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Breakthrough
"Productive insight; clear (often sudden) understanding of a complex situation."  Free Dictionary

Pop the bubble of conditioned thinking and emerge into the creative realm of "no absolutes," continuous change, uncertainty and unlimited possibilities.

Then, there can be innovation, adaptation and optimal performance.
Performance and Open-minded Mindfulness
Open-minded:questioning everything, accepting diversity and uncertainty.  

Mindful: consciously aware; concentrated. 

Foundation for blending process, project, engagement and knowledge management into a cohesive approach to optimize performance.

Breakthrough
Newsletter
VOLUME VIII ISSUE NO. 2 | FEBRUARY 2016 



Project Insight Article
Zen and the Art of Optimal Performance


Insight Meditation Video
How to Meditate at your desk - 3 minute youtube video. 
What It Means to Be Progressive
By George Pitagorsky
Let's put political labels aside and explore what it means to be progressive.
 
To be progressive simply means to be in favor of progress, to recognize that change is inevitable and that we have some power to influence that change so that it is for the better.
 
The term Progressive has become a label for liberal democrats. It is an apt reminder of the difference between right-wing conservatives, left-wing ideologues and those who are left, including open-minded conservatives who believe in progress.
 
What is progress? It is different things to different people. Some may think progress is to wall off the U.S. from outsiders and to take the federal government out of the realm of economics, social welfare, education, health care and ecology. This of course is not the kind of progress called for by Progressives.
 
To me progress means finding a way to express indiscriminate loving kindness, compassion, and happiness for the good fortune of others.
 
On a concrete level it means to do our best to make sure that everyone has enough to eat, adequate shelter, security, access to affordable effective health care and the freedom to love and marry whomever they want. It means to recognize the role of government to ensure that there is an adequate infrastructure, protection for minorities and for the environment.
 
Progress is finding the right level of government involvement, remembering that before the federal government got involved, there was legislated slavery followed by discrimination based on race and sexual preference in many states. Without regulation mining companies pollute and destroy the land. Totally free markets promote greed and have fed corruption. Overly controlled markets tend towards bureaucracy and ineffectiveness. They inhibit innovation. Rule by the majority without the intervention of government leads to the oppression of minorities. Uncontrolled use of the land strips away natural wonders for use as mines, sources of lumber and pastures. Unbridled government control can be just as bad.
 
Those who blindly believe in no government are not being particularly rational. Many who say they want minimal government are hypocritical. They think that it is fine to support laws that ban abortion, prohibit same sex marriage and deem marijuana and other mind altering drugs illegal. They seem to want to choose government intervention based on their beliefs, often at the expense of the beliefs of others. 
 
I am the kind of progressive that thinks we do best as a nation and as a human community that transcends national borders when our hearts and minds are open and we act in a way that expresses wisdom and compassion. Progress is about promoting rational thinking and fact checking. For example, there is an idea among conservatives that social welfare programs support welfare cheats and drug addicts, yet a simple fact check finds that a relatively small percentage of recipients have been found to be drug users. Florida, under a Republican governor ended its drug testing program after finding that less than 3% of recipients were testing positive. Objective studies have shown that small percentages of welfare and unemployment recipients have been found to be cheats. Conservatives who rail against social welfare programs fail to address the alternatives and the reality that we seem to be using automation and robotics to eliminate high paying jobs across the economy from farming to manufacturing to professional services like accounting and law. Progress is insuring that we do not have an underclass of starving homeless people
 
Progress has not been linear or easy. Slavery, beheadings, oppression and discrimination are still facts of life. However, most civilized people view these as aberrations and struggle against them. Finding the right balance between a dynamic free-markets based economy, sufficient control and a social welfare system that provides living wages and services to all is not easy. It is made more difficult by people who take sides and distort reality to make their political and ideological points and by those who turn off their brains and buy into simplistic solutions that feed their fears and prejudices.
 
It is my hope that the vast majority will reject beliefs that arise out of greed, fear, anger and ignorance. May they support and promote the kind of progress that has moved a large part of human kind from the dark ages where heretics were burned alive to modern times in which it is no longer heretical to espouse open-minded ecumenism. It is my hope that increasing numbers of people will tire of rhetoric, the impossible promise of keeping things as they have always been, and lies and, instead, will opt for fact based programs that are truly practical and progressive.
                                               
© 2016 George Pitagorsky                                                 Top
Performance and Open-minded Mindfulness

Open-minded: 

questioning everything, accepting diversity and uncertainty.  
 
Mindful:
 consciously aware; concentrated. 

Foundation for blending process, project, engagement and knowledge management into a cohesive approach to optimize performance.

 Learn More
Managing Conflict in Projects
By George Pitagorsky
Managing Conflict in Projects: Applying Mindfulness and Analysis for Optimal Results by George Pitagorsky charts a course for identifying and dealing with conflict in a project context.

Pitagorsky states up front that conflict management is not a cookbook solution to disagreement-a set of prescribed actions to be applied in all situations. His overall approach seeks to balance two aspects of conflict management: analysis based on a codified process and people-centered behavioral skills.

The book differentiates conflict resolution and conflict management. Management goes beyond resolution to include relationship building that may serve to avoid conflict or facilitate resolution if it occurs.

 

Read More
The Zen Approach to Project Management 
By George Pitagorsky

Projects are often more complex and stressful than they need to be. Far too many of them fail to meet expectations. There are far too many conflicts. There are too few moments of joy and too much anxiety. But there is hope. It is possible to remove the unnecessary stress and complexity. This book is about how to do just that. It links the essential principles and techniques of managing projects to a "wisdom" approach for working with complex, people-based activities.
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