Life just seems to get more complex every day. From the ever-changing geo-political landscape to the introduction of new varieties of cereal every time I go to the store!So what is complexity? It’s not just something that’s more complicated.
More is Possible!
VUCA - It's all about YOU!
Much of the research and advice for leading in complexity suggests how to shift the organization – safe to fail experiments, adaptive planning, amplifying weak signals, etc.
In my work with executives (and more recently with goats), it has become clear to me both that these strategies are important AND that by themselves, they aren’t enough. Necessary but not sufficient. We must also work differently with ourselves.
Do you know what’s happening?
What keeps coming up is the importance of deeply sensing what is happening. The more deeply I can feel into what’s going on with the team, the more we can accomplish together. As leaders, we can use this sensing to make every interaction more powerful. In this post, I’m going to tease apart what I believe is involved in this sensing. My experience suggests there are 3 essential components.
Are you disturbed?
If you’re not, maybe you should be. While events around the world continue to be disturbing, that’s not what I’m talking about here.
Robert Greenleaf, who first brought Servant Leadership into popular awareness puts it this way. “Awareness is a disturber and an awakener. Able leaders are usually sharply awake and reasonably disturbed.“
Awareness is disturbing. So why bother?
As leaders in these difficult times, we need this “disturbing” awareness to fully meet the complexity and uncertainty the world brings us. All of us have habitual ways of thinking that limit us.