Human Resource is about people. It is less so about managing people, but truly desiring to support and enable relevant market skills and whole-being development. It took me a long time to figure out why a status-conscious or rank-conscious or even a performance-based paradigm would not sustain. The heart of humanity is one. Each of us is unique and the same. So when we enter a place to participate, we necessarily anticipate to belong, in equal standing. And in trust, of each other, for one another.

Equality is not about uniformity. Equality is about appreciating, valuing and enjoying the differences. It is more like jazz. True harmony is when each can be, yet we are whole, and in unison.

It only suddenly occurred to me that the heart of empowerment is simply about believing. And again, patience and inner patience.

Patience is from a deep place of believing, never from a place of judgment or measure or  dogma or a predetermined ideology about perfection or rebellion.

It dawned upon me that the inner patience is really about holding oneself: self-control. Executive function is about emotional regulation as much as making choices, or decision-making, and responsible action. The three go hand in hand.

Emotional regulation isn’t about suppression or denial or mastery of emotions. It is much more basic, simple and humbling than that. Emotional regulation is about honesty and maturity. Honesty about our feelings, especially the negative feelings, and to sit with each of our feelings, until they pass. It is to be able to embrace our insecurities and vulnerabilities with compassion and love.

Making choices isn’t really about making a choice unless one is calm. There is a whole world of difference between a momentary reaction and a response, typically for life.

Knee jerk reactions are but that. They tend to be fight or flight. Or freeze in arguments, blaming and scapegoating. Or daydreams, unable to engage reality. But they don’t actually solve anything. They solve surface perturbations, but they don’t address the heart of the discordant. Usually, the heart of why a space or a community is not working is actual disharmony itself or a perception of disharmony.

Conflicts and contradictions are part of day-to-day living. When we honestly examine and truly work through tangles and struggles without abandonment is when we truly transcend as a community truly faithful to each other and to global peace. It is only then that we truly innovate and grow our humanity in our work and living spaces.

So, to re-begin looking at Human Resource is to look at oneself, with deep honesty, generosity, love and respect. And yes, belief.