POZE. BeingChange

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This page offers a brief overview of the POZE paradigm, which will be explained in more detail in the content page. Please feel free to explore at your pace, and get in touch if you have questions, comments or ideas.  The Homepage introduces POZE.

In DISCOVER you find micro-presentations of the core concepts of POZE with short video-clips. In DIVE IN is a more detailed explanation of the paradigm and the logic underneath. In DREAM a selection of images and drawing is waiting for your interpretation. In DARE you have the possibility to get in touch, with ideas and questions. POZE@ezop represents the dynamic that joins the aspiration for change and action to curate it with like-hearted thinkers and doers.

I am continuously adding practical exercises. If you have suggestions of physical, intellectual,  emotional or artistic practices that might be helpful to experience the application of POZE, please share them.  

This platform is organically evolving. Please settle in and reach out. 

POZE – An Overview 

POZE has many meanings. At the core it stands for Perspective, the human aspiration for a Why. It leads to a gradual Optimization of the 4 dimensions that determine our being, which is required to reach the Zenith, our highest self; allowing for Exposure to the reality that is, which conditions the full Expression of our inherent potential.  POZE translates as “inner peace” in Haitian Creole. ezop is its counterpart in Action. It corresponds to envision the World that can be, zoom in on your potential to make it happen, orchestrate your resources in its pursuit, and participate fully in life.

WHAT: POZE is a paradigm to experience our environment differently. It entails a multidisciplinary methodology to identify and live up to our potential, and become an agent of social change. POZE@ezop combines this perspective with a space to making it happen, within a dynamic for change.

Foundational to this approach is the understanding that our being is a composition of 4 dimensions – Soul, Heart, Mind and Body, expressed as aspirations, emotions, thoughts and sensations.

Everything is connected, from the inside out and from the outside in. The Soul finds its expression in our aspirations. These influence the heart, which is the source of our emotions. How we feel impacts our mind. How and what we think impacts our overall wellbeing, and our behavior. from the inside out and from the outside in. The body is the interface between our inner and outer realities. Experiences influence our mind and heart, our thoughts and feelings. Physical experiences influence our inner realm, while the latter shapes what our expressions, our attitude and behavior in the outside world.

Guiding people to connect with their inner being, and to synchronize the dimensions that underpin it, POZE awakens in individuals the desire to be part of social change. It releases their capacity to be part of a transformative dynamic which gradually leads to a more compassionate, equitable, sustainable, and inclusive world.

In the pursuit of this aim, POZE offers 4 programs to translate intellectual understanding into practice:

Purpose for Power, Compassion for Change, Honesty for Humility and Influence for Impact.

WHY: Anchored in the 4 universal principals of Change (everything continuously evolves), Connection (everything is linked, nothing happens in a vacuum), Continuum (everything is part of a whole ) and Complementarity (everything needs something else to be complete) Change occurs in two, mutually reinforcing, directions:

Change starts inside. A person’s decisions result from the interplay of emotions and thoughts. This process activates an automatic intuitive system, and a conscious rational system (Kahneman and Tversky 2000). Behavior is merely the physical manifestation of this internal dynamic (Levitis et al. 2009). To change it we must systematically distinguish and target the aspirations, emotions and thoughts that underpin our choices.

WHO we are is a result of our education, environment, experiences and our genetic and physical establishment (Seligman 1991). Despite the resulting diversity among humans, we all are the result of the same 4 dimensions; and we all face the quest for meaning. The aspiration for a purpose, a WHY, is the core driver of our existence (Frankl 1959). Once identified, this purpose which derives from our connection to the rest of humanity, serves as a compass to guide the journey. Following a spiral dynamic from the core (soul) to the periphery (body) it influences our emotions, thoughts, and behavior.

Everything is connected. The 4 Questions that underpin our existence are as interwoven, and unique, as the individuals who answer them over the course of their life. The surrealistic situation of social distancing, containment and lockdowns opens a breach in time. Using this break to consider how these questions relate to our own situation, including our role in the Society that we evolve in, is useful. Acknowledging and accepting the status quo, is the only way forward.  Identifying Why we are here; Who we are right now; Where do we stand in life; and What we do to align our aspiration for meaning and our daily actions, is the only out of the status quo and into a future that is desirable.

Change is nurtured from the outside in.  Action can precede Feelings. Interacting with diverse kinds of people and experimenting with unfamiliar ways to talk, dress and act can be entry-points to radically new ways of thinking. (Ibarra 2015).The traditionally assumed sequence, to think and then act, is reversed in personal change processes. We increase our capacity to change our habits and gradually our personality by systematically enacting the type of person that we aspire to be. By embodying this best version of ourselves we gradually become this person. As more and more individuals change their behavior, the social norms that prevail in their community or institution change. (Biccheri 2008).

Words and actions result in experiences that become memories. These lay the ground for new synaptic connections that eventually override the existing ones. Priming new habits can begin by consciously performing actions, even if their underpinning motivation is not intuitive, yet. Gradually, the resulting experiences form new patterns of behavior and thought. When the new behaviors are repeated over time, they induce changes in the physical brain circuitry due to neuroplasticity (Doidge 2007), which makes them increasingly stable. Furthermore, by taking concrete action in our environment in line with the aspiration of our highest self we step into our role as proactive participants in social change.

HOW: To facilitate the transition from theory to practice POZE offers 4 programs:

Purpose for Power (P4P) equips individuals with tools to identify and pursue their purpose in life. Knowing WHY we are here, WHO we are, WHERE we are and WHAT we must do to align our aspirations and actions unlocks our innate power. Primary audiences are young people, the elderly, teachers and social workers. Central entry points for exposing these stakeholder groups to the approach include school curricula, parental education programs, kindergartens and schools, retirement residences and employee well-being programs.

Compassion for Change (C4C) supports institutions seeking to reignite compassion and purpose among their staff. A focus is placed on those involved in social change efforts. By reconnecting individual staff members with their personal desire for meaning, C4C offers a bridge between individual and institutional missions, and tools to bring them in synch. As individual staff find fulfilment in their work, they invest their best self, thereby enabling the organization to live up to its mandate and the potential of contributing to social change.

Honesty for Humility (H4H) is a coaching approach for leaders at all levels and in all sectors. It helps those at the top to reconnect with their roots; the aspiration to make a difference. As participants re-align their aspirations and action, their words and works, they inspire those under their headship; by manifesting the values they expect in others. 

Influence for Impact (i4i) seeks to Inspire, Induce, Intrigue and Ignite by addressing aspirations, emotions, thoughts and sensations to bring about readiness for change. i4i supports the design of communication efforts that accompany audiences from being interested in a cause, to understanding the issues underneath, to having a personalized feeling about the cause, to caring enough about the affected people to personally get involved in order to change the situation. It offers organizations committed to social change a methodology to shape decision-making architectures that are conducive to new mental habits, which translate gradually to new social norms of compassion and solidarity. There are many ways to implement i4i, including using AI to design aspirational algorithms tailored into for integrated life-cycle coaching.

POZE is a paradigm to see and a methodology to live life differently. It comes from the understanding that our existence involves twice 4 dimensions. The 4 individual dimensions (soul, heart, mind, body) are symmetrical to the 4 collective dimensions that shape our reality – micro (individuals), meso (communities), macro (countries) and meta (Planet Earth). Whatever happens in one dimensions influences the others, directly or indirectly, now or later. Changing the course of Planet Earth begins with individual action. It starts with you and me. Today.

Everything is connected, from the inside out and from the outside in. Individuals represent the micro dimension of a multi-dimensional system. They form, shape and experience the meso level which results from the communities they are part of (voluntarily or biologically, directly or indirectly).  The contours of economic, political, cultural systems form the macro level.
Micro, meso and macro dimensions operate within a meta system that is the interface between the tangible and the unknown. Within a seamless continuum one dimension is influenced by the others and influence each other.

 

POZE IN A SNAPSHOT

Together these 4 methodologies serve to Nudge a New Normal (N4N). POZE serves to Nudge individuals out of their comfort-zone. It Numbs their indifference to the social issues at stake; and Nurtures in them the desire to make a difference in leading by example; until gradually a behavior of solidarity and compassion becomes Normality.  POZE@ezop nurtures a dynamic for translating this from theory to practice, from passion to people.

Lets care enough to dare the unknown. Come to explore the unorthodox and join the New Normal. 

If you are interested in the scientific underpinning of POZE and/or if you would like to dig deeper into the methodology please check out the books below. The first one explains the multidisciplinary foundation, the second links this foundation to my personal story and the situation of the humanitarian sector, the third applies POZE to the social conundrum that arose from COVID-19, the fourth explores the potential of technology for social change at scale, and the fifth addresses inspirational leadership for and by all.

PUBLICATIONS

Development, Humanitarian Aid and Social Welfare. Social Change from the inside Out

Humanitarian Work, Social Change and Human behavior. Compassion for Change

Connection in the times of COVID. Corona’s Call for Conscious Choices

Technology, Social Change and Human Behavior. Influence for Impact

Leadership for Social Change and Development. Inspiration and Transformation

Talk

Ideas Worth Sharing

Podcast ‘The Good Problem’ – Social Change from the Inside Out

Further references

Biccheri, C. (2008). Norms in the Wild. Oxford. 2008

Doidge, N. (2007). The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science.

Frankl, V. (1959). Man’s search for meaning. Beacon

Ibarra, H. (2015). ‘Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader’. Harvard Business Review Press.

Kahneman, D., Tversky, A. (2000). Choices, values, and frames. New York; Cambridge, UK.

Levitis, D., Lidicker, W.Z.; Freund. G. (2009). ‘Behavioral biologists do not agree on what constitutes behavior’.

Seligman, M.E. (1991). Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life. New York, NY: Pocket Books

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Note – the beautiful word-art that is used on top of this page is done by Melinda Walker @OneSquigglyLine