PLATFORMATION
Assumptions the Leadership Literacies Are Built On
The system of leadership literacies [see the previous post--Leadership Literacies 2] works on a
platform of assumptions and, yes, beliefs, that support the importance and
viability of working with all six. The
platform is malleable and emergent; thus, the term Platformation: platform in formation, kind of like our conceptualization
of the world right now.
- · What do we believe about our world, civilization, organizations, planet and about our human role?
- · What are we discovering about ourselves?
Everyday, my sense of reality is shifting. I am less sure of
things I thought I really knew. I think
it’s good to be questioning and growing, but it isn’t very comfortable most of
the time.
So far, there are four elements to the L2 platform.
The most fundamental one follows:
Human nature brings with it a capacity for good and compassion.
We’re
not as bad as we’ve been taught to believe we are.
Some of you may have seen blog postings from Cheri Torres
and me on the topic of collective intelligence [http://meta4co-intel.blogspot.com],
or perhaps an issue of the Appreciative
Inquiry Practitioner devoted to Appreciative Governance [November 2011]
where we highlighted the importance of assuming human capacity for good.
If we stay with the common old refrain considered
‘realistic’ for so long--that humans are selfish and will always choose
self-interest—then it makes it more difficult for any of us to embrace the new
ways of organizing and accepting the powerful intelligence of the
collective. Managing for multiplicity,
strengths and connection requires standing on a platform that humans can and
will behave in self-serving as well as
altruistic, compassionate, collaborative ways, depending on the many variables
of how we work together and hold one another.
As
I have noted elsewhere, research pouring out of universities and institutes
around the world is demonstrating that humans are just as prone to goodness and
cooperation as we are to defensiveness and aggression. In fact, our
species depends on cooperation, which requires a certain level of empathy and
compassion for others.
In
his research, Dacher Keltner has focused on the manifestations of compassion
and how it shows up physically and neurophysiologically. Using MRI
technology, Keltner and others* have found significant evidence that compassion
has a biologically correlated process that involves the brain and the vagus
nervous system. Their research suggests that compassion most likely
enabled early humans to come together in communities and develop cooperative
skills as hunter/gatherers, thereby ensuring their survival and evolution. [Dacher
Keltner Jeremy Adam Smith, and Jason Marsh in The Compassionate Instinct:
The Science of Human Goodness, WW Norton, New York]
That ability is just as important today.
More elements of the platformation
in the next post. What elements of a platform for leadership do you think are important?
Last call for registrations for AI and the Future: Emerging Leadership Literacies for this Century 15--17 January, Asheville, NC. http://www.sharedsunstudio.com/documents/SHAREDSUNSTUDIO2012-2013WINTERSCHEDULE.pdf
No comments:
Post a Comment