Choosing Extraordinary

Receiving Communication From Others

I’m Navin Prasad. I try to get something out of Team, Management, and Leadership Program (TMLP) every week. When I started TMLP, I was very judgmental, assessing people from the perspective of right or wrong, and I always want to be right. There were communication I could not be with, or would not know they were happening.

Navin Prasad, Team 2 Quarter 4, Team San Jose (CA).

All the way until last quarter, I could not be with the communication when someone told me I was lying, or not keeping my word. I saw them as assessing and judging me, and my response was to assess and judge them back. Through the breakdowns I had, and feedback from TMLP team members, I was able to give up judging and assessing others, to get into their world and see what it was like to be with a person like me. I saw the impact of my ways of being on their lives.

I started to see people around me differently. I was able to start conversations with people I loath to talk to. That alone was well worth the time spent in TMLP.

Communication To People At Work

Recently, I transformed my relationship with my team at work and brought productivity way up. In the past, I was merely passing customer feedback to the team lead of another team, and that made no difference in that team’s performance. I gave up my point of view of the team lead (distinction: Already Always Listening).

Then I took on the New Model of communication and the communication distinction of Recreation–actively listening to and getting what that team lead had to say, his underlying feeling, experience, and commitment. I had a conversation with him for half of an hour, listened to and got his challenges, struggles, and aspirations in life–with his parents, career, and boss. I got into his world, and he experienced that he was really listened to. That disappeared the barriers and empowered him to take actions. He started to have empowering conversations with his team and things started to move! I also acknowledged his performance and results practicing the new model of communication.

Now I have turned a weekly 30-min meeting with him with no result to a 5-min meeting with the results I wanted his team to produce. In essence, I created time!

Breakthrough Results in Family & My Own Life

One of my TMLP Games was to bring technology to my family. There was a technological gap between my family in India and the rest of the world, and with me in the US. I grew up in the internet era; my grandparents did not. The easiest way for them to get online and connected to the world and me would be through an iPad. I created a possibility of excellence and being unstoppable, and a team to accomplish this, including my grandparents, my parents, my sister, and myself. I was going to purchase the iPads, my sister was to educate everyone, and my grandparents and parents were to learn and use the technology. I was unable to afford the iPads. Thankfully I got two raises at work through a TMLP Game that I played previous quarter! That solved the money issue. Practicing what I got from the communication courses, I enrolled my sister to educate grandparents.

In the end, my grandparents and family got an access to the outside world with the help of my game. The outcome is that the entire family is educated and is kept updated on new technology, they are interested in using technology in their communication, entertainment, and having their lives all connected, ultimately impacting the quality of their lives.

I have gotten many other breakthroughs in my life in TMLP.  For example, I got the relationship that I wanted with my father, overcoming differences in ideologies. I got a breakthrough from being able to forgive yourself, giving up things, bringing freedom and ease to my quality of life. I get to being able to get complete with a person in a 10 min conversation, putting the past in the past where it belongs.

I gave up the me-me-me-me-me, and decided to be out there with others; I learned to understand people’s situations, their beliefs and wants, and connect with them without having prejudice and opinions; building friendships with freedom and ease. I created that I really listen to the gold coming out of people’s mouths, causing everything that everyone says can be immense value, able to participate in day-long classes without leaving or quitting, despite being diagnosed as having ADHD. I got all that through the distinctions of Communication Courses and the Team, Management, and Leadership Program.

Wrapping up…

The whole conversation during this interview was refreshing and gave me a chance to rejoice my entire experience for the last two years in Team, Management, and Leadership Program. This interview has reassured that I am being heard and has been a great incentive one could receive.  I would like to thank you for this opportunity to share my experience!

Shawn Wen, Team 1 Quarter 3, Team San Jose (CA).

Author and Interviewer:  Shawn Wen
My life’s fulfillment is contribution to humanity, and in return, to myself. I have a love affair with coaching—on life, skiing, and snowboarding, and I take frequent trips between San Francisco Bay Area and Lake Tahoe. I’m educated as an electrical engineer and I have contributed to the development of computer chips used in computers worldwide. I’m creating a new career that I’m fully self-expressed through abundant interaction with people! I practice choosing extraordinary over the ordinary from moment to moment in life.  My Game in TMLP this quarter is creating the first Landmark Forum in Taiwan! I currently live in San Jose, CA with a great housemate from Taiwan and my Labrador mix whom I have accompanied for 14 years.