Week 1 of 6 - ORIENTATION, EMOTIONAL AWARENESS & MENTAL FITNESS
Key Takeaways
- Orientation comes before responsible action.
- Behavior provides information before it becomes a conclusion.
- Capacity influences what a person or system can access, process, manage, communicate, and sustain.
- Better decisions begin with enough understanding of the people, perspectives, environments, responsibilities, and systems involved.
- The goal is not to avoid action. The goal is to improve the understanding behind the action.
Starting a business often creates pressure to move quickly.
Choose the name.
Create the logo.
Form the company.
Build the website.
Find customers.
Hire staff.
Generate revenue.
Action matters.
But action without enough understanding can create decisions that later have to be corrected.
The first step in building on purpose is learning how to become sufficiently oriented before taking action.
What Is Orientation?
Orientation means developing enough understanding of what is happening, who and what may be involved, what information is available, and what may still be missing before reaching a conclusion or deciding what should happen next.
You do not have to know everything before making a decision.
You do need enough information to recognize when you may be reacting to only one part of the situation.
People naturally understand situations through their own experiences, responsibilities, relationships, environments, expectations, and perspectives.
Those perspectives may contain important information.
They may not contain the entire picture.
Orientation gives us an opportunity to ask: What do I know? What am I assuming? What may I be missing? Who or what else is involved? What is influencing my response? What is the current capacity of the people or systems involved? What information do I need before deciding what happens next?
The 2WANDA™ Framework
Build a Business on Purpose™ is informed by the 2WANDA™ Framework. The framework is grounded in three foundational statements: Behavior Is Data, Capacity Is Mental Fitness, and Purpose Is Design. These principles help us look beyond immediate reactions and consider the information, capacity, environment, responsibilities, relationships, and purpose connected to a situation.
Behavior Is Data
Behavior provides information. What a person does, says, avoids, repeats, resists, struggles with, or responds to may tell us something about what is happening. Behavior should not automatically become the person's identity. The same principle applies to leadership and business. An employee who misses a deadline provides information. A customer complaint provides information. A process that repeatedly fails provides information. A leader who becomes overwhelmed provides information. A business that is growing faster than its systems can support provides information. Instead of immediately deciding who is wrong or what must be corrected, orientation asks us to first understand what the available information may be showing us.
Capacity Is Mental Fitness
Capacity reflects what a person or system can access, process, communicate, manage, and sustain within a particular moment or environment. Capacity may be influenced by knowledge, skills, expectations, stress, communication, relationships, responsibilities, environment, previous experiences, available support, time, resources, and the systems involved. Within the 2WANDA™ Framework, mental fitness refers to intentionally developing and supporting the capacity needed to regulate, communicate, adapt, participate, make decisions, and respond responsibly. Capacity is not a measure of someone's worth. Capacity can change. Capacity can also be strengthened.
Purpose Is Design
Purpose is not only something you say about your business. Purpose should influence how the business is designed. When purpose is clear, you can begin asking whether your services, systems, workforce, communication, environment, policies, expectations, partnerships, and decisions are aligned with what the business is actually designed to accomplish. Building on purpose means creating alignment between what you say your business exists to do and how the business actually operates.
The Orientation Method™
The Orientation Method™ is the applied methodology of the 2WANDA™ Framework. It supports the development of greater clarity by helping people consider relevant perspectives, information, environments, relationships, responsibilities, capacity, and systems before conclusions are formed or action is taken. Within this course, you will use orientation as a business and leadership practice. You may use it when something is unclear, a decision feels rushed, a problem keeps repeating, expectations are not being met, communication has become difficult, your capacity feels limited, a team is not aligned, or your business is moving without enough structure.
Orientation Before Reaction
When pressure increases, people can move quickly from an event to a conclusion. Something happens. We interpret it. We react. Orientation creates space between what happened and what we decide it means. That space allows us to observe, gather information, recognize assumptions, consider capacity, and respond more intentionally. This does not mean avoiding decisions. It means improving the quality of the understanding behind the decision.
Apply It to Your Business
Before your next important business decision, ask yourself: What do I know? What am I assuming? What information may be missing? What is influencing my response? What is my current capacity? What is the capacity of the people or systems involved? What is the purpose of the decision I am about to make? Then ask: Am I oriented enough to act responsibly? That question will become an important part of how you learn to build, lead, and make decisions on purpose.