Anna B Sexton – Open To Arts

Better Conversation week 21st-27th Nov 2011

Thanks to the wonder that is Twitter I know its ‘Better Conversation’ week this week 21st-27th November 2011.

And I got to thinking about what does it take for me to converse better? And I stumbled upon something I wrote a while ago to try to simply explain why I benefit so much from the coaching I do.

Coaching is a way of being and leading that offers me the opportunity to be ‘for’ the person I am conversing and holding a space for, so that person explores being their own expert. I believe the simple, yet effective, reflection and clarification techniques allow for coaches to fully hear their coachees, all the way down. My biggest breakthrough has been to actually live out the giving and receiving of permission, which once requested allows the coachee the space to give consent – yes or no. Such a simple request seems to holds so much em-powerment within it.

I have started to see how this can be used in all areas of life, particularly day to day conversations, conflict resolution and this has enabled me to feel what a privilege being a coach is on a deeper level.

So many human interactions I have myself or witness on buses or at work tend to end in a stalemate with both parties mishearing then misunderstanding each other. The combination of seeing the other person as having their own answers, of being able to listen to that person – while still having an ability to share my own agenda, at the appropriate time seems nothing short of revolutionary.

As someone who can struggle to gauge what other’s are really saying, how to be within that context and to stay true to myself and my wants I am beginning to see how these simple conversation growing tools are tools for life. And ones that over time have evolved and deepen the quality of my own personal and professional interpersonal relationships. Imagine though if we all could have access to such simple tools…it may just radically change how all humans interact.

The possibilities opened up by coaching as a way of being link into potential for real conflict resolution in a world with more loving connections;

“Non-violent communication raises the bar for communication skills by allowing everyone to achieve their own needs on their own terms, without coercion, fear of retribution, or loss of self esteem.”
Marshall Rosenberg

How you will you give yourself permission in the remaining few days of Better Conversation week to engage more deeply with those you interact with?

I am all ears.

Anna

Grow your arts business and the rest will follow?

What does it take to grow your own arts business?

And what follows once you start that process?

And who else benefits or doesn’t as you grow yourself and your arts business grows?

Growing your own arts and creative businesses starts having a seed of a vision to do something only you can bring into the world, mixed together with your own particular view of the world, built up over the years and a culmination of all your experiences to date.

These questions become particularly pertinent when you allow yourselves to re-remember you don’t and your businesses don’t just exist within the space between your ears i.e. your heads.
These thoughts need to become actions to grow your dream into a reality.

So where then do your businesses live once they are out of your heads and in the world?

They live in the communities we live and work in. Be they local, regional, nationally and more increasingly globally spaces thanks to social media etc.

So even if you stay sitting behind the door of your office, beavering away in your head and on your laptops simply stating ‘I don’t do community.’

The truth is you do and we do community, whether we like or not. But what does this mean when you are growing yourselves and your business? How do you/we do this in a way which sustains us and others?

Definitions of community are personal, public and variously wide ranging – the Oxford Dictionary’s version is;

“The people that live in one locality; a group of people having cultural, religious, ethnic,
or other characteristics in common; the public in general; society. Ecology – a group of interdependent animals & plants inhabiting the same region and interacting with each
other through food & relationship.”

Every community has its own unique set of ingredients which gives the flavour to experiences we have when we live, work or visit there.

Communities have a big place in my heart given over the last 20 years I have lived and worked in over 8 deprived inner London boroughs, regenerating Liverpool & Manchester with a stop off in rural Wiltshire to give me another angle on what living in community might mean. I have worked to get myself into the different mindsets and space of the people, organisations and businesses that make up these individual villages, market towns, London Boroughs and re-blossoming regional cities.

I am currently growing my 3rd creative business and this has really got me into the process of deeply questioning what I want to grow, how and why.

Like gardening people, business and places grow organically with that certain mixture of elements required for them to bloom.

I am more and more drawn to metaphor of how we grow the people, businesses and places in our communities being similar to that of gardening. The essential ingredients in the mix

Plenty of light – both our own ability to be light and let our lights shine. And access to sustainable forms of energy to light our offices etc.
Plenty of water – fresh, clean and available to all
Plenty of non-polluted air i.e. the right mixture to grow healthy people
Plenty of healthy earth upon and within which to grow healthy roots/foundations
Plenty of plant food without use of chemicals, pesticides and other pollutants (see air)
Plenty of time to nurture, enjoy the fruits of your labour and share the harvest
Plenty of attention to cut away the dead wood, weed away any sources of potential threat

Seeing it written down makes is seem obvious, and of course it is. Yet how we do & be this on a day to day basis is another thing.

And in the context of setting up and running your business – how you will grow the seeds of your mission is more imperative day by day.

“When we place our own individual needs ahead of the broader community we lose our perspective and become ethnocentric. The result is the Three Musketeers mantra in reserve: “All for one and none for all.”
Bob Doppelt, The Power of Sustainable Thinking

Some inspiring examples I have either been part of co-creating or discovering of late are listed below;

www.welovemarlborough.co.uk
http://greeningbrownfield.blogspot.com/
www.londonsartistsquarter.org
www.bowarts.org