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Intention: The Power of Clear Intention
Intention: The Power of Clear Intention
Intention
Every journey begins with the first step of articulating the
intention, and then becoming the intention.
— Bryant McGill, Voice of Reason2 —
Trap: Manipulation
I say: “When we are done at six p.m. there is a group of old ladies who
need to come in to use this space. I don’t know how I will get the room
set up in time for their meeting.” Almost without fail someone says, “I
can stay and help,” and then others jump in, offering to help as well.
I have gotten people to set up the room without explicitly asking
them to do so. Score one for me—or so I used to think. I was never
aware that I had just manipulated a group of people to do my bidding.
Even adding “old ladies” and other language for the perfect “effect”
contributed to the manipulation.
Now that I have a better understanding of intention, I can offer a
clear request. “Folks, I intend to maximize the time we have together.
Another group is scheduled to use this room at six p.m. I have agreed
that the room would be reset to their liking. Who would be willing to
help me do that at 5:50 so we can be done by six p.m. and they can start
their meeting? The other option is we finish earlier and I reset the
room.” Looking around the room, if I see a number of hands I can say,
“Great, that looks like enough people, so we won’t have to end any
earlier then 5:50. Thank you.”
If, on the other hand, I look around the room and see no hands,
I need to be okay with that. In that case, I might say, “Looks like we will
need to end at 5:40 so I will have time to move the tables.”