Creating Declarations

PRACTICE GUIDE – Languaging

What is a Declaration?

We use declarations to generate and create new realities to live in. The opposite of assertions that describe a reality that has already been created. With declarations, we generate new possibilities for new actions in order to produce new results. Leaders use declarations to create stories of a preferred future that they want others to share and care about.

A declaration is an utterance in which someone with the authority to do so brings – Matthew Budd

Declarations also have the power to shift the context for thinking and acting.  Context generates a “possibility space” that creates meaning around a word, idea or story.  For example, a declaration can open or initiate a new relationship when we are offered a new job. It can close or conclude a relationship when a contract is terminated.  A declaration can resolve a disputed decision in sport or in court.  Every decision is a declaration, even just saying yes or no.

The catalyst for this shift of context is a language that takes the form of a declaration of intention. When we change the context (with a vision, story, decision, etc.,) we change the way things are observed and reframe our thoughts, perspectives, and interpretations of what the future then appears to us.  This can often result in a new conversation or action. As a result, we should think of ourselves as human becomings, not just human beings.

The diagram below reflects a solution-focused approach where a problem is identified and its scale assessed. By producing a “future perfect” movie, a new context can be declared and brought into being. The factors that count towards its realisation are turned into small actions.  The result of these actions can be assessed and progress towards the “future perfect” can be observed and measured.  The new context is more conducive to getting the actions needed to get the desired results.

So What does this mean?

The most important declaration we will make is to ourselves when we decide who we are and what we want from our life. The answer should not be confused by who we “say” we are, we have to know it at a soul level.

When we commit to a promise we are declaring our intention to create a future reality – a different world. We are using our words to create a new world to live in. We are scripting a new life movie. The words are spoken in the present but they take the form of commitments that we produce and direct as future actions. This process of making and keeping promises is an important vehicle for achieving predictability into an otherwise uncertain future.

What’s required is a REQUEST and a DECLARATION OF ACCEPTANCE to produce a PROMISE.

To engage in this process we are making assessments as we evaluate and form opinions about the future our declarations could produce. This is because in making an assessment we are declaring how the world we see is real for us. For example, we are in conversation with ourselves about:

• what we should do
• can we do it
• is it right for us
• do we have the ability
• when and how could it be done
• who will we need to be involved

Our personal history and culture forms ready-made opinions or a “pre-understanding” of what we are observing, saying and how we relate and behave in different situations. Consider how you are different in your Way of Being at work and with your friends or family.  Consequently, when we make declarations they inevitably reflect how the world is for us and how we should react to situations. The words associated with mood and body come first and the world we then create follows. Our assessments today create our reality tomorrow.

What Next?

To establish and share a new context with a group of people, we want to know what they care about. This requires a conversation using metaphors to ground the feelings and factors that must “count” towards a new solution.  It needs to be conducted in a mood of creative ambition and a set of values and standards from which the group can agree to evaluate a “future perfect” outcome.  

We find ourselves in a landscape of possibilities where we consider new perspectives, cultural memes and the constraints that need to be overcome in order to gain a consensus for action that will resolve a problem or exploit an opportunity. 

A powerful declaration, one that is made unconsciously, is a concern or disruption that you experience in the course of your daily life. In human Ontology circles, these are known as “breakdowns”.  Not a mental or a car breakdown, but an emotional state that arises from a thought that stays on your mind and affects your sleep or your ability to concentrate on the job at hand.

Effective leaders have an ability to not allow such breakdowns (positive or negative) to disrupt their flow of declared priorities. Instead of ignoring a surprise or a concern that something is wrong, we can pause to reconnect with our declared intention and stay on course. However, we may want to declare that we are experiencing a “breakdown” and pay attention to where it could be leading us. This sets a new context for action. For example, if we are feeling tired and concerned that we are not getting enough sleep, we have to declare our intention to go to bed earlier. But it’s taking the action in the present that will deliver our declared result in the future, that we can assess by comparing it with what we believed to be true in past actions.

These “breakdowns” can impact our lives in many different ways. How we see ourselves and how we go about solving the many small and larger problems we have to deal with in our lives. If we address our problems urgently and tackle them step-by-step until they are resolved, this becomes the story that we can see happening and what we experience in our life movie. If we constantly fail to address our concerns we live in a movie that is being produced, scripted and directed for us.

Practices

1.  Consider these two phrases and see how your answers to each would be different. Then ask yourself, which answer do you want to bring into existence?  How might your life be different in terms of what results from you would value most? What story are you telling yourself?

• Who are you?
• Who do you want to be?

2.  What big declarations have you made in the past and how do they look now?  Did they turn out as you expected?  What would you have done to have made a better assessment at the time that might have changed your declaration?  Perhaps you turned down a job offer or called off a wedding at short notice. Did they bring about dramatically different tomorrows than the ones you had hoped for?

Reflect on the sorts of declarations you make every day and their impact. For example, the following phrases can lead to breakdowns in the normal flow of daily life with either positive or negative consequence.  What’s your experience?

• “I don’t know”
• “I apologise for . . . .”
• “Thank you”
• “I appreciate how you  . . . . . .”
• ” I stand for  . . . . . .”
• “This is not working for me”

3.  What authority do you have to declare a different future for others – your business, family, team, community or organisation?

It may be validated by having social, political, economic or positional power. It may come from personal power, that comes from the way you live your values, show it in your integrity and results, and the standards displayed in your behaviour.

4.  Start a conversation with your team to identify what they care about when engaged in a shared activity or enterprise that requires them to each declare a personal commitment to a future that they will work towards.

Reflect on the different kinds of declarations that people make to each other in the form of offers and responding to requests.

References

You are What you Say by Matthew Budd & Larry Rothstein.  Crown 2001

Language and the Pursuit of Leadership Excellence by Charmers Brothers & Vinay Kumar. New Possibilities 2015

Coaching to the Human Soul Vol 1 by Alan Sieler.  Newfield Australia 2003