Positive Intelligence: Why Only 20% of Teams and Individuals Achieve Their True Potential AND HOW YOU CAN ACHIEVE YOURS

by Shirzad Chamine

PQ Brain Activation: If the energy and atmosphere of a team meeting feels negative and loaded with Saboteur energy, you will have an uphill battle trying to help each person shift individually. This is because the team is collectively caught in the net-negative vortex. In this situation, I recommend a five- to fifteen-minute PQ Brain activation exercise to help quiet the Saboteurs’ voices and give everyone greater access to their Sages’ wisdom before proceeding. (You can download self-guided audio files of this exercise from www.PositiveIntelligence.com.) • The 80-20 Rule of Conflict: It is a rare conflict in which anyone is 100 percent at fault. As a rule of thumb, I tell people in a conflict to remember that they are at least 20 percent at fault. Encourage people to shift from trying to prove the other person’s 80 percent fault to discovering the 20 percent they are contributing. This shifts the focus of the conversation from the Judge’s blame to the Sage’s exploration and curiosity. As a way of people exploring their own 20 percent contribution to team conflicts, have everyone on the team assess their own Saboteurs and share how those Saboteurs fuel conflicts. • Conflict as a Gift: Some teams, and many individuals within teams, have great aversion to openly admitting that there is a conflict in the first place. The conflict then becomes a big elephant in the room that everyone tries desperately to sidestep. Everyone should be encouraged to call out the elephants in ...