In the articles herein below, the authors write about the global leadership challenges in the 21st Century, in the second, citing the recent State of the Union speech by President Obama of the United States.
From where I sit, I feel I am too small to write about the world, but maybe, just about South Africa, may just be the right focus. I am not for once, declaring our problems to be much bigger than those of the rest of the World, and neither am I saying we are the worst of humanity, in our ability as a nation, to deal with same. I would also like to say that these times that we live in, seemingly difficult to deal with, should not surprise us, as they were foretold many years ago.
We have enough tools in the name of analytics, for us to understand the cause and effect of most of our challenges, including the main one, in our context- widening, and ever-growing gap between the rich and the poor (exclusive economic model & architecture that has not changed much since 1981, when most of the exclusive laws were repealed), as well as incapacity of the Public Service to deliver to its citizens. All in all, it is both Public & Private Sector leadership, failing to lead in a manner that is best for the +46 million population of South Africa.
Leadership, for the sake of simplicity, I define as those who have access to either economic power, or political power, thereby giving them the levers to push and pull, to respond to environmental challenges. They unfortunately see themselves as separate from the status quo, as well as the trajectory our past, and future. Borrowing from Cohen & Wilber, verbatim, I say to the leadership as described:
"But this moment—this precious Sputnik moment—is not something that exists outside of you. In a nondual sense, you are this moment, you are this threat, you are this opportunity. You and the world are radically not-two, which means that this world, its suffering, and the many crises looming on the horizon, are things you need to take really freaking seriously. This is the moment when humanity takes its first steps into the next phase of its maturity, into an era much bigger than the Space Age—into an Integral Age of unprecedented wisdom, compassion, sophistication, and efficacy. But if you want it to happen, you need to make it happen, with every action, every gesture, and every breath."
My observation, prior, and post 1994, tells me that both forms of leadership, private and public alike, they are incapable of dealing with the challenges, as they do not see themselves as being part of the creation of the problem, and vested interests, collusion, and 'short-termism' (enshrined in quarterly reviews, and five-yearly elections) reinforces current thinking and behaviour on both sides, and at all levels of human existence.
As long as you, as leadership, cannot see the nondual (should I say, non-triangular) nature of the relationship between the problems and the solutions, and your BEING, we are not likely to succeed as a nation. We will never achieve the goals associated with rolling back the frontiers of poverty, having globally competitive businesses that do not solely depend on the strength of the ZAR for their sustainability, having shareholders who take EE & BBB-EE goals as critical for creating larger domestic markets in the shortest possible time, and many more.
Our challenges are at the most basic level, and the new, higher order ones that have emerged: climate change, regional & continental competitiveness, efficient and alternative forms of energy, weaning ourselves of fossil fuels, and maintaining an environment that would make us the pride of generations to come, are by far, unreachable, and would remain elusive, well into the future, until we get rid of what some refer to as 'dead-end thinking'. We cannot seem to, for example, think ourselves out of the limitations of just looking at quarterly achievements, at the expense of business sustainability. Furthermore, neither, are we able to think ourselves out of the five-year cycles of political leadership life, at the expense of SA 2050, when the structural limitations of our economy have been replaced by bold and fearless public policy that is influenced by the new challenges I referred to as being of higher order.
Something is going to have to give, to allow for fresh thinking to emerge, and it will have to give-in quickly, so as to allow for leadershift to happen, and that would be disastrous.
The choice we have, is to invite fresh thinking, bold actions, and a tight balance of sight between the short, and the long view. All of these cannot happen, until all forms of leadership desist from dead-end thinking, and colluding in their actions, at the expense of the long view, and both lower, and higher order challenges faced by South Africa.
Generating Transformative Change
Geoff Fitch, Terri O'Fallon, Venita Ramirez, and Ken Wilber
Transformation, as Ken Wilber often points out, is a mystery. Sure, we've done a pretty good job of measuring transformation and tracking all the various dimensions, vectors, and stages of human potential—but whenever someone inevitably asks "how do we get people to transform?", we are typically left scratching our heads. Which means that whenever we say something like "enlightenment is an accident, and practice makes you more accident-prone" we aren't trying to be clever or cryptic. More than anything, we are confessing our own humility in the face of one of life's most perplexing mysteries.
This is why whenever someone discovers a recipe for real and measurable transformation, we tend to take notice. As it happens, our friends at Pacific Integral seem to have done exactly that. Listen as Geoff, Terri, and Venita talk with Ken Wilber about Generating Transformative Change, a powerful and innovative approach to leadership training. The GTC program draws explicitly from the work of Ken Wilber, Susanne Cook-Greuter, and many other integral pioneers, and represents yet another exciting example of the integral project making a real impact upon the world, helping today's leaders rise to the challenges of the 21st century.
[+listen]
Being a Catalyst For Change
Andrew Cohen and Ken Wilber
"This is our generation's Sputnik moment," President Obama said in last night's State of the Union Address, invoking something that we have all felt to one degree or another. To say that we live in extraordinary times is an understatement—the threats before us have never been more menacing, the opportunities never more thrilling, and the need for personal and collective evolution never more urgent. We seem to stand on the verge of a cultural, technological, and spiritual tipping point. Of course, which way it tips remains to be seen.
But this moment—this precious Sputnik moment—is not something that exists outside of you. In a nondual sense, you are this moment, you are this threat, you are this opportunity. You and the world are radically not-two, which means that this world, its suffering, and the many crises looming on the horizon, are things you need to take really freaking seriously. This is the moment when humanity takes its first steps into the next phase of its maturity, into an era much bigger than the Space Age—into an Integral Age of unprecedented wisdom, compassion, sophistication, and efficacy. But if you want it to happen, you need to make it happen, with every action, every gesture, and every breath.
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