No Agenda Clubs in Helsinki 11.5. and Turku 13.5.

This week has been great fun in many ways, partly because we’ve had two No Agenda sessions on the same week – on Wednesday in Helsinki and on Friday in Turku.

In Helsinki the key words were BUBBLY - GIVE UP – ENJOYMENT – OPEN – SHAMAN JOURNEY – PRIDE – RELAXED - SURRENDER. I feel that we were after the good old Presence – how to remain calm and centered in the midst of busyness and fragmented minds.

In Turku the same game continued, with a strong focus on expressing emotions and being plain, as one member put it. The key words were ENERGY – ALIVE – SUITABLE – EAR – CURIOUS – ENTHUSIASTIC – HUMBLE – KAROSHI (the Japanese word for dying of overwork, with a smiley indicating that we’re not doing this) – NOW - SURRENDER – PLAIN – CLEARMINDED – FEAR – SPRINGREEN – SCHOOLBOY – HAPPY.

Why do we always have this “give me one word” –exercise in the beginning? The most important

reason is that it’s great fun – this alone would be enough to justify it. It also opens our minds and cuts right to the point. Therefore it combines the two main motivations of No Agenda Clubs: having fun, and finding out what’s worthwhile.

What happens when you ask each other: How do you feel right now – give me one word to crystallize that? Why is that important? We’re practicing some very essential skills:

(1) The art of intuition; Were asking each other to proceed without conceptualising and reasoning, and instead to trust our intuition – just say the first word that flashes into your mind, not he ones that come later, through thinking.

(2) The art of presence; We often run into a meeting directly from another, our bodies are in the new meeting, but our minds are in the previous one. How do you make contact to the situation you have just entered, and leave everything else behind?

(3) The art of self-reflection; How do I feel right now? Can I contact my feelings, or is my mind speeding past them?

(4) The art of trusting; How high is the trust level of the group? If I know how I feel, can I say it out loud in this group? In many management teams you cannot do that - that is also the case in some families.

(5) The art of crystallization; If I know how I feel, can I express it briefly with just one word, showing my essence and nothing else? If I can do this with my feelings, I can do that also with the facts I want to present.

(6) The art of listening; Can I stop to listen to what others say? Am I genuinely curious about how others feel, deep down and not only on the polite, superficial level?

These skills are essential in any group and situation, also the ones with tight agendas. Practise these skills on the No Agenda Club, and then take them into the Yes Agenda Clubs as well. You’ll see that things become more spacious. Any group that masters these skills is on its path to greatness – it could be a management team, a project group, or a family.