RANDORI … WHAT IS THIS? YOU’VE BEEN THERE BEFORE, AND YOU WILL BE THERE AGAIN.

In early July I was invited to present two very experiential programs for The Leadership Group (TLG) Santa Barbara. Then on July 14^th – 18^th I had the great pleasure to host the sixth Allied Ronin Leaders’ Retreat. Both TLG presentations and the Leaders’ Retreat at times featured exercises influenced by the martial art of aikido. Attendees at both – many of them CEO’s, business owners or senior executives - received a brief article attending to pressures faced in a world where technology is increasing at an almost exponential rate, while the opportunity to slow down and live a balanced daily life seems to slip away if not diligently. In an effort to serve you that article is reproduced for this month’s e-newsletter. Consider the fact that in some fashion you are proficient at something enough to be ready for big-time challenges – signifying sincere and rigorous practice in your art, craft, skill or ability. In a sense you are ready for black belt level testing. If that is the case they you will face something know as Randori. What is this? Let’s look through the lens of aikido … and then you make the translation.

Our article begins with a series of thoughts from the man who created the art of aikido. Then we glimpse three simple principles foundational to all the techniques of that art (and perhaps foundational to skills that are important to you). Next you imagine being on a mat in a learning situation and facing “your test” – and you translate that scene into the real “mat” and daily “learning opportunities” that make up your life. And finally we take note four key principles from David Baum, Ph.D. and Jim Hassinger as presented in their book, The Randori Principles.

First – Thoughts from Morihei Ueshiba, Founder of Aikido

“The Way of a Warrior cannot be encompassed by words or in letters – grasp the essence…. Instructors can impart only a fraction of the teaching. It is through your own devoted practice that the mysteries of the Art are brought to life. The techniques of the Way… change constantly; every encounter is unique, and the appropriate response should emerge naturally. Today’s techniques will be different tomorrow. Do not get caught up with the form and appearance of a challenge. Fiddling with this and that technique is of no avail. Simply act decisively without reserve. The Art … has no form – it is the study of the spirit. In your training, do not be in a hurry, for it takes ten years to master the basics and advance to the first rung. Never think of yourself as an all-knowing, perfected master, you must continue to train daily with your friends and students and progress together in the Art…. ”

Second – Three foundational principles to all techniques in this martial art (with some translation for you to consider)

• Aiki – blend with your opponent (listen, understand and move with what you encounter)

• Kuzushi – break your opponent’s balance (speak and act in the appropriate moment)

• Shisei – retain upright posture (maintain integrity)

Third – Your Test … and Your Randori – As you read … you translate this supposed situation into the real tests, grabs and hits of your daily life.

Imagine - you have been training ten years. It is time for the test – black belt. You are alone on a mat in a room (soon to become hot) surrounded by thirty potential opponents, some you know, others you may not. For the next hour of your life you will have to respond immediately to your test director (teacher – sensei). A series of foreign words with which you should be familiar will be called rapid fire - a language for action learned through the body in response to a series of strikes and grabs aimed at your head, your face, your throat, your temple, your chest, your shoulder, your wrist, your stomach, your back, your knee … in short, where ever and whenever and for as long as the teacher decides whether or not you have learned what is expected of you. Your peers, your seniors and your juniors will all be watching.

The attacks will come - open hand blade and closed fist strikes, single hand and two hand grabs, perhaps kicks, plus attacks by weapons - tanto (training knives), bokken (wooden swords) and jo (wooden staffs). Sometimes your opponents will be allowed to stand and rush you from above while you remain kneeling. Sometimes they will stand behind you with a knife to your throat or against the back of your neck. You will have to move and disarm them in ways that if the knife were real you would not be cut, and somehow the knife would end up in your hand. Through a blend of your action with the energy of their aggression, and finding the risks reversed, your attackers will submit and yield … provided you give them no room to re-engage.

During five preceding tests over the past decade your opponents gave you some “slack”, appropriate for those stages of your development. But at this level they will seek and will take every opportunity given them to keep coming at you and increase the pressure. Your pins must be true or you will falter. Your throws must work, or your opponents will not fall; they will turn on you and be in your face, they will take your center and you will be upended.

At times the test sensei will direct the opponents to deliver particular attacks. At times permission will be given for jiuwaza (free form) and an opponent (you won’t know who until it happens) will attack anyway he or she wants and will change the attack forms at whim, coming again and again and again, as fast or slow, direct or sneaky, until they are called off.

Throughout the test you must continue – like it or not. If you are granted a rest, it won’t last longer than fifteen seconds … and getting more than one respite probably won’t happen. However, your opponents will be continually rotated on and off the mat. In this way they will remain fresh and relaxed, being always prepared fully able to move against you. You won’t know in what order they will be called. You must be ready … all the time. Is this randori? No, not yet. Randori happens at the worst possible time … at the end of the test.

It has been fifty-some minutes. You are tired. The test sensei directs you to sit seiza (on your knees, your butt resting on your heels) in the center of mat. He picks three or four opponents to similarly sit around you, each about fifteen feet away. He waits and then with his hand … he strikes the mat. The attackers simultaneously stand and rush you. This is randori. What do you do? Who knows, but you’d better do it. The time for figuring out what to do no longer exists: no time for scheming or making excuses; no one is going to let up, no one and nothing is going to rescue you, and if you don’t empty your mind of everything except for the fact that you are right here right now, you will be in trouble. Everything about you – your body, your thoughts, your emotions - must surrender into the notion of flexibility. You have to move yourself again and again and again without predictability or pattern, and you must live AIKI, KUZUSHI, SHISEI. As this occurs those who attack will hopefully miss or glance off you, falling to the mat or stumbling into each other as they attempt to grab and/or strike your side, your arms, front and back, in a line or from different angles, alone or in pairs. But know this: however it unfolds and for as long as it unfolds, your attackers will rise again. They will not give up. What the sensei is waiting for – looking for - is a moment when surrounded you are caught, with all attackers pressing in on you, because in that moment something crucial must happen. You must give up what you think will work to free yourself, and yet continue moving. You have to remain present, no matter how fatigued, you have to relax and blend, and you have to enter into every minute opportunity presented by your attackers and your environment. You will not be able to “out do” your opponents to survive. Rather, you will have to meet the person inside yourself and come alive with him or her. The Japanese kanji for this is a union of dagger and heart, and it means “to persevere”. The Japanese word KiKi, meaning crisis, becomes a reality. KiKi - every crisis is composed of two things: (1) Danger/Risk; and (2) Opportunity.

When your randori is complete this test is over – but if you are growing there will most likely be other tests in your future. Randori – facing multiple attack, you (individual, team, organization) must put yourself in the right place, with the right action, at the right time, and with the right amount of power. For 3,650 days (give or take some) you were a beginner. If you pass the test you can wear a black belt and are now considered … a new student.

And Finally … The Four Randori Principles” (from David Baum’s & Jim Hassinger’s book “The Randori Principles”)

1. FULL POWER PRESENCE - Leadership Worth Following (You must at all times practice and refine your ability to Be Here Now)
2. TENKAN – Turning Resistance Into Collaboration (You must be willing to Turn and Look at every situation from new perspectives including from a perspective that is completely opposite to your current stand)
3. IRIMI – The Single Sword Strike (You must be willing to Enter Into A Crisis – as would a fireman or a police officer or a mother lifting a car off of her trapped child)
4. GET OFF THE MAT – The Skill of Disengagement (You must study human interaction … individual and group … and from that study increase your ability to Know What’s Too Much, What’s Too Little … and most importantly … When To Stop What You Have Been Doing)

Notes On Listening

Adapted from “On Principled Leadership: It’s Person, Not the Title” by Lance Giroux, published September 2002, in the University of San Francisco Graduate Business Journal*


Do you truly hear what other people are saying, or do you just catch the words and wait to put forward your own opinion? When you are listening to others, what are your agreement patterns? Are you aware of the foundations upon which you base these agreements? What pattern does your automatic disagreement take? Do you hastily disagree out of a need to be heard or to be right?

As you become aware of your quick responses, give yourself permission to go deeper. Listen deeply, with all of your faculties, to what is going on, and in those moments, suspend your judgment of self and others. Step aside from your automatic responses and honestly ask yourself: “What is the basis for my reactions whenever I hear something I like or something I dislike? How long have I been doing this? When did it start for me? What price do I pay for this approach? What does it really get me? What do my actions and reactions produce in the lives of other people?”

This practice of self reflection is fundamental for those who want to grow in their ability to practice the art of leadership and for organizations that want to practice the art of teamwork.

To simplify consider this … there are basically three ways we can listen. Most people spend most of their time doing unproductive listening. Few people practice productive listening. How about you?

Listening Way #1. Believe everything that other people say.

When do you do this? You are listening to someone talking (or you observe them doing something) and you get caught up in their story, and soon without awareness you automatically find yourself agreeing with everything comes out of their mouth. Why? Because, what they are saying fits your past patterns of acceptability. Maybe they remind you of someone you once met that you liked. What ever it is your head starts to bob up and down, your mouth smiles, you relax

Listening Way #2. Be skeptical about everything that other people say.

When do you do this? You are listening to someone talking (or you observe them doing something) and you start resisting what they are saying, and soon without awareness you automatically find yourself disagreeing with whatever comes out of their mouth. Why? Because, what they are saying fits your past patterns of unacceptability. Maybe they remind you of someone you once met that you distained. Whatever it is, your head starts to shake from side to side, your teeth start to grind, your hands get tight and you get tense.

Both these ways … Listening Way #1 and Listening Way #2 … are unproductive, because they involve no self reflection.

Listening Way #3. Self Examination.

It goes like this.

Hear what someone says (or observe what they do).

Notice your own internal and external responses. Do you find yourself agreeing? Do you find yourself relaxing? Are you drawn closer to that person? Do you hear past voices in your own thinking that sound similar? Do you find yourself disagreeing? Do you find yourself mentally arguing? Do you find yourself getting physically tense? OR … are you bored?

However it is that you find yourself responding is OK … because it gives you the opportunity to learn about yourself.

WHAT TO DO … Imagine that you can step outside your body, and look back at yourself. Then imagine that you can poke that person (your other self) in the arm. Then imagine that you can ask that person (your other self):

HEY, WAKE UP … WHY ARE YOU REACTING THAT WAY? WHY ARE YOU AGREEING … WHAT IS IT ABOUT YOU (YOURSELF) THAT WANTS TO AGREE WITH THIS?

Or WHY ARE YOU DISAGREEING … WHAT IS IT ABOUT YOU (YOURSELF) THAT WANTS TO DISAGREE WITH THIS PERSON?

Or WHY ARE YOU BORED … OR WHATEVER THE REACTION YOU ARE HAVING? WHAT IS IT ABOUT YOU (YOURSELF) THAT IS CREATING THIS BORED (OR OTHER) REACTION?

When you do this, your mind will begin to dish up some answers. If you are calm and can wait and wade through things it will tell you about yourself, what it is about you that has formed opinions about what your are hearing. From this you can learn and take productive action in a responsible fashion.

Simply put, the art of Listening The Third Way hinges on one’s ability to BE HERE NOW.



©Lance Giroux, 2006


*note: to request and obtain a pdf file of the complete article
“On Principled Leadership, It’s the Person, Not the Title”
send email to AlliedRonin@aol.com

LESSONS FROM KEVIN CHEGE & the 2007 AISEC IPM IN EGYPT

Cairo, Egypt was the host to the 2007 AIESEC International President's Meeting (IPM) and for the second year Allied Ronin provided leadership training and the Samurai Game® for the organization's newly elected country presidents. Last year the IPM was in the Netherlands. This means that hundreds of young leaders from approximately 90 countries have now had the opportunity to participate one of the most provocative simulations in the world. They have directly linked their performance in the simulation to: (1) how they effectively interact with others, (2) how they will lead their country organizations, (3) how they influence people in general, (4) what their core values really are, and (5) what actions they can take to expand their positive habits and diminish their negative ones.

As mentioned in the Feb 25th blog entry I initially envisioned the trip to Egypt as an opportunity to serve not only AIESEC the organization and its members, but the future of 90 some countries. These your adults are very smart - top college juniors, seniors and master's degree candidates. Most speak four languages and are tops in their studies. Each has weathered many challenges to rise to the positions they currently hold. They are sought after by NGO's, companies and government organizations worldwide. And when their time is done with AIESEC some will go on to become leaders of organizations with international ties; and it is possible that a few could become high government officials and possibly heads of countries, e.g., current President of Portugal.

On February 22nd, while opening my portion of the IPM, I was asked by one of the delegates "Why are you here?" And, as noted above, I stated, "To serve." That answer was and remains valid. But at the end of the day upon being approached by a young Kenyan, Kevin Chege - newly elected president of AIESEC Rwanda, my reason for attending took on a simple ands profound added dimension. In short I was there to benefit from his insight and thoughtfulness, and to receive from him his small booklet, "The Little Blue Book Kenya." What I read could be important lessons for us all.

Kevin lays out a solid awareness of Kenya's, indeed Africa's, problems. And while different from problems faced by US and other countries I’ve recently visited, what he offers is a lesson in personal responsibility when it comes to creating solutions in the here and now. I asked him for permission to duplicate portions of his booklet, and he said "OK." So I have. Please read on, and as you do ... try inserting the name of your organization or your family or your community or your business or your country in the places he has used "AIESEC" or "Kenya.” Substitute the name of something that is deeply meaningful to you and see how this affects your perspective. To clarify, Kevin Chege is Kenyan and when he wrote the following he was an AIESEC Local Committee President in that country. But he has captured the attention of others internationally in his organization and has gone on to create solutions elsewhere -- in this case Rwanda where he is the AIESEC newly elected Country President. Rwanda, like Kenya, is place with a history of dramatic problems. I think he'll have his challenges there, but with support he will do well.

If you want to contact Kevin Chege directly then I hope you will. If so, please send email to him at Kevin.chege@aiesec.net. If you want to support his efforts through financial contribution, please do so. He can it as he goes about making the difference that he will - for constructive leadership, for sustainable living and for a more peaceful world.

READ ON …

"Part Three - My Solutions (by Kevin Chege)

Looking at the problems facing Kenya today, I ask myself, 'Can I, as a young student who is a member of AIESEC, who has networks in 89 countries with fellow students, who regularly meets the most influential people in Kenyan business, make a real positive impact on Kenya?' These might seem to be very mundane questions. In fact, most AIESECers will immediately give 'Yes' as an answer to the three questions. But then I ask, 'Why do you need to do anything for Kenya?' and 'Are you already doing something positive consciously?' and 'How can you do it then?'

These second batch of questions are the difficult questions to answer. Some of us don't even ask ourselves these questions. The sad reality is, most people will probably go through AIESEC without even knowing how to personally gain from it. To such a person, the concept of Kenya gaining from AIESEC just does not begin to arise. So let's start at the questions, and try to answer them together.

1. Why do I need to do anything about Kenya?

This is a very simple question for those who call themselves patriots. However, the vast majority of people in this world simply don't care about anything except themselves. They exist in a world of 'ME.' Let's try and open their eyes a bit.

Anywhere you go in this world, one of the first questions anybody will ask you is, 'Where are you from?' - in which case you give the name of your country. To the person asking, you automatically get a tag based on their perception of your country. If you say Japan, people begin to think of robots, and Sony. If you say America, people think of George Bush, the war in Iraq and so on. If you say Kenya, people think of famine, and corruption. And based on their perception of your country, people will welcome you, or shun your company. Therefore the country tag is a very important tag in this world. It's why South Africans will get a Kenyan visa at the airport, but Nigerians have to apply at the embassy.

From that solitary example, we can see that your country of origin matters a lot. There are lots of other examples that I could give to illustrate the point but I believe that one example will suffice. Whey then should you try to make a positive impact on your country? My answer to that question is, because you must do it even if it is for selfish reasons ... not to mention the fact that you are the only one who can. Nobody will ever come from another place to save your home. They might help. But it is totally up to you to save yourself and your kind.

2. Am I already doing something positive for Kenya consciously?

As we saw before, most people will go through AIESEC without ever realizing how much impact the organization can have on their lives. Others will go through AIESEC with a game plan for themselves, and they will try to learn as much as they can, to experience all they can, and to gain all that they can from this platform. Then a very few number, perhaps less than 10% will not only gain personally from AIESEC<>The Kendo student practices furiously thousands of cuts morning and night, learning fierce techniques of horrible war, until eventually sword becomes "so sword"; intention becomes "no intention", a spontaneous knowledge of every situation. The first elementary teaching becomes the highest knowledge, and the master still continues to practice this simple training, his everyday prayer." - The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi, Japanese Swordsman (1584-1645)

In answering this question, I speak of AIESEC as organization. Hopefully, this gives you an idea of what to do as an individual as well. What it doesn't answer for your, it does for me ... and vice versa. That is the beauty of never knowing what God really looks life: it allows each of us to be unique.

Therefore, get the few basic ideas suggested here, have a desire to make a positive impact, then free your mind and try your own ideas everyday. The rest will come naturally."

In Charge. But In Control?

Have you ever piloted an airplane, actually been at the controls and flown it?

My mentor used aircraft as tools so me and others could deepen our understanding of certain principles and concepts for more effective living. Planes were our training platforms. The first lessons were designed to illustrate how conditioned we were to transferring past circumstances onto present situations. Here’s one of those initial lessons that we used to do live inside real planes. Reading this will be different because you’re limited to using only your ability to visualize. You can heighten your internalization by involving your body in the process while you visualize. Getting the body involved in any mental process dramatically increases understanding, application and the probability for desired results.

Imagine you are sitting in the cockpit of a small two-seater aircraft like a 1967 Cessna 150. Put yourself in the left had seat – where the pilot-in-command sits. The co-pilot or instructor (in this case, me) sits just to your right. There are a number of instruments on a panel in front of us, and we each have something similar to a steering wheel forward of our chairs. Put your left hand on the one in front of you. At our feet we each have two peddles - left and right. Rest your feet yours. In the space between our seats you’ll find a lever coming out of the floor and atop it is a button that either of us can depress allowing us to raise or lower the lever. Reach down with your right hand, depress the button and click the lever up through a couple of notches to it highest position. There it stops and will go no further.

Assuming you’ve never piloted before, what do you think the wheel you are holding is used for? Turn it left and then right. Interesting thing about it – if you push on it, will move forward into the panel… and if you pull on it, it will come back almost to your chest. With your right foot push down on the right peddle. What’s its purpose? What about the one your left foot is resting on … what is it for? Push on it. What happens in your imagination? If you are a pilot, of course you already know the answers to these questions in reality; but do you recall when you first sat in a cockpit and began to make sense of these things?

Almost always the first response from someone brand new to flying is: “Turning the wheel is – hmmmm, well it turns the plane.” And once they see that the wheel can be pushed and pulled, they say something like – “I guess this is what makes the plane go up and down. Pull back and the plane goes up; push forward and it descends… or … maybe if you pull back it will slow things down, and if you push forward we go faster?” As for the feet, often heard is, “Well, the right one’s must be for the gas – that’s our accelerator - then the left one’s gotta be the brake… and because we have no gears (or this thing has an automatic transmission) there’s no need for a third peddle which, of course would be the clutch.” What’s happening? Assumptions and transference, that’s what.

We are sitting in an environment with an arrangement and display familiar to us because we are used to driving cars. Most student pilots begin their journey into pilot-hood through an introductory process that allows them to see how quickly they act on old assumptions and begin to transfer past experiences into what they are viewing in now time. They are challenged to confront a past that has very little relevance to what is actually in front of them. If you were to try to taxi or fly the airplane and use that wheel to turn with, or the right peddle for pouring on the gas, or the left peddle to slow down and stop, or the lever between our seats as a parking break the results would be silly (at best) or deadly (at worst).

I remember my first experience taxiing the Cessna 150 that I would eventually own. I hopped into the cockpit thinking “finally I get to be in charge of an airplane.” For the next few moments I was told exactly what the peddles were for (and they’re not for gas or breaking) and exactly what the wheel is for (actually it’s called a yoke and it has nothing to do with turning right or left on the ground), and what that lever is for … and I was instructed on exactly how to taxi in good fashion to the end of the runway. My instructor then started the plane. All I had to do was execute a ninety-degree left turn, head straight for the end of the runway and then keep us going that direction. Yet, once I was put in charge my feet and hands seemed to have a mind of their own. They did exactly what they had been conditioned to do by past experience … not what I was supposed to do to succeed at this task. My hands turned hard left, but the plane kept going straight. So my left foot “hit the brake”… and we executed a fast turn to the left that went well past ninety degrees. Off course my hands tried to steer back to the right, but the plane kept going in a circle. I even pulled on the yoke as if the plane was a horse. I could hear myself saying “whoa, whoa, whoa!!” Soon I was zigzagging all over the grass, into some weeds and almost ran into a fence. Because my course corrections were based on an old set of beliefs and patterns imbedded my mind/body system nothing was going the way I wanted. I got scared and frustrated; and the more I slipped into those two mental/emotional states the more obsessed I became at trying to make my unproductive action work. (It was kind of like talking to someone who doesn’t speak your language … so you talk slower and raise your voice. Ever do something like that?) My past mental models took over and things got worse. Soon my instructor took over and brought us to a stop. I was sweating. He was laughing. Yep, finally I was in charge ... but in control – hardly.

In Meditations (CE167) Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius wrote: “Very little is needed to have a happy life. It’s all within yourself, in your way of thinking.” That’s a very positive and uplifting notion to put forth, and one that has been stated by many other great minds – before and after the day that Aurelius wrote those words. But he could have just as easily worded his idea as an admonition for the reader to guard against counterproductive ways of being. He could have said, “Very little is needed to have a frustrated life. It’s all within yourself, in your way of thinking.”

If our thinking orients towards the now, how we communicate and how we attempt to understand and learn from what is happening in the present in order to constructively move forward we are more apt to succeed than if our thinking orients to the past in an effort to maintain control by looking through lenses constructed of what we already know (or think we know). Not that the past should be discounted or ignored… not at all. Use the past, but use it with a sense of balance - wisdom and discretion - for what it is … past.

The pilot-in-command of an airplane is a decision maker; he or she is in charge. But that doesn’t mean they have control over everything. There’s a big difference between being in charge and being in control. You have a lot of authority if you’re a PIC sitting in that left seat. Real pilots-in-command have the authority to override all decisions and desires made by any and all other human beings. Most of the time, though, a PIC follows set procedures and responds to the requests or orders of others in authority – the control tower personnel, the aircraft owner, a chief of operations or the president of the airline. Why? It’s a matter of trust and because most of the time things happen as a matter of routine. But at any moment, should the PIC determine that a situation warrants something other than what’s been instructed by an authority outside of the cockpit then he or she can do anything he or she wants to ensure safe flight of that craft because the PIC has enormous life/death responsibility at his or her fingertips. But authority to override others does not come without a price. When the aircraft finally comes back to earth the PIC must account for, face the consequences of, and if need be pay the prices for all the actions he or she took.

Think about it. When was the last time you felt out of control in a new situation – a new job, a budding relationship, a fresh approach to company governance, whatever - and you got excited because you thought you were finally going to have a little more control in your life and the freedom that you thought might accompany this control. But soon after jumping into the cockpit (if you will) of this new job, relationship for form of governance, you got frustrated or scared or thought things wouldn’t work out and maybe you threw up your hands and wanted to quit. What old data was your mind/body system automatically applying to your new situation? What old thoughts were you bringing forward from your past into the now? There’s nothing wrong with using the past to help the future – it’s part of the genius of being human. But, more often than not, people reach into the past in an attempt to control the now before they truly understand what is really in front of them and what the now actually needs.

How do you know if you’re applying past mental models to a new situation? Listen to your mental chatter, that’s one way. Are you making silent comparisons, seeing someone else’s face in place of the person who’s actually in front of you … or who you’re actually talking with. Are you hearing an old voice? Do you find yourself saying, “Just like son-and-so.” Looking at the results is another way. Do you see old, undesired results creeping into the new scenario? If you do, then it’s time to slow down, stop, and step aside from yourself and ask yourself about what is really going on. Sit quietly. See what comes up for you as you look for patterns. Ask a trusted friend or professional to be your “co-pilot” for a moment or a while – someone who will have no agenda about winning your favor if they say something you like, or losing your favor if they say something you don’t like. Yes, you may be in charge. But in control … this can be an illusion.