Action Follows Attention, Part 1: The Body

"We do not see the world as it is. We see the world as we are." — Talmud

The Issue:
What are you paying attention to right now? Right now, as you read these words. Are you just reading? Are you multi-tasking? Listening to the sound alerting you to an incoming email or text message? Finding yourself smelling something in your environment? Feeling something in your body? And, how would you describe the quality of your attention as you read? Do you find yourself skimming? Glancing? Fully focused?

Why does this matter to someone like you who is dedicated to making positive change in the world?

Because action follows attention. What do I mean by this? What you pay attention to over time becomes a habit. Think of driving home from work, for example. Have you ever had Driver the experience of realizing, when you arrived home, that you have no memory of how you got there? That’s because routinized tasks, stored in the part of the brain called the basal ganglia, do not show up as “thinking”. You just find yourself “doing it”. You find yourself paying attention in a certain habitual way, perceiving your situation in a certain way and based on that, taking certain action. You are paying attention automatically, without intentional awareness of doing so.

All of this is embedded in the neurological circuits of the brain and, therefore, has become part of your biology! It becomes part of how you find yourself oriented and, therefore, respond to your circumstances. Moreover, it becomes part of how you think about who you are, your sense of our own “identity”.

So, to what extent does what you pay attention to support the outcomes your want to accomplish? To what extent is what you pay attention to simply a function of "habit" vs. intention? To what extent are you aware of what you actually pay attention to?

Paying attention to something new: Creating a conspiracy of acknowledgment
Dan is a client of mine whose organization is growing. He shared with me that he was nervous that his staff didn’t demonstrate a level of responsibility and generativity that would support the organizational growth he anticipated and desired. When I asked Dan how he knew this, he said he felt that it was pretty much up to him to uphold the high standards of his organization, generate solutions to problems and push to meet project atlas deadlines. He characterized his staff as competent, but mostly oriented toward taking (and successfully fulfilling) direction vs. being self-generating. A pretty classic case of a leader who felt the weight of his organization on his shoulders, without feeling like he had partners to share it. A perceptive guy, Dan understood that he needed to find ways to support his staff in taking on and demonstrating the level of responsibility and generativity necessary to support the organization’s desired growth. But, he shared that while he knew this intellectually, it was something he found he didn’t pay attention to in any consistent way in the midst of the action of his day. I asked Dan, “What’s one thing you can begin to do that might help cultivate the kind of generativity you’d like to see more of in your organization?” Without a pause he answered, “Acknowledgment! I can see that one of the ways I don’t encourage the staff to step up is that I don’t acknowledge their efforts very often, unless it’s something really big. I don’t pay attention to acknowledging them. In fact, I tend to pay attention to what’s missing or not happening, which could actually discourage them!” “Okay,” I responded, “So, how can you begin to pay attention to acknowledging your staff? What action can you take?” “That simple!” He shared. “I can make a point of acknowledging at least one person each day for something very specific. And, I can ask my direct reports to do the same thing! We can create a sort of acknowledgment conspiracy.”

We agreed that the acknowledgment had to be sincere and specific vs. perfunctory and general. Dan was wise in recognizing that people can "sniff out" lack of sincerity, and that that could actually hurt what he intended. Therefore, he realized that not only did he need to pay attention to the act of acknowledging, but also had to pay to what, more specifically, his staff was doing and the spirit in which they were doing it. As he moved into this new way of paying attention and action, a much richer and fuller world opened for him. He actually began to see things that he literally hadn’t seen before. He realized that he just hadn’t been paying attention to what, indeed, was going on around him!

Consistency and frequency in focusing attention is critical in facilitating change, (a phenomenon called attention density in neuroscientific research). Since this situation involved Dan’s paying attention to something new, something that he was not in the habit of, I asked him, “How will you remember to pay attention?” He took out a very large-size orange post it, wrote the word “acknowledgment” on it and placed it on the white board behind his desk, next to the short list of his other priorities – a list he looked at (paid attention to) every day. In addition, he agreed that he would make sure to bring up this issue with his direct reports in their weekly staff meeting to see how it was going and to encourage one another.

Several months later when we checked in, Dan shared that the staff was demonstrating a new levels of both stepping forward with project ideas and taking on greater leadership across a range of tasks and projects. And, Dan noticed that acknowledging the people in his organization was something he now found himself doing more naturally, without thinking. An added bonus is that the habit of acknowledging others has become a source of great pleasure for Dan. A great example of action following attention!

Over the next several posts, I will invite you to explore three dimensions of what you pay attention to as they relate to your commitment to contribute in the world: your body, your external circumstances, and your interior world.

Starting with the body
I start with the body for a simple reason: You need a body to do what you do.
So, here’s the question: How do you pay attention to your body?

Now, please don’t just think about this. In responding, don’t confer with yourself about this idea in your head. In order to really investigate this in a useful way, reflect back on your life over the past several weeks or months.

Take a moment, and scan back over that time frame. Try to do this in a non-judgmental way. It’s not about evaluating whether you are right or wrong, good or bad. It’s about making an honest assessment, based on what you can observe about what you actually do. Imagine you are reviewing a reality-TV show or documentary about your life over the past few weeks or months. What do you see? Do you take care of your body? How? Do you see yourself relating to your body as something that carries your head around? Do relate to your body like a machine – ignoring it until something goes wrong , then repairing it or trying to delay the repair until it really breaks down? To what extent do you nourish your body and tend to it as an integral aspect of what allows you to engage whole-heartedly in the work you are committed to? Be honest.

Next question:
Given what you are up to in your life, does the way you are paying attention to your body support you? Is your way of paying attention to your body going to sustain you over time? Really! Will your way of paying attention to your body allow you to have the requisite energy, health, and resilience you need? What kind of body do you need to sustain yourself over time given what you are committed to accomplishing? What way of paying attention to your body will help you develop and maintain this kind of body?

What you can do: Cultivating the body of a catalyst for change
To support yourself in having a body that helps you sustain your commitment over time, here’s an exercise you can experiment with:

Step 1:
Imagine it’s 3 years from now. Imagine what you’re doing. How you are making a difference in the world? What kind of impact is your venture having? How is your body supporting you in this? What kind of body do you need to sustain your level of commitment to action in the world?

Step 2:
Now, ask yourself honestly: Do I have this body now? Do I have the level of energy, quality of health, physical resilience I need to keep doing what I’m doing? Am I paying attention to my body in a way that support this?

Step 3:
If your answer is “yes”: Great! Keep doing what you are doing. And, ask yourself: As my body ages, (as all our bodies do), what can I continue to pay attention to and what actions can I take (what new practices) to nourish my ability to sustain my physical well-being? Who can support me in this? What kind of structure can support this?

Step 4:
If your answer is “no”: What can I begin to pay attention to and what actions can I take (what practices can I take up) to begin to cultivate the kind of body I need to sustain myself in my work over time? What habits of exercise, rest, nutrition and pleasure can I begin? Who can support me in this? What kind of structure can support this?

How does all this relate to the maxim: “Action follows attention”? Paying attention to your body as a foundational part of what allows you to make the difference you want to make in the world has you take actions that cultivate a body that supports you. It’s not a matter of preference. It’s a matter of aligning your attention with what you are committed to.

If you are interested in exploring this topic further:
“The Neuroscience of Leadership,” David Rock and Jeffrey Schwartz. strategy + business, Summer 2006. www.strategy-business.com/article/06207

A User’s Guide to the Brain: Perception, Attention and the Four Theaters of the Brain, by John Ratey, M.D. (Pantheon 2001).

Getting Our Bodies Back, Christine Caldwell. (Shambhala, 1996)

“A Return to our Livingness,”, Richard Strozzi-Heckler, Ph.D.
strozziinstitute.com/print/201