Organizational Development

Who

Employees/Volunteers who work together in business, community and school environments.

What

BodyMindWellBeing offers enjoyable and intriguing, body-mind centered, experiential activities (personal exploration/group initiatives). It provides the participants with new information about themselves, and their interactions with others. The training highlights personal potential and supports creative group process.

BodyMindWellBeing applies somatic (body-mind) psychology and movement improvisation, to personal mastery and organizational development. The activities deal directly with relevant business and group challenges, including:

• effective communication
• group problem-solving
• leadership and personal mastery
• conflict resolution
• cooperation and collaboration

BodyMindWellBeing cultivates individual potential by:

• increasing embodied awareness
• experiencing the body's natural intelligence
• enhancing body-mind integration
• stimulating vitality
• reducing stress

BodyMindWellBeing offers on site:

• introductory lecture/demonstration
• 1 to 5 day seminar
• ongoing consultation (individual/group)
  

Why

Organizational health is directly linked to the ability and willingness of individuals within the organization, to learn, change and grow. Increased awareness is the foundation of learning and development. Operating without awareness and expression forces reliance on old beliefs and habitual patterns of perception and action.

BodyMindWellBeing fosters a deep level of awareness and authenticity in the individual, which develops new resources that transfer to the group. Enhancing individual/group resources and potential, increases life/job satisfaction, thereby reducing costs inherent in sick days, staff turnover, new employee training, and a general lack of motivation.

How

BodyMindWellBeing facilitates increased awareness by developing embodiment skills. Embodiment increases the ability to be more responsive and present with ourselves, and others.

BodyMindWellBeing incorporates experiential anatomy, simple movement exercises, group initiatives and guided imagery to develop a greater sense of embodiment. Exploring body systems and movement patterns facilitates a genuine and practical relationship with one's self.

Following each experiential activity, the facilitator assists the group in recognizing, articulating and evaluating the information gained. This discussion supports the application and transfer of the learning to broader situations, in both work and life.

Sample
Exercise

Augmenting Communication Skills

Communication is an exchange of information between two or more people, the sender(s) and the receiver(s). It includes the perception and interpretation of meaning between the individuals. Messages are transmitted through symbols and/or the exchanges of behavior.

Communication within an organization is a challenge due to the potential diversity of its constituents. Beyond a lack of personal congruence, different people often have different styles of communication and assign different meanings and interpretations to events and things.

Movement is a basic form of communication. When body and mind are congruent, communication with others becomes more clear. Dialogue is a form of communication, an exchange between two or more people that is a catalyst for growth. Exchange by its nature requires interaction or contact. This contact produces energy.

During the dialogue process, people learn how to think together, not just in the sense of analyzing a shared problem or creating new pieces of shared knowledge, but in the sense of occupying a united awareness, in which the thoughts, emotions, and resulting actions belong not to one individual, but to all of them together.

BodyMindWellBeing facilitates dialogue and "united awareness" by engaging participants in movement experiences that focus on interaction and relationship. Building on lessons learned during the Awareness and Expression portions of the workshop, participants practice the ability to stay in relationship with both self and others, noticing, tolerating and then using the energy inherent in the exchange.

The following is a brief sample of a communication exercise used by BodyMindWellBeing to augment communication skills.

Communication Exercise #1 (part A)

Goals:

1. Practice awareness and body referencing (paying attention to your own body messages) while engaging in relationship.
2. Develop responsiveness to others.
3. Experience leading and following.

Instructions:

• Find a partner. Sit facing your partner. One person leads, the other follows. One person begins to speak, telling a story. The other person attempts to speak along with the leader, matching word for word. Pay attention to sensation in your own body as you follow your partner.
• (Repeat, exchanging the lead.)
• Stand and face your partner; one person leads, the other follows. No locomotion, no voice, moving only in place. Try to mirror your partner exactly; include the expressions on his or her face, include the breathing pattern if you can. Track your own sensation while following or leading by oscillating your attention from your own internal experience to your partner, and back.
• (Repeat, exchanging the lead.)
• Take a moment to talk about the experience with your partner. What was satisfying? What was difficult?
  

Communication Exercise #1 (part B)

Instructions:

• Change partners. This time only one person moves at a time, changing the lead. Move (walk) all around the room. (No voice.) The moving person can move until their partner begins to move. Remember, only one person can move at a time, and you can interrupt your partner at any time. When you are interrupted, you must stop your movement until you decide again to move and interrupt your partner.
• Use the whole space. Experiment with different types of locomotion.
• Change the timing. Interrupt in short or long intervals.
• Begin to bring some element of your partner's movement into your part of the dialogue. Copy a gesture or a posture, and then explore (expand/exaggerate) it, weaving it into your own expression.
• Bring your movement to a close. Talk about the experience with your partner. What was satisfying? What was challenging? Was this experience like other conversations? Why? Why not? What type of "conversation" occurs at work?

Communication Exercise #2

Goals:

• Practice awareness and body referencing while engaging in relationship.
• Develop responsiveness to others.
• Experience cooperative movement.
  

Instructions:

• Change partners. Begin standing side-by-side. Your goal is to stay in step with your partner as you walk and move around the room. Use only movement to communicate. No one is leading or following, you are moving together.
• Experiment with stopping and starting; changing directions; going backwards.
• Join another duet, making a foursome. Continue moving in "sync". Continue
  experimenting with direction and timing.
• All quartets break back into duets, maintaining your synchronized movement. All duets join with two other duets to form a sextet. Continue exploring direction and timing in this new configuration. What do you need to do to include everyone? How does your movement and attention need to change as the group grows in size?
• Everyone join. Can you move as one group?
• Bring the group into a circle.

Sample Discussion

BodyMindWellBeing Facilitator asks:

What happened? What did you notice about yourself during this experience?

B. began the discussion saying that she noticed that she liked leading more than following. Other group members noted their preference. T. said he liked following because it gave him a break; "It was relaxing to have someone else in charge."

B. said that she liked interrupting her partner and that she had to pay close attention to move when they stopped. One group member noted that she had to pay more attention as the groups got larger, and that she was challenged by the need to focus. L. stated that there had to be "a lot of give and take" and that he had to slow down at first in order to move with the group. He noted that he felt "annoyed" at the need to slow down, but in the end, the satisfaction of moving as a group was "worth it".

BodyMindWellBeing Facilitator asks:

So what? What does this have to do with you and your workplace/group?

In response to the second question, "So What? What does this have to do with you and your work?", F. said that the "give and take" was a vital communication skill. He noted that the experience of 'listening' with his whole body was new for him. H. said that she liked the duets more than the quartets; "It got too complicated, and I felt flustered. That's why I like just working with one person at a time at the office."

D. said this exercise replicated work at the office because two people often started a project, and then everyone joined in. He stated that they (the group) could bring the lesson of slowing down and pacing themselves with each other. Other group members agreed. L. stated that he enjoyed the experience of group-lead, where anyone could decide where the group was going, or when they were going to stop. L. said, "It felt like the whole group was creating together, a group mind and body."

Participant
Comments

I really appreciated today. I learned a lot, and it was fun. I feel like I know everyone better and that makes it easier at work.

Doing movement was a stretch for me, but I got to know people in a different way. We've had longer training where we sit and just talk. I feel that I learned more about myself and others in a shorter amount of time. Thanks.

At first I felt a little uncomfortable, but as the day passed, I could see the benefit of the workshop. I particularly appreciated the creative component and the group problem solving.

This was fantastic. Great to get together doing something different. I learned new things about myself and my colleagues.