Instead of saying “No,” we say “Yes”

As our participants thought about their next steps as conscious leaders—including writing books, creating nonprofits, organizing artistic communities, and being spiritual activists—they were eager to know how we as a team work together in consciousness and Oneness, how we resolve conflict, and what the experience of accelerated conscious leadership looks and feels like.

As I said, these inquiries took me by surprise because I didn’t realize or intend that as the course unfolded, our team would be “seen” in this way. 

But the more I thought about it, the more obvious it became.

This is very important so this communication is longer than what we normally send out, but I believe you will be rewarded if you read to the end of this email.

Tim Noe, my co-facilitator, and I, as well as the other members of our support team who co-produced and/or attended the sessions, were in the class solely to support our participants on their conscious leadership journeys. 

However, the very act of being together in support was seen by the attendees as “the conscious leadership” the course was intending to teach. 

So I started to wonder…

What are some of the elements that define us as a conscious team in our day-to-day interactions with each other?

I believe one of the most important considerations is the choice we make to “Be kind, not right.”  

Of course, in a team of highly creative and productive people, you’re going to run into strong opinions about a variety of things. Especially when production timelines and creative expression run into each other!

But when people live consciously, they prioritize being a part of the team over being right.

The goal here at Humanity’s team is never to prove someone else wrong, but rather to focus on what we’re trying to accomplish and then support each other in those efforts.

In other words, instead of saying “No,” we say “Yes.”

We say yes when our teammate shares an idea—even if the idea may not be incorporated immediately...or ever.

We say yes when we see that a colleague needs help, even if they don’t ask.

We say yes when sometimes a deadline demands staying late or working weekends, because in Oneness our heart leads the way.

We say yes to just about everything, because our real job as individual members of the team is to support each other day-to-day, while the team as a whole goes about its job of supporting planetary awakening and a flourishing world.

In these days of polarized political parties, rising tensions, and increasing frustrations, there’s often a habitual tendency to push against, to rise up in aggression, to raise our voices against another.

But we, as a conscious team, do the opposite.

We seek commonality, we raise the flag of inspiration, and we increase love in the world by being the love we want to be.

In other words, instead of saying “No,” we say “Yes.”

Our “Yes” is how we model consciousness. 

It’s such an important element that I asked members of our team what they say “yes” to, and I received some beautiful and insightful responses. 

My colleague Christine Glenn, who started as a volunteer with Humanity’s Team Canada and now leads our World Regions, says, “I say ‘YES’ to the gift of a new day (before I get out of bed I say what I am grateful for and I have a whole lot to Be grateful for) including: Scott, 4 furry angels, my health, my home, my community, friendship and so much more. I would rather say yes than no.

“I say ‘YES’ to my generosity which just flows naturally from the state of my Being uniquely Me. In my Heart giving and receiving are exactly the same thing. From you I receive, to you I give, together we share, from this we live.”

As head of World Regions, Christine organizes and plans many things so that our Country Coordinators can say “Yes” to their common vision of Oneness and share all of the critically important grassroots programs they’re leading in their respective countries.

Garth Catterall, our Worldwide IT/WEB Manager, says, “I say YES to PEACE on Earth, through LOVING each other and to being in SERVICE to one another. I so appreciate this team and the great work we are doing in the world.” 

And Tim Noe, our Program Curator, had this to say: “I say Yes to any request for help. 

“Torah tells us that if there is a needy person among us to ‘Give to him readily and have no regrets when you do so, for in return the Lord your God will bless you in all your efforts and in all your undertakings’ (Deut. 15:10, JPS Version).

“Gospels tell us to ‘Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away’ (Matthew 5:42, KJ Version).

“A Course in Miracles tells us that ‘Devotion to a brother cannot set you back ... It can lead only to mutual progress’ (4 Intro I, FIP Version).

“These requests from our brothers and sisters may at times seem to be an inconvenience for us. But in Truth, any request for help from a fellow Child of God is just that: a request for help from a fellow Child of God. 

“What else do we have to do here but help God help God's Children?”

Well said, Christine, Garth, and Tim! 

Our Conscious Leadership Masters Program participants saw our team as models of conscious leadership, even though we weren’t intending to model anything. 

When a team is made up of conscious, awake individuals, there’s a magnet effect: Consciousness draws consciousness onto itself, and the momentum is contagious.

Consciousness never shows up in superiority, competition, or aggression. It’s against its very nature.

Similarly, we as team members don’t show up with an attitude of what we can get from somebody else. In unity consciousness, in Oneness, it’s a different Golden Rule which says, “We do unto others as we’d do unto ourself, because they are our Self.”

It does happen, though rarely, that someone on the team will fall out of alignment with the rest. My experience with this as Executive Director here at Humanity’s Team and also with me personally when I left a job in corporate America, is that when we truly follow our soul’s calling, some doors will close in order for others to open.

In a conscious organization, the process is almost always one of organic change, rather than conflict. If any drop of unease does remain, it’s handled with honesty and authenticity, where all parties concerned have the opportunity to speak candidly.

When I was asked about how we as a team experience accelerated conscious leadership, I remembered our very first Global Oneness day in 2010. I never could have imagined then that our celebration would go on to touch and impact so many hundreds of thousands of people around the world.  

So it’s an example of how when we, individually and as a team, follow our soul’s calling and come into service for the Divine, for Life, we are then used by Divine/Mind to have an enormous impact, even way beyond what we think might be happening. 

I’m grateful every day for the invitation I received to co-found Humanity’s Team with Neale Donald Walsch.

And my gratitude extends to all of my teammates, who show up every day—not above anyone else, not below anyone else, but side by side—having accepted their own invitations to join the team in their own right timing. 

We are truly a family, a conscious family living in Oneness, connection and cooperation.

If you’re open to your own soul’s calling and are wondering, “Am I really ready to run and not walk toward my own invitation to being a conscious teammate or leader?”...

I say to you from my deepest loving heart, “Yes! Truly, truly yes!”

In Conscious Oneness,

Steve