Can crises be opportunities?

Experiences of powerlessness, defeat and crises are gateways to a deeper perception of reality. Sometimes they are gateways to a greater transformation. We know this from our life path.

• What if we were able to discover much earlier that there is a crisis emerging that could lead to an opportunity?

When the boundaries of our constructed identity are shaken, we become insecure, feel powerless and have difficulties to handle the uncertainty that comes with it. This is a signpost that is worth observing. If we learn to not ignore it, not fight it, not correct it, not emotionally react to it, but pause for a little while we might make friends with the crisis much earlier.

The search for meaning

I believe every human being has an initial deeper intention: the intuitive, half-rational, half non-rational feeling or insight, during childhood or adolescence, that the world can be a different place. This is a search for meaning that drives us, a quest that informes the choices we make.

It is an unconscious response to a call that is deeper than surface reality. It is almost a knowing that comes from a timeless place, a place that contains the eternal potential for humanity’s reconciliation.

When I began to talk with other leaders about their young leadership stories I realized the immense role of this earlier intention. For others, too, there was at least a trace of a memory of wanting to change the world or of wanting to be a force for good.

Bringing the creative urge back into our life

We all wish to be creative, and in fact – we all are. But creativity has its own rhythms and dynamics. Bringing the creative urge back into our life is not always easy. Because it requires phases of non-action – not something we have many opportunities to do in the daily rush of events.

It may help to unearth what our pattern of creativity is. One thing is sure – when we are creative, our heart is involved, we feel closer to life, and no matter how aware of it we are, we feel closer to our deepest values.

People are different, so the ways that enable their creativity to flow are different. Allowing our creative expression to well up from a deeper source requires emptiness within. This can mean a mind that rests in silence; it can take the form of withdrawal, into nature, into ourselves, into a busy crowd we are somehow separated from. It is anything that allows an inward process of connection.

Life is rich

I often meet people who are overworked, rushed, with dwindling personal relationships, haunted by overexposure to new technology, and usually exhausted. In this respect, sustainability leaders are not different from those who are in any international business setting. Who would dare to admit that he works less than 12 hours a day? How do you even spell weekend or holiday? When I spoke to a sustainability manager from a global consulting firm, he admitted that whenever he integrated soft aspects (such as collective reflection, dialogue or relationship building) into his projects with large multinational companies, it was exactly this part of the proposal that got cut first by his clients.

 

What counts in the sustainability effort, as much as in all other less-questioned business settings, is “flatland”. The term was coined by US author Ken Wilber, who uses it to describe the world “out there” that most of us call “reality” (as if all other parts of life were not real). It is the world of key performance indicators, quarterly reports, monitoring systems and incentive schemes. It is the dominant culture that runs not only the corporate world, but also government and civil society organisations.

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Is choice possible?

When I look back at my life I often ask myself: how much do I change and how much do I stay the same?

On quiet evenings the answer is: I do change tremendously and I do stay the same. I know my identity is constantly changing as a result of feedback, solicited or not, and yet my identity maintains overall stability.

When I focus on my developmental path as a leader I see the constant inner change I drive consciously. I can see my leadership model continuously under construction. And yet I am re-creating, maintaining and further developing an overall identity. Nothing is fixed, and yet all inner and outer development is influenced by the combination of mind and structure that precedes the new development.

The magic of inclusion

Supporting a new strategy development is nothing special. But how to make sure its adequately inclusive? And what would adequately mean?

I have been asked to help a company’s senior leadership to re-define a strategy. The first workshop with the leadership team went well, we made headway, but I felt an urge that I could not resist. Sometimes you know that a team in its composition won’t be willing or capable to drive a needed change. You know you need to bring in other voices, a different energy, a spark of change that will ignite the complacent team. It is almost like making sure that the larger system needs to be brought in to foster a new way of thinking.

Shifting the way we co-create

When I work with change agents from around the world one question always comes up in evening conversations – how can we shift the way we co-create? How can we more successfully collaborate, become collectively more intelligent, overcome territorial fights, mal- communication and island solution?

I admit there is a not an easy answer. Or at least it does not fit into an elevator speech, and by the time answers are emerging it gets very late in the evening.

Try this:

Ask 10 people when they have experienced really really good collaboration? Let them remember a situation where people supported each other, willingly contributed, listened to each other – and had been very productive and effective together?

You will find that almost everybody remembers at least one situation.

Then ask: so what was this situation made up of ?

You get amazing results: we all know how the world could work!!!

That’s what we did in our recent study. We interviewed change agents for sustainability from around the world.

They created an internationally applied sustainability standard, pushed their company to move sustainability to the centre stage, created an international youth network around biodiversity, built a social enterprise helping hundreds of young people to bring their lives in order, produced a sea change in the way a country approached environmental issues, pioneered a ministries sustainable trading initiative, implemented a company’s diversity strategy, pushed a company into mainstreaming sustainable sourcing, campaigned against dumping chemical waste in Africa, brought innovation for sustainability on the agenda of the corporate world, equipped a whole region to better deal with climate change, helped a company network to raise its sustainability profile, supported a nation’s sustainability strategy, managed an internationally active environmental NGO….. and so on!!!

We were amazed how clearly people defined four important strategies

When do we know that we are walking a new path?

When we begin walking a new path it is tremendously helpful to understand our own storyline. We have come to be the way we are in a certain way and this has affected how we made sense of our experiences. If we know our patterns we know they will accompany us while we slowly begin to change them, even if only by observing them.

Sometimes old patterns hold us in place. We abuse our body and mind by overworking. We avoid reflection. We hide from real commitment because we believe that it would constrain our freedom. We are not saints and we will not become saints as a result of redefining our leadership journey.

Change is inevitable

Many of the changes we go through on our leadership journey are the result of relatively fast decisions, geared to keep the journey going and informed by the rationale of our career path. We react and act. Rarely do we sit back for any length of time and let experiences, thoughts and feelings sink in; rarely do we allow ourselves to not have an answer and let our experience ferment so that we can gradually transform and mature into who we are at our core.

If we have created good personal relationships, we might at times contemplate changes together with our spouse or friends. It is extremely helpful to be able to have this one-on-one dialogue with another person. For some of us, the only opportunity for this might be through a coach.

What are the skills for collective leadership?

Imagine the following. You are in the middle of a mountain area, surrounded by the most beautiful views. There may be some snow on the far mountains, and there are green bushes beside you and there are birds singing and you are standing in the middle of all of that. And somehow you feel very close to the universe, very much at home in the universe, very much at home within yourself. And suddenly you have the feeling, wow, anything can be done, as long as I am able to drive things forward together with others. And you see the beauty of the interconnected nature that is surrounding you.

And then you become much more rational and ask yourself. So what creates the feeling that I have just had? Is it the view of the far mountains? Is it the birds singing? Is it the green hill behind me? Is it the soil under my feet? And then, of course, you think it is all of it. It is the composition of the things surrounding me. And it is me in the middle of the composition, because without me, I would not be feeling the way I felt just now?

That’s the starting point.