Tangram Interiors

One of the business consultants I work with just sent me an email under the above title.  I love it!  It was in the context of his trip back to the Midwest at the onset of the current winter storm out there, but for me it is a metaphor.  I told you, I get inspired by the ordinary sometimes.

So, today he is safe and curious.  What a great vantage point! Because I am safe, I can choose to be curious - about you.  How are you doing?  I am OK, so I can reach out beyond myself.

You know, we just came off Thanksgiving with so much thought around what gratitude is.  I had a parking lot conversation with someone the other day about how gratitude puts me into a resourceful state.  Instead of griping about why I don’t have something else, something about being thankful for what I do have opens possibilities for me.  I see things as available, rather than being closed off to possibility.

We are stepping up the cadence of our management training here at Tangram and as we have been assessing needs and trying to create a curriculum to meet those needs, we seem to be focusing on the importance of communication that creates effective business relationships.  The philosopher Martin Heidegger said that, “Language is the house of being."  The words we choose create how we are with others.  They can advance a relationship or prevent one from growing.  The challenge is for my language to serve my purpose and not be an end unto itself or worse, work against my purpose.  If I am safe and curious, I am free to use language to create an opening for someone else to grow.  It could be a peer, a staff member, a customer or just someone I come across.

At lunch today with one of my staff, just checking in, I found myself creating this kind of experience and it resulted in her deciding to take a challenge to go a step further in her own professional development.  No fanfare needed.

So,  you’re safe.  Are you curious?