Equilibria’s E-Colors in Education team is launching a 2013 Summer Leadership Institute for Educators in the Houston, Texas area. The institute will give school leaders the capability to implement E-Colors tools on their campuses among both staff and students.
If you or someone you know is a lead teacher or administrator in a school in the area, please review the details below and contact us to reserve your school’s space in the institute.
All participants will be involved in dynamic, small group sessions that can be implemented at the campus/district level.
They will also be provided a leadership toolbox which includes tools to:
Develop a proactive approach to resolve and manage conïŹict
Improve campus-wide communication using the debrief process
Increase collaboration among peers through E-Colors
Employ Personal Intervention strategies, as part of the current student discipline management plan
Requirements:Â Take the Personality Diversity Indicator (PDI) Survey. The campus principalâs presence is mandatory with the core leadership team throughout the duration of the institute.
The campus core leadership team can consist of counselors, lead teachers or department heads, content specialists and assistant principals/deans.
Date: July 29-31, 2013 8:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. (Continental Breakfast Provided) Location: Alief ISD D. Smith Elementary, 11300 StancliïŹ Houston, TX 77099 Fee: $250 per person due at the time of registration Minimum group size: 5 people per campus team
Registration form can be submitted via e-mail to Dr. Rosalinda Mercado-Garza, PhD at rosalinda.mercado-garza@equilibria.com
If you have any questions, feel free to call (281) 202-9392.
This past month Equilibria turned nine year’s old!
In the past year in particular, the company has put more emphasis into building an online presence and using the web to tell more people about the benefits of reaching their potential.
Today we look back and celebrate nine online achievements from the past year from our blog and elsewhere on the web!
1. Equilibria 1, Bullies 0
Bullying isn’t cool! Over the past year Equilibria executed a campaign to speak out against bullying in schools. Watch the touching video above with students speaking out against mistreating others. Also worth watching is the response video where people share their reactions to the video.
2. Personality Diversity Indicator (PDI) on Apple Devices
Bringing the PDI to a smart phone was a GIANT step! This app gives access to more people, both those taking the test for the first time or those who want to share their E-Colors experience with friends and family.
5. Giving Time at the E-Colors in Education Center
Don’t forget Lewis shared his dream to one day have a foundation to help kids in schools around the world benefit from E-Colors. For now, however, Equilibria team members who want to give back can do so by donating time and input at the E-Colors in Education center in Houston. Read:Â Giving Back to the Education System: How Equilibria is Transforming Communication in Schools
7. EQ Social App for Android & Apple Smart Phones and Tablet PCs
Another addition to being able to access the latest communication, community of encouragement, and coaching tips has been the development of the EQ Social App for use on your smart phone. Download it on your devices today!
8. Learning to LISTEN better.
The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effectiveâŠas the rightly timed pause. â Mark Twain.
9. More Equilibria Tools Available Online Than Ever!
Finally, don’t forget there are more tools for you to access available online from Equilibria than ever before. This includes our most popular coaching tools such as The E-Colors Desk Book and The Seven Essentials of High Performance Teams. Take a moment and browse our small library of content available on iTunes and Amazon.
Congrats on a great ninth year and we’re excited about more developments coming in our tenth year!
Have something you want to see your Equilibria team doing on the web?
Make sure you take a second and leave us a comment below or post on our Equilibria Facebook Page.
My E-Colors experience is about an experience with a Blue/Yellow team member who would hardly ever wear his safety glasses when I saw him.
I had spoken with him before about wearing them, but clearly SOMETHING wasn’t working.
I approached him again about it and he said, “I forgot, sorry.”
I asked, “What do you need to do?”
He quickly replies, “I SHOULD wear my safety glasses.”
His replies are two of the most common phrases I have ever heard in the oil field.
Based on his responses, I knew if I left him there I would be repeating the same thing next time I saw him.
I decided to take some time to explain that many times our ears hear, “DON’T FORGET to wear your safety glasses.”
However, some people unknowingly omit the word DON’T.
Just like a child who’s told DO NOT SPILL that drink and minutes later the drink is on the ground. His demeanor changed after I shared this example and I sensed I had his approval to continue coaching him.
Furthermore, the E-Colors personality indicators for Blue/Yellow personalities tell us that often, people with these traits can be hurt when they lack the proper motivation.
Knowing this, I knew I needed to change his thought process from a SHOULD to a NEEDS to wear safety glasses.
Reaching my hand out, I asked to have his safety glasses.
“Why?” he asked hesitantly.
“You don’t use them, so I am going to break them and put them in the garbage. You can work without your safety glasses.”
His exact words where, “No, you can’t do that I NEED them!”
“What do you need them for?” I followed.
“I NEED them to wear when I am working and I NEED to wear them when I am on the remote platform.”
“Do you need to wear them ALL the time when on the remote?”
“Yes I NEED to wear them all the time.” he answered.
I began to understand from this experience that for some people having the proper motivation is just as important as having the proper safety equipment.
That day I constantly thanked him throughout the day for wearing his safety glasses and I haven’t had to remind him since!
In Escravos, Nigeria riding a bicycle without a protective helmet is accepted as common practice.
Ositsena (Blue/Yellow), our local support coach is getting some great feedback from his visibility while using his blue safety helmet and bicycle lights after dark.
The most common question he’s getting is, “Why do you use that type of helmet? No one else does.”
His responds by asking, “Tell me why YOU think I use this helmet?”
The subsequent conversations are great.
The lowest standard YOU maintain is the HIGHEST you can expect from others.
Listening to a service provider’s recount of an incident they experienced, I was once again humbled how well our Equilibria philosophy works and in mysterious ways.
The Green/Blue gentleman concerned was getting ready for a family barbecue he was late to. He wanted to join his family, but needed to have a quick shower and was in a hurry.
His shower was fitted with a shower mat the kind with little suckers on the bottom of it to make it stick to the base of the shower.
However while showering he leaned out of the shower to grab something and THOOOOM!
The pressure on his suctioned, anti-slip shower mat was too great and he went crashing to the floor with a mighty thump.
The fall was extremely painful, but he got up and resumed his shower only to relalize he was bleeding profusely.
He found he had a giant gash on his hand which required THIRTEENÂ stitches!
The next day he painfully returned to his bathroom to try and find out what had cut him. It turned out to be the metal cover on his toilet roll holder.
Had the flat, stainless cover been in the ‘down‘ position he would not have cut himself as he fell. A little attention to detail and there would have been no stiches required or disappointment from missing a family gathering.
I was told this story because I had given my ‘Hello I am Jim Campbell‘ presentation during the Sunday safety meeting and the chap felt inspired to share his story!
And so by giving I received. It really works!
Donât trust shower mats and put your covers down — or in other words pay attention to detail and don’t depend solely on equipment to keep you and others safe!
It was another hot summer in Austin, Texas and a large group of our consultants, myself included, were going to be trained in something called E-Colors for the next couple of days.
I didnât know it, but many things were about to change in my life.
Only a couple of years before I had been the VP of Operations for an environmental engineering firm, where even though I had utilized a variety of personality indicators tools, I didn’t really grasp my strengths and potential limiters.
I was once again in a period of trying to better understand myself, when in walks David and Lewis Senior from Equilibria to deliver our E-Colors experience.
They indeed gave us greater insight to ourselves and the way that we interact with the world around us.
Realizing my E-Colors were Blue over Green, I was able to make adjustments and improve myself.
First, I started by giving myself some grace around my need for detail and then recognizing instances where my temperament could be misconstrued. I used this knowledge to begin to better manage these attributes so they didn’t impede my communication and connection with others.
During the session I spent with David and Lewis, I recognized so many more epiphanic truths about my personality.
But I wasn’t the only one fascinated by the dynamics of their interrelation to other E-Colors and how this impacted their perception of not just themselves but also the people in their lives.
The time was also amazing because I looked around and saw how much fun everyone was having and how engrossed each person seemed to be.
Everyone gathered greater appreciation for themselves, and by extension their colleagues, clients, and families— don’t you love it when this happens?!
âThe right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective…as the rightly timed pause.â – Mark Twain.
It all began with the identification of my E-Colors. Â Never had I gotten such immediate, direct input as to my personality tendencies and how they affect my behaviors as when I took the E-Colors survey and saw the Strengths, Potential Limiters, and answer to âHow Could I Get Hurt?â question.
Action-oriented, people-pleasing, verbally enthusiastic, all leading up to the answer, âby jumping in to help othersâ.
Ouch! Hit me like a ton of bricks. Â So what should I do? Â The last thing I would want is to be a statistic in some rigâs incident log…
Thatâs the beauty of the Reaction vs. Response concept. Â Yes, my personality, my natural tendencies, are cast in the Yellow over Red E-Color I wear on my shirt. Â But that doesnât mean that I am trapped in that little man forever! Â
I have the ability to let my character – my beliefs, my values, and my experiences – also help me decide which behaviors I will choose to undertake. Â Armed with this knowledge I am now free to build on my strengths, be aware of my potential limiters and instead of an immediate reaction, I can train myself to pause, be aware of that reaction, and respond in a more thoughtful manner.
What a gift!
So how do I put these concepts to work in rig safety, in the working environment, and at home?
For most of my coaching career, I had been recognized for having the right answer, the right tool, or a quick response (reaction).
After all, what were people paying us for? Didnât they want answers? Didnât they want results?
Of course. But they also wanted to be heard, to be able to contribute their ideas, and to be a part of the solution.  Unfortunately, after 24 years of learning a system of right answers, and using my strengths to help people, coaching became a quick-fire reaction to the clientâs questions.
It wasnât until I read those potential limiters, âInterrupts others, impatient, overly talkativeâ (and a great 5-day lesson with Lewis), that I realized than an EQ coach is more effective when he or she uses personal intervention to slow down.
Let the other do the talking, bite our tongues, listen until it hurts, and then lead the participant on a guided discovery tour.  In fact, most times the speaker will lead us on the tour, getting to their own right place.
BUT it is so much easier said than done! Â
Especially at home, the first place that I found success with personal intervention. Â Not only did the E-Colors help Cyndy (B/G) and I realize how different our personalities were, but they gave us some adjectives to describe those differences, and an acceptance of the other, rather than think, âDamn, itâs been 30 years, wonât he/she ever change?â
Our personalities may not change, but the personal intervention helped both of us inwardly acknowledge the differences. This change in character to be more considerate has been noticed and appreciated by both of us. Now we can SMILE at the silence, rather than raising the level of conflict, how refreshing!
As simple as the concept is of personally intervening, responding instead of reacting, it takes a conscious effort, practiced almost daily, before it becomes a habit.
Thanks Equilibria for encouraging for helping me realize my potential through the concept of personal intervention for me, my family, and our clients!
In September of 2006 I was just beginning a coaching assignment with a large company in South East Asia and I noticed everyoneâs E-Colors were displayed on their office door or on their desk.
Frankly, my reaction was disinterest and skepticism.
After all, I had a manual full of training modules and specific job to do and the E-Colors were NOT a part of it!.
Nonetheless, I dutifully discovered my E-Colors, and affixed a Green / Blue sticker to the door of my new office.
Over the next several months I had the opportunity to travel throughout Asia and meet people from many cultures and see places like Perth, Bombay, Vietnam, Bangkok, and Jakarta.
At the same time, I was learning about each of the four E-Color personality types and slowly becoming more interested in what E-Colors could do for an organization.
Over time, I began to see first-hand how E-Colors helped. Most importantly, I found I could improve my interaction with others and the results I obtained by considering the personality style of the person I was coaching.
In essence, I could tailor my delivery to people depending on their E-Colors!
This realisation was so important because I worked with a large number of employees, meeting some only once or twice during a visit to a job site. E-Colors turned out to be a PERFECT tool to help understand someone I had never met!
By the time I finished my work, I was convinced that E-Colors was foundational in understanding others and in facilitating the kind of leadership development work I was doing.
I felt SO strongly about this that I joined Equilibria soon afterward.
Hereâs where the E-Colors and the wonderful opportunity to provide positive experiences can make such a difference!
In the last few years I have accompanied several leaders offshore on coaching trips where we agree upfront to go outside and impact all with whom we come into contact.
Interestingly enough, the first time I had the experience of seeing the impact of a leader taking the time to time to interact with a Nigerian electrician was in 2005. The leader was Red / Yellow and the electrician was Green / Blue.
In 2013, eight years later, I was on a rig in Thailand and the circumstances were almost carbon copy.
The superintendent who I was accompanying’s E-Colors are Red / Yellow and in his desire to get to the rig floor he literally stepped over a  Thai painter (Green / Blue) as we left the accommodation.
I encouraged the superintendent to stop and engage the painter in a conversation about his work and exchange family situations etc.
As the conversation came to a close the superintendent (R/Y) asked the painter (G/B):
ââWhat would you have thought if I hadnât stopped to talk to you?ââ
The G/B Thai painterâs answer was exactly the same as the G/BÂ Nigerian electricianâs answer seven years ago:
ââI would have thought you didnât care about my safety.ââ
Powerful experience for all involved â wouldnât you agree?
Ready or not, some day it will all come to an end.
There will be no more sunrises, no minutes, hours or days.
All the things you collected, whether treasured or forgotten, will pass to someone else.
Your wealth, fame and temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance.
It will not matter what you owned or what you were owed.
Your grudges, resentments, frustrations and jealousies will finally disappear.
So too, your hopes, ambitions, plans and to-do lists will expire.
The wins and losses that once seemed so important will fade away.
It wonât matter where you came from or what side of the tracks you lived on at the end.
It wonât matter whether you were beautiful or brilliant.
Even your gender and skin color will be irrelevant.
So what will matter? How will the value of your days be measured?
What will matter is not what you bought but what you built,
not what you got but what you gave.
What will matter is not your success but your significance.
What will matter is not what you learned but what you taught.
What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage or sacrifice that enriched, empowered or encouraged others to emulate your example.
What will matter is not your competence but your character.
What will matter is not how many people you knew,
but how many will feel a lasting loss when youâre gone.
What will matter is not your memories but the memories of those who loved you.
What will matter is how long you will be remembered, by whom and for what.
Living a life that matters doesnât happen by accident.
Itâs not a matter of circumstance but of choice. Choose to live a life that matters.
This inspirational poem is entitled What Will Matter and was written by Michael Josephson and shared for your encouragement with the permission of Character Counts. Â
We welcome your comments. Just leave a reply below and weâll get back to you.
