Retail Observer

May 2015

The Retail Observer is an industry leading magazine for INDEPENDENT RETAILERS in Major Appliances, Consumer Electronics and Home Furnishings

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RETAILOBSERVER.COM MAY 2015 42 Libby Wagner Culture Coach Libby Wagner, author of The Influencing Option: The Art of Building a Profit Culture in Business, works with clients to help them create and sustain Profit Cultures. www.libbywagner.com. RO M ost people can appreciate the notion of spring cleaning. There really is something refreshing about throwing the windows open wide to a day that brings in crisp, sunny air and the sounds and smells of growth and renewal. Businesses and business relationships need to let out the old, stale air and to make space for a new sort of conversation, a new story about the work of our businesses to emerge. Part of the natural course of human evolution is to begin again or begin anew. There are many opportunities in a lifetime to reinvent or reinvigorate and we are called to this renewal over and over again, but only if we are willing to let go of the place we currently inhabit. We have innate, intuitive wisdom that lets us know when it is time to move toward that threshold of the future, of the horizon, and this is coupled with the knowing that, indeed, we must give up that which is the current state of our perceived reality. If we pay attention, we are arrested by this knowing that it is time to move on—feelings of exhaustion, impatience, boredom, some levels of despair can be indicators of a divine discontent, an opportunity to recognize that it is time to let go of the old story we've been telling ourselves, the old conversation that has worn thin of any element of surprise or wonder. At its core, stopping the conversation is an emergence of a new sort of truth. We know this on a deep level, and we also know it is the coexistence of both loss and light. Sometimes, I offer my leaders an opportunity to practice letting go of the old conversation and welcoming in the new. Poetry reminds us of this particular, creative edge, when, through the use of language, image and rhythm, we are moved by this deep knowing of our need to move on, to let go, to take the risk of a new future, a new horizon. In David Whyte's Sweet Darkness, we are caught by "the world was made to be free in," and we arrive at the last line, "anything or anyone / that does not bring you alive / is too small for you," with the recognition that this "darkness" we may sense or feel is really an invitation to a new sort of conversation. Poetry, because of its ability to express the juxtaposition between the life of the spirit (intangible) and the life of the body (tangible), is one way to arrest our attention, to stop us in our tracks, where we can allow our intuition and knowing to rise to the surface. As leaders, it's easy to become trapped in the same conversations, the same stories about what makes our businesses and organizations the way they are, and we eventually develop belief patterns over time that no longer serve us. We become tired of the political push and pull, the hidden agendas, the not talking about what's important. In our roles as conversational leaders, we are called to heighten our awareness, to be willing to notice when these indicators of divine discontent are showing up not only within ourselves, but also among our colleagues, with our stakeholders and customers. We know that in order to create, innovate, and fulfill the mission of our work, we must regularly be ready "to abandon the shoes that brought [us] here," to find a new path by letting go of a portion of the history we've created together. SPRING CLEANING: MAKING SPACE BY GIVING UP OLD CONVERSATIONS " A N Y T H I N G O R A N Y O N E T H A T D O E S N O T B R I N G Y O U A L I V E I S T O O S M A L L F O R Y O U . . . "

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