Sustainable, Innovative Leadership by Zach Smith
August 8, 2008
06:37 pm | 0 recommendations | 2 comments
In my previous post on The evolution of sustainable leadership I wrote:
"The evolution of sustainable leadership is commitment to a process of self development that begins with “me” but necessarily expands to include and transcend “me.” The deeper we dive, the broader we roam, the richer our understanding of our place and purpose."
So how does this process work? The short answer is it must necessarily work in different ways for different people. Though the aim may be the same, we start from different places, different life spaces and conditions. Yet there some constants. One of those is capacity.
To deepen our capacity means to target our capability to perceive and act from what we are learning. At Interkannections we view this as the journey of capacity evolution where G, I and T-shaped leaders become H, A and U-shaped leaders. Here, again, there are many paths up the mountain. However, it would be foolish to ignore some well-worn trails:
In “integral” speak this means being able to leverage what is called a 4Q perspective: deepening and balancing insight gained from perspectives on
- the self
- the self and others
- the world and our actions in it
- the systems and processes we create and in which we are embedded.
Peter Senge has popularized systems thinking as a way to access the meaning to be made from the inter-relationships listed above. The key to systems thinking is to focus on the relationships between key agents, stakeholders and constituents. The beauty of systems thinking is that it helps us perceive the non-linear, hopelessly complex and deeply intertwined realities affecting us on daily basis. Understanding those realities is the necessary first step to wisely affecting and influencing them.
Otto Scharmer uses “Theory U” and presencing to take individuals and groups on learning journeys that allow them to access and leverage intuitive inter-connection and insight. Theory U and presencing are simple, powerful forms of meditation. They help practitioners access the power of intuition and tap the well of perception and insight we all have available to us when we let go of our illusions and assumptions about our selves and the world around us. Less important than the technique is the process of becoming still, observant and creating the space for reflection. Any meditative practice can help you do this.
At Interkannections we employ all of the above-when necessary-to help our clients make the shift from their current patterns of thinking and behavior to a more sustainable, life giving, value generating way of living and engaging with the world. The key in evolving your approach to leadership and your life, in general, to a more sustainable one, in the end, is, of course: YOU. You have to want to take on the challenge, have the will, discipline and commitment to evolve. You must have the courage, wisdom and humility to learn and seek out experiences and teachers to help you evolve.
And, most importantly, YOU can start, NOW.Expanded from The Capacity Evolution Blog
09:22 pm | 0 recommendations | 1 comment
Sustainable leadership arises from being able to see the world as it is: in its infinite complexity and subtle simplicity. It requires deep capacity to know and reflect on yourself and the multiple implications of your actions. It also requires that you extend your concept of “self” to include much more than “me” and home to be much more than “my house.” As the poet Gary Snyder has written “home is as big as you make it.”
Leadership is a practice. One CEO I recently spoke with said that leadership is a performance. Indeed it is both. Leadership is the enactment and realization of our capacity as humans to engage others and the world around us and inspire thinking, reflection and action. At its best, leadership is transformative. Great leaders transform themselves and with the depth of their perception, the strength of their conviction and the beauty of their vision they help others transform as well. Often these transformations can be “spiritual” in their quality. Spirit being that which connects you to your self, your self to others, that self to the world, the divine and those mysterious, powerful insights that arise from these relationships.
Sustainable leadership is the practice, performance and enactment of a perception, conviction and vision that respects, nurtures and supports that which sustains us and, importantly, that which sustains that which sustains us.The evolution of sustainable leadership is commitment to a process of self development that begins with “me” but necessarily expands to include and transcend “me.” The deeper we dive, the broader we roam, the richer our understanding of our place and purpose. From this process our practice: our words and actions arise.
The greater the depth of our perception, the greater potential we bring for transformation, the greater our capacity to create sustainable approaches to living, community, innovation and business.Sustainable leadership may, sometimes, be in response to something, however, at its best it is an inspiration and invitation for something. It comes from the inside. It is radiant and compellingly transparent. It is not easy and it is not what you think it is, right now.This is just the beginning. More to follow soon…This post also appears in the Capacity Evolution blog
July 7, 2008
07:51 pm | 0 recommendations | Be the first to comment
Our capacity to understand and engage the world is limited by our awareness--what we can perceive. We engage with what we believe the world to be. How we engage with the world is who we are. A simple example is this: If I perceive the world as fundamentally other or separate from me then I will tend to commodify it. I will tend to try to control it, manipulate and use it as end to my means. The world is like a vast shopping mall. I am a consumer. Sound familiar...?
There has been a lot written about
T-shaped people. For a good list of links visit
Keith Instone's blog.
Tim Brown's article in Fast Company talks about their strategy at
IDEO: "We look for people who are so inquisitive about the world that they're willing to try to do what you do. We call them "T-shaped people." They have a principal skill that describes the vertical leg of the T -- they're mechanical engineers or industrial designers. But they are so empathetic that they can branch out into other skills, such as anthropology, and do them as well. They are able to explore insights from many different perspectives and recognize patterns of behavior that point to a universal human need. That's what you're after at this point -- patterns that yield ideas."
T-shaped people can dive deep like
I-shaped people, but they have left the safety and comfort of simple expertise behind. T-shaped people tend to be more engaging and appreciative of others and the contribution those people might bring to the project.However, people at the T-shaped worldview may still tend to see their wide ranging connections as a means to a specific end. In other words, if you are in the T-shaped person's network, you may be being used-a resource to be consumed.
To really get egalitarian and, to use an overused slogan, "leverage diversity", we're actually not looking at "T", we're talking about
"H-shaped". The difference is this: at the "T" range of capacity we are just beginning to engage others and the world in their complex glory. Others are still others. The world is still "out there." When we make the move from being T-shaped to being H-shaped we take on a more inclusive, flexible and inter-connected perspective. The boundaries between "me", "you" and "the world" begin to blur. This is when innovation gets really exciting and sustainability starts to gain traction. Why? We become capable of viewing problems, solutions and projects from multiple perspectives, interlinked time horizons and non-linear relationships.
Change becomes less like a disruptive wave washing away castles in the sand and more like an opportunity for some great surfing, generating power for the coastal community, and a moment to be savored and enjoyed even as the next swells sweep in toward shore.
08:46 pm | 0 recommendations | 2 comments
To give you a sense of what I do and where I'm coming from please read below:
I'm a consultant, researcher and practitioner committed to the evolution of human and human system capacity to engage the world. It is not just what we do that matters but how we are as well. This can be explaned as the relationship between “Be-Do-Get.” How we are-how we see, understand and make meaning-in the world determines what we do. The results of our worldview and our actions are the results we get.
There is a lot of energy being directed toward and focus on helping people do better. Skill development, competency improvement and technology all help us do better. There are times, though, when what we need is not a new way to do the same thing differently. At times, we need to evolve a new way of seeing that allows us to overcome the limitations of our current ways of doing. The development of this new way of seeing is a result of deepening our capacity to see. This is what I do and what I believe we need to do to face the new complexity unfolding before us. We need to help people and human systems deepen their sense of their selves and deepen the way they interact-are interconnected-with the world around them.
One valuable way we can be of service is to turn our practice and technologies to the development of sustainable ways of Be-ing and Do-ing. We-the greater human community-need to evolve the capacity to engage the world from a deep systemic understanding. This is not environmentalism, a focus of climate change, green business or LOHAS. It is the capacity to integrate the linear with the non-linear, to see the forest and the trees and come up with a way for the loggers, environmentalists, paper business, bird-watchers, bears, flowers, fish, toads and people living downstream to all benefit from their relationship to that forest. This requires a new way of seeing and thinking and doing. What enables this new way is our capacity to see, think and do.
Are you ready to change?
