Why Meetings Suck (And How You Can Make Them More Fun, Efficient, and Engaging)

Joanne Hunt Full-Length, Integral Life Practice, Integral Life Practice, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, Mind, Practice, Video 13 Comments

Itʼs as if weʼre asleep. Most of us go through life unaware of just how unique our personal perspective really is. Only through years of life experience and interpersonal challenges do we gradually awaken to the fact that other people have genuinely, and often drastically different, fundamental ways of looking at the world. Different ways of being, perceiving, and doing…

Itʼs time to wake up. Waking up to your unique Native Perspective is a very powerful transformational exercise you can undertake to accelerate your self-understanding. It can help you better understand how and why you interpret your life experience and personal relationships the way you do, help you to find more compassion and love for the rich diversity you encounter, and enhance your professional skill and communication.

Using Integral theoryʼs four quadrants, join us in this role-playing exercise as four colleagues undergo the first 2 minutes of a business meeting where they discuss a new project. Watch how each participant brings a dramatically different Native Perspective — or “orienting quadrant” — to the table, then get inside their heads to see how they interpret the meeting. Can you spot your own Native Perspective?

This exercise can help you unfold into greater fullness and a richer sense of who you are. As you explore your own Native Perspective, watch all of the ways this new awareness helps you understand your relationships, your intentions, and your native comfort zone. It will also help you understand why there are certain people you have such a hard time relating to, and why others just seem to “get it.”

As you watch this presentation, try to get a sense of what your own Native Perspective might be. Which of these four characters do you relate to the most? Are there any characteristics that you often find yourself annoyed or irritated with? Feel free to use the Journal app in the lower-left corner of your screen to track your reflections.

The results are eye-opening, inspiring, challenging, funny, and no doubt painful (the best kind, of course). Enjoy!

This Integral Life Practice module was lovingly produced for Integral Life members.

Become a member now for just $1 for the first 30 days, get access to hundreds of perspectives, practices, videos, and audio recordings, and support the global Integral Movement.

Start Your Integral Life

Start the discussion at community.integrallife.com

Comments

  3. Avatar

    I have a big meeting coming up that I basically dread.
    This gives me something to work with and now I am
    looking forward to the opportunity!
    thanks
    🙂

  4. Avatar

    Well done! Great exercise – clear & succinct & enjoyable – thanks for putting this out there for everyone, Integral Life!

  5. Avatar

    This reminds me of my family when we’re trying to plan anything, except that our “inner thoughts” are usually not so “inner” 🙂

  7. Avatar

    It was very useful to see the limitations of each of these perspectives. I’d be interested in a follow up that focuses on how to be more positive and have tips to help us break free of our native perspective.

  8. Avatar

    Really great knowledge on how to deal with different persons and their perspectives. Something to dive further in order to make our meetings more effective.

    PLEASE NOTE that on the UL perspectives we are missing UR translation. We have LisaCam in its place instead!

  9. Avatar

    The title led me to believe there would be more to this module. The videos laid some good foundational, background knowledge, but didn’t really offer ways to make meetings more “fun, efficient, and engaging”. Now that we are aware of the 4 native perspectives how could we run a meeting to make it more engaging to everyone? I would have liked to seen some specific tactics or strategies suggested. Thanks

Leave a Comment