One way to look at consciousness is as an interruption to an unconscious flow. Take, for example, eating. Is it mindful or is it automatic? With a moment of consciousness, I have choices. Eat less? Eat something more healthy? Express thanks for what I have? Share what I have with others? Consciousness fosters choices, based on the "interruption."
Consultant and professor, Fred Kaufman, in his well-known book, Conscious Business: How to Build Value through Values, defines consciousness as: "the ability to experience reality, to be aware of our inner and outer worlds." It is at the root of self-awareness, he says, enabling us to make the deepest personal inquiries, such as "Who am I?" and it is also essential to "other-awareness," our capacity to understand others' reasoning and learn about their own subjective experiences and motivations. Without it, human empathy is impossible.
To study consciousness, then, is to study the experiential bedrock of initiating and relating, and as such it must also be a part of leadership, however we define that term. Whether you are an adherent of Ken Wilber's Integral Theory, as Kaufman is, or just someone curious about why we think the way we do, leading appears as an act of consciousness, especially when it causes us to question old mental patterns, automatic ways of doing things, ideologies and controlling paradigms. If leadership results in new decisions for ourselves and our organizations, first there must be that "interruption" of consciousness to begin transforming us and our view of the world.
· Now Explore the Edges. Okay it's long, but wow what a journey examining a new paradigm that bridges science and spirituality. Peter Russell explores The Primacy of Consciousness in this seven-part series (69 minutes total). Part one is linked above, and you can then select the other parts from YouTube, of if you'd like to absorb the Russell's talk in one sitting -- I couldn't stop listening -- use this link instead. (Need something else in this direction? Try Roger Nelson's experimental "Global Consciousness Project.")
· Keeping It Real. Roots of Empathy is an "evidence-based classroom program" that encourages prosocial behavior by helping children become aware of how babies grow and develop. See how it really works to promote empathy by reading the first pages of "From a Tiny Seed," founder Mary Gordon's book about the program. Be sure to read through Darren's story on Page 5 -- it gets to the heart of the matter.
* And On the Other Side of the Coin. For the broader social and cultural effects of "unconscious capitalism" and the rise of "money power" in America, here is Bill Moyers' article, "How Wall Street Occupied America." Whether or not you totally agree with Moyers' assessment, it's clearly a story of how powerful ideologies happen and what it takes to change them.
* Conscious Leadership in Action. Barrett Brown "specializes in the intersection between organization development, leadership development, and global sustainability. See this brief introduction to his dissertation study, then follow the links to the dissertation proper. I found the overview fascinating, particularly the concise table of leadership types beginning on page 3.
· Asking for Trouble. Polly LaBarre, editorial director of the Management Innovation Exchange invites organizational "interruption" with her well-written HBR blog post, "The Question That Will Change Your Organization." In it, she mentions Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, who can be found explaining his company's working philosophy in this amusing excerpt from The Colbert Report. (Your test is figuring out which type of leadership Tony Hsieh exemplifies, using Barrett Brown's categories.)
Kellee Franklin Transcends Blame Through Discovery
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Photo courtesy Kim Jackson Visual Media
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For the past 17 years, Kellee Franklin has been helping organizations make breakthroughs using cutting edge systems thinking, integral psychology, and knowledge of human and organizational behavior. Founder of
OE Consulting, she is also adjunct professor at the Albers School of Business and Economics at Seattle University. She hosts a website and open group on LinkedIn devoted to exploring conscious capitalism. You can find out more about conscious capitalism here and here.
Q. Kellee, the theme of consciousness is something you have said ties your work together. What do you mean by consciousness and why it is so important right now?
A. Consciousness is awareness of our being in the world and waking up to how interconnected everything is. That may sound abstract but it is as close to us as the daily news. The current Occupy Wall Street movement, for example, is a great opportunity to look at what consciousness means. We have become outward facing and focused on finding someone or something to blame. We want to scapegoat the bankers or the government, politics or organizational practices, when the truth is there have been multiple, interconnected failures in our responsibilities in almost every arena -- corporate, government and individual. In this case, we also cannot limit our exploration of the challenge to what is happening in this country because it is one that affects the whole world - we have to look across the pond to see what is happening in Greece and Europe and how that influences us and in turn what we do that influences them. To address the problems that OWS is calling out, we cannot afford to consider our existence an island in any way. Consciousness of the whole system is the only way out and we must take a loving, compassionate view of that whole, including ourselves.
Q. Given where we are today, I would say that is a tall order. How can we get started building this kind of consciousness for ourselves, even in a small way?
A. I think it starts at a very personal level, the "man in the mirror." Here's an example. As a teacher, I asked my students to work together in two-person teams. Not long ago, an international student came to me and volunteered that he and his partner were having a conflict. He confessed that when his partner confronted him about some of his behavior he had to admit he was part of the problem. Who knows what assumptions he had about telling me the story. He might have thought he was going to get in trouble or be punished in some way, but, of course, I do not see this as my role at all. I think I surprised him by telling him "Well, this, too, is part of the educational process." When I praised him for the strength that he had displayed in opening himself up, I could see he was greatly moved. What he had done was empathize with another person, become vulnerable.
Q. And so how does that relate to consciousness?
A. What had happened was a process of discovery for the student, a process of waking up. Through this situation, he could see how his own thoughts and behaviors were part of a system called a team -- and his consciousness had grown in an empowering way.
Q. I take it this acknowledgment of personal involvement in the system could come in any number of ways.
A. Yes, just as easily that empowering growth could come to someone else who needed to learn something by pushing back and speaking up. The core lesson is that to discover we need to get rid of the judgments, get out of the negative, blaming views that close us down. There's a quotation from Albert Szent-Gyorgyi that I like: "Discovery is seeing what everybody else has seen, and thinking what nobody else has thought." When people are blaming, they are seeing what everybody else has seen.
Here's another example, applied to an organization. A student consultant team I advised was not having a positive experience with their high-powered client. I called the client to check in, and she opened up, sharing a boatload of new information. There were many factors affecting the client personally that she hadn't disclosed to the students, and she owned up to not being as supportive as she could have been with the consultant team. When I went back to the group with this information they were surprised by the new data and it encouraged them to take a broader, more compassionate view of the client and her circumstances.
This kind of individual and group discovery, in turn, can create a new cycle of understanding and productivity. Once again it was an example of people rushing in with what they had thought was an explanation, a certainty about others rather than working toward consciousness of the whole situation, the whole system. We cling to these certainties, I believe, out of fear.
Q. Kellee, what are some of your own key beliefs that stand behind this perspective on consciousness?
A. Well, at the core, I believe in the interconnectivity of all living beings. I think that is magical. And I believe in a divine creator. I believe that by design we possess infinite possibilities. When I'm teaching, I like to bring up that Marianne Williamson quotation about "Our deepest fear" that is often attributed to Nelson Mandela - you know the one that recognizes each person as a divine creation. I encourage people to think about what that really means. If it is true, how might we lead differently? Instead of banishing others, can we treat one another as being able to learn from each moment? At bottom, I believe we are not here to be fearful or punishing. I believe I am on this earth to create, not compete.
Q. So how did you come to these beliefs?
A. In part they come from adversity and what I learned from my dad. He contracted HIV during my teenage years, and this led to a great deal of struggle as a family and a lot of learning. I lost him at 22, ten days after I graduated from college. He'd had a number of influential positions in his career, including starting the first organization development unit of the General Accounting Office, and before his death, an administrative role at the University of Maryland.
A major turning point for me came at his memorial service. A woman unknown to the family, someone that he had worked with asked if she could speak at the service. She spoke last and she shared how my dad had taken the time to say something nice to her each day and made sure she got a cup of coffee. She turned out to be a janitor. It was at that moment that I really got it. I saw clearly what this journey is about. I saw then that it was about human relationships, not a bunch of awards. When he was gone, all my Dad's awards from his career went into a box in the basement, but that woman who spoke had been changed as a person forever because my dad took the time to see her and hear her.
I've worked at the highest levels of Fortune 500 companies and the government (including an assignment to help Pentagon staff make the emotional adjustment after 9/11), and I can tell you that my biggest accomplishments are not in terms of the money. Not the 3 or 4 million that this or that project brought in. That's not where fulfillment is for me; it's in helping people grow into who they were born to become.
Q. From your standpoint, what are the most fundamental things any of us need to know?
A. If you want to light the path for others you must be able to answer the perennial questions. I have created a model that walks people through these questions: (1) Who am I? (2) What are my unique gifts? (3) How do I serve? And there's a fourth essential question, which is: Where do I thrive? You have to raise your own level of consciousness to know in what environments you can best live the answers to the first three questions. And then, finally, you also have to know what to do and how you can maintain yourself as a person when the environment isn't conducive to that at all.
Kellee invites inquiries about her work as a consultant, teacher, and facilitator. Feel free to email her.
As the saying goes, "the soul doesn't know if it is giving or receiving." One especially gratifying way to express conscious leadership is by sharing with those who can most benefit. Generosity is a stand for what is important to you and the kind of world you want to help create. I've listed a few links below merely as possibilities beyond your local community's needs.
