Healing With Tai Chi
The brief article below was sent to me by its author, my good buddy Allen (Zak) Zaklad, and I thought it worthy to be passed along.
When I was approaching my Shodan (first-degree black belt in Karate) test in the mid-90’s, I looked hard at what I needed to improve. One big area for me was what I perceived to be my lack of grace or fluidity of motion. So I signed up for a Tai Chi class. It was a 90 minutes per week class and 10-15 people began with me, most rank beginners like myself. Two years later, I had learned the complete 8-minute Yang Style short form, but all the other students were long gone. Since that time, I’ve continued daily Tai Chi practice.
Why You Are Here
You are here because at least some of us, and perhaps all of us, need you to be here.
You are the proverbial butterfly in the Amazon; the flutter of your wings makes a difference even if you don’t know about it. It may ultimately contribute to a storm appearing hundreds of miles away, or it might prevent the storm. I have had recent experience during which I discovered a difference made by actions I took nearly thirty years ago. The other person involved expressed gratitude. It seems that what I did then prevented a deadly storm. I have had several such experiences.
Great Service Times Three
Some years ago I consulted to a company that wanted to improve customer service. The team that designed the improvement program decided to forgo theory, models, talks, videos, expert input, and any of the other paraphernalia that generally populates training programs. Instead, we gathered employees together, asked them to tell stories about great service that they had received, and then asked them what they might emulate from the stories and what they needed in order to do that. You know it when you see it.
I count this among the best experiences of my organization development career. I heard some wonderful stories and the company found evidence that the program was a success.
