2014 Houston Weekend Archives - Landmark's Team Management & Leadership Program

The Oshun Project – Rigorous Contribution to Haiti

May 21, 2014/1 Comment/in 2014 Houston Weekend, Charity, Community /by Connie Chow

At-ten-TION! For-ward MARCH! Pre-sent ARMS!

One may associate these strict military commands with the rigor you experience when you have Akeisha Johnson on your team as Team 2 Team Lead. She has her collection of all Team, Management, & Leadership Program (TMLP) design statements, Communication distinctions, and any tool you need at her fingertips ready to pass along to someone unknowingly craving for the information. She interrupts conversations, an accepted common practice from Team 2’s, to insert the integrity that’s missing. Nothing is left ambiguous with Akeisha holding us accountable.

Imagine what you can accomplish using this rigor in your life outside of Landmark. Akeisha applied her skills and tools to her Game in the World called “The Oshun Project”. The Oshun Project is a project in Haiti which empowers communities to rebuild their villages in a sustainable fashion. The first project started during her Team 1 term where she installed a water filtration system in Haiti. In partnership with Chavanes Casseus, Director of MP3K in Haiti, they provide education classes to inform the community how to best use their filtered water. Additionally, they deliver filtered water to nearby schools in the town of Rhe, Camp-Perrin.

Being unstoppable is no longer a concept for Akeisha; she experiences herself as unstoppable simply by being in action and having conversations.

I was standing in front of a group of about 100 people in rural Haiti celebrating installing a water filtration system that I caused for a community plagued with cholera and I was in tears. Realizing that I had achieved what I had envisioned 8 years prior.

When I first thought of doing projects in Haiti I was an undergrad and thought that empowering Haitians would empower me, but I had NO CLUE how I would do it. It was when I did Landmark’s SELP 6 years after I thought of the idea, that I had the blueprint for putting something together to make a difference for Haitians. In the program I identified that our work would empower communities already up to doing things. What our program would do is partner with these communities and bring sustainable resources to them. In SELP and later in team, I got coached around creating structures for what I wanted to accomplish. That’s how we installed a solar-generated filtration water system for over 15,000 people in a remote area of Haiti. Once I understood that what there was for me to do is tap into communities of people and then map a plan and take action on it, I was on my way!

Playing big games also mean we get hit with BIG breakdowns. So I ask Akeisha, “What’s the biggest breakdown you had and how did you overcome it?” Breakdowns are not experienced as breakdowns anymore for Akeisha because she’s gotten used to them and all it means is that something is missing.

Until people started dying.

During the installation of the water filtration system, it was rainy season high in the mountainous southwestern region of Haiti (specifically Rhe, Camp-Perrin). There’s a large river bed that the people in the community need to cross to access the market. The river bed overflows and they lose about 5 to 10 people every season when local Haitians cross this river bed. This was a breakdown that knocked out the rigorous, unstoppable Akeisha. She was scared and thought herself an idiot for thinking she could make a difference in a place like Haiti that had so many problems, where others have thrown their hands up and given up on. She felt responsible for the loss of these people’s lives.

Fortunately, with the skills she’s acquired through Landmark’s programs and, more importantly, her two coaches, she’s able to regain herself and get back into action. Her coach Clay Kilgore, who is also the program’s fiscal sponsor and Team SF’s former Classroom Leader, is the one who made the difference for her by reminding her of her commitment and the possibility she created. Her Team 2 coach, Elizabeth Miller, also reflected back to Akeisha her possibility and outcome. Additionally, her committed colleagues, Margaret and Bee, helped her see who she is for others.

Following this incident, she decided to expand on her project. She is now opening a market at Rhe, Camp-Perrin so the locals will have access to groceries and other necessities within their own community and taking out the necessity to cross the dreaded river bed. The market is being created as a social enterprise with the revenue going towards local school kids’ tuition.

When Akeisha first created her game, she knew it was big and didn’t think she would accomplish it. It didn’t seem real to her until she started talking to people and found team members. Akeisha and her team keep each other accountable and, a mere idea manifested into reality for herself and the families in Haiti.

The Oshun Project’s new website launches May 30th, please visit them at www.theoshunproject.com!

Photos supplied by Akeisha Johnson, with her commentary:

Frantz St. Forte is the chief operator to the water filtration system and the Executive Secretary of MP3K, the organization The Oshun Project is partnered with in Haiti. He also conducts the educational classes to inform community members on best uses for the filtered water.

Water to be delivered to local schools distributed by MP3K.

This building is where the local market will go. The building requires finishing (this is what we are working on completing now). A section of the building is where the filtration system is. Like a specific window in a store. –Akeisha

(Building a local market in Haiti.)

BONE APPETIT Provides Meals on Wheels for Pets

May 19, 2014/1 Comment/in 2014 Houston Weekend, Charity, Health and Wellness /by Newsletter Team

What’s worse than getting by on one meal a day? Having to share that meal with your only companion; the one that only you acknowledge as significant. This is the breakdown Brian Daly became fully aware of and decided to create a plan for transformational impact. Through Landmark’s distinctions and teamwork, his concern has translated into an initiative he titled BONE APPETIT. BONE APPETIT provides thousands of pounds of food to the “furry” companions of the elderly population in Los Angeles who depend on the St. Vincent Meals on Wheels program for their nourishment.

During our conversation, Brian shared how although St. Vincent Meals on Wheels is one of the largest privately funded programs providing meals in the United States, they had not been able to gain traction in providing adequate food to the four-legged companions of these homebound seniors. The carefully designed meals that should have provided adequate nourishment to the recipients were not fully effective. The seniors were sharing their meals with their pets so their companions would not go hungry. The impact is higher incidences of additional care to the malnourished seniors. The intended benefits of St. Vincent Meals on Wheels were diminished significantly while the food being shared was not providing the correct nutrients for the senior or their pets. A veritable lose-lose situation. Brian tells how through the Team, Management, and Leadership Program (TMLP) he has been able to effectively provide where government and NGO’s have been ineffective.

One Man + One Idea + TMLP = Impact

What is your Game in the World?

There are impoverished seniors in Los Angeles that receive their nourishment through St. Vincent Meals on Wheels and they have cats and dogs. And what I found was that many of them were sharing their meals with their pets. So I set out to create a program to provide food for pets as well.

What are the possibilities for this Game?

Well, the greatest possibilities through BONE APPETIT are that tummies are being filled and proper nourishment is happening for impoverished seniors and their animals. We know from the research that St. Vincent Meals on Wheels has done is that people who receive proper nourishment have improved chances of healthy living that is increased by about 83% versus people who don’t eat properly everyday. Those who don’t have adequate nourishment are considerably more susceptible to illness than those that are eating properly.

What are some of the breakdowns that you have had and how have you overcome them?

The stories were so compelling to me that I thought they would resonate with everybody I knew. I believed that everybody would want to raise their hands and help out; that really wasn’t the case at all. So what I found was that maybe 5% of the people in my world were truly willing to participate. And that was probably due to my expectation first and foremost. Then there was my own personal breakdown of just having “life” come along and occupy me, so I had to maintain my integrity by really focusing my attention on my Game; I kept dropping the ball, you might say. When I wasn’t achieving what I had hoped, I thought “Why the hell am I doing this? Nobody really cares about this but me.” So that kind of “morass thinking” got in the way. People in my world who had agreed to help didn’t follow through. So there was a lot of hope on my part with expectations that people were going to keep their word. Right? I would say about 10 people gave their word to support my Game and really go for this service and at the end of the day, there were about 3 people that really did.

Is there anything about this program that you want to make more visible?

Yes, before I started this project, I just figured with Medicare, and this and that and the other, that seniors were just taken care of; it really isn’t like that. There are a lot of people in this world who are alone, who have no one, who have no money, and who don’t have enough to eat. And it is not only heart-breaking, it is a bit shocking to me! If you think of a country like, let’s say Mexico, because of the poverty there, people live in family communities. Whereas here, we are all in our own little worlds in our developed country, we have our own apartments and our own homes. As a result of that, there’s a lot of “alone-ness” among elderly people. There is a big portion of the population that is forgotten, whether they have pets or not. I met with St. Vincent Meals on Wheels yesterday and they were talking to me about the different communities they have yet to reach, like the Russian-speaking community, the LGBT community, and the Chinese community. They know the need exists in all of them and they want to find as many people as they can because their goal is that no one goes to bed hungry. So that is what I find so staggering—it’s 2014 in Los Angeles, California and so many people go to bed hungry…

What do you want to be acknowledged for?

St. Vincent Meals on Wheels had tried many times to put together a food for pets program and the most they had been able to generate was $800 in donations. And now BONE APPETIT has collected $21,000! So obviously I made a difference. In addition, we are getting food from Centinela Feed at cost; also Petsmart made a donation separately of $4,000 (they also want to provide dog food and cat food at cost.)

What is the outcome you are generating for your Game in the World?

The outcome is that Variety Magazine has done a story on me; that came out of left field, I didn’t expect that and since then, I have been contacted by a company called The American Society on Aging that wants to interview me as well for some of their publications. So the word is out! In an ideal world, what I would like, is for the people that receive assistance from Meals on Wheels in every city in America to be nourished properly.

What is the NEW way of seeing yourself while playing in your Game in the World?

The new way is that I don’t get defeated by the GAP,I don’t get defeated by the Breakdowns, where in the past I would have. And I almost did give up. But using the distinctions I have acquired in SELP and TMLP, I picked myself up and dusted myself off and continued on.

How have you triumphed over your past?

How I triumphed over my past is by (pause) I am moving the emotions out of the way by making this all a game and just sticking to my goal. I am in the Team Management and Leadership Program, so the distinction of creating a game is having a goal and unfolding it, so that I have mamageable Milestones to reach; this game allows me to break a big task down into manageable units. And so that is how I am applying the distinctions of Team towards this game, so instead of feeling defeated because I didn’t complete one thing, I know that I can pick it back up and keep going in the same direction and know that there will be breakdowns and there will be Gaps along the way. I can recalibrate if I need to and get back on-track. A lot of my outreach was through social media, if you post something on Facebook and you think you are going to get action you are sadly mistaken. People need a deeper level of “relatedness” to want to participate versus just reading a posting on Facebook. So,I re-calibrated and instead of reaching everybody through a posting, I made my requests individually to each person I knew through Facebook Instant Message. Initially I thought, I posted this on Facebook and everybody is going to see this and sign up and it’s going to be wonderful. And then it dawned on me, I see these postings all the time and although I may “like” them, liking them is not really a “call to action.” But when someone says to me through Instant Messenger, “Hey, Brian, here is something I am interested in and would you take a look at this, and participate if you like,” then I am much more compelled to do so. The other thing that I wanted to say is that, because of Landmark, I was committed to this, but not attached, and I learned where I was attached. You know, I had attachments with BONE APPETIT which I didn’t even realize. I shifted away from those attachments and then that opened up the space for me to just be committed and let it work out the way it worked out. And it was through that commitment that I was able to achieve my goals.

What has been your experience in being of service to others?

What has happened as a result of this program is that I have been able to “dance in the conversation” with the folks at St. Vincent’s Meals on Wheels and as a result I am able to help them with some of their other programs where they have run into blocks or barriers. So, for example, yesterday they asked me if I could help them with their fresh fruit program because the cost of fresh fruit has gone up considerably. They buy it already cut up because it costs them less to buy it cut than it does to hire people to cut and pay workman’s comp. It went from 47 cents per pound to 64 cents overnight. So they wanted to do a “drive” to fund that gap, right? And I said I would love to create some teams in the Donor world; people who want to utilize social media to engage their world and enroll them in joining us to address that need. So the distinction that came about there was the “dancing in the conversation.” In other words, instead of me have a firm “agenda” for yesterday’s meeting that was solely about pets, we danced in the conversation and came up with solutions based on my communications with them for another need that they have. As a result, they have asked me to make a presentation at a fundraiser on the 27th to enroll and register people in creating teams to go out to the world and enroll people in supporting St. Vincent Meals on Wheels.

What structure did you have in place for your Game Leaders and what were their dreams?

I asked each of the leaders to go out and raise a thousand dollars; some said that they would ask each of the people they asked to raise $500. Those leaders that participated all together raised about $5000. They had expectations like I did, that it would be easy to get people to donate and it wasn’t at all. But just the same they went out, they were committed, and they kept talking to people. One key element that we offered donors was the opportunity to make a $10 text donation instantly from their cell phones. Whenever these folks were in a social setting, they would tell people about BONE APPETIT and our goals; then ask everybody in the crowd to pull out their smart phones and text the word “Meals” to 22022 and get that $10 donation. And the truth is that most of our donations were in the $10 region. The good news is that $10 buys enough cat food for a cat for a month! And people really felt empowered that their donation could make that much of a difference

To date BONE APPETIT has delivered over 4,000 lbs. of pet food to 278 homes. The existential expansion comes from supporters simply raising their hands to donate their time and resources to the cause. In Los Angeles, a photographer joined forces with “The Beauty Bus,” an organization of hair stylists and makeup artists from the entertainment industry, to photograph these people with their beloved pets to immortalize their incredible bond and friendship in photos – something these people would normally never get to experience. Also a Veterinarian has offered to proved basic, easily accessible veterinary services for the owners.

When you think about it, these people are homebound and in many cases, do not see other people except for those that deliver their food to their front door. Their only companions are their little furry friends. We like to think that we are brightening their lives by making sure that everyone, including their pet, is healthy. Through endless support we can gather a team of people with different skills and contributions and the possibilities for improving these people’s lives are truly endless.

Author and Interviewer: W.J. “Bill” Beatty

Landmark in Sonnets

May 15, 2014/0 Comments/in 2014 Houston Weekend /by Newsletter Team

Do you have Landmark poems you wrote and stashed away? Why not share them? Send them to me, johngodbey@me.com, and let’s make an anthology! Here are some of mine, which I hope you’ll enjoy.

All of us read sonnets in high school! If you don’t recall, a sonnet has 14 lines, often rhymed, with the first section of 8 lines, and the last section of 6 lines, which shifts the thought in a different direction. This shift of thought, to me, is the perfect way to express transformation!

Conversations fade away. But a poem, written down, sticks around a little longer and reaches more people (if they are really willing to read slowly and experience the words). I jumped at the chance to share with Team Management and Leadership Program my sonnets because they are my vivid share! And to hide them is to hide my contribution.

If you’d like to share your poetry, let’s make it a game in the world! –John Godbey T1Q1, Team Dallas

* * * *

(When I did the Landmark Forum with Larry Pearson in New York City in 2010, I was literally reduced to blubbering tears in front of maybe 200 people. It was so powerful, I didn’t care at all what people might think…)

Possibilities

for Larry Pearson

As I leap like a rainbow across the horizon
Shoot like a comet to orbit the moon
Burst like a blossom ecstatic with sunlight
Cry like a baby fresh out of the womb,
I have no experience dealing with feelings
No previous memories to use as a test
No language to distance the fixed from the fleeting
No words to distinguish the worst from the best.
And all I can say of this turn of events
Is that no one now says anything that will matter!
Whatever you choose from the table of contents
Will surely dissolve into nonsense and chatter.
In three days, the story we claim as our lives
Can vanish in back of our very own eyes!

* * * *

(My experience of the Advanced Course led me to explore the darker side of myself, the things I could not forgive myself for having done. )

Authenticity

Excuses hide in every phrase
I cannot face my public shame
Nor accept the slightest praise
Without protesting I’m to blame.
So what is strength but being
Present to my old humiliation,
Open to my most demeaning
Scene of stinging desperation?
Owning up is harder than
Plucking out an eye would be,
Admitting I’m the sham I am
With all my friends around to see.
(Revealing this and moving on
Is what I yearned for all along.)

* * * *

(For me, the Self-Expression and Leadership Program taught the perspective of what a person can contribute, once that person has given up stories of who they are. I read this sonnet to my class, shaking with emotion, because I realized the enormity of what Landmark has set out to accomplish in the world.)

Why We Came

We didn’t come here
To transact our business
To transmit our opinions
To transcribe our thoughts
To transition our habits
To translate our feelings
To transfer our fears
Or transplant our love.
Instead, we came here
Transported by our joy,
To be transfixed by clarity
To transcend our understanding
To transform who we’re being
And to transfigure the world.

* * * *

(At some point I realized that the way I perceived the world had fallen apart: I was no longer my story, and so my judgments of good and bad were utterly USELESS. There was no “should.” Each moment was as perfect as cut crystal. When we are our Life, we are story. When we are Living, we are mystery; we are unpredictable–we are here, now! When you see that it is all perfect just as it is, all you can do is laugh! (In this sonnet, I imagined Life as a man, and Living as a woman–just because I think girls are cool.))

Living Can’t Wait

Living does not know what it is to wait,
Needs no map or clock to tell where or when
Yet has never arrived early or late:
She likes to occupy the skin she’s in.
She cares about people, not what they think
She doesn’t listen to their can’ts and won’ts.
If they blow up at her she doesn’t blink:
She floats above taboos of do’s and don’ts.
And if they do, or don’t, it’s all the same
It’s perfect because that’s the way it is.
Yes, play to win, but play to play the game:
There’s not a moment Living wants to miss.
A breakdown fully witnessed is a breakthrough
And Living always makes that clear to you.

* * * *

(It was in the Advanced Course that I got that I had made up the sum total of my reaction to life at an age that I could not have possibly understood what was really going on! Children are so damn earnest! We offer ourselves explanations for everything (just as we continue to do as adults) but we have so little experience that the distortions of our understanding are wild, incredible, shocking! When I got present to what idiotic thinking I was capable of, I got “off it.” I was not capable of listening ANYONE! All I heard were my fears, my old answers….and I thought I was an adult!)

A Talking To

Of course I talk to myself! Everything I know today is thanks to what I told myself about things I didn’t understand. –Gracie Allen, comedienne, 1930-1950’s.

I made my mind up long ago:
And that’s the way things are! How clever!
By saying so-and-so was so
So-and-so was so, forever.
Whatever people say, I mangle
Into meaning what I fear,
Never thinking to untangle
What they said from what I hear!
When I was only five or six
I did the best I could to “get” it–
Of the puzzle, I found one piece
And made the others up to fit it.
(No wonder now I sound so dense
When I think I’m making sense!)

* * * *

When I saw that Landmark gave me the keys to existing in the present moment, I saw that my Life had ended and my Living had begun. Yeah, I have to be patient, and keep my word, be accountable, and be on time, but underneath it, I’m diggin’ this moment, which is unlike any other…

To Do List

Arrive where I never left.
See with eyes that never saw.
Get the pretense off my chest.
Accept nothing less than Awe.
Attend each person as key.
Enroll them in their own dream.
Seek out what they want to Be
Then listen them as that thing.
Give my word and make it stand.
Set unreasonable goals.
Show up on the court as planned.
Be present to what unfolds.

(Everything that I declare
Happens more when I’m aware.)

* * * *

(I forget when it was it dawned on me that Truth does not exist. “What is so” is basically unknowable to any individual Point of View. So, no matter how much we insist, our words imperfectly represent facts! They always include our bias. This sonnet tells why Poetry is important. Maybe in a thousand years, we won’t need words. But Words transformed humanity and made us different from the animals. If technology transforms the need for words someday, I think the world will be the poorer, because, though I acknowledge the power of words for evil, I think they give us a tool to reach toward higher ground.)

Propaganda

Human beings, swaddled from birth in words,
Believe Truth exists between words and things,
That when we see bluebirds in our mirrors
Our mirrors have grown a pair of blue wings!
Language was the computer of cave men,
They learned to stare all day at its screen,
The stories they told became real to them,
Only a few understood the machine.
So poets were programmers for their age!
They wrote their OS on our DNA
And the platform they wrote becomes the cage
From which we struggle to escape today.
Beware the words that tell your brain they’re true:
They imprison Truth. They imprison you.

* * * *

(Direct Access was a revelation of major proportions because it made clear to me how much of who we are as human beings is determined by the neurology of our brains. And whether we are spiritual or physical beings, we are limited in our experience by physiology. We literally talk in metaphors and in mythical organs day in and day out, and everyone thinks we are talking about something that exists. Bummer! It doesn’t. It’s the mythology that persists into the 21st Century because we don’t have the words to frame reality more accurately. )

Mind Metaphors

“For it was not into my ear you whispered, but into my heart.
It was not my lips you kissed, but my soul.” –Judy Garland

I speak of “in my heart,” or “in my mind,”
“In my imagination,” “in my soul,”
As if these were organs I could find
With files and functions under my control.
My “conscience” here, my “memory” over there,
My “feelings” and my “dreams” all strewn about.
My “integrity” could be anywhere,
Unless the cleaning lady threw it out.
Such words are nothing but mythology
That I’ve accepted whole without remorse
I could choose my terms from astrology
But then you’d think I lost my mind of course.
I’ve no clue what goes on inside my head,
I borrow words like these instead.

* * * *

(In SELP it occurred to me that I had no identity. If I looked within myself and asked who I was, I was everybody, and nobody! Yet, other people looked at me and said, “There’s John Godbey!” Don’t you think this is remarkable? The next two sonnets delve into the strange condition we find ourselves in when we are human. )

Purse

There’s no intrinsic “I” inside me.
No way I am that specifies me.
No adjectives that can define me.
No test by which you could derive me.
True, I have a voice and appearance
That anyone could experience
And quickly have greater assurance
Than I have, of my inner essence.
This is a great mystery of life!
How can what is intimately mine
Be so elusive that it can hide
From me, what others so quickly find?
Of course, others see only the purse
In which I carry the universe.

Universe

So if I am the universe
I’ll look into my soul to see
The galaxies that intersperse
The emptiness inside of me.
And there I’ll feel the space winds blow
Let comets set on fire my hair
Watch planets orbit in a race
To see which one the sun will snare.
But when I close my coin purse tight
I’m here again at home with friends
We’ll drink our ale and joke all night
Until guests leave and party ends
And then I’ll step out on the lawn
To watch my universe race on.

* * * *

(John Godbey, author of these sonnets, would like to know if you read and enjoyed them. If so, please send an e-mail to johngodbey@me.com.)

Author: John Godbey

John is a participant in Landmark’s Team, Management, and Leadership Program and lives in Dallas, Texas, where he is a Realtor helping school teachers by homes. He has been a writer for many decades and prefers writing sonnets as snapshots of an idea in motion. For the 29th year, John will entertain 400 kindergarten kids for an hour a day during the month of June. John dresses as the “Pied Piper” and teaches the songs he wrote to build the children’s English skills. His own 5 children are either musicians or equestrians. He can help with music. Thank god Texas has horses!

Seeing Divorced Families in a New Paradigm

May 15, 2014/2 Comments/in 2014 Houston Weekend, Entrepreneurship, Family, Technology /by Newsletter Team

The man with the funny hair has a name, and his name is Rob Pinna. He is the Team 1 Team Lead for the Denver/Salt Lake City based team in Landmark’s Team, Management, and Leadership program. Ask Rob who he is and he will tell you – dad, husband, entrepreneur.

Rob’s journey with Landmark began in 2007 when he completed the Landmark Forum after being introduced to it by Annie. Along with his wife, Katherine, Rob began the Team, Management, and Leadership Program in August 2013. Though Katherine chose to withdraw from the program after completing the first weekend, Rob continued on, both fully supporting each other in their choice.

As dad, Rob has not only brought the new model of communication to his three kids, Renee, Nicole, and Jackson, and step daughter, Peyton, he has also brought his kids to the new model of communication. Both Renee and Nicole completed the Communication: Access to Power and the Advanced Communication Course: The Power to Create during Rob’s first two quarters on Team. Family conversations now show up inside the new model of communication, with authenticity and the ability to be straight with each other with no significance.

With Jackson, Rob has transformed his relationship to saying no, a gift for any parent. In the past, saying no to Jackson would bring up feelings of anger, guilt, and blame, as if to say, “How dare you ask me!?!?” Saying no to his son’s request was like saying, “No, I don’t love you.”

Now, he is able to say no powerfully by realizing he is responding to a request, and saying no does not diminish, alter or devalue his son or his love for his son in any way.

As husband, Rob is making a difference with his wife, Katherine, as well as ex-wives, Betsy and Arlene. Betsy completed the Communication: Access to Power course in Rob’s 2nd quarter.

As entrepreneur, Rob is making a difference for thousands of other families as the founder of Cofamilies – dedicated to helping divorced parents raise great kids. Cofamilies is a coparenting calendar and mobile checkin application that coordinates schedules, finances and joint parenting decisions.

Rob has also made Cofamilies his Game in the World, taking on a different aspect of building the business each quarter. In Q1, the Cofamilies’ iPhone app was created. Q2 saw Cofamilies become investor-ready. Now in Q3, Rob is creating a Cofamilies’ service for divorce coaching. Though Rob is no stranger to entrepreneurship, finding himself back in this particular saddle has been a challenge.

After watching his very successful business go belly up in the early dot.com days, Rob stopped seeing himself as someone who could run a large company or be responsible for other people’s money. He took himself out of the business creation game and became a business consultant, helping others successfully build their businesses. Though very skilled in this role, Rob realizes that without his entrepreneurial spirit, his ability to contribute is diminished. Through his first two quarters in the TMLP, Rob has seen the limits his past business experience imposed on the success of Cofamilies. Instead of being focused on building a successful company, Rob’s focus was on not failing, losing money, or letting anybody down. He was afraid to step up to the plate and swing the bat, all the while comparing his level of success to that of his peers.

For those who attended the February 2014 TMLP weekend, you may remember Rob on stage doing jumping jacks as he attempted to say and be the Denver Team possibility, being free to play. With fear of failure in the background, Rob was anything but.

Now, halfway into the quarter, Rob finds himself getting in communication anytime he is disempowered and using recreation in all his conversations which has him free to make requests and not make the response significant. There is no winning, no losing, no failing, just freedom; the freedom to play big and know, if he swings and misses, there’s another swing coming.

This is also showing up for other team members. The team just completed a home run Communication: Access to Power course in Salt Lake City, where a number of Denver-based team members traveled over the mountains to coach and support the course, some stopping along the way to play on the ski slopes in Utah. This represents a huge victory. A few years ago there were no communication courses or team members in Salt Lake City. Now, Salt Lake City is adding new communication courses to the calendar each year and new team members each quarter. With a near capacity Advanced Communication Course scheduled for June in Denver, the team is poised for growth and, like their Team 1 Team Lead, Rob Pinna, free to play.

Author and Interviewer: Brian Weinberg

Brian is an alumni of Landmark’s Team, Management, and Leadership Program and currently lives in Boulder, CO where he works as an electrical engineer in the aerospace field. When he’s not sitting at his desk, he is usually sitting on a meditation cushion or bicycle seat, or writing poems and children’s books on the backs of napkins and receipts. Brian is passionate about organic food, real nutrition, and music, and is currently developing his skills as a songwriter and musician.

My Life is No Longer About Me!

May 14, 2014/2 Comments/in 2014 Houston Weekend /by Newsletter Team

Jennifer Douglas, the spirit of TMLP in the Pacific Northwest

In mid-December I took the Power to Create Course, I did an exercise that changed my life, the exercises on stopping the “old” conversations that really pulled me out of my identity. I returned to work with plans for assisting in the Self Expressed Program as a member of the production team in February 2012 and as a coach in March 2012.

My Power to Create was the turning point in my retired life. It was here that I stopped the “old” conversation and I was committed to take this a step further, and in August 2012, I joined Team.

The first year of Team was one of the most confronting and difficult years in my life. My act, with its negative point of view made it almost impossible to be accountable to others and to my Game…People Connecting With People. I continued to take things personally, and to compensate for what I thought I didn’t have. My facial palsy led the way, as it had done all of my life. With the communication courses and the accountabilities, like Committed Listener Accountable, and being a coach, I found myself, constantly giving up what I thought to be my limitations and taking responsibility for the impact I had on Team and on the people I coached. I put my stand for others having a life they could grow and love ahead of my act. This really took the support and the strong stand of my team mates and constantly giving my limitations up and taking actions I never thought possible!

My third quarter of team I was put to the ultimate test. I was appointed the accountability of Course Manager, for Access to Power, and wouldn’t you just know that my “No one will listen to me!” conversation came to an end!! I finally got being cause in the matter! I was constantly giving up this conversation and taking actions without being attached to the results or to what others might think or say. Team really kept me to my word and stopped me every time I went into my stories. Helen Hull was my coach and she shared from her heart how important it was for her that I succeeded. She was a firm stand that I step into my own power and that I focus on my intentions for all persons, to come through in the course with Relatedness, Integrity, and Love! This was the point where I saw the true value of Team 2–being cause in the matter of others stepping into powerful and happy lives, the lives they so deserve to have.

Team 2 has been a confronting and also fulfilling time in my life. Because of what Helen and so many others have for me, getting everything there is for me and my impact in the world, I want nothing more than to give back to others.

For my first Team 2 Game, I coached four people to create something that they wanted for themselves and for their community. Today Dick is selling his art, Martha is living a life that includes a church, her spiritual community, as well as connecting with others. She created a whole new world for herself. Analise is overcoming a mental illness by making her doctor appointments on time (for the first time in many years), getting out of her house on a daily basis ,and being active in her church and her community. My friend Amanda has put together a play and has scheduled some performances. All these people have people in their lives who have helped them create, not only something positive for themselves but also a positive impact on the lives of others.

This quarter I’m coaching people to put together Resource Fairs; one in Australia and one locally. My doctor has the privilege of coaching a woman, once limited because of health problems, prepare for a trip to Australia in 2015. My friends Jaime and Amanda have introduced me to others who are teaching me new computer skills and preparing me for my trip to Australia. Oh, yes my financial advisor has been transforming someone who was reckless with her money to a conservative and happier person, with big plans for Australia. I love enrolling people into something they love to do and my friends have been that opportunity! Landmark has given me the foundation for my life. I got relatedness, choice, and forgiveness from the Forum. I also got that people choose their lives and how they impact others….meaning no one did anything to me personally. They were acting out of their own choice. I forgave my family and others that hurt me. I now have a listening for the Greatness of others. When I can see and bring out other’s greatness, I am living a life I love and am proud of!

Through Team, I have stepped into a life of Integrity, Empowerment Graciousness, and Love. It isn’t enough that I acknowledge my possibilities, it is imperative that I actually step into them. Creating teams and team work are really giving others the blessing of sharing in your life, it is really giving them the possibility to be self-expressed and to step into a life with purpose and joy in their lives. Life is no longer about me. It is about Touching, Moving, and Inspiring everyone I know! For me to be fulfilled is to actually step into a life of Relatedness Empowerment, Aliveness and Joy!!!!

Author: JenJen Douglas, T2Q2 , Pacific Northwest Team

Choosing Extraordinary

May 14, 2014/0 Comments/in 2014 Houston Weekend /by Newsletter Team

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.

Giving the Elderly a Voice against Abuse and Neglect

May 14, 2014/0 Comments/in 2014 Houston Weekend /by Newsletter Team

(David Phemister is developing software that will report abuse and neglect of the elderly, so that all institutions will be monitored.)

David, I don’t know you very well, tell me something about yourself.

When I was 16 I was a rebellious high school dropout. My mother sent me to Dallas to do the EST training and it changed my life. I went back to high school and graduated with a full scholarship to college. I joined the Marines and became a member of a KC-130 aircrew. We flew all over the world, providing in-flight refueling and delivering cargo. After I was honorably discharged from the Marines I succeeded in several different career fields. I had the opportunity to work on large construction projects, and today I’m a Master Plumber and own a plumbing company. I believe my success is due to my exposure to EST 34 years ago. When I found Landmark I immediately did the Forum. Then I went on to do several other courses and am currently in TMLP.

What is the possibility of your Game in The World?

The possibility I am creating is a system that provides accountability by allowing more people to monitor and report on the government agencies and organizations providing care for the elderly, disabled and children, which will make a big difference for those who can’t protect themselves.

What is your Game in The World? (GITW)

My mother, who had made everything possible for me, was diagnosed with dementia in her 50’s, and she came to live with me. As the years passed, I couldn’t take care of her at home, and so I found a Long Term Care Facility for her. I became aware that there was a lot of abuse and neglect of the elderly and disabled in those facilities. I wanted to do something about it so I joined a national program, set up in the 70’s, in which I became a volunteer Ombudsman for the Texas State Attorney General’s office in support of the elderly and disabled. For example, in Dallas there are 180 Long Term Care Facilities and only two paid Ombudsmen who are responsible for the wellbeing of thousands of residents at those 180 locations. Child Protective Services and Adult Protective Services are other groups that can be included in this program. It’s an impossible job for so few people to provide adequate monitoring to ensure that those unable to provide for themselves are properly taken care of. The volunteer Ombudsmen help, but are hampered by an antiquated and non-funded system. There needs to be an easily accessible system to alert them to facilities where there are ongoing or multiple problems. There are powerful and wealthy interests that don’t want any bad publicity and they may be keeping the monitoring system ineffective through lobbying efforts. My idea was to create an internet and cellphone application where anyone could report abuse, neglect or poor living conditions and everyone interested could be aware of a problem and become part of the solution. This will provide some much needed accountability to those providing substandard care and increase the effectiveness of the monitoring groups.

What is not being said that you want brought forward?

For this project to be born into the world, I need TMLP team members from everywhere to contribute. We need people who will volunteer to inspect and report on those providing care and communicate with the people receiving the care. We need people who can develop the reporting programs for internet and phone applications that are easy to use and collect the information in a useable form. We need business and legal people who can advise the program on any issues involved in creating and running this monitoring and reporting group. We need advertising and marketing people who can make this program known to the world so it becomes a powerful tool against neglect and abuse. I don’t have all the skills or knowledge needed to create and lead a non-profit organization! I need a tremendous Team to make this dream come true!

What breakdown did you have and how did you overcome them?

I am having lots of breakdowns. My biggest breakdown is in my integrity. My first break through was when I found out it’s a very political situation and the people in power who own the facilities have no interest in any system that might be disruptive to their profits or activities. As a result, I decided that the program would be better in the public domain as an application that anyone could use.

What do you want to be acknowledged for?

I would like to be acknowledged for taking action on how children, the disabled, and elderly people are being treated, and my dedication to improving their quality of life.

What is the Outcome you are creating for your Game in the World?

The Outcome is a nationally available application for the cellphone and internet to report on abuse and neglect occurring in long term care facilities for the disabled and the elderly or foster care for children. People will receive coaching on to be involved with the organizations that go into a facility to conduct conversations with the people receiving care, listen to what they say, and give them a voice to the outside world. Did you know that 40% of the residents in long term care facilities have NO family, and NO contact with the outside world beside the employees at the facility? There needs to be an outside monitoring group watching and reporting on what Child Protective Services is doing and what kind of care the children are receiving. The Outcome I am creating is giving them their Voice and to have their Voice be heard!

What is the new way of seeing yourself while playing your GITW?

I see myself as building teams and becoming able to make Powerful Requests for support! That’s why I wanted to do this interview. What has been your experience in being of service to others? It is very gratifying to experience being of service and making a difference for people who’ve been forgotten. They have tears in their eyes when they see someone cares, someone they can talk to. People who have no hope, who have no one to stand up for them are so grateful for anyone who will not just say something, but will take action to find solutions for them. By creating this, anyone can be part of the solution and be of service to those who need it.

How do you use the distinctions from the Communications Program in your Game?

It was a huge leap forward to begin to listen generously. I get stuck in the morass every time I turn around. Putting the Morass aside, recognizing the Old Model, and replacing it with the New Model in my communication is an ongoing challenge. I have learned that nothing worthwhile is easy. Yes, I took on a big game and until it is completed I will not let go because I know how desperate the situation is. I am committed to continuing on until this game is complete. I welcome everyone who has the desire to contribute to this game. Join me by contacting David Phemister at 214-766-8282 or plumbingprophet@gmail.com.

Author and Interviewer: John Godbey

John is a T1Q1 participant in Landmark’s Team, Management, and Leadership Program and lives in Dallas, Texas, where he is a Realtor helping school teachers by homes. He has been a writer for many decades and prefers writing sonnets as snapshots of an idea in motion. For the 29th year, John will entertain 400 kindergarten kids for an hour a day during the month of June. John dresses as the “Pied Piper” and teaches the songs he wrote to build the children’s English skills. His own 5 children are either musicians or equestrians. He can help with music. Thank god Texas has horses!

From My Way to Team’s way

May 14, 2014/1 Comment/in 2014 Houston Weekend /by Newsletter Team

Ty Lav (Team SW T1Q4) interviewed by Reeni Samuel (Team SW T1Q3)

“Consider being a cave man and my responsibility ended after I brought food home. To clean and help have food distributed among family members was none of my business.” That was Ty Lav prior to being part of the Team Management and Leadership Program. How haven things changed now? “I see myself more than just getting the food, I participate in all other aspects the family needs.”

Ty and his family members lived in their own little worlds, with minimal interaction. After the family participated in Landmark Worldwide, they go out together as a family, for fishing, hiking or just to hang out. Ty is special, he loves to have his way’ or it is the highway. This wasn’t going anywhere, only heartaches, delays and frustration. With participation in the Team Management and Leadership Program, he contributes to people around him, bringing team and teamwork into all areas of his life.

To a question on how he used the distinctions of the communication curriculum, he said, he does not use them anymore, he is used by the distinctions, which means he does not have to put any effort into listening, re-creating, giving up or acknowledging, they all come naturally to him, he does not know how to be otherwise anymore!

I asked Ty what he wanted to achieve through the game in the world he was working on his fourth quarter. The possibility of Ty’s game is alignment and connection causing effective leadership, more
specifically effectiveness at individual and organizational level, because in effectiveness there is a form of leadership that shows up. Upon completion of the game people will have access to a software (if they buy it) for relationship management, maintaining contacts, project tasks and whatever they chose to. The software would help track activities, measure effectiveness and support things to be completed. For Ty, he wants to make life simple. Presently, life is complex with multiple games being played, lot of puzzle pieces to be moved around. His software will do that.

Ty is part of Team Southwest. Ty’s contribution to his team is a streamline system of effectiveness, managing accountability and promises. Life has been real, not a bed of roses, the way it is, with breakdowns and breakthroughs. Ty has had his share. One was he misjudged the time frame allocated to finish the milestones for his game. Well, he isn’t alone, is he? He did not have a development plan, and he did not have a team in the real sense. He realized he was a difficult person to work with. It was TheTy show all the time. Did he succeed? The breakdown was the gateway to breakthroughs. He is on the road to success.

What is Ty doing differently? Ty is expanding his team, letting others contribute and he also checks into what his team members want to get. He has a team to contribute to the software development plan. He gave up what his team members should look like. He can now set aside his point of view and get connected to what is important to the other person, so now there is alignment, true effectiveness and productivity as opposed to waste of time and resources.

It is a year long commitment promising to develop yourself in the Team Management and Leadership Program. You are not the same person when you complete compared to what you were a year ago. I asked Ty how he saw himself now. After a bit of description Ty hit a bulls eye, Ty sees himself as a creator and a “shifter”. Ty is committed to helping people and companies make shift happen. This is achieved in part by maintaining organizational alignment and transparency of actions, which his software system provides. Everything is possible, nothing is so big that he cannot accomplish, now he is claiming bigger triumphs.

Ty is Chinese and his wife is Hispanic. He and his wife Iranzu are creating miracles for themselves and for people in their lives. They are a pleasure to team up with, powerful, creative, inspiring and caring couple. They make a huge difference.

Author and Interviewer: Reeni Samuel

Reeni is specialized in Environmental Engineering and Education. She has two children’s iBooks to her credit. Team Management and Leadership Program is unveiling her greatness. Currently she is working on a compilation of random acts of kindness. Reeni loves to spend time with family and do crazy stuff with them.