An agreement to be counted on for particular outcomes arrived at through social agreement / organization design. Accountability is an opportunity and a personal commitment to take care of some area on behalf of others, and is based on a division of labor.

Human beings are always already listening in every moment and in every situation for whatever is relevant and important to their concerns and commitments. We filter what is happening or bring our models of how the world is to a situation. This is a shared or learned background interpretation which can be changed. Its primary characteristic, however, is that it is transparent. It occurs as our unexamined assessments, assumptions and explanations of the “way things and people are”.

Our essential way of Being in the world. Living in the presence of and expressing the essence of our “true” nature. In the Heideggerian sense, living in a profound acceptance of who we are “thrown” to be.

The possibility of human consciousness, choice and the power to bring forth a world in which it is possible to be. Context.

A way of distinguishing the paradigmatic paradox through which the egoic mind and cultures persist. How can we escape a construct that is closed to any possibility outside itself or external to itself? Leaders distinguish this from “creating” a new interpretation that includes the box, but is not constrained by it.

The future will happen. The circumstantial drift (the predictable, probable future) is the future that will happen if we do more, better and different variations of the same thing over and over again. The “drift” defines the boundaries of common sense and limits the choices we have available to us to what is reasonable and feasible. Breakthroughs, being unpredictable results, do not occur in the drift.

Coaching is not about giving advice. Nor is it about building potential. It is about standing for those you coach as possibilities. The job of the coach is to create reality—not fix people. A successful coaching relationship depends on the commitment of the person being coached to accomplishing something bigger than what their past dictates is possible. Coaching is about working with individuals to create who they are committed to Being as if that is who they are already. Coaching produces results without control.

Coaching is not an intervention. It is an interaction to empower what’s right and what works, as opposed to an intervention to change or fix something. In the course of the interaction, the coach attempts to either dissolve a distinction that’s there and is not producing any juice or create a distinction that’s missing. The coach is basically introducing a possibility to a committed player who can’t see that possibility.

A relationship with the world in which one is whole—without confusion, resistance or argument—and free to respond. The state of being “present”.

Conversations that interrupt or stop the action for the purpose of, respectively, either creating a “new game” or starting another dialogue about what is missing.

Conversations that ground possibilities in the historical reality and create structures for fulfillment (that is, projects and plans for bringing the vision/possible future into reality). These conversations focus on who, what and when. They constitute ‘how’ an organization’s vision and breakthrough commitments come into existence.

Conversations that intentionally alter the quality of relationship in terms of possibility, moods, the future or the past. They create a foundation of workability in which people are free to express their concerns and make open requests. Participants relate to each other as a function of their commitments, instead of relating to each other based on the assessments, interpretations and feelings they have about each other. Rather than resigning themselves to patterns of defensive behavior, resentment or cynicism, they focus on building relationship and opening possibilities through their speaking and listening.

The fundamental and essential characteristic of anything. A template for manifesting our intentions, including how something looks, how it works, and its relationship with and impact on everything else.

A way of relating to others that allows you to share the best of who you are, including what you know and have experienced, in a way that brings out the best in them. A two-way relationship between people of different generations based in respect, curiosity and wisdom. A practice of listening generously and giving of yourself, no matter what your age, to others.

The process of engaging another with a focus on obtaining their commitment to a proposal or offer. Distinct from “selling”, it is grounded in the commitments of those being enrolled.

The possibility of becoming a new observer begins when we can “generate” a new interpretation, which is only possible when our listening is opened. We can listen critically, for example, or we can listen generously as a function of our commitment in a particular situation. There are many different ways we can listen if we aware of the phenomenon and “present” in a conversation.

Any action generated in response to a source outside the scope of one’s personal responsibility will, in effect, be a “reaction” and become part of the cultural mechanism for perpetuating the status quo.

In any game, there are three distinct perspectives. On the court, the players are in action in the present moment. In the stands, the observers are talking about the action after the fact (from the perspective of the past). On the bench, the coach is observing what is not happening on the court and communicating with the players to bring about what is missing to win the game. The transformational leader, like the coach, focuses on creating reality—not on fixing people or things.

Methodology of questioning with the intention of finding new questions and opening new ways for observing.

Our interpretation of the world occurs as the narrative we have to account for what we are observing and experiencing. This is necessary for there to be an historical reality. A central claim in my inquiries is that human beings “always” respond according to “how the world occurs” (or shows up) for them. If something appears to be a threat, they will behave however they behave when threatened. How they may respond may vary depending on their competence and experience.

Leaders observe that there is always a correlation between what we are doing and how we see our reality. This opens the possibility for changing our actions or behaviors by first changing our interpretation of the world. If genuine change is to occur, leaders must develop the capacity for creating new interpretations of everyday events that, while consistent with the past, are not limited by it.

A responsive social phenomenon denoting the process by which human beings create or bring forth their world and their future through coordination of action in the context of a common vision.

Listening is the fundamental capacity of leadership. It is the background structure of interpretation that gives meaning to whatever we perceive. There are two kinds of listening: Already Listening (which is historical) and Generous or Generated Listening (which is our listening when we are committed). Once we acknowledge that we start with an Already Listening as a framework for making sense of the world—a framework present in the background that is made up of a long list of assessments about almost everyone and everything—then we can begin to generate a more Generous Listening. For not one of our assessments is either ‘true’ or ‘false’.

Psychological terminology distinguishing individual identity, often mistaken for “self”. In an ontological context, the ego/mind occurs as our internal conversation.

A relationship to organization. A way of speaking and listening that gives access to the domain of organization, such that organization is an expression of people’s commitment as distinct from being a constraint on what’s possible or actionable.

Organizational transformation is about opening the possibility for unpredictable outcomes, given whatever people are committed to. The only reason they are unpredictable is people have a boundary right now where they cannot see a possibility. Once they can see the possibility, it will not be unpredictable; it will be an expression of their commitment.

Anything we can imagine and commit to as possible that is outside our conventional view of “reality”. An opening for observing the world. A powerful place to stand from which to see what’s missing. By definition, a possibility is not real. If it could be proven, it wouldn’t be a possibility. It would be an example and, therefore, an option.

Possibilities are created, and always reveal our relationship to a future. The future is always occurring in the context of either a prediction (an extrapolation of the past) or possibility, which transcends historical limits and constraints and can be an opening for unprecedented action.

Peoples’ inherent birthright is possibility, or freedom. Not only freedom from physical, political and social constraints, but freedom from the domination of yesterday’s ideas. Being free includes intellectual freedom, freedom to act as well as anything else.

Coaches distinguish relationship as the foundation for all accomplishment, whether between two people, a team, an entire organization or a network of stakeholders.

Responsibility is the ability to respond. It is a way of Being, a relationship to one’s circumstances and the future. It is a context for having a choice. Responsibility is not an assessment of blame or credit and should not be confused with causality. It is a personal stand we take (“I am responsible…”). Anything we are not responsible for, we are a victim of.

People can only be as free as they are willing to be and capable of being responsible. If you’re the author of your relationship to your circumstances, it doesn’t change the circumstances but allows for choices and possibilities that are not available if you are not responsible.

Term used to distinguish “occurring” from perception. Perception suggests an objective world “out there” which can be perceived rightly or wrongly. The world “shows up” as a consequence of the observer.

Committing yourself in the matter. To “stand for” is to be that which you stand. Taking a stand alters the observer and, therefore, how the world occurs and, therefore, the possibilities and actions available. A stand is a source of power.

It is not possible to “stand against” (that would be resistance). Resistance and force are the negation of power.

Straight talk is saying what we see. It is about relating to others based on their commitments, sharing our negative assessments as a point of view, and transcending our differences. None of our assessments (our interpretations and judgments) can be objectively verified (like a fact), and can therefore neither be ‘true’ or ‘false’: our assessments are our point of view. Straight talk increases our ability to be effective, to distinguish facts from points of view, and to realize shared objectives by forwarding our commitments and our actions.

Truth “before the fact”. All superstitions seem to be “true” until someone creates a new possibility and different interpretation.

A shift in how one observes the world. (When we observe the world differently, we can relate to it differently, see different possibilities, and choose different actions—all of which, in turn, can transform the world.)

A context for being responsible for our relationship with ourselves and others, with the circumstances, and with time.

A methodology by which we get “out of the box” by reinventing the “box” we are in.

A romantic notion based on creating a seemingly “impossible” reality and standing for and acting as if it were real.

We determine what is reasonable by looking at what has worked in the past. Making decisions that are reasonable (based on past results and historical data) gives us more of the same. Being reasonable does not serve breakthroughs. We can only have a breakthrough by making unreasonable commitments to possibilities that are outside “The Box”. Fulfilling an unreasonable commitment is a breakthrough relative to “business as usual” (the context for fulfilling reasonable commitments).