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Feature Article: We’re the Leaders We’ve Been Waiting For!
"Never doubt that a small group of committed citizens can change the world."
Margaret Meade
What better time could there possibly be to focus on leadership
and whose responsibility it is to provide it than in the midst of the presidential campaign? There are many seemingly
insurmountable problems that need solving. How are we going
to deal with climate change, political and corporate corruption, the war, spreading poverty, the failure of our education and
health care systems? Who can possibly lead us through this
critical period in our history? Perhaps the answer is that we’re the leaders we’ve been waiting for!
These are very difficult times and many people are feeling
overwhelmed, numbed and afraid. Even so there are positive signs of hope as individuals join together to lead in powerful
ways to meet the challenges we face. “Current human knowledge and technology create the possibility to turn a
potentially terminal human crisis into an epic opportunity,” says author, David Korten. “It is fully within our human means to
navigate ‘the great turning’ if we can awaken a sense of our potential to live in dynamic balance with one another and the
Earth.” When the human potential for cooperation and creativity is unleashed we can accomplish great feats.
Let’s anchor this hopeful perspective with a concrete example.
Twenty years ago, enough people in South Africa woke up to the
reality that their country simply had no future if the trends of the
past continued. Leadership arose from people who were able to
let go of habitual ways of thinking and acting. Blacks and the
whites forged a powerful connection drawn from a deep love of the land and its people–not for the government or the
established systems. Together committed individuals somehow sensed they could create their world anew—a country
that could survive and thrive in the future.
Throughout human history, when the world became fearsome,
we humans have joined together. When the world called us to
explore its edges, we journeyed together. We have never wanted
to be alone but fear of each other keeps us apart. Is it possible
that when we come together, share what we see and think and feel, and listen deeply to each another, we will discover we
share the same desires for freedom, for meaning, for learning,
and for love? “Human conversation is the most ancient and the easiest way to cultivate the conditions for change—personal
change, community and organizational change, planetary change.” (Margaret Wheatley)
Today, in the midst of chaos, people are coming together in the
way humans always have—to create a safe space to support each other, to make sense of life, to move their work and life
journeys forward. Human beings have always sat in circles and
councils to do their best thinking, and to develop strong and
trusting relationships. A modern-day version of the council are the circles of women from around the world who connect
through the Internet for spirited conversation and mutual support through the Peace by Peace Global Network. Their vision is to
create a world where women are central to building sustainable peace and where, through balanced partnerships women and
men will transform fear and hostility into actions that build cultures of harmony...person by person, connection by connection, Peace by Peace. Peace by Peace won
the Best Community Building/Activism award in the ePhilanthropy Foundation’s 2007 International Awards.
Another network facilitated by the internet has been formed by story three engineering undergrads at MIT
joining together to solve a seemingly impossible problem. They’re not waiting for GM to lead the way. They
are building a hyper-efficient “clean” car. They launched the Vehicle Design Summit—a global,
open-source, collaborative effort made up of teams of college students from around the world, including
India and China. Tom Friedman (NYTimes 12/2/07) tells the story of these pioneers who became tired of
waiting for someone else to lead, and embraced the mantra “we are the people we’ve been waiting for!”
Reality doesn’t change itself. We must act. When we don’t talk with one another, we stop acting intelligently.
It takes courage to start a new conversation in this noisy, fragmented world, yet it is through conversation that
we can transform our world together. There is no power equal to a community discovering what it cares
about. “Simple conversations that originate deep in our caring give birth to powerful actions that change
lives and restore hope for the future. Large and successful change efforts start in this way…not with leaders
announcing a plan,” suggests Margaret Wheatley in her inspiring book, In Turning to One Another. When a
few people notice something they will no longer tolerate, or respond to a dream of possibility, they find a few
others who care and figure out the first steps. We don’t have to start with power, only passion.
“The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling
short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.” Michelangelo
Leadership Lessons: Open Mind—Open Heart—Open Will
Fundamental problems, as Einstein noted, cannot be solved at the same level of thought that created them
in the first place. What we pay attention to and how we attend, both individually and collectively, is key to what
we create. What prevents us from being more effective is what Otto Scharmer calls our blind spot, the inner
place from which each of us operates. Learning to become aware of that blind spot is critical to bringing
forth the changes so needed in business and society today.
In his groundbreaking book Theory U, Otto Scharmer explores a new territory of scientific research,
institutional change and transformational leadership practice which says a great deal about the nature of
leadership in times of great turbulence and change. This leadership comes from all levels, arising from
individuals and groups who are able to let go of established ideas, assumptions and practices, and see the
world with new eyes. “This leadership comes as people start to connect deeply with who they are and their
part in both creating what is and realizing a future that embodies what they care most deeply about.”
According to Scharmer, “seeing our seeing” requires the intelligences of the open mind, the open heart, and
the open will and he adds that we must cultivate these capacities on the individual and the collective level.
- The open mind. The first opening, happens when people truly start to recognize their own
taken-for-granted assumptions and start to hear and see things that were not evident before. This is
the beginning of real learning and, for example, a key for a business attempting to decipher
significant changes in its environment. The inner voice of resistance blocking the gate to the open
mind is the Voice of Judgment. (VOJ)
- The open heart. Recognizing something new, however, does not necessarily lead to acting differently
because we have a built in immune system. For that to happen, a deeper level of attention is
required, one that allows people to step outside their traditional experience and truly feel beyond the
mind. When people begin to “see” what was previously unseen and see their own part in maintain
the old and inhibiting or denying the new, the dam starts to break. This can happen in a company or
a country. The inner voice of resistance blocking the gate to the open heart is the Voice of Cynicism. (VOC)
- The open will. We all know what it’s like to nod our heads and keep doing what we’ve always done.
This third level of seeing can unlock our deepest levels of commitment-to access our authentic
purpose and self. The inner voice that blocks the open will is the Voice of Fear.(VOF)
“It is only through deep listening that we will unlock our
collective capacity to create the world anew.” Peter Senge
TIPS, TOOLS AND PRACTICES: Open All Four Listening Channels
Practice listening in a deeper way by opening your mind, heart and will. Notice what you immediately say or
think when you listen at Channel 1. Then practice moving into a mode of curiosity at Channel 2 and be open
to learn and t be surprised. Connect with the emotions at Channel 3 and eventually you reach deeply into
Channel 4 listening where you connect to your own Self, your own deep knowing.
- Listen from what you know. “Yeah! I already know that.”
(downloading) This type of listening is about reconfirming habitual judgments. When you are in a situation where everything that happens confirms what you already know, you are listening by downloading.
- Listen from what surprises you. “Ooh, look at that!” (open
mind) Suspending your VOJ means changing the habit of judging
based on the experiences and patterns of the past in order to open up a new space of
exploration, inquiry and wonder. Observe with curiosity.
- Listen from empathizing with the other. “Oh yes, I know how you feel.” (open
mind and heart) When our focus shifts from staring at the objective world of things, figures
and facts into the story of a living being we activate the open heart. Listening with the
heart literally means using the heart and our capacity for appreciation and love as an organ of
perception and we begin to see how the world unfolds through someone else’s eyes.
- Listen from the deepest source “I can’t express what I experience in words. My
whole being slows down. I feel more quiet, present and more my real self.”
(open mind, heart, will) The fourth level of listening to a deeper level that requires us to access our open heart and open will—our capacity to connect to the highest future possibility that wants to emerge. The work focuses on getting our old self out of the way in order to open a space for something entirely different. “You know you have been operating on the fourth level when, at the end of the conversation, you realize that you are no longer the same person you were when you started. You’ve made a connection to a deeper source…your emerging authentic Self. ” (Scharmer)
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There are two different sources of learning: learning from the experiences of the past and learning from the
future as it emerges. The first type of learning, learning from the past, is well-known and well developed. It
underlies all of our major learning methodologies, best practices and approaches to organizational
learning. The second type of learning, learning from the future as it emerges, is a much newer idea. Yet, we
cannot meet our existing challenges operating only on the basis of past experience. Sometimes our past
experience is actually the biggest obstacle to a creative solution. Otto Scharmer calls this operating from the
future as it emerges “presencing.” Presencing is a blend of presence and sensing. If this idea intrigues you, I
suggest two extraordinary books: Presence by Peter Senge, Otto Scharmer, Betty Sue Flowers and Joseph
Jaworski and Theory U by Otto Scharmer. I will be writing more about Presencing in future issues. In the
meantime, take a look at www.presencing.com
© 2008 Bette George & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Associates, Inc. From Conversations on Leadership and Life
, an e-newsletter by Bette George, website: www.bettegeorge.com email: bette@bettegeorge.com.”
Conversations on Leadership and Life is an e-newsletter written by Bette George of Bette George &
Associates. In each issue, Bette offers best practice tips and resources, innovative ideas and inspiration to
help you begin to create the change you want to see in yourself, your workplace, your community.
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