Being Matters - Volume 1

Why do capable people burn out while pursuing success? Why do well-intentioned systems produce disappointing outcomes? Why do organisations, relationships and societies drift away from the values they claim to uphold?

Many books try to answer these questions with new strategies, tools or techniques. Being Matters takes a different path. It looks beneath behaviour and outcomes to explore something more fundamental: how human beings make sense of the world and how they are being within it.

Across entrepreneurship, organisational life, leadership, relationships, stewardship, disability, identity, parenthood and pivotal career transitions, contributors from diverse backgrounds bring these questions into the real world. Their perspectives are varied, but they are connected by a shared engagement with the Being Framework™ and a commitment to clarity, responsibility and systemic integrity. Each brings extensive experience and insight from their field.

The chapters in this book examine how the stance we bring to life quietly shapes what becomes possible. They explore why the way we interpret situations, relate to pressure, respond to others and understand ourselves influences our decisions, actions and consequences, often more than we realise.

This is a book for readers who are tired of surface-level explanations and quick fixes. It is for leaders, entrepreneurs, professionals, coaches, those shaping systems, and anyone willing to ask more honest questions about what sits beneath behaviour and performance, and how our ways of being ripple through the organisations, institutions, communities, cultures and societies we help shape.

Rather than promising simple answers, Being Matters invites you to look more carefully at the human forces shaping your life and the systems you participate in. By the end, you may recognise familiar situations differently and see more clearly how the way you are being shapes your own life, the relationships you form and the systems you engage with.

Written by:

Ashkan Tashvir, Ariya Chittasy, Lucy Faulconer, Dr Anna Carr, John Williams, Tanja Caprioli, Jeanette Mundy, Atefeh Tashvir, Melissa Chittasy, Wayne Stickel, Louise Smallwood, Jacqueline Hofste, Anthea Stevanovic, Caroline New, Aydin Yassemi, John Smallwood, Marlous Teh, Dr Jordan Marijana Alexander and Dr Ehssan Sakhaee

Compiled by:

Ashkan Tashvir