HI Bill, thanks for your last message, will dig further into neo.org, last time it bounced me out as technical error, but have profile now and can move into it. I do not yet fully understand the neo, but I really really love it.

 

I have finished reading your book – but not at all digesting it (little pun there !). I found reading it very odd – I’d be coasting along thinking oh yeah I know that, been there done that and suddenly there was a little 45 degree turn that caught me off guard. For example, I am pretty good at deep listening and have taught it a lot, both to individuals and in many many seminars around leadership and especially dialogue. I’d use the kinetic tool of asking people to catch themselves as they take a deep breath ready to jump in as soon as the other person has stopped talking, how can you be listening if you are taking all those little deep breaths ready to pounce into the conversation. I teach the difference between discussion/concussion/percussion and dialogue and the Greek work origins. So I have spent a lot of time in this area. Yet on page 227, you reiterate your comments about deep listening and then – here comes the twist - -- recreating in yourself how it is for the person you are listening to without judging. You listen with an intention that has been stated. Listening deeply without judging while still holding an intention can be truly transformative. Listening to create ----.

 

Well ! That is what I mean about needing to digest.

 

My Bedouin guide came into this territory, but not as far as you go. – he was telling of an unique instance when some of the not most important men (not usually present,) were attending a village meeting. He explained that they talked about their issue, and then when people stopped listening they left. Aha, I pounced, how did they know when to leave, body language, the oldest man told them to leave, -- . Beja, my guide said condescendingly, they just knew, unlike you Westerners, we Bedouins can talk and listen at the same time, and they knew that people had stopped listening, just by listening  - no body language, no signals, they just knew as they were intently listening as they were talking. And, he meant the sort of intuition that the Bedouins pride themselves on.

 

As I wove through your book with the ahas and oh, must look that reference up (and there are a lot of those, like the work of Sarasvathy) I kept touching on areas of familiarity, though work or experience, but nearly always with the twist (and not like a deeper dive, but a turn into new territory.  The reading of course had the background of leadership training and reading and study and also of all the work my husband and I have done with entrepreneurs.

 

What is so much harder and will take a longer time to process is looking at the Stone Soup recipe and applying to the business ventures we have invested so much of our working life in and have not – any of them – yet turned out to yield abundance in terms of material well being or even security. Interesting intellectually, learningful, fun, very profitable in the short term and GREAT hopes for – IPOs/stock awards, equity stakes, long term employment, fascinating technology, really bright people --- but not turning out the way we had expected/hoped. I believe that your list of ingredients will match or rather NOT match to all of our failed energy/time ventures.  I think one area for us to look at is the “testing for bad eggs” part; we have worked for/with those whose values we don’t espouse – too long, too many times as the other factors seemed to warrant putting up with “bad eggs” as they were in management power.

 

I used to have a rule that I would not work for/with  people who did not like animals – and when I have broken that rule I have always been disappointed – I was pleased to note that you mentioned that you lived on your farm in Ireland with animals (as well as  your family !). So that might be my addition to the recipe. I will go through the recipe and make additional mind maps, - for example I suspect that you (as obviously one of the most incredibly widely read people I have- does Amazon just locate a warehouse on your farm ?!) ; you probably know of Joe Jaworski and Synchronicity; otherwise I highly recommend it as one you would resonate with. http://www.psychicsahar.com/artman/publish/article_62.shtml

 

As a way of beginning to digest Stone Soup I used the mind mapping software you recommended and was delighted to see the software advances in this field since the last time I’d tried it.  I’ve attached the mind map of my Stone Soup Resonances not for any ego reasons, but know you will be called to the book review/lecture circuit and think maybe it could be an interesting teaching aid, to suggest that readers put up a mind map and then make links as they read through. One could put in links to areas to be explored further so that you don’t have to stop reading, but are secure that you will remember what you wanted to explore further. Of course if we had the combination ereader/tablet computer this would be even easier.

 

Apologies for a too long email, but since you obviously read as well as listen, know I have imposed on you to follow me through this.

Love, Marilyn