Breakthrough Newsletter Volume 2 Issue 1



 
Breakthrough Newsletter

  Volume II, Issue 1                                                                           Top January 2010

PITAGORSKY
CONSULTING

In This Issue
Sustainability
Don't Complain - Do Something
Is Optimal Performance a principal goal of yours?
Optimal Performance Progran
This program weaves together the critical skills for optimal performance, across weeks or months to enable measurable improvement. It consists of six segments that stand alone as well as build on each other. 

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"Productive insight; clear (often sudden) understanding of a complex situation."  Free Dictionary

Pop the bubble of conditioned thinking and emerge into the creative realm of "no absolutes," continuous change, uncertainty and unlimited possibilities.

Then, there can be innovation, adaptation and optimal performance.
 
Performance & Open-minded Mindfulness:
Open-minded: questioning everything, accepting diversity and uncertainty.  

Mindful: consciously aware; concentrated. 

Foundation for blending process, project, engagement and knowledge management into a cohesive approach to optimize performance.
This Newsletter
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Sustainability 
By George Pitagorsky

"Treat the Earth well. It was not given to you by your parents. It was loaned to you by your children" 
~ Kenyan Proverb

Sustainability is the capacity to endure.

When it comes to individual life there is a finite limit.  Life as we know it is not sustainable.From one perspective nothing is permanent; there is constant change.  Therefore, nothing is sustainable forever.  So we need a time frame.  

Sustainable for twenty years, a week, 100 years?

We need to know why we want to sustain whatever it is that we want to sustain. Will it add value, alleviate suffering, or increase pleasure? It seems easy to sustain things that make life miserable for people and befoul the environment. Look how long mankind has sustained the culture of selfish closed mindedness that perpetuates war, ecological destruction and poverty. It seems that sustaining something that is positive requires much more thought, courage and effort.  

It is necessary to get out of the immediate need for gratification and think long term and globally. At the same time it is necessary to take care of our needs in the moment. Maintaining the balance is the work of sustainability.
© 2010 Pitagorsky Consulting

Don't Just Complain - Do Something Constructive
By George Pitagorsky

When any fit of gloominess, or perversion of mind, lays hold upon you, make it a rule not to publish it by complaints. ~ Samuel Johnson
Complain 

Have you ever been faced with a complainer who brings everyone down? Have you complained even when you knew the person you were complaining to was in no position to do anything but listen?  
 
com·plain (km-pln)
intr.v. com·plained, com·plain·ing, com·plains
1. To express feelings of pain, dissatisfaction, or resentment.
2. To make a formal accusation or bring a formal charge
  
Does complaining do any good?
Here we are in whatever condition we might find ourselves.  Complaining about it to ourselves and to others who have no power to change anything is mostly a waste of time and energy.
 
But, given that nothing is without its positive and negative side, of course, there is a place for complaints.
 
Constructive Complaining
It is through complaints that relationship, service and product dissatisfactions are brought to light and can be corrected. In organizations and families alike the ability to constructively complain is a powerful contributor to relationship health and optimal performance.
 
Constructive complaining is communication. In it there is receptivity and a commonly held value for getting the subject of the complaint out in the open. The parties to it see the complaint as an opportunity to eliminate dissatisfaction, hopefully by getting to its root cause.Even in that case, there is an opportunity to use the complaint as a step towards eliminating dissatisfaction.
 
Some might say that complaining is cathartic and a stress reliever. While it may be true, the question is whether it is healthy or a constructive way to deal with the stress? Cigarettes, heroin and alcohol are stress relievers, but we don't recommend them for long term use. Complaining can be addictive.
 
In general, complaints that are delivered without emotional charge tend to be constructive. It is personally useful to understand the reason for the charge and useful to others to let the charge go before registering the complaint. 
 
Complaints that are delivered without charge as fact based observable situations tend to be more easily taken constructively. Exceptions are when a bit of annoyance helps to get the attention of the "complainee". Use your discretion. Be kind.
 
Constructive complaining addresses the following questions. What's wrong? What makes it wrong (in the eyes of the complainer)? What effect does it have? What would right, look and feel like? Why?
 
Negative Complaining
Empty complaining is complaining just to complain. There is no follow up. No intention to fix anything or to understand the causes and conditions. It's just complaining.
 
Chronic complaining is complaining that goes on and on. While it may be entertaining and cathartic, it ultimately takes attention away from the situation that is the subject of the complaint. Instead of attending to the "fix", complaining becomes the focus. Some flee to avoid the complainer and the complaint itself. Many complaints, even if they have substance are ignored. 
 
Further, complaining is contagious. The recipient may pass it on as gossip. In some situations, before long empty, chronic complaining becomes a shared pass time. 
 
Frustration grows. Performance and enjoyment degrade.
 
What do we complain about?
In general we complain about a situation that has or continues to dissatisfy us in some way. It's too hot or too cold. Someone's behavior is annoying? Things are messy. We aren't making enough money. We have to travel coach.  We are not appreciated enough. So and so doesn't do his job well enough. Conversing with automated operators and long wait times are annoying, etc. 
 
Why do complainers complain?
Oh, wouldn't the world seem dull and flat with nothing whatever to grumble at?  ~ W.S. Gilbert

I personally believe we developed language because of our deep inner need to complain.  ~ Jane Wagner 
 
Why do most complainers complain? Often, it is because complaining is a way to avoid simply accepting the discomfort of a situation. 
 
It is too hard for many, maybe most, to sit with the discomfort of an unpleasant situation, particularly one that doesn't have a quick solution. 
 
Complaining takes the edge off. It shifts attention outwardly. It feels better to complain than to simply be with the feelings. 
 
Learn to accept in silence the minor aggravations, cultivate the gift of taciturnity, and consume your own smoke with an extra draft of hard work, so that those about you may not be annoyed with the dust and soot of your complaints.  ~ William Osler
 
Making the best of it
Whether we arrived at our present situation in some pre-ordained way, or because of past actions, or just randomly, or by a combination of them, it seems best to make the best of it.
 
Making the best of it means to behave skillfully.  Skillfully here means in a way that is most likely to optimally achieve one's goals and objectives.
 
Acceptance
But what if there is nothing to be done? Complain? Or, remember the serenity prayer - accept what you cannot change - and move on. 
 
Note that accepting is doing something; probably one of the most difficult things of all to do. Once we accept something, the situation changes. 
 
Note that accepting the situation is not some fatalistic stance that means we are not going to take action. Acceptance is of the situation as it exists in the present moment. It recognizes that it is impossible to change the past or the present moment.
 
Action
So what to do? Learn to recognize the impulse to complain and assess its underlying cause. This alone enables the objectivity that can lead to effective behavior. 
 
Then decide whether complaining will do any good. If you think it will, then complain skillfully. If you think it won't, then don't.   

© 2010 Pitagorsky Consulting 
 
 
 
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