Welcome to our interview with Dianne Collins, Creator of QuantumThink®, popular Media Personality and Award-winning author. A leading authority in new world view thinking, she is a Strategic QuantumThink Consultant to executives and entrepreneurs, students and celebrities. Dianne has been interviewed on hundreds of radio and TV shows, is a featured blogger on The Huffington Post, and a recipient of the Top 20 Conscious Entrepreneurs award.
QuantumThink® is the groundbreaking system of thinking offering us a methodology – 21 specific, advanced principles where Dianne blends scientific insight and universal knowledge into practical modern wisdom – to create real solutions for our modern lives – from inner serenity to relationships, business results, and global affairs – through awakening awareness and expanding the way we think. Dianne Collins is an 8-time award-winning author of bestseller, Do You QuantumThink? New Thinking That Will Rock Your World, considered a “must-read” for our changing times. She places self-mastery within reach of everyone with her entertaining online video masterclass, “Master Your Mind – Master Your Life” that many call a true masterpiece.
She likes to refer to herself as “a girl with a new point of view.”
Welcome Dianne, and thank you for contributing to the questions that are at the heart of the Exploring Forward Thinking Workplaces 2.0 conversation. (I shared my reflections on my interview with Dianne here.)
How can we create workplaces where every voice matters, everyone thrives and finds meaning, and change and innovation happen naturally?
Dianne Collins: I love you’re asking that question Bill because in today’s world, it is more important than ever. People more than ever desire self-expression, authentic connection, and I think also, we want to experience mastery. We are in this age where because of our wonderful technologies, people can communicate in so many ways. We want to engage and there’s a level of engagement people yearn for. What I see with executives and leaders in major corporations is that everyone wants to be recognized for their unique contribution. And it really should be that way!
Step into Our Own Leadership
Imagine that every one of us is being called upon to step into our own leadership – whether you are formally in a leadership position or not. Every single person is on the team, part of the group, and part of the organization and has something to contribute. Each one can contribute his or her unique perspective. Gifts they were born with. Talents they’ve developed. That person is you and only you. And I think if we become enlightened and aware of this in one another, we truly see every one of us as a leader. A leader in what? In what it is they are here to contribute, regardless of where they’re making that contribution. When we recognize this, then we are all listening to one another. There is a naturalness that ensues when we view one another this way.
Being in One Conversation
One of the distinctions of the QuantumThink® system is called Being In One Conversation. We realize we’re many voices in a conversation of creative dialogue. Or what I refer to as a relational field of communication and relationship. When we’re in this one conversation, we can all be conscious of what each one of us is contributing to the workplace, to our team, our organization, and to this project we’re all working on together.
From Industrial Age to Quantum Age
We’re also seeing our systems and structures undergoing a great transformation. Restructuring is one of the energies of the time because we’re making a leap from the Industrial Age to the Quantum Age. This is the overarching premise of QuantumThink – that we’re in a Quantum Age still using Industrial Age thinking, and that’s limiting us. When you look at how our organizations were formed, it was based on Industrial Age thinking that relied on “command and control” management styles and silos – separation-into-parts type of thinking. We’ve moved beyond that now because of our technologies. What if our thinking was as up-to-date as our technology? That’s the leap. When you QuantumThink you think from the perspective of wholeness – interconnected whole systems. That’s what makes it natural. That’s the leap. It’s time for us to recognize the value each one of us brings as integral to the whole – regardless of position or stature in the organization.
In an earlier conversation you and I had before this interview, you talked about how the events of 911 led you to learning how to fly, and you discovered an appreciation of a higher perspective. I believe that higher perspective is one of the essential aspects of what would be an enlightened and forward-thinking workplace.
Context vs. Content
It’s important that we distinguish between context and content here. When you step back to look from another QuantumThink principle we call the Perspective of All Perspectives – this is the context that enables you to think from possibility. Most of the time, we’re in content-oriented conversations meaning we are looking at the options in our immediate view. Conversations may start with a vision then devolve into the either/or sticking points. We get into the content that brings up my way or your way. I like it, I don’t like it. I agree, I disagree. It is in these situations where we can get trapped in stalemate communications. At the same time, yes, the content of what we’re doing is vital. We live in content daily – in life and in business. The idea is when you can make this distinction between the context of the conversation and the content of the conversation, then you can step back and you will create a space for new possibilities. From a quantum world view, reality is context-dependent, so we know context will shape the field of actions and the field of communications. And the results.
It’s also important to distinguish here that the question you’re in is also creating a context and giving a trajectory of where we will go. It’s going to influence what line of thinking and actions we will take.
As a simple, quick example, let’s say your team is trying to decide on a business model to implement. You can see two options in front of you. Yet, neither of those business models will lead to the accomplishment of the desired goal. You can pose a new question and something new will open up.
Past Formulas No Longer Work
Right now we’re in three undeniable conditions of the world. First, the pace of change is speeding up. We have rapid rampant change. It keeps getting faster and faster. That’s a scientific fact and we experience that. The second condition is the increasing complexity and number of choices we have. And the third condition is, because of the changes, for the most part unprecedented change, we have daily uncertainties. Some of them are unfathomable. We never know what to expect, and I think that has been the case since 911.
Now we find ourselves in these three undeniable conditions where we can no longer rely upon whatever formulas we used from the past – in business and in our lives. We can’t even rely on knowledge because it changes so quickly. Isn’t that very interesting! And so, what do we do? How can we be effective in these three undeniable conditions? We can move into the mastery perspective.
Think of yourself as a martial arts master. You don’t know what will be coming at you. But what you do know within your own being is that you’ve trained yourself. You know you can be so present now. You are open to possibility. You know whatever circumstances arise in the world or come your way, you have the wherewithal and the confidence to be in right or masterful action.
I think that’s what people want right now – to know within yourself you have the wherewithal to be effective in this changing world. We’re in a time right now where everyone you speak to and I speak to – we’re all looking. We all want that 30,000-ft. perspective where you look at your life as you (Bill) did and think about, what do I want now? How do I want my life to go moving forward in this environment? How do I make my contribution? How do I live my purpose? How do I live in the state of being joyful everyday living my life? We all want that. I think those three conditions in the world – change, complexity, and uncertainty – are causing people to step back and reflect on it.
Note: This is a preview of the full interview. The complete interview was selected by Apress for publication and continues in The Future of the Workplace.
