{"id":1057,"date":"2012-03-01T01:41:42","date_gmt":"2012-03-01T06:41:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/?p=1057"},"modified":"2012-02-09T09:58:29","modified_gmt":"2012-02-09T14:58:29","slug":"contemplative-writing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/2012\/03\/contemplative-writing\/","title":{"rendered":"Contemplative Writing"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Dwayne Phillips<\/p>\n

Contemplative writing is a valuable practice. It is far more valuable and far less used than shallow meetings.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In my 28 years working for the government, I attended countless meetings where much of nothing was discussed. I avoided far more if these meetings than I attended. Meetings are a characteristic of government at all levels.\u00a0The results of these government meetings are obvious.<\/p>\n

Alternatives?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Author and consultant Jerry Weinberg<\/a> offered me one.<\/p>\n

Contemplative Writing<\/strong><\/p>\n

This practice stems from writing in a journal. The basic procedure is:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Stop<\/li>\n
  2. Sit at a table that has a blank sheet of paper and a pencil<\/li>\n
  3. Breathe<\/li>\n
  4. Think<\/li>\n
  5. Write your thoughts – questions, alternatives, possible outcomes<\/li>\n
  6. Write your feelings<\/li>\n
  7. Go back to step 3 and repeat<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    This practice requires:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. chair<\/li>\n
    2. table<\/li>\n
    3. blank sheet of paper<\/li>\n
    4. pencil<\/li>\n
    5. time<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Items 1 through 4 are plentiful and inexpensive.\u00a0Item 5 is often cited as nonexistent. We can find time if we cancel a few shallow meetings.<\/p>\n

      Hmmm, now we have no more excuses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      by Dwayne Phillips Contemplative writing is a valuable practice. It is far more valuable and far less used than shallow meetings. In my 28 years working for the government, I attended countless meetings where much of nothing was discussed. I avoided far more if these meetings than I attended. Meetings are a characteristic of government […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,25,42,50,35,5],"tags":[132,147,164,172,157,128],"class_list":["post-1057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-management","category-meetings","category-process","category-thinking","category-time","category-writing","tag-management","tag-meetings","tag-process","tag-thinking","tag-time","tag-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1057"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1058,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1057\/revisions\/1058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}