Transparency is a real buzz word in business these days. If we’re talking about making business more conscious, then isn’t it about time to get honest and transparent with each other about what’s really going on?

Here is a powerful example of workplace transparency that my Dad sent me recently. It’s from a prime time British TV show and the guy they’re talking about is actually someone he knows . Enjoy!

The field of Conscious Business is a relatively new one, yet some of the seeds of it were sown some time ago. People have been writing about this kind of work for at least a decade.

Here are 7 books that I consider seminal in this field. There are many others of course, but these are 7 that have deeply informed my perspectives and practice.

OK, onto the list, in no particular order…

Conscious Business – Fred Kofman

Quite aside from the fact that a list of 7 seminal books on conscious books needs to include the book that’s actually called conscious business, this really is a massively important and rich book.

Fred brings his immense depth and precision to what he posits are the key capacities of someone embodying a conscious business approach, from unconditional responsibility to authentic communication. Constructive negotiation to emotional mastery.

This book had a profound impact on me when I read it, and I keep returning to Fred’s work year after year.

Good to Great – Jim Collins

Perhaps the most mainstream book in this list, ‘Good to Great’ is something I think every conscious business aspirant should read.

The thing that I think is most powerful about this book is the massive research that went into its creation. This is not about subjective opinions so much, as looking at the data that marks ‘great’ companies from ‘good’ ones. And it’s full of robust and lucid insights into what makes that difference.

It may not be explicit about the impact of consciousness in the mix, but I do think that’s what the book is really pointing to. Cracking stuff.

Anything you Want – Derek Sivers

This book is a little different. In fact it’s a lot different, but it’s still wonderful! It’s a short read (I read it in a lunch break), and tells the story of Derek’s business CD Baby, which he started by accident and then sold for $22 million.

Derek’s story is an inspiring journey through his own brand of consciously doing business (even though he wouldn’t necessarily describe it that way), full of snappy take aways, insights and philosophies.

Derek is someone who is a wonderful mix of idealism and pragmatism, and this is a must read for anyone in the conscious entrepreneurial game.

First, Break all the Rules – Marcus Buckingham

This is another one that may not typically considered to be about conscious business, but I think it’s a deeply informative book.

Based on 25 years of Gallup research, First Break all the Rules looks at what great managers do differently to ‘ordinary’ managers. The results and conclusion are wonderfully enlightening.

For me, this book nailed the fundamentals of good management and leadership. So many books go into the high level capacities of leadership, but this one goes back to basics and shines a light on the simple dynamics that mark great managers from poor ones. Some heart warming stories in it too.

Immunity to Change – Robert Kegan & Lisa Lahey

This is one of the most mature and lucid explanation of change I’ve ever seen published. Kegan’s previous work was rich and deep, yet dense. In this book he and Lisa Lahey not only create simplicity out of complexity, but get super practical.

Their immunity to change process in one they’ve been using in business for some years now, and I can only imagine the traction they must have got with it. But it’s also something you as an individual can guide yourself through.

Laying the ground for conscious business means change, and this book goes to the nub of why creating change is so hard, and how to get to grips with overcoming that difficulty.

A Theory of Everything – Ken Wilber

This is the least business focused book on this list, but Wilber’s work is, I believe utterly crucial for the growth of conscious business. In this more popularist presentation of his complex theories, Wilber shows the high level values dynamics that are at play in today’s world, and why things are the way they are.

If you’ve never read Wilber’s work, this is a great place to start, and I really do encourage you to start.

Yes, his work is very high level and based on orienting generalization, but he is, I believe one of the most important writers of recent times, and he changed my life. Any conscious approach to business that doesn’t take Wilber’s work into account is going to fall very short of what’s possible in my opinion.

Synchronicity – Joseph Jaworski

Joseph Jaworski’s story of his spiritual quest into the heart of leadership is breathtaking. Everyone I know who has read this book has been deeply impacted by it.

Jaworski was a successful lawyer, when catalysed by the breakdown of his marriage, he found himself doing some major soul searching. As he goes deeper into the heart of what he feels he’s here for, strange synchronous events start to weave together a path toward his realized dream.

Synchronicity is a profound and magical book. It’s not a set of steps or models, but a capturing of what happened to one man when he really let go into what he deeply cared about.

What are some of the books that have impacted you that aren’t on this list?
What have I missed? Would love to hear your favourites!

“Hóka-héy (Let’s do this), today is a good day to die!” Sioux leader Crazy Horse is attributed with shouting this approaching battle.

Perhaps our modern battle cry can be “Hóka-héy, today is a good day to wake up!” In some way or another, I find myself reflecting on this during most everyday. “This moment is a good moment to wake up!” And even better, I recognize moments where waking up is happening – in myself and others.

Ultimately, Waking Up the Workplace is nothing more or less than individually and collectively Waking Up and embodying this awakened-ness in our work.

A Day in the Workplace

So what does a day in the process of Waking Up in the Workplace look and feel like for me?

Not surprisingly, it begins by waking up – as in shifting from a sleeping state to an alert state. Opening my eyes, realizing that I am in a transition moment, taking stock of my physical and mental states (have had a lot of injuries lately, which require tracking my body to inform how I will get out of bed!), and shifting from horizontal to vertical. While this may seem like no big deal or irrelevant to waking up the workplace, I protest otherwise. This is, after all, the first moment of our day in which we can engage our Conscious Awareness, the principal tool for Waking Up. And this moment can set the tone of our entire day, whether we are consciously aware of the moment or not.

This morning, for instance, I woke up sore and a little tired, carrying thoughts I had when I woke up in the middle of the night, which related to a conversation with a client yesterday in the context of a significant decision with a long-term project we are collaborating on. Recognizing all of this, I brought it to the front of my awareness and attention, recognized how the physical sensations and thoughts were affecting my movement and energy. I reflected on what I planned to do to address both of them – into my morning stretching and strengthening with ease and care; and on a 9:00 am call with my client proceeded by a call with my design collaborator on the project.

Within moments I felt my energy shift into more fluid movement, as I checked my email, engaged in my physical routine and began the daily rituals of taking herbs, making my morning drink and my daughter’s breakfast. After rousing her up, I returned to stretching, breakfast-making, reflections and email responses.

This pattern of moving, reflecting, thinking, communicating weaves throughout the day, as I continuously, purposefully and, by now, habitually, shift from one channel or form of engaging with work and life to another, from one project or task to another, in what increasingly seems like effortless movement.

When I recognize effort, I usually notice that I am either not especially skillful in what I am doing in the moment (sadly to say, surfing in big waves fits that description, or doing some kinds of technical computer work) or, more often the case, whether skilled or not, I am resisting something and the friction that comes with resistance creates the feeling of effort and a drag on energy and attention.

I don’t presume that my approach to moving through tasks, projects and a day is suited for others. I know it is not for everyone. But moving from one thing to another, and from one channel to another makes my experience of every day filled with energy, meaning purpose and flow. I find great relevance in this quotation from Gandhi “One man cannot do right in one department of life whilst he is occupied in doing wrong in any other department. Life is one indivisible whole.”

To be a little more specific, parenting, self-care, partnering and work all require and receive attention and energy, and they feed each other. Learning in one area translates into enhanced capacity in another. The perspective and vitality that come through self-care, exercise and rest are invaluable to performing well and to waking up at work. Parenting and partnering (as in primary intimate relationship) cultivate awareness, sensitivity, patience and other insights and skills that are invaluable to working with others and knowing yourself.

The contexts and practices of my work

My practice of Waking Up at Work and, perhaps, Waking Up the Workplace, has had many contexts during the past thirty years. I have collaborated to build small companies in various industries including music (Private Music, Yanni, Hearts of Space), fitness (Spinning and ChiRunning), natural products (Seeds of Change and O.N.E. Coconut Water) and social transformation (FLOW, Esalen, GlobalGiving), among others. I generally and currently work as an “independent” consultant and service provider, though very much connected with and embedded in the organizations I work with.

My current projects and affiliations include CEO of Working for Good, executive director and producer of Being Human – a multi-channel project of the Baumann Foundation, campaign director for the Liquid Revolution – for O.N.E. Coconut Water, and trustee and executive committee member of Conscious Capitalism, Inc. I will soon be launching a weekly radio program called It’s Just Good Business via the en*theos Academy. The bottom line: I have lots of opportunities to practice Waking Up at Work and to participate in the process of Waking Up the Workplace.

Here are a few of the things I do – the practices I employ – in my pursuit of ever-increasing awakening at work. I do my best to employ all of them every day or at least many times a week.

• Reflect: This waking up practice, which I typically wake up with (as above!) is one I employ throughout the day. It includes both observation of external circumstances – including the attitudes and “energy” of the people I interact with, and introspection – self-observing internal conditions (thoughts, feeling, physical sensations).
• Report: Communicate – to myself and others – what I am observing, what I am doing and what I expect from them.
• Inquire: Ask questions to explore what is going on with others and to encourage their feedback to me.
• Move: Literally. Run, surf, Jiu Jitsu practice, dance, walk. Shift channels from my head to my body. Get the blood flowing. Face edges and learn new things through my body, that inform my thinking, my perspective and overall orientation to life.
• Rest: I take 10 – 20 minute naps several times a week. (usually only once on any given day!) Amazing what a cat nap can do for increasing energy, refreshing focus and expanding perspective.
• Nourish: Drink lots of water and coconut water and eat plenty of fresh organically grown food – of all colors and types (especially fruits, vegetables and meat).
• Serve: Create value for others in some way or another and support them in their process, advancing our work together and fostering their flow.
• Acknowledge: Appreciate and applaud the good work of others.

The workplace is an incredible crucible for Waking Up and an essential domain for collective awakening.

I appreciate the forum Diederick, Ewan and Jeroen are building with Waking Up the Workplace and the service they are providing to our individual and collective awakening.

Hóka-héy, today is a good day to wake up!

Let’s do this!

About Jeff Klein

As CEO of Working for Good, Jeff Klein activates, produces and facilitates mission-based, Stakeholder Engagement Marketing™ campaigns and Conscious Culture development programs.

Jeff is a trustee and executive committee member of Conscious Capitalism, Inc. and authored the award-winning book, Working for Good: Making a Difference While Making a Living, to support entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs, leaders and change agents at work.

He enjoys surfing, Brazilian Ju Jitsu, ChiRunning and moving in general. He is an active father of a 13-year-old daughter, and resides in San Rafael, California.

For more information visit workingforgood.com.

In his Waking Up the Workplace interview “Work is Love Made Visible” earlier this year, Jeff talked about his 30-year journey of working in Conscious Business. You can find it on the downloads page (you’ll find the link in your email when you register for free).

Yes, it’s true. The series continues…

And we’re VERY excited about the three people we’ve got lined up to talk with over the next month. Here they are!

David Allen

If by some bizarre chance you don’t know who David is (and if you don’t you really should) he is the author of the famous ‘Getting Things Done’, an international bestseller that helps people with their productivity and self-organization.

David is currently implementing Holacracy in his own consulting organization, so we got in touch with him via our mutual friend Brian Robertson. David kindly agreed to take part in the series, and we’re very excited to bringing his diverse perspectives into the conversation.

Our dialogue with David Allen is on 24^th November at 8pm CET / 7pm GMT / 2pm EST / 11am PST Click for other timezones

Brett Thomas

Brett cofounded Stagen with Rand (one of our previous speakers) and designed their 12 month Integral Leadership Program for CEOs. He’s been an entrepreneur for over 20 years and has clocked over 10,000 hours of coaching CEOs.

I had the immense pleasure of working alongside Brett on the Integral Leadership Collaborative a few months ago and was floored by his skill and generosity. Having got to know him, I was keen to bring his leadership and coaching perspectives to bear on the Waking up the Workplace conversation.

Our dialogue with Brett Thomas is on 1^st December at 8pm CET / 7pm GMT / 2pm EST / 11am PST Click for other timezones

Derek Sivers

Derek was the founder of CD Baby (a company he started by mistake and then sold for $22 million), and the author of the Amazon bestseller ‘Anything  You Want’, his story of building a business close to his heart.

I read Derek’s book over the summer during a morning break from my work (it only takes about an hour to read). I was so utterly inspired and excited by it I immediately emailed Derek and begged him to be a part of the series, which he eventually agreed to. And then I posted a facebook message to all my friends offering to buy free copies for people (which I actually did too!).

Our dialogue with Derek Sivers will be on 15^th December at 10am CET / 9am GMT / 4am EST / 1am PST  Click for other timezones

To take part in the dialogues, just make sure your on our mailing list by entering your email in the box in the top right and we’ll let you know how to join us. They’re free if you hadn’t realised!

The airwaves have been a little quiet for a while now…well, no longer. We’re back with a vengeance.

Watch the video below to find out what’s next, and why we need your help to make it happen.

Post your reactions to my question…

What is your main frustration or tension when it comes to your work right now? What’s really confusing you or pissing you off??

…in the comments section below and let’s get the conversation rolling.

This is a guest blog by Brain Robertson, a previous speaker on the series, and founder and creator of Holacracy.

Much of the focus in the conscious business movement today is on waking up organizations by developing more conscious leaders.  If only we can get a significant minority of leaders to realize a new level of consciousness, surely that will lead to more conscious organizations transcending our current global challenges… right?

Well, maybe.  Though when I talk with those doing leadership development work, they often express a frustration that, while the work has a positive impact on the individuals, true organizational transformations rarely follow from more conscious leaders.  As a friend of mine said about going through leadership development programs early in his career: no amount of transformational experiences out on the ropes courses or in a retreat setting, however powerful, change the fact that the team goes back into the same context, with the same processes, power structures, and patterns at play – and transformations soon atrophy.

So what is the committed conscious business catalyst to do?  I think achieving true whole-system transformation requires broadening from just developing conscious leaders to developing the concrete organizational structures and systems themselves to allow a conscious organization, not just conscious people within a conventional organization.  In other words, they’ll need to upgrade the way power and authority formally get defined, the way decisions get made, the way meetings happen, the way the organization is structured, and the processes used to define and execute day-to-day work.  They’ll need to help the organization wake up, not just the people.

Without that, the power of human consciousness is severely limited.  Consider that we humans have an incredible capacity to sense things – challenges to address, opportunities to grab, potentials to harness – all of which I simply call “tensions”.  And the more conscious we are, the more tensions we will sense.  Yet, in most organizations today, we rarely have forums where we can reliably process the tensions we sense into something useful.  So the organization loses one of its most powerful forces for conscious evolution, and we humans are forced to hold these tensions – in our minds and our bodies – where they fester into frustrations and eventually apathy or burnout.

So, what new capacities could an organization harness if anyone who sensed any tension, anywhere in the organization, could rapidly process it into some kind of positive change?  If everyone in an organization could fully use every bit of their consciousness and capacity to its fullest effect?  That’s evolution in action, one tension at a time.  And conscious individuals aren’t enough to get there – it will take concrete organizational structures, systems, and processes, which enable a conscious organizational response to whatever arises in the organization’s reality.

That’s easier said than done; getting there will take an entirely new “operating system” for structuring and running an organization, and new habits and discipline to use it effectively.  I work with the Holacracy™ organizational operating system, which is one approach for “waking up the organization” and allowing tensions to be dynamically processed into organizational evolution.  You can learn more about it at www.holacracy.org.

Whatever system you use to get to a conscious organization, here’s the ultimate irony of this approach: With a conscious organization at play, developing conscious leaders becomes both less necessary and more impactful. Less necessary because the organizational system itself can manifest a conscious capacity; and more impactful because well-developed leaders now have an organizational container which both embraces and reinforces their deepest capacities.

Brian Robertson is an experienced entrepreneur, CEO, and organizational pioneer. He is most well-known for his work developing Holacracy™, an organizational operating system that concretely embodies the new capacities called for by many organizational thought-leaders today. Brian appeared on the Waking Up the Workplace interview series on March 31st, 2011. You’ll find the recording of our interview with him in the downloads section (register for free to receive the link in your inbox). For more information about Brian and Holacracy, be sure to check out www.holacracy.org!

Our conversation last week with Fred Kofman of Axialent concluded the Waking Up the Workplace interview series. Or almost did, because on June 30th, we’ll be interviewed by Barrett Brown (whom we interviewed earlier in the series) on how the three of us have been transformed through these fourteen dialogues. We like to think of it as the end of the beginning. There’s more to come, but what exactly we haven’t figured out just yet.

The Ten Ox-Herding Pictures
Back to our call with Fred. We couldn’t have wished for a more powerful end to the interview series. What has stuck with me the most, is the image of the 10th ox-herding picture from the Zen tradition. The ten ox-herding pictures present a map of enlightenment, i.e. of the process of waking up. After everything has disappeared and you’re fully enlightened, there’s this 10th, final picture, called “Entering the Marketplace with Open Hands.”

Now this may sound like a Buddhist thing that’s far removed from business as we know it. Yet Fred thinks otherwise: “Coming back to the marketplace with open hands is the most pure essence of business and capitalism.” There’s a sense of overflowing, of self-less service. When people ‘trade freely for mutual gain’, you can only survive as a business when you do things that enhance the lives of your customers (as well as your employees, and other stakeholders). That’s the true essence of a free market where businesses compete to better serve the customer.

The goal and the purpose of business
The goal of tennis is to win the game. Similarly, the goal of business is to make a profit, although it doesn’t always have to be limited to monetary profit. Talking about for-profit and not-for-profit organizations is like asking someone whether she plays ‘for-winning tennis or not-for-winning tennis’. It doesn’t make sense. When you play tennis, it comes with this goal and with a set of rules. Business is no different. What is different, however, is why you play the game. This is where the meaning and purpose of business come in.

Peter Drucker famously challenged a manufacturer of drills that what he sold wasn’t drills, but holes. Manufacturing and selling drills may be the immediate activities he performed that allowed him to make a profit, but the meaning and purpose of his business was to serve people who need holes. It’s a crude example, but it serves to make an important point: how is the service you provide enhancing people’s lives? Because that’s what it means to enter the marketplace with open hands: to serve those around us.

Success beyond success
The second half of the conversation centered on what Fred calls ‘success beyond success’:

It’s very honorable to address the pain that people bring and help them succeed. However, the ultimate pain is that we know that if everything goes really, really well, we’re going to get old, sick, and die. That’s as good as it gets. Every success is transitory, and at the last battle, everybody loses. So in order to live with peace in a universe that is transient, you need to realize that there is a bigger game. And in this bigger game, you’re perfectly safe. It’s like Krishna saying to Arjuna: “Don’t worry, your ass is mine anyways.” Just act in a way that every action is a sacrifice, offering your best to a noble purpose. That’s karma yoga. That’s conscious business. You play the game like your life depends on it, and at the same time you can relax, because you know when you lose, you play again.

It’s hard to really do justice to the richness of the dialogue, which ranged from the practical to the luminous. Writing this blog at the end of the beginning of the series, I find myself wanting to offer a comprehensive overview of all that I’ve learned in the past three months. At the same time, following the advice Fred offered during the debriefing call, it’s time to take a little ‘siesta’ to digest these fourteen rich and nutritious dialogues.

We’ll get a first chance at offering our thoughts on the series as a whole during the interview on June 30th (at the usual time, i.e. 8 pm CET / 2 pm Eastern). In the meantime, if there are any questions that you’d like us to think about, or things to comment on, please offer your thoughts below! And while you’re at it, why don’t you tell us what you got out of the conversation with Fred Kofman? Looking forward to read your thoughts!

Many people think it is. And I must admit that I myself can have quite an allergic reaction to some people who call themselves spiritual. Particularly if they make spirituality into some kind of mystery far removed from reality, try to use “the secret” to get a house with a swimming pool or the worst, they clearly behave in unethical ways. Instead of, for example, a zen master who talks about “chopping wood and carrying water”.

Spirituality measured in 21 skills
The problem with spirituality is that we often don’t have a good language to discuss what is spirituality and what is just vague fantasizing. That is why I am very happy with the bold endeavor of Cindy Wigglesworth to deconstruct spirituality in 21 “measurable” skills, combined in her Spiritual Intelligence Assessment (SQi), in the same way that Daniel Goleman has deconstructed Emotional Intelligence to test our EQ.

Being able to explore skills such as “our awareness of our own worldview”, “living our purpose and values” or “being able to align with the ebb and flow of life”, offers a very interesting map for personal development. As Cindy also found a correlation between “action logics” (i.e. world views – see earlier blogs and interviews) and SQi, these 21 skills might even provide a great complementary path in developing our action logic, or personal operating system.

And in our rational and IQ-oriented world, it might be exactly these 21 skills that inquire into the deeper parts of human beings, that offer an alternative (and less travelled) road to our personal happiness or organisational effectiveness. Imagine scoring businesses on a financial and spiritual bottom line, both measurable.

Cindy Wigglesworth’s Nine-Step Process
After taking the assessment, Cindy also coaches people to act more from their higher self, than from their ego, especially while being challenged. As she summarised her 9-step process (for dealing with upsetting people, situations, etc.) in the interview, I’d like to repeat it here to share a concrete example of her way of working:

1. Stop! (don’t react to whatever is happening)
2. Take some slow, deep breaths from your belly
3. Ask for help (from another person, from your higher self, from God, etc.)
4. Deeply observe yourself (what’s going on in your body, emotions, head, …etc.)
5. Identify and deeply embrace the concerns of your ego (this one is hard!)
6. Look deeply for the root causes for the upset (ask why again and again to find the core fear)
7. Reframe to see the situation with compassion (tell a different story about what’s happening)
8. Refocus on something to be grateful for (don’t get stuck on everything that’s wrong – this is a practice!)
9. Choose a more spiritually-based (or higher self-based) response

Is the workplace ready for spirituality?
I really don’t know. However, I do believe that Cindy Wigglesorth’s SQi test, 21 skills and her 9-step process, offer a great and concrete foundation for exploring how we personally can apply the insights from this serie in our own worklife.

I know that I continuously feel like being in an “adaptive challenge”, as Bob Anderson would call it, so the proof of the pudding will be in the eating. Opportunities abound!

PS: learn more about Cindy Wigglesworth and the SQi test here: www.deepchange.com

As this series nears the end of its first cycle of life, I am starting to reflect on just what a rare and precious experience it’s been to participate in it. And I also find myself asking how I can more fully be of service to this unfolding of this conscious way of doing business.

I still have a ‘day job’, one that I struggle immensely to fully engage as a playing ground of expression and creativity. I know that there are many of you who have been following these dialogues and blogs who find yourself in similar positions, inspired to bring consciousness to your Work, and feeling limited by the different agendas that many of today’s organisations embody.

So, this blog is written for you, and for the honouring of aspiration to our personal expression and service.

Extraordinary Leaders Consider Everything a Spiritual Practice

Barrett Brown, someone I consider a good friend, in our interview with him last week, shared the findings from his recently completed PhD study. His mission: to explore the inner workings of a group of leaders possessing “as complex a worldview as science can measure”. What he found, when shining a flashlight into the black-box of these extraordinary leaders’ behavior, something that spoke in a deep way to my own situation.

In Barrett’s own words:

“They have a powerful internal commitment to their work. They see their work as a spiritual practice. It’s not that the people in your life get in the way of your spiritual practice; they are your spiritual practice. It’s not that your work gets in the way of your spiritual practice, it is your spiritual practice.”

This is, I believe, a beautiful articulation of what if feels like to be dedicated to Work, not work, something Diederick wrote about last week.

I find myself, in my own excitedly reluctant way, being pulled toward this same commitment to Being Work. I see myself having increasing difficulty to pull myself out of bed in the morning to work in a context which, in some intrinsic way excludes something of my humanity.

I rely upon regular trips to the bathroom, to release the tangible energy of pain that asks to be acknowledged.  I take solace in the wisdom and love of my friends who make space for my outpoured feelings of intense resistance and frustration.

I observe my habits of distraction, seeking to find some momentary peace from the insistence of change. I find strength in the knowing that despite the suffering, there is a deeper commitment to navigate the path toward that which I am being asked to allow.

I notice myself asking ‘what is the right decision in the midst of this uncertainty’. I question my commitments, and my integrity. I question the depth of maturity from which the desire for freedom arises.

Conversations to Catalyse

The conversations in this remarkable series have catalysed something in me. My tolerance for the limitations in my work is thinning. How much longer can I compromise my commitment to my ideals? It is a question with no seemingly certain answer, and yet Barrett’s discoveries did ignite something. This is what the leaders he studied embodied:

“They have this powerful trust and willingness to embrace uncertainty, meaning that they are willing to stand on the edge of the abyss of complexity, of the challenges they face in the very next moment, not knowing what’s going to happen. They use ambiguity as a tool to catalyse creativity. By not imposing on the future – ‘this is how we’re going to do it’ they were then able to listen very closely to what was organically arising.”

And so as I sit here writing, I notice that the certainty I find myself invested in, is that I have no certainty. That the more authentically I am able to embody my situation, with all its frustration and pain, the less sure I can be of what will happen. Something in me is content with that.

This series has been a gift of transmission, affording me the opportunity to learn from some truly pioneering men and women. And if I’m learning anything, it’s to honour the uncertainty that arises in me when confronted with such inspiring possibility.

It is as if the landscape is opening up before my very eyes, the paths of potential becoming as clear as my desire to follow them. And yet at the same time, the realisation that the things that have got me this far are insufficient to take me much further. How do I change, and develop the resilience and intention to continue this new journey?

I find increasing strength and comfort in the fact that I really don’t know. If it’s good enough for leaders with ‘as complex a worldview as science can measure’, it’s definitely good enough for me. And I trust that I am already embarking upon the path to turn more of my work into Work.

A Tribe of Deep Service

Please forgive me, for my somewhat self-indulgent hi-jacking of this space, to give voice to my own particular expression of embracing ambiguity. It is one of the luxuries afforded to me as one of the founders of this series. I hope it gives you something to chew on, in the midst of your own ambiguity.

I will end, if I may, on a rather more generous note, with an invitation from Barrett.

“We’re never going to know how to do it, there’s never going to be a formula, but moment by moment, leadership interaction by leadership interaction, trusting in the process, we can literally awaken each moment such that it is of deep service to those that we are touching.

It’s time to really develop a tribe of collective intelligence around this work and bring it forward in a way that is of deep, deep service to the global changes that we face.”

In our most recent call, Dr. Otto Scharmer suggested that there are two main drivers for waking up the workplace, or change in general: desperation and aspiration.

How desperation can wake us up

These are indeed times of desperation for many. In the face of huge systemic challenges, we often lose the sense of meaning and connectedness that comes from knowing that we can make a difference. Commenting on exactly this link between the personal and the systemic, Otto suggested that “the most systemic is actually the most personal.”

Changing what we do (behavior), or how we do things (structures and processes) isn’t going to cut it. Coming out of years of research, Otto Scharmer’s Theory U suggests profound change requires us to access not only our open mind, but also our open heart and our open will (i.e. changing how we see, how we feel, and how we are).

The desperation of today’s systemic challenges, then, is driving us to actually bring our whole selves to work. We simply can’t deal with these challenges effectively if we’re merely acting from within the boundaries of our institutional roles.

How aspiration can wake us up

On top of that, Otto is seeing a second driver for waking up the workplace: aspiration. More and more people today, and particularly young people, have a deep longing to link what they’re doing in their job to their deeper aspirations in life in a more direct way. Put differently, evolving our ‘work’ into our ‘Work’, which means connecting what you do to your calling, your purpose, to making a difference.

In short: whether it’s out of desperation, aspiration, or both, ‘work’ as we know it is facing increasing evolutionary pressure to wake up.

Transforming ‘work’ into ‘Work’ through presence

So how is Otto suggesting that we do that, exactly? Through ‘presencing’ (‘sensing’ + ‘presence’), which refers to the capacity for sensing and actualizing an emerging future possibility. This is quite different from ‘normal’ learning, where you reflect on past experiences and draw conclusions from them. Presencing means listening to the future, and acting not from ego but from that heightened state of presence and awareness.

To be effective in doing that, you have to go through a very personal process. It often requires letting go of fears and assumptions, and connecting deeply to yourself and others. The ‘connecting’ part seems to be important, judging from the frequency with which it came up in conversation. Connecting to your Self and your Work, connecting to others, connecting to nature, and ultimately, connecting to an emerging future possibility.

Good artists, innovators, and entrepreneurs know how to do this. It’s not new. What is new, is the evolutionary pressure for intentionally cultivating the capacity for presencing on a collective scale. For Otto, what is so important today, is that we build communities for sensing, listening, connecting, and supporting each other in creating what he calls “landing strips for the future.”

Otto’s question for all of us

Before we concluded our call, there was one question that Otto wanted to offer to all of us listening in:

“We are drawn into this space because, probably, we feel the possibility of a different way of living and working together. We feel the possibility and maybe have had glimpses of that experience, that there is actually a future possibility in my life that I can make happen, and there’s a way of connecting, for me, with that state of awareness. [...]

So we being connected in this call right now, that gives us a feeling of being connected to a larger whole, that maybe one, two days out, I may have lost again. So what is it that we could do that would allow us more regularly and more easily to connect to that larger whole, that sometimes we get and sometimes we lose? That’s the question I want to leave with.”

Sound familiar? It’s been an extraordinary experience for us, interviewing these amazing pioneers and thoughtleaders on a weekly basis. We have a few more calls to go, but I think Otto’s question is quite a timely one. How do we actually create infrastructures and spaces for connecting to this larger whole and deeper source?

We’d love to hear your thoughts on what it is that we could do, individually and particularly collectively!