For many, this time of the year offers an opportunity to reflect on the past and make resolutions for a future reality. Even if you’re not inclined to make a new year resolution, I invite you to bring attention to what matters through the intentionality of choice, by bringing full consideration to the subtler vibrations of what is calling your heart!
It is akin to moving beyond autopilot, engaging in every activity with the attention a pilot might give to landing a plane.
As complex, multiple-dimensional individuals, we live in systems and have learned to adapt to their ebbs and flows through our moment-by-moment choices. Dr. William Glasser’s Choice Theory emphasizes that all behavior is chosen and is driven by the desire to satisfy the need to:
- be free
- have fun
- to survive
- be powerful
- be loved and accepted
When individuals are intrinsically motivated, they behave and act from a sense of volition and choice. They recognize – they have control over their behavior – and the freedom to chart a course.
Oxford Languages defines choice as an act of selecting or making a decision when faced with two or more possibilities.
Two possibilities might be too dualistic … pitting one off the other … so consider offering yourself enough possibilities to feel whelmed (yet not overwhelmed).
When individuals are open to possibilities, they arrive at a place they want to go, that they may not have known they wanted to get to.
Since organizations are comprised of individuals, when they are encouraged to be autonomous, self-determined, and connected to one another within organizations, both they and the organization thrive.
Encouraging autonomy with resources and accountability leads to mastery and engagement.
Organizations that cultivate a culture that promotes autonomy grew at four times the rate of control-oriented firms and had one-third of the turnover. They encourage their employee’s choices of mastery, connection, and creativity of their talent.
Individuals have different desires. The best strategy for a leader would be to figure out what’s important to each individual.
From the individual and organizational perspective, what possibilities await you in 2024?
With the opportunity to coach more than 1,000 individuals, I am uniquely positioned to understand the evolution of individual, interpersonal, and organizational choice management.
A central tent of BETA Coaching & Consulting is choice – working with clients to chart the pathway that will serve to satisfy their unique needs. This is fostered through an inclusive approach, being an intentional, trustworthy partner, and listening deeply, while partnering with the client to realize their insights.
Rayner and Bonnici explore how intentional restructuring of social and environmental arrangements brings about social change — be it in healthcare, racial justice, or education reform — in their book, The Systems Work of Social Change: How to Harness Connection, Context, and Power to Cultivate Deep and Enduring Change. I draw from this book that system work is akin to purpose in action — embedded in principles and practices that cultivate a more peaceful and just world by engaging the primary actors in the change process while limiting unintended negative consequences.Rayner and Bonnici offer many case studies of our individuals and organizations creating social change — each chapter offering a wealth of perspectives. This is a must-read for anyone interested in the day-to-day actions and relationships, and how they are as much about the ways we work as they are about the outcome we pursue. Centering the collective identity within groups — to explore new ways of seeing the current situation with new awareness to shift to a new perspective.
What will you be reading this winter? Love to hear from you. Share this with me on LinkedIn and let’s start a conversation.
