinvention to be and remain relevant. I also tried the practice on a simple problem of my own to see how it works. My advice, given my work in corporate team settings, that a strong team leader or facilitator would find this useful and something he/she could do, but requires strong facilitation skills. As for using this technique for yourself, give it a go if you need a jumpstart. Thanks.