Prem Rawat's comments - Training, 29th June 1999


This is the original transcript of Maharaji's comments on the second day of a training session that took place in Miami in 1999. The transcript was written by Chuck Nathan, and the only edits that have been done are the replacement of attendees names with initials, and a few very obvious spelling corrections.


TOPICS/EXERCISES

6/29/99


M side comment to Chuck: (pointing to the computer and electrical cords) do you have power? (Put into facilitator checklist) (M asks about modem line for the G3. Chuck points out surge protector.) Bond. James Bond. Licensed to kill.

9am
(M puts the word "Listen" on the big screen)
Good morning.
Got all the problems taken care of?
I know that you think that somehow we've taken (the facilitators and I) to trick the shit out of you. This is not the case. The last group had also come to this conclusion. That everything is testing you. You have a hard time seeing how this team will reach consensus. The exercises are designed so that if you do them right you will succeed. Yesterday someone wrote in their book, "the facilitators tricked us." Yesterday did the proposal to say and do nothing come from the facilitators? You set yourself up. You passed the proposal. As a sensible person would you ever pass a proposal like that. You passed on your weakness, not your strength. You didn't listen. Anybody could have amended the proposal to limit the time to ten minutes but you didn't. I was going to spend only 4 days as scheduled. The last group wasted two days because they were caught in this circle, they're setting us up. When they finally realized that this wasn't true, they took a big leap. This is more deeply rooted than you realize. You say to yourself the world will never understand you, never understand K, the press will never understand. They're setting us up. Please get out of this mode. I can only remind you and I have. Listen.
We're going to review the homework. We're going to start from one end, start from there, go around, switch over to the back row. There are ten things you have to say. Eleven? Fifteen? What was the assignment?
(Several answers)
So that's eleven things, right?
What was the homework you were given?
(M leaves - group tries to remember the exact homework - M comes back in a minute with a video in hand) I'd like to introduce an idea. We give everyone 100 points. By the end of the conference if you don't have a certain minimum number of points, you flop. For example, if you don't speak loud enough, you lose points. And if you don't correct the person speaking too softly, you lose points.
How many of you think 72 assholes? Be honest.
(About 10 people raise their hands) Yesterday you were very dishonest with me. You are no different than any other group. How many of you think there are 72 assholes.
(Someone says 73)
No that's not how your brain thinks. 73 - that's the Christian answer - I'm an asshole. But that's not how your brain thinks. At that moment of fire, when someone makes a proposal, your brain thinks 72 assholes. Later maybe you think I'm an asshole too. But at the moment of fire, you think 72. Maybe you think 52 assholes. But the other 20 you dub potential assholes. So how many assholes are there? You can think of it as stupid, dumb, idiotic. Asshole just covers that broad spectrum.
Have you reached a consensus on what I said?
Even though C is going in and out and there are a couple of people back there (control room), confidentiality is being observed. You can feel safe.
(Group reaches consensus on what homework was)
So we have 11 things or 25 or 55?
(Group says 11)
Cool
(M replays video of when he gives homework assignment)
That's what you all wrote down. All?
(Not everyone responds)
You're not going to participate? You're not going to play ball? Remember yesterday I took you to answer me. Why didn't everyone answer? You're being very dishonest with me. You think I'm going to trick you. I'm your enemy. You're acting like it. I don't know why.
We're to start with C. Pleased listen to these instructions. Listen to these instructions. C is going to say how many things. If W hears one of the things that C said, she doesn't have to say that. If W and C each said one of the things on the next person's lists, how many things will the next person read? (9)
Put down your notebooks.
I hope you've come with headlines, one worders. But I don't want you to alter what you have written. Last night at 4am I was trying to think what can I do to get you guys to listen. So at 4am this brilliant idea came. You have proven to me your dishonesty. You'll take your notebook and scratch out your old answer.
There should be no repeats. You might get to a person when all of their things have been said on their list. What would that person say? (Nothing)
M says four times in response to questions that there should be no repeats.
(First person reads their list)
Just give me one-word answers
(Second person reads their list)
M side comment to V: they're listening, trying to anyway.
(People start reading their answers)
You went and wrote essays. I gave you a hint. Headlines. But you didn't listen. So now the task is further complicated by the way you wrote your answers. Could you thought yesterday and consolidated. May I ask why didn't you think that way?
You have resources on this team. You could have taken a short time to make sure everyone understood the homework assignment. But now we're going to be here past lunch. Please people. I beg you. Don't set yourselves up. Today can be a beautiful day. There could be a lot of learning, a light day. But what you did was work on how to make it more difficult today than yesterday. It's not very nice to get points deducted. It doesn't feel good. I'm going to give you a 15-minute break. Come back, I'll give you 5 minutes to rearrange one worders. No repeats. Same rules, same everything. One worders. If I said to you today is going to be harder than yesterday, then you can try harder. As a human being, that's what you can do. Some people are born into a poor family and don't feel they can do anything to change it. Other people born into the same situation change it. You have to be one of those people. Saying to yourself "I'll change. The team can change. It can be a bright day."
(Fifteen minute break)
You've really got to get off this bandwagon of everyone is out to get you. Once you get off that bandwagon everything will smooth right out. If we did want to get you we could hide the instructions, start scribbling the instructions inside a sandwich. Nobody is doing that. Loud and clear the instructions are laid out. Did you take 5 seconds to clarify the instructions before the break? Why not? I gave you that hint. This has been a problem for you. Are 5 minutes up? Cool.
(People start reading their one word homework answers)
(People start laughing at some of the answers)
Do you really think this is funny?
(More people read their homework)
I just want to warn you that you will be given 100 points and if you speak too softly or make other mistakes, you'll have to give up some of your tickets with your points.
(V says people will get three tickets for 3 points each, then two tickets for 10 points, then one ticket for 20 points and one ticket for 51 points.)
That means that you can only make 3 mistakes and then it's nonlinear so the point deductions get much larger. (More people read their homework)
Take a minute. Just relax. It's all right. Just relax.
I'd like to bring this toy our attention. We have problems, right? Pretty nasty ones, right? Would you like to continue on with these problems or loadshed them? OK, here's the process. Nothing major. But it keeps coming out. There are no miracle cures or pills. Certain things have been identified. The amazing thing is that no one here has unique problems. Everyone's problems are very similar. What does that tell you? B talked about having a little bit of a structure. I haven't heard much about need or want for a structure. Would it help?
(People give answers)
Understanding among ourselves. What we have to stay within. Right now we don't have to have that. I'm not going to bring that up. It's something you have to say. I don't want to impose it on you. Then you'll cry unfair. The want for that structure has to come from you and you have to be willing to live within it. Maybe you need to think about it. I don't want to be the one to push this. You just got a super fancy mirror put in front of you. I don't want to complicate your life even more. If you want a structure, I'll be happy to help you create a structure.
(People comment)
We'll do one exercise now. So you think about it. Because it has to be unanimous. I don't want you to tell I'm shoving it up your ass.
You realize once you have this structure you'll have to live with it. Once a structure is created, it's a team. That's when everyone compensates for everyone's weaknesses. But you're not there yet. Little things like clarifying the instructions. Really support each other, this competitiveness has to go away. Everyone is an asshole thing has to go away. You'll see someone who has felt so incapable all throughout the conference emerge in shining armor. In India it was this woman who was illiterate. But when the time came for the exercises, she figured them out. She had the brains. The India was really varied. We had people medical doctors, people with double doctorates, senior superintendent of policy, judges, engineers, they couldn't figure it out. She did. She saved the day.
All of a sudden you end up with a real find flock. No competition. One is dedicated is running the seconds, another the hours, feels really good.
(People comment)
Last night I think you reached the conclusion that your cockiness wasn't going to get you anywhere. There's been a fundamental change. In fact you did get through that exercise. It was a lot better than yesterday. There is light at the end of the tunnel. More and more as you let go of that cockiness and let go of that feeling that you are being tricked, the easier it will get. So how many people are there? Taking responsibility. No, it's the government, the cops, my wife, my kids, God, my dog. Then there's another list with only l person on it and it's you. And then there's a long list of solutions. But if you don't acknowledge the one-person list and the list of solutions your life becomes a life long war to change other people. Bitching and complaining. This is the status quo position of most people you see, including yourself. K comes along and puts you in the picture. Then the opportunity for service comes along. It's an opportunity of a lifetime. But most of the time the old habits and old luggage are brought in. Band it's for the first time in the history of service that it isn't the methodology that is being blamed and changed. It was always the way we do it is wrong. This house has got remodeled and remodeled and remodeled inside. Kitchen has been modified. Beds have been tweaked. For the first time we're taking a look at it and saying let's change the bloody house and make it as big as it needs to be so everyone can come in. The opportunity exists to rethink the whole thing. Do we want to take it or bring in our old luggage into it?
(People comment)
What I suggest is we do this exercise and it may clarify and intensify the need for the structure.
(V gives instructions about working in groups)
(M puts picture on big screen "Strength vs. Weakness")
(After several comments, M puts picture on big screen, "Brain Farts")
(More discussion)
Whatever structure already exists, you have no clue what it is. So just drop it. You were given a task. Have you moved forward with that task? Who tripped you up? Did you have to do it? Don't you feel where it gets to the point where it hurts in your stomach? Your stomach is more intelligent than your brain. When you're on track it feels good, when you're off track, it feels bad. What we're doing is not inhuman; it's based on common sense. It's all about common sense. So, I think you have a task at hand. Why don't you complete it?
(Comments)
(M puts up on big screen "Now SETUP to work in Groups.")
(V gives the group the task of setting a time limit within one minute. The group fails the first time. V says the group has one more minute and as far as he is concerned if the group fails, the day is over. The group finishes the task in 32 seconds.)
(The group proceeds to try to set up in groups within 15 minutes)
M points out to C that the group is following her proposal, but that they didn't accept the proposal when C made it.
(More discussion)
(Group breaks up into 7 subgroups standing in the main meeting room)
(Group tries and fails the "Spy in the Black Trench Coat" exercise after getting two penalties of 8 minutes off due to talking over each other - V debriefs)
(15 minute break)

12:10pm
For those people who think that "set up" is the wrong word. This is standard nomenclature. Event set up.
Intro program set up. It's not confusing unless you set yourselves up.
You hear an instruction and immediately you make an interpretation. Then you look at the instructions again and it's different from your interpretation so you get confused. Then you ask someone else and they give you their interpretation. The problem is not the instructions. The problem is your interpretation.
Look people, you have to expand your horizons. How many of you are aware that there are certain people who do certain services again and again and again. And even though there are other people who would do it better and even though they keep making mistakes, nothing changes. Would you not attribute that to not expanding horizons? How can we make this better? Doesn't that take expanding horizons?
Set up means set up. There are tables, easels. You can sound off in groups. You have to be aware of who is in your group.
I'm going to give you a little bit of a freebee. What would you like to do next?
(Someone makes a proposal and someone objects)
First you said I have an objection. Then you said I don't really have an objection. Be precise, either you have an objection or not. You have to understand that everyone is keyed on the unanimity thing so if you don't have an objection, let the proposal carry.
(Comments)
(Someone proposes that the group ask M for structure)
You have two people with objections
(Comments)
What do you want to do?
(Someone proposes again asking M for structure)
That proposal was already made. But there were 2 objections.
(Comments)
I have an objection. I never said I'd do that. I said I'd help you come up with a structure.
You haven't listened at all. You don't have a thinking problem. You have a listening problem. This is going to continually get you in trouble. You unanimously tell me that you have to figure out if any body has any problems with creating a structure. I don't want to be the instigator. I am m not going to take even 1% of the responsibility for the desire to have a structure. Once you decide you want a new structure, fine. I am quite capable of doing that. But I will not do that until I am convinced I've heard a unanimous voice.
(Comments)
Can we change the nomenclature please? Let's call it a team, not a group.
(Comments)
If already you're saying this isn't going to work, if you're saying I have an objection but I'll go along. This is a pivotal point. Nothing is working. How can we go and set up a structure with so much doubt? I take no responsibility for creating the structure. If you want this. Maybe you have doubts about it. Maybe you don't want it. May I ask you a question? Have you succeeded in anything yet? So why are you pretending you have? Let's just face it. This cow ain't pregnant yet. Maybe it's time for farmer John to stop doing it and get the bull. Time to step aside and let the bull do the work.
What you did yesterday was blatantly so off. It's like you got a checkbook from the bank and to save yourself time you signed every check. That's akin to what you did yesterday. I'm still not convinced there's the clear and concise unanimity required to proceed.
(Comments)
If you're ready to move on with that kind of attitude, I don't want you. You said even a bad structure is better than nothing. That's a very bad attitude. That kind of attitude is not needed.
(Comments - someone quotes M)
That's not what I said
(Comments)
You went on and on and on and on and on and on. I've actually never seen that. You took over 30 minutes to figure it out. You could have done the whole thing in that amount of time. How did that all feel? So how come you kept going? I didn't hear anyone get up and say, "This feels wrong. I think we're really off track." So far as the heart and the mind, that's a common mistake. Mind gets in and says it's the heart. Very dark thought: what if this isn't right? Another dark thought: what if we need to change it. I need to sit down in a quiet room and find the inspiration to help you. I gave you a freebee I don't know how much you trust me. You've demonstrated that you don't. I've got to decide if I want to continue. I'm not obliged to continue. I don't get paid to do this.
When I was picking up my glider we had a problem with it. We called glider Bob, an expert. He gave some advice and I said, "Do it." I was satisfied with his credentials so I trusted him.
I'm going to offer you my help, but you go off in all these tangents. Gee if there was someone I really respected, I wouldn't treat them like this. If someone offered me help, you just went off into this thing.
If this is how you going to. There was more concern about his objection which had already been withdrawn then there was about me sitting here waiting for you to come to consensus. We have some more fundamental problems here. I think this is a demo of total lack of respect. I think you think this was a total mistake that you're here. That you don't belong here. You know we talked about in service people get bulldozed. Have you ever heard some of those people? I have. You could actually depart lLA and go East and stop in Gander, get some coffee, take off, arrive in Germany, put in for the night, get up, get airborn, go to Dubai, put in the night, a very good hotel there, get your food, by then you might bwant to get drunk. Spend more than 12 hours. Leave Dubai. Go on to Malaysia, Put down for the night. Get airborne. Go on to Japan. Put in for the night. Go to Tokyo. Do some shopping. Go to Hawaii, get a tan. Come back to LA and they will still be talking. People actually pray that they won't start talking.
To be heard is the talker's responsibility, not the listeners. Respect, you have to deserve it. No one can make a rule you have to respect everybody. You'll learn all that. All the problems in interacting with other people, 50% yours, not 51, not 49, exactly 50. People don't listen to you. It's because you're so uninteresting.
But definitely you're way off base. Here's someone offering help. You don't even want to take care of that person. You don't say, M give us a few more minutes, we're almost there. But you just go on, I have this problem. I have that problem. But when an airplane is taking off, even if your 80 year old grandfather wants to talk , it's like, forget it I've got a plane to catch. But you don't even have the clarity to say give us a few more minutes. I've got the reexamine if I even want to help you.
If I don't get respect, I just turn around and walk away. I don't want to be a party to it.
(Comment)
Well, apology is just one of those things that just wipes out whatever happened. But I don't know if I should accept that apology. Do you realize the things you've been talking about? Why don't people just hear in their heads what they're about to say?
If you went to 4 taps and were thirsty and 1 didn't work, would you walk away? What if after trying all 4 taps there was still no water? You'll go somewhere else for water.
If you walked into a cockpit and said take off, no matter if we're going to crash, he'd slug you. Because a captain is usually very proud of their flight. It's not necessary to come with that attitude. Let's take a lunch break, one hour.

2:25pm
Do You all want to go on? Well I don't feel comfortable. What you demonstrated is total lack of respect for me. If I have to go on, I have to feel comfortable. I have no obligation to do this. One of the facilitators who does this professsionally said that when the group doesn't want to play ball, its very very difficult. He sees that you dont' want to play ball. I'm going to ask each one of you, why did you have a negative thought like you did.
(W answers)
We're all frustrated. Who do you think is most frustrtrated? And then I have to ask C. What was she thinking? (C answers)
And I want to ask B
(B answers)
Well that's what everyone did. Well sometimes actions speak louder than words. And T.
(T answers)
That's what I offered to do, to help you. I know the structure would help. When the structure is followed, you can ask D, he was in the last training, and when whatever structure was placed, it was difficult to follow, but when it was followed it felt good and it worked. We can't have this. This is blantantly wrong. Is this how you want to put together an event? Is this how you want to do service? Not a good situation. Really isn't. You know I don't know if you want this structure, really. Once this structure is in place, you're going to hear a lot of whistles. Right now you're all over the place. Once the struture is in place, the facilitators are going to hone you to it. Do you want that. It's not going to feel that. Sit back. Purge your thoughts. We don't want to go as a loser. We want to go on as a winner. You know all the things we don't like. We can change it. All the prejuduce that's out there. Indian, black white, women. We can change it. All the unconsciousness. We can change. All the things we've always hated. We can change it. That's the opportunity. To actually make it good. Do you want it? Is it that obvious to you? OK, take 5 seconds. Shirk off the pain, shirk off the unconsciousness. Got to go for the light, got to go for the est. Tell that thing that wants to tell you you're a son of a bitch. Tel it to can it. Ready?

What we're going to call this structure is training rules. How many of you don't like the word rules? Well shove it. Yhou're going to take resp. When I started to fly, my idea was open skies, go anywhere you want. Then I realized that wasn't the case. You have to be more concerned about not going into any of the restricted spaces than in the open sky. There's very little uncontrolled spaced. Do I follow the rules? If you don't the rules then shove it.
I recommend we not have too many rules. The more rules, the harder to remember. We're going to make two sets of rules, one set of training rules now and at the end of the session another list of lifelong rules. Some of you will be working with people who were in the previous sesssion. There will more training sessions. This is not the ultimate team. The set of rules will be the same for all the diferent training sessions. The lifelong rules will be much simpler. The best way to do it is to write down your suggestions, not that all of you have to make suggestions. These rules should not be paragraphs. The shorter they are, the better it is. OK? One I'll give you free: confidentiality.

I'm going to be very active in this, but you're going to come up with them. Speak one at a time. What did I just tell you. Is there one thing What does respect mean? Respect has to be given and earned. So don't sit there like a fat ass something and say "I didn't get respect." It means you didn't earn it.

Honesty. Are you honest? Are you honest? Are you honest? Can't make up your mind.

B proposed clarity. Let me throw another one out that maybe includes what B was trying to express. Conscious. If you're conscious, you can get clarity.

(Trust) Does it come with respect? What does trust mean? In the team certainly you have to trust the team members. But you can never leave the team members in a situation where they can slip. So even if one team member slips, there's a backup system to take care of it. Like in an airplane, you have backup systems. It's a funny kind of trust. You trust the primary system, but still you have a backup system. You have 2 hydraulic system., 3 electrical systems, but only 1 wing. Kind of bizarre. So the manufacturer puts in backup systems for the parts. But as a whole it's very trustworthy. Trust in me shouldn't be the kind that says if I screw up M will fix it. You can't do that with team members either. Most of do our trust to avoid resp. Trust is a funny kind of thing. Trust in me that I will provide the Vision and that that Vision will be doable, workable. If you trust me, to make sure that you will practice, then that's the wrong kind of trust. I'm not going to come to your hoem and make you practice. But you have to trust me. But I'm not dependent on your trust. For that which I have told you, you can trust me. And of course you can only trust that person who is trustworthy You can't just trust anybody.
Trust is always earned. Any body who gets unearned trust is abating responsibility. Do you want trust in there?
(Responsibility) Yes? No? Yes? OK, you want it in there. Put it in there. Personally I don't know how you'd ever enforce that rule.
(To know). That's very ambiguous. Explain it to us. It's a bit like the astronauts going to the moon for the first time. Gloing to to unknown territory for the first time. Hopefully we're going to go into unknown territory,. Since you've never been there, how
(Relevance. Purpose. Accountability. Commitment. ) …. Let's call it participate, that will take care of it. See you can trust me.

And there's another freebee I'll give you.. Unanimous.

These are training rules. This is what we'll be working with for the next few days. See you don't feel that bad pit in your stomach do you? See the stomach has a brain in it.

(Joy). Well we can't have that as a training rule. That will mess things up. Good try.

So you want to have the captain land somewhere in the airport. The captain can take off within the century. Let's give him some flexibility. Your wife once a week ends up with a man. Your kids can come home to within the city somewhere. We don't need flexibiity. We can do things very precisely. We can be right on time, we can get the job done on time. The amazing thing is, during this training there's only one commodity you need and it's free. Isn't thinking free? Because we're human beings we need to do bodily functions, but even while doing those things, you don't have to stop thinking.

I like conscious because that embeds a lot of things into it.

Most whistles go for unanimous and paarticipate. And for when no one is keeping the time.

One more this team in particular needs is no brain farts. Nobody tells us when we're having one. "Yes honey?" whether the wife says a brain fart or not. No brain farts. Next few days, you get called on it. Why not your great idea you're about to have, explain it to yourself. If you can't it's probably a brain fart. If there's clarity, no problem explaining it.

There's another rule I'd like to introduce to you. What does it mean, the order of the seqwuence here. There is no sequence. They're all equally important.

I'm going to explain one rule you'll find very useful. You need it. THIS RULE has helped me a lot. No dark thoughts. Coming here, beautiful day all the way until we got to Florida. It was clear in the middle. I said to B your job is to move the storms. B said I'll work on it. By the time we got here the storm was pretty solid over Miami. But the thought came in no dark thoughts, I'm not going to get in the middle of a thunder storm. Radar showed rain, but it was all clear in Ft. Lauderdale. No dark thoughts really helps. Just no dark thoughts. I think you'll find it very useful in your personal life, but I can't recommend that you use these in your personal life. I can't. It's up to you. No dark thoughts. Do you want that? There's a big difference between no dark thoughts and conservative thinking. That part of you that sensitive and reasonable is conservative thinking. The dark thought is "what if the hall fell down?" You can say "when was this hall put Dark thoughts are thoughts are that inhibit you from going on, from transforming, or evolving or continuing. Dark thought for you guys is this team is going to mess it up. That's a dark thought. A conservative thought is not going to inhibit you from moving on. You will take actions and you will move on. A dark thought will inhibit you. That is the difference.

I have CD's here. Rap. Robin Williams. Woody Allen. That's to add spice. When brain farts are flying, all the rules are going to hell, I'm going to make the siutation ten times more agitating. That noise you heard this morning was recorded. We can play that. If you want to be accurate in your thinking, follow the rules. Accuracy after a certain point is just a brain fart. Like in a plane simulator. They give you all these different scenarios. The reason you got dressed, got your bags packed, is to go. Accurate thinking has to be done accurately.

I will also give you another rule. I'm just feeling generous. You're doing so good. You need it. Here it comes. It's called the ten second rule. OK? It just means whatever you have to say, say it in ten seconds. You need it. If you don't, I have a present for you.

Now that we have the rules in place, look at the faces of the facilitators. They've got you. No.

(Tickets and envelopes are passed out)

Put your names on both the envelope and each ticket. Then you can't trade them. I would love to explain to you what these rules mean. I'm so glad we got this done today.

10 second rule; conscious; respect; confidentiality; honesty; participate, unanimous, no brain farts, no dark thoughts

What's the purpose of the exercises? To follow the rules. What's the policy around here? If you follow the rules you get help. If you don't follow the rules, you don't get help.

Look at these rules as a whole. They are giving you a message. The message they're giving you is "Dummy, this is what you expect when you go to McDonaldds." You don't want the guy at the counter talking forever. When you ask the shoopkeeper for green pants, do you want him to go on forever? KISS. Keep it short stupid. That's the ten second rule. How many of you appreciate it when people keep it really short when they speak to you.

To be conscious. To be aware. Would you like the waiter to spill food all over you or bring you the wrong food? I don't like that. Any big mystery?

Respect. What if you went to MCD. And the guy said, wait, you idiot, I'll take care of you in a second. What if your kid called you a name. It would be accurate. But would you like it? You're sitting in a restaurant and order the tuna fish salad and the waiter told everyone.

How would you like it if your mail got opened? Confidentiality. How many of you like it when customs goes through your suitcase.

Big words. But these are things we expect every day.

Honesty. Do we exspect this from the waiter? Would you like if the waiter dropped your chicken on the floor and picked it up and served it to you? Or would you prefer him to come tell you he dreopped it and it will take a few more minutes to prepare more.

Participate. How many of you plan a trip or picnic, wanting everyone to be unanimous. The kids are in the van. The mother says I'm going to pull over until you're quiet. The mother is looking for unanimity. What if you invite a friend to dinner and they just sit there and don't eat, don't participate.

What about when the waiter suggests a lot of things you don't want to eat. Brainfarts. You go to a car dealership. We were looking for a Nissan for Wadi and the salesman said "What will it take to close the deal?" You don't have enough money to close the deal. I got really mad. He was obviously brain farting.

And dark thoughts. You order something and the waiter says I don't know if we have that. Same response to every item you mention.

Do you understand my demystification of these rules. These rules are what we expect from our wife, our dog, our husband. What we would expect if we walk out into the lbbby. So the fact that these are expected of the team should come of no surprise. This is extremely basic. So basic that you don't have to think twice about it. If you think this is too much, then realize it's a very simple thing.

Now let me warn you about a few things. Just be as conscious as you can and you will have no problem. Don't be rushed by time. Time is an element you want on your side. Do whatever it takes to get time on your side. And don't do this by using the 30 minute technique he tried and taking too much time. I have When I am running late, I actually slow down. I have noticed that when when I get in a rush, I make simple mistakes and it takes twice as long. Have to flush the toilet twice. Drop your cufflink and now you have to look for it. Time will be on your side if you try to do things in slow motion. Who should be the first one to hear a proposal. You will be just as smart as everyone else in the room and can tell if it's a good proposal. Even when you ask a question, ask yourself first. You might already have the answer.

What is the purpose of language? To get your point across? So let's use it for that purpose. Right now we use language to demonstrate to other people our level of intellingence. But that was never the purpose of language. The purpose was I got a stone stuck, how do you explain that in a gesture. It is better explained by gesture. Most language use language in conjunction with a gesture. EG. Come here. Gesture is to strengthen the language. Gesture works with or without the languagge. Let' use language to our favor. We don't have to demonstrate our brilliace, right? You are all brilliant. You got brains. That's not the issue. The issue is stretch your horizons and not feel afraid. Here our envelopes are going to be stretched. Don't feel that has to be a painful process.

Awareness can be brought by situations, by other people. Conscious is personal. People can make you aware of something, but if you are not conscious, you can't be made aware by the person.

Don't tack anything onto the rules.

Now I can get even. Before I had no avenue of revenge. Let's take a 15-minute break.

(break)

4:05pm
(2 people are missing - C and T)
What do we do? You're the team. OK, deduct points (as recommended by the team)
You know how this works, right? Have you looked at them. There are three 3's. If you do something, you give us one of your 3's. Then the fourth one is ten points. Then you have one 20. And then after that?

She wants to give away one of her tickets for no reason at all. Why be the kid that says "Mrs. McGillicuddy you forgot to give the homework."

Before we do the exercise, I'm going to pop you a question. There's a res manager and you are part of the personnel department. OK? Actually let's make it more realistic. There's a facilties and services manager, this is an Amaroo event, and his job is to be top of the drivers and personnel and all of that and he's a nice guy and it is brought to his attention that one of the drivers who is assigned to me has been stealing the gasoline from that car and selling it. You are that manager. What are you going to do? The person acknowledges he's been doing it. You're sitting across the desk from him. What are you going to do?
(comments - fire him)
Is that what you would all do? What would you do?
(comment - you cannot fire someone doing service)
Do you concur with that?
There's a lot of people in prison who kill their wives and they say she deserved it.
There's a second conscsensus here that you can't fire someone doing service. Of course he regrets it.
Watch your ten seconds and watch your volume.
What are you going to do with this person? I can drive myself. I'm a safe driver. I just use cruise control. I get better gas mileage and I'm ready to stop much faster. And I can consistently go five miles an hour over the speed limit.
(Comment - give them another service)
Which part of a house can a thief visit? This is something you have to think about. Where does your responsibility lie, in hiring or firing. It is much harder to hire the right person. If you at your home and they were caught stealing, it's your decision what to do. When it comes to this, there are no exceptions. How can you avoid the situation. By hiring responsible people. In service, is there a situation of hire and fire? In the world, there is hire and fire. To get the best job done. Would you at least want to offer that to M? This is a real analogy. It happened years ago. Something to think about. Resp. What you want to offer M is top notch, professional quality, nothing less. At least what the world has to offer, but not less than that. It's just a mind set.

We're going to do an exercise. Please understand you are following the rules. There is a syndrome that whenever you leave the room, people stop following the rules. Don't say I hope I follow the rules. Don't make it an ambiguous thing. No dark thoughts. Not I hope.

(V announces the rope exercise and the blindfolds)
So bring the blindfolds with you every day. Your little reminder souvenier. For five bucks we have ones that look the same but you can see through them. Don't you want that information. I'm trying to help you. It's nothing dangerous.
What did we do the first day? Can everybody fit through those doors at once? Why don't we do this in a very orderly fashion. You can maximize the amount of time you are seated.

M told V to use a microphone to announce the instructions for the Rope House exercise. And he asked for a mike stand to be brought.
(Put in facilitator checklist)

(Rope exercise breakout group - one person takes the rope and tries to take it around to everyone while everyone including him is blindfolded)
See A your impulsiveness to take the leadership has resulted in people losing track of the rope. There's no reason for this impulsiveness to become a leader. I'm not saying that for you to feel bad. But you've set everyone up. Now it's going to take more time.

(Rope exercise different breakout group)
Now don't talk on top of each other. Follow the rules.

(Rope exercise different breakout group)
Are you laughing for a particular reason? Do you realize that's a violation because that will put you talking on top of each other.

What would your guess be (to the question someone asked the group) Why didn't you ask the question to yourself?

Think before you ask a question.

You can't talk on top of each other now. That's a violation.

You're going so fast. It's not very complicated. So many people are saying so many things, that's what's making it complicated.

In a circle some people will be walking forward, backwards, sideways. The rope is what is going to keep you together. That's what people do in caves. They connect people with a rope.

They've been doing their own problem solving. Let them work out their work. And don't break the rules. Don't worry about the other group. You have your own problem.

Why are you taking such a big step? There are people who are shorter, there are women. What's going to happen if you take such a big step?

There is no such thing as kind of following the rules.

With the ten second rule, you have to be really clear on what you want to present.

What always bothers me, it doesn't really bother me, people have their blindfolds and their know they have to be a square, circle, triangle. Why does it take people so long to get into their shape?

You are an important team player, not a lone ranger. You can mess up the team.

The thing I want to debrief. How many of you broke the ten second rule? If you broke the ten second rule, then you broke the conscious rule, and probably already violated the respect rule and the participation rule. It's very difficult to just break one rule. You're going to break a bunch of them.

The other thing I want to point out is you are not asking yourself your questions. You are not dumb. And you have to remember that. If you are going to keep thinking you are dumb, then you keep repeating to yourself that you don't understand the instructions. So what's going to happen is that you're splitting the team in two because half the team wants to go on and half doesn't. You are not dumb. The most complicated exercise in this training is a kindergarden exercise. Can you do tasks that little kids can do? I don't think you really require a greater level of intelligence than that.

One time I was at this flight training academy. This guy lecturing on aviation safety is well respected. He was very experienced. FAA. Military. He got up and this was his safety advice. Slower you are going when you hit the ground, less damage there will be. There were people in the audience who were shocked. But I thought that was the best advice I'd ever heard. Makes sense. Slower you are going, less damage to the airplane. That's genius. Simplicity. No task here is being asked that you can't do. You've got to stay with the rules. Tomorrow there's going to be a lot of whistle blowing.
If you're not following the rules, whistles will blow, time will work against you and you will be asked to hand over your tickets. Any questions?

Let's go and relax. You've had a big day. Didn't you? You've had a very big day.

No, don't wear shorts. Who wants to see ugly, hairy legs. (Put in checklist)

Don't you want some homework? No thank you? Thank you Tim for reminding me. You have to memorize the rules. And in order. As per on the screen. Someone wrote that down didn't they? Would somebody from this team who wrote them down just come up and write them on the board? You have resources. You don't think think like a team and therefore you deprive yourself.

Because you weren't following the rules, you didn't get a demonstration of how the team can work.

Randomly you'll be asked to put your notebooks down and to say what the 4th rule is.

Did anybody know the answer to that question? Why deprive yourself? Assign someone to pick up the food, another person pick up entertainment, another person…



Top of Page & Main Site Links