Freed for...

I don't know if it's the way my mind works or if life's circumstances just swirl around me in ways that cause me to make connections. On a visit to see our youngest daughter, my wife and I had some pretty interesting experiences that relate to the Title of this post - "Freed for..." There were three experiences - one was attendance at a Carnegie Mellon Black History Month program called "Incognito," the other was viewing the film "Amazing Grace," and the third was going to church at Shadyside Presbyterian on Sunday, 2-25-07.

"Incognito" is a one-man show that relates the true story of Michael Fosberg, who when he was 30-years old, set out to find his genetic father when his mother divorced his step-father. The story was wonderfully complex but the bottom line is that Michael discovered in his search a very loving father who had waited all that time for the moment that Michael would come to find him. You see, the complexity of the story included the fact that, while Michael identified throughout his life as white, his father was African American. This autobiography revealed the surprise but the freeing of Michael's soul to be loved by a long-forgotten father.

"Amazing Grace" is a film about William Wilberforce, a British gentleman who fought Britain's role in the slave trade throughout the early nineteenth century. Wilberforce's journey was inspired by a confidant who was a monk but previously served as a slave-ship captain. The monk was the author of "Amazing Grace," a hymn he wrote in an attempt to repent for the horific abuses he perpetrated during many passages across the Atlantic. Wilberforce was haunted by the images of slaves in shackles with 50% or more dieing during the passage. This compelling image called to him to do something and eighteen years after beginning his abolitionist urgings in the British Parliament, the practice was abandoned. Wilberforce was deeply moved by his convictions. So deeply moved that he could not avoid his calling - a calling that freed him for service to his country and humanity.

Shadyside Presbyterian Church has one of the most amazing ministers I've ever heard and we go to see Dr. Craig Barnes every chance we get. This Sunday's sermon was "The Mysterious Liberator," based on Exodus 20: 1-6. The essence is that he used the story of the Hebrew people's wandering in the desert as a way to look at the things with which we struggle in life. He explained that there was actually a well-traveled and easy "highway" to the promised land that Moses could have taken. Instead, he chose the difficult path, the one that subjected the Hebrews to difficult environmental conditions, which in turn exposed their weakness in the face of adversity. The sermon is far more profound than I can portray here so I hope that you'll access it via the Shadyside web site. After this wonderful sermon, Dr. Barnes closed the service with the benediction, "Seek not only to understand what you are freed from but also what you are freed for..." This brief statement hit me like a ton of bricks and it connected the entire weekend.

Michael Fosberg - freed from his own conventional cultural beliefs but freed to educate, to enjoy life, and to be loved by his father. William Wilberforce - freed for service to his fellow citizens and to humanity. Neither of these characters had it easy. They struggled and they worked diligently to find their place in the world. However, by being willing to take the more difficult, the more challenging, and the forging path, they (and many others each and every day) are freed for...

Question to self - What am I most waiting to be freed to do?

Open Space on the Balcony #2

We continued our Open Space on the Balcony meetings last night (2-12-07). The bad weather was onimous so we were a little late in starting and a little smaller than our last meeting. However, we proceeded to explore Heifetz' ideas and his approach to teaching adaptive leadership with our core group.

Each of us brought something to read that inspired us. We started by describing the core of each; we found an interesting symetry related to finding a pause between being and doing. There seemed to be a natural struggle for each of us in putting our worlds together in ways that allowed a time-out to explore the implications of what we are doing or seeking to achieve. This led to a very natural conclusion that for most of us, our deepest questions are adaptive concerns that have no easy answer. This is also the core of Heifetz' assertion - that the most important and profound leadership occurs on the tough questions that have no answer. When we attempt to address adaptive concerns, several perspectives can help us. As summarized in a Harvard Business Review article by Heifetz and Laurie (2001) entitled "The Work of Leadership," adaptive leadership includes 1) getting on the balcony, 2) identifying the adaptive challenge, 3) regulating distress, 4) maintaining disciplined attention, 5) giving the work back to the people, and 6) protecting voices from below. We talked about these ideas as exemplifying our intereactions in our open space meetings and we will continue to experiment with them as we delve into reading our inspirational pieces.

We didn't have a lot of time to share our pieces but Jon at least got us started. He combined two readings, one contemporary and one from a 19th century poet in Wales. Jon did a great job of taking time to center and becoming present before he began. When we talked about what was most effective in his reading, the fact that he did not rush in was one of the most important factors that helped him to be effective. In addition to thoughtful preparation, he read at a very comfortable pace, providing pauses throughout to allow us to soak in what he was reading. This was a great demonstration of important principles of leadership - not rushing in, being in the moment, and approaching the adaptive work with appropriate space and time to reflect.

We'll come back in our subsequent meetings to see how our other inspirational readings relate to adaptive leadership ideas.

Open Space on the Balcony

One of the models I reference in Deeper Learning in Leadership is that of Dr. Ron Heifetz' at Harvard University. Dr. Heifetz has been very influential in the leadership studies world. His insights as an artist, M.D. with a focus on psychiatry, and an organization consultant have shed very significant light on the most important dynamics of leadership, a specific form of leadership that he calls "adaptive leadership." The latest book to be published about Dr. Heifetz' work and his teaching method, called "case-in-point" teaching, is described in Sharon Daloz Parks' Leadership Can be Taught. This book is a remarkable account of a style of teaching that takes students to a much deeper level of learning about leadership. As I launched into rereading this book a month ago, I've become captivated by his methods and I'm beginning to use them in some of my interactions and work with students.

One application on which I'm working is the "Open Space on the Balcony" non-credit seminar with students in the Scholar Leader program at Miami. This is a residentially based program of upperclass students who have a special interest in leadership, service, and creating healthy communities. The open space part of the title indicates that anyone can come, anything is fair game, and all are free to come and go at will. The balcony part of the title uses Dr. Heifetz' metaphor of "going to the balcony" from the dancefloor in order to gain perspective about the organizations of which we are part. We've only had two meetings of this group but the process promises to be extremely informative. Witness to this is a post to the Scholar Leader listserv by one of the participants, Brendan on 2-6-07:

I just wanted to take a few minutes to share with you guys some of my thoughts about the open-space discussions that we've begun to hold at 8PM in the Stoddard living room on Monday evenings (right before the community meeting). Having the discussions has become a relaxing yet reflective time of day. It is certainly a light atmosphere in that nobody is obliged to be there, can participate in the discussion at their will, and is slightly free of strict parameters. At the same time, they are incredibly serious and meaningful conversations that we have, so far focusing on three general themes: leadership, service, and purpose.

I've participated in the open space discussions very willingly so far, and feel that through engaging in them learn so much more about myself, and yet the same about everyone else. It is an excellent time for self-reflection, -discovery, and -evaluation, while it also allows you to learn so much more about the other community members. I feel that this may be one of the most powerful ways that we as community members can interact to build community and relationships amongst each other. I'm excited that by the end of this semester, I feel that I will have developed myself in many ways, as well as built personal connections with some community members that may prove to be stronger than many of the bonds that have been created with other people at Miami University.

I think that the open space discussions truly are an excellent activity that all of us in Stelliott can participate in and benefit from and I'd encourage anyone and everyone to just pop in one time and attend - you'll find that by the time 9PM rolls around and it's time to leave, you wish there was more time. Although it hurts the discussion, having a time-frame is useful for most of us who have already extremely busy schedules.

Those who are considering coming next week, Denny asked that we bring some piece of writing that we find very important and meaningful. This could be anything from poetry or prose, to song lyrics, to an essay on...anything! Just bring a writing of some sort that you have found meaningful to your life.

Thanks for reading, Stelliott,
Brendan

We will use the readings students bring to creat the "holding environment" that allows us to learn about leadership. A key factor in this is that leadership is not something we exercise or impose on others. Adaptive leadership involves all participants actively engaging with other - expressing, responding, engaging, risking - to truly encounter one anothers' ideas and greatest aspirations. As college students, these aspirations may seem tentative and small but to begin to explore them is what is important. Brendan told us at the conclusion of last week's meeting that he felt he hadn't yet discerned big and important things the he held sacred. I tried to respond compassionately by saying that to not have a deep commitment was not the problem. Instead, the problem is that so many of us are unwilling to explore the possibility of having a deep commitment. Not exploring our deeper purposes is a terrible waste of talent and possibility.

We'll see where next week's Open Space on the Balcony takes us...

Shifting to Deeper Learning in Leadership

I've used the Pursing Leadership by Denny blog to chart the course of my journey toward more deeply understanding leadership from just before I went to Europe in the fall of 2005. I knew I was embarking on both a physical and conceptual journey and I was not disappointed. My posts throughout 2005 and 2006 noted insights that came to me from various experiences and interactions I had throughout this period. While I was experiencing and sorting out the implications, I was working on the manuscript for Deeper Learning in Leadership, a book to come out during summer of 2007. The ideas included in this book came from 30+ years working in leadership but they were more specifically stimulated by reading, studying, and exploring new ideas that I might include in the book.

Deeper Learning in Leadership is now in the hands of the editors and designers at Jossey-Bass. I'll still have a bit of work to do as the final proofs come back. For the most part, I'm shifting my attention to how to convey the core ideas of the book in speaking opportunities and consultations that I will have in the coming months. The nature of this blog will shift to this testing and application phase. I hope previous readers will stay with me and that new readers will join as we all engage in dialogue on what deeper leadership might be. I invite you to join with me and I invite you to offer questions, refining comments, or just reflections as we journey together.