Monday, March 24, 2014

Are you someone that is "Daring Greatly" in your life and work?

On Saturday morning I read a quote on the inside cover of a new book - Daring Greatly - by BrenĂ© Brown whose research on "wholehearted living, shame and resilience" was catapulted into mainstream after her first TED talk on vulnerability, followed by Oprah interviews. This quote by Theodore Roosevelt is quite profound:


"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points our how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly... who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails by daring greatly."  Theodore Roosevelt
So, I've think I've been "daring greatly" in this field of organizational transformation for quite some time, and I am currently marred by dust and sweat - as I work to launch the PresenceAtWork Collective Leadership Program from the Netherlands in the US on April 2 - 4 (the subject of my last three blogs!).  And frankly, I'm also daring greatly in my smart cities work inside of Schneider Electric too. 
Collective leadership is about maximizing the human systems potential around the table/room/globe to address challenges and drive opportunities within organizations and also across organizational boundaries. It is the subject of my last three blog entries - which include an overview of the Collective Leadership video overview with me and Roelien Bokxem, one of the two co-creators of this program.
If you are someone that "dares greatly" and you are passionate about the need for a new kind of leadership - consider playing a "Bigger Game", and investing in your personal capacity to lead that change -  in your chosen "field of play". 
One last personal note. 
  • Think about the nature of politics today in our government bodies and in our public and private organizations. 
  • Think about the average executive team, and the way they make decisions. 
  • And then think about the magnitude of the challenges we face across the globe today - challenges that ONLY can be addressed by a new level of COLLECTIVE leadership, and collaborative innovation at every level. 
Collective leadership is about capacity building - and we really do need you to help lead the way. Here is one resource from the Collective Leadership Institute where you can learn more - http://stakeholderdialogues.net/media/uploads/Collective_Leadership_Studies_Vol1-Shifting_the_Way_We_Co-create.pdf

And if you are looking for someone to help you take your game to the next level, reach out to me via LinkedIn for a free consultation - or to share your story!

Sunday, March 02, 2014

Introduction to Collective Leadership by PresenceAtWork



From the heart: I have high hopes that we can harness the collective intelligence across multiple disciplines and industries to address some of the very big challenges we face across every industry - creating sustainable, resilient and restorative practices that contribute to a better future for our children.

The three principles of the Collective Leadership Allies Program are described in this video by Roelien Bokxem of PresenceAtWork and by me - a student, practitioner, and advocate of collective leadership.

Principle 1: Leading from your authentic core

Principle 2: Leading from the whole rather than from "The Rock"

Principle 3: Leading from the emerging future rather than leading from past history.

We also introduce a powerful body-based strengths model, and how these strengths contribute and inter-relate in a collective or human system. In particular, I can validate the importance of understanding the individual strengths and which strengths are most critical in each phase of a change or innovation initiative. This model brings value well beyond what I have ever learned from Myers-Briggs or other similar individual leadership type tools and methods.

I invite you to listen with curiousity, and to think of relevance in your own organization. We have much meaningful and important work ahead, and this is all about "sharpening the saw".