Robust Interior

I’m in several 1-1 interviews today. The context is the beginning of a 5-month leadership development program. The program is one that I created with a colleague for application internally at the company he works at. The interviews are mostly about connecting — starting or growing a relationship that will encourage learning, wonder, experiments together, and developing a more robust interior.

I love that this program isn’t a delivery of information. There are a few core teachings. But much of the mode of the program is inviting participants to encounter those teachings with some curiosity, and to make internal sense individually and together. It’s less of a test — regurgitating external answers. It’s more of an invitation — exploring internal sense-making and intuition. Today I get to begin the process with several participants.

I’ve come to realize over the last many years how much I’m drawn to this purpose and objective of developing robust interior. It means that not all of the learning is linear — I love telling people up front that we will be deliberately non-linear. I love bringing in resources that invite participants to explore their principles and values that guide their lives — the things that bring them alive — and then connecting that back to what they do at work.

The work that I’m most interested in with people is this deeply inner work. I used to worry that it might be too far removed from the day to day accountabilities that people hold at work. Yet I’ve learned the there is always a connection made by the people themselves. My work is often guiding, extending invitation for them to explore more of their inner and reconnect how that has enlivening and lasting relevance to their outer lives at work.

So here’s to the growing of the robust interior, that includes these initial 1-1 interviews. Here’s to the clarity of values. The dwelling with inner compass. The remembering and trusting intuition. And the weaving of community of people growing inside and out, making difference with those around them.