Middle Way Management
Practice

Early-day reflection

Look back at the day so far, then picture the rest of it.

A quiet stretch taken early in the working day to reflect on how things have gone up to that point and to picture how you want them to go for the remainder of it. He offers it as the way to check that your own practice is integral and congruent, while there is still day left to correct.

How it goes

  1. As you engage with others, and particularly the people you manage, check to see whether your practice is integral and congruent — whether the characteristics of your practice are ever in conflict with one another.
  2. Take some quiet time early in your day.
  3. Reflect on how things have gone to that point.
  4. Visualize how you want them to go for the remainder of your busy day.
  5. If things have not gone in an integral way up to that point, treat that as your opportunity to change them and move into a more positive, productive space.
  6. Ask yourself his closing question: do you want to be an honest, candid, empathetic and compassionate leader/manager, or do you want to be something else?

A caution

He gives no duration, and no hour beyond “early in your day,” and no cue for the running check beyond “as you engage with others.” His test for congruence is whether the various characteristics of your practice are ever in conflict; the manager in his example is truthful, candid, compassionate and empathetic yet never holds anyone in the organization accountable for their words and actions, and he says a lack of integrity of that kind will not only damage the practice but produce significant organizational suffering, all of it created by you. Where the review turns up chances for improvement, he says you will work with another to deploy the methodology he has described in other posts, and he leaves the method there.

A great way to do this is to take some quiet time early in your day to reflect on how things have gone to that point and to visualize how you want them to go for the remainder of your busy day. If things have not gone in an integral way up to that point, it is your opportunity to change them and move into a more positive, productive space.

— Middle Way Management and Integrity