The reflections and insights in this audio follow on from the track Breathing Together,
Where breathing together is the precursor to running successful and harmonious meetings.
Agreeing together helps bring a meeting to a successful conclusion.
So this is not so much a meditation,
But some ideas you can take into a meeting.
And while this is designed for meetings with three or more people,
Whether they are meeting face to face or virtually,
Somewhat bizarrely the principles work pretty well for any individual wanting to make a decision too.
So if either you personally or your team are in two or more minds about something or other,
Here's some explanation as to why this happens and what you can do to come to a resolution.
By the end of this short exploration,
You will see why meditation is the key mind technology to assist us in the decision making process.
Now the idioms of English or any other language give much away.
So when an idea is on the top of our head,
Something is on the tip of our tongue,
Or our heart is not really into something,
These phrases are often more literal than we might first think.
It's now known by neuroscientists that not all of what we might call intelligence is in our head.
For example,
Some of the knowledge of a notes of a piano concerto is in the fingers of the pianist.
The information that we are hungry emanates from the gut mind.
Our gut and heart minds are active mind centres and are in constant communication with our brains.
The dialogue is silent however,
And their counsel can be overruled by our inner or outer chatter.
If you ever said,
I wish I trusted my gut,
Or my heart was never in it,
You will have experienced such internal conflict.
It's also now thought that it's somewhat of an urban myth that our left brain is logical and our right brain is creative.
A more accurate model,
While still a generalisation,
Is that the left brain is focused on detail and the right brain on the big picture.
So this leads us into the first step in agreeing together.
Many meetings start with an agenda.
If you don't have one,
The left brainers will be stressed out,
Whereas the right brainers will appreciate the open-endedness.
To help out with those with such dispositions,
Start a meeting by imagining that you've got to the end and agree what a good outcome might be and the actions that need to be taken to get there.
Reflect on a meeting you've had recently of how this might have panned out.
Then imagining the meeting is finished,
Spend a little time at the start of the meeting to explore what might unfold after the meeting should said outcome come to pass.
You can reiterate this process any number of times.
So by extrapolating out to the future like this,
Those who love the big picture will be happier and more engaged in the detail.
So next you get into the agenda points themselves.
As each agenda point is tackled,
Assign tasks along with completion dates to the relevant stakeholders.
Now,
While this might all sound a bit trivial,
If any naysayers start to react and complain,
Remind everyone of the big picture and the end game.
There will be times in any meeting where you hit a roadblock.
Someone says something is black,
While someone else claims it is white.
There will be others that say nothing at all.
These can be the holders of silent wisdom which never gets heard or sees the light of day.
So here's another technique that can be used to reach consensus and get everyone on board.
At first it might take some time,
But such consultation could save lots of time in the long run if a poor decision was to be made.
So ask each attendee of the meeting these four questions.
Each with a follow up question.
First do they have enough detail?
Second do they buy into the big picture?
Third is their heart in love with the idea?
And fourth does their gut feel it is the right decision?
If the answer is anything less than a yes or even a brief hesitation,
Ask the corresponding follow up questions.
First what detail is missing?
Second is the big picture too big or perhaps too small?
Third if you are lukewarm or cold about the idea,
What would you have to change so you could fall in love with it?
And fourth if your gut reaction is to say no,
What would have to change to give the idea a green light?
In summary these two techniques are designed to engage the right brains of all attendees by being clear and expansive on the big picture.
Then the left brain is canvassed for its viewpoint,
But by using the intelligences which reside in our heart and gut minds.
The idea is to aim for whole brain and whole mind integration.
Now this track is intentionally and mindfully short and high level.
My guided visualisation on the app called Reminding Yourself goes into much more detail as to how our different mind centres interact with each other.
But I hope you find these techniques useful.
And for even more successful meetings you can proceed this process by breathing together and there is also a third technique in this mini series called Seeing Together.
And if you just want some general relaxation and chill out time,
The background music to this track is called Guiding Lights and you will also find that on the app.
Thanks for listening.
