I love the idea of seeing other people as geniuses, as worthy people, as specialists in something, as unique contributions to the world. Everybody is a world champion in something – we just need to figure out what their unique talent is. I see the need for conciliation in the world – and seeing each other as beautiful, genius, different, lovely human beings is in my view needed for conciliation.
When we have the idea of everybody being replaceable, we introduce fear of being replaced, fear of getting excluded. That’s a very severe threat to a human being. We need to be included in the community, to feel cohesion, to feel loved, to be loved.
I dream of a society where we see all as needed and important irreplaceable. I have a vision of each of us (in the group and in the world) following our own path, listening to our longings and our curiosities, listening to what wants to emerge. We are not following one direction but twisting and baying like water. It always runs the easiest way, but never linear. The world needs us to follow our own path, to contribute with being ourselves as much as possible. It demands some courage to follow my path, not doing the same things as everybody else and it demands a consciousness about it. Being myself in every moment.
Gay Hendricks (The big leap) writes about “zone of genius”. When you are in your zone of genius, you are at ease, doing what you are best at, doing it in a sublim way, using your natural talents – so natural that you might not know them. It is so easy and effortless to do what you do, that you probably don’t see you as this gift to the world. Zone of genius is beyond the zone of excellence, where you are earning a lot of money on what you do and working hard.
I would love to work with people in their zone of genius and to be in my zone of genius as well. WOW, we would have fun, feel at ease, enjoy each other, get inspired, be brave and add beautiful stuff to the world.
In my opinion we are in our zone of genius in our CoCreation group – and we keep on creating space for each other to be even more genius. It’s a wonderful dream to have such a group as my colleagues. You are my colleagues and I hope to work more together with all of you – writing our book, creating our online-universe, doing circles together, hosting courses and retreats and whatever we figure out. Lovely!
And if the people in my local church, where I am chairman of the board (Ward council president?) are geniuses? They certainly are. They have lots of ideas and take initiatives: Concert for the benefit of victims in Gaza; pizza and football before our council meeting; renaming volunteers as “Angels”; developing a 3 day retreat about why humanity screws up the creation of God. I love to write this! I never thought of it in this way! They are geniuses. We are all of us very much alive and speak up when something doesn’t feel right. And we are still very responsible. Together we manage a budget of about 500.000£ per year. I’m actually amazed at writing it, but it’s true. I sometimes get irritated (I did 2 days ago). One of the board members called me a dictator. She felt I dictated a safe space at the board meeting. My perception was that I wanted to create a safe space and therefore started the meeting with a check in. I had to remind myself that griping is a sign of engagement, even though I rather like to see it expressed in a more positive way.
And if I worked together with a company, let’s say an engineering company, I know a lot of them. I’m not a consultant anymore. I’m too genius to do that;-) Let’s say they are interested in CoCreation – They want to experiment with working with fun and ease and they want me to help them. I see them as geniuses, not because they are engineers – it could as well be employees at a nursery home. I would love to let their zones of genius expand. Help them to listen to each other – to deepen their connections like we did. And I would love them to see me as a genius able to inspire them. Not help them, but inspire them. Giving them the energy and spirit. Open up to the Holy Spirit.
In danish management language we sometimes talk about “managing prima donna’s”. A prima donna is an employee, who seems resistant to management, does what she wants to, seems very egoistic and self-centered. But the truth is that she is working for a higher case. She might be an actress – working for the art of performing or she might be an engineer working for the case of sublime sound quality. If the manager understands this and realizes the quality and the genius in her work, her loyalty to the higher case, but no loyalty to the manager if he is not loyal to the higher case. If the manager are able to handle that, they can create beautiful things together.
I would like us all to be prima donna’s. Working for a higher case, working for our purpose of life and helping each other to do it in our zone of genius.
I have several friends (and my exhusband and one of my sons) who are geniuses in the traditional way: with High IQ and loving to dig deep into some nerdy stuff. I think I can see them as prima donna’s when I have figured out which higher case they refer to.
I would love to work with geniuses and prima donna’s – being a CoCreation prima donna myself.