Christopher Avery

Teamwork Is An Individual Skill
Our recent VisionHolder, Christopher Avery asked us....
"What must we do together that is larger than any of us, requires all of us, and none of us can claim individual victory until it is done?" In his book, Teamwork Is An Individual Skill,  he writes that this is the first of five conversations that a successfull team must have. It addresses the question: What is our task? And satisfies the requirement that a team is a group of people brought together around a common goal or purpose. When a group is held in this conversation until they approach a shared clarity about the answer, then a remarkable shift in behavior begins organically and spontaneously. See more on Chris's Responsibility Process by clicking below....

About the Responsibility Process™
The Responsibility Process shows the mental path by which we avoid and take ownership for problems–i.e., how we avoid or take responsibility.

A break-through performance advantage for leadership, teamwork, growth, and change, the Responsibility Process demonstrates that responsibility is not merely a personality trait but instead is a learnable mental process that anyone can develop, any leader can tap into, and any culture can cultivate.

WHAT ARE THE KEYS TO RESPONSIBILITY™?
The keys to mastering Responsibility are:
1. Intention – a mindset to operate from the mental position of Responsibility.
2. Awareness – of when you are avoiding ownership so you can catch yourself.
3. Confront – facing yourself and the truth about the effects of avoiding ownership.

Comments

[Christopher Avery]

Hi Craig and friends of Heartland and of the VisionHolder Calls. I was honored to be VisionHolder #39 last evening.

I wanted to add a couple of comments that came to me as I headed off to sleep last night.

Al or Alan from California asked about the Responsibility Process and a greater connection... I interpreted that he was asking about the Responsibility Process and spirit. The answer is Absolutely. There are more layers to mastering Responsibility in your life than a sack of onions. However, believing in God is not a requirement to tap into the awesome power of the Responsibility Process and Keys to Responsibility. The empirical research stands on its own without faith and is made much more powerful with faith. Doesn't it make sense that our behavioral research is beginning to align with the spirit?

Also, I want to update my response to Bob's question about spreading Responsibility Redefined throughout the world. First, I hope you will go to my website contact page at christopherAVERY.com and request a full color PDF of the Responsibility Process poster. You are welcome to print copies and hang them in your workplaces, homes, and where-ever. Also, consider our Global Educators Academy (http://www.christopheravery.com/academy/) for practitioners.

I also want to re-address Kim's compassionate confession about being stuck in Shame so much. To what I said on the call I add this: We are all conditioned toward adopting one of the Positions of Mind below Responsibility, whether it is Quit, Obligation, Shame, Justify, Lay Blame, or Denial. That you recognize being stuck in Shame tells me it is probably your conditioning. (By the way, Shame is a big societal and cultural conditioning for women. You are aware of that. We can change that one person at a time, one team and family at a time, or...) To say it another way, there is nothing wrong with you. You are human and probably functioning normally. What I wish for you is to discover and adopt some strategies for un-conditioning yourself, and I mentioned some of those during the call.

An additional point is that the exit from Shame is into Obligation. That means feeling trapped in "having" to choose an answer that feels wrong. If you can't clearly see a seeming "right" answer, then you stay in Shame and instead go to Quit. That's why I suggested letting go of right and wrong (about whatever you are feeling Shame about) and instead ask "what do I want?" and move toward that. (I realize that's a dense paragraph, especially for someone not on the call or familiar with Responsibility Redefined research!!)

Thanks again Craig and Heartland for hosting me. I wish you all a world of Responsibility.

Faithfully,
Christopher