The head, heart, hands framework

- Before we get started on our journey together, I want to introduce you to our tour guide for our time, otherwise known as the H3 Method. One of the biggest barriers I see to leaders establishing a culture belonging is them not understanding how to bring all of who they are to creating this culture, head, heart, hands. Each of us has two main centers of intelligence. One that's mostly cognitively based, head. And one that's centered an emotional experience, in our gut, the heart. We actually need both of these centers to connect to each other, and importantly, to connect to all of who we are, because what we think and what we feel affects what we do. I first started to learn about this difference of these centers of intelligence when I started my first job. I worked for a leading consumer projects company and was having trouble adjusting to the culture of the organization. The organization had mostly hired engineers and linear thinkers. I realized quickly that I oftentimes had a gut instinct, heart, about the answer to problems before I understood all of the rationale behind my answers. In other words, I would understand Z, where we needed to go, before I understood A, B and C, or all the steps needed to get there. I would get frustrated because my coworkers would need to understand all these steps before they felt like they could move into action, which is fair. I had to learn how to trust my gut. But before I shared a solution, I had to learn how to cognitively process information so that my coworkers, whose primary center of intelligence was from the head, could understand my rationale. In the meantime, it helped me strengthen my own understanding. It's not that my gut instinct was wrong. Because in reality, our body's take in 11 million bits of information per second. While our conscious minds or heads can only process about 50 bits per second. It's just that I was in a culture that really value the wisdom of the head versus the heart. And that's not uncommon, because Western culture in general places a premium on linear and cognitive theories and knowing. But that approach of valuing that wisdom, and not others, frankly, is doing us all a disservice and honoring all of the genius inside ourselves and others. Try this exercise. Think about a decision you recently tried to make. For example, maybe you've just entered into a new romantic or business relationship, or it could be something simple like, where to go on vacation. Think about that decision. What does your head tell you about it? What does your heart, your emotions and your gut tell you? Were they different? Did you rely on one versus the other? Interestingly, oftentimes those different centers of wisdoms have a different perspective. Our best solution typically comes by allowing them to inform each other. So in this course, we'll give equal value to the wisdom from the head and the heart. Each chapter will start with a video on the head to give you a foundation of awareness and knowledge to support your cognitive understanding. The next video will move to the heart to ensure we're exploring our own and others' feelings and lived experiences, so that we are acknowledging that this is not just a business issue, but also a human issue. And the last video of each chapter, we'll then explore the hands, or the tactical ways to bring our cognitive understanding, our human emotions and experience and gut to create solutions that are sustainable, and honor all the wisdom we have. To truly get to a culture of belonging, we have to engage all of who we are and bring all of ourselves to this work, head, heart and hands. So, are you ready to begin this journey? Let's get into it.