On expressing our feelings...

Putting emotions into words can sometimes feel inadequate I find. I wonder what you do to communicate how you feel about people? The idea of talking about the nature of relationships at work might feel even more strange, and yet I'm sure some people express their feelings about others in their working environment in a normal and easy way....

What's your experience?

I find poems seem to capture feelings very well and while I know David Whyte has published many poems about working life, I don't find his work speaks to me emotionally in the same way as people like Mary Oliver or William Stafford.

from the William Stafford archive:

Some aphorisms from William Stafford's daily writings of the 1950s and 60s

Off a high place, it is courtesy to let others go first.

It is legitimate to crawl, after the wings are broken.

I follow a trail so old the hounds lost it years ago.

Actors, their relief. I have to be myself with no vacation.

Once you decide to do right, life is easy -- no distractions.

The grace we need to find will not be found by the graceful only.

Prisoners in the barracks camp, we learned why Indians carry blankets -- a home.

It still takes all kinds to make a world, but there's an oversupply of some.

Successful people are in a rut.

Every mink has a mink coat.

Aggressive people do not appeal to me; I yield them scorched earth.

I'll be Pavlov, you be the dog.

When the snake decided to go straight, he didn't get anywhere.

The greatest ownership of all is to glance around and understand.

What's love got to do with it?

What has love got to do with organisational life? Is it relevant? Roger Harrison, a well respected organisation development consultant, wrote a paper in 1997 called "A time for letting go". In it he said “I have sadly come to think of [people working in organisations] as addicts, struggling with increasing desperation to control their lives and to feed their addictions with growth, money, novelty, success. Like most addicts, they lie, cheat and steal to support their addictions; they live in denial of the consequences of their actions; and they turn ugly when confronted with their addictions.” Have you seen this happen? What's your view?