Aiki Institute Of Spokane

Conflict is a door

Closed and locked it is a barrier.
We are only able to beat against it until we are bruised and beaten or
The door is shattered left serving no purpose.

Open and swinging wide with the support of its hinges
A door is an invitation to explore opportunities.

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Aikido is a lot of things. In that list I don’t often include the word easy. Aikido requires you to always do your personal best while simultaneously helping your partner do their personal best and doing everything in your power to keep them safe. One of the more interesting and challenging ways to do this is by leading your partner into whatever position you need them to be in.

This concept of leading means that in kokyunage and iriminage as nage I may not grab my partner’s head or neck and force it into the right position, it means I hug my partners head into my shoulder or adjust his or her head into the crook of my arm by timing my tenkan and arm movement correctly. Same goes for uke who may also be the leader, I may not ram my head into the right spot lacking patience with my partner, instead I help him or her feel the right position. This version of leading seems strange to me. In American culture we value a leader who knows what they want and takes it by any means necessary. In Aikido we value a leader who knows what is best and safest for everyone and creates a kind way of developing that situation which works best for both uke and nage through fluid movement and relaxed arms and posture.

The other tool I find particularly useful is by leading with a void. This is even stranger to me than the kindness approach described above. The best way to lead it to do nothing, or create a nothing? Often times if a throw isn’t going smoothly for me as uke I can pin point the moment my body started to resist, most often it is because there is a danger present, either I think I’m getting thrown onto someone’s knee or someone is stepping forward at the end of the throw and taking up some of the space I was intending to fall in. By having a void or vacuum in place instead of a knee I have a safe and easy place to land. The same goes for the role of nage. As nage your best throws begin by breathing in the attack and creating the first vacuum for uke and allowing them a space to breathe out. When throwing you are most successful when uke feels an emptiness they can fill by falling or rolling.

These two tools enhance my ability to lead as both uke and nage when participating in Aikido. They also create the best tools for supervising my staff and leading my client’s in stabilizing their lives. Sometimes the best way to lead a staff member or a client is by giving them a safe space to figure something out on their own. There is a common joke amongst social workers that we can stand a silence longer than anyone. When dealing with an issue someone feels passionately about it is best just to ask questions and sit quietly while they figure it out. More often than not I gain the most valuable information about my staff and clients in these void filled conversations. This information allows me to understand best what motivates them and also to anticipate what they will do in difficult situations.

Understanding someone’s motivation allows you to, in a kind way, create a situation where they are personally motivated to do the right thing, instead of me motivating them. This is invaluable because you cannot force someone to work. You can make it seem like the best option by showing the results of the work, higher pay, higher self-esteem, increased productivity, decreased stress. It makes no sense to yell at someone and then expect them to do what needs to get done when you aren’t there. It makes more sense to wait and time your corrective action to a moment when it will be best received. Instead of telling someone what they’ve done wrong stay relaxed and seek to understand what is going on.

These are just two of the tools that have helped me to be recognized as someone who can work well with a wide variety of people and lead them without seeming to dominate them or be condescending to them in anyway. This recognition has led me to become a manager in my last two jobs starting from the lowest position in the agency. I know that I myself have grown and changed a lot while taking Aikido and I like the feeling of being able to apply those changes into my everyday life, to make it better. Becoming a supervisor obviously has monetary benefits but more importantly by modeling this type of leadership I am teaching it to non-Aikidoists (if there is such a thing) and allowing them to change and grow in a way that will make their lives better.

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To live in possibilities. Take the time to watch this presentation by Benjamin Zander. This is the transformative nature of Aiki. This is the celebration of life that leads to creativity, harmony, peace, and prosperity. A precious 20 minutes that will open your eyes and ears to the conversation of possibilities. Aikido is not just practiced on the mat. Bring this feeling to your Aikido and see what happens. Imagine the possibilities! This is the conversation I want to have.

I originally saw this at Presentation Zen And it comes from Pop Tech

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During this time of down turned economy we all know someone who’s investments have lost.  We all know of someone with a tragic story, lost retirement, lost home, families breaking under the stress.  At these times we are reminded of the fragile nature of our material world.

There is an investment that we can each make that will create opportunities for true wealth building.  The potential to not only grow our personal wealth but the wealth of our family, our community, our nation, our world.

This investment is in our personal well being.  Our physical health, our mental strength, our spiritual growth.  This is the investment we make each time we walk into the Aikido dojo for committed training.  The two or three or more hours we spend each week in formal practice, along with (hopefully) the hours of commitment in our daily lives yields a payoff that stretches from our center, out into the world around us.

Our physical health increases through the physical practice.  This allows us the energy to do our work in the world so that we can obtain the shelter, food, and clothing that we all need, along with the other accouterments that go along with modern lifestyles.  It gives us the stamina to raise our children, take care of our grandparents, dig in the earth to sow the garden that feeds us, and swing the hammer that pounds the nail holding the supports of our house together.  It recharges our immune systems to ward off illness and gives us the flexibility to bend around the barriers in our lives.

Our mental strength grows as we test our powers of observation and creativity.  Our mind is challenged to observe and then direct the body.  The mind? must translate the visual and exterior view to a movement starting from the interior, growing to encompass the whole body in  somatic understanding. We are lead to creatively enter into a way of thinking that knows no enemies, only partners;  no bad, nor good, only opportunities; no past or future, but only now.

In the dojo we create a spirit of love, cooperation, and harmony.  We connect ourselves through our physical and mental practice to the larger universe.  We learn to feel the flow of energy as it surrounds us and moves through and with us.  We touch the larger picture and realize that we are as much a part of it as the pigments that blend together are a part of forming Michelangelo’s The Creation of Man.  Our spirit is rejuvenated and rejoices in the practice of our art.  We then take this spirit with us as we leave the dojo.  Touching all we meet with its infectious truth and natural beauty.

In this way we affect a growth in spirit and consciousness throughout the world, as our touch is passed on from person to person, group to group, community to community, nation to nation, the spirit of harmony, the art of peace, grows and spreads.  We find ourselves more creative, more cooperative, more in sync with the natural process of life.  So our wealth increases, both in the mind-body-spirit manifestation, and in the realm of material wealth as we spend our energy in cooperative creation and growth rather than in deceitful destruction.

This investment we put into our training in Aikido has a very high payoff.  It is slow.  It is gradual.  It is sustainable.  Your dues, your time at the dojo, is an investment that ripples throughout our society benefiting each individual and our existence as a civilization.   Invest in yourself … in your peaceful existence.

Watch your investment grow as you touch those in your life, and they touch others.   Imagine what could happen if more people made such an investment.  Go ahead, imagine it.  If you can passionately imagine the people of our world investing cooperatively, creatively, peacefully, harmoniously, then we can make it happen!

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“A good stance and posture reflect a proper state of mind.”
O’Sensei

“What makes someone credible?” or “Why do we trust someone?” These questions were asked by Albert Mehrabian in his book Silent Messages. The answer in his studies and confirmed by many studies after, 7% content, 38% voice, tone, and tempo, and 55% body language. “If we agree that from a somatic perspective, voice, tone, and tempo fall into the category of body , we can conclude that 93% of building trust and credibility is communicated through the body.” Richard Strozzi-Heckler, “The Leadership Dojo”

Is the study of Aikido a valuable leadership tool? Given the above statements I think it is easy to see the value in training as it relates to our abilities as a leader. In the leadership trainings I facilitate, the very learnings that are present on the Aikido mat are present in our exploration of leadership in the conference room.

Our posture, the way we move, says so much about how we see ourselves and how we see the world around us. Are we relaxed and centered as we move forward facing the challenges that lie ahead? This is the posture of a leader.

Entering into our challenges it is possible to lead our partner with clear, concise discussion (taisabaki), generating a graceful, satisfying solution(waza). As we enter into the dialogue of a challenge we must be upright, balanced, open-eyed, so that we may perceive the opportunities that present themselves, and be in a position that allows us to freely move into those openings so that we may secure the most appropriate solution. Our exchange must be honest, with conviction, flowing from the very essence, not clouded with ego, or stiffened with expectations. As we implement our successful solution we must follow through completely (zanshin), and hold ourselves with grattitude for the hard work that all have put forth in rising to the challenge and creating something new and wonderful, we bow to our partner.

Wouldn’t it be great if all of our leaders studied Aikido?

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