Best Self

If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there. – Anon A Holistic approach to Health Coaching, whether for the individual or in the organisational setting, requires a multi-dimensional engagement. It’s much bigger than using the New Year to install a change of diet or way of thinking. The aim is to increase self-knowledge and to adopt / develop a way of life that sustains you. From this position you are best placed to contribute your uniqueness to your community. The goal is service in the common interest. Instead of a ‘Me Centred’ resource-grabbing isolationist you look for win-win opportunities that develop interdependence. The human body has evolved a complex system of intercommunication between human cells and the bacterial cells we host that outnumber our own 10:1. This situation gave rise to the idea that ‘We are bacteria having a human experience’. Many food cravings are now understood to be initiated by an imbalance in the gut microbiome. Gut bacteria signal the brain to provide them the food they want and typically provide four times the data to the brain than they receive from it. When an imbalance develops in the microbiome, the bacteria with the loudest voice influence the brain more effectively. This may result in consumption of edible products we want but don’t need. In turn, the over-nourished bacteria reproduce and continue to crowd out the balancing gut flora. In a well regulated gut however, where the bacterial families are balanced and no one species dominates, the signals to the brain are based on need rather than desire. Food cravings are replaced with genuine hunger signals and the individual can make sensible choices based on the needs of the whole body. In this situation the Mental components of health are liberated. The individual takes on personal responsibility for the decisions affecting her health and she is now free to experiment with behaviours that might better protect it. From here she can awaken to the spiritual drivers of her health and start to ‘think big thoughts’ like identifying her true vocation and how best to serve her community. She now knows where she’s going and can choose the road for her journey. Picture then an organisational equivalent. In an autocratic structure poor labour relations may develop that can bring the organisation to a standstill. As polarised factions become more entrenched, communications degrade and the blame game reaches new heights. This is the organisational equivalent of chronic inflammation, which is the foundation of disease. Imagine instead how healthy, staff-centric operations provide a steady throughput of goods and services. When the operations staff know and trust that the system serves their best interests, and that they can self-organise around shared goals, the task of management moves from ‘fire fighting to fire prevention’. Management attention then shifts towards planning for change and experimenting with new methods and structures to support operations. In this traditional view of the utopian organisation, Leadership involves itself with strategic marketing to open up new business opportunities. Effort is given to networking, both internally and externally, and customer satisfaction ensures repeat business. This is good, of course, and there is more. Best-Self organisations of the 21st century will be more integrated than ever before. They will be places where all staff are ‘Leaderful’ and motivated, by both macro and micro environments, toward the achievement of collective harmony. We will think of collaborative advantage as the norm rather than the competitive advantage paradigm of the 20th century. Join me and billions of others on the journey of transformation that will make it possible.