I’ve been “dark” –as they say in the world of advertising– on this blog for sometime now. BUT I’ve got some new things to share and I’m about to start right now!

There were a couple of reasons for going dark, including:

• We’ve been working really hard at putting the new design for this website together  (my programmer, my designer, myself …)
• That included migrating Blognostra to the new site, and I think it will be worth it
• I’ve put up three new blogs that address some pretty specific niches of my work
• Cognitive Integration
• Transformational Performance
• Behavioral Communication
• I’ve been busy developing new programs and a new program schedule for 2012
• Joseph Riggio Training – Schedule (2012)
• My entire business model has been in flux for more than a year … 

Now things seem to be coming more towards center … more to rest.

So let’s leave all that for now, and get onto to what I want to share first …

As I said above “my entire business model has been in flux“ —  which has been at least semi-deliberate on my part. The deliberateness was making a decision to shift my awareness even further to center (my center). The shifting business model just naturally followed that decision.

Now I hate flux as much as the next guy (or gal). It’s not that I’m opposed to it, it’s just that flux is generally uncomfortable … like and unsettled stomach after a meal with too many options partaken of all at once.

I don’t mind change … in fact I think change is not only a good thing, but necessary as well. Heck, change is the rule of life. The ability to make changes … and make them well, i.e.: elegantly … is the mark of a successful organism – “the law of requisite variety.”

I won’t bore into you too much about the law of requisite variety (there’s plenty about it floating around the web that you can find for yourself – and you can start with the link I’ve provided above if you’re interested). IMO what’s important from a human stance is the idea of ‘resiliency’ – how resilient are we, i.e.: how able are we to re-center ourselves after we’ve been perturbed?

This idea of using perturbation to increase resiliency has been a mainstay of my practice for many years now. One of the primary models I developed  in the early 90s was the Satisfaction Cycle®, and I built a major training program around that model for major account sales professionals called Persuasion Technology®. Over the next few years Persuasion Technology® morphed into programs for organizational leaders, and also for private individuals wanting to learn much more about influence and persuasion for their own benefit … all based on the material I developed in the Satisfaction Cycle®.

At the heart of the Satisfaction Cycle® model is the idea of resiliency, and the entire Persuasion Technology® program was premised on developing an ability to deal with permutation in the system in real time, i.e.: developing extraordinary requisite variety.

I got the idea of doing it this way from training and working with Special Forces commandos, and discerning something about how they are able to perform so well in extreme conditions – literally under fire. While there is no doubt in my mind that these folks share a natural propensity and talent for operating this way, to some extent – and I’d say a great extent – it’s also a function of the training they undergo.

Training for resiliency requires at least three specific and critical characteristics to create the intended outcome, all of which tend to push the participants beyond their comfort zone:

• Much of what’s happening must reside outside of or beyond the ordinary conscious awareness of the trainees (if they can process things in ordinary conscious awareness then latent and peripheral processing will fail to emerge fully)

• The quantity and quality of the permutations introduced must exceed the current capabilities of the trainees (this is enough to disqualify most folks from the training process – when confronted with more then they are capable of handling they will simply drop out)

• The trainer must be aware of the non-ordinary aspects of cognitive-behavioral processing, AND able to manage them within the context of the training program, i.e.: the trainer must have at least the level of requisite variety that the training is intended to stimulate

Well in the case of my business model revamping I played both the parts of the trainer and the trainee at times (with lots of input from trusted advisors and sources along the way – I never step too far away from the circle of support I’ve built up along the way, part of my secret to success so to speak). It wasn’t always fun, and it was seldom easy (even when it was goat butt simple). Mostly I had to give up being comfortable and doing what had become most familiar.

Here’s another way to say it … for many years now I’ve been living a particular myth. For that specific mythic form I know the sources from whence it came, the structure that sustained it and the stories that supported  it. For the new myth I’ve begun living these are much less sure or definitive … and some have yet to be invented.

This doesn’t mean there are no sources, structures or stories – just that I don’t necessarily have them or know where to find them yet … and some, like I said, I know I’ll have to invent myself (something I’m used to, i.e.: making things up as I go …).

In other words, to make the change I desired I had to leap into the unknown without  a net …

I mentioned to one of my closest advisors that this has been a ten year journey of putting the platform in place just to jump off into the abyss.

Well here I am at the end of the first part of that next journey … and the new website design for JosephRiggio.com is a large part of it for me.

The front page of the site really resets things for me … putting it out there without any makeup or clothing … like the emperor with his new clothes intentionally walking in front of all those who allow themselves to be deluded, while winking at those childlike enough to see the truth that always resides beneath the masquerade and pretense of civility — what I’ve come to is much more primal.

Now I know this ain’t gonna be for everyone … but what I do never has been that.

But, here’s a small secret I’ve uncovered as I continue falling to earth …

The real trick to being incredibly resilient is becoming incredibly simple … i.e.: letting it all go … again.

Joseph
Princeton, NJ

P.S. – I’ll be back with more of less soon … doing my best to keep my grandest promise to deliver as much of nothing as I possibly can …