a view of Worldview

Worldview is a popular notion used by scholars and practitioners to encompass individuals' and collective cognitive orientations of various aspects of our world, such as science, religion, government, business, etc. At its very core, worldview is no more than the sense-making people have of themselves and the world around them, the perspectives gained from perception and interpretation. 

While there are many influences on people's sense-making like personality, experience, beliefs, human biases, and culture, there is an interesting overarching dichotomy that seems to skew the influences of all the other levels of sense-making to one end of the spectrum or another. How anyone processes the tension between whether I am an individual or whether I am part of a collective will go a long way in determining worldview.

Interestingly, the influences on how an individual resolves this tension are both trait driven and culturally driven. Individual personalities differ in the need to be independent or the need to be affiliated. Ambient influences, such as culture, are also powerful forces for individualism or collectivism. Generally speaking, while both are contributors to sense-making, the one that will have the most influence on worldview is the one that is the strongest.

For instance, when you look at the picture above, do you primarily see a body and a tree, or do you see arms, legs, head, etc. and branches and leaves. The reality is that both exist and both have function. You can focus on your hand and make it stronger, better, well if it has been sick, and so forth. When we have to rake leaves we do not think much about the tree, but the presence of leaves or branches. Yet at the same time, the body functions and the tree has presence. The body accomplishes tasks and the tree gives shade.

Thus, the worldview of individuals will largely be shaped by their tendencies to focus on the parts or the whole. A good example is making sense of unity. If someone has more of an individual worldview, then unity is seen as equality of opportunity. If someone has a more collective worldview, then unity is viewed as equality of outcome. Unity is really exercising each individual part of the collective in its own unique way for the benefit (glory) of the collective. Neither extreme is better than the other. When your worldview comes closer to a perfect blend that you function as an individual and at the same time you function as a community, then your worldview will come closer to the truth of who you are meant to be. You have a personal identity and you have a social identity. Learning to make sense of yourself and the world around you through a lense that brings both into focus is the worldview you should strive for.

Just saying ....  

Sex and Motivational Strategies

Don't get excited yet, when I refer to sex I am referring to the male/female trait, not the act itself, With more and more females engaged in all kinds of enterprises, the question of whether one's sex matters in how individuals are motivated. If so, what should we know? Which strategies work better for men and which strategies work better for women? Keep in mind these are general tendencies recognizing that humans are quite complex and there are many factors that ultimately affect what we do.

Studies reveal that men are likely to be more competitive than women. While in individual cases this may not be true, the view of competitive achievement is still different for men and women. Men tend to want to have opportunities to compare their whatever to others. While women can be competitive, they are likely to focus more on whether they are included in the contest and how others view them than whether they actually are winning.

Within the broad sex influence on how individuals view competitive situations, there exist a personality trait that captures the competitiveness of the individual regardless of sex. So a male could be high or low in competitiveness and a female can also be high or low. Thus, what we have is a 2x2 matrix with four possibilities for motivational strategies.

A male who is high in competitiveness will give high levels of effort when there is a performance context in which his performance is compared to others and rewards are individual. It would be difficult for this male to be motivated to collaborate with others for team performance.

A male who is low in competitiveness will be sensitive to the fact that his performance is being compared to others and would likely withhold his effort if there is too much focus on competition. In this case this male would be more likely to put forth effort if emphasis was on team rewards.

A female who is high in competitiveness will give high levels of effort in a performance context when individual achievement is recognized but being a part of the competition is the major focus. A highly competitive female is more likely to be motivated by an "if one wins, all wins" strategy.

A female who is low in competitiveness is not motivated much at all in a context where individual performance is emphasized. This female is largely interested in just belonging to the team and experiencing the journey together. These individuals are motivated the most by rewards for cooperation and collaboration.

These individual differences based on sex and motivational traits are what makes leading a team so interesting. It certainly informs selection of team members based on the type of strategy to be used and shows why a "one size fits all" approach to motivational strategies is problematic.

This is .....

What's so great about winning?

Throughout history winning has had quite an appeal to individuals in society. Recently cynics of success and advocates for "everyone should win" has challenged the idea of competition. This perspective is in contrast to the principle that I grew up with, "if you cannot fail, then you cannot succeed." Individuals vary in their trait characteristic of competitiveness so everyone doesn't strive to win with the same fervor. Some compete with themselves while others prefer to avoid performance settings because they fear losing or being seen as less than competent. Let me offer an alternative view of winning - maybe its the inspirational story of a person striving in extraordinary ways and overcoming obstacles to win that makes success compelling.

Case in point.

Jason Day just won the PGA Championship. He won in historic fashion, but what caught the imagination of the audience? It was his story. His father died when he was a child and he struggled to stay out of trouble. His mother sold her house so he could attend a boarding school where he met his now friend, father figure, and caddie. His story includes many flirtations with winning major championships, finishing in the top 10 nine times. Had he not won the PGA, he would have been the first in history of golf to have or share the 54 hole lead in a major three times in a year without winning. People who do not even follow golf were drawn to his victory, not because he won, but because of his story.

We can conclude from this example and many others that chasing success is the story that matters. Obtaining success is just a validation of the chase. People soon forget who won what, but people remember the compelling stories of individuals overcoming obstacles to achieve in meaningful ways. Everyone can't win a national championship, but everyone can set goals and accomplish them. The story of winning for each individual always involves over coming obstacles to get to the desired destination.

Yet, how often is our story defined by good intentions, like short lived New Year's resolutions. Setting goals is the easy part, staying on tract in our chase is the tough part. Like Jason Day, the story that unfolds in chasing your goal has a better chance of success when their is leadership, an advocate or a coach to challenge and guide the journey, giving you objective feedback and advice that you can trust.

Everyone cannot always find or afford a coach, so my colleague and I have developed The Concierge to help you pursue your life's goals, whether personal or career. The Concierge gets to know you personally, how you are motivated and how you see the challenges of achieving a specific goal. From these insights The Concierge provides you and those who are helping you suggestions on how to overcome your obstacles. Your personality and the context associated with your goal become unique characters in your story. The role these characters play determines how your story comes out. Ultimately, this gives you more control to move past "good intentions." One thing is for sure, your story will become a better story if you have The Concierge by your side as your coach.

Check us out @ www.lmxconcierge.com

Making sense of Heaven and the Heavenlies

My cousin and others have recommended the book "Appointments with HEAVEN". This book is self told stories of Dr Reggie Anderson. Reggie grew up in a Christian family in rural Alabama in the sixties, but fell away from his faith in high school and college due to questions he had about God resulting from tragedies in his family. God never quit pursuing him and he came back to faith as he completed medical school, married, and began practicing medicine outside Nashville, Tenn.

As a physician his stories focus mainly on experiencing life and death of patients where he had personal observations of heaven and hell. In addition to his own senses of sight and sound as patients died, some actually related similar experiences as they had been clinically dead, only to return to life to share with him their own experiences.

He recalls occurrences of light, fragrance, and warmth as the veil opens and patients pass to the other side. In this context Dr Anderson sees Heaven as a destination of the soul of the believer, where it leaves this body ("shell") and is "birthed" into a body that is restored to perfect health and joy. In Heaven Christians are reunited with loved ones who had gone on before them. The details of Heaven as a destination are never clear and he admits they may be different for different people. These encounters with Heaven are real for Reggie and more pronounced than his experiences on this side of the veil. He contrasted the sights and smells of Christians with non Christians at death, convincing him of the realities of hell.

While Heaven as a destination is the book's headline, much of the book is how God provides Reggie with guidance and protection as he engages life and patients in chronic situations. His return from atheism occurred as God visited him in a dream providing him healing from his family tragedy, and a road map for his marriage and career. While his struggle with questions about God never were completely resolved, God continually provided him sufficiently for his faith.

These experiences is what i have called "the provisions and privileges of the Heavenlies," a notion i received from Dallas Willard's book "Divine Conspiracy" and my personal study of Scripture. I have been an advocate in my later years that Christians have access to Heaven before this body deteriorates and dies thru faith. I was pleased to see that eventually Reggie recognized this as much as he had been inspired to relate Heaven as a destination to the reader.

Late in the book he says, "When we are young, we often get the impression from adults that heaven is light years away, off in space somewhere, or at the very least, up in the clouds. ... We often think of heaven as an end point or a final stop on a journey. We look at life on earth as if it begins and ends here, thinking that heaven somehow lies outside all that. I view it differently. During our lives here on earth, I don;t believe we're walking toward heaven - I believe heaven walks alongside us."

I couldn't have said this better myself and certainly worth pondering ....

From Ephesians - where we reside as believers

"Blessed (lavish our affections) be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed (bestowed on) us with every spiritual blessing (provisions) in the heavenly places in Christ."

"But God. who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which he loved us, raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus."