DW's Blog

For A Leader

by DW Green — December 28, 2016

May those who work for you know, you see and respect them.

As 2016 draws to a close, I would like to thank our clients, business partners and vendors for your business and for your friendship. I’d like to thank each of you for the positive influence and impact you have had on my life and on my company. I am most grateful and appreciative of our relationships. I am honored to work with you. Thank you. To acknowledge the end of the year, it seems both fitting and proper to share this leadership blessing with you. I am inspired by Mr. Donohue’s words and read them often. For A LeaderJohn O’Donohue May you have the grace and wisdomTo act kindly, learningTo distinguish between what isPersonal and what is not.May you be hospitable to criticism.May you never put yourself at thecenter of things.May you not act from arrogance butout of service.May you work on yourself,Building up and refining the ways ofyour mind.May those who work for you knowYou see and respect them.May...

by DW Green — December 21, 2016

See things as they are.

As the Seventh Dalai Lama wrote: “All things found in the world and beyond are illusions created by one’s own concepts. Grasping at them but further distorts perception. Give up grasping and see things as they are.”Like the daily practice of meditation – the process of lessening our resistance includes surrendering, accepting, detaching, and then trusting that this moment is THE moment – bringing our awareness to the fluidity and evolutionary nature of life. The English word resist comes from the Latin word resistere, which means to stand against or oppose. When we oppose what is flowing into us, we are saying NO to the Universe. We are denying our most divine nature. We are inserting our ego into the moment instead of allowing the divine to flow through us. When we resist, we suddenly put an end to infinite possibilities. There are many lessons (and growing pains) along the journey of our life, which may contribute to the underlying challenge that makes us reluctant to trust and welcome the unknown. But we can shift that non-nourishing mindset very easily and...

by DW Green — December 14, 2016

Everything happens for you

Yesterday two things of note happened. Early in the morning I read the following quote. “Life is simple. Everything happens for you, not to you. Everything happens at exactly the right moment, neither too soon nor too late. You don’t have to like it… it’s just easier if you do.”—Byron KatieI had never “looked” at life like that before…that things happen for you, not to you. Reflecting on that perspective, it made very good sense to me. While we have minimal control over what happens in our life, we have complete control over how we choose to respond to life’s happenings. And to realize that what happens is for me, makes my choice on how to respond much easier and more meaningful. Then later in the morning I read an email from a very dear friend who informed me that he was recently diagnosed with leukemia. I thought, wow, now how does leukemia happen for him and not to him? And sure he doesn’t have to like it, but how is it easier to accept if he does? Amazingly, here is what he wrote… “This past week I was diagnosed with a form of leukemia. Fortunately i...

by DW Green — December 7, 2016

Let your conscious be your guide

“To thine own self be true” writes William Shakespeare in Hamlet. “Let your conscious be your guide” the Blue Fairy tells Pinocchio and then asks Jiminy Cricket to serve as Pinocchio’s conscious.Integrity is an important and powerful quality. To be referred to as a person of integrity is the ultimate compliment. I have come to realize that my life experience is about the journey toward wholeness, and to seek wholeness, is to live from a place of integrity. To me, conscious is the psychic energy of awareness. Conscious is the alarm that goes off when integrity is at risk, when wholeness is splintered.“The meeting of our inner and outer lives is called integrity, and the health of our integrity often determines our inner strength and resilience in meeting the outer world. This is the purpose of integrity, to balance the outer forces of existence with the inner forces of spirit,” Mark Nepo, The Exquisite Risk. One of the most useful definitions of integrity comes from Rabbi Jonathan Omer-Man: Integrity is the ability to listen to a place inside oneself that doesn’t change, even though the life that carries it may change.So living from integrity is when our actions, our outer life ...

by DW Green — November 30, 2016

What is the commitment I am?

I’m attending an Amba Gale Leadership retreat in Seattle next week. I’ve participated in many retreats and courses with Amba over the years. I look forward to these experiences and have learned a great deal on a variety of topics. Often times they include an exercise called stand taking. What do I stand for? What is the commitment I am? (for myself, my organization, my company, my co-workers, my customers, my family, or any area of concern in my life) The power of stand taking happens when you announce out loud to others, what you stand for. I suspect blogging about one’s stands can be as powerful. Here are a few of my stands:

I stand for love and personal growth in my shared spaces.
I stand for creating a powerful, empowering, collaborative workplace based on love, mutual respect and accountability where team members are encouraged to be themselves and make a difference in their world.
I stand for creating innovative products and services that genuinely differentiate our clients in their market space…products and services that benefit their financial bottom line.
I stand for business relationships that are based on trust, mutual respec
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Happy Thanksgiving!

by DW Green — November 23, 2016

Learning to love unconditionally

When we learn to feel gratitude with a full heart, we are learning to love unconditionally. Living this divine love is living in grace. A Prayer for Gratitude“Today, Lord, I want to express my gratitude for everything I receive from you. Today, I will express all the love and happiness that exist in my heart. I will love your creations, I will love myself, and I will love the people who live with me. I will enjoy the presence of the people I love, respecting their choices in life as I respect my own.Today, I will graciously receive your gifts by enjoying your gifts, by enjoying the beauty of all your creation. Help me to be as generous as you are, to share what I have with generosity, just as you share your gifts so generously. Help me to become a master of gratitude, generosity, and love so that I can enjoy all of your creations.Today, Lord, help me manifest my creation as you manifest the universe, to express the beauty of my spirit in the supreme art of the human: the art of dreaming my life. Today, Lord, I give you all my gratitude and love because you have given me life. Amen.”—Don Miguel RuizThank you all for BEING who you are.-DW...

by DW Green — November 16, 2016

Is my life aligned with my values?

I read an interesting article on Tuesday, 7 Habits for a Happy, Healthy Holiday Season, by Melissa Eisler, in the Chopra Centered Lifestyle. The 7th habit was titled “Take Time to Reflect”. I think that a daily reflection period is a very positive and beneficial practice. It’s similar to cultivating a daily gratitude practice. The more grateful you are for what you have, the more things will show up for you. You are receiving every day, you just may not notice. Start paying attention to even the smallest gifts that show up in your life, and say thank you for them. Dedicating a few minutes in the evening to reflect on the happenings of the day is rewarding too. What happened today? How did I respond to my interactions with others? How was I of service today? How was my listening? What was funny? What beauty did I see or feel? What or who did I acknowledge? Just being still and silent and playing back today’s activities in your minds eye is peaceful, calming and meaningful.Here’s Melissa Eislers take on Holiday Reflection…“Before the new year rolls around, spend time reflecting and remembering all that has happened this past year and acknowledge where you are now. Set your calen...

by DW Green — November 9, 2016

DW Green is only 5 syllables long!

In the marketing classic Positioning, authors Al Ries and Jack Trout, probably the world’s best-known marketing strategists wrote that it is unwise to use initials for a company name. They have coined the practice the “no-name trap”. While there are successful exceptions to the initial rule, Ries and Trout warn against using the letter “w”. As “dou-ble-U” is the only letter in alphabet with more than one syllable. Unfortunately I didn’t read the book until after I had named my company…unknowingly falling into the “no-name trap!”I named my company DW Green after myself. It is easy for me to remember and I wanted to honor my parents. Neither is named DW, though DW is my father’s initials. Ries and Trout might still approve because DW Green is only 5 syllables long! And green is a popular word now.When I incorporated DW Green, way back in 1988, my choices from Alaska’s Corporation Commission were Corporation, Inc., or Company. I selected company because of its many positive connotations:

a number of individuals assembled or associated to
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DW Green Company, A River Company

by DW Green — November 2, 2016

The living company is a river company.

The manager of a living company understands that keeping the company alive means handing it over to a successor in at least the same health that it was in when he or she took charge. To do that, a manager must let people grow in a community that is held together by clearly stated values. The manager must place commitment to people before assets, respect for innovation before devotion to policy, the messiness of learning before orderly procedures, and the perpetuation of the community before all other concerns.Living companies are willing to scuttle assets in order to survive. To them, assets—and profits—are like oxygen: necessary for life but not the purpose of life. These companies know that assets are just means to earning a living. A company run according to a different model scuttles people to save its plant and equipment, which it considers the essence of its being. If such a company were in the car rental business, for example, it would see itself as existing to rent cars. The company’s fleet would be considered its primary asset, and its purpose would be to make profits for shareholders. If such companies find themselves in trouble, they get rid of people. I believe that employees are a company’...

by DW Green — October 26, 2016

Compassion is fair.

I offer what has surprised me when thinking of fairness and justice: that life is not fair, but unending in its capacity to change us; that compassion is fair and feeling is just; and that we are not responsible for all that befalls us, only for how we receive it and how we hold each other up along the way.Live today. Remove all blame from your vocabulary. Catch yourself when you find yourself using your past history as a reason for your failure to act today, and instead say, “I am free now to detach myself from what used to be.”Yep. Life is life, and it unfolds on its own accord. We can only control our reaction to what happens to us....