I-Cubed: Inner Game, Impact, & Interconnection

The I-Cubed framework takes a whole-systems approach to the potential and possibility your team brings to the organization. It consists of three core components:

• Inner Game
• Impact
• Interconnection

Each of them influences and is influenced by the other two.

Inner Game

This is where everything starts.

Why? Because all the ways you have ever made an impact in your life have one thing in common – they start with you. You are the originating source of any way you make a difference. And that’s true for every single member of your team as well.

When you feel less stressed, more resilient, more energized, and more engaged, not only does life feel better, you also have more to put into whatever you do. You have more inner resources to put into the difference you make, and you can do it more effectively.

In short, you can bring a better game to your impact.

My work with the Inner Game uses The Aliveness CODE ^TM , a framework based on two continuums running from constricted to open and from drained to energized. The goal of the work is to learn how to spend more time at the energized and open ends of those continuums, a space I call the Aliveness Zone.

Impact

Impact is the point where we transform raw possibility and potential into the difference we make in the world.

At the individual level, Impact is explored through the lens of meaning and purpose. When we can connect our work with what matters to us personally, we experience more intrinsic motivation. It fuels us and gives our work a context that can make it more personally relevant and vibrant.

At the team level, the focus is specifically on purpose. Why does the team exist? Not just its operational function, but the difference it makes. Some might call it the team’s “big why.” Understanding that gives you a foundation and a touchstone to keep coming back to (both as an individual and as a team). Purpose can be both a source of energy and a guiding force.

Finally, the team’s purpose is explored as it relates to the institution’s mission.

Interconnection

Individual impact can be organized, amplified, and energized through teams. Teams aggregate individual effort and transform it into results far greater than any one person could accomplish. At its best, a team can both magnify and fuel the impact of its members.

As with individuals, there is an Aliveness Zone for teams as well, that space where they can bring the best of what they have to offer. It’s where the team members can tap into their fullest collective potential in a wide range of areas, including collaboration, creativity, innovation, critical-thinking, problem-solving, effective communication, and learning.

The questions to explore here are, “How do we as a team create an environment, culture, and way of doing things that lets us occupy the Aliveness Zone more fully?” and, “What is getting in our way?