Cultivating Awareness is a foundational principle for growing the good for ourselves and others, be it transforming scarcity into abundance, conflict into harmony, invisibility into recognition, despair into hope. Whether we need to enliven a team, conquer a business-as-usual culture, re-imagine ourselves, put our values into action against the values of an organization (and thrive!), shift the trajectory of our journey toward a new career, or start our own business – the first step is waking up to the reality of our situation, the importance of our dreams, and the power of our choices.

Embracing Diversity comes through recognizing the inherent diversity of life on Planet Earth. Life wants to happen in blatant defiance of Darwinist theories that claim life is all about Survival of the Fittest. In reality, life on Earth has thrived not through fierce competition but through Specialization and Cooperation. On the Galapagos Islands, in times of abundance, the birds have been observed to eat anything they can. Yet in times of scarcity they specialize. Birds with the biggest and strongest beaks break open hard-shelled nuts, leaving the smaller kernels for others. This principle is also about working with an economy of effort – preserving our biggest efforts for where they are needed while eliminating waste and saving time.

Inspiring Respect empowers the benefits of diversity through appreciation and understanding. It casts out the toxins of assumption, distrust, indifference, othering, and type-casting so that we can see each other through the lenses of trust, respect, and common ground. Inspiring Respect in ourselves and others is shifting the gravity of what we perceive as between us toward what could be amongst us. This is where we can start to lean-in, bending toward one another in the context of our individual and collective potential.

Encouraging Cooperation is moving from being together toward acting together for the common good. This principle is where we put our diversity and respect for one another into action for a common goal. Life in a multitude of forms has thrived not through competition, as competition is far too demanding on resources, but rather through cooperation and specialization. If we observe powerful teams, they are powerful because they were formed with cooperation and specialization in mind. Team members are honored for their diversity and assigned roles that put their strengths into action.

This principle is demonstrated by the Three Sisters Model of companion planting used by the Hopi Nation. They planted corn, beans, and squash together such that each plant would give the other what it needed to thrive. The Corn Sister, a heavy nitrogen feeder, provided scaffolding for the Bean Sister. The Bean Sister in turn had the ability to replenish the Corn Sister’s soil with nitrogen. The Squash Sister draped her prickly leaves over the soil, providing shelter for all from the sun and pests. Yet the Three Sisters Model is not just for planting gardens. It is a model for every aspect of our personal and professional lives.

Seeking Sustainability means that we are not focused so much on short-term gains as we are on the long game. Out of desire and urgency, we feel compelled to make something happen now. In turn, we exert an effort powerful enough to create an explosion of short-term results, but such a “flash in the pan” is likely to exact high costs to the players involved and unwittingly extend those costs to others, with unanticipated consequences. Such a train of circumstances is most often a prelude to depletion and exhaustion, leading to conflict and lost opportunity. Whereas Seeking Sustainability is the principle that keeps us present and mindful of the impact of our actions on ourselves, others, and the future.

Sparking Imagination is the principle that asks us to transcend the current state for the sake of creating something new. Though the current state is important to understand and learn from, creating from it is akin to moving the same furniture around the same old room. Sparking Imagination gets us out of the room where we can envision new ways, untethered to past expectations and established ways of being and doing. Sparking our imaginations is about the What and not about the How. The How comes through the other principles, but the genesis of every How is a vision of something new.

Exercising Commitment is deliberately engaging the energies of attachment to remain steadfast in the process of achieving a goal – the process as informed by the other eight Key Principles. When exercising commitment, we set ourselves up for engagements that cannot be easily dissolved. We step all the way in, becoming immersed in the journey, stretching ourselves, enduring whatever difficulties come our way. Though struggle is not sustainable, the journey through is not negotiable. Such attachment would be a fatal liability but in harmony with the rest of the Key Principles, it is the rigor that is needed to stay the course until we discover the treasure that awaits us, and carry it back in service of growing the good for ourselves and others.

This principle is founded on curiosity and is a safeguard against complacency, denial, arrogance, and mindless action. Learning exerts a persistent pressure that keeps us awake in our actions, opening doors with knowledge, experience, and understanding. There is never a solution so great that cannot be made greater through learning. Prioritizing Learning is the constructive action we can always take, in spite of our powerlessness over difficulties and events. Prioritizing Learning is the insistence that there is a better way regardless of the past or present circumstances. It is “staying on the field” regardless of the conditions and doing the work that creates breakthroughs.