Duh! ... Why the Obvious is Invisible ...

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An Observation: The Most Successful and Accomplished People In The World Are Those Who Can Get Others To Move In The Same Direction In Which They Are Aiming To Go Themselves … And When This Direction Becomes Socially Organized They Are Also The Ones Who Contribute The Most To Others.

Few things seem so self evident as the...(more) idea that we are foremost and fundamentally social beings, designed and destined to communicate and connect with one another. The fabric of human experience therefore can be said to be woven in relation to and with others.

This space has been designed to create an opening to exploring how we create our shared realities and how we influence and are in turn influenced by others as we jointly move together through our lives. In addition the intention in exploring these ideas has a practical, applied orientation … becoming better at constructing futures that work.

Gaining and refining the skills of social interaction begins with the classic philosopher’s rant:

“Know Thy Self.”

Knowing ourselves always requires us knowing ourselves in context. Then once we’ve begun to know ourselves it becomes possible to recognize what is about ourselves and what is about others - and maybe even what is about both ourselves and others. Becoming self-aware includes becoming aware of the skills we currently possess and those skills we currently lack, and the possibility of building massive new skills of social influence …

Since the beginning of barter and trade, and the subsequent rise of a merchant class, the domain of business has come to the forefront of moving the human social experience forward. Now we are again on the edge of a new and emergent wave - a movement beyond the local orientation to a non-local orientation. We are beginning to see a movement away from self interest being replaced by a movement towards a larger, broader, more encompassing, more aware social interest … a larger, broader, more emcompassing, more aware and conscious approach to doing business.

A conscious approach is a non-local approach … a social approach … an approach that extends in space and time beyond the individual or simple individual interest. Taking a conscious approach opens the way for creating futures that work for everyone … and demands the skills of social influence to make them happen.

“Simply, we cannot avoid influencing and being influenced by others … the essence of human experience is social.”

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At the heart of it all ... what we call culture ... society ... the essence of our social structures and systems may be the primal force of communication ... our ability to interact and share our experiences ... let...(more)

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Joseph said Jul 5, 2007, 6:43 AM:

Morning all,

Happy day after the 4th of July … Independence (or INDEPENDaNCE of you prefer) Day here in the U.S. of A! For me the celebration of the 4th has always been about a sense of freedom and breaking away from old ways … worth dancing about if you ask me. Yet I also get how hard it can be for folks to separate themselves from the familiar … even when it’s uncomfortable and not necessarily getting them what they want … and when the familiar becomes comfortable it can be like a tar pit … all but impossible to escape from for most.

Part of the challenge of breaking free of one’s past … that which has become familiar (and heaven forbid … comfortable!) … almost always has to do in part with it having become invisible too. We simply don’t notice what we expect … the more familiar something becomes, the more we accept it as the way things are … de facto, by default. The familiar becomes invisible to us … and it will be all but impossible to escape from what you no longer perceive to be present for you.

Well one of the things that jumps up for me here as having the possibility of invisible could be thinking that the message just gets out. Instead of leaving it to chance I’m going to ask two questions …

First … what can I do to make this pod more valuable to you so that you can’t help but to pass posts and messages along to others?

Next … I’m asking you outright to recommend this pod to anyone you think would enjoy being here and participating … and passing along the information they’ll need to join us here!

Thanks again for being you and being here …

Joseph

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