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How to Unleash Your Human Operating System

By Bill Fox

Mara Gleason Olsen: Co-founder and director at One Solution.


At Forward Thinking Workplaces, we discover the people, insights, and strategies that lead to Forward Thinking minds, leaders, and workplaces of the future — today!‌


How can we create workplaces where every voice matters, everyone thrives and finds meaning, and change and innovation happen naturally?

Mara Gleason: I believe that all three of those things happen when people understand where their experience is coming from, which is why I’ve been so delighted to stumble across a set of principles that explains where the human experience comes from. One of the reasons the workplace is often considered the opposite of what you just said is that people don’t feel heard. People don’t feel there’s space for innovation—and just generally, many people really dislike their work.

The number of people describing their workplaces as toxic is increasing. Stress and burnout have become routine. Now I don’t think that’s one person’s fault. I don’t believe that it’s the boss’s fault. I don’t think it’s a nasty co-worker’s fault. I believe that it’s an innocent symptom of a misunderstanding about the human experience pervasive throughout all aspects of society right now. But it’s especially pronounced in the workplace.

When people don’t understand that their experience is coming from their own mind, they tend to feel very victimized by external forces.


That means that things like the boss, a deadline, budget cuts, or even just the traffic getting into the workplace stresses them out. If you were to ask the average human walking around the streets today, what is hard about their job, most people would give you a list of those external forces. Their list would include either people or circumstances that they feel are completely out of their control and have nothing to do with them. But what’s interesting is in the principles that we’ve uncovered about how the mind operates and how it creates life experience from the inside out. It totally flips people’s understanding of life on its head.

Prior to learning an understanding referred to as the three principles, I thought that my good feelings and my bad feelings came from things that happened to me or people around me.


When it was introduced to me that there’s a universal kind of operating system for all human beings regardless of workplace, culture, race, gender, creed, religion, regardless of anything, just a basic set of principles, kind of like biology, that explains how we create our feelings, it was a revelation to me. For example, we have a heartbeat and have cells doing these magnificently complicated jobs inside our bodies. There’s also a human operating system that explains how humans create their perception of reality, and that is thought. The fact that we are thinking all the time. That’s thought the first principle.

Then there’s consciousness, the second principle. The fact that we are aware. Humans are aware, but they’re not aware of the outside world. That is what was so new to me. They’re aware of thought. I’m feeling, having awareness in my sensory system in my body, in my feelings, of my own thinking (not the outside world). But it’s so seamless and instantaneous that it appears I’m having a feeling and an awareness of the world out there and other people.

Then the third principle of mind, which is that thought comes from an energy source. Just like our heartbeat isn’t something we wake up and manually do every day, there’s not an on-button that we have to worry about pressing. It’s just an automatic force of life. Mind is the universal automatic force behind life, which means that we will keep having new thoughts. The more people begin to understand that their experience of life is internally generated—not externally generated—the more they realize that they basically can go back to the well to look for new thoughts. That capability is built in—the potential to have a new thought at any moment. It’s like, what do they say when you buy a new toy? Batteries are already included. Well, your mind is already included. The potential for new thought is already included in the human makeup. We have to know where to look for it.

When I’ve worked for companies and introduced the 3 Principles, there’s been this magnificent transition in the individuals and the general workplace culture as people begin to look to see how their experience is created from the inside out—not the outside in. They know that “Oh, I’m experiencing thought, and I can keep looking for a new thought!” Not only does that help people be less victimized, stressed, and burned-out, but it also gives them a roadmap to innovation.

Creativity and innovation are just fun words for new thought, in my opinion. New thought is the engine behind creativity, the engine behind innovation. The thing that kills creativity and innovation is old thought. Helping people see some principles that explain the basic human operating system gives them the roadmap to creativity and innovation. It gives them the roadmap to having a richer and more enjoyable work experience because they’re not feeling so stressed and as if that stress is being put upon them.

One of the most beautiful things I see transform in companies—when the people in them learn these principles of how the mind creates our experiences—is that most people are living in a LOT OF THOUGHT and don’t know it—or don’t know that it’s optional.


Thought feels externally imposed, so most people you speak to in your average workplace say they feel like they have too much to do, too little time, and too much noise in their heads. That creates a very unpleasant feeling in a person because we’re living in the feeling of our thinking. But it also makes listening nearly impossible.

There is a massive disconnection in humanity right now, and people are so hungry to be heard—to feel like they’re sitting across from someone present—to feel in the moment. All those things we talk about that we try to get through activities and techniques like yoga and meditation. If people could understand that they’re living in a world of thought, that’s of their making. They don’t have to do that. Then an enormous amount of it falls away. They become quieter and more present-minded. Then listening starts to happen. I sometimes think that is the first thing that changes when people learn these principles—they start listening outside of their old thinking habits. That alone dramatically changes the workplace’s feeling as more people listen with less thinking on their minds.

What does it take to get an employee’s full attention and best performance?

Mara: I remember saying to my Dad once, who is still sharing the principles in his company with new employees and many who have been learning about it for years. He once asked me, “Mara, how would you define leadership?” I thought for a moment and said, “I think leadership is bringing out the best in others by bringing out the best in yourself.” I don’t think it’s humanly possible to bring out the best in others if you don’t bring out the best in yourself.

I don’t know why human eyeballs face outward. It would help if they face inward!

I think that’s the funny thing about humans. I always joke (and I don’t really mean this), “I don’t know why human eyeballs face outward. It will help if they face inward!” I say that only because I think everything about us wants to look outside us first. What made me feel that way? How do I fix that person? What needs to be better in my life out there? As if those things are somehow real. From studying the mind and human experience, I’ve learned that the only thing we’re ever experiencing is ourselves and our mind. The clearer my mind is, the clearer the world looks.

What do people really lack and long for at work?

Mara: I would put it very simply; it’s the same thing people lack and long for life anywhere in the world, which is a good feeling.

I could say that in a million different ways—more connection, more feeling, more in the moment, more inspiration, more recognition, and so on. You could say so many words, but I would sum it up by saying people want more good feelings. They want to feel better at work and in life. I’ve never met a human from anywhere—and I’ve worked with violent gang members who are doing lifetime prison sentences to CEOs with millions and millions of dollars in their bank account—and underneath the wrapping of those individuals on the inside is the same desire, which is to feel nice in life. I don’t mean happy all the time; that’s not what I mean. I think a more good feeling can just be a peace of mind.

I think sometimes people strive for happiness. It’s misleading. I’m not happy all the time, but I enjoy my life. I have a lot of peace of mind, and I think that’s what people are looking for. If people only knew how their experience of life was being created from the inside out, everyone could have peace of mind no matter where they are and what work they were in. I know that upsets some people. I know there are so many different exceptions people want to see, but I have been blown away by how unconditional peace of mind can become in my last 11 years of doing this work.

How many people would start by saying it with absolutely 100% certainty that the circumstance or the other person was making them miserable? When they learn how their minds work and find peace of mind from within, they feel free. They feel happier. They feel more contentment. They feel more peace, and they have more good feelings. It’s not a conditional good feeling. It’s an unshakable, internally derived good feeling.

To put it simply, a good feeling comes from a quiet mind. People don’t appreciate that because they’re looking for so many things outside of them to give them that good feeling. When they truly experience a quiet mind, it’s like, “Oh, wow!” I don’t even need the things I thought I needed!”

What is the most important question leaders should ask employees?

Mara: It’s going to sound ridiculous and unorthodox, but what I would ask is this, “If you weren’t doing this with your time, what would you be doing?” I think it’s incredibly revealing. People don’t let themselves ask themselves that question because they don’t see it as a possibility. And I wouldn’t stop there.

If I were running an IT company and said to my employee, “What would you be doing if you weren’t doing this?” and they said surfing. I wouldn’t then walk away saying, “Well, ok, too bad, that’s nothing related to IT. I guess you got to make a choice, either stick with this boring job or go surf.” I think it’s just interesting to see where people let themselves go in their thinking when asked that question. The reason I’d ask that question—not because the answer specifically matters—I’d be looking for what makes them come alive. Then I would love to find out what it is about that thing that makes them come alive. Because what I’ve learned in sharing these principles with people is that they’ve innocently attributed freedom of mind to a specific activity.

For example, “Oh, I have this job I do, but what I love is woodworking.” Or, “Oh, I have this job, but what I love doing is playing tennis.” Or, “What I love to do is tinkering around with gadgets in my house.” Whatever this thing is is people telling you what makes them come alive. What they would love to be doing all day, every day—that’s where their mind is free. That’s where they don’t overthink. That’s where they don’t care what anyone else says. They don’t care about an outcome. They are just in a flow or in the moment. Any activity that a human says is what they love doing is where their mind is free.

But most of us, myself included, assumed it was something in the activity itself before learning these principles. The activity did something special to me. Therefore I had a lot of enjoyment while I was doing that activity. I think there’s so much room to explore where people might be able to come alive—to be in the moment.

What is the most important question employees should ask leaders?

Mara: Ask the same question above. I only say that because I think in offices and work environments, people tend to put so many boxes around things like, “Well, this is what a manager would ask of an employee, and this is what an employee would ask of a manager.”

I think we’re all just humans, and we forget that. I don’t know that the question should change. We tend to think the question should change, but in truth, it’s, “What makes humans come alive?” Let’s all talk about that more.

What is the most important question we should ask ourselves?

Mara: It’s funny because we just mentioned cats, dogs, and babies in an earlier conversation. I’m going to suggest we stop asking ourselves questions and be. I always say to my clients when they say, “Doesn’t this matter, and doesn’t this matter?” They’re overburdening their mind with so many questions and never answering them. It just creates a lot of chatter in the human mind. It creates this sense of deficiency or lack. People are saying to themselves, “Well, I have to figure this out, and I don’t have enough of that yet. And what about this, and what about that.” I always look at small children, and I think they’re not asking themselves questions themselves like, “How am I doing today?” or, “Am I a bad person because I did that thing?” They’re just in life, and when they do ask questions, they ask questions about the world—not about themselves.

People overburdening their minds with so many questions and never answering them. It just creates a lot of chatter in the human mind.

In young children, you can see it starts at five, six, or seven years old. They start becoming self-conscious creatures and start realizing they have an identity. That’s when we start asking ourselves questions. When you look at a baby, it’s learning by the sheer state of being in wonderment—not actively seeking out an answer. I think there’s something so lovely—if adults could just let go of all the questioning and be in a state of life and wonderment without needing to know answers. You get answers and learning about life, but it’s not necessarily what you thought you were going to get, but it’s just as rich if not richer.

I would also add to this one of the things that shifted for me when I learned some principles explain the human experience. Mind is a built-in intelligence, so it almost looks cute to me now. I’ll speak for myself—I don’t mean to be patronizing towards anyone else. It’s almost cute to me that I try to figure things out with my personal thought system. “Oh, what should I be doing with this?” It now looks very innocently cute. Isn’t that sweet? There go my personal mind and my personal thinking. My personal thought system trying to come up with answers. Because whenever that personal thought system goes quiet, I live with the intelligence of mind at my back. Everything I’ve gotten so far in life has just been an automatic result of being human and having the intelligence of life built into me. Every time I’ve struggled, it’s because my little personal thought system has started making up stories that I don’t know enough. I don’t need to ask myself more questions.

Every time I’ve struggled it’s because my little personal thought system has started making up stories that I don’t know enough. I don’t need to ask myself more questions.

Syd Banks had the quote that, “Humans have the knowledge of all things and just don’t know it.” That statement has always struck me. The little ego part of me is saying, “Really, all things… all, all things?” I don’t want to get greedy about it, but I realize that’s more of a spiritual statement when I get out of my personal mind. It’s like when you get quiet; you realize you know everything you need to know. The rest is just chatter. We make up a whole bunch of ideas about where we should be—what we should know. There’s something about just resting in a deeper, more universal, more fundamental intelligence. That state comes to us in a state of being.

In an earlier conversation with you, I shared my experience of how I observed things starting to change around me as I started leading myself and “being the change.” Can you share your thoughts on why this happens?

Mara: I think there’s something so profound in that, and I’ll try to talk about it simply because I think it can easily get lost and sound too abstract, but that’s the profundity of seeing humans are levels of consciousness because most people are looking for what do I do? Tell me what to do? What’s good leadership? Would you please give me the things that you do? The things that the great leader does. There’s really no juice for the squeeze in doing because doing is just a natural ripple out of a state of consciousness. And to your point, anytime someone leaps in their own personal understanding of their own mind or has their own shift in consciousness, they do differently without even realizing it, and then things change.

Filed Under: Forward Thinking Workplace Interview

Leadership Behavior Sets the Tone

By Bill Fox Leave a Comment

Meredith Haberfeld: CEO at ThinkHuman.


At Forward Thinking Workplaces, we are discovering the people, insights, and strategies that lead to Forward Thinking minds, leaders, and workplaces of the future — today. Forward Thinking conversations will define the great workplaces of the 21st century. Check out our upcoming Events page or visit billfox.co to learn more.


How can we create workplaces where every voice is heard, everyone thrives and finds meaning, and change and innovation happen naturally?

Meredith Haberfeld: I have what some might consider a somewhat reactionary or even Paleozoic view given the trending enthusiasm for Holacracy, Responsive, and other decentralized authority models, but I see that leadership matters immensely. Not just as it relates to vision, but culture as well. Leadership sets the behavioral bar and the emotional tone. Leadership behavior gets mirrored and reflected throughout an entire organization.

‌‌Imagine culture is a sound wave in an echo chamber, moving back and forth, from senior leadership through every part of the organization. 

Senior leadership caps the peak vibration for the echoing wave. You may have small pockets of high vibration culture, but if it isn’t embodied by the leadership, it doesn’t move throughout the organization as a whole. Leadership sets the bar.

In change management theory, a lot is said about leadership buy-in or sponsorship. But, buy-in and sponsorship fail. What causes lasting cultural behavioral patterns in an organization is based on what the leadership embodies. If the leadership is embodying command and control, anxiety-driven, fear-based modes of operating, that sets the tone for how that organization operates.

Buy-in and sponsorship fail. What causes lasting cultural behavioral patterns in an organization is based on what the leadership embodies. ‌‌If leadership behavior is encouraging views from all parts of the organization, addresses challenging conversations with one another rather than triangulate, that behavior then is what gets echoed, and embedded throughout the rest of the organization.

What to do if the culture one finds oneself in has leadership behavior that does not create an ecosystem where people can thrive?

Two options:

  1. Start embodying it oneself to create a node of power within the organization. This node ripples out and influences those around them.‌‌
  2. If you’re in an organization that clearly isn’t values aligned, leaving is also a great idea. We’re in a new world of work where people can leave rather than stay stuck like they did in the past where people took a job and stayed for their career. And that is a good thing. It means leaders are more motivated than ever to embody behavior that creates a thriving ecosystem, as it not only creates better business outcomes, it’s a recruiting advantage.‌‌

How do we get an employee’s full attention and best performance?

Meredith: We live at a time when people look to work as a place for self-actualization.

These days, when you go into a cafe you see people hard at work on their laptops pouring their time, energy, effort, creativity, and innovation into building something. Human beings want to create and give our efforts towards something. Organizations just need to tap and channel that.

Tapping into that desire involves giving people the chance to channel their full capabilities as human beings, accessing more of their creativity, passion, and “internal real estate” of their brain.

The job of the workplace is to unlock people’s potential and see each worker as just not a result producer for the business, but rather as a human being.‌‌The job of the workplace is to unlock people’s potential and see each worker as just not a result producer for the business, but rather as a human being.

When a workplace is oriented around ‘how do I enable this person to express their potential as a human being’ they bring forth a person’s best work. That’s good for the individual and the company.

What do people really lack and long for at work?

Meredith: Clearly we’re now in the IMPACT or PURPOSE generation. There’s a 5,000-year-old cave painting in France that’s a little handprint. When I see it, I imagine a caption that reads ” I was here.” So it’s not a new concept, we long for significance. We come most alive when we can see a narrative bigger than ourselves, and we can find a place in it where we can plug in. Our piece of that story matters.

But we now expect to be able to make meaning and impact in our work.

What is the most important question leaders should ask employees?

Meredith: What are your big, hefty, juicy goals or your vision for yourself and the world?‌‌What should I do and not do to support you to make that happen?‌‌

What is the most important question employees should ask leaders?

Meredith: Explore your blind spots with your supervisor. What do you see in me that I don’t see in myself in terms of possibility, and ‌‌the things that hold me back? Then you have to have some faith that your manager has your best interests in mind.

What is the most important question we should be asking ourselves?

Meredith: What’s next, to be the best version of myself in this moment?‌‌ When we do that kind of honest accounting, we say “Wow, I was really an asshole in those three instances, and I want to go clean that up and make sure I don’t do that again. And that other thing that I did was really great, I want to do more of that.”

What are you most excited about at this time?

Meredith: I’m most excited by consciousness. We can all see disruptive technology over the coming hundred years is likely to take over so much of what human beings already do, from the jobs of doctors and engineers to cashiers.

What does that mean for human experience and human expression?

If human consciousness is what distinguishes us from machines, exploring the terrain of human consciousness from joy and suffering to boredom—the whole terrain—is what is exciting me.

Filed Under: Forward Thinking Workplace Interview

Voices Will Matter, People Will Thrive, and Innovation Will Become Ingrained in the Culture If…

By Bill Fox

John Bell: Former CEO, Jacobs Suchard. John reflects on leadership, branding, and life at the CEO Afterlife. He also is the author of Do, Less Better. Read our review of John’s book at What’s Stopping You from Doing Less Better?


At Forward Thinking Workplaces, we are discovering the people, insights, and strategies that lead to Forward Thinking minds, leaders, and workplaces of the future — today!‌


‌How can we create workplaces where every voice matters, everyone thrives and finds meaning, and change and innovation happen naturally?

John Bell: I read this question three times before realizing that the answer can be found within the question. Voices will matter, people will thrive, and innovation will become ingrained in the culture if—people find meaning. So if people can find meaning, you can satisfy the question. But that begs another question, “How do people find this elusive meaning in their work?”

Voices will matter, people will thrive, and innovation will become ingrained in the culture if—people find meaning.

In my experience, the starting place is a corporate purpose that not only resonates with employees but binds them together. Sure, we’d all prefer a moral purpose, such as working for a company that saves lives or saves the planet. But that’s not to say that people can’t be inspired by a company vision that thrills customers, pleases people, and brings fulfillment.

For example, I’ll share my experience with Apple. When you are a tech neophyte like me, you can spend a lot of time talking on the phone to technical support people. When I got my iPhone, I spent a lot of time talking to the techies at Apple. I was blown away by their work ethic and their desire to help. They can’t do enough for you, so I asked one of the reps about their process, “Are you not on a quota because you’re not rushing me here or anything.” The rep said, “No, there are no quotas at all. The satisfaction of the customer judges us.” He went on to say that if you do an excellent job, you get a better choice of work hours and schedule. Now, there’s a voice that matters.

At L.L. Bean, the idea of selling outstanding apparel and outdoor equipment at a reasonable profit and treating customers like human beings is worth the effort. For Wegmans Food Markets, it’s all about caring, respect, empowerment, and making a difference. Organizations that walk the talk create Work that Matters. And when you have work that matters, you have more voices that matter and people that thrive personally and professionally.

Note: This is a preview of the full interview. The complete interview was selected by Apress for publication and continues in The Future of the Workplace.

Filed Under: The Future of the Workplace

The Person Who Sweeps the Floor Chooses the Broom

By Bill Fox

Howard Behar: President (Retired), Starbucks.


At Forward Thinking Workplaces, we are discovering the people, insights, and strategies that lead to Forward Thinking minds, leaders, and workplaces of the future — today. 


How can we create workplaces where more voices matter, people thrive and find meaning, and change and innovation happen naturally?

Howard Behar: I have this little saying, “The person who sweeps the floor chooses the broom.” What I mean by that is the person who has a responsibility in certain areas is given authority, responsibility, and accountability. That means you’ve got to give them room to make mistakes and to grow primarily as people first, and then as employees.

The keyword here is trust. What makes a family healthy? What makes it so the kids can strike out on their own? What makes it so our partners can stretch out on their own? It’s the trust we build with each other—that’s what has to happen in organizations too. When you have trust, it’s amazing what can happen.

When there’s trust, it’s amazing how people can begin to use their own creativity because they lose that fear of being judged. They lose the fear of making mistakes.

They go out there and do things that serve each other and serve their customers. It’s not complicated. It’s half building trust and caring about each other while encouraging each other. As a leader, it’s giving them responsibility and accountability to let them “choose their broom.”

You know it’s not really employees and customers. That’s a word we all use to describe who we work and do business with. It’s one human being serving another human being. That’s what it is. At the end of the day, that’s what we were put on the earth to do. It doesn’t make any difference in your job description or your title; we’re all servers of human beings.

Note: This is a preview of the full interview. The complete interview was selected by Apress for publication and continues in The Future of the Workplace.

Filed Under: The Future of the Workplace

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