Last Thursday, 28th January 2016 I was invited to a wonderful event with conferences and workshops in The Royal College of Psychiatrists about “Enabling Environments”.
As it is explained on their website:
“Good relationships promote well-being, but many organisations and groups fail to address this aspect of people’s lives. The Enabling Environments Award is a quality mark given to those who can demonstrate they are achieving an outstanding level of best practice in creating and sustaining a positive and effective social environment.”
As it mentions on its Standards Document:
“The Enabling Environments standards apply to a wide range of environments ranging from those providing health and social care, to criminal justice settings and education. They also apply to workplace settings and leisure facilities such as offices and gyms.”
Thinking about all these, I want to raise awareness about the importance this can have in all type of environments such as workplaces and family homes. In an informal way, I want to develop a website called www.enablingenvironments.clubto contribute with suggestions that can help to increase these standards in a global level. Something informal that anybody can contribute suggesting ideas they have applied to improve any of the particular standards (belonging, boundaries, communication, development, involvement, safety, structure, empowerment, leadership and openness).
The original title for this post was going to be totally different. It was going to be a quotation from Albert Einstein:
“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.”
Then, I remember two different type of situations: One of the situations is when somebody ask you some question and tell you something like: “I love your aspect of being confused when I ask you a question” or other situations in which you are told “Don´t ask me these stupid questions!”. In both situations, there is some type of process in my head in which I am thinking, I am asking questions to myself without being allowed to do it in the way I am more effective. Sometimes I need to ask somebody a question that is really addressed to myself and that is way the other person feels annoyed as cannot give me an answer or doesn´t want to think about it. Very interesting situations… is like a type of counselling in whichthe benefit is not on the answer of the other person, but on the opportunity that gives you to talk about something… and as you are talking you are thinking about it.
So, I want to talk about some useful tool I use called “Quora”. It is a type of social media in which you can be asked questions about a topic of your choice. In my case it is mainly about creative thinking. After having answering several questions, I was inviting to post 10 questions, what I found very interesting. Now, besides questions being sent to my email, I am also receiving answers to the questions I proposed, what is very engaging.
I have found this tool a very engaging way of continuing learning and thinking about any topic you are particularly interested. The opportunity to answer questions about the topic of your choice is an excellent way to become aware of your thoughts, to learn about things you can construct but you haven´t because of other distractions. The reason why I love Quora is because while other social media can be more distracting, Quora is reminding you about a specific topic, focusing your attention on it from different angles.
Since I attended a conference from James Altucher, I became aware of the power of writing every day 10 ideas to improve yourself or somebody else or… anything (something that I do every day while travelling in The Tube) and the benefits of doing something about it or sharing it with somebody you want to help. Now I am thinking about the possibility of not only writing 10 ideas about something every day, but also about the possibility of writing 10 questions about something. Questioning is a very powerful tool to focus your attention and your action as it happens which questions such as “What is stopping you?” or after you give a reason of a consequence that could happen when you try something, then you ask again: “What would happen then?”
By forcing yourself to think about new questions, you open doors to have new thoughts about things you already know but you haven´t looked at them from these different angles and at the same time, to have the motivation for new initiatives.
As it is explained on their website:
“Good relationships promote well-being, but many organisations and groups fail to address this aspect of people’s lives. The Enabling Environments Award is a quality mark given to those who can demonstrate they are achieving an outstanding level of best practice in creating and sustaining a positive and effective social environment.”
As it mentions on its Standards Document:
“The Enabling Environments standards apply to a wide range of environments ranging from those providing health and social care, to criminal justice settings and education. They also apply to workplace settings and leisure facilities such as offices and gyms.”
Thinking about all these, I want to raise awareness about the importance this can have in all type of environments such as workplaces and family homes. In an informal way, I want to develop a website called www.enablingenvironments.clubto contribute with suggestions that can help to increase these standards in a global level. Something informal that anybody can contribute suggesting ideas they have applied to improve any of the particular standards (belonging, boundaries, communication, development, involvement, safety, structure, empowerment, leadership and openness).
The original title for this post was going to be totally different. It was going to be a quotation from Albert Einstein:
“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.”
Then, I remember two different type of situations: One of the situations is when somebody ask you some question and tell you something like: “I love your aspect of being confused when I ask you a question” or other situations in which you are told “Don´t ask me these stupid questions!”. In both situations, there is some type of process in my head in which I am thinking, I am asking questions to myself without being allowed to do it in the way I am more effective. Sometimes I need to ask somebody a question that is really addressed to myself and that is way the other person feels annoyed as cannot give me an answer or doesn´t want to think about it. Very interesting situations… is like a type of counselling in whichthe benefit is not on the answer of the other person, but on the opportunity that gives you to talk about something… and as you are talking you are thinking about it.
So, I want to talk about some useful tool I use called “Quora”. It is a type of social media in which you can be asked questions about a topic of your choice. In my case it is mainly about creative thinking. After having answering several questions, I was inviting to post 10 questions, what I found very interesting. Now, besides questions being sent to my email, I am also receiving answers to the questions I proposed, what is very engaging.
I have found this tool a very engaging way of continuing learning and thinking about any topic you are particularly interested. The opportunity to answer questions about the topic of your choice is an excellent way to become aware of your thoughts, to learn about things you can construct but you haven´t because of other distractions. The reason why I love Quora is because while other social media can be more distracting, Quora is reminding you about a specific topic, focusing your attention on it from different angles.
Since I attended a conference from James Altucher, I became aware of the power of writing every day 10 ideas to improve yourself or somebody else or… anything (something that I do every day while travelling in The Tube) and the benefits of doing something about it or sharing it with somebody you want to help. Now I am thinking about the possibility of not only writing 10 ideas about something every day, but also about the possibility of writing 10 questions about something. Questioning is a very powerful tool to focus your attention and your action as it happens which questions such as “What is stopping you?” or after you give a reason of a consequence that could happen when you try something, then you ask again: “What would happen then?”
By forcing yourself to think about new questions, you open doors to have new thoughts about things you already know but you haven´t looked at them from these different angles and at the same time, to have the motivation for new initiatives.