"When people start to value calm and appreciate their own access to wisdom and common sense, hidden costs disappear. Those are the costs in time, energy and less than optimal work product that result from people complaining, getting behind in work because of distraction, or feeling overwhelmed, drawing others into negative conversations that drain heart and enthusiasm out of the organization, organizing protests or setting up warring camps or politically motivated cliques, etc. As wisdom comes to the fore, people are actually engaged and productive because what they have on their minds is what is appropriate, in the moment, and they simply enjoy the flow of their day. One sign of this change, often, is that long hours and overtime diminish. People find they can get their work done in a work day and look forward to going home. Their lives come into balance and continue to improve."

Do you want to read Judy Sedgeman's entire article, "Change from the Inside Out," now?  Change-inside-out.doc

Links to related essays by Judy Sedgman:

Meetings that work: 

“And even more rarely do groups, together, make the tone of their meetings and their connection to each other more important than determined pursuit of the agenda -- and therefore refrain from doing business until the tone is right, or stop the business at any time to take care of the tone and connection as soon as they begin to erode.” 02-Meetingsthatwork.doc

What's In It for Us?:

“'I thought for a long time about what to tell you today,’ the speaker began.'I decided to show you my 10 worst cases.' For the next two hours, he showed slides and described the mysteries, surprises, and disappointments in difficult cases that had gone terribly wrong. He still had not discovered why many of these patients had died. The cases were filled with unknowns, for which he was not providing answers, but opening up numerous questions.”  What'sinit.doc

Confidence:

"It dawned on me, one day, that I was the architect of all my distress. I just suddenly saw how I had constructed the unstable structure of my personal confidence that was always teetering. I saw,too, that I could just stop doing that." Confidence.doc