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John Renesch |
If we are to successfully transition to a new planetary
consciousness and transcend the global ecological crisis, the unemployment problem, the
growing tension between the "haves" and the "have nots," and all the
other concerns facing us as a species, we need to be more conscious. As Einstein
stated years ago, we can't solve our problems thinking the same way we did when we created
them.
New thinking doesn't mean thinking new thoughts. It means thinking differently!
That may be difficult to grasp, especially for business folks who are so pragmatic and
bottom-line oriented. For people who have been trained and who have worked in environments
that reward physical and material success, results that can be measured, just hearing
conversations with words like "consciousness" or "new thinking" is
difficult to grasp. It's even harder for such people to embrace the concepts as a serious
endeavor.
But it's important for everyone to try: leaders of the future will be men and women who
are keenly aware of the larger context of things. They are not merely focused on the
content or the form of things -- like technique, procedure, methodology, shape, form or
application. These mostly fall into the physical or material plane of reality.
New leaders appreciate the value of the non-physical and non-material aspects of reality,
heretofore unexplored for most business people. These leaders recognize the value of
context -- the source, intentionality, integrity, vision, values, and the larger purpose
of things.
Able to appreciate context, the originating abstraction of the project, product, service
or company mission, these leaders also are sensitive beyond what they see and hear. They
have a keen sixth sense that allows them to discern beyond the physical senses. They can
pick up on "texture of the space", like knowing something or someone isn't right
without any rational reason.
In this way, they are "irrational." They are deeply intuitive and can instantly
pick up when the texture changes, like a dog behaves just before an earthquake.
These leaders possess a strong knowing that goes beyond mental capacity; this knowing
relies on their deep sense of interconnection with others, an appreciation for what
philosopher Martin Buber called the "between."
Sound crazy and off-the-edge? If it does, you might look at you own attachment to the
fixed status quo and your own appetite for rehashed dribble from the latest leadership
guru wanting to build a reputation by identifying the "five key
qualities," the "way to lead," etc.
We all have attachments to the way things are. It shows up differently in each of us, but
we all resist change somehow. That's what makes real transformation so difficult. But we
must all stop the dribble and start leading as if our lives depended on it. They do.