Holistic Approach: The Three Lenses

• Cohen and Parikh advocate for looking at individuals, teams, and organizations through three lenses:

• Personal: The individual's system (nervous, psychological, physiological, neurological, spiritual). "We look at people personally - their own system...their own nervous system, their psychological, physiological, neurological spiritual system."

• Interpersonal: What happens between people. "We look interpersonally. But what happens between beings."

• Structural: The larger organizational system and context. "We look look structurally at the larger organizational system and the larger context in which we're all operating."

  Context is Decisive:

• Understanding and shaping context is crucial for effective leadership and team development. Cohen emphasizes that we often live in "an a contextual narrative...and ahistorical narrative," but "context is decisive. It's decisive of the present. And it's a way of shaping the future."

• Leaders invent contexts and the future. "We say in our work that leaders invent contexts. They invent the future."

• The presenters distinguish between being shaped by context and being a creator of context. Moving towards creation requires "letting go of old shapes...old beliefs, letting go of old organizational shapes, team shapes, societal shapes and doing the work to really metabolize and complete those shapings."

  Completion and Addressing the Past ("Ghosts"):

• Teams often struggle to create a new future because they haven't addressed or "completed the past chapter." "The ghost of the CEO is lurking the hallways, the pain that they cause. The habits that they encouraged."

• This involves acknowledging and processing historical patterns, shapes, and beliefs that may be hindering progress. "That which is not digested, will repeat. It's a law, so to speak."

• Cohen points out that individuals also bring their own "historical shapes" to the table, which can influence team dynamics under pressure. "You have my shape, plus Neelish's shape, plus Gina's shape, and under pressure all 3 of those shapes go into our historical shape."

  BANI vs. VUCA:

• The session introduces the BANI acronym as a potential successor to VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity) to describe the current world environment.

• BANI stands for:

• Brittle: Lacking resilience; easily damaged.

• Anxious: Characterized by worry and unease.

• Nonlinear: Lacking a predictable sequence or pattern.

• Incomprehensible: Impossible to understand.

• Cohen suggests that in a BANI world, somatic intelligence becomes even more critical, particularly in addressing anxiety and navigating incomprehensibility.

  Practice and Embodied Leadership:

• Drawing on a quote from Bruce Lee, "Under duress, we don't rise to the level of our expectations; we fall to the level of our practice," Parikh highlights the importance of consistent practice. They build on this with the idea "we are what we practice, and we're always practicing something."

• This includes being aware of what you are practicing in the moment. "What are you practicing right now?"

• Cohen emphasizes that everyone is practicing something, even unconsciously - a breath pattern, a relational pattern, a listening pattern, etc. "Everyone in the team room...everyone is practicing a breath pattern...They're practicing a relational pattern, an attachment pattern."

• To effectively lead in today's environment, individuals and teams need practices that allow them to co-regulate and withstand pressure.

• Jen uses the term "randori" from Aikido to describe the moment: "How do I actually stay? The distinction is centered. But how do I stay really inside myself, inhabiting myself and being able to skillfully move and respond to what's coming at me."

• These practices allow individuals to "cultivate a different body," a "shared nervous system that can withstand the kinds of pressures that we're under."

  Somatic Intelligence and Awareness:

• Parikh shared that, for him, the biggest learning has been "the amount of data that is often available, that is this essence of who we are that is not acted upon, and that's ignored to our own detriment."

• Cohen emphasizes that building awareness is the first step in somatic coaching. "If you're not aware of something, you can't do anything about it."

• This involves teaching clients to become "aware observers" of what's happening in their bodies and their environment.

  The Team Room

• Parikh shared that in a team room, he tracks communication, speech acts, requests, interruptions, conversational geometry.

• He also emphasizes that when in the room, he is "feeling really uncomfortable" and notices "my breath getting shallow," then tracking the bodies around the room.

• Together, the body is a "sensing, a noticing, an embodiment as a practitioner."

  Practical Application/Case Study Example:

• Parikh shared a scenario where a team he was coaching experienced a moment of high tension and contraction. He chose to interrupt the conversation, call a timeout, and have everyone move their bodies to disrupt the biological process occurring.

• Cohen emphasizes that the key intervention, regardless of the specific approach, is to notice one's own bodily sensations and then inquire about what others are experiencing.

• They highlight the importance of distinguishing observations from conclusions.

• Actionable Insights:

• When working with teams, consider the personal, interpersonal, and structural dynamics at play.

• Help teams acknowledge and address past issues and patterns that may be hindering progress.

• Encourage the development of somatic awareness and practices that support co-regulation and resilience.

• Be mindful of the context and how it is shaping individual and team behaviors.

• Invite awareness of not only the context of the room, but your own context, and how your personal context may influence your observations and practices.