Group Optimal Zone Resilience
BFNow Self-Study Module 5 - Exploration 4
[This is part of BFNow Self-Study Module 5: Collaboration. For more about the overall Self-Study program, please look at About BFNow Self-Study and BFNow Self-Study Orientation.]
If you haven’t done so already, let me encourage you to pause, relax and release, perhaps with a big stretch or three deep breaths.
This exploration is a little different from what we’ve been doing because it deals with a topic that currently has very little recognition in the surrounding culture. Unlike something like leadership, we are just at the start of discovering its potential.
It’s important because groups function so much better when all of the group members are in their Optimal Zone, yet most groups are clueless about the Optimal Zone is and how to be Optimal Zone resilient (OZR).
If you haven't yet, I recommend you read Your Optimal Zone and Optimal Zone Resilience on this Substack. They provide essential background on OZR for individuals.
We will be building on that here by looking at OZR in the form of OZ hygiene and OZ first aid for groups.
Group OZ Hygiene
While the framework of Optimal Zone hygiene is new, many of the relevant practices are ancient. Since the Tribal Era, groups have made use of breathing, silence, singing and movement – all forms of Optimal Zone hygiene – as a way to bring the group together and into the present. These activities work well at the start and end of meetings. They can also work in the midst of a meeting when the group needs fresh energy. They can help group members move more fully into the Optimal Zone from either the agitated or the depressed side wings.
We have a wealth of human experience to draw on but unfortunately that experience is often seen as sectarian or unprofessional or touchy-feely or whatever. I expect that Planetary Era groups will understand the humanOS value of these activities and make good use of them in group activities of all kinds.
Part of living into that bright future now is to develop a comfort with using these somatic group activities in the groups that we can influence. I see our challenge as
developing a toolbox of Optimal Zone hygiene activities that draw on the essence of past practices but have a form that fits the present, free from historical baggage
finding good ways to present these activities so people can embrace them.
Fortunately, much has already been done along these lines but it is not yet well known and lacks the context provided by 1) the Optimal Zone and 2) the Empire to Planetary transition. The stretching, breathing, inner smile and chest glow are all examples of simple, shareable Optimal Zone hygiene.
Group OZ First Aid
When someone in a group gets triggered and moves out of their Optimal Zone, they can have a significant impact on the functioning of the whole group. This is easiest to see when someone becomes angry or visibly defensive. Others in the group will often become defensive in response and may go into freeze. Often, no one knows what to do, so the event is either suppressed or the meeting or group activity may come to an awkward end.
Less obvious but also significant are the times when someone inwardly withdraws. Their lack of participation can depress the energy in the group in subtle but important ways.
It would be wonderful if groups were trained and skillful in dealing with these situations. In Human Operating-System Literacy, Part 5, I offered the following preliminary ideas for Optimal Zone first aid:
Get agreement and shared understanding beforehand – The time to introduce the concepts of Optimal Zone first aid is when no one is triggered.
Train before you need it – Like other kinds of first aid, this requires practice as well as conceptual understanding.
Center yourself first, slow down, breathe – It is so easy and common for others to become triggered in response to the first person who is triggered. It takes conscious effort and training to respond by becoming less triggered rather than more, yet it is from this less triggered, more Optimal Zone place that you can do the most good.
Acknowledge the signal in the trigger and commit to coming back to it – There are two important things about the issue that served as a trigger:
You are unlikely to come up with a good response to the issue while anyone in the group is still in a triggered state
However out-of-proportion the triggered state may seem compared to the immediate issue, there is still likely something in the immediate issue that should be addressed. It is both respectful and reassuring to the triggered person to commit to coming back to that immediate issue once they are out of the triggered state.
Connect through empathy and kindness – Being triggered is an emotional state that harkens back to being a distressed child. You need to meet the triggered person where they are emotionally with respect and compassion for both their adult parts and their child parts.
Return the focus to the present through breathing, body sensing, contact – Non-verbal connection is especially effective in helping someone find their way back to their Optimal Zone.
This is just a start. OZ first-aid is a territory ripe for innovations.
Experientials
Start these in the morning, carry them through the day and add reflections to your journal at the end of the day.
Make a list of your best experiences of using Optimal Zone hygiene activities in a group setting. What ideas do you have for ways to bring these activities into wider use?
What do you feel should be included as part of an Optimal Zone first aid practice?
As with preceding explorations, if you are currently part of a collaborative group and the others in the group are open to this, share this page with them and use it as a starting point for consciously exploring your group’s Optimal Zone hygiene and first aid.
If you have questions or comments, please post them here.
Thanks,
Robert
[Link back to the Module 5: Collaboration Overview page.]