Yesterday, as I honored veterans (living and dead) who have served the United States of America in the military, my thoughts turned to freedom. What is it? How do we live it every day? What would it mean if we could encourage others to embody it, and what is possible if we radiate it outwards to all corners of the world?
As part of this inquiry, my memory drifted back to 1969 and Richie Havens (a kid from Brooklyn, NY) during his opening act of Woodstock, where after three hours of performing he completely improvised the song Freedom, which was loosely based on an old spiritual "Motherless Child". The song became an anthem for that generation and launched Havens' long career.
Nearly 200 years earlier, a small group of men representing the thirteen American Colonies then at war with Great Britain declared their independence from the King and asserted that: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,
that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
With the stroke of a pen, that pithy, treasonous assertion called into question nearly the entire history of the human social order. It is an assertion that is tested to this very day. And, as the Founding Fathers of the United States of America rightly reasoned, liberty starts with the individual.
I am blessed to live in a country (the USA) where individuals are still relatively unencumbered to live, love, and lead their lives with a modicum of freedom. Yet, in the nearly 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence more than ever we live in an interdependent world where economic forces (as much as political power) shape the events of our existence. How then, do we actualize our unalienable right to liberty when economic and institutional forces seem to shape nearly all of our decisions?
The exploration of answers to these questions requires more attention than is typically reserved for a blogpost. If you are interested in achieving more freedom and liberation in your personal and professional lives, then I encourage you to join a small group of exquisite executives, managers, non-profit professionals, and business owners who will be gathering on retreat in Colorado this September to develop some answers. We'll be smashing limiting beliefs while learning how to lead on purpose in concert with our personal (and organizational) values. We will activate creativity and innovation in order to dissolve scarcity consciousness. Our aim is no less than to unleash joy and abundance at work and at home.
This retreat is not for the faint of heart. Freedom is a
conscious choice. Choose to join a group of leaders in Colorado this
September and start on the path of liberation. Go to Freedom Retreat to learn more.
No, not the athletic field, nor the field of battle. The field to which I refer is the one described by investigative journalist and author Lynn McTaggart in her book by the same name. It is, in short, what physicists describe as web of energy that connects all matter in the universe.
Uhhhh, Ok! So, how does one lead from there? That was the question that I was exploring with 28 exquisite leaders on retreat last week in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. Prior to the retreat, these leaders read and discussed the book Presence, which pointed us in the right direction. In that book, Peter Senge, et. al. developed a model for change leadership called the "U" curve, or "Theory U". That model is depicted in the illustration that accompanies this post.
This is a very different kind of leadership. It requires stillness and non-doing. That's right--no action. I can share that I really struggle with this. For many, many years one of my mantras was: "when in doubt, do something" (and see what happens). The new way of leading that I am exploring is more like: "when in doubt, do nothing". This "non-doing" represents nearly two-thirds of the Theory-U model. It requires significant periods of quiet time when we just observe, open our heart-minds, and sit with not knowing. In Lynn McTaggart's terms, we might call this sensing what is needed from the energy of the field.
I want to be clear that there is action in this mode of leadership. However, it is not the Energizer Bunny kind action that is so commonplace today. It is action that comes in the form of powerful "experiments" or "rapid prototyping" from a place of clarity. It is action that is informed by inspiration and enthusiasm. It is action that is life affirming and "feels right".
As part of our leadership retreat, we spent 24 hours in complete silence--partly in nature. In addition to that, I turned off all electronic devices for nearly a week and did almost no reading. It felt like a cleanse. I come back to the world with a renewed vigor and a commitment to lead in a different way.
How about you? What is possible when you quiet your mind, sense the field, and then take rapid, powerful action from there?
