Life does not seem to care whether we are smart, handsome, rich, or talented.  Each of us has to find our place in the chain.  As humans, we evolved to the top of the eco-system by managing the tension between individual self-preservation and collective security.

Finding our place in the chain requires us to develop two key attributes.  Our ability to develop one or the other will likely give us a place at the end of a chain.  Our ability to develop both gives us the ability to be an ongoing part of value-chains around us.

The connection is between someone who is present and the interests and values of one those who are not present.  We are present with each other in meetings, through agreements, and other interactions in which expectations are established.  The, we go away from each other and the person who was present becomes the person who is not present.  Our ability to maintain a link between those states, helps establish the leverage that we as humans self-organize to achieve.

Imagine your attorney talking with you, asking question after question.  She is trying to anticipate potential scenarios so she can ask the questions now which will help her better represent you at some point in the future.

However, managing our brains as we moves between these states is a non-trivial exercise.  It has a number of adaptive processes which lead it to pay attention to exactly the wrong things to get this dance right between people present and interests that are not present.

Not only are we in a battle with some of the brain’s natural heuristics, the challenge becomes exponentially more complex as we have more people, organizations and other stakeholders to the mix.

At that point, it is not simply being able to learn the skills of an attorney or earn the mindset of a mother representing her children, you now manage lines of authority and ownership as multiple stakeholders alternately combine and compete in an eco-system of value creation.   

With the addition of multiple stakeholders, the metaphor shifts because once a connecting link is safely established.  between that which is present and that which is not, we become part of an eco-system that flows like traffic. .  Each eco-system consists of many chains forming and reforming as people find and create increasing leverage, value.  And, the more secure the individual connections, the faster the resulting vehicle travels or the more it can pull/carry.

The first attribute links us to another who is present with you-  to understand their perspective and become part of what they are part of.

We call it Aligning

Attribute number two helps one keep the link with others who are NOT present.  This ability must be nurtured and maintained as it is NOT natural for individual survival, even though it is vital in building the chains that make our collective or group powerful.

We call it taking Representing.

These attributes are established by a mindset, skills, and routines.

The first part of your linking into a value-chain, Aligning, means more than listening with your own ears- it involves an intent to lean into their language, their use of words.  When I visit Italy, I don’t go there and ask everyone to speak English.  I might wish for it, but for me to experience Italy, I have to learn their language.  If I am to execute on their vision, I have to come to speak in their language, to translate their subjective experience.  Translating- when you translate, you are subjective-towards them. . . this means you seek clearer insights into why they are reasonable and rational.  As their perspective bumps into yours, being subjective-towards another requires you to desire to speak their language, as opposed to yelling your own just a little bit louder.   

Its mindset is Receptive. Aligning Skills include  Translating, Center| |Space

Aligning routines & meditations include  Positive Confirmation (mutual agreement), MV HandOff and Status Updates

.The second phase of linking, Representing, keeps in your own mind the interests of those who are not present but who will be impacted by your performance. You are present.  They are only present through you. Key representing skills include:  MatchingUp / Pivot Signaling

Representative routines & meditations include: Check your 6:00; Rebalancing; and Personal Routine Present: being in the same place or time.  When used as a verb, in means to bring into the presence of.   

When we represent another we are standing in their stead.  We are in their place, as if they were present.  This provides a kind of leverage that allows them function as if they were in multiple places at once.  To represent another, we must first learn them.

Initially, the Representative’s attention must be all towards the principle.  Then, as the Representative pivots, he or she acts in the world on behalf of the principle.  The principle is not present except through the attention of the one representing.

We each have these two ends between which our mind can pivot its attention.  On the one hand, we face and attend to the people who are present.

On the other, we mentally see and recall the interests of people and projects that are not literally present, only re-present through me.