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Creating a Legacy for the Team, Management, and Leadership Program

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Heather Gollyhorn
Team San Diego, Team 1, Quarter 4

Team San Diego is the possibility of “Passionate Partnership and Unstoppable Leadership with an outcome of Ever-Expanding Contribution”.

Interviewed and Written by Connie Chow from Team San Francisco – Team 1, Quarter 1

Valerie Paz was also on the call
San Diego Center’s TMLP Classroom Leader & Regional Performance Champion for India

 

What are you creating for Team San Diego and for the Team, Management, and Leadership Program?

I am passionate about expanding our Team in San Diego as well as TMLP worldwide. Currently we have a team of 6 – five Team 1 members and one Team 2 member. Going into the next weekend as we stand today, we will not have a Team 2 represented [1]. Instead of following the old model of merging, which by definition is to blend or cause to blend gradually into something else so as to become indistinguishable from it, which insinuates not ever going back to a separate team. Instead Team San Diego is creating with Team Orange County a strategic alliance. The benefits of us creating an alliance is to have Teams support Teams such that each team contributes to one another during this transitional process. In the end we are all ONE BIG TEAM. During this time Team San Diego would then have the opportunity to continue expanding as well as develop courses in the San Diego Center.

[1] For those who don’t know, Team 1 Quarter 4’s need to skip a quarter before they can join Team 2. So during the Atlanta quarter, Team San Diego would not have a Team 2 because their current Team 2 member is on Quarter 4.

What is not being said that you want brought forward?

I want TMLP to ask ourselves, “Why is the program declining?” Team members are dropping off. I want to look at that. I am in inquiry with my team around this question. When we are passionate about our lives and when it’s all working, we are sharing fanatics. When we stop sharing, life stops working. When integrity is out, nothing works. When we give our word and do not fulfill on it, the program ends! At the weekend, we create our quarter and life happens in between those weekends. I personally have to keep myself present to the accountability statement by Werner Erhard.

”With a promise, you create a condition that supports your commitment rather than your moods. When motivational dialogue comes up about your preference versus your commitments, and you disregard the dialogue in favor of doing what you said you would do, solely because you said so, you distinguish yourself from your psychology. In that moment, you are your word as an action, rather than only as an idea you have.”

I invite everyone to get GROUNDED in this accountability statement; it is so powerful! Give your word responsibly – do the critical thinking, then make a promise or not. There is power and freedom when you give your word and fulfill on it.

We have a little saying on Team San Diego, “It’s so selfish it works for everybody.” How can such a ground-breaking entrepreneurial program diminish?! Let’s be so selfish that we honor this program as it is designed to be delivered. When first quarters come out to be greeted, I see the next set of World Changers.  We are the future of world that works for everyone. We are all here to have our lives work, the future work, and the world work.  So let’s get to work, and have fun doing it!

What do you want Team San Diego be acknowledged for?

From a Performance Champion’s view, Team San Diego would like to be acknowledged for having the highest Registration-to-Participant ratio in the Western Region. We are ranked in the top 6 teams that are marginally effective in producing the Communications Curricula nationally. Let’s celebrate the huge accomplishment for Team San Diego!

What is the possibility you are creating for the Team, Management, and Leadership Program?

I am the possibility of being the voice for San Diego’s Team, Management, and Leadership Program, honoring the design of TMLP, and delivering lives fulfilled.

I accept the request to cause the growth and expansion of our team and also the growth and expansion of TMLP by more than doubling the attendance to 2000 people by 2016.

What do you believe is the access to this program ever-expanding?

I am in T1Q4 and have held EVERY accountability on team, some even twice. This quarter I am accountable for Game in the World and Landmark Forum. The opportunity and access for ever-expanding contribution worldwide is through our Games. I currently hold daily GITW calls where we expand our games so far beyond what we currently know, beyond the reaches that make an impact so far out there that we will never see the recipients. We ensure that the design of Game in the World is in the OTHERS to OTHERS domain. Team San Diego has taken on that we are the communication for which our Games in the World exist, but not as individuals. Then, and only then, do we gain access to teamwork and the domains of speaking and listening. I acknowledge my teammates for taking on this conversation fully with me. We, as a team of 6, are World Changers. Our GITW calls have now expanded to include Team Seattle. [3] It’s been such a contribution to have Team Seattle joining our GITW daily call. Thank you Sarah Mosley for creating Team and Teamwork that knows no boundaries.

[3] Program Manager and Center Manager approvals required to join.

What is your Game in the World?

Through my year of participation in TMLP, I created “My Year of Retirement” game. It demanded teamwork. Yes I am already an entrepreneur through and through, so why join TMLP? I was committed to replace myself within my own company! I will be fully retired from Rapid Results Bodywraps and living in a new city close to my family by December 1st, 2013. I can have it all! I won that game.

So what’s my new Game? I am creating another business called A Getaway Home that represents investors in the Acquisition, Interior Design/Staging, Management, and Advertising of vacation homes. I provide consulting and advising to help investors and board members understand their potential for revenue, equity growth, tax shelter advantages, hands-free management, and an opportunity to go PLAY at any home within the network.

The context for TMLP is an entrepreneurial program so many of us come in with the intention to expand our businesses. GREAT! So what I have created for myself and my Team is to take that conversation to another level by asking ourselves: “how does our business contribute to the world?” If we are contributing to everyone worldwide, the business will naturally expand because people are enrolled in what we’re doing. Business expansion becomes a natural byproduct of…something.

When I sat with this, it came to me – philanthropy. The most conventional modern definition is “private initiatives, for public good, focusing on quality of life“. Sounds like a GAME IN THE WORLD. 🙂

My game is the development of the philanthropic division of A Getaway Home! As a result of the philanthropic conversation, I have now created Veterans on Vacation, a program committed to connecting Wounded Veterans to Donated Vacation Home days. The intention of the program is to impact the suicide rate of our Veterans, which currently stands at 18 veterans a day. That is the largest travesty to happen on America Soil, in my opinion. Veterans on Vacation offers a space for families to reconnect and allow veterans to integrate back into the family dynamic in an environment filled with fun, family, and freedom. How does this happen? The owners of A Getaway Home donate 6 to 10 days per year in their vacation homes to a veteran and his/her family.

My Game is dedicated to my family – my son Tyler and two brothers (who are all active United States Coast Guards), my father (a Vietnam War Veteran), my ex-husband (a Desert Storm Veteran), both my grandfathers (who are retired Marine and Army members). I am touched and inspired to have my family involved and who they are creating themselves to be for others.

So, how is my game progressing after 6 weeks? There is an ROTC class of high school students creating our presence such that Veterans on Vacation is known across America. It is being created with the Marine Corp Trials (the Marine’s Wounded Warriors Olympics) to have the Veterans on Vacation program become an award to the winners in February 2014. I am also speaking with the USO on Oct 7th as one of the final measures to have this program adopted by a National Organization. I feel blessed that my game will live beyond me and the number of lives touched […Heather pauses…and then continues as her voice cracks] will be exponential. I am clear that if I remain the entity for which that game exists versus the communication (a conduit) for it to EXIST in the world, I will keep the game small! Letting this Game live so far out there that I will never know who I touch is my gift to the world.

Back to Living-Peanut Game

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Dan Clarke
Team Rocky Mountain Region

The Possibility of this game is to provide affordable and effective lower back pain relief to the world.

Dan was a hockey player and in 2004, he found himself having a lot of back pain and having to spend too much time and money going to a chiropractor. As he says, “I kept my chiropractor in business.” He set out to find something that was affordable and that would eliminate back pain.

He went online and discovered this device called the rubber cylindrical ball. It was made in China and was used on animals. Why couldn’t it work for humans?

This device is a rubber inflatable cylindrical ball. It comes with a pump and when pumped up it takes the shape of a hope chest or a child’s little wagon. You simply lay it on the floor, preferably a carpeted floor, and lay on top of it. You start out by laying on your stomach. You fully extend your body and stretch, then roll on your side, hooking your knees on one side, folding your body over the ball and using your forearms to block the ball, keeping it from rolling away from your body. Then stay in this position for 2 to 3 minutes or as long as you’re comfortable. 2 to 3 minutes is an adequate amount of time to stretch the body, as needed. Unfold your body and come back into compression SLOWLY and GENTLY! You do this as many times as you need to get your desired relief.

This device is inflatable and can travel with you, wherever you go. It is so practical, inexpensive and IT WORKS!!! He gave it his own Brand…Back Blaster. He shared this device with his Chiropractor, Massage Therapist and hundreds of friends and interested people.

It was on August 23rd, in San Francisco, that he declared this possibility of affordable and effective pain relief …His “Back to Living-Peanut Game.”

He set up a website and provided a link to the manufacturer, in China, so others can also order these devices. He shared his Back Blaster link with sports organizations, college sports and hospitals. There are two sizes: Back Blaster Extreme, for men and Back Blaster Petite, for ladies. Portugal and Spain became two of his biggest users.

He is now in the process of setting up a Lifetime Guarantee and determining pricing.

This Game in the World is the only one that he’s played this year that has inspired him. For the first time, in his year in the Team, Management and Leadership Program, he felt like he was offering something to others that was truly valuable and that had a positive impact on their lives. He had discovered the true meaning of enrolling people to play his game. Enrollment was not engagement. He was inspiring people to get involved, not hiring them!

It was the support of his team that gave him the confidence he needed in order to win. He was “Cause in the Matter” of his Game and brought Team to it. Team is “the source that makes everything work!”

What really inspired him was the fact that he never made a dime (and it doesn’t matter to him!!) on something that is such a great benefit to the world!

In his own words, he praises Landmark for the following: “You do the courses, grappling with yourself and it all eventually works out! I have much more compassion for my kids and everyone else in my life. Most importantly, Landmark has given me a life that I love; one of discovery–not experience but adventure!”

Good to Green – Healthy People, Happy Planet

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Read this article in Spanish.

Good to Green is a holistic membership rewards shopping site which features environmentally and socially responsible companies. Consumers come to www.GoodtoGreen.com to learn more about companies that have made a commitment to reducing their carbon footprint and creating healthier products. If a customer chooses to purchase something, they receive a cashback reward, which can be cashed out or donated to an environmental cause. The possibility of Good to Green is Healthy People, Happy Planet. The outcome is the reversal of Global Warming.

It is important for consumers to recycle, compost, ride our bikes, etc., but these actions alone are not enough to shift the climate scoreboard. Green shopping may sound like an unlikely catalyst, yet it is incredible vehicle to shift our current climate crisis. Why? Consider the current reality of manufactured goods today:

  • Most consumer goods use 10-100 times the raw materials associated with the end product.
  • For every 1 pound of consumer waste there is an average 65 pounds of waste generated upstream.Source: Joel Makower

Good to Green exists to reduce the wasteful misuse of the Earth’s raw materials and the toxic by-products associated with many manufacturing practices.

It all started when…

Good to Green was born when Founder Sonja Price became fed up with her own guilt-ridden shopping excursions. She was tired of not knowing where and how many of our household items were made. She did some research and identified that shopping is America’s #1 past-time (2nd is watching TV, which is filled with many advertisements about what to buy when you do go shopping).

She found that many companies are starting to make positive changes, but most are still hesitant to commit resources to sustainable initiatives, and many have expressed concern the market is not yet ready to invest in eco-friendly products. Good to Green conducted some preliminary market research and found that 52% of consumers indicate it is difficult to find values-based data that would impact their purchasing decisions.

So it’s a chicken vs. the egg scenario. Which one comes first? Both. Good to Green believes that as consumers have access to the data that will better inform their green shopping decisions, their purchasing power will signal companies to respond to the market need.

Good to Green has invested numerous resources to provide that valuable research on what companies are doing to create a greener planet. They apply an Appreciative-based approach by placing more emphasis on what is working. They promote and reward companies who are doing good (vs. pointing blame at the companies who just haven’t joined the conversation yet). Good to Green asserts that if consumers build the need, the majority of manufacturing companies will eventually join in this movement.

The Good to Green team is also involved in many political actions to help introduce a carbon tax which will impose standards and enforce the largest offenders to pay taxes on greenhouse gas emissions. While we are waiting for government policy to be officially introduced and to take effect, Good to Green aims to reward the market leaders by promoting a plethora of earth friendly products including green cleaning supplies, eco-friendly clothing, travel accommodations and many more.

The 5 Year Plan

Good to Green will eventually begin consulting with businesses to help create and implement Sustainable Strategies which will encompass Manufacturing Process Improvements, Employee & Customer Engagement, and Change Management tactics. The ultimate goal is to aid companies in revitalizing their product offerings that will create a healthy future for the world and all of it’s creatures.

The Power of TMLP

Sonja joined the Team, Management and Leadership Program in August 2012 to provide structure and a support system to get Good to Green off the ground. As Sonja shared “TMLP has kept me present to an empowering context and has helped keep this game on track to winning in the marketplace. There is no possible way I could have launched this company on my own. I used to be a lone wolf, but because of this program I am continuously enrolling more people to join this project. We are having so much fun and I am grateful to TMLP for helping me understand the benefits of shedding my ego and allowing other people to contribute to this very important movement!”

“Our customers are just as much a part of our team as staff members. Every customer is invited to participate in our Advisory Committee. We understand that if we are to transform ‘Climate Crisis’ into ‘Climate Clarity’ it is going to take each and every one of us to create the change we wish to see in the world.”

You may remember hearing about this game under a previous name. This TMLP Game in the World, previously known as ‘Green To Your Mother Earth,’ was featured at the November 2012 Orlando weekend.

A “Reasonable/Unreasonable” Request

Sonja requests “Every person reading this article to be conscious of where you invest your dollars. Take little steps everywhere and anywhere. It is possible to reverse global warming, but it will take a concentrated effort of each and every one of us working together to invest our dollars wisely in companies that are doing good in the world. Through education and action, we can all be part of the solution, rather than being blind to problem. Thank You!”

Interviewee: Sonja Price – Team Seattle
Interview by: Michelle Santucci – Team New England

Barista Sings the Blues: Making the Dream of a Blues Band Real

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Envision having a promising career moving up the corporate ladder at Starbucks. Then the coffee conglomerate decides to hold an employee wide contest; NOT about coffee, but rather a search for soloists or bands to submit original songs.  In 2007, over 800 original songs were submitted by Starbucks’ partners (employees) – one of them being by Khalfani Makalani’s band.

From the moment Khalfani decided to be in the contest, his life changed forever. At the time, Khalfani had worked at Starbuck’s for thirteen years, seven of which as a store manager, and thought it might be fun to put together a band for this endeavor.  His father, a member of a local blues band, volunteered to help.  Khalfani never sang blues before this contest and even though the band was not selected for the final CD, they were one of the finalists in Chicago and the song was played on the radio.  The biggest achievement was to fulfill a lifelong dream to perform with his father on stage.  As a result of his performances with the band, Khalfani chose to end his Starbuck’s career and is now able to follow his passion for singing and performing the blues in front of a live audience.

This life-changing journey was a direct result of Khalfani’s participation in Landmark Education’s Team, Management         and        Leadership Program. There he created a project called “Being Behind Blues” to pursue his passion. During this project, Team has allowed him to get trained on creating a background of relatedness with others, completing measurable goals he promised for the week, being in integrity, and putting in structures for creating the foundation of success. “When I was a kid I dreamed of having a band, touring and performing. With Team, I was able to see that my dreams really are possible. I realized that I had to take 100% responsibility and create teams and teamwork to fulfill on what I really wanted. I realized that it was not something that would never happen but that COULD happen.”

“Being on TEAM Chicago has helped when I was stopped. Team coached me on how to restart, to create structures, to not take things personally, to be present to who I am as a possibility, my stand, and to create teams and team work in any situation.”

Khalfani’s project has changed significantly since he began this journey. It has grown larger than he could have ever imagined.  He  now has a producer and has joined a well-known band in the Chicago blues scene consisting of musicians that have been playing for 10-20 years. He finds it to be very true what is stated in the Communication: Access to Power course  –   Your   word   creates   your world!! He stated he wanted to have younger blues players seen, known and heard on the Chicago Blues scene and he is definitely leading the pack!!

As a result of being on Team Chicago, Khalfani, a younger blues player himself, is following his passion and singing blues on stage with much older 60 and 70 year old players who have formed the blues scene of Chicago for years.  His band is scheduled to open shows for the legendary Buddy Guy this year.  They are on the playing rotation for two clubs, most notably the Harlem Avenue Blues Lounge, one of the premier blues spots in Chicago. Important to him and his community, Khalfani is proud to be making a difference in the lives of younger blues musicians. That’s a contribution that will continue the legacy of Chicago blues well into the future.

Khalfani Makalani, Team Heartland Chicago

By Edith Washington, Heartland Chicago

Written by Edith Washington and Laura Miller, Seattle

Making Happiness Most Important

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Anna Choi’s team game in the world in Landmark’s Team, Management and Leadership Program was to create a sustainable happiness economy, creating economic initiatives that create satisfaction rather than simply profit. Projects include building schools in Ethiopia that teach critical skills, and speaking at a 2012 TEDx conference. Watch below.

Zenfully Delicious Empowers Those With Chronic Illnesses

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Jennifer Iannalo had a very personal motivation when she created ‘Zenfully Delicious’ as her game in the world during Landmark’s Team, Mangement and Leadership Program. Suffering from Fibromyalgia, Iannalo was supported by a team of people to make better lifestyle choices, dramatically improving her ability to live a happy and fulfilling life in spite of her condition. She realized that not many people have the support of the kind of team she did, so her project brought her team to the world – coaching and lifestyle support at the Zenfully Delicious website for people with gluten intolerance, fibromyalgia, and other forms of chronic pain.

Creating Conversations for Healthy Habits

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Bonnie Smith’s game that she created in Landmark Education’s Team, Management and Leadership Program involved putting together a team of people to promote healthy living, including a day of healthy habits seminars. Titled ‘Creating Conversations for Healthy Habits’, Smith’s game was inspired by her life experience losing weight and getting healthy – Smith is passionate about ending obesity and giving people the opportunity to live healthy lives.

Drawing on her own experiences with weight loss and wellness, Bonni Smith created a powerful project dedicated to creating healthy conversations during her first year in Landmark Education’s Team Management and Leadership Program (TMLP).  Working with a team of health coaches, Bonni coordinated with her local hospital to create a day of talks and demonstrations called Conversation for Healthy Habits with the goal to unite people in a conversation for good health and wellness.

Bonni shares, “as an obese child I felt alone and frustrated and didn’t feel I had the appropriate knowledge or resources to create balance in my life or a strong feeling of community to help me along the way. Conversation for Healthy Habits is a cooperation of people from different callings who are up to empowering each other as leaders and creating health and wellbeing for the community.”

Since the initial event, she continues to host weekly Habits of Health classes at the local hospital. Bonni continues to find new outlets for her program, including working with the Girl Scouts of America in Broward County, Florida. In fact, they have requested Conversation for Healthy Habits to be a part of the curriculum in alignment with Michelle Obama’s initiative to end childhood obesity. And she’s not stopping there! Bonni is committed to have Conversation for Healthy Habits a part of other communities. She is working with professional associations in human resources and the medical field to incorporate “lunch and learns” and is focusing on physician offices as a resource for the community to fight obesity and bring Conversation for Healthy Habits to everyone.

Bonni’s project was highlighted in a one minute video that she made and was presented with other videos of projects at a quarterly meeting of the TMLP. She’d never made a video before, but after watching some instructional videos on YouTube, Bonni reports, “I got that anything worth saying can be done in one minute, which taught me how to get to the point.”

Determined not to lose her new skills, she now creates videos for other people up to making a difference in health and wellbeing, including one for a funeral home that holds classes on bereavement and gratitude. This has fostered new partnerships and goodwill. Bonni shares, “it gets really exciting when the game goes viral. You just don’t know where your commitment is supposed to take you.”

As a result of the teams and communities she has created, Bonni has become a respected expert in her community and has stepped into several advisory boards that open up new avenues for Conversations for Health Habits. Her clients are continuing their healthy living conversations and some have even begun to coach people in their communities. In a nutshell, she is creating new communities and teams around what’s important in her life all the time.

“Teams are the only way to get something accomplished and I am clear from my Team training that it is never about me.  I am always grateful and acknowledge the people that show up in my life. So many things are opening up — it’s so outrageous and humbling —it’s as if the community was just waiting for me to do this.”

Life as a Being: Miche Ann Walsh and the Planet’s Health

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Miche Ann Walsh was with her San Diego teammates at her completing weekend of Landmark Education Team, Management and Leadership Program (TMLP). It was April of 2010 and news about the BP Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico was spreading throughout the world. It was the largest marine oil spill in history and an unprecedented ecological disaster, so Miche took a stand.

“I got, in that moment, that my life was to be used for a greater thing, I realized I had to do something about it, because it was bigger than me…I saw that I was really going to be a contribution and it was worth packing things up, leaving my home, calling everybody, creating teams, and bringing into play all of my commitments towards a healthy planet. I knew that no matter where people stand they could make a difference”. Read more

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