Leadership firewalking seminar

Leaders rise to the challenges of accompanying change in their team. Through individual growth they become successful leaders.

In the firewalking seminar the often unconscious inner resistance to the unknown in change and the fears associated with it are transformed into courage in order to accompany change to corporate success.

Burning Change is based on the conviction that there is more in every human being than you think and that the human possibilities are unlimited. If all people assume consciously responsibility for themselves and their actions change can happen in all areas of life – at work, in our families, in our society and for nature and the environment.
Change is a reliable constant in our life and we encounter change in all spheres of life in particular in our fast moving business world.

The challenges in the change process that managers are confronted with in our modern professional environment are of foremost human nature. They concern reactions and behaviors of individuals or the group as a whole in reaction to the circumstances and situation that impacts them.
There is a high probability that an initiative, reorganization, restructuring or a project will fail or at least be negatively affected if change is not accepted and perceived by all stakeholders as part of it.

Change is a process not an event!

For most people change is associated with an uncertain, unknown future. This can evoke an unpleasant situation that is experienced very differently from one to another person. This situation can cause fear (of the future), provoke uncertainty about the impact or recall memories of obnoxious experiences of the past. This is why at first a lot of people react to change with denial and repression. The change is not observed as necessary for evolution and the feeling of uncertainty is refused as non-existent.

Often change requires team members to give up habits, “save” processes and known procedures in order to adapt to new situations and changing environments. The impact level cannot be determined yet. Fear of loosing the job might also play a role in the refusal of change. These are all valid fears that should be considered and should gain recognition. 

Fear, uncertainty and insecurity have a decisive influence on whether change can happen in the foreseen direction or if change is bluntly refused or hidden under the surface.

Furthermore enormous forces are tied by these unspoken and often suppressed emotions. How can we liberate these locked up forces again that are necessary to implement and conclude successful change?
How can we transform rejection, fear and absence of decision making in sustainable courage, trust and motivation?

How can we include the concerned people in the change process? And how can they become integral part of the change and experience it as such?

How can managers and leaders guide and accompany their teams in the change process if they have themselves not experienced the emotions in that process and if they don't know how to cope with them? Burning Change management seminars allow managers and leaders to gain the emotional self-awareness of fear, uncertainty, insecurity but also support and courage.

In the seminar managers have to deal with all of these emotions in one or the other way. This enables them to walk over the glowing embers. Transferred in the real business world they can guide their teams through the change process due to this previous experience.

Emotional leadership requests from the managers the ability to interact intelligently with their own emotions but also to interpret correctly the emotions of their staff members and to react adequately in order to trigger a reciprocal process of interaction that leads to a goal-oriented behavior.

Firewalking lets the emotions of the participants bubble up. They experience directly what fear, uncertainty, insecurity,  support, strength, courage, trust and enthusiasm feel like and what effect it has on themselves when they have to take a decision. During firewalking this decision is presented in the following question: “Am I ready to walk over the glowing embers or not?”. 

In order to walk over the hot coals unharmed it requires various qualities from the participants such as absolute awareness, determination, confidence, trust and the dealing with all the emotions mentioned above.

As for any project the target of the journey should be clear. For what reason and cause (vision, goal, transformation) am I willing to walk over the fire? Which motive is convincing enough that I fully engage in the preparation phase of firewalking? If this reflection doesn't happen firewalking quickly becomes a dare or just a mental exercise that would only prove what the human being is able to do with its mental abilities. However, this can also be a valuable insight and experience. We also use our mental forces as one of many elements in firewalking.

For most of the participants emotions such as uncertainty, insecurity and fear come up at the beginning of the seminar (even though they are rarely shown or expressed). They cannot at this stage evaluate the full implications of the risk associated with firewalking. The following question comes up: “What if I burn myself after all?” Normally at this point all memories and experiences that define the individual relationship with fire surface. In the seminar we expose ourselves with insecurity and fear and draw parallels with the real life. What uncertainties and fears from the business environment are provoked in each of the participants? Through active confrontation participants experience how they can deal with fear.

The goal is to identify, call out and to accept that we feel insecure and fearful and if possible to resolve these feelings in confidence. In the seminar we let them flow and transform them into trust so that everyone can walk over the embers unharmed. Translated into real life this means the ability to master the obstacles of uncertainty and fear in change. With this ability solutions can develop that lead to success.

Confidence in oneself and the group is a critical and important success factor of firewalking. At the same time the trust in the group is essential. It allows to receive strength and energy from the group. Every team member plays an important role even if the person does not walk over the fire. Every individual gets emotional support from the group that activates the force and energy to cross the hot embers. If all team members are behind the same goal and support each other then they reach the common goal – everyone individually and together as a group.

The high energy group dynamic triggers the development of the feeling of courage in the participants which is another essential ingredient for firewalking success. The science of management calls uncertainty, insecurity, fear and anxiety in conjunction with the risk of a decision the necessary prerequisite for the development of courage (Article zfo 06/2105 384-389). In the preparation for the firewalking all preconditions for the emergence of courage are given.

Most companies aim at employing courageous managers and employees who move the company forward and tackle change under assessable risk. Those have courage who look critically at their fears and concerns and audaciously take decisions for the good of the entire team and enterprise. 

The capability to take decisions in critical situations is a prerequisite for courage. A Person who follows his gut feeling in a given situation is also courageous. A person can be successful who perceives his emotions and is able to assess them correctly i.e. differentiating if the mind (mental) is suggesting something or if it is actually an emotion sensed in the body.

Footnotes are marked with [].

Courage is perceived subjectively and has always an individual reference framework in a concrete context and an individual decision scenario. In the BurningChange management seminar this decision scenario occurs when the participant needs to decide individually if he is ready to cross the glowing embers or not. Either decision is courageous in its own way. If he walks and arrives unharmed he was courageous to listen to his feelings and the impulse of his body and then walk. If he doesn't walk he was courageous because he accepted the feeling that told him not to walk – even if the mind said something different.

The trigger (momentum) for this decision comes from the inside (body) as an emotional impulse, a feeling and not as we probably expect as a metal decision from our brain. Our psyche that is situated in our brain is connected to our body via a psychosomatic information network[i]. Our brain and body communicate reciprocally through the exchange of biochemical substances such as peptides (compound of amino acids)[ii]. The impulse can be felt when we give up the mental control of the decision and listen in (ourselves) respectively feel and when we trust our emotional guidance and capabilities. The impulse is then “converted” into a mental decision to walk.

Once the participant has come to decision to walk over the fire he needs determination and certainty coupled with awareness and focus. These are the classic characteristics of the worrier archetype[iii]. When the participant has put the first foot on the glowing embers he must follow through and be 100% focused. He crossed the point of no return. The other participants support the person walking over the fire in that they keep up the energy and focus on him. Because of the physiological integrity (Candace B. Pert, Ph.D. Molecules of Emotion page 295: There is a physiological integrity and directness about this process that is the result of my clarity about my own intentions. ...) between mind and body the physiology of the feet is changing so that crossing the embers unharmed is possible[iv].

And as we would not expect differently after crossing successfully the person who walked and the group realize the unforgettable experience of enthusiasm and joy.

Change is always associated with uncertainty about the future and insecurity of what will happen. Furthermore change provokes fear and anxiety of failure and the risk that one is on the wrong track which does not lead to the goal and success.

Managers and leaders experience in BurningChange seminars the entire coherent chain of actual change: determining the goal or vision (and if it is only the goal to walk unharmed over the fire), perceiving emotions, being courageous and taking the decision to walk over the glowing embers respectively feeling and determining the right time for the individual walk.

Due to the emotional resonance (response)[v] through which the vibrations of our feelings spread in our environment and so have an influence on our fellow human beings it is important that managers and leaders can experience these emotions of change themselves. With experience they can perceive the reactions to change from their team and can provide support in the process accordingly.