From the Founding EditorI

t is time to move on. After four very exciting and productive years creating a
new journal, I nd that I need to go on to other things, and Re ections needs
to re ect on its own future. The Re ections team of Karen Ayas, Stephen Buckley,
Jane Gebhart, and Judy Rodgers, with the able photographic assistance of Emily
Sper, has been the source of inspiration and fun. We typically met, weather
permitting, on my deck and enjoyed being creative under the oak and birch trees.
And creativity is what it was all about. It is hard to convey how exciting it
can be to have the license to launch a journal around new concepts and different
goals. The goal that was particularly salient was to bring academics/researchers,
consultants, and practitioners/managers into better communication with eachother. This goal reected SoL’s mission and tted well the personal goals of eachteam member. We received positive feedback from the very beginning, so weknew that our new journal, with its different format and greater emphasis onvariety of content and visual form, was a success. But we also sensed that, in
this glutted information age, not enough people would see Re ections to sustain
it economically through subscriptions. We learned that, without extensive andintensive marketing, it was dif cult to reach a wider audience, even though the people
who did see the journal loved it. Let it be noted that we considered running advertisementsor nding corporate sponsors for given issues or topics, but decided in the end that total
editorial freedom was more important in creating something new than economic stability.
Organizations do not have an inherent right to exist no matter what. They must
contribute, and when their contribution is no longer needed, they must evolve. Re ections
made a great contribution in showing that knowledge and wisdom come in many forms
and that a journal unafraid to violate the so-called ‘‘peer review’’ standards can be illuminating, responsible, and relevant. What we had observed and fought against was thetyranny that ‘‘peer reviewing’’ imposes on writers, because the peer review process isessentially conservative. Instead, we imposed strong editorial standards. Every memberof the team had to agree that a given contribution was worthwhile in terms of our basic
goals. But our standards were to be innovative, to communicate clearly, to have a message
for occupational communities other than our own, and to push the envelope. As we lookover the tables of contents for our 16 issues, the wealth of knowledge in those many
classics and current contributions is impressive. In fact, one way we plan to continue thelegacy of Re ections is to pull together some of the best material into one or two books.
As we move on, it is also time to give some thanks. We created an Editorial Board
that re ected the three constituencies we were trying to reach. I want to thank this board
for the tremendous stimulus it provided in terms of ideas and feedback. Two members inparticular provided help ‘‘above and beyond the call of duty’’—Russ Ackoff and Karl
Weick—and I will be forever grateful for their stimulating input.
The production side of Re ections required dedication and skill. This was provided
by Karen Ayas, until Jane Gebhart, an able Managing Editor, joined the team, smoothed
the whole process, and allowed the rest of the team more time for planning. Many of thecontributions came to us in very rough form, and we must acknowledge our great debt
to Jane’s editorial skills in converting these rough gems into elegant cut stones. The nancial support provided by MIT and SoL was, of course, essential, and we thank bothorganizations for their willingness to bet on a new kind of journal.
And now it is time to move on, to evolve, and to this end, Karen Ayas, Peter Senge,
and other members of the SoL team are managing this evolution (see page 80). As

REFLECTIONS, Volume 4, Number 41

x Occupational communities, whether consultants, researchers, or managers, do de-

SCHEIN
From the Founding EditorxRe ections in its present form goes into a cocoon stage, stay tuned to see what kind of
buttery will emerge.
Some personal reections: What have I learned from these four years?

x

x

x

x

x
2

velop strong subcultures, with their own values, beliefs, and languages. Creating
communication across these subcultural boundaries is a more formidable task than I
had imagined.
One of the most dysfunctional ideas I have encountered is that ‘‘knowledge’’ is derived through research and then passed on to practitioners. Knowledge exists in eachof these occupational communities, and it is just as dysfunctional for the researcher
to ignore what the practitioner knows as vice versa. One of the great unsolved problems of generating useful knowledge is how to access and reveal in usable form what
consultants and practitioners know.
Certain sciences come to dominate the knowledge domain, which distorts both theory
and practice. In particular, too much of our social and organizational knowledge isbased on psychology and not enough is based on anthropology. We keep trying to
explain organizational and even interorganizational phenomena in terms of psychological constructs. We do not really understand cultural dynamics and, hence, do nottake them seriously enough.
The world of knowledge and the world of the arts do not suf ciently interpenetrate.
Even the best and hardest scientic inquiry has huge artistic components, and great
artists know much about science. Furthermore, we underestimate the role of the arts
as a necessary component of daily life. We recently attended a performance of ‘‘The
Children of Herakles’’ by Euripides and learned that the Greek theater had an explicit
goal to bring pressing social issues, such as the plight of refugees, to the citizenry forre ection and action. One of the most gratifying aspects of editing Re ections wasthat I could explore and write about the role of the arts and what artists bring to theparty of daily life.
We do not yet understand the enormous role that interpersonal dynamics plays in
the learning process. Here again, we have adopted the psychological model of teacherstudent or expert-novice. We continue to ignore at our peril what sociologists andanthropologists have shown over and over again—that every relationship is reciprocal and is governed by a complex interpersonal economics. And we do not yet
appreciate how much learning is a contextual process in which the presence of otherlearners is crucial.
I have learned that the written word is limited, yet important as both science and art.
Writing forces clear thinking, something that my PhD advisor, Gordon Allport, taught
me in 1950. Clear thinking and logical exposition are essential in science. But as awriter, I have also come to appreciate how much my choice of what to write about
and how to structure my writing is as much an artistic impulse as anything else. So
I have chosen to write as best I can about my actual experiences with organizations
and, by putting those experiences into analytic frameworks, to enhance our understanding of the complexity of organizational cultures and their impacts.

I hope we can continue to honor the artistic in each other, even as we strive to bebetter researchers and scientists.

Ed Schein

Volume 4, Number 4, REFLECTIONSIn This Issue
Karen Ayas and Edgar H. Schein

I

Associate Editor, Reections
Research Fellow, Erasmus University
Partner, The Ripples Groupkaren@ripplesgroup.com

4

f we are to survive as a global community, we have yet to cultivate our capacity forhealing and reconciliation. If there is any hope of ‘‘a world in balance,’’ it begins witha different worldview, honoring all. And that requires learning to deal with communication failures and cultural misunderstandings, and a leadership approach that honors feminine and masculine qualities alike.
In this issue, we rst turn to the wisdom of other cultures that can inform us of ways
into a sustainable future. You will  nd inspiring examples from Bali to Bhutan to Africa
and testimonials to our common humanity. Bernard Lietaer discusses how monetarysystems deeply affect values and relationships in a community by encouraging speci cbehavior patterns. See what one can learn from the Balinese, who for centuries have lived
with a dual currency system that sustains the yin-yang coherence. Arguably, this is justone exception, but read Charles Handy’s comments to nd other seeds of hope—otherforms of work that would bring us closer to the world Lietaer describes.
Mieko Nishimizu, the vice president of the World Bank, in a keynote address, solicits
the people of Japan to begin to think globally and to follow the path of nations like Bhutan,
where inner spiritual development is as prominent as material progress. Barbara Nussbaum articulates the inspiring dimensions of African values, the beauty and power ofubuntu in building community and strong interdependence.
Are these all exceptions or is there a way to get there? How can we improve ourthought processes, in the world as well as in our organizations? Edgar Schein next elaborates on the theory and practice of dialogue—a necessary vehicle for understanding
cultures—and provides a perspective based on his own direct experience. Philip Mirvis
and Karen Ayas then follow with an illustration of dialogue at work. Enter the circle ofthe young leaders from diverse corners of Asia and listen to their chairman’s leadership
journey. Pay close attention to what Niall FitzGerald, cochair of Unilever, has to say about
leadership and his call to the participants to nurture missing feminine qualities.
The next set of articles elaborates on leadership approaches that can restore the desired balance between head and heart in our organizations and the role of the feminine
qualities in speci c. Rest assured that the word feminine does not relate to a particulargender. If you are serious about welcoming feminine energies in masculine cultures, see
what guidance Judy Sorum Brown has to offer for a balanced perspective in leadershipwork.
That women tend to have a simple way of organizing and natural nurturing qualities
comes to light in Stella Eugene Humphries’s interview with Sr. Mohini Panjabi, a leader
in the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual Organization. As stressed by Jeff Clanon’s comments, for those who want to live a balanced life of reason and intuition or for those who
seek a quality life for self while serving others, Sr. Mohini is an inspiration. Neville Hodgkinson briey describes the inuence of the sister on his life. Based on her work withmembers of SoL’s Sustainability Consortium, Hilary Bradbury reports on how a groupof women would go about redesigning organizations for future generations. Next is a brief
interview by Alexander Schieffer with Margaret Wheatley, who speaks of the essenceof leadership as understanding and believing in other people and the power of relationships as a sustainable form of organizing.
We close with a research report on SoL’s Greenhouse III that informs us of a meeting
designed to include diverse perspectives and face the challenges of rigor and relevance.
Carol Gorelick conveys the spirit of collaboration, and Barry Sugarman describes thecollaborative research themes. David Schwandt, a professor, and Tova Olson, a student
volunteer, re ect on their experiences at the Greenhouse.

Volume 4, Number 4, REFLECTIONSContributors

Karen Ayas is associate editor, Re ections; research fellow, Erasmus University; andpartner, The Ripples Group, a management consultancy specializing in growthstrategy and large-scale change.
Hilary Bradbury is assistant professor of organizational behavior at the Weatherhead
School of Management, Case Western Reserve University.
Judy Sorum Brown is a speaker, writer, and educator in private practice whose work
revolves around the issues of leadership and the nature of change and its impact on
individuals and organizations.
Raphael Bustin is a photographer in Gloucester, Massachusetts, who specializes inscenic photography produced via digital means. ^www.terrapinphoto.com&
Jeff Clanon is a founding consultant member and the director of partnershipdevelopment for the Society for Organizational Learning.
Linda Cooper is a photographer based in Evanston, Illinois. ^linda@wineantique.com&
Carol Gorelick is a visiting assistant professor at Pace University.
Charles Handy is a writer and broadcaster living in London. His most recent book, The
Elephant and the Flea (Harvard Business School Press), describes the rise of the
independent worker and the consequences.
Neville Hodgkinson is an author and journalist in the UK.
Stella Eugene Humphries is a researcher, Society for Organizational Learning.
Rachel Lillian Kohn is a photographer located in Somerville, Massachusetts.
^rachel@rachelkohn.com&
Bernard Lietaer is the chairman of Terra Global Foundation.
Jonathan Liffgens is a freelance photographer and architect in Chicago.
^jliffgens@ixpres.com&
Philip H. Mirvis is an organizational psychologist, consultant, and senior fellow at theCenter for Corporate Citizenship, Boston College.
Mieko Nishimizu is a vice president at the World Bank.
Barbara Nussbaum is with the Liaison for Africa, World Business Academy.
Tova Olson is a doctoral student in George Washington University’s Human andOrganizational Studies Doctoral Program. She served as volunteer coordinator at
Greenhouse III for 15 fellow students who contributed to the event.
Sister Mohini Panjabi is a senior spiritual leader, Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual
University.
Barry Pell is a photojournalist and world traveler based in Boston, Massachusetts.
^barrypell@mac.com&
Edgar H. Schein is the Sloan Fellows Professor of Management Emeritus at the MIT
Sloan School of Management.
Alexander Schieffer is a managing partner of the Center of Excellence and Learning.
Megan Buchanan Schopf is a graphic recorder.
David R. Schwandt is director of George Washington University’s Human andOrganizational Studies Doctoral Program and director of the Center for the Studyof Learning.
Emily Sper is a photographer, graphic designer, and author-illustrator in Boston,
Massachusetts. Her photographs have been exhibited in the US and abroad.
^www.emilysper.com&
Barry Sugarman is a research coordinator at the Society for Organizational Learning.
Margaret Wheatley is president of the Berkana Institute.

REFLECTIONS, Volume 4, Number 4

5

A World in Balance?
Bernard Lietaer

W

Bernard Lietaer
Chairman
Terra Global Foundation
blietaer@earthlink.net

hat would be different in a society in which the feminine approach to leadership ishonored? Honoring the feminine not only encompasses equal rights for women but
translates into an entirely different worldview in which a balance is achieved between the
masculine and the feminine. Imagine a world safe from pollution in which the long-term
interests of mankind and the planet temper the short-term interests of business and industry, in which conscious cooperation exists symbiotically with healthy competition, andin which the proper raising and teaching of children and the caring for elders is valued
as highly as investment banking. Imagine a world in which there is meaningful work forevery person, together with adequate time for families, communities, and personal pursuits, a world that encourages individual growth and economic growth, community andproductivity, and conservation and consumption. Imagine a world that nurtures our spirits
and our souls as it does our material needs and that fully honors the diversity of all life
and the life-af rming aspects of humanity. In essence, imagine a world in balance.
Such a world is possible. But it will take money! It is not a matter of how muchmoney, but rather the kind of money that is important. We must bring balance to money,
because our monetary system fuels and exerts the most profound inuence on all otherhuman systems. Such balanced money systems have existed during speci c periods andexist today in some unexpected pockets of the world, with dramatic, encouraging effects.
Rather than argue from theory, I will use two tragic events as examples. Shocks
sometime starkly expose the underlying value system of an individual or a society, as atectonic plate shift can suddenly lay bare the underlying geological strata. I examine how
two different societies dealt with unexpected crises.

Another Way?
Was a different reaction possible after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks? Let us
look at how another society dealt with its own terrorist attack, exactly one year, onemonth, and one day after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
A terrorist bomb in Kuta, Bali, killed more than 190 people on the night of October
12, 2002. However, the global media have not covered the Balinese reaction to this horror.
Two authoritative reports from Bali demonstrate an alternative way to deal with terrorism.
From a police report a week after the bombing:6

Lt Col I Made Murda of the Bali police declared that, although hundreds of shops and restaurants had their windows blown out in the blast, not one single looting has been reported.
Down in Legian, there are all these shops without windows and doors, all their wares there
for the taking, but nobody has.
There were also fears that there could be an instant reaction against the Muslim population in Bali, but no such thing has happened. What has happened is that there have been
peace vigils and prayer meetings all over the island, and Christians, Muslims, locals, and foreigners working hand in hand in the relief effort (personal e-mail, 2002).

In contrast, in the US after September 11, the FBI reported:2003 by the Society for Organizational Learning and the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology.
q

Hate crimes against Muslims soared . . . by more than 1,600%: a jump from 28 in 2000 to
481 in 2001. . . . The overall number of hate crimes against all minorities in the US increased
over the last year by 21% to a total of 1,828 (Schevitz, 2002).

Volume 4, Number 4, REFLECTIONSLIETAER

We Balinese have an essential concept of balance. It’s the Tri Hita Karana: the concept of
triple harmonious balance. The balance between god and humanity, humanity with itself,and humanity with the environment. . . .
Who did this? This is not such an important question for us to discuss. Why this happened—maybe this is more worthy of thought. What can we do to create beauty from thistragedy and come to an understanding where nobody feels the need to make such a statement again? That is important. That is the basis from which we can embrace everyone as abrother, everyone as a sister. . . .
Why seek retribution from people who are acting as they see t? These people are misguided from our point of view. Obviously, from theirs, they feel justi ed and angry enough tomake such a brutal statement.
We would like to send a message to the world: Embrace this misunderstanding between
our brothers, and let’s seek a peaceful answer to the problems that bring us to such tragedy.
Words of hate will not rebuild our shops and houses. They will not heal damaged skin. They
will not bring back our dead. Help us to create beauty out of this tragedy. . . .
The overwhelming scenes of love and compassion at Sanglah Hospital show us the way
forward into the future. If we hate our brothers and sisters, we are lost in Kali Yuga [the‘‘Iron’’ or ‘‘Dark Age’’]. If we can love all of our brothers and sisters, we have already begun
to move into Kertha Yuga. We have already won ‘‘The War Against Terrorism.’’

A World in Balance?

x

The second Bali report is a speech by Asana Viebeke, the representative of the main
local civic authorities in the area where the blast occurred. He delivered this speech in
English on October 25, 2002.

Compare this statement with US ofcial policy of violent military retaliation. The
contrast between such reactions raises these questions:x What explains how a similar horror spontaneously elicits exactly opposite emotional
reactions in a society?

x What explains the Balinese exception?
x How can we learn from it?

I happened to be in Bali on that fateful night. I had just completed four months ofprimary  eld research focusing on these last two questions. My key ndings were that
Balinese society maintains a balance between what the Taoists call the yin-yang worldviews, or between the masculine and the feminine perspectives, while the so-called ‘‘developed countries’’—including the US—are strongly dominated by the yang coherence.
Furthermore, the collective power of money systems is an engine that continually maintains and encourages each worldview. Speci cally, in Bali, a dual yin-yang currency system operates, while in Western societies, there is a monopoly of a yang currency.
Next, I synthesize some evidence for these claims that are documented more completely elsewhere (Lietaer and DeMeulenaere, 2003).

Values and Emotional Coherences
The analytical framework used to describe collective emotions and behavior patterns
goes back to Taoism and its central concept of yin-yang. It enables me to speak about

The Balinese do not need a costly government to compel them to be thoughtful and considerate.
They like to be thoughtful and considerate. They like to share themselves and what they have withothers. The world about them may rage with selshness, greed, animosity, and conict, but the Balinese live on under the impression that man is a social being, in a social community, a social world,
and a social universe. Perhaps in their primitive, unclouded way they comprehend better than therest of us that, back of the seeming, all reality of necessity is social. Wouldn’t it be an interesting
twist in the scheme of things if the self-satised befuddled Occident, not knowing where it is goingor why, was compelled to come to these ‘‘poor benighted heathens’’ to learn how to be neighborly,
productive, and happy at one and the same time! The Balinese know how to do this, and they do it
as naturally and as easily as children at play.
—J.A. Boone, Letters to Strongheart (London: Sloane Art Store, 1939).

REFLECTIONS, Volume 4, Number 4

7

LIETAERx
A World in Balance?

Figure 1 Some characteristicsof the yin-yang coherences

gender-related issues in a broad sense. C.G. Jung expressed regret that our culture is not more familiar withthis concept: ‘‘Unfortunately, our Western mind, lacking
all re nement in this respect, has never yet devised a concept, nor even a name, for the ‘union of opposites throughthe middle path,’ that most fundamental item of inward
experience, which could respectably be set against the
Chinese concept of Tao’’ (Jung, 1960: 203). Therefore, I
use the words yin-yang here at the risk of appearing exotic,
simply because Western languages don’t have the precise,
equivalent words.
Taoism conceived all forces in complementary pairs,such as earth-heaven, water-re, inhaling-exhaling,pulling-pushing, feminine-masculine, and so on. Taoists
see these forces as matching components of a single ultimate unity, although they are obviously distinct. A balance
between them is therefore at the core of such a worldview,
because they are necessary to each other. A bit like a magnet or an electric battery ofnecessity must have both a positive and a negative pole, neither can exist separately.
Figure 1 summarizes some of these complementary aspects. It includes some metaphysicalaspects, because an effective way to understand a particular society is to examine its imageof the divine. For instance, to a Balinese, the divine is not necessarily male and transcendent, but also androgynous and immanent, present everywhere in everything and everybody, not just in the temple compound or invisible in the heavens.
You can read gure 1 from the bottom up to focus on the internal coherence of eachworldview, or horizontally to appreciate the polarity between them. The  gure also highlights the differences with our modern Western culture from its predominant focus on theyang coherence. From a Balinese perspective, both views are equally valid. In addition,
the Balinese have spontaneously developed a dual currency system that actively supports
each worldview, as explained next.

Money Systems as Hidden Persuaders

8

A widespread, tacit assumption is that only one kind of money is possible in the modern
world, a monopoly of familiar national currencies in the form of bills and coins. Furthermore, conventional economic theory assumes that all currencies are implicitly value neutral: they are supposed not to affect the transactions or the relationships among the peopleusing them.
In reality, different kinds of money have coexisted in many societies in the past andstill do in some places. Furthermore, the type of money a society uses and the way asociety creates and administers money deeply mold values
and relationships within that society by encouraging or discouraging speci c collective emotions and behavior patterns. All money systems facilitate exchanges amongpeople. But, given the remarkable motivating power ofmoney, some currencies tend to foster either yin or yangvalues and attitudes. Conventional money is de nitely an
extreme yang construct. A global hierarchy creates it, sodeveloping countries don’t have a chance at inuencing therules. A central bank enforces it at the national level. Itsinterest feature encourages the accumulation and concentration of money. Its necessary
scarcity promotes competition among its users. Each characteristic links such a currency
to the yang coherence (see gure 1).
Money is not a thing. While economic textbooks invariably de ne money in terms ofwhat it does,1 they never de ne it in terms of what it is. I de ne money as an agreement
within a community to use something as a medium of exchange (Lietaer, 2000a). Our
money and monetary systems are therefore not God-given realities, such as air or water,
but rather choices, such as social contracts, marriages, or business arrangements, and are
subject to review and amendment.

The type of money a society uses
and the way a society creates andadministers money deeply moldvalues and relationships withinthat society.

Volume 4, Number 4, REFLECTIONSBanjar is stronger than religion in keeping our communities and values strong.
Banjar is what holds the community, each other, together.
Banjar is the most fundamental organization that keeps
the Balinese character intact.

What holds the banjar together? The leaders areclear that ‘‘time is a form of money.’’ The majority
REFLECTIONS, Volume 4, Number 4

LIETAERx

For many centuries, Bali has used two types of currency in parallel. The  rst is the rupiah,
the Indonesian national currency. It is a yang currency, managed by a central bank. The
Balinese have no more inuence over it than the residents of Iowa have over Alan Greenspan.
The second currency is nayahan banjar, roughly translated as ‘‘work for the common
good of the community.’’ A time-for-services currency, the typical unit of account is approximately three hours of work in the morning, afternoon, or evening. The kulkul (aspecial wooden gong) summons people to gather for collective work.
Each banjar manages its own second currency. The banjar is a decentralized, democratic, cooperative institution at the local level. The  rst written reference to this ancientorganization structure was in 914 AD (Purwita, 1983: 18). It has proven to be a very
adaptable organization structure: ‘‘Even today, among families who have spent several
generations in an urban setting away from the rice  elds, the banjar still plays an important role’’ (Eiseman, 1990: 74). The banjar structure has been described elsewhere(Geertz, 1959; Geertz and Geertz, 1975; Guermonprez, 1990; Warren, 1993).
More than 3,000 banjars operate in Bali today, each with between 50 and 500 families.
They are ‘‘hyperdemocratic’’ organization structures in the sense that their leaders, theklian banjar, are elected by a majority vote, but can also be dismissed at a members’
meeting by majority vote. Each member is equal and has one vote: there is no special
status granted to wealthier or higher class members of the banjar. Once a month on
average, community decisions are made at the bale banjar, the community’s open meeting
pavilion. Special meetings can also be convened whenever necessary.
At the meetings, people propose both new activities and report ongoing projects. At
the same time, they decide on contributions of time and money for each project. However,
if a majority of members oppose any particular project at any time, they can reconsider
it at the next monthly meeting to decide whether to continue it.
On average, each banjar starts between seven andten different projects every month, large and small. For
each project, each family unit’s expected contributions—in rupiah and in time—are taken into account. In thepoorer banjars, the rupiah constraint is typically themore binding, while in the richer ones, the opposite may
happen. In short, the banjar functions as a communitybased planning and implementation unit that budgets its
activities using both currencies: time and rupiah.
People who cannot contribute their share of time
are supposed to send a substitute. If neither is possible,
they must pay a ne in rupiah. However, such substitutions are only partial and conditional, similar to thephenomenon between money and love in Western culture. One can, to some extent, ‘‘buy love’’ with a nicegift, jewelry, dinner, or other expensive gesture. But
when the relationship is based entirely on money, it
becomes prostitution and ceases to be love (Foa, 1971;
Foa and Foa, 1974).
According to the local Balinese leaders, it is not theBalinese or Hindu religion but the strong system of mutual cooperation within the banjar that has maintained
the balance in values characteristic to Balinese society:

A World in Balance?

Bali’s Dual Currency System

9LIETAERx
A World in Balance?

even make the point that ‘‘time is more important than rupiah for keeping the community
cooperation strong in the banjar.’’ The time exchanges within a banjar can sometimes
take a negative form: the main punishment meted out is not a rupiah ne, but ostracism,
the exclusion of someone who refuses three times in a row to respect the community
decisions. Such ostracism becomes most serious when there is a family ceremony, like acremation, marriage, or coming of age ritual. No one will give time to help in the preparations. In short, depriving someone of time is considered the ultimate retribution.2
Why is a dual currency system so important for keeping community spirit and traditional values strong?

Dual Currency Supports Yin-Yang Balance
A philosophically inclined banjar leader described the dual currency system as being in‘‘yin-yang relationship.’’ He saw the normal Indonesian national currency as of yangnature because it cannot be created within the community but has to be earned by competing in the outside world. The other, time—which everybody has as a birthright—isyin because it is generated within the community on an egalitarian basis and generates
cooperation. You can’t accumulate and store it like conventional money; you use it orlose it. In short, the national currency ts in and supports the yang coherence, while thetime currency—the nayahan banjar—explicitly nurtures the yin coherence.
I observed a very  exible yin attitude toward the yin currency. If, for example, someone has a sick child and cannot provide time, nobody will object. What matters is the
goodwill underlying one’s actions. Such a dual currency system within a democratic structure such as the banjar provides more exibility than a onecurrency system. People with a lot of conventional money
tend to have little time, and people with little money tend
to have more time. So the dual currency mechanism enables some automatic leveling among the social classes.
Furthermore, the dual currency system allows exibility in the choice of projects the council approves. The
banjar in poorer communities automatically favors projects that require a lot of time; inrich ones, the more expensive rupiah projects get approved. In both cases, a lot of local
resources can be mobilized for whatever the community chooses to focus on. And in allcases, a mixture of rupiah money and time money is always involved, but the proportionalmix varies. This explains why, in Bali, religious or cultural events actively involve almost
everyone and are not limited to a small social group.
This system goes beyond religious or cultural events. Banjars support their primaryschools and even build their own roads when the central government isn’t responsive totheir demands.
Is the Balinese model relevant for application in another environment? To answer
that question, a systems framework proves helpful to illustrate how dual currency systems
support a more balanced worldview.

The dual currency mechanism
enables some automatic levelingamong the social classes.

10

Systems Approach to Money and Values
There are four well-known forms of capital:x Physical capital such as plant, equipment, and real estate.

x Financial capital such as cash, stocks, and bonds, or intellectual property such as
patents and trademarks.

x Social capital such as family or group solidarity, peace, community, quality of life,and so on.

x Natural capital such as clean water or air, biodiversity, and other gifts of nature.
These four forms of capital fall into a straightforward pattern within the yin-yang framework as show in table 1. The next step is to link the dual currency system and these four
forms of capital. As noted earlier, conventional national currencies have yang characteristics: they are centralizing in nature as they are created through a highly centralized andhierarchical process, they foster competition, and they bear interest (a mechanism thatencourages accumulation of money and its concentration). Yin currencies, such as theVolume 4, Number 4, REFLECTIONSYinNonmaterial level

Financial capitalSocial capital

Material level

Physical capital

Natural capitalBalinese time currency, exhibit exactly the polar characteristics: they are created througha decentralized and democratic process, they foster cooperation, and they are interest free
and aren’t accumulated. Figure 2 illustrates the dynamics of the two complementary currencies in their respective economies.
The conventional national currency operates within the competitive economy where
it facilitates quite efciently the various types of commercial transactions, and it creates nancial capital in the process. I describe this as the ‘‘yang economic cycle.’’ The yin
currency, in contrast, activates the yin economic cycle in a cooperative economy, facilitating community exchanges that help generate social capital. Both economies require as
underpinning a foundation of physical and natural capital.
Conventional economic theory focuses only on the yang cycle and formally acknowledges the existence of the two yang forms of capital: physical capital and nancial capital.
These forms of capital are measured and exchanged in the national currency, that is, theyang currency. Conventional theory therefore tends to ignore the role of the two forms ofyin capital—natural capital and social capital—and considers them ‘‘externalities.’’
Nevertheless, all economies need to have both a yin and a yang cycle. Otherwise,vitally important yin functions such as raising and educating children, caring for the elderly, or community and volunteer activities would not exist. A society completely lacking
a yin cycle would therefore soon collapse. But whenever a monopoly of yang currency
prevails, the yin functions tend to be less acknowledged and honored and systematicallystarved of resources. Such functions used to be relegated to women, so the public invisibility of women, the disregard of the functions of the yin cycle, and the gradual deterioration of the yin forms of capital are explicitly linked.
One result of a monopoly of yang currency is community decay, less solidarity, andfewer creative group activities than in societies with a dual yin-yang currency system. In
Bali, it is often said that ‘‘everybody is an artist of some kind,’’ as almost everyone contributes to cultural events as musician, dancer, mask maker, decorator of musical instruments or temple ornaments, or arranger of the elaborate daily offerings. In contrast, inthe developed societies where exchanges are monetized exclusively via a yang currency,
the arts become a highly specialized, comparatively rareed function, and their output
becomes a commodity consumed by an elite.

A World in Balance?

x

Yang

LIETAER

Table 1 Four forms of capital

11

Figure 2 The integral economy as a yin-yang complementary system

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The integral economy framework formally recognizes both a yin and a yang cycle inwhich each cycle mutually supports and complements the other (see gure 2). Withinsuch a framework, the Balinese exception and many of its unusual characteristics become
more easily understandable, even predictable. The characteristics may also contribute to
explaining the polar differences of the reaction to a terrorist attack in Bali and in the US.
The model of an integral economy and the unusual socioeconomic dynamics of dual
yin-yang currencies have been veried in other contemporary cases (DeMeulenaere,
Week, and Stevenson, 2002). In addition, I have documented historical precedents of theuse and effects of dual currency systems by matrifocal societies in dynastic Egypt andduring the central Middle Ages in Western Europe (Lietaer, 2000b).

Some Implications?
What would a society that honors the feminine values—the yin coherence—look like?
On the basis of various case studies, it would not be a society in which masculine values
are repressed. Instead, it would be a society moving toward the ‘‘world in balance’’ I
described earlier.
If a dual yin-yang currency approach combined with hyperdemocratic grassroots organizations can signi cantly shape a society’s value system, interesting new initiatives
become available for introducing change. Such initiatives can best be started at the grassroots level, without central governmental involvement.
By using a yin complementary currency, yin-type activities
are more continually nurtured whether they are of social,
cultural, or artistic nature, even while the people pursue
market-oriented activities in parallel. In a large-scale surveyof the American public, 83% considered that the top priority
in the US should be to ‘‘rebuild community’’ (Ray and Anderson, 1999). This suggests that it may be useful to question the assumption that the dollar is the only monetary tool relevant to solve all problems,
especially those of a community nature, even in the US.
There are many places where either of these concepts is currently operational, either
decentralized democratic organizations or complementary currencies. Only their combination remains comparatively rare. Many community exchange systems function throughout the Third World. In the past two decades, similar unconventional currencies havedeveloped exponentially throughout the First World. There was only one such modern
system in 1984, fewer than 100 in 1990, and more than 4,000 today. For instance, local
exchange trading systems, time dollars,3 and time banks all use different forms of yin
complementary currencies.
Those 4,000 local currency experiments currently under way can be considered research prototypes of what will emerge during the next decade. They are a bit like the
Wright Brothers’ planes— it is a miracle that they y in the rst place. But they haveunquestionably proven that it is possible to y. They have already shown that they cancontribute to solving a wide range of social problems without involving government bureaucrats or taxpayers’ money. Pragmatic results amply justify more systematic experimentation, as is being done in Japan. Regional and local governments have started
supporting pilot projects throughout Japan to facilitate the rebuilding of community andsocial capital more effectively than the conventional approaches, and at a fraction of theyen cost. Several new exchange systems even use smart cards to process the yin-typecomplementary currencies.4
Complementary currencies may indeed be an old idea whose time is coming, evenfor developed countries. UK Prime Minister Tony Blair has commented: ‘‘As a nation,
we’re rich in many things, but perhaps our greatest wealth lies in the talent, the characterand the idealism of the millions of people who make their communities work. Everyone—
however rich or poor —has time to give. . . . Let us give generously, in the two currenciesof time and money’’ (Seyfang, 2002). Similarly, President George W. Bush has appealed
to Americans to volunteer more frequently.
Could we not learn something from the people who have accumulated centuries
of experience using tools that support such activities? Requests for volunteering andWhat would a society that honors
the feminine values —the yin
coherence—look like?

12

Volume 4, Number 4, REFLECTIONSLIETAERx
A World in Balance?
Q

Barry Pell

exhortations for a ‘‘gentler society’’ deny the collective programming generated by a monopoly of a scarce, centralizing, yang currency. The importance of truly democratic decision making on how people want to use their resources (both time and money) is
similarly overlooked, even in most nonprot organizations. The resilience of the Balinese
approach derives clearly from genuine grassroots support for every activity on which thecommunity has decided and the possibility to stop any project whenever a majority questions it. When this approach is abused through a top-down imposition of projects, themechanism quickly deteriorates and breaks down.

So What?
‘‘If you want to feed someone, give him a  sh. But if you want to truly help him, teachhim how to  sh.’’ Well-designed complementary currencies play the role of such proverbial  shing lessons. Once in operation, they facilitate a continuous  ow of transactions
that otherwise wouldn’t happen, thereby enabling more work and creating additional
wealth and social capital.
It is naive to expect central governments to address local issues. Millions of people
are involved in initiatives to attend to an impressive range of social, educational, or environmental problems. But only a few such local activists have become aware of thepotential of local complementary currencies to increase their actions’ effectiveness. It may
indeed be appropriate to look seriously into the social multiplier effects that complementary currencies make possible. If you are in an area where a local complementary currency
is already operational, you may want to consider joining the experiment yourself. If there
is no local system available, but you belong to a community of dedicated activists, you

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13

LIETAERx
A World in Balance?

may want to consider starting a system. This may become even more relevant in theimmediate future. For the rst time since the 1930s, the three major world economies
have entered into a simultaneous recession. It is predictable that the social support system
will be under more pressure.
From an academic perspective, theory is way behind practice in this domain. Mosteconomic theory assumes only one currency per geographical area. Practically none of it
deals with the effects of complementary yin-yang currencies that respectively stimulatedifferent behavior patterns. Therefore, the eld of integral economics is wide open forboth theoretical and practical  eld research.

Conclusion

14

We should question the implicit theoretical assumption that money is value neutral. As
the English put it: ‘‘A fact is a fact, and is more respectable than the Lord Mayor of
London.’’ It is a fact that, in Bali, many exchanges and transactions occur that otherwise
would not happen because of the availability of the locally created yin currency. Furthermore, it is a fact that the users themselves claim that their vibrant community spirit andmore gentle worldview can be sustained only because of the existence and widespreaduse of this yin currency. Finally, it is a fact that Bali is different and has proven so mostrecently under the extreme pressures of a brutal terrorist attack.
I am not claiming that the yin-type community currencies are by themselves magic
wands that will automatically solve Third World poverty and cultural degradation orviolence-prone policies and behavior in the First World. Neither is Bali the Pollyanna
paradise proclaimed by the travel brochures. Fights occur in Bali, crimes are committed,
and pollution is increasing (Ramseyer and Tisna, 2000; Vickers, 1989). But their frequency
and scale is de nitely more manageable than in most other places on this planet.
Human societies are an extraordinarily complex web of interrelated but independent
factors, and it would be naive to assume that change in any one variable would be
sufcient to shift the whole. I hope that this article will draw the attention to one importantvariable that seems generally overlooked: the role of money systems in shaping collective
emotions and values.
This study may explain why—to be successful in business —many women feel asystematic pressure to repress their feminine side. This becomes quite understandable if
one realizes that business is ultimately about controlling the  ow of money and thatmoney—instead of being value neutral—is one of the most powerful enforcers of theyang coherence in our society. Any yin priority is therefore by de nition going to have toswim upstream against the yang undertow built into our conventional money system.
Although there are many women presidents of major countries, universities, or corporations, women governors of central banks are about as frequent as women popes.
More generally, as yang money shapes behavior patterns and emotions independently of
the gender of the participant, it doesn’t leave much leeway for the expression of thefeminine side, particularly in our business or nancial worlds, whether by men or by
women.
The fundamental purpose of Taoism, as most spiritual practices, is the transcendenceof duality. Therefore the yin-yang model is only a mental tool helpful to map one way tosuch a goal of transcendence. Even the dual currency model of the integral economy
should be considered only as an evolutionary tool particularly relevant for the socioeconomic transition period in which our global society is engaged. Ecological pressures, community breakdowns, or the spread of violence can all be successfully dealt with only froma broad perspective that fully reintegrates the legitimacy of the feminine perspective into
our worldview.

Acknowledgment
I want to acknowledge the key contributions of my coauthor in the Bali case study (Lietaer
and DeMeulenaere, 2003). DeMeulenaere is an expert in complementary currencies indeveloping countries and a permanent resident in Ubud, Bali.

Notes
1. Money is almost invariably dened by its functions, such as standard of value, medium of exchange, or store of value.
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x

2. We were told the story about the richest man in Bali who systematically used to replace his time
participation in his banjar with rupiah payments. But, for his cremation ceremony, the mostimportant religious event in a Balinese life, nobody came.
3. See www.timedollar.org
4. For a complete conceptual framework and an investigative report on the advantages and disadvantages of each type of complementary currency, see The Future of Money (Lietaer, 2000a).

References
DeMeulenaere, S., D. Week, and I. Stevenson. The Standardisation and Mobilisation of the Tabu
Traditional Shell Currency (Papua, New Guinea: East New Britain Provincial Government,
2002).
Eiseman, F.B. Bali Sekala & Niskala: Essays on Society, Tradition and Craft, Vol. II (Berkeley, CA:
Periplus Editions Inc., 1990).
Foa, U. ‘‘Interpersonal and Economic Resources.’’ Science 171, no. 1 (January 1971): 345–351.
Foa, U. and E. Foa. Societal Structures of the Mind (Spring eld, IL: Charles C. Thomas, 1974).
Geertz, C. ‘‘Form and Variation in Balinese Village Structure.’’ American Anthropologist 61 (1959):
991–1012.
Geertz, H. and C. Geertz. Kinship in Bali (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1975).
Guermonprez, J.F. ‘‘On the Elusive Balinese Village: Hierarchy and Values Versus Political Models.’’
Review of Indonesian and Malaysian Affairs 24 (1990): 55–89.
Jung, C.G. Collected Works, Vol. 3, trans. R.F.C. Hull (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press,
1960).
Lietaer, B. The Future of Money (London: Random House, 2000a).
Lietaer, B. Mysterium Geld (Munich: Riemann Verlag, 2000b).
Lietaer, B. and S. DeMeulenaere. ‘‘Sustaining Cultural Vitality in a Globalizing World: The Balinese
Example.’’ International Journal for Social Economics 30 (Summer 2003).
Purwita, A. Pemantapan Adat Dalam Menunjang Usaha-Usaha Pembangunan (Majelis Pembina
Lembaga Ada, Denpasar, 1983).
Ramseyer, U. and I Gusti Raka Panji Tisna. Bali Living in Two Worlds: A Critical Self-Portrait (Basel:
Schwabe Verlag, 2000).
Ray, P. and S. Anderson. The Cultural Creatives (New York: Harmony Books, 1999).
Schevitz, T. ‘‘FBI Sees Leap in Anti-Muslim Hate Crimes.’’ San Francisco Chronicle (November 26,2002): 1. [The original data come from the ofcial FBI report on hate crimes released on November 25, 2002.]
Seyfang, G. ‘‘Tackling Social Exclusion through Community Currencies: Learning from LETS to
Timebanks.’’ International Journal of Community Currency Research 6 (August 2002): http://
www.geog.le.ac.uk/ijccr/vol4 –6/6no3.htm.
Vickers, A. Bali: A Paradise Created (Berkeley, CA: Periplus Editions, 1989).
Warren, C. Adat and Dinas: Balinese Communities in the Indonesian State (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford
University Press, 1993).

15

Commentaryby Charles Handy

Elizabeth Handy

The ‘‘Balinese exception’’ is truly exceptional. It will remain an ideal that many communities may
aspire to but few achieve. Similarly, the 4,000 or so alternative currencies, however admirable, areunlikely ever to be more than small puddles of yin in the great acres of yang that dene the developed world. A world in better balance can seem a long way off if this is the way it is to beachieved.
Perhaps there is another way, one that lies in the emphasis given to different forms of work
rather than to different mediums of exchange, although there is a clear connection between the
two. If work is dened as ‘‘meaningful activity,’’ it is possible to identify at least six varieties ofwork:

x Fee workx Gift workx Home workx Study workx Recreational work
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Q

x Wage work
Charles Handy
Writer, broadcaster
Author, The Elephant and the Flea
(Harvard Business School Press)

LIETAERx
A World in Balance?

All these forms of work can be done for money, or for free, or for exchanges in kind. Economies
appear to grow, by conventional measures, when activities that used to be done for free or for
exchanges in kind are converted into paid activities. Home work, which includes the care and nurturing of young and old dependants as well as cleaning and cooking, is often contracted out by
the afuent, who then hope to earn enough after tax to pay for it. The money they earn and themoney they spend both boost the economy, although the actual amount of home work done remains the same. Recreation includes taking a walk in the woods (free) or walking on a treadmill ina gym (money). Study may be listening to a radio talk or downloading a lecture from the Internet(almost free) or enrollment in a formal program (paid for). Even gift work or volunteering is increasingly being offered money in the form of expenses or allowances.
Bernard Lietaer would like to see more of the top two forms of work (wage and fee work)
converted into work done for exchanges of time spent. My concern is to protect the other forms ofwork from a creeping monetarization, turning them all into forms of paid work and thereby magnifying the yang element in society. I don’t have as much hope as he does for the transformationof paid work, but I do believe that we can halt the commercialization of the other forms.
Small seeds of hope are there. One-third of baby care in Britain is now done by men —for free,because they are the fathers. Similarly, the afuent 30-something rst-time mothers are increasingly giving up paid work for a few years to be with their children, for free. As the demographicbalance in the developed world shifts toward the over-60s, more people discover that they wanttime rather than things, and time, once you have ceased paid work, is cost-free. Moreover, if you
give that time to others for free, be they your family or others, you earn yourself a feeling ofworth, and sometimes gratitude or even love. Such things, more people are discovering, are beyond
price.
Ideas change society—if they can catch the imagination. The Balinese example is an inspiration. The Tao has long been the guide of choice for many. Nonmonetary exchanges are a practicalexample of the yin we need to balance the yang, even if they are destined to remain small puddlesof hope. But if the idea caught on that work was more—much more—than going to the ofce or
the plant or the store, and that the work that was done for love, or just for its own sake, was thework that was most worthwhile, then, while governments might complain of faltering economies,
more lives could be in better balance and that might, in turn, make communities less selsh.

16

Volume 4, Number 4, REFLECTIONSLooking Back,
Leaping Forward
Mieko Nishimizu

This keynote address was given at a symposium on the Fiftieth Anniversary of Japan’s
Bretton Woods Membership, in Tokyo, on September 10, 2002.

T

he mission of the World Bank Group is to ght poverty with passion and professionalism. Our dream is a world free of poverty.
It is easy to be misled into thinking that we understand poverty. But, it takes morethan our head to understand the reality of poverty. It takes an open heart. And mine wastorn open some years ago by simple words of an old woman. She had walked hours under
the scorching sun of premonsoon India, just to fetch a bucket of water. ‘‘This, is not life,’’she said. ‘‘This, is only keeping a body alive.’’
Deep in your hearts, I know many of you here can connect with her words. You, andmillions like you throughout Japan, must have felt exactly the same at the end of WorldWar II.
Mieko Nishimizu
Vice President, South Asia Region
The World Bankx
So, today, we look back. Former Prime Minister Miyazawa has just been our gentle
guide, reminding us of those harsh years and the scale of the journey traveled. A journey,from survival to life, by the sovereign people of Japan.
Fifty years ago, Japan joined the Bretton Woods institutions. Today, we mark thatmilestone with a sense of privilege to nd Japan our strong partner in that dream weshare, of a world free of poverty.
It was in 1953—one year after the end of the US occupation—when the World Bank
commenced its  nancial assistance for postwar reconstruction, with a loan to the Kansai
Electricity Power Project. For the next 13 years, a grand total of $863 million (USD equivalent)  nanced 31 reconstruction projects including the famous bullet train system. Japan’s rapid recovery and growth enabled her to graduate from World Bank borrowing in
1966 and nish repayments of all loans by 1990 with, I should add, an impeccable debtservicing record sustained over three decades. Japan is now the second-largest
shareholder-donor of the World Bank Group, and the largest provider of trust fund grants.
Along the way, countless Japanese citizens invested their savings in various WorldBank Group bonds. The Tokyo market has been our single largest funding source for quite
some time. Like any other sound nancial institutions, we aspire to lend other people’s
money wisely, manage our nances prudently, meet all debt obligations to investors aspromised, earn their trust, and guard that trust jealously. We are proud of our ne AAA
credit ratings, built up slowly from a far inferior rating when we rst opened our doors
for business. The ratings signal the investors’ con dence and enable us in turn to provide
low-cost  nancing for developing countries. As such, the World Bank Group owes a great
deal more than just money to the sovereign people of Japan—their market’s prudent
discipline on us, and their trust and condence.

17x
An impressive membership history, indeed. Yet sadly, we still live in a world ofcon icts within and among nation states. Whether Afghanistan, Angola, Bosnia, Congo,

REFLECTIONS, Volume 4, Number 4q

2003 by Mieko Nishimizu.

NISHIMIZU
x
Looking Back, Leaping Forward

Guatemala, or Sri Lanka, to name but a few, the World Bank continues its reconstruction
work with the people of war-torn nations. In their struggles as the dark of war recedes, it
is Japan that offers a beacon of hope. It is Japan’s collective memory of what it took tonish reconstruction that remains the guide for today’s distressed nations:x A sound macroeconomic management, guarding against in ationary tendencies of
postconict economies.

x Far-reaching structural reforms, with unfailing focus on people’s health and education, to unleash growth in investment, employment, output, and productivity.

x A balance between public investments and private-sector leadership in reconstruction, especially smaller enterprises.
Most important of all, Japan’s reconstruction demonstrated the power of a people’s
self-determination. In our 50-year partnership, this was perhaps Japan’s most valuablelesson to the World Bank. Under President Wolfensohn’s leadership, we now call our way
of working the Comprehensive Development Framework. This framework is rooted in theprinciple demonstrated by Japan: that nation building is a learning process, a process oftransformation of a society that is of the people, by the people, and for the people; andthat external agencies, like the World Bank, serve as a team of facilitators for that process,invited by the people as catalysts for positive change of their own conviction. The framework is now spreading throughout the world, as it guides developing nations to articulate
their Poverty Reduction Strategies and donor nations and agencies to set their assistancestrategies.

x
The World Bank also feels gratied to learn from Japan’s distinguished citizens—
those who, as young visionary leaders of change, had worked with us as ‘‘counterparts’’—
about what they valued most in our partnership:

x The global best-practice knowledge shared freely by the World Bank staff, with asingular focus on the well-being of the Japanese people.

x The staff’s appreciation of Japan’s local context, and their curiosity and interest in
learning what Japan had to offer to the rest of the world.

x The World Bank’s long-term  nancing, not for the money’s sake but for providingthat precious social, economic, and political ‘‘enabling space’’ for these leaders totransform their dreams into reality.

18

The World Bank’s mandate and priorities have evolved since its founding, along withchanging needs of its members. Yet, these three things said to have been valued mosthave remained the bedrock of our corporate vision, values,
and business strategy. Indeed, the World Bank today (as agroup of nancial cooperatives belonging to the sovereign
people of the now 184 member nations) is a global learningorganization, a ‘‘knowledge bank.’’ Lending money comes
second to this core—simply an instrument that opens anenabling space, in which a society can travel through atransformation of its own. We learn constantly from global experience and share the bestpractice as honest brokers with all members. And we strive to remain tuned to the future
shape of the world in which development must take place.

Globalization can indeed mean thegreater good and not the good of
the great.

x
That future appears alien to us. It differs from the past most notably in that the Earthitself is the relevant unit with which to frame and measure that future.
Discriminating issues that shape the future are all fundamentally global. We belong
to one inescapable network of mutuality: mutuality of ecosystems; mutuality of freer
movement of information, ideas, people, capital, goods and services; and mutuality ofpeace and security. We are tied, indeed, in a single fabric of destiny on Planet Earth.
Policies and actions that attempt to tear a nation from this cloth will inevitably fail,by impoverishing the very wealth or income of those they set out to protect. Of this, theinterwar history of the world is one notable testimony. Not to repeat that history, of theVolume 4, Number 4, REFLECTIONSNISHIMIZU
x
Looking Back, Leaping Forward
Q

Barry Pell

Great Depression and the world wars, was what motivated and drove the founding fathersof the Bretton Woods institutions, Lord John Maynard Keynes among them.
What, then, does it take for the world community of nation states to think beyond
national borders and myopic self-interests? Is such a different ‘‘state of the world’’ possible?
Enlightened policies that raise the sights of a people above the lowest common denominator of ‘‘democratic consensus,’’ beyond their immediate losses to a greater gain
for all, are instigated only with leadership of vision and courage. With such leadership,
the world community can begin to think globally and act to raise the sights of respective
national interests, so that globalization can indeed mean the greater good and not thegood of the great. For the rst time in human history, we possess the technology andresources to rid our world of poverty by doing so.
It is in this context that, while looking back over the 50 years, I suggest that Japanleap forward.
I sense that the people of Japan see their country at a crossroads of her destiny. Toomany nations have grown rich while losing sight of their culture, spirituality, and harmony
with nature and with other peoples. As a citizen of Japan, it saddens me deeply to hear
my countrymen ask whether they have left behind something valuable somewhere along
the way. . . .
There is a small nation in a remote corner of Asia, which
has chosen an entirely different path: Bhutan. More than 20
years ago, Bhutan set ‘‘Gross National Happiness’’ as the nation’s development goal, explicitly.
In the cultural context of Bhutan, as is also the case withJapan and other societies of Asia, the word ‘‘development’’is traditionally understood to mean ‘‘enlightenment.’’ Enlightenment, not solely an object of religious activity, but theblossoming of happiness. In Bhutan’s vision, happiness is acomplete view of human and national development that transcends the material. Inner spiritual development is as prominent a focus as external material development in the nation’s policies and actions. In Bhutan’s conviction, happinessis made more probable by consciously creating a harmonious psychological, social, economic, and natural environment within which to live—to be able to say: ‘‘This, is life—
not just keeping a body alive.’’

Happiness is made more probableby consciously creating aharmonious psychological, social,economic, and natural environment
within which to live.

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19

NISHIMIZU
x
Looking Back, Leaping Forward

This choice is no less extraordinary in its foresight than in its nonconventional wisdom and nonconformist perseverance. It carries a striking relevance today in thinking
about that different state of our world, where nations expand their policy horizon beyond
their borders. In the words of H.E. Jigmi Thinley, the Foreign Minister of Bhutan:
The knowledge of the self is important to attain individual liberty and freedom, to gain
happiness. . . . In varying degrees, the contemporary world may be too acutely preoccupied
with the self. . . . But the paradox is that excessive self-concern does not lead to real knowledge of ourselves. Happiness depends, instead, on gaining freedom from this. . . . In our
opinion, minimization of self-concern is also an important step in the process of constructing
a happier web of human relationships, and of transforming man into a less intrusive and destructive force in our natural and human environments.

With my hard World Bank economist’s hat on, I view this conscious pursuit of happiness as a truly holistic view of development. It has quite naturally led this small Himalayan nation, for instance, to execute environmentally sustainable development at the
cutting edge of world practice, long before the world woke up to its deteriorating ecosystems. In a world suffering from climate change with insuf cient action, Bhutan takes pridein protecting and expanding its pristine forest as a contribution to the global sink service.

x
If there is a way to turn the inescapable global mutuality into a positive energy, one
may indeed nd it in the Asian way demonstrated by Bhutan. The connection Bhutan
makes, between the hard stuff of the material and the soft stuff of the intangible ‘‘development,’’ is not at all foreign to Japanese thinking. Was this not part of Japan’s cultural
foundation, the thread that wove her society together throughout trying times?
Japan is the only G7 nation whose heritage—a heritage not yet lost—would makeher a natural and ideal champion, globally. The people of Japan do understand what it
takes to go after the win-wins between national interests and those of the world. With all
her postwar achievements that were once thought impossible, it is surely reasonable toexpect Japan to inspire all with an ‘‘Asian enlightenment.’’
I repeat. Enlightened policies that raise the sights of a people, beyond their immediate
losses to a greater gain for all, are instigated only with leadership of vision and courage.
With such leadership, the world community can begin to think globally, and act to raise
the sights of national interests, for globalization to mean the greater good, not the goodof the great.

x
20

The greatest challenge of this third millennium, for every nation on Earth, will be tosecure the happiness of the people. It is my hope that this century will see the world’s
collective energies devoted to a higher development endeavor, aiming not to pacify theinsatiable self but to bring happiness and peace to all. And it is my personal dream to see
Japan leap forward, side by side with the like-minded such as Bhutan, and lead a positivechange in how nation states think and act.
On behalf of James D. Wolfensohn, the president of the World Bank Group, and theentire staff in 107 ofces worldwide, including the Tokyo Ofce now led by Vice President
Yoshimura, I wish the sovereign people of Japan well—all the change leaders of today,
and of tomorrow, among them. A very happy ftieth birthday, and many happy returns,
from the bottom of my heart!

Volume 4, Number 4, REFLECTIONS

Ubuntu: Reections of
a South African on Our
Common Humanity
Barbara Nussbaum

African values could contribute much to world consciousness, but people in the Westmisunderstand Africa for many reasons. First, Africa’s traditional culture is inaccessible because most of it is oral rather than written and lived rather than formally communicated in books or journals; it is difcult to learn about from a distance. Second, many
African political leaders betrayed the philosophical and humanitarian principles on which
African culture is based, and political failures in African countries tend to tarnish theviews of many Westerners. Third, people in the West, for whatever reason, receive negative, limited information through the media; images of ethnic wars, dictatorships, famine,
and AIDS predominate, so the potential contribution of African values is often lost.
I have chosen to write about the inspiring dimensions of African values that rarely
make their way into mainstream US news media. I write because of a strengthening conviction that Africa has something important to contribute to a change of heart needed in
the world. This need for change has become clearer in my own mind since September 11;
there is no doubt that our world must embrace a sense of interconnectedness as a global
community if we are to survive.
I share here some personal reections about Africa.1 I seek to articulate some of thebeauty and power of ubuntu, an underlying social philosophy of African culture. Ubuntu
is the capacity in African culture to express compassion, reciprocity, dignity, harmony,and humanity in the interests of building and maintaining community. Ubuntu calls on
us to believe and feel that:

Barbara Nussbaum
Liaison for Africa
World Business Academy
BarbaraNu@aol.com

Your pain is My pain,
My wealth is Your wealth,Your salvation is My salvation.

21

In essence, ubuntu, an Nguni word from South Africa, addresses our interconnectedness,
our common humanity, and the responsibility to each other that ows from our connection. The eclipse of ubuntu has darkened the spirit of modern-day African political systems. However, imagine the potential of ubuntu’s sunlight, were it to be embraced as avital part of the African renaissance or even as Africa’s contribution to help a divided,fragmented world.
Nhlanhla Mkhize, a South African psychologist, explains that self is rooted in community in several traditional African cultures in South Africa:
The African view of personhood denies that a person can be described solely in terms of thephysical and psychological properties. It is with reference to the community that a person isdened. The importance of the community in self-de nition is summed up by Mbiti, ‘‘I am
because we are, and since we are, therefore I am.’’. . . It is this rootedness of the self-incommunity that gives rise to sayings such as umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu (Nguni)/Motho ke
motho ka batho babang (Sotho). These roughly translate to, ‘‘It is through others that one
attains selfhood.’’ The Venda saying, Muthu u bebelwa munwe (a person is born for theother), also captures the interdependence between self and community (Mkhize, 1998: 1).
REFLECTIONS, Volume 4, Number 4

2003 by the Society for Organizational Learning and the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology.
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NUSSBAUM
Ubuntux

Leopold Senghor, a West African social philosopher, describes another dimension of
ubuntu, ‘‘I feel the other, I dance the other, and therefore I am.’’According to Duke University professor Michael Battle, ubuntu re ects the strong
interdependence of human beings:
We say a person is a person through other persons. We don’t come fully formed into theworld. . . . We need other human beings in order to be human. We are made for togetherness, we are made for family, for fellowship, (for community) to exist in a tender network ofinterdependence (Battle, 1997).

Interconnectedness of Self and Community
Ubuntu sees community rather than self-determination as the essential aspect of personhood. People are distinctive beings, able to recognize and acknowledge each other throughmutual encounter and cultural integration.
Ronnie Lessem, a senior lecturer at the University of Buckingham, and I were amongthe rst researchers to write about the potential of ubuntu and other African values as apositive force in the South African workplace. In our book,
we describe various ways in which the arts, storytelling,
and community-building rituals strengthen and enliven
group relationships (Lessem and Nussbaum, 1996). Values
and processes geared toward seeking consensus and mutual
understanding, and maintaining harmony are very much apart of African culture. These include leadership and healing skills and simple interpersonal processes, such as how to greet someone in the morning, how a person leads a group to improvise together in dance, how a chief makes
decisions, or how war healers reduce vengeance among people who have been at war.
For example, Shona greetings (from Zimbabwe) in the morning would be:

Ubuntu sees community rather
than self-determination as theessential aspect of personhood.

Mangwani, marara sei? (Good morning, did you sleep well?)Ndarara, kana mararawo (I slept well, if you slept well.)
And at lunchtime:
Marara sei? (How has your day been?)
Ndarara, kana mararawo? (My day has been good, if your day has been good.)22

In other words, we are so connected that if you did not sleep well, or if you are not having
a good day, how can I sleep well or have a good day? This kind of greeting would apply
to close family and to strangers.
A good chief listens to the group and  nds the point of consensus. He (most are men)would play a low-key role, listen to all viewpoints, facilitate debate, and nally summarize
and make a decision that is just, preserves dignity, and reects the group consensus. The
phrase, ‘‘a chief is a chief by the people,’’ underlies the traditional way in which leaders,by listening to people, understood the place of the common good.
Traditionally, following a war between two tribes in South Africa, war healers fromeach side would together arrange for a cleansing ceremony involving those who foughton both sides. They believed that because people had died, ancestors on both sides would
be aggrieved, and the hands, hearts, and spirits of killers on each side needed to becleansed. This mature, profound skill demonstrates an in-built capacity for reconciliationand healing after war. Where else in the world does this happen? Imagine if the Israelis
and Arabs had been able to do this at various points during their long, antagonistic history?
Such ceremonies remind people of their common humanity and reduce the buildup of
vengeful feelings.

Reconciliation and Soul Force
When I was working in a nongovernmental organization in Zimbabwe in the late 1980s,
a colleague, Matanga, and I disagreed about an issue. After discussing it for an hour or
two, I said, ‘‘Matanga, can’t we agree to disagree?’’ He said, ‘‘No, sisi (sister) Barbs. We
have to sit and talk until we agree.’’ This conversation illustrates a value base that stresses
Volume 4, Number 4, REFLECTIONSNUSSBAUMx
UbuntuQ

Barry Pellcooperation, the desire for reconciliation, and communication in the interests of not only
harmony but shared understanding.
I believe that some of the cultural dynamics behind South Africa’s political miracle
must be attributed to the patience, maturity, and reconciliatory skill that African leaders
embody. Nelson Mandela and others found a way to talk issues through, until a digni edconsensus was found. Credit is also due to the humility and commitment of white leaders
who chose to listen. But, in the  nal analysis, the reconciliatory wisdom in the service of
discovering and building our connection with each other is an inherent gift of African
cultural heritage, a gift the world is just beginning to recognize and one that merits greaterattention.
Ali Mazrui, a Kenyan political scientist, has referred to an African tendency towarda ‘‘short memory of hate’’: ‘‘In reality, black people have been at least as violent asanything ever perpetrated by Indians. What is distinctive about Africans is their shortmemory of hate’’ (Mazrui, 2001: 14–17). Africans teach their children to communicate,reconcile, and nd ways to cleanse and let go of hatred and give them the skills to do so.
The wars in the Congo and Rwanda are a sober counterpoint, compromising the powerfullegacy of this continent, which gave birth to a deeply human heritage.
Mazrui also described Gandhi’s views on African soul force, of great interest because
Gandhi profoundly inuenced Martin Luther King, Jr. According to Mazrui:
In the  rst half of the twentieth century, India produced Mohandas Gandhi, who led one of
the most remarkable nonviolent anticolonial movements ever witnessed. Westerners themselves saw Gandhi’s message as the nearest approximation of the Christian ethic of the rst
half of the twentieth century. Mahatma Gandhi’s India gave birth to new principles of passive
resistance and satygraha. Yet Gandhi himself said that it may be through the black people
that the unadulterated message of soul force and passive resistance might be realized (Mazrui, 1986).

There is something powerful and inspiring about African soul force. When I lived in South
Africa from 1992 to 2000, I watched Mandela become president, a new constitution
brought to life through careful midwifery, and the weekly special reports on the Truth
and Reconciliation Commission as South Africans discussed mutual healing. Soul force
infused the pre-election negotiations in South Africa. It made its mark on the South African
constitution and on the debate about civic engagement in that country. Perhaps soul force
is a beautiful quality deeply inherent in all human beings, but through the forces of time,urbanization, industrialization, and concomitant processes of alienation, it tends to bedenied, suppressed, and temporarily forgotten.
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UbuntuUbuntu in Mandela and Martin Luther King, Jr.
Mandela is an icon who embodies a profound capacity for reconciliation and forgiveness.
He has given the world the gift of seeing, ghting for, and then living out our common
humanity. My dream is that the leaders and citizens of the world not only receive his gift
but translate what they learn from his heartfelt sense of connectedness in community into
their own lives.
Mandela’s autobiography shows the power of this gift:
I have always known that deep down in every human heart, there is mercy and generosity.
No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or
his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught tolove, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite. Even at the grimmest times in prison, when my comrades and I were pushed to our limits, I would see a glimmer of humanity in one of the guards, perhaps just for a second, but it was enough toreassure me and keep me going. Man’s goodness is a ame that can be hidden but neverextinguished (Mandela, 1994: 542).

Mandela’s expression of ubuntu, as he conceived of its logical and ultimate extension,embraces freedom and respect for all humanity:
It was during those long and lonely years that my hunger for the freedom of my own people
became a hunger for the freedom of all people, white and black. I knew as well as I knew
anything that the oppressor must be liberated just as surely as the oppressed. A man who
takes away another man’s freedom is a prisoner of hatred; he is locked behind the bars of
prejudice and narrow-mindedness. I am not truly free if I am taking away someone else’s
freedom, just as surely as I am not truly free when my freedom is taken from me. The oppressed and the oppressor alike are robbed of their humanity. . . . When I walked out ofprison, that was my mission to liberate the oppressed and the oppressor both. . . . For to be
free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the
freedom of others (Mandela, 1994: 544).

At this time, I wonder what the world would look like if other leaders followed Mandela’s
example. What would capitalism look like if infused with ubuntu? What would the world’s
economic order be? What would the legal system be in America? How much more heartfelt
economic and political generosity might there be?
In his own version of ubuntu, law professor Peter Gabel has commented about Martin
Luther King, Jr.:24

The most profound denition of justice is Martin Luther King, Jr.’s: ‘‘Love correcting thatwhich revolts against love.’’ Its power comes from its afrmation that we are rst of all connected, that as individuals we are but unique incarnations of a spiritual force that unites us,
and that justice is the making manifest of that love by correcting, through the inherent ethicalcall that love makes upon every one of us, the spiritual distortions that revolt against loveand seek to deny it. It was to this inherent ethical understanding emanating from the very
essence of our social existence, pulling upon the conscience of the oppressor as much as giving courage to the oppressed, that King always addressed himself (Gabel, 2000: 11).

King lived at a different time in history, but he, Mandela, and Gabel share an understanding of the link between the oppressor and the oppressed. They all allude to our connectedness and interdependence and recognize the power oflove and common humanity as the soul force or the spiritualenergy that carries within it the re to transform and tocorrect.
In Gabel’s writings, I see the echo and avor of African
humanity. In my small, personal microcosm in America, I
notice among my friends, underneath the apparent alienation and masks, a deep desire for compassion, connectedness, and community. Could
African values shed additional light and give meaning to de ning and fullling that desire?
In South Africa, I met ‘‘mini-Mandelas,’’ or people whose capacity to transform feelings of hate into love are awe inspiring. I interviewed a business leader, Eric Molobi,
director of Kagiso Trust Investments in Joburg, South Africa, who, after years of suffering

What would capitalism look like if
infused with ubuntu? What would
the world’s economic order be?

Volume 4, Number 4, REFLECTIONSNUSSBAUMx
Ubuntuthe apartheid system, became a political activist and was jailed. He began to hate all white
people. In prison, in a single moment, his hardened attitudes began to melt. One evening,
Eric was feeling sad and comforted himself by whistling, ‘‘Silent Night, Holy Night.’’ Awhite prison warden heard him and said with gentleness and kindness, ‘‘My son, this is
not the end. Have faith.’’ Eric was deeply touched by this warden’s humanity. ‘‘This man
doesn’t know it, but he changed me. Previously, I had clubbed all whites altogether. He
called me, ‘my son’! He understood what I was feeling and he comforted me.’’ The compassion of his prison warden began a profound transformation in Molobi’s attitude toward
white people. In this brief vignette, we can see how the spiral of compassion can becomea transformative one, moving toward justice and healing, the spiral described by King,
Gabel, and played out in this South African prison.

Individualism of the East and the West
Ronnie Lessem suggests that East and West have been able to meet because both aresomewhat individualistic. In Lessem’s view, the South (Africa, Latin America) is a primarysource of inspiration for the communal spirit that shapes ways of being and living incommunity:
The key aspect which differentiates the east from the south is the eastern notion, ‘I am theuniverse.’ In other words, the universe lives in me and me in the universe, but not as muchin other people or the community. In the great African souls, community and selfhood
through collective belonging is a powerful force, which feeds the imagination (Lessem, personal interview, September 2002).

But there are writers in the West who have come to their understanding of interconnectedness through unexpected pathways, such as physics. Joe Jaworski describes his
evolution from a driven, hardworking Texas lawyer to someone who understands theneed to foster connectedness in a country fragmented by too many social and economic
divides (Jaworski, 1996). In his own journey, he began to understand his emerging leadership role as transforming society by building bridges between leaders from different
institutional, class, and professional sectors.
One person who inuenced Jaworski’s thinking was the late David Bohm, who described scientic dimensions of an implicate order that shapes and underlies our interconnectedness. Jaworski saw the human and spiritual correlates of the new physics andresponded to this knowledge by trying to heal the fragmentation he saw in American
society and starting ALF (American Leadership Forum). Through ALF trainings, leadersfrom different professions, social classes, political ideologies,
and institutional sectors discuss and discover their interconnectedness and capacity for collaborative work.
Those of us in South Africa recognized that Bohm’s new
physics is about ubuntu—our African unscienti c but similar
manifestation of interconnectedness. African culture hascelebrated mutuality and connectedness for centuries. Africans understand the connections of past and present, human beings and nature, ourcommon humanity, and a shared spirituality. Africans have mastered the art of communication between ancestors and people in the present as well as dialogue among us all(plants, birds, and animals included). The new physics are, for South Africans, the golden
threads of ubuntu woven from the old traditional African fabric of interconnectedness.

African culture has celebrated
mutuality and connectedness for
centuries.

Ubuntu in the US and the World
Voices in the US media give me hope that, while there are deeply isolationist tendencies
in the US, some people have ubuntu and care deeply about helping not only their own
country but others as well. For example, Harvard professor Jeffrey Sachs writes:
Africa, with tens of millions of lives at stake, needs around $5 billion to $10 billion a year
from the rich countries in the next decade to battle AIDS. . . . A realistic policy would go
beyond  ghting AIDS, committing to another $5 billion to $10 billion a year to a full- edged
 ght on malaria, tuberculosis, and other killer diseases that help keep Africa trapped in
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NUSSBAUMx
Ubuntupoverty. The rich countries could nance both this and the AIDS program—at between $10
billion and $20 billion a year—without breaking a sweat. . . . A likely American government
share—say, $3 billion or so annually in the next few years—would represent about $10 ayear for each of us—the cost of a movie ticket with popcorn. Saving millions of African lives
in the coming decade would have practical returns for the United States, sparing huge later
costs. But the real returns would be to our own moral worth (Sachs, 2001).

Such thinkers espouse what, through my own South African lens, sounds like ubuntu
values in America. More people who articulate the clarion call for connectedness andinterdependence deserve to be heard throughout the world.
One is Rinaldo Brutoco, founder and president of the World Business Academy, who
said recently:
While nations may not be ready to turn swords into ploughshares or to redesign the world
economic order, the only way to ensure long-term sustainability and global security is to inspire investment in a world where the vision of peace, mutual benet, and rising economic
wealth for all, supercedes the reality of a world crippled by fear, runaway military budgets,starvation, and saber-rattling (Brutoco, personal interview, October 19, 2002).

In the aftermath of September 11, which has clearly underlined our increasing socialand economic global interdependence, it seems clear that African ubuntu could contributeto the world, if people would allow themselves to internalize it. If we acknowledge thecommon good and our interconnectedness, we can look to the wisdom of ubuntu to inform
our lives.
I conclude by repeating the old South African saying: ‘‘Your pain is my pain, mywealth is your wealth, your salvation is my salvation.’’ As we begin to entertain thepossibility that the roots of poverty are similar to the roots of terrorism, the challenge ofradically altering the way nancial markets operate and reenvisioning how wealth could
be shared becomes more real. Indeed, if it were possible to sprinkle ubuntu on the consciousness of humankind, we could look forward to a more just, equitable, and sustainable
future. By bringing about salvation for everybody, whether African or European, Muslim
or American, we could create our own safety and our own salvation.

Acknowledgment
This article is adapted from a research paper published by the World Business Academy.
For the original article, see www.Worldbusiness.org, Perspectives, Vol. 17, Issue 1 (February 12, 2003) or write directly to BarbaraNu@aol.com.

Note
26

1. Because most of my experiences in Africa have occurred as a result of living in South Africa andZimbabwe, when I use the word African, I intend it to apply only to those countries. In thisarticle, ubuntu is a philosophy and a frame of mind prevalent among African people living below
the Sahara.

References
Battle, M. Reconciliation: The Ubuntu Theology of Bishop Desmond Tutu (Cleveland, OH: Pilgrim’s
Press, 1997).
Gabel, P. ‘‘Imagining Law.’’ Tikkun 15 (November-December 2000).
Jaworski, J. Synchronicity: The Inner Path of Leadership (San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, 1996).
Lessem, R. and B. Nussbaum. Sawubona Africa: Embracing Four Worlds in South African Management (Johannesburg, South Africa: Zebra Press, Struik Publishers, 1996).
Mandela, N. A Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela (Boston: Little, Brown& Company, 1994).
Mazrui, A. ‘‘The Africans: A Triple Heritage’’ (BBC lecture series, 1986).
Mazrui, A. ‘‘Afro-Arab Cross re: Between the Flames of Terrorism and the Force of Pax Americana.’’
Paper presented at a special seminar sponsored by the Ethiopian International Institute for Peaceand Development, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, December 5, 2001.
Mkhize, N. ‘‘Culture, Morality and Self, In Search of an Africentric Voice,’’ unpublished manuscript,
University of Natal—Pietermaritzberg, Department of Psychology, South Africa Initiative, 1998.
Sachs, J. ‘‘The Best Possible Investment in Africa.’’ New York Times (February 10, 2001).
Volume 4, Number 4, REFLECTIONSOn Dialogue, Culture, andOrganizational Learning
Edgar H. ScheinConsider any complex, potentially volatile issue—Arab relations; the problems between Serbs, Croats, and Bosnians; corporate decision making; getting control of the
US de cit or health care costs; labor-management relations; and so on. At the root of theissue, we are likely to  nd communication failures and cultural misunderstandings thatprevent the parties from framing the problem in a common way, and thus make it impossible to deal with the problem constructively.
Clearly, we need ways of improving our thought processes, especially in groups where
the solution depends on people reaching at least a common formulation of the problem.
It is for this reason that governments, communities, and organizations are focusing increasing attention on the theory and practice of dialogue. Proponents of dialogue claimthat it holds promise as a way of helping groups reach higher levels of consciousness andthus be more creative and more effective. At the same time, the uninitiated may view
dialogue as just one more oversold communication technology—or nothing more than a
new variant of sensitivity training.
My goal in this article is to provide one perspective on dialogue, based upon my own
direct experience with it. I hope to show that dialogue is indeed not only different frommany of the techniques that have been proposed before, but also that it has considerable
promise as a problem-formulation and problem-solving philosophy and technology. I will
also argue that dialogue is necessary as a vehicle for understanding cultures and subcultures, and that organizational learning will ultimately depend upon such cultural understanding. Dialogue thus becomes a central element of any model of organizationaltransformation.

Edgar H. Schein
Sloan Fellows Professor Emeritus
MIT Sloan School of Management
Scheine@mit.edu

What Is the Problem and Why Is Dialogue Essential?

27

To answer this question, we must put dialogue, culture, and organizational learning in
the context of changes that are occurring in the organizational world. These changes canbe stated as a set of propositions, as follows.

x Because of the increasing rate of change in the environment, organizations face anincreasing need for rapid learning.

x Because of the growth of technological complexity in all functions, organizationalxxx

structures and designs are moving toward knowledge-based, distributed information
forms.
Consequently, organizations of all sizes will show a greater tendency to break down
into subunits of various sorts, based on technology, products, markets, geographies,
occupational communities, and other factors not yet known.
The subunits of organizations are more and more likely to develop their own subcultures (implying different languages and different assumptions about reality, i.e.,
different mental models) because of their shared core technologies and their different
learning experiences.
Organizational effectiveness is therefore increasingly dependent on valid communication across subcultural boundaries. Integration across subcultures (the essential

REFLECTIONS, Volume 4, Number 4

Reprinted from Organizational Dynamics, Edgar H. Schein, vol. 22, Summer
1993, with permission from Elsevier
Science.

SCHEIN
On Dialogue, Culture, and Organizational Learning

x

x

28

x

coordination problem) will increasingly hinge on the ability to develop an overarchingcommon language and mental model.
Any form of organizational learning, therefore, will require the evolution of sharedmental models that cut across the subcultures of the organization.
The evolution of new shared mental models is inhibited by current cultural rules about
interaction and communication, making dialogue a necessary rst step in learning.

The ultimate reason for learning about the theory and practice of dialogue, then, isthat it facilitates and creates new possibilities for valid communication. If we did not needto communicate in groups, then we would not need to work on dialogue. But if problem
solving and conict resolution in groups is increasingly important in our complex world,
then the skill of dialogue becomes one of the most fundamental of human skills.
Why do we have so many problems understanding each other? Basically, the answer
is that we are all culturally overtrained not only to think in terms of certain consensuallyvalidated categories but also to withhold information that would in any way threaten thecurrent ‘‘social order.’’ From early on in life, we are taughtthat social relations hinge upon the mutual maintenance of‘‘face.’’ ‘‘Face’’ can be thought of as the social value that
persons attribute to themselves as they enter any interpersonal situation. As the sociologist Erving Goffman has
shown so eloquently, we always present ourselves as something—by name, by title, by our demeanor, by the tone of our voice. And, in so doing,
we always claim a certain amount of value or status for ourselves relative to the othersin the situation.
Others then must make an immediate choice: to grant us what we have claimed, or
to either withhold conrmation or actually challenge us. Consider a simple example ofsuch discon rmation. To get someone’s attention, I say ‘‘Excuse me . . . ,’’ and the otherperson responds with ‘‘Can’t you see I’m busy?’’ At this point, I am likely to feel put down
or unacknowledged, and if the situation is not repaired, we will both lose face. I will nothave been granted the status of a valid question asker, and the other person will havedisplayed him or herself as ‘‘rude.’’In fact, lack of acknowledgment is devastating to most human beings. We are taught
early in life not only to pay attention to and acknowledge people, but to go further—togrant them what they claim unless it makes us too uncomfortable. Thus, when someone
tells us a joke, we laugh even when we don’t think it is funny. If someone says, ‘‘Don’t
I look nice in this outt?’’ we tend to be complimentary even if we don’t like what wesee. And so on. What we call tact, good manners, savoir faire, and poise usually refers toa person’s ability to respond in such a way as to enhance everyone’s self-worth, rather
than tear it down.
Mutual face saving thus makes normal social relations possible. But in that very
process, we operate by cultural rules that undermine valid communication and create
what Chris Argyris calls ‘‘defensive routines.’’ To be polite, to protect everyone’s face,especially our own, we tend to say what we feel is most appropriate and least hurtful. It
becomes a cultural rule to ‘‘say something nice if you say anything at all, and if you can’t
say something nice, don’t say anything.’’ All cultures teach such rules, but Asian culturesprobably adhere to them even more than Western cultures. Whereas a confrontational
remark in US culture may be seen only as rude and offensive, other cultures may view
the same remark as a serious affront and insult, leading to an immediate breakdown of
the relationship.
Time pressures create a real dilemma for problem-solving groups: voicing the truth
might lead to a quicker solution, but undermine the relationship-building process. In a
discussion or debate, various parties may see a factual disagreement as a personal attack
or affront. This causes a defensive response that further interferes with communicationand task accomplishment. To avoid such possibilities, we often formalize debate aroundcommon rules such as Robert’s Rules of Order, sacricing communication and understanding to the preservation of face. This scenario is so typical in decision-making groups
that one can state the following proposition:

Why do we have so many problems
understanding each other?

Volume 4, Number 4, REFLECTIONSSCHEINx
On Dialogue, Culture, and Organizational Learning
Q

Linda Cooper

All problem-solving groups should begin in a dialogue format to facilitate the building of sufcient common ground and mutual trust, and to make it possible to tell what is really on one’s
mind.

Seen from this point of view, dialogue is a necessary condition for effective group
action, because only with a period of dialogue is it possible to determine whether or not
the communication that is going on is valid. If it is not valid, in the sense that different
members are using words differently or have different mental models without realizing
it, the possibilities of solving problems or making effective decisions are markedly reduced. Dialogue, then, is at the root of all effective group action.
If cross-cultural issues are involved as well, the development of shared mental models
will require more lengthy and elaborate periods of dialogue. As organizations differentiatethemselves in terms of programs, projects, functional groups,
geographical units, hierarchical strata, or competency-based
units (what John Seely Brown and others have called ‘‘communities of practice’’), we will nd that each of these units
inevitably creates common frames of reference, common languages, and, ultimately, common assumptions, thus forming genuine subcultures thatwill have to be integrated if the organization is to work effectively. Once we recognizethat the problem of coordination and integration in an organization is ultimately a problem
of meshing subcultures, we will also realize that our normal coordination mechanisms
are not up to the task. We will need technologies and mechanisms that make it possible
for people to discover that they use language differently, that they operate from different
mental models, and that the categories we employ are ultimately learned social constructions of reality and thus arbitrary. Dialogue is one such technology.

Dialogue, then, is at the root of all
effective group action.

Dialogue versus Sensitivity Training
To elucidate this argument, let me provide a very personal account of how I analyzed myown experiences with dialogue. My purpose in giving a detailed account is to demystify
dialogue. Some proponents have made it sound like a most esoteric experience. If dialogue
is to become helpful to organizational processes, it must be seen as accessible to all of us.
Unfortunately, an abstract description does not help accessibility. As we all know, ‘‘thedevil is in the details.’’

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On Dialogue, Culture, and Organizational Learning30

I became speci cally preoccupied with the question of how dialogue was different
from good face-to-face communication of the sort we learn about in group dynamics andhuman relations workshops. The difference does not become clear until one actually experiences the dialogue setting. Then, however, the difference is obvious and can be described unambiguously.
Most communication and human relations workshops emphasize active listening, bywhich is meant that one should pay attention to all the communication channels—the
spoken words, the body language, tone of voice, and emotional content. One should learn
to focus initially on what the other person is saying rather than on one’s own intended
response. In contrast, dialogue focuses on getting in touch with underlying assumptions(especially our own assumptions) that automatically determine when we choose to speak
and what we choose to say. Dialogue is focused more on the thinking process and how
our perceptions and cognitions are preformed by our past experiences. The assumption
here is that if we become more conscious of how our thought process works, we will thinkbetter collectively and communicate better. An important goal of dialogue is to enable thegroup to reach a higher level of consciousness and creativity through the gradual creationof a shared set of meanings and a ‘‘common’’ thinking process.
Active listening plays a role in this process, but is not the central focus or purpose.
In fact, I discovered that I spent a lot more time in self-analysis, attempting to understandwhat my own assumptions were, and was relatively less focused on actively listening toothers. Feelings and all of the other dimensions of communication are important. Eventually, dialogue participants do ‘‘listen actively’’ to each other, but the path for getting
there is quite different.
In the typical sensitivity training workshop, we explore relationships through ‘‘opening up’’ and sharing, through giving and receiving feedback, and through examining allof the emotional problems of communication. In dialogue, however, we explore all thecomplexities of thinking and language. We discover how arbitrary our basic categories ofthought and perception are and thereby become conscious of imperfections or biases inour basic cognitive processes.
An MIT colleague, Fred Kofman, provides an example of such bias by telling about
the platypus. When this animal was rst discovered, scientists found themselves in a
major controversy. Was it really a mammal, a bird, or a reptile? The automatic assumption
was that mammals, birds, and reptiles are the reality into which vertebrates had to betted, rather than categories for representing reality. Fred reminded us that the platypus
was a platypus.
It is not necessary to force the platypus into any category, except as a matter ofconvenience. And when we do force the t, we reduce opportunities for learning about
the reality that is actually there.
Whereas, in sensitivity training, the goal is to use the group process to develop our
individual interpersonal skills, dialogue aims to build a group that can think generatively,
creatively, and, most important together. When dialogue works, the group can surmountthe creative abilities of its individual members and can achieve levels of creative thoughtthat no one would have initially imagined. Dialogue is thus a vehicle for creative problem
identication and problem solving.
In sensitivity training, the learning emphasis falls heavily on learning how to giveand receive feedback, a process that is countercultural because of our need to maintainface. Therefore, it elicits high levels of emotionality and anxiety. The process promises togive us new insights, to reveal our blind sides to us, and to provide opportunity to see
ourselves as others see us. For many, this is not only novel, but potentially devastating—even though it may be ultimately necessary for self-improvement. To receive feedback is
to put our illusions about ourselves on the line; to give feedback is to risk offending andunleashing hostility in the receiver.
In contrast, dialogue emphasizes the natural ow of conversation. It actually (thoughsomewhat implicitly in my experience) discourages feedback and direct interpersonal encounters. In dialogue, the whole group is the object of learning, and the members share
the potential excitement of discovering, collectively, ideas that individually none of themmight have ever thought of. Feedback may occur, especially in relation to individualVolume 4, Number 4, REFLECTIONSSCHEINx
On Dialogue, Culture, and Organizational Learning

behavior that undermines the natural ow of conversation, but it is not encouraged as agoal of the group process.
One of the most important differences between dialogue and other communication
enhancers is that the group size is not arbitrarily limited. Whereas sensitivity training
works best with groups of 10 to 15, I have been in dialogue groups as large as 60. I havebeen told that dialogue has been tried successfully with as many as 100 or more. The
notion that such large groups can accomplish anything is counterintuitive. We must understand, however, that larger groups are often composed of individuals who have hadprior small-group experience with dialogue. In the larger groups, these people have lower
initial expectations and assumptions about the need for everyone to have signi cant ‘‘airtime.’’In sensitivity training, everyone is expected to learn and to participate in the learning
process. In dialogue, the role of individual contribution is blunted somewhat by the goalof reaching a higher level of communication as a group. Much of the individual work isinternal, examining one’s own assumptions, which somewhat reduces the need to becompetitive in terms of ‘‘getting one’s share of the air time.’’ In terms of length andfrequency of meetings, dialogue appears to be more  exible, variable, and less intense.

How Does Dialogue Get Started?
In all of the groups that I have observed, initiated by William Isaacs, Peter Senge, ormyself, the facilitator started by arranging the setting and then describing the concept. In
each case, the group could understand the essence suf ciently to begin the conversation.
The key to this understanding is to link dialogue to other experiences we have had that
felt like real communication.
The initial role of the facilitator can be characterized in terms of the following kindsof activities:

x Organize the physical space to be as nearly a circle as possible. Whether or not people
x
x
x
x
x
x
x

are seated at a table or tables is not as important as the sense of equality that comesfrom sitting in a circle.
Introduce the general concept, then ask everyone to think about an experience ofdialogue in the sense of ‘‘good communication’’ in their past.
Ask people to share with their neighbor what the experience was and to think about
the characteristics of that experience (this works because people are relating very
concrete experiences, not abstract concepts).
Ask group members to share what it was in such past experiences that made for goodcommunication and write these characteristics on a  ip chart.
Ask the group to reect on these characteristics by having each person in turn talkabout his or her reactions.
Let the conversation  ow naturally once everyone has commented (this requires one
and half to two hours or more).
Intervene as necessary to clarify or elucidate, using concepts and data that illustrate
the problems of communication (some of these concepts are spelled out below).
Close the session by asking everyone to comment in whatever way he or she may
choose.

The theory that lies behind such a startup is entirely consistent with what we know aboutgroup dynamics and involves several important assumptions about new groups:
1. Members should feel as equal as possible. (Even if there are actual rank or status
differences in the group, everyone should sit in a circle.)
2. Everyone should feel a sense of guaranteed ‘‘air time’’ to establish their identity inthe group. (Therefore, asking everyone to comment guarantees that everyone will
have their turn and their space. In the larger groups, not everyone might speak, but
the norm is that everyone has an opportunity to speak if they want to, and that thegroup will take whatever time is necessary for that to happen.)
3. The task of the group should be to explore the dialogue process, and to gain someunderstanding of it, rather than make a decision or solve some external problem.

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4. Early in the group’s life, members will be concerned primarily about themselves andtheir own feelings; hence, legitimizing personal experiences and drawing on theseexperiences is a good way to begin.
The length and frequency of meetings depend upon the size of the group, the reasonsfor getting together, and the constraints operating on members. The meetings held at MIT
were generally one and a half to two hours long and occurred at roughly two- to threeweek intervals. After watching various groups go through a rst meeting, I found myself
wondering how the second meeting of the group would get going. I found that the best
method was to start by asking everyone to comment on ‘‘where they were at’’ at thatmoment and going around the circle with the expectation that everyone would make somecomment. Again, what seems to be important is to legitimize air time for everyone andto tacitly imply that everyone should make a contribution to starting the meeting, eventhough the content of that contribution can be virtually anything. Obviously, this process
would vary according to the size of the group, but the principle that ‘‘we are all in this
together on an equal basis’’ is important to communicate.
The facilitator has a choice of how much theoretical input to provide, either at the
beginning or as the process gets going. Concepts should be provided if the group reallyneeds them. If the presentation is incorrectly timed, it can disrupt the group process.

Helpful Concepts to Facilitate Dialogue
To determine what concepts to introduce when, I have found it helpful to draw a roadmap
based on Isaacs’s basic model (gure 1). By mapping forms of conversation in terms of
two basic paths, the model highlights what I think is the essential concept underlying
dialogue—the discovery of one’s own internal choice process regarding when to speak
and what to say.
Suspension. As a conversation develops, there inevitably comes a point where wesense some form of discon rmation. We perceive that our point was not understood, or
we elicit disagreement, challenge, or attack. At that moment, we usually respond with
anxiety or anger, though we may be barely aware of it. The  rst issue of choice, then, iswhether or not to allow the feeling to surface and whether or not to trust the feeling. We

32

Figure 1

Volume 4, Number 4, REFLECTIONSSCHEINx
On Dialogue, Culture, and Organizational Learning

typically do not experience these as choices until we have become more re ective andconscious of our own emotions. But we clearly have a choice of whether or not to express
the feeling overtly in some form or another.
As we become more aware of these choices, we also become aware of the possibility
that the feeling was triggered by our perception of what the others in the group did, andthat these perceptions themselves could be incorrect. Before we give in to anxiety and/or
anger, we must determine whether or not the data were accurately interpreted. Were we,in point of fact, being challenged or attacked or whatever?
This moment is critical. As we become more reective, we begin to realize how much
our initial perceptions can be colored by expectations based on our cultural learning andour past experiences. We do not always perceive what is ‘‘accurately’’ out there. What
we perceive is often based on our needs, our expectations, our projections, and, most ofall, our culturally learned assumptions and categories of thought. It is this process of
becoming reective that makes us realize that the rst problem of listening to others is to
identify the distortions and biases that lter our own cognitive processes. We have to learn
to listen to ourselves before we can really understand others, and such internal listening
is, of course, especially difcult if one is in the midst of an active task-oriented discussion.
Furthermore, there may be nothing in our cultural learning to support such introspection.
Once we have identied the basic issue that our perception itself may not be accurate,
we face a second, more fundamental choice—whether or not to actively check the perception by taking up the point, asking what the person really meant, explaining ourselves
further, or in some other way focusing speci cally on the person who produced the discon rming event. As we know from observing group processes, choosing to confront the situation immediately (forexample, asking someone to explain what he or she meantwith a speci c remark) can quickly polarize the conversation
around a few people and a few issues.
An alternative choice is to ‘‘suspend.’’ What Isaacs
means by suspension is to let the issue—our perceptions, our
feelings, our judgments, and our impulses —rest for a while
in a state of suspension to see what more will come up from ourselves and from others.
What this means operationally in the group (and what I have experienced over and over)is that when I am upset by what someone else says, I have a genuine choice between(1) voicing my reaction and (2) letting the matter go (thereby suspending my own reaction). Suspending is particularly difcult if I perceive that my prior point has been misunderstood or misinterpreted. Nevertheless, I have found repeatedly that if I suspend, I nd that further conversation claries the issue and that my own interpretation of what
may have been going on is validated or changed without my having to actively intervene.
It is when a number of members of the group discover some value in suspending
their own reactions that the group begins to go down the path shown in gure 1. In
contrast, when a number of members choose to react by immediately disagreeing, elaborating, questioning, and in other ways focusing on a particular trigger that set them off,
the group goes down the path of discussion and ultimately mires in unproductive debate.
Suspension allows re ection, which is very similar to the emphasis, in group dynamics
training, on observing the ‘‘here and now.’’ Isaacs correctly notes, however, that re ective
attention is looking at the past. Instead, he suggests that what we need is ‘‘proprioception’’—attention to and living in the moment. Ultimately, dialogue tries to achieve a stateof knowing one’s thought as one is having it. Whether proprioception in this sense is
psychologically possible is debatable, but the basic idea is to shorten the internal feedback
loop as much as possible. As a result, we can get in touch with what is going on in thehere and now, and become conscious of how much our thought and perception are botha function of our past learning and the immediate events that trigger it. This learning is
dif cult at best, yet lies at the heart of the ability to enter dialogue.
Dialogue versus Discussion. How do we know whether discussion and/or debate ismore or less desirable than dialogue? Should we always go down the dialogue path? I
would argue that discussion or debate is a valid problem-solving and decision-making

We have to learn to listen toourselves before we can really
understand others.

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Q

34

Linda Cooper

process only if one can assume that the group members
understand each other well enough to be ‘‘talking the samelanguage.’’ Paradoxically, such a state of sharing categories probably cannot be achieved unless somewhere in thegroup’s history some form of dialogue has taken place.
Alternatively, the danger in premature discussion is thatthe group reaches a ‘‘false consensus’’—members assume
that they mean the same thing by certain terms. Only later
do they discover that subtle differences in meaning have
major consequences for implied action and implementation.
Dialogue, on the other hand, is a basic process forbuilding common understanding, in that it allows one tosee the hidden meanings of words,  rst by seeing such
hidden meanings in our own communication. By letting
disagreement go, meanings become clearer, and the group
gradually builds a shared set of meanings that make muchhigher levels of mutual understanding and creative thinking possible. As we listen to ourselves and others in what
may appear often to be a disjointed, rather random conversation, we begin to see the bias and subtleties of howeach member thinks and expresses meanings. In this process, we do not convince each other, but build a common
experience base that allows us to learn collectively. The
more the group has achieved such collective understanding, the easier it becomes to reach decisions, and the more
likely it will be that the decision will be implemented in
the way that the group meant it.
Group Dynamics. The dynamics of ‘‘building thegroup’’ occur in parallel with the process of conducting
the dialogue. Issues of identity, role, inuence, group
goals, norms of openness and intimacy, and questions ofauthority all have to be worked on, though much of this occurs implicitly rather than
explicitly, as would be the case in a human relations or group dynamics workshop. The
group will display all of the classical issues that occur around authority vis-à-vis thefacilitator: Will the facilitator tell us what to do? Will we do it, even if we are told? Does
the facilitator have the answers and is withholding them, or is he or she exploring alongwith the rest of us? At what point can we function without the facilitator? And so on.
As issues of group growth and development arise, they have to be dealt with if theyinterfere with or confuse the dialogue process. The facilitator should, therefore, be skilled
in group facilitation as well, so that the issues that arise in the group can be properly
sorted into two categories: issues that have to do with the development of the dialogue,
and those that have to do with the development of the group as a group. In my own
experience, the dialogue process speeds up the development of the group and should
therefore be the primary driving process in each meeting. A major reason for this ‘‘speed
up’’ is that dialogue creates psychological safety and thus allows individual and groupchange to occur, assuming that there is some motivation to change present already. Dialogue cannot create the need to change, but it certainly facilitates the process of change.
Some initial motivation to engage in a dialogue must be present. Because the process
appears initially to be very ‘‘inef cient,’’ a group will not readily volunteer to engage indialogue unless it is unfrozen in some other respects, i.e., unless group members feel
discon rmed (are hurting), are feeling some guilt or anxiety, and need to overcome suchfeelings in order to get on with a task. The core task or ultimate problem, then, is likely
to be the longer run reason why the group will meet in the rst place.
The group may initially experience dialogue as a detour or a slowing down of problem
solving. But real change does not happen until people feel psychologically safe, and theimplicit or explicit norms that are articulated in a dialogue session provide that safety
by giving people both a sense of direction and a sense that the dangerous aspects ofVolume 4, Number 4, REFLECTIONSOn Culture and Subcultures
The role of dialogue in relation to culture is of especial signi cance. When we operate asculture carriers and are conscious of our cultural membership, we are emotionally attached to our culturally learned categories of thought; we value them and protect themas an aspect of our group identity. One of the ways that groups, communities, organizations, or other units that develop subcultures de ne themselves and set their psychologicalboundaries is by developing a language. In occupational communities, we call this language ‘‘jargon.’’ Using that language expresses membership and belonging, and that, inturn, provides status and identity.

REFLECTIONS, Volume 4, Number 4

SCHEINx
On Dialogue, Culture, and Organizational Learninginteraction will be contained. If the group can work on the task or problem using the
dialogue format, it should be able to reach a valid level of communication much faster.
Containment. Isaacs speaks articulately of the need to build a container for dialogue,
to create a climate and a set of explicit or implicit norms that permits people to handle‘‘hot issues’’ without getting burned. For example, the steelworkers participating in a
recent labor/management dialogue likened dialogue to the mill in which molten metal
was poured from a container into various molds safely, while human operators were close
by. The container is jointly created and then permits high levels of emotionality andtension without anyone getting burned or burning up.
The facilitator contributes to all of this by modeling the behavior, by being nonjudgmental, and by displaying the ability to suspend his or her own categories and judgments.
This skill becomes especially relevant in group situations where conict heats up to thepoint that it threatens to spill over or out of the container. At that point, the facilitator
can simply legitimize the situation, acknowledging the con ict as real and as something
to be viewed by all the members in the here and now without judgment or recrimination,or even without the felt need to do anything about it.
Task versus Process. Once a group experiences dialogue, the process tends to feedon itself. In several cases, I have been in groups that chose to stay in a circle and continue
in a dialogue mode even as they tackled other work—concrete tasks with time limits. I
would hypothesize, however, that unless a group is formed speci cally for the purposeof learning about itself, it eventually needs some other larger purpose to sustain itself.
Continuing to meet in a dialogue format probably does not work once members havemastered the basic skills.
The best way to think about dialogue is as a group process that arises initially out of
the individual participants’ personal skills or attitudes. Dialogue is, by de nition, a processthat has meaning only in a group. Several people have to collaborate with each other for
dialogue to occur. But this collaboration rests on an individual choice, based on a certain
attitude toward how to get the most out of a conversation and on certain skills of reection
and suspension. Once the group has those attitudes and skills collectively, it is possible
to have even highly time-sensitive problem-solving meetings in a dialogue format.
I have also observed that most people have a general sense of what dialogue is about
and have experienced versions of it in their past relationships. Thus, even in a problemsolving meeting, a facilitator may suggest that the group experiment with dialogue. In my
own experience, I have found it best to introduce the idea, early on, that, behind ourcomments and perceptions, there are always assumptions, and that our problem-solving
process will be improved if we get in touch with our own and each other’s assumptions.
Consequently, if the conversation turns into too much of a discussion or debate, I canlegitimately raise the question of whether or not the disagreement is based on different
assumptions, and explore those assumptions explicitly. Continually focusing the groupon the cognitive categories and assumptions that underlie conversation is, from this pointof view, the central role of the facilitator.
One of the ultimate tests of the importance of dialogue will be to nd out whether or
not difcult, con ict-ridden problems can be handled better in groups that have learned
to function in a dialogue mode, and that have agreed to seek a ‘‘win-win’’ outcome.
However, learning to hold a dialogue requires initial motivation to work together. Thereis nothing in the dialogue process itself that would overcome the desire of group members
to win out over other group members, if that is their initial motivation.

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On Dialogue, Culture, and Organizational Learning

In other words, powerful motivational forces are at work, and these forces make us
cling to our language and our thought processes even if we recognize that they are biased
and block communication. We often feel that our biases are the correct ones and thus
make ourselves impervious to other views. And if we value our group, we feel that others
should learn our language, as is sometimes the case withinformation technology professionals who insist that users
learn their terminology.
In addition, the familiar categories of thought provide
meaning, comfort, and predictability—things we all seek.
Given these forces, we should not be surprised if groups
made up of members from different cultures or subcultures
have difculty communicating with each other, even if they
speak the same native language, and even if they are motivated to try to understand each other. In fact, using thesame language, such as English, creates a greater risk that people will overlook the actual
differences in categories of thought that reect functional subcultures such as sales, production, or nance. Only when decisions fail to be implemented correctly, do we begin
to realize that what people heard as the decision differed according to their membershipin different subcultures.
The subculture problem can be stated in terms of the following propositions:Groups made up of members fromdifferent cultures or subcultures
have difculty communicating witheach other, even if they speak thesame native language.

x Subcultures tend to form around any stable social unit, where stability is a function of:

x

x

36

Relative stability of membership
How long the founders of the group have been in leadership roles
The vividness and potency of leadership
The number and intensity of common coping experiences
The absolute length of time the group has existed
The ‘‘smallness’’ of the group, in the sense of permitting high levels of mutual
acquaintance and trust
Functional and geographical subcultures are highly visible and, therefore, easily noticed; hierarchical subcultures are harder to detect but very active because many of
the conditions for subculture formation mentioned above apply to hierarchical strata:
the board subculture, the executive subculture (CEO, of ce of the president, key
board committees, executive committee, president’s council, senior political appointees in the government, etc.) and so on down the hierarchy.
Organizational integration, coordination, and learning is hindered most by variationsin the hierarchical subcultures because of the myth that ‘‘all management speaks thesame language.’’

It is this last point that requires most elaboration because hierarchy-based subcultures not
only are harder to detect but their effect is more devastating. For example, when one
invites CEOs to a seminar, they invariably want to know who else is attending. If theother attendees are not equivalent-level executives, they are reluctant to attend. This
response is partly a matter of protecting status. But at a deeper level, it re ects the executives’ assumption that they live in a special world and that only others who live in thatworld can really understand it and, therefore, be useful sources of learning. When multiple
ranks are represented in a seminar, it is often very evident that managers at different
levels speak different languages. Words such as empowerment or delegation, for example,
have subtly different meanings depending on whether one is a CEO (with ‘‘absolute’’
power) or a vice president who is constrained by various policies. In other words, howmuch power and autonomy one has in one’s organizational ‘‘space’’ colors very muchwhat things mean.
Further clinical evidence that different strata have different subcultures comes fromthe frequent complaint one hears from CEOs that, even though they have a lot of power
and authority, they have great difculty getting their programs implemented. They complain that things are not understood, that goals seem to change as they get communicateddown the hierarchy, or that their subordinates ‘‘screw up’’ because they don’t really
understand what is wanted. This often leads CEOs to mass communication, such as videotaped messages sent to everyone or mass meetings where visions are shared with

Volume 4, Number 4, REFLECTIONSOrganizational Learning
What are the implications of dialogue and culture dynamics for organizational learning?
Organizational learning is not possible unless some learning rst takes place in the executive subculture. I do not see how learning at that or any other level of the organization
can take place unless the executive subculture rst recognizes itself as a subculture inneed of analysis. Such self-analysis will inevitably involve periods of dialogue, rst to help
members of this group become conscious of their own cognitive bias, and later to become
sympathetic to the problems of communicating to the rest of the organization whatever
new insights they have gained. Yet, it is executive leaders
who may be most reluctant to engage in this kind of selfreective analysis. For leaders to reveal to others (and evento themselves) that they are not sure of themselves, that they
do not understand all of the assumptions on which they baseaction, and that they make mistakes in their thinking can beprofoundly threatening.
Dialogue at the executive level is not enough for organizational learning to occur. The process of communicating
across the hierarchical levels of an organization will require
further dialogue because of the likelihood that different strata
operate with different assumptions. If the initial learning has occurred in groups below
the executive level, as is often the case, the problem of creating a dialogue across hierarchical strata is even more essential because it is so easy for the higher level to undermine
the learning of the lower levels.
In conclusion, learning across cultural boundaries cannot be created or sustained
without initial and periodic dialogue. Dialogue in some form is therefore necessary andintegral to any organizational learning that involves going beyond the cultural status quo.
Organizations do learn within the set of assumptions that characterizes their present culture and subcultures. But if any new organizational responses are needed that involve
changes in cultural assumptions or learning across subcultural boundaries, dialogue must
be viewed as an essential component of such learning.

SCHEINx
On Dialogue, Culture, and Organizational Learning

everyone simultaneously. In spite of these efforts, people still hear very different things‘‘down the line.’’Taking these various points about subcultures together leads to the following conclusions: We must take the impact of subcultures on language and mental models seriously,
and we must take the subcultural differences between hierarchical strata seriously, especially between the executive stratum and the rest of the organization.
The need for dialogue across subcultural boundaries, especially across hierarchicalboundaries, is, therefore, one of the most pressing needs. Much of what we call bureaucracy, in the bad sense of that word, stems from misunderstanding across these kinds ofboundaries.

The process of communicating
across the hierarchical levels . . .
will require further dialogue
because . . . different strata
operate with different assumptions.

Further Reading
Some basic material on dialogue can be found in William Isaacs, ‘‘Dialogue: The Powerof Collective Thinking,’’ The Systems Thinker 4 (1993): 1–4; in Peter Senge, The Fifth
Discipline (New York: Doubleday, 1990); and in David Bohm, On Dialogue (London:
Routledge, 1990).
Basic material on organizational culture and group dynamics is drawn from my own
work. See, especially, Process Consultation, Vol. 2 (Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1987);
Process Consultation, Vol. 1, 2nd ed. (Reading, MA.: Addison-Wesley, 1988); Organizational Culture and Leadership, 2nd ed. (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1992); and ‘‘How Can
Organizations Learn Faster?’’ Sloan Management Review 34 (1993): 85–92.
The crucial analysis of cultural face work is drawn from the seminal work of Erving
Goffman, best summarized in The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (New York: Doubleday, 1959). Chris Argyris’s development of the concept of defensive routines can befound in his book, Strategy, Change, and Defensive Routines (Marsheld, MA: Pitman,1985).

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Communities of practice were described in J.S. Brown and P. Duguid, ‘‘Organizational
Learning and Communities of Practice.’’ Organization Science 2 (1991): 40–57.
The basic dilemmas of organizational learning are well captured in D.N. Michael,‘‘Governing by Learning in an Information Society’’ in Governing in an Information Society, ed. S.A. Rosell (Montreal, Quebec: Institute for Research on Public Policy, 1992).
More current references include my own work, The Corporate Culture Survival Guide(San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1999), and Process Consultation Revisited (Reading, MA:
Addison-Wesley/Prentice Hall, 1999). See, also, William Isaacs, Dialogue and the Art ofThinking Together (New York: Doubleday, 1999).

Acknowledgments
I am indebted to the late Don Michael for invaluable comments and criticisms of thispaper and to Bill Isaacs for providing me the opportunity to learn about dialogue throughactive participation in some of his groups as a participant and apprentice cofacilitator.

38

Volume 4, Number 4, REFLECTIONSReective Dialogue, Life
Stories, and Leadership
Development
Philip H. Mirvis and Karen AyasO

ur group of some 25 young leaders from Unilever, representing countries across the
Asian Pacic, met in Danang, Vietnam, in November 2002 to continue the leadership
journey they began two years earlier (see Ayas and Mirvis, 2002). Tex Gunning, thepresident of the Unilever Asia Pacic region, established the Young Leaders’ Forum tobring together the young managers and help them develop into top leaders in the company. The forum was intended as a learning community and a network of support. Youngleaders would stay with the forum until they became management board members. Several new members joined with the reorganization of the business, and a few moved on,
but the group has continued its biannual meetings.
One practice of the group is reective dialogue at several points during meetings. The
group members, sitting in a circle, share their thoughts and feelings on a subject andreect on themselves and their reactions to what is shared. This process has many featuresin common with the dialogue methodology developed and rened by William Isaacs andPeter Senge. It emphasizes self-scanning, suspending judgment, and creating a containerfor ‘‘hot issues,’’ as Edgar Schein points out in his article in this issue (please see page 27).
But it also draws on the principles and practices of community building, as articulated bypsychiatrist and spiritualist M. Scott Peck (1987, 1993):

x ‘‘I’’ statements—Use the rst-person pronoun to claim knowledge, feelings, and ob-

Philip H. Mirvis
Organizational Psychologist
Consultant
Senior Fellow
Center for Corporate Citizenship
Boston College
pmirv@aol.com

servations rather than ascribe them to ‘‘we’’ or to ‘‘everyone.’’x Moved to speak—Follow the Quaker injunction to wait until you are personally
moved to say something and, when so moved, to speak.

39

x Difcult issues —Face difcult issues that arise rather than deny, disregard, or downplay them.

x Emptiness— Share personal thoughts and feelings, especially those that prevent you
from being fully present in the dialogue.

x Witnessing— Welcome and afrm others’ stories and points of view and, in the spiritof community, bridge differences with love and respect.
The young leaders had used re ective dialogue in previous meetings to talk about theirlife histories and careers. To this point, however, group dialogues had been conducted in
the relatively safe container of peers, after the participants had developed trustworthy
relations with one another, the business group president, and external facilitators. The
task ahead was uncharted and risky: to prepare—without the help and involvement of
the president and facilitators—to meet with Niall FitzGerald, the chairman of the Britishside of Unilever.
To begin preparations, one young leader reminded the group of ‘‘lessons learned’’
about teamwork from a challenge they had faced in a previous meeting in India—presenting
a business case to the board of Hindustan Lever. Putting these lessons to use, the group
appointed a facilitator and developed plans for engaging the chairman. They decided toinvite FitzGerald into the experience of the forum rather than preparing a presentation

REFLECTIONS, Volume 4, Number 4

Associate Editor, Reections
Research Fellow, Erasmus University
Partner, The Ripples Groupkaren@ripplesgroup.com

2003 by the Society for Organizational Learning and the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology.
q

MIRVIS AND AYASx
Reective Dialogue, Life Stories, and Leadership Development

about it. It had to be a dialogue session, they decided, but that raised further questions:
What would they talk about? Would that be de ned beforehand? Should they assign
someone to facilitate the dialogue? Would there be time boundaries? They debated theseand other questions in the prep session where they exchanged ideas about not only content but also process. They decided, for instance, to talk about people’s ‘‘leadership journey.’’ ‘‘But we cannot script this,’’ said one young leader, ‘‘you speak when you are
moved to speak. Is that not the whole point of dialogue?’’ Added another, ‘‘Yes, but weshould assign someone to start things off and bring the session to closure when the time
is right.’’

Dialogue with the Chairman
Niall FitzGerald sat on the oor in a circle with the young Asian leaders. The dialogue,
starting at nine PM , lasted until midnight. One participant from Indonesia opened thesession and welcomed FitzGerald:
Our journey began about two years ago, when we started assembling as a group. Ever since,it’s been a journey of self-discovery and personal development for each one of us. The groupmay change in size, but the form stays the same— it’s always a circle. Each time we meet, wecreate a new spirit in the group through the circle. You are now part of this circle; the groupwill share with you, and we would also welcome you to share with us.

After a moment of sitting in silence in community, a young leader from the Philippines
was moved to speak:
We sometimes don’t have the courage to act like leaders when we need to. These sessions
remind us who we want to be and allow us to share our difculties. We are supposed to be agroup of top young leaders in the region, but here we share a lot of our disappointments.
This ultimately helps us become stronger. It’s basically what this circle is all about.

40

As the conversation went along, FitzGerald asked: ‘‘What have you learned about yourself
through this process that you didn’t know before?’’‘‘I learned something very special,’’ said a Taiwanese. ‘‘You can only understand theissues in business if you face yourself. In my job, I look at numbers, I look at strategy, I
look at process. But I didn’t look at the real factor behind that—people. And if you want
to be able to deal with people, you really need to face humanity.’’
A Pakistani stated, ‘‘Before I joined, I just did things as requested. My drive was todeliver to perfection. I’d never done any reection before. Suddenly I had a mirror in frontof me: ‘Why are you doing this? Why do you want that? If you want leadership, do you
really want to take the consequences?’ Self-awareness is the thing that I learned from thecircle.’’Fitzgerald also questioned the importance of deep, personal sharing in becoming partof the group. One young leader from Australia said: ‘‘In listening to other people’s stories,
you hear your own story. Other people’s stories often clarify things in your own mind—
what your past is and what drives you. I’m a 33-year-old guy, and I’m still trying to get
recognition from my parents. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but having that selfawareness at least allows you to acknowledge and deal with that issue.’’ A young womanfrom Indonesia added: ‘‘As I listened to others sharing their stories and learned about
their journeys, I gained more condence. At the same time, I grew strong. I realized what
I want to do with my life. That realization gave me a very clear direction of how to move
forward.’’

A Leadership Journey
After sharing these re ections, the young leaders asked FitzGerald about his leadership
journey. They wanted to know how he became chairman and what it took to get there.
FitzGerald began: ‘‘I have been perpetually amazed that people take me seriously. Thereis a little boy in me, even at this advanced age, who often says, ‘What are you doing here?
How did you get here? How could you possibly be doing what you do?’’’Volume 4, Number 4, REFLECTIONSMIRVIS AND AYASQ

Karen Ayas

Reective Dialogue, Life Stories, and Leadership Development

I got married, and then, within a year, we had our  rst baby.
She was born on Good Friday. She had to be put in an incubator. The doctor said, ‘‘It’s  ne. She just needs to be kept
under observation for a while.’’ But I was still a bit worried. Ileft the hospital to go home, and I stopped off in a church.
I’m a Roman Catholic by upbringing, but I’m not particularly
religious. But I went into the church and sat on a bench at
the end and spoke to God. I didn’t pray; I spoke. I said,‘‘God, I haven’t spoken to you too often in the last few years,
but I really need you to do something for me now. And I’dreally appreciate it if you would. Just look over this little baby.
It’s the  rst and she’s really important.’’ And then I left the
church. That was on Friday. On Monday, this little baby died.
I went back to the church on my way home, because my wife was staying in the hospital. I sat on the same bench and spoke to God again. And I said, ‘‘You let me down. You
shouldn’t really have done this. This was not necessary. This was the only time I’ve everasked you for something and you wouldn’t give it to me. So I feel betrayed, and you and I
can never be friends.’’ Then I left the church. That was in 1971. I didn’t walk back into achurch for 26 years, until the death of a friend.

x

In the spirit of the forum, FitzGerald shared personal
stories of early childhood and experiences that shaped him
as a person and as a leader:

The death of a child was a scarring experience. Next came a bittersweet memory of
becoming the chairman while facing the end of his rst marriage:
I became chairman, which was wonderful. But at the same time, something quite traumatic
was happening in my life. My marriage was breaking up. The problem was, I wasn’t recognizing it and I wasn’t admitting it. I found myself in the rst two or three years as chairman
doing two really catastrophic things. I started to act as if everything was sweetness and lightin my personal life. So I began to act a role in my personal life, which is very debilitating andtakes a lot of energy. And it’s not you. But at the same time, without realizing it, I began toact another role as chairman. That was really sad. I’d gotten to be a chairman by being me,
and suddenly, I stopped being me. Then some things happened that changed me fundamentally and forever.

The trigger was the death of Peter, his very close friend, who left him with thesewords: ‘‘What I’m angry about is that it’s taken the imminence of death to get a real
understanding of life and to understand the fact that life is not a rehearsal. It had betterbe the performance you want to give and had better be in the place you want to give it.
It better be the best bloody performance you’re capable of giving. I want you to take that
away, Niall, and act on it.’’FitzGerald emphasized the true gift his friend had offered him and explained to thegroup:
What that gave me was an absolute determination that I would do things only my way. By
that, I mean that if it seems the best and true way for me, it is likely to be good for others
too. Out of that came a freedom in how I live my life and a complete commitment to truth,
because I think it’s only truth that matters. Be truthful to yourself, to begin with, and then betruthful to everyone. It saves a lot of time, by the way, to be truthful.
What I’ve learned is that you can align what you want to do in your career with what
you want to do as a person. If you don’t align them, you’ll do neither very well. So if you nd yourself in the wrong place, either in your personal life or in your business life, you better get out of there. That’s easy to say, but it’s tough to do—getting yourself into the rightplace.

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MIRVIS AND AYAS

Leadership Is a Choice
The memorable evening of re ective dialogue closed with FitzGerald’s remarks:

Reective Dialogue, Life Stories, and Leadership Developmentx

I now am at a stage in my life where I feel very relaxed. I love what’s happening with thebusiness. I love the people in the business. I think we’re nally beginning to understand how
we really should be as a group of people. And I love what’s happening in my life.
But it still leaves me with a dilemma. When you become a father again at an older age,
you’re much more conscious that time is limited. And you’re much more conscious that each
day is a day that’s never going to be repeated. Therefore you had better make the best use ofthat day you possibly can. You’re also very conscious that when you’re blessed with achild—you’re handed this spirit that you’ve called into the world— you’re also handed a
blank canvas and a set of paints. You’re responsible for what you put on the canvas. You’dbetter think about the brush strokes, not just let them happen. You’d better understand that,when the picture eventually emerges, it’s the picture you painted. It’s both genetically what
you’ve put in and environmentally what you created around your children, so it’s yourcreation.
Why do I tell you that? Because I want you to understand the dilemma. My struggle atthis moment is that I’m very conscious of trying to balance my life —to be with Ingrid andlittle Gabriella as much as I can. So why did I spend last weekend away from home, theweekend before, and two weekends before that? This business and particularly this group ofpeople, which has taken 35 years of my life, is at a moment of potential transformation that I
feel needs just another shove. It’ll get to a place where it’s always intended to be, but it
might miss.
Although I’m in a place I want to be and love it, and I’ve never felt happier, here I am,
still sitting with this dilemma. My point is to tell you that you’re always going to have this. I
still have to choose between doing what I think I can do with others and with you to bringthis wonderful business that I love to a special place. But it requires me to make other sacri ces that I’m much more conscious of making than I was before. However far you go, remember that you’re never going to be free of having to make those choices.

FitzGerald’s closing notes resonated strongly with the young leaders. He had spoken
about an important theme raised in all forum meetings: ‘‘Leadership is a choice.’’ Though
the evening ended with FitzGerald’s story, the dialogue continued the next morning. First,
the young leaders shared what had struck them. A Dutchman based in Singapore said,

Q

Karen Ayas

42

Volume 4, Number 4, REFLECTIONSMarketer from Australia: ‘‘I chose to go back to Australia to work in the family business. It was not
something we often talked about, but because my father had to work for his father and his father
passed away, my father never put any pressure on me to work in the business. But I thought that’s
what I wanted.
‘‘When my father turned 58—his father had died at 58— something changed in him. He didn’t want
to work anymore, but wanted to get out of the business. I had gone back to Australia thinking I wasgoing to work with him for ve years, learn how to run the business, and then take the role of theleader. But it didn’t work out that way.
‘‘I felt extremely disappointed in my father because I’d given up a good career at Unilever andmoved my family, my young daughter, back to Australia, to do what I thought was my dream —tolive with my family near the beach and work with my parents.
‘‘I realize I was quite dependent on my parents and in a transitional phase. I have my own children
now. I have to become the man. First I was disappointed in myself. But, I think from every bad thingcomes a good thing. Now my parents are retired, and they’re very happy together. Through my children, I’m reestablishing my relationship with my father. I can forgive him now for the things he did
to me and my family. And I feel fortunate that Unilever was willing to accept me back into thefamily.’’MIRVIS AND AYASx

Marketer from Taiwan: ‘‘When I went back to my home country, I called my mom. She wastouched. It’s been a very tough year for her because she’s getting weaker. But she remembers every
one of the six kids in the family and who has how much in the bank. She knows investments andwatches stock announcers. She says, ‘I would like to buy this stock. Would you like to buy it? I canbuy it for you.’ So that’s her role. My father would decide big things, and my mother would makedecisions on small things. But big things never happened in the family, so it’s always my mom. Now I
know why I’m so organized and detailed-oriented; I just am just like her.
‘‘Starting about a year and a half ago, she told us she felt like she would fall when she walks. One
night, she fell down in the bathroom. The doctor found a tumor in her brain. Now she has to walkwith someone’s assistance. She’s also acting like a kid now, because of her weakness. Still, she remembers everything, all the bank records, everything.’’Reective Dialogue, Life Stories, and Leadership Development

Stories of Parents

Marketer from Thailand: ‘‘My family is a traditional Asian one. As we were discussing in our group,in our culture, we don’t express our love as much as we should, especially physically, like hugging orsaying things to our parents. I now realize it is very important to say things out loud. You can’t takeit for granted that they know how much you love them, how much you care. It was very hard forme to start doing that. I have to internalize it again and again to open myself up more.
‘‘I’ve been in China for about ve or six months now without my family. It’s a bit frightening. Thatreally made me think: How can you share with them that you really care about them, even if you’re
far away? I discovered that just a phone call to them, just to hear how excited they were, was a rst
step. They just started crying when they heard my voice. When I went back home this October forthe rst time, my whole family picked me up at the airport. And we all hugged each other, something that was never done before in my family. Everyone just came out of their shell and started
hugging and crying. There was so much to express in loving that I had never experienced before.’’‘‘The most important message I heard from Niall is that life is not a rehearsal; you get one
shot at it. When you are young, you don’t really think that way. Being reminded of thatfact so you can live accordingly and act on it is very important.’’ A woman from Japansaid, ‘‘You made me realize that it is not about balancing work and life. It’s about beingme, balancing me.’’ A woman from Thailand commented, ‘‘From your story, I learned
that you need to be truthful to yourself. We shouldn’t just do things to make other people
happy. You end up suffering if you are not true to yourself. You don’t live life to the fullest
today, and you make everybody suffer.’’
The session concluded with a further summation of the lessons the young leaderslearned and FitzGerald’s reections about his lessons on leading a business (see the sidebar ‘‘Niall FitzGerald on Leadership’’).

Reective Dialogue and Leadership Development
What was the rationale for this dialogue between the young leaders and their company
chairman? What was the basis for reections and lessons learned? It is important to notethat different forms of dialogue are practiced in therapy, human relations training, teambuilding, conict resolution, and community-building programs. The universal principles
apply to private prayer and public policy-making (Buber, 1965; Yankelovich, 1999). The

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MIRVIS AND AYASx
Reective Dialogue, Life Stories, and Leadership Development

Niall FitzGerald on Leadership
There ain’t no leadership style. Each of us needs to be led in a different way, so you can’t adopt astyle and apply it to everybody. You can have common characteristics on how you deal with eachindividual and how you deal with teams and subteams. But you have to take the time to understandthose you’re seeking to lead. You can’t be a leader without followers, and people must want to follow you. The characteristics are a combination of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual aspects.
Physical aspects. A leader needs to take care of his own mind and body. You can’t do it if you’re
not t. Your mind won’t rule or react with the speed it needs or be able to probe deeply if you
haven’t exercised. Of the physical aspects, courage is top on my list. There are times when you physically need the courage to do something, to face the reality. Often, it’s very unpopular to dene thereality, to say, ‘‘This is where we are; look in the mirror.’’ That’s the rst duty of a leader.
Passion, with both physical and emotional sides, is also hugely important. Without passion, nothing
moves. We can be sitting here with the most wonderfully engineered Ferrari and racing driver Michael Schumacher in it. But unless we put fuel in it, it doesn’t go anywhere. Passion is the fuel thatdrives us on.
Mental aspects. Sometimes, people think that leadership is standing back and being rather lofty,
saying, ‘‘I don’t have to attend to the detail.’’ Like hell, I don’t. As a leader, I need to have the knowledge to be able to judge what the detail is that I don’t need to attend to. I have to be concerned by
the details that matter, without getting in people’s way. How can I judge them, how can I coachthem, how can I inspire them, if I don’t understand the basic thing they’re trying to do or say?
You need simplicity and curiosity. The really bright, sharp minds don’t complicate; they quickly getto the essence of the issue. Only the nest minds simplify. I’ve always noticed that great leaders havea kind of restless curiosity about the world, about themselves, and about people around them.
Emotions. The leader casts a shadow and needs to understand the inuence of that shadow. If
you’re not self-aware, how do you know what impact you’re having on people? A mean-spiritedleader grinds you down, even if you try hard and you do everything. The leader has to show optimism, but not unrealistic optimism. Willpower is an emotional force. Sometimes you see insurmountable problems overcome by naked willpower: ‘‘We will not be defeated at this. We will prevail.’’ People are going to look at you and your shadow. Always be sensitive to what that’s doing.
Openness, generous listening, and being prepared to show your vulnerabilities are essential. You
can’t be inspired by an icon of perfection, because you know it isn’t real. Nobody is perfect. So anyone who seeks to consciously or subconsciously hold themselves up as king is by denition being
false. Yet how many people try to create that illusion?
There is also a necessity to connect with people. If you want to lead, you must like people. You
must be inspired by what other people do and what you help them to do. If you do not like being
with people, you’re not going to be authentic; you’re going through a mechanical motion. People will
see through that. You have to connect with people and have them feel that you want to give themsomething and you don’t expect anything in return. You appreciate what they do and thank them.
Spiritual aspects. The spiritual side starts with truth. Every time I have departed from the truth, I
have failed, without exception. There has never been a moment in my life when I chose to be(continued )44

key elements of reective dialogue in the forum show its relevance for leadership development.

The Power of Life Stories
The young leaders have shared stories about their lives and careers among themselvesand now with their chairman. The aim was to increase their self-awareness. Of course,
the same can be said of personality surveys, projective tests,
and other self-assessment methodologies. Is there something special about a life story for ‘‘knowing thyself’’?
Psychotherapy contends that people ‘‘reexperience’’
their lives when they delve into their past. This reexperiencing helps to surface long-ago and sometimes forgotten feelings about one’s life course
and, when given thoughtful consideration, to understand the self. There is also the notion
from cultural anthropology that people live their lives through and in stories. Selfnarration, in this line of thought, yields a dynamic rather than static picture, like thedifference between a  lm of your life and snapshots. It locates the self in a familial andsociocultural context. Stories have communicative value; people seldom remember a bullet point. Furthermore, in conversations about lives lived, other people’s experiences bringto mind stories of oneself.

Is there something special about alife story for ‘‘knowing thyself’’?

Volume 4, Number 4, REFLECTIONSIn Leading Minds, Howard Gardner emphasizes the importance of leaders’ storytelling: ‘‘The story is a basic human cognitive form; the artful creation and articulation ofstories constitutes a fundamental part of the leader’s vocation. Stories speak to both partsof the human mind—its reason and emotion’’ (1995: 43). The introspective value of aself-story was much in evidence as the young leaders discussed their parents. A marketer
from Taiwan—a modern woman raised by a traditional mother—began to appreciate
what the two have in common. A young man—deeply disappointed by his experiencesin the family business —spoke of becoming a parent and reconciling with his father (seethe sidebar ‘‘Stories of Parents’’).
Re ecting on life stories also seems a valuable management practice (‘‘Personal Histories,’’ 2000). Whatever the value of such self-reection, sharing these stories—between
the self and others—transforms personal reection into reective dialogue.

The Experience of Reective Dialogue
Some practitioners characterize re ective dialogue as a stage in the process, when, forexample, there is a shift from ‘‘third person’’ to ‘‘rst person’’ and people ‘‘slow down
and think’’ (see Isaacs, 1999). The use of ‘‘I’’ statements and the experience of the young
leaders working in community have facilitated the movement toward self-reection. At
the same time, reections called forth in the forum are not cognitive; the intent of reection
REFLECTIONS, Volume 4, Number 4

MIRVIS AND AYASx
Reective Dialogue, Life Stories, and Leadership Development

dishonest that I succeeded. I may have had some short-term success, but ultimately, I fail. If you’re
not being truthful, you have to have a very good memory. You have to keep ying back to keep
consistency in what you’re doing.
Truth is the foundation stone for me in building trust. If I know that you’re dealing with me always
truthfully and you know that I’m dealing with you always truthfully, we begin to know where we canplace our trust. There will be events and circumstances that force us away from that. But, when that
happens, we will know it and force ourselves back again. Trust, of course, is also required to build ateam. Teams cannot function without unconditional trust, given without reservation. Give it too
widely and it’s useless. You have to give it selectively but unconditionally.
Authenticity is also something that is important. What essence do you allow to come out? People
who are spiritually secure have a generosity of spirit and know there’s something very valuable inevery person. They seek to nd the best in everyone, however difcult it may seem, however unpleasant the person seems. If you feel spiritually strong, you are prepared to show your vulnerability. By
spiritual, I don’t mean religious; I mean the soul, something deep inside you.
Balance. You are not going to lead people because you’ve been appointed the leader. People are
not going to be led solely by your physical and intellectual strength. They’re going to need to engage
with your emotional and spiritual side. The balance of all dimensions and more attention to the emotional and spiritual aspects of leadership will be increasingly important.
On balance, women are stronger than men, emotionally and spiritually. They are better listeners, aremore sensitive to advice, and work more with intuition. They are more sensitive to relationship building and maintaining relationships.
When I look around at the future leaders, I see many more women. But I am also deeply concernedthat some women have succeeded under what I call the old leadership model. They succeeded bybecoming more like men. As far as I’m concerned, that is a disaster. We’re going in the wrong direction. You should play to the strengths that women naturally have. The message for men is to ndsome of those strengths yourselves and be mentored by women, rather than telling women how men
do it.
The choice. Leadership can be very lonely. The leader is ultimately left with decisions to take. He’sleft with the consequence of those decisions. He’s left to cope with the criticism.
That’s not something that takes away the enjoyment. Nothing for me is more deeply satisfying thanseeing a group of people or even a single person respond to what you’ve seen in them and thenunderstand that they have a potential far beyond anything they thought of themselves. You’ve
helped them both to see it and to reach it. That is most satisfying, whether it’s your child, friend, orteam. But it doesn’t take away from the fact that there are lonely times.
With my own children, for instance, I’ve known that what I’ve had to say to them has not always
been what they wanted to hear. It created a distance for a moment. But I knew that it was the rightthing to do or to say, and they in due course would know it. But at that moment, it makes you very
lonely.
How would you know when the leader has succeeded? The ultimate sign is when the leader isredundant, no longer necessary. It means that everybody has lled the space. Then the leader should
move on because he will have done what he set out to do. He would have drawn people in, inspiredthem, and made them believe in themselves, and made himself unnecessary. So I wish you well on
your journey.

45

MIRVIS AND AYASx
Reective Dialogue, Life Stories, and Leadership Development

Figure 1

is not solely to help the group think together better. On thecontrary, the expression of emotions and inclination to feel
together are very much part of communal dialogue withthe young leaders (see Mirvis, 2002).
Consider the reective experience of the ‘‘self andother’’ in a dialogue about life stories (gure 1). On the
cognitive side of self-reection, there is, to use Gardner’s
imagery, the creation and articulation of a life story. Thisact of organizing thoughts and explaining oneself is itself
a boon to self-understanding. Then there is the interaction
with another’s life story and perspective, then another’s
story, and so on. While witnessing another’s story, someof the attendant self-scanning concerns perceptions andassumptions: ‘‘How am I reacting to this story? To thisperson? What are my reactions telling me about my own assumptions about life andpeople?’’ Schein calls this ‘‘listening to ourselves’’ (see the article on page 27 in this issue).
At the same time, attention also turns to imagining: ‘‘What has this person’s life been
like? Why do they see things the way they do?’’ This is a different sort of self-listening inwhich the self makes inferences about what makes others tick and how they relate totheir world.
Such inferences contribute to what sociologist George Herbert Mead described as‘‘role taking’’ or, more colloquially, putting your self in the place of others (1934). In
taking on another person’s perspective, people not only enrich their understanding ofothers but also see how their own lives and perspectives are both similar and different.
In short, in understanding another person, we come to better understand ourselves. This
braid of reciprocal role taking, over the life course, is central to both socialization and theforming of character, hence, the relevance for sharing life stories as a means of developing
young leaders.
What about the emotional aspects? Certainly reexperiencing your life history stimulates emotions, which are sometimes painful, sometimes pleasurable, and cathartic. In
truly experiencing affect in dialogue, moreover, you may not only imagine how others
feel, but also empathize with or literally ‘‘feel into’’ them. In so doing, of course, people
also feel into themselves. Not surprising, tears and laughter
often reverberate through re ective dialogues among theyoung leaders. How else can you react when you feel like
another who expresses pain or joy or both?
Empathizing is central to what Erich Fromm calls the‘‘art of loving’’ (2000). It too is integral to socialization andgrowth. Indeed, psychologists posit that just as seeing theworld through another’s perspective helps people to grow beyond egocentrism, so empathizing with another is the antidote to human sel shness. Al e Kohn, among others,suggests that empathy, more so than sympathy, is the basis for the ‘‘helping relationship’’(1990). Certainly we have seen this among the young leaders who, beyond reecting on
one another’s pain, also reach out and offer support and comfort to each other (see thesidebar ‘‘From Feeling to Helping’’).

In understanding another person,
we come to better understandourselves.
46‘‘Eldering’’ and Lessons LearnedRe ective dialogues about life and its lessons are a form of socialization. Among the young
leaders, it is peer mentoring and, with the chairman, formal role modeling. The young
leaders’ dialogue with their chief is called, in traditional cultures, ‘‘eldering.’’
Sandy Johnson, who has studied the customs of Native Americans, quotes Sylvia
Walulatuma, from the Warm Springs reservation, on the custom: ‘‘Around December, thepeople would all come and move into the loghouse. It had a dirt oor and there were
three res burning in there during wintertime, it was so cold. The old people told us
stories and Indian legends during the winter months’’ (1994: 157). Johnson ampli ed on
the elders’ roles:

Volume 4, Number 4, REFLECTIONS‘‘Join the club. We have no clue either. You’re very harsh on yourself. I’ve seen that from day one. I
think you should start to realize that this is your strength, this is your source of growth. You havethe courage to confront yourself. Like you, we have no clue what’s going to happen in Asia. That’s
why we’re here together.’’‘‘Sometimes, I ask myself why I want to join this forum. Is it for my personal development? Or is it
for the company? It is not fair for me to do it just for myself. I’m so scared that I’ll never be able to
make it.’’‘‘You will. What you have said strikes me. I don’t know how many of us have the courage to say it.’’‘‘It’s not just you. It’s also luck. Sometimes things just happen. I think we are too harsh with ourselves. You are superb. If you were in Thailand, you probably would have made a huge difference
because of the opportunity.’’‘‘How you hold yourself accountable has been such a wonderful source of inspiration for all of us.’’‘‘You have the values of a good leader. You confront yourself and you feel that you are responsible
for your business and for your country. Yet you feel ashamed that you couldn’t do it all. To be honest, I haven’t done anything for the company yet. And sometimes I struggle with it. I feel ashamedthat I’m here. But then I think, it takes time to turn around the business. As long as you have thepassion and stay with it, one day you get there.’’MIRVIS AND AYASx‘‘My daughter was only 1.8 kilograms at birth. She was in intensive care for three weeks. I was going
through quite a lot of emotional ups and downs. The nightmare just wouldn’t stop. Because she wasa preemie, she tended to catch a lot of viruses; she was in and out of hospital. At that time, I had
also gone back to work. I needed to pick up everything and make sure that I was up to speed.
‘‘I really appreciate this forum. I’ve learned a lot here, but at the back of my mind, I’m worried. Allof you are so great and I feel really small. When Niall said he knew that some people would dropout, I was worried. I’m very scared that after ve to eight years, I’ll be such a letdown to you. I’m
feeling so torn between my own emotions and what I should do for the company and for Asia. I
have the sense that you guys know what to do and what’s going to happen to Asia.’’Reective Dialogue, Life Stories, and Leadership Development

From Feeling to Helping: A Conversation among Young Leaders‘‘May I also share one of my tough moments? When we were at the end of the program in India,
everybody was very happy and celebrating because we’d nished the case. That was the worst nightfor me. I felt that I come from a different world. I cannot deliver anything. I also have a big question
about myself.
‘‘I decided not to go out that night and locked myself in my room. I was crying; I lost all mycondence. I skipped dinner, even though I was hungry. But I just couldn’t face people. I didn’t knowwhat to say. I was very disappointed with myself. Then I used reection. That is the most valuable
thing I learned from this journey. I thought, ‘Okay, I love myself. What do I need to do? Cry? No, stop
crying.’ I thought how I came to be in such a situation. I made myself describe the situation and ask
myself what I needed to do. I reected on that and where I wanted to go.
‘‘So I made a choice to want to be someplace, even though I had no clue where it should be. But I
made a choice and started a journey. I think that once you commit yourself to the journey, then, ofcourse, something good will happen.’’47
On most of these reservations, there lives an elder. Not dened by age or gender, an elder is
one who carries the knowledge of the tradition and wisdom of the heart, one who walks intruth and dignity. . . . Some elders heal with a knowledge of nature medicine not yet known
or recognized by the dominant culture. Some heal with a spirituality that is worlds beyond
many of those who don black robes and preach on Sundays. Some heal with a song (1994: 47).

In sharing his life story and speaking of his life lessons, FitzGerald was fullling anelder’s role in Unilever. In the language of indigenous people, he was using his ‘‘medicine’’ and his spiritual wisdom to teach his people. Using modern-day concepts, Gardner
stresses the value of conveying identity stories. Through such stories, the leader reveals
his or her character and, in turn, helps followers to discover and develop their own identities. ‘‘It is the particular burden of the leader to help other individuals to determine theirpersonal, social, and moral identities,’’ he writes. ‘‘More often than not, leaders inspirein part because of how they have resolved their own identity issues’’ (1995: 25).
In addition to its importance for mentoring, this sharing of stories— across hierarchical layers, age groupings, and national identities, in the case of the Young Leaders’

REFLECTIONS, Volume 4, Number 4

MIRVIS AND AYASx
Reective Dialogue, Life Stories, and Leadership Development

Forum—is also a way to bridge differences between subcultures in organizations. Dialogue has served as the primary vehicle in building common understanding and facilitating
the development of a shared group culture. There are 15 nationalities represented in thisgroup and attendant differences in thinking, language, communication styles, norms, andvalues dictated by their cultures. Nearly all the young leaders are Asian, for whom ‘‘maintaining face’’ is of prime concern (Goffman, 2003). More than any other cultural group,
Asians tend to eschew self-disclosure, confronting others, and saying what’s really on
their minds.
The group has now evolved to a stage where young leaders can talk about ‘‘face’’and the in uence of cultural norms and values on the ways they think and feel. In theforum, they feel comfortable and safe enough to be ‘‘themselves.’’ They have also adopted
ways of being together—in dialogue and community—that may be counter to the native
cultures. Furthermore, many have been courageous enough to bring new ways of behaving back to their home cultures. For instance, a Thai woman hugged all her family members for the rst time in her life when they came to greet her at the airport. An Indonesian
man wrote a letter to his father to tell him how much he loves him.
These examples show how the young leaders have learned to become more selfreective, to challenge culturally learned assumptions, and to try out new behaviors.
Indeed, many lessons that emerge seem to speak to universal truths about living andleadership— what thinking and feeling together can produce.
At the same time, sharing life stories is a speci c experience. The young leaders felt
very privileged to meet with their tribe’s elder. The dialogue enabled intimacy and authenticity. A Thai woman’s comments exemplify the bene t of this session:
Getting to know you as a person was very valuable. I never thought I would have the opportunity to meet you, let alone hear your real story. In Thailand, we don’t get to see our chairman. If he’s around, we are too scared to meet him. But, with you now, I feel different.
Whenever you come to Thailand, I hope you will visit us. Now it feels like we know eachother, not that you are ‘‘Mr. Chairman.’’ It feels good to know that, even in a big position,
you are a real person.

References

48

Ayas, K. and P.H. Mirvis. ‘‘Young Leaders’ Forum in Asia: Learning About Leadership, Abundance,
and Growth.’’ Re ections 4 (Fall 2002): 33–42.
Buber, M. Between Man and Man. Translated by R.G. Smith (New York: MacMillan, 1965). Originallypublished, 1947.
Fromm, E. The Art of Loving (New York: HarperCollins, 2000).
Gardner, H. Leading Minds (New York: HarperCollins, 1995).
Goffman, E. ‘‘On Face-Work: An Analysis of Ritual Elements in Social Interaction.’’ Re ections 3(Spring 2003): 7–13.
Isaacs, W. Dialogue and the Art of Thinking Together: A Pioneering Approach to Communicating in
Business and Life (New York: Doubleday, 1999).
Johnson, S. The Book of Elders, The Life Stories & Wisdom of Great American Indians (San Francisco:
HarperCollins, 1994).
Kohn, A. The Brighter Side of Human Nature: Altruism and Empathy in Everyday Life (New York:
Basic Books, 1990).
Mead, G.H. Mind, Self, and Society from the Standpoint of Social Behavior. Vol. 1 of Works of George
Herbert Mead, ed. C.W. Morris (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1934).
Mirvis, P.H. ‘‘Community Building in Business.’’ Re ections 3 (Spring 2002): 45–51.
Peck, M.S. The Different Drum: Community Making and Peace (New York: Simon and Schuster,1987).
Peck, M.S. A World Waiting to Be Born: Civility Rediscovered (New York: Doubleday, 1993).
‘‘Personal Histories: Leaders Remember the Moments and People That Shaped Them.’’ Harvard
Business Review 79 (December 2001): 3–11.
Yankelovich, D. The Magic of Dialogue: Transforming Con ict into Cooperation (New York: Simonand Schuster, 1999).

Volume 4, Number 4, REFLECTIONS

Welcoming the Feminine
Dimensions of Leadership
Judy Sorum Brown

Over these writings I bent my head.
Now you are considering them. If you
Turn away I will look up: a bridge
That was there will be gone.
For the rest of your life I will stand here,
Reaching across.
— William Stafford (1994: 16)As a leader and a woman, I am aware of the difculty of capturing the leadership
dimensions embedded in the notion of the feminine. I use the word feminine not as
relating to a particular gender, but as a quality within us all. I use the term leadership not
as conferred by a particular role or high position, but as a human capacity and action
widely available although not always evident. And were that not challenge enough, I urgethat we integrate the feminine dimensions in healthy partnership with the masculine
dimensions.
Men and women who struggle to lead in healthy ways tell me that they recognize inthemselves and others the hunger for a balance of the two orientations in their own lives,
relationships, and organizations. To honor their efforts, and with their encouragement, I
have set out to place some trail markers on a path we each travel. How might we more
fully invite and welcome the feminine dimension of leadership in organizations, relationships, and ourselves?
I no longer think there are de nitive, perceivable differences between the leadershipof men and that of women. We can look at one or another woman leader and notice how
she leads differently from one or another male leader. But we also notice women leaders
who lead in ways that we would consider more masculine. And we observe that men
show a similar, broad range of leadership approaches.
Our observation is complicated by the fact that our minds slip from the word feminine(which embraces a collection of qualities our society associates with the feminine, yetwhich we all possess to some extent), to the word female (the gender). Like a car thatkeeps slipping out of gear, we slide from the qualities to the gender. The two are not thesame.
Carol Frenier de nes the feminine dimension in terms of four primary attributes:(1) diffuse awareness, (2) a feel for the quick of the moment, (3) acceptance of the cyclesof life, and (4) a feel for deep community (Frenier, 1996). Still, some organizations seem
inadvertently to dampen and discourage the feminine dimension in men and women. As
a result, those organizations end up dismissing the feminine energies. Sometimes theyswing from one extreme to another, rst convinced they need the ‘‘soft stuff’’ and thenconvinced the ‘‘bottom line’’ is all that matters. The lack of integration, respect, steadiness, and balance saps the energy of both men and women. The women are often singularly saddled with the hard, emotional work of the organization and with other feminine
dimensions of community building, if those dimensions are attended to at all. And,

REFLECTIONS, Volume 4, Number 4

Judy Sorum Brown
Educator, writer, and consultant
JudyBrown@aol.com

49

2003 by the Society for Organizational Learning and the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology.
q

BROWNx
Welcoming the Feminine Dimensions of Leadershipof course, as people realize that only part of them is welcome in organizational life, men
and women cease to welcome that other dimension within themselves. Thus, increasingly,
the organization is in danger of being blindsided by realities related to the feminine,
including cultural and emotional dynamics, creative potential, and aesthetics. Most of us
have had painful rsthand experience in this world.
In work cultures that are historically feminine, it may be necessary to invite explicitly
the masculine dimension into the leadership, so a few men don’t have to carry it alone.
The necessity of rebalancing has become clearer to me in my work in large urban libraries,
where the culture is traditionally more feminine.

A Commitment to Integration
As a fairly driven executive for many years and a poet, I continue to seek ways to holdonto my own commitment to integration, balance, and the presence of both the masculine
and feminine in my life and in the organizations with which I work. As I facilitate dialogues and design learning experiences, I learn much about that integration. I am able tocollect, practice, and share some notions that seem to entice and help root the feminine
energies into our organizational lives, particularly in institutions that have evolved in amore masculine eld—for example, manufacturing, universities, science- and engineeringbased  rms, and even symphonies. Such processes include storytelling; community building; inquiry and listening; creative practices such as music, poetry, drama, or art; andforms of dialogue. Such processes value participation and inclusion, and elicit more presence than presenting, more listening than lobbying, more creating than constructing, andmore discovery than direction (see the sidebar).
While the challenge of welcoming feminine energies in masculine cultures has beenat the heart of my work, I do not frame what I do in that way. It is more natural for me
to speak of the challenge of welcoming all perspectives, gifts, knowledge and experience,and voices often silenced. I remain aware that often those silenced voices (be they maleor female) are speaking from the feminine orientation.

Some Guiding Processes
Using these processes, in which the feminine dimension is deeply imbedded, increases its presence inthe organization.

50

x Check-in and check-out. These simple processes for beginning and ending work create space forall voices and invites contribution. By example, they set important norms of inclusion and openness(see Peter Senge et al., 1994).
x Dialogue. Dialogue creates a communication space for listening deeply and for becoming increasingly aware of one’s own thinking and the perspectives of others (see the works of Glenna Gerardand Linda Ellinor [1998]; William Isaacs [1999]; and Judy Sorum Brown [1995, 2000]).
x Open space processes. There are many variants on these deeply democratic processes for shaping
common purpose, work, and strategy collectively (see the work of Harrison Owen [1997]).
x Creative processes. Nonverbal processes involving various art forms help people shift from words
into other forms of knowing. Many processes provide simple introductions into the world of thearts (see the works of Julia Cameron [1992]; Frederik Franck [1973]; Michael Gelb [1998]; and Michael Jones [1995]).
x Appreciative inquiry. This process helps balance our trained tendency to solve problems with theability to determine what is going well and amplify it. The process also brings out the deepest
positive motivation in people (see David Cooperrider and Diana Whitney [1999]).
x World café. This process allows people to have intimate, focused conversations on an important
topic and to create quickly visible threads of shared understanding (see Juanita Brown [in press]).
x Clearness committee. This process for exploring a dilemma creates an exceptionally safe space inwhich a person can gain insight by responding to completely open questions posed by a small
group during a three-hour period (see Parker Palmer [1998]).
x Storytelling. The source of this process is the age-old human tradition of asking genuinely curious
questions and letting a story unfold (see Parker Palmer [2000]).
x Scenario work. This is a process of creating alternative stories of the future (or the past) andwatching unfolding events (see Peter Schwartz [1991]; and Paula Underwood [1994]).

Volume 4, Number 4, REFLECTIONSBROWNx
Welcoming the Feminine Dimensions of Leadership
Q

Rachel Lillian Kohn

Whether introduced by men or women, feminine approaches often run into the cultural norms of the ‘‘traditional’’ leadership model and masculine energies. That doesn’tmean they are at odds with individual male leaders. For example:

x The School of Engineering at the University of Michigan at Dearborn invited Michaelxx

Jones and me to facilitate an engineering-focused conference on systems learning,
using music and poetry to link workshops and keynotes designed to stimulate different ways of thinking. At the end of three days, engineers with whom I’d worked foryears in the auto plants began to hand me folded slips of paper. ‘‘Here,’’ one or
another would say, ‘‘It’s a poem I wrote.’’The director of quality for 52 Visteon auto parts plants, Al Tervalon, was frustrated
because people did not understand his idea of the ‘‘cadence’’ of manufacturing. He
tapped on the conference room table to suggest the importance of manufacturing
cadence. ‘‘Jazz band,’’ I said. ‘‘Hire one,’’ he replied. The jazz band became part ofour global meeting to help people think about how they might better work together.
In the dialogue after the live music, the participation came mostly from manufacturingleaders who were young, female, people of color, and not born in the US—all those
who were usually silent in headquarters meetings.
An executive described how he helped people move beyond their grief when having
to close the founding unit of their Fortune 500 rm. ‘‘No jobs were lost,’’ he said.
‘‘Nobody disagreed with the action, and yet nobody could move on. We were stuck.
So I did the only thing a thinking engineer could do: I ordered a casket, with  owers,
and had it placed in the lobby of the corporate headquarters. We had a funeral forthe old business. Folks who’d been part of that business unit came. We sang songs,
people cried, and we buried that sucker. Then we could get on with our work.’’

In each experience, we can see the intuitive introduction or unexpected emergence of afeminine dimension of leadership. How do we sketch a full range of such qualities? How
do we more intentionally invite them into our leadership work?
The most straightforward way for me is to list word pairs, the  rst pointing toward
the feminine, the second to the masculine (see the sidebar). They are words that direct
us toward the territory, like trail signs. They are not de nitive or exhaustive; they suggest
the differences. We can see them as dimensions not at odds with each other, but necessary
to one another and resident within us.
These word pairs dance with each other as if each word is in a dynamic relationshipthat is changing and in which the two are always connected. The symbol of yin and yang

REFLECTIONS, Volume 4, Number 451

BROWNx
Welcoming the Feminine Dimensions of Leadership

52

approximates that relationship, suggesting a curved delineation in which eachholds space for the other.
Yet it is not easy to have a balanced, respectful dance between masculine andfeminine in organizational life, at least in Western culture. Work cultures schooledin one (the masculine, for instance) but unconsciously yearning for the other (thefeminine) may swing between them rather than center to hold both.

Balanced Perspective
Not long ago, I caught myself celebrating the feminine as a trumping of the masculine, and then seeing immediately my error. I was talking with my longtime
friend Marlo with whom I attended school from kindergarten through high school.
Feminine « Masculine
We were discussing the death of Marlo’s mother, who was the last of our four
Welcome and boundaries
parents to die. As he reected on her passing, he showed me a photograph he’dPartnership and competition
found among her things. It was a picture my dad had taken of Marlo’s parents on
Inquiry and advocacy
their farm. My dad had taught agricultural practices and had translated university
Ritual and rigor
research into usable guidance. In his spare time, he was also a good photographer,
Curiosity and certainty
with a sense of framing, light, and composition. The black-and-white photo was
Wondering and knowing
Appreciating and judging
stark, powerful, and simple: a man and a woman in the early 1950s, facing into
Accepting and assertingthe camera, standing at the edge of a eld, with the rows of potato plants stretchListening and talking
ing behind them into the distance.
Nurturing and challenging‘‘I don’t know how your dad captured this,’’ Marlo said. ‘‘He must have stood
Stories and analysis
on top of the car to get this particular angle. This photo was really important to
Humanities and sciences
Appreciating and challenging
us. It was the rst time we realized the remarkable thing we had accomplished
Inviting and limiting
with the farm and with our lives.’’ The poet in me was taken by the power of the
Empathy and objectivity
photo and by my sudden realization that my father’s artistry as a photographer
Poetry and analysis(the framing, the angle, the light, the detail) had given Marlo’s family an important
Music and words
Art and science
window through which to understand the signi cance of what they had done.
Creating and building
All those years, I had thought it was science that had been my father’s conSpace and materials
tribution. Now I could see it was art, the story captured in the photograph. In a
Spirit and object
moment, my understanding shifted like a kaleidoscope, substituting my prior unSketching and stating
derstanding of my father as scientist to a new understanding of my father as artist.
Exploring and judging
Opening and choosing
It was a satisfying, pleasing shift. As a poet and an artist, I felt great comfort,
Accepting and insisting
recognition, and afrmation in that understanding. ‘‘See,’’ I said to myself, ‘‘Art
Emergence and intention
wins. Science loses.’’ In terms of the masculine-feminine dimension of my father’s
Attention and intention
leadership, ‘‘Feminine wins, masculine loses.’’
Then I turned the photo over; written carefully on the back were a series ofscientic notations: ‘‘1952, acreage: . . . planting date: . . . soil type: . . . rainfall:. . . weather conditions: . . . seed potato variety: . . . planting conditions: . . . prior year
yield . . . ’’—all the detailed, precise notes of the scientist, indivisible from the picture.
At that moment, I realized there was no way to separate the two sides of the story. I had
to acknowledge that the scientist and the artist together created a new picture of what
had been accomplished in the life of one family.
Leadership work is just that—holding both sides and valuing both. It is the precise,disciplined, and curious scientist and the aware and gifted storyteller. It honors the masculine and feminine. The feminine is needed not because it
trumps the masculine, but because it has been missing fromthe necessary partnership of the two leadership dimensions.
As we each look at the list of word pairs or create ourown lists, other stories may oat to our minds. How do wecreate conditions in which both the feminine and the masculine perspectives are invited, valued, celebrated, andheard? In organizations where the feminine dimension has
been historically less visible, less openly articulated, and less appreciated than the masculine, how do we create conditions for it to be more fully present? What guidance canwe offer ourselves?
First, we should pay attention to our own experiences and learn from those communities of practice that inform our work. Increasing our own awareness of the practices

How do we create conditions inwhich both the feminine and themasculine perspectives are invited,valued, celebrated, and heard?

Volume 4, Number 4, REFLECTIONS

x Pay close attention to the implicit messages of space and design. Use circles, natural light, color,living plants, and beauty of all kinds. Once the leader attends to these dimensions, others follow
suit. Before a planning retreat, a local police chief rearranged the tables in a circle because, as hetold me, ‘‘It’s too squared off and we can’t see each other.’’ We laughingly reminded each otherthat all good work begins with rearranging furniture.
x Balance advocacy with inquiry. Marcial Losada’s research reminds us that successful leadershipteams balance their communication equally between advocacy and inquiry (Losada, forthcoming).
The losing teams tend to favor advocacy.
x Notice what upsets you about others’ leadership approaches and explore how you accept or denythat voice or approach. Pay attention to the balance of the feminine and masculine within you.
x Focus on balance in framing every dilemma. Ensure that both male and female energies are honored and balanced. As a leader, watch carefully and ask others to look for dynamics that subtly
drive out the feminine perspective. Invite both the masculine and feminine and seek a third way
whenever possible.
x Intentionally set organizational norms that invite both male and female leadership dimensions.
Threesomes of norms hold masculine, feminine, and the third way simultaneously. For example:
From the work of the Courage to Teach community, the threesome of creating space that isbounded, charged, and welcoming.
From Buddhist practice, the three energies of erceness, tenderness, and playfulness.

and principles that shift the balance in a healthy way is an important step (see the sidebar).
Sharing what we are learning is key.

Conclusion
Leaders create conditions that are either enlivening or deadening. In a sense, leaders—like architects or designers —create emotional space, thinking space, and working space.
Our ability to serve as leaders has much to do with how we work with the materials before
us. Among the resources are the energies of the feminine and masculine dimensions
within us and around us. In a sense, we are trying to create a re, the release of humanenergies. I wrote the accompanying poem about that process one day as I sat before a re. I am still learning from it, so I trust my intuition that it should close this exploration
for now.

Acknowledgments
The author thanks those whose reections and feedback were particularly helpful in crafting this essay —Scott Fosler, Anne L’Ecuyer, Roger Saillant, Richard Smith, and Al Tervalon—and gives appreciation to those whose conversations over a lifetime havecontributed to this dialogue.

References
Brown, J. World Café (San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, in press).
Brown, J.S. ‘‘Dialogue: Capacities and Stories.’’ Learning Organizations: Developing Cultures forTomorrow’s Workplace (Portland, OR: Productivity Press, 1995).
Brown, J.S. The Sea Accepts All Rivers and Other Poems (Alexandria, VA: Miles River Press, 2000).
Cameron, J. The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity (New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/
Perigee, 1992).
Cooperrider, D.L. and D. Whitney. Appreciative Inquiry (San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, 1999).
Franck, F. The Zen of Seeing: Seeing/Drawing as Meditation (New York: Vintage Books, 1973).
Frenier, C.R. Business and the Feminine Principle: The Untapped Resource (Woburn, MA:
Butterworth-Heinemann Publishers, 1996).
Gelb, M.J. How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci (New York: Dell Publishing, 1998).
Gerard, G. and L. Ellinor. Dialogue: Rediscover the Transforming Power of Conversation (New York:John Wiley & Sons, 1998).

REFLECTIONS, Volume 4, Number 4

So building res
requires tending in a
special way,
attention to the woodas well as to the spaces in
between,so re can catch, can grow,can breathe,can build its energy andwarmthwhich we so need in orderto survive the cold.

BROWN

What makes a re burnis space between the logs,
a breathing space.
Too much of a good thing,
too many logs
packed in too tight
can squelch a re,can douse the ames
almost as surely
as a pail of water can.

xSome principles help me create more balanced spaces in which the feminine is invited, cherished, andcelebrated along with the masculine.

Fire

Welcoming the Feminine Dimensions of Leadership

Some Guiding Principles

We need to practicebuilding open spaces
just as clearly as we learn
to pile on the logs.
It’s fuel, and absence of the
fueltogether, that make repossible,
let it develop in the way
that’spossible when we lay logs
in just theway the re wants to go.
Then we can watch it as itleaps and plays,
burns down and thenames upin unexpected ways.
Then we need only lay alog on itfrom time to time.
Then it has life all of its
own,
a beauty that emerges
not where logs are
but where spaces can invitethe ames
to burn, to form exquisite
patterns of their own,
their beauty possible
simply because the space isthere,
an opening in which theamethat knows just how it
wants
to burn can nd its way.
— Judy Sorum Brown

53

BROWNx
Welcoming the Feminine Dimensions of Leadership

Isaacs, W. Dialogue and the Art of Thinking Together: A Pioneering Approach to Communicating in
Business and in Life (New York: Doubleday, 1999).
Jones, M. Creating an Imaginative Life (Berkeley, CA: Conari Press, 1995).
Losada, M. ‘‘The Role of Positivity and Connectivity in the Performance of Business Teams: A Nonlinear Dynamical Model’’ (forthcoming).
Owen, H. Expanding Our Now: The Story of Open Space Technology (San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler
Publishers, 1997).
Palmer, P.J. The Courage to Teach (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1998).
Palmer, P.J. Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass,
2000).
Schwartz, P. The Art of the Long View (New York: Doubleday, 1991).
Senge, P.M., C. Roberts, R.B. Ross, B.J. Smith, and A. Kleiner. The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook: Strategies and Tools for Building a Learning Organization (New York: Currency/Doubleday, 1994).
Stafford, W. Learning to Live in the World (New York: Harcourt Brace & Co., 1994).
Underwood, P. Three Strands in the Braid (Austin, TX: Tribe of Two Press, 1994).

54

Volume 4, Number 4, REFLECTIONSOn Being a Leader:
A Conversation with
Sister Mohini Panjabi
Stella Eugene Humphries

Sister Mohini Panjabi is a senior spiritual leader and regional coordinator (for North andSouth America and the Caribbean) of the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University(BKWSU). She is also the BKWSU representative to the UN. To place her leadership role incontext, I will describe some features of the BKWSU that make it an organization of interest
to the study of governance, structure, coordination, and leadership.
The BKWSU is dedicated to providing knowledge and an environment for individualtransformation in practical, everyday life. It is founded on the belief that through the attainment, in action, of personal qualities such as peace, compassion, inner power, andwisdom, we can bring about fundamental social transformation.
The organization was founded in 1937 in India by wealthy jeweler Prajapita Brahma.
When he died in 1969, the administration was handed over to women. Today, two women
are the co-administrators: Dadi Prakashmani, based in the international headquarters in
Mount Abu, Rajasthan, India, and Dadi Janki, based in London. These two octogenarians
continue to be fully active in their administrative and teaching roles, including regularworld travel. The BKWSU has spread to 80 countries with some 600,000 daily students.
Although the senior administrators are women, both men and women participate in equal
numbers.
The BKWSU consists of self-organizing centers (known in most countries as Raja Yoga
Meditation Centers), which are run by volunteers. Each Raja Yoga center provides the same
daily classes to its students. There is no ‘‘membership’’; each individual is free to  nd hisor her relationship to the organization on a continuum from daily study to occasional
participation in special programs. Regular coordination of activities among local, national,
and international centers and the headquarters in Mount Abu occurs via the Internet andtelephone. In addition to the daily schedule of teaching and meditation, the organization
holds special programs for the public and professional groups in the arts, sciences, medicine, government, the legal profession, education, and business. The BKWSU organizes
conferences, training workshops, concerts, retreats, and lectures, often in partnership withother groups.
Regular students and guests convene annually at the international headquarters in
Mount Abu for retreats, programs, and planning. Almost 20,000 Indians are accommodated and fed at a time, with a turnover of participants every few days for about six monthsof the year. Foreigners attend in smaller numbers of 2,000 to 3,000 and tend to stay a week
or longer. Despite the large numbers, each person is individually met and their needs areattended to, including special requests for transport, diet, accommodation, and medicalcare.
The organization has large retreat properties in India, North and South America, Australia, and Europe. It also founded and administers a hospital in Mount Abu and has been
invited by the government to administer another in Bombay. The BKWSU undertakes global
projects of social service, many of which are formally af liated with the UN, such as theMillion Minutes of Peace Appeal, Global Cooperation for a Better World, Living Values,

REFLECTIONS, Volume 4, Number 4Sister Mohini Panjabi
Senior spiritual leader
Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual
University
mohini@bkswu.com

55

Stella Eugene Humphries
Researcher
Society for Organizational Learning
seh@whidbey.com

2003 by the Society for Organizational Learning and the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology.
q

HUMPHRIESx
On Being a Leader

and activities related to various UN summits. The organization has general consultative
status with the Economic and Social Council and has won seven Peace Messenger Awards.
There is no charge for the activities; all  nancial support is donated.
Stella Eugene Humphries (SEH): Can you tell us a little of your own story, how you
came to be a leader?
Mohini Panjabi (MP): I was a very private person and wanted to live a simple family
life, but I had a need to know more; I felt also that service was important. I wanted toprovide for myself, but I also cared a lot for other people. At rst, service for me wassimple —to reach out to people and to give them whatever they needed, small things. In
the early sixties, there was an epidemic of in uenza. In almost every home in the large
block where we lived, people were sick because we did not have immunity or injections.
I did not get sick. I made tea and went door to door to serve food. When India had twoor three small wars with Pakistan and China, I reached out to wounded people by goingto hospitals to see what I could do.
I think understanding what you want to achieve for yourself and also what you want
to do to serve others are needed in combination. It seems people either want to do something for others or do something for themselves, but they do not often combine the two.
When I think of where I began and where the story of leadership began, I discover that I
sought to combine the two very speci cally. I wanted both a quality life for myself, andI wanted to offer myself to service.
SEH: You feel that awareness of one’s inner needs, then, is important for playing a publicleadership role?
MP: The story of successful leaders begins with how they lead their own lives. Many
people look to others for direction and insight. But others feel that there is some purpose
they wish to fulll. There is an inner calling that pulls and to which they have to respond.
That is when learning begins.
Learning is connected to helping your self. You should ask: In which direction would
I like to go and what is the aim of my life? What do I want to do? People tend not to think
about their lives in this way. They accept external information and norms without questioning what these mean. Most people today focus on what
the market wants. They think that if they study to ll thecurrent market need, they can immediately earn money. But
rather they should feel the guidance within. They shouldlook for something very special that gives fulllment. Oncethey commit to following their intuition and nding theirown inner direction, fulllment begins to grow. Of course,
education needs to be connected with livelihood, but job
and money are secondary. Education rst needs to focus on developing the quality of
one’s ‘‘being,’’ not only on developing the capacity for ‘‘doing.’’ Whatever I do, I want
rst to know: Why am I doing it? What is it bringing to me? What is it bringing to others?

The story of successful leaders
begins with how they lead theirown lives.
56

SEH: What formal training helps you in your role today?
MP: I studied history and political science, not a common combination for girls in India.
The political leaders were mostly men. But I wanted to know about the world.
I saw a gap between what people say about values and what they do. It is common
to say that we should be honest, that we should care for each other, but in practice, thewords did not mean anything. So my question was: How can I understand truly whatvalues are? Where do I get the power to practice them? In my parents’ home, all thechildren were required to embrace values and good character. Not that all had that tendency, but I did. At age 13 or 14, I started reading scholars and listening to spiritual leaders,
not only those who were seeking salvation, but also spiritual leaders who made a difference in the world.
Swami Vivikananda attracted me because he was action oriented. He would say,‘‘What is in your heart, put into action. What is in your heart is for yourself and what
you put into action is for the world.’’ I read about 22 of his volumes. So my education
became combined; for inner ful llment, I read the spiritual leaders, and I also continued
my regular studies.
Volume 4, Number 4, REFLECTIONSHUMPHRIESx
On Being a Leader
Emily SperQ

I went to different spiritual centers, including a Brahma Kumaris center. There I felt
a simple, honest, and truthful way of living. At that time, I did not know how to explain
the experience— what they had was not packaged. Although I was touched, I did not
become a student at the Brahma Kumaris center. I continued going to university for another seven to eight years. Again, from the desire to serve people and to serve the world,
I decided to study journalism and law. I felt these were two areas through which I could
help. The injustices I saw used to hurt me; I felt that people were not able to be fair. At
a very young age, even before I  nished journalism, I wrote letters to the editor; somewould get published. For three years, I did parliamentary reporting in Delhi.
SEH: From where do you get your guidance and support as a leader?
MP: Basically, my strength comes from my principles, from learning, and from my insights. I like being governed from my insights, and I like to have information. I read a lot
in every area—economics, politics, medicine. When I have to decide something and form
an opinion or make comments, I give them from inside. I like to hear the news and be
informed, but I do not necessarily like to be inuenced to the extent that my own initiative,
my own pure reasoning, and my own insights get lost. I keep a distance that helps me todiscern.
Before I become a guide for others, am I a good guide for myself? If I am a guide formyself, then I know where I am leading people. I feel everyone has to have his or her
own map and inner direction in life. Every human life becomes a guidance or misguidancefor others. I am careful because I know when I do something, others will want to do it.
The individual— even in a large organization such as the one of which I am part—always
has to be connected with the guidance of the self. Wherever
I feel that I am unclear, I am uncomfortable; I will go inside
and try to  nd the right direction. To be guided by one’s inner
self and to act with the awareness that others will follow arevery important.
The strength of leaders should come from inside, fromvalues. Their lives should be governed by principles because following principles protects
strength. When you speak the truth, you only have to say it once. But once you speak alie, you have to tell another 20 and still not be able to convince. It is more simple to betruthful, to be honest.

Before I become a guide for others,
am I a good guide for myself?

SEH: You spoke about the importance of insight. How does one develop that power?
REFLECTIONS, Volume 4, Number 4

57

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On Being a Leader

MP: We take in information through reading or listening. But to make a decision, we needto connect external information to a deeper knowing that is connected to our values.
Insight comes when we step aside from external inuence, connect internally, and feel
what is true.
If someone asks for my input, I step aside mentally for a few moments and separate
myself  rst from the situation. By doing that, I am not absorbing it; rather, I am allowing
information to come from my own intuitive feelings. Everyone feels something, but subtly. So unless we are aware,
we don’t pick up and use that feeling to direct action. The
intellect is so dominant today that reasoning takes over everything. But there is something deeper than reasoning.
When we feel, we know where the truth is.
Staying in touch with the inner self is not common these days. Insight comes when
we are in touch with our true selves. It is a very soft, gentle voice that speaks truth withineach of us, but we do not listen and do not hear it. Today, people listen to so much noise
and, if they do not have noise, create noise internally through too much thinking. Getting
in touch with the true self in those quiet moments allows insight to grow.
Once we use that insight and  nd it right, we listen more; consequently, our trust in
ourselves grows. We come to know that insight is de nitely true, that what it is saying isgoing to work. But trust in our own insight doesn’t come until we listen, test it, and ndthat it works. You are the insight —that is, the site of your inner self —not the outside
world. The truth comes from there.

When we feel, we know where thetruth is.

SEH: What is your vision of a well-functioning system? Toward what ideal way of organizing do you lead?

58

MP: A teacher asked the students to  x a world map that was torn into little pieces. The
students wondered how could they restore it. But one student xed it in 15 minutes. He
had turned the map over and found on the back a  gure of the human body, so he put
the pieces together. He knew where the eyes should be, the nose, and so on. When heturned it over, he had also put the world together. This is a metaphor for the interdependency of all human beings in the world; beneath the surface, things have a connection
and the whole has a pattern. We should be neither dependent nor independent. Instead,
we need to understand and accept the right relationship among the parts of the whole.
Each part is important and has a role. Understanding this leads to the right relationship.
If we truly understood that the whole world is one family, then abuse through power,
status, and greed would end.
When we think of family, we don’t think only of tasks. There is much more to a
family than getting tasks done. Task-oriented leaders sooner or later lose effectivenessbecause they lose the people. Those close to leaders remember them for the small things.
The ex-Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi was publicly known as the Iron Woman, asa very strong politician. Few knew her soft side, which was her true strength. An ambassador to a Caribbean island described a time when he was in her cabinet; they had worked
late on a project at her residence. Every two or three hours, she would send someone fortea. Such little gestures of her care made them work day and night.
True leaders are remembered for such small, humanitarian acts. But, more often,
status and greed become big challenges for a leader. Even praise and success are difcultfor many. A leader has to remember: ‘‘I am a server; I am on service.’’
The BKWSU, at its core, is a family  rst, then it is an organization. Because it is alarge family, we need to run it as an organization, but we do not have presidents, secretaries, and so on. This structure is very beautiful—family and organization. It means eachmember’s personal care and security are really the well-being of the organization.
SEH: How is leadership in the BKWSU established and sustained?
MP: People sometimes ask which person decides who will be in a certain position, but
actually no one decides. It happens naturally on the basis of who has the qualities andlives the values that are needed. These are the only factors. No decisions are made on thebasis of our liking and favoring someone. I think the top leaders have service and family
in their hearts. Those who don’t have these qualities nd it very difcult to lead within
this organization.
Volume 4, Number 4, REFLECTIONSHUMPHRIESOn Being a Leaderx

Leadership qualities are mostly learned through modeling. Through the example of the senior leaders, a lot getsdone. Younger leaders look at the more senior leaders, say,
Dadi Prakashmani, who is the head of the organization.
They see her humility, availability, personal interest, andlove toward everyone, and they see her success.
Also, there is no misuse of money or relationships at
any level. Our founder was wealthy and had a position insociety, but he lived simply and humbly. The next generation of leaders was able to follow from their hearts. So
these traits and behaviors were naturally passed on.
SEH: What should be our attitude toward leaders today
who have betrayed trust?
MP: There needs to be a realization that everyone is responsible. Whatever is happening in a collective is not because of one, two, or ten individuals, but because of each of us. We are in a system. We
elect our leaders; we allow all that happens to happen. If, at the grass-roots level, people
do not empower themselves, they will always look to the leaders and blame them. Boththe formal leaders and those at the grass roots need to take responsibility for whatever ishappening in the world. Each of us has to ask, ‘‘How am I contributing by my actions,my thoughts, my attitudes, and my choices?’’ If I want peace, I have to ask myself, ‘‘Am
I being peaceful?’’ If I want tolerance or nonviolence, I need to see where in my life I am
contributing to violence or the lack of peace and start to change those thoughts, attitudes,
and actions.
Each person needs to take responsibility, not just expect rights. Each needs to contribute whatever he or she can toward a better world. Everyone needs to feel, ‘‘I am aleader.’’ People working with leaders and leaders working with people are equally necessary.
Q

Jonathan Liffgens

SEH: What would help organizations cultivate good leaders?
MP: In education and in corporations and organizations, there should be some valuebased courses. People need help balancing their inner and outer beings. There is no suchbalance today. Success is difcult for many to deal with. Success is always seen as a  nal
result, as pro t, as something external. We need to encourage people to see other kinds of success. Success needs to beunderstood as a holistic process. There needs to be more
recognition and valuing of success in terms of inner growthand inner achievement. Success based on merit and qualication is too narrow. Institutions need to discover that there
are other kinds of merit—inner merit.
Organizations and corporations also need to create contexts in which people’s innerpersonalities can  nd expression. With balance between outer competencies and innerqualities, people will have a deeper capacity for dealing with both favorable and adverse
situations. But because people have a narrow view of competency, when something
doesn’t work, they do not apply the inner skills and relationship skills we have beentalking about. As a result, the next thing doesn’t work, which establishes a cycle of more
and more loss. The  exibility and adaptability that come from being a well-rounded person
are not there. There is no effort to allow the whole being to be present and the wholebeing is not enhanced, so individuals and organizations lose.

If I want peace, I have to ask
myself, ‘‘Am I being peaceful?’’

SEH: It seems that leadership within the Brahma Kumaris arises from empowering individuals and developing their inner qualities. But leadership must also address the practicalmatter of volunteers running a large, globally dispersed, multicultural organization. Can
you speak about this nexus of spiritual and practical leadership?
MP: One important thing about this organization is that the spiritual principles that are
taught have to be applied in administration. The spiritual head and administrative headare combined because we believe that spirituality is also the foundation for worldly leadership. In other words, we consider that religion and politics need to be integrated. I use
the word religion in the sense of universal spiritual wisdom, not in a sectarian meaning.
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On Being a Leader

If I believe in certain things, but I am not able to implement them in my work or
administration, then they are just beliefs. Then changes won’t occur; there won’t be socialchange or empowerment. But if I use the values and principles I am taught, then my own
power grows and empowers others. For example, I believe in peace. So, for peace, I need
to work in peace and with peace. When a dif cult situation arises with people or circumstances, I always remind myself that if I am for peace, I have to be in peace. Then others
see that it is possible to deal with a disturbing situation peacefully. When we model what
we are taught, it empowers others. When leaders behave inconsistently in their values,
it is easy for others to fall into the same trap. Then leaders cannot help anyone because
their power is lost too.
Our leadership is based on spiritual principles, which is a great achievement but also
a great challenge. You always have to remember the source of your success, which is notfrom being an administrator but from the principles you
uphold. A true leader’s quality is sel essness, although selfinterest is inherently there because as you give, you also
receive. When there is sel essness, whatever you think anddo will help many others. But if you are self-centered andfocus on your own success, empowerment doesn’t happen.
Selessness helps you to be open to others, win trust, andget cooperation. With cooperation, many tasks get done
easily. Without it, there is always some difculty.

Connect within and think of apositive quality such as tolerance,patience, or compassion to replace
anger.

SEH: The Brahma Kumaris clearly place relationships before results and see relationships
as central to achieving sustainable, quality results. Could you elaborate on this perspective?

60

MP: Some people think that you compromise quality if you maintain relationships. In theearly 1970s, I discussed this with a senior teacher: Which is more important, the task or
relationship? At that time, the task was more important to me because I thought that myimage, my way of doing things, my methods, and my efciency were important. She said
that in whatever you are able to do, you will always need people to help you. When there
are good relationships, you will have help, more work can get done, and expansion cantake place. Now, I know that if you have good relationships, you need say only a few
words. When you just pay attention to the task, you can say a lot, but people are notwilling to listen. So relationships help, especially when you work with volunteers.
In our large retreat center in upstate New York—Peace Village—I have very highstandards for the quality of tasks, the way a place is cleaned, or the way food is prepared.
I like spotless cleanliness. I check and say, ‘‘This should be like this. This should be likethat.’’ Yet when I leave, the people who operate the center ask me when I plan to return.
I once asked why they wanted me to come frequently, when I require so much disciplinefrom them. They responded that they get much energy by doing things well, that they getsatisfaction from having a team that does good work together.
I trust the coordinators of the different departments. I do not change anything directly,
but I will ask them. They know that although I am very task oriented, I have a lot of loveand respect for them. One thing I have learned is that if I say something in the right way
and at the right time, it is accepted. I have to care for people’s feelings and realize they
are also dedicated and committed to excellence. I have to create the conditions for them
to be able to work well.
The success of Peace Village depends on our relationships with each other. There islove among us. If I want to upgrade things, rst I do some internal work with them andthen I make some proposals. That works out well because their energy, their enthusiasm,
and their con dence in themselves have grown. When I ask them to take on a task, itgets done very nicely.
Caring about relationships is an alignment between relationship and task. If you aretask oriented, people are glad as soon as you leave. But if you have good relationships
and are also task oriented, everyone will want to run things ef ciently and properly.
SEH: What advice do you have for facing challenges?
MP: If I were to absorb the in uence of the outside world, I would see situations as bigger
than I am. Fear, worry, and anger would emerge. The situation is real, but my tendency

Volume 4, Number 4, REFLECTIONSHUMPHRIESx
On Being a Leader

to fear it makes it big. So I look at the situation, and, in parallel, I look at my fear of it,
separate the two, and address both.
If I am detached—not disconnecting, but being unattached—I keep the self and thesituation separate. I then can see my fears or anxiety more clearly and work on those as
well as on the situation. So whether with people or situations, it is important not to thinkthat I cannot manage.
Fear arises from past experiences and world occurrences, which raise fear of the
future. But inside us, there is the potential for courage and for fear. We can separate thetrue self from the inuences of the past and the future and thus allow courage to comeinstead of fear. Courage is a natural state.
Each of us has the potential for expressing negative and positive qualities. To deal
with a difcult situation, we have to say, ‘‘Let me show positive qualities. Let me show
my strength and have courage.’’ As soon as we think this way, we will get help, faith,
and trust ourselves. So at a time of difculty, ask, ‘‘Which quality do I need?’’Instead of being angry or forceful, try a gentler way. Connect within and think of apositive quality such as tolerance, patience, or compassion to replace anger. When thesituation is adverse and you are also negative, it only gets worse. If you are willing to act
constructively, you will get power to deal with it. The situation will not seem as difcultand will eventually resolve.
Whenever I am in any situation, I always remind myself to think in the most empowering way I can about myself and others. I do not think about the situation rst, but about
the quality of my thoughts. If I need to speak to someone, I rst check in my heart whether
my thoughts for the person are positive. By clearing my mind and heart of negativity, I
can be very honest because I am also being loving toward that person. Then, when I say
something, the person usually accepts it. If I think about that person’s defect or havenegative feelings, there is always a reaction.
SEH: Can you explain how the BKWSU funds itself?
MP: In the Brahma Kumaris, everything belongs to everyone and everyone is a part ofeverything. Leaders do not get more than others. So everyone wants to share whatever
they can afford. With that feeling, people are willing to give and work toward growth andsuccess.
Leaders who misuse their power and use pro ts for themselves create a lot of mistrust.
Something very expensive was once given to the head of the organization. We said toher, ‘‘Dadi, you must use this.’’ She said, ‘‘No, until I can give this to each of the 15,000
teachers, I do not want to use it. If they look at me using something that they are not able
to have, I am creating desire and greed.’’ I like the example of always thinking of everyone,
not only of the self. So there is love and also trust. Everything is used for the task, thepurpose, and the well-being of everyone as family. That is the basis of our prosperity.
SEH: Why are women especially prominent in leadership roles within the organization?
MP: Organizations today need leadership that is nurturing. Women tend to have natural
nurturing qualities and a balance between the head and the heart. The head will miss a
lot of things that the heart will not. Being a mother is basically serving and thinking ofothers. Intellectual capacities can easily be developed in today’s institutional cultures, but the feminine qualities of listening to the heart and of kindness are not recognized asimportant and are not developed. Because women tend tohave those qualities naturally, we can use their capacities toorganize in a simple way based on values.
When people come to the BKWSU, especially to the headquarters in Mount Abu, theysee dedication, commitment, and patience. Being devoted in a sustained way is a very
feminine quality. Some people can be task oriented but not dedicated in the long term.
When male business leaders come to our headquarters, they realize that the inuence of
women’s leadership is missing in their organizations. Many have said, ‘‘If we had that,
we would also grow like you are growing.’’ They can feel the balance of the head and theheart.

Organizations today needleadership that is nurturing.

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On Being a Leader

SEH: What kind of people seek out the BKWSU?
MP: Our teachings attract people in all walks of life and at all levels of education. All
professions —judges, lawyers, doctors, educators, administrators, politicians— are well
represented. Many Indian state governments have asked the Brahma Kumaris to teach in
the assembly. In the West as well, our teachings are applied to organizations. For example,
the ‘‘Living Values’’ curriculum is being introduced to schools, and ‘‘Self-Managing Leadership’’ is used in business. The fundamental teachings can be practically applied in all
professions, religions, races, and age groups and in organizations and the community,
collectively and individually. Anyone who is interested gets connected.
Anyone can grow professionally through his or her career, but there is no connection
to inner development. The area of inner development is neglected and marginalized today.
But most individuals— in their thirties and forties—start to feel that they are stuck somewhere. They are not ful lled or contented with what they are doing. They then begin toseek —to go inside —to take care of their inner lives. Most people who are task oriented
or externally oriented do not take time for themselves. They place everything else before
their own well-being.
There are some basic practices they could commit to, such as starting their day withthemselves and in the evening spending time with their families. Instead, they just go thewhole day. At one of our programs, a woman mentioned that when her husband, a politician, comes home, the rst thing he does is check his answering machine and turn on
his computer and other machines. Four family members are sitting there, and he doesn’t
even say hello. People get so absorbed in their tasks, they get trapped. When they comehere, we teach them what to do for the self, how to be in a family, and how to connect
with others and with the world. Self-development is based on making time for one’s self,
recognizing what brings happiness to the self, and understanding real success. In ourenvironment, we balance meditation and solitude with activity and interaction. We help
people discover, redene, and practice what has true meaning and lasting value for themselves. They can then use this foundation for how they live their everyday lives.
SEH: Can you suggest some practices people could experiment with?

62

MP: One of our practices is to pause a few times a day, maybe every two or three hours.
We call this ‘‘trafc control’’ or controlling the trafc of thoughts in the mind. We take a
few moments to calm down, get connected within, and clear the mind of noise. Once wefeel reconnected with the peaceful inner self, we go back to the task. Doing this on aregular basis is the key; the results are enormously bene cial. Another regular practice is
to start the day with time alone, to think or read something of inspiration, and to meditate.
Filling the mind with something nourishing is important at the start of the day. Thinking
about a virtue or a value that we can apply that day is a good morning practice. Then,
during the day, we will have an enhanced awareness of that virtue and be able to draw
on its power when difculties arise. We experience strength through this, and day by day,with regular practice, that strength grows. We often say, ‘‘Drops make the ocean.’’
One of the most important things in life is to pay attention to our thoughts. With ourthoughts, we create our future, consciously or unconsciously. We need to slow down to
get to know our thoughts and choose which ones to engage and which ones to let go.
We should not need to go back and forth over the same situation in our thoughts.
Our thinking should be clean and direct, so when it is over, we are nished with thesituation. Seeing the value of mental energy—making the effort to have clear, stablemental energy —will make it easy to take on responsibility and to stay fresh. If we lose
our mental energy, we are drained and ineffective. Time, thoughts, and energy are interrelated personal properties for which we should care a great deal. These are the foundation
on which we individually and collectively create the quality of our lives and our society.

Volume 4, Number 4, REFLECTIONSHUMPHRIES

Commentary
In the spring of 2002, I had the privilege of working with Sister Mohini on a retreat entitled ‘‘Love in
Leadership.’’ While reading the interview, I was once again struck by her clear, abundant, thoughtprovoking insights on being a leader. In contrast to most of the contemporary ‘‘competency-based’’work in the area of leadership development that focuses exclusively on behavior and results in theexternal world, Sister Mohini emphasizes the importance of developing one’s inner qualities. Recognizing and nurturing these qualities means being clear on who you are and what you want for
yourself as well as what the world wants of you. She observes that most of us look to the outside
for what we want. Yet her experience (and mine) is that it is when you listen to and follow yourinner direction, fulllment begins to grow. She stresses the importance of integrating what you
learn from the external world with what you learn from your internal insights.
I vividly remember Sister Mohini sharing an insight at the retreat about making decisions andbeing an effective leader, which struck me as both powerful and pragmatic. She said that she haslearned from experience never to allow anyone to rush her into a decision. When she is uncertain
or unsettled about an impending decision, she always allows at least a day to reect and get intouch with what her inner self is telling her. For her, making a decision involves connecting external information to a deeper knowing consistent with her values. Insight, she says, comes when we
step aside from external conict, connect internally, and ‘‘feel what is true.’’
Sister Mohini also has some deep insight about what is needed to develop strong leaders. Her
holistic view that everyone is responsible, that everyone needs to feel ‘‘I am a leader,’’ deviates
sharply from the current, predominant emphasis on the charismatic individual or hero leader. She
feels that our view of leadership competency is much too narrow, that we need to create contexts
in which people’s inner personalities can nd expression, and that our institutions need to recognize and value ‘‘inner’’ merit.
When you read this interview, you might be intrigued but wonder about the results Sister
Mohini gets with her approach. Having lived a few days at the Retreat Center she leads, I canshare some observations about my experience there. The facilities are exceptionally well cared for;the place has a pervasive feeling of peace and serenity. A genuine sense of caring and joy emanates from virtually every staff member. There is a cooperative, relaxed efciency around getting
things done. She is indeed getting great results!
What strikes me most deeply about Sister Mohini, which is reected in the interview and unmistakable when you are with her in person, is the consistency between what she says and what
she embodies as a human being. Perhaps this is her most profound message to us on being aleader.

On Being a Leaderxby Jeff Clanon

Jeff Clanon
Founding consultant member
Director of Partnership Development
Society for Organizational Learning
jclanon@solonline.org

63

Commentary
by Neville Hodgkinson
I realized Sister Mohini’s importance to me when I visited her a few days after a major kidney
operation. She had lost a lot of weight, but her face was full and her eyes sparkling. I was surprised at how relieved and moved I felt to nd her so well. Why should this woman—with whom I
have had only passing contact, albeit over many years—be particularly important to me?
The insights she has shared in this interview help me to understand. Sister Mohini lives by thevaluable principles she articulates. She emphasizes nding your own inner direction as a necessary
concomitant of relating successfully to others and bringing something valuable into the world. I
have never felt her ‘‘lay anything on me,’’ in the sense of burdening me or others with criticism or
unrealistic expectations. She combines diligence in learning— acquiring external information— withtaking time to feel where the truth lies. This too is a precious combination and an inspiration to
me in my efforts to live a life that balances reason and intuition.
I live with the understanding that the inner being is essentially positive, and I am most myself
when I enjoy this state of being. When I lose it, I know that it is because I have moved into the

REFLECTIONS, Volume 4, Number 4

Neville Hodgkinson
Author and journalist
Oxford, UK
Neville@bksugrc.demon.co.uk

HUMPHRIESx
On Being a Leader

narrow self-concerns of the ego. An understanding of the need to displace ego with true selfrespect underlies the Brahma Kumaris’s entire approach to serving the world. But you undertake
this deep surgery of the soul at your own pace, helped along by a kind of motherly concern fromthe teachers. The process is nonconfrontational and largely nonanalytical, although a great deal ofknowledge is shared, which restores self-respect.
After I left a full-time newspaper job and gave much more time to contributing directly to thework of the Brahma Kumaris, I lived at a retreat center and adopted disciplines associated with adedicated spiritual journey and role. Although freed from the constraints of a high-prole job, I
had also lost the supports such as money, position, and inuence that came with it. I had feelingsof rebellion linked to being a man working in an organization run largely by women. It has, however, brought me to a newfound stability, perhaps even serenity, at some very deep level. At leastin this latest round of the battle, the ego has put up a white ag. Paradoxically (to my old way of
thinking), this surrender has brought me closer to a state of true self-empowerment.

64

Volume 4, Number 4, REFLECTIONSWebs, not Kevlar:
Designing Sustainable
Organizations
Hilary Bradbury

Kevlar, a material used in bullet-proof vests, is manufactured by pouring petroleumderived molecules into a pressurized vat of concentrated sulfuric acid and boiling it
at several hundred degrees Fahrenheit. It is then subjected to high pressures to extrude
the bers. The energy input is extreme, and the toxicity odious. Although it saves the
lives of those under gun re, Kevlar lasts forever in our overowing land lls. In contrast,
spider silk is able to absorb  ve times the impact force that Kevlar absorbs, without
breaking (Benyus, 1997). It is so strong that, on a human scale, a web resembling a shing
net could catch a passenger jet in ight. The spider’s process is far less odious than thatfor Kevlar. The spider spins with input of only sunlight and water. Her web is woven inambient temperatures. Moreover, there is no long-term toxicity in her wake.
Efforts to design a material with the properties of spider silk for human use are,however, proving to be dif cult, given our lack of familiarity with the design logic ofnature. For too long, we have designed products and organizations that are increasingly
out of place in the natural landscape and therefore unsustainable. A focus on clarifying
the design principles of nature opens new ways to design organizations, their products,
and processes in a way to allow for the needs of the post-industrial twenty-rst century.
Ecological scientists (Robèrt et al., 1997), evolutionary psychologists (Cosmides andTooby, 1992), environmental designers (McDonough, 1997; cf. Sosnowchik, 2000), management thinkers (Bradbury and Clair, 1999; Gladwin, Kenneally, and Krause, 1995;
Roome, 1998), and environmental visionaries (Hawken, Lovins, and Lovins, 1999) havecome up with many overlapping principles drawn from the study of nature.
Increasingly, activist stakeholders have forced business organizations to be concerned
about the impact on the social and natural systems in which they are embedded. The
momentum toward sustainable business practices, along with common sense, suggeststhat we may no longer have to afford the long-lived, damaging side-effects of Kevlar-likesystems, that is, those based on industrial premises. Situating human activity in a broader
context of the natural environment stresses the importance of nature’s ability to profoundly shape human activity despite our hubris-lled efforts to the contrary. What might
design for interdependence mean for organizational life?
A group of women leaders, which we call ‘‘Women Leading Sustainability,’’ convened for a conversation on how we might redesign organizations. We knew each otherfrom the Society for Organizational Learning’s Sustainability Consortium, which is focused on learning about efforts with sustainable development in the corporate world. The
women represented an organizational spectrum with executives from large multinationals, from smaller start-up efforts such as fuel-cell projects, and from educational nonprots. We met monthly via teleconferences in which some seven to eight womenparticipated on a rotating basis. Each woman considered herself a leader in bringing notions of sustainability to inuence practices in her organization.
We posed a simple question to begin: Is it possible that those who were excluded fromthe original design of organizational structures could offer input for the redesign of more

REFLECTIONS, Volume 4, Number 4

Hilary Bradbury
Assistant Professor
Weatherhead School ofManagement
Case Western Reserve University
Hilary@po.cwru.edu

Project Participants
Sue Simington
Sara Metcalf
Anita Burke
Catherine Grey
Darcy Winslow
Sarah Severn
Chris Page
Denise KaluleCatherine Bragdon
Sara Schley
Catherine Greener
Sheena Boughan
Joyce LaValle

2003 by the Society for Organizational Learning and the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology.
q65

BRADBURY
x
Webs, not Kevlar

sustainable organizational forms for future generations? We wondered speci cally about
the role of gender because, while a vast majority of executives in the Fortune 1,000 aremen, a signi cant proportion of executives in positions to manage organizational sustainability are women.1 We wondered what this unusual gender ratio might mean for businessand for management educators. We wondered what design
criteria these leaders might uniquely offer to the necessary
task of organizational redesign for a postindustrial era. The
point of inquiry for the dialogue with the executive womenbecame: How might women redesign our organizations for
future generations?
We wanted productive conversations about organizational redesign. The payoff for being in these conversations would be the insights shared,
corroborated, and adopted. The conversations were structured around three questions sothat each participant would have a grasp of others’ approaches:

How might women redesign ourorganizations for future
generations?

x What image or vision compels you in managing sustainable business practices?

x What points of leverage have you found for encouraging sustainable business practices?

x What is the leverage for you in this effort?
The conversation generated seven statements that articulated recurring themes. In afollow-up conversation, each participant was invited to agree or disagree with the statements. Listening to each other engendered more conversation and clarity about whichissues are most salient to women executives in their efforts to design organizations forour children’s children:66

1. My work to promote sustainable development is service, a calling (not ordinary work).
2. My children, my own childhood, and family in general are the most potent points ofconnection in motivating me to engage with this work.
3. Generating a community of cocontributors is crucial to making sustainability a reality(in organizations or institutions).
4. It is crucial that I bring, and allow others to bring, mind and heart to work on theseissues.
5. I seek to consciously integrate the ‘‘techno-knowledge,’’ ‘‘business knowledge,’’ and‘‘people knowledge’’ in this work.
6. I am particularly open to and informed by nontraditional, interdisciplinary, moreintuitive ‘‘ways of knowing’’ when I approach this work, especially in efforts to understand interdependence. Whole systems thinking, shamanism, and tribal patterns
are examples of useful approaches.
7. I place a great deal of importance on generating productive encounters to enhance
this work, for example, listening deeply or asking transformational questions.
One woman shared a compelling image from a story ‘‘The Man Who Planted Trees.’’She emphasized a concern for dense interconnectedness and weblike ways of organizing:
A man plants 100 trees every day. He creates forests and transforms the place. From theacorns, there are trees; from the trees, the towns can grow back. With more green, comes
more good life. We’re naturally drawn to the good, to the green. But this a male story! Individual heroics are not for me. I’d like to be part of a community doing this. So I ask, whatacorns we should be planting if we are to redesign organizations?

We then discussed the ‘‘so what?’’ We chose to focus on the strategies for implementation and inuence that the women use to bring about new organizational arrangements. A core theme in their strategies was to coordinate learning and input from all
salient stakeholders in their organizations by creating multifunctional teams to report
regularly on key performance indicators, including metrics and illustrative stories. All thesuggestions related to the importance of uncovering the often fragmented or unheard
voices of various stakeholders. One participant suggested bringing children into organizational design work. She commented:

Volume 4, Number 4, REFLECTIONSBRADBURY
Webs, not Kevlarx

Who better to be the stakeholders in our efforts to designorganizations for our children’s children? Wouldn’t it be terri c to let leaders meet with the children of all their stakeholders—the older kids or teens, children of customers,
suppliers, and neighbors. They could talk with the businessleaders about the company so they could develop an understanding. The leaders would get some input to their strategy
and visioning processes. There would be tremendous learning all around.

In these examples, as with many others not used here,
we see concern for the whole system and for the nonlinear
effects of organizing extended to include a population notnormally considered important stakeholders. We see also a
productive concern for diversity of input that can counteract what Shiva (1999) refers to as ‘‘monocultures of themind’’ that increasingly prevail as the language of economics overtakes us.

Next Steps
Participants mentioned diversity, feedback, and a systems
approach as core considerations for designing systems informed by nature that, in turn, allow our organizations tolive within nature. Further work will move the dialogue
from the original group of women executives to allow for
more cycles of action and reection. Ongoing interest has
meant that the group continues to meet. We are guided bya focus on what sustainable business practices each participant is seeking to accomplish in her company. We ask
where the energy and obstacles for this initiative are. We
acknowledge that, in nature, all change occurs while it isbeing inhibited (Maturana, 2000). Our dialogue therefore allows us to grapple with how
to involve stakeholders in a way that allows for personal connection to the issues. It forces
participants to think about how sustainable business practices may appear welcome orunwelcome when viewed by different stakeholders. The dialogue moves forward on apremise that nature grows something new in the presence of something that already exists(Senge and Carstadt, 2001). This means that we understand that we do not make change,
but rather help to foster change in a context presumed to have obstacles.
That there is a speci c ‘‘gendered’’ way of approaching issues of sustainability is, ofcourse, an oversimpli cation. Encouraged by many productive encounters with our malecolleagues (some of whom have joined our conversation groups), we believe the issue is
not so much about men’s or women’s approach to organizational life as much as it isabout different aspirations for using executive power. There is power over others or relationships of interdependence. Women have traditionally chosen the latter.
Does having so many women in leadership roles in the sustainability arena mean that
more women should be hired? Does hiring more women marginalize women executives
and sustainability issues even further? At the very least, we believe our dialogues are asmall contribution to redesigning our way of living and working in organizations as wecreate the postindustrial world. Because organizations are human rather than machinelike
artifacts, we cannot drive change. We can, however, grow something new in the presenceof the old. In so doing, we can aspire to a world that works for everyone, including ourchildren’s children.

Acknowledgments
The author’s project participation and writing have been supported, in part, with funding
from a National Science Foundation grant #SES NSF 0080643.

REFLECTIONS, Volume 4, Number 4

Q

Emily Sper

67

BRADBURY
x
Webs, not Kevlar

Note
1. It is propitious to note the very large percentage of women participants in the nationwide Net
Impact association. Net Impact is a network of MBA students and alumni ‘‘committed to using
the power of business to create a better world’’ (see www.weatherhead.cwru.edu/netimpact for
more information). In management schools as well, women are taking leadership in arenas inwhich business acts as an agent of world benet.

References
Benyus, J. Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature (New York: Morrow, 1997).
Bradbury, H. and J. Clair. ‘‘Promoting Sustainable Organizations with Sweden’s Natural Step.’’ Academy of Management Executive 13 (1999): 63–74.
Cosmides, L. and J. Tooby. ‘‘Cognitive Adaptations for Social Exchange,’’ in The Adapted Mind, eds.
J. Barkow, L. Cosmides, and J. Tooby (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992): 163–228.
Gladwin, T., J. Kenneally, and T.-S. Krause. ‘‘Shifting Paradigms for Sustainable Development: Implications for Management Theory and Research.’’ Academy of Management Review 20 (1995):
874–907.
Hawken, P, A. Lovins, and L.H. Lovins. Natural Capital: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution(New York: Little, Brown and Company, 1999).
McDonough, W.A. ‘‘A Boat for Thoreau, Environmental Challenges to Business.’’ Paper deliveredat the Environmental Challenges to Business Conference, University of Virginia, Charlottesville,
1997.
Maturana, H. Commentary. Re ections: The SoL Journal 1 (2000): 72.
Robèrt, K.-H., H. Daly, P. Hawken, and J. Holmberg. ‘‘A Compass for Sustainable Development.’’
International Journal of Sustainable Development 4 (1997): 79–92.
Roome, N., ed. Sustainable Strategies for Industries (Washington, DC: Island Press, 1998).
Senge, P. and G. Carstadt. ‘‘Designing the Next Industrial Revolution.’’ Sloan Management Review
42 (2001): 24–38.
Shiva, S. Monocultures of the Mind (London: Zed Books, 1999).
Sosnowchik, K. ‘‘The Hopeful Inventors: William McDonough and Michael Braungar.’’
Green@Work (May/June 2000): 12–21.

68

Volume 4, Number 4, REFLECTIONSThe Essence of Leadershipand the Power of
Networks: An Interview
with Margaret WheatleyAlexander Schieffer

The interview took place in November 2002 during the Systems Thinking in Action Conference in San Diego, California.
Alexander Schieffer (AS): Hundreds of experts in human resource management wererecently asked what they would describe as the essence of leadership. Nearly everybody
came up with a different answer. What is the essence of leadership for you?
Margaret Wheatley (MW): I would refer to the word essence, which in French also means
fuel. The question could be asked as, ‘‘What is the fuel in leadership?’’ The real fuel inleadership is understanding and believing in other people. I de ne a good leader as someone who has great faith in people’s ability and who uses every opportunity to create themeans for them to offer their creativity to the organization. The essence of leadership isto inspire people about their own competence and to create an atmosphere of ‘‘we cando that.’’ A good leader is foremost a good teacher—someone who believes in his or her
students and helps them to realize their own potential. I do not believe that leaders canbe heroes; it is an impossible task for anyone to gure out these days.
AS: However, in all problematic and complex situations, you still  nd most people searching for the great leader, someone who comes and xes the problem.

Margaret Wheatley
President, Berkana Institutewww.berkana.org

MW: Yes, many still look for the hero. But we don’t need the hero type of leader anymore.
What we do need are leaders who are able to bring out the best in all of us. The US is
currently suffering from a president who embodies images of hero, cowboy, and savior of
the world, but who certainly cannot deliver on that. He can probably drive us to destruction, but he surely can’t create security or a safe world.

69

AS: What is a key lesson for today’s leaders?
MW: As a leader, you really have to work on how not to be a big ego and how to inspire
people without controlling them. I have encouraged leaders to notice what they really
believe about other people’s capacity. Most leaders will tell you that they believe in people
and that they rely on people, but when you look at their action, it is all about commandand control—forcing people to do things and thinking that one has to motivate people.
But noticing one’s own personal beliefs requires a huge amount of self-awareness andself-knowledge. A leader must understand that you really have to be who you say you
are and that you really do have to walk your talk. To be a good leader these days, onemust be a person of extraordinary integrity and clarity. That includes knowing what you
stand for, knowing what you believe in, and coming to the realization that you can’t doit alone.
AS: The reaction of most leaders who hear about new leadership, systems thinking, chaostheory, interconnectedness, or the relationship between leadership and the new science

REFLECTIONS, Volume 4, Number 4

Alexander Schieffer
Managing PartnerCenter of Excellence and Learning
Lecturer, University of St. Gallena.schieffer@c-cell.cc

2003 by the Society for Organizational Learning and the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology.
qSCHIEFFER
x

MW: I do not understand why everyone can’t see the world as a big system. The evidence
is so overwhelming: if you plan short term, you are going to fail; if you do not understandsystemic consequences, you are going to be surprised terribly by the effects of your actions. However, people are getting more receptive and have started to understand thatthe world is highly complex and that a lot of it is out of anyone’s immediate control.
Organizations increasingly understand that you can’t just work the numbers. More andmore people are getting this message. But I am not sure whether they are willing to slow
down and think long term. We are currently going through a tremendous sifting of thechaff from the wheat. Clearly, the only organizations that will survive this process in thelong term will have switched to a new understanding of leadership.

The Essence of Leadership and the Power of Networks

nd these concepts highly impractical and do not understand the relevance to their own
business and leadership style. How can a broad audience of leaders embrace this new
thinking?

AS: In chaotic and difcult situations, most people return to the kind of behavior thatthey know best, even if this behavior has proved to be unsuccessful. What do you advise
organizations and leaders to do? How can they develop and apply the new mental andaction model?
MW: There have been practical applications in the eld of
leadership and systems thinking for more than 20 years. We
have case after case demonstrating how applied systems
thinking can improve an organization in terms of saving
money, better adaptation to the future, and so on. And still
it is not the norm. But we are talking about a profound shiftof mind that has to occur. Although the world is hammeringus, saying that humankind has to learn this lesson, we still haven’t done it.

Networks rely on whole new levelsof openness, trust, honesty,
integrity, and communication.

AS: In Leadership and the New Science [Wheatley, 1992], you write that, in order todevelop this new mental and action model, in order to be more creative and more adaptive, people need to let go of fear.
MW: We’ve got a lot of fear in the world right now. As you said, during times of fear, wego back to what we know, and all we know is hierarchy and command and control.
Unfortunately, that just creates more chaos. We have taken an enormous leap backward
because of fear.

Q

Emily Sper70

Volume 4, Number 4, REFLECTIONSAS: You mentioned an enormous leap backward by most organizations. What gives you
the courage to continue your pledge for a fundamental shift of mind?
MW: I became more courageous when I fell in love with life and people and I realized
how wondrous the universe is, how truly awesome. It creates a feeling that life is reallyworth  ghting for. Life is not something to take for granted or hope that someone else gures out how to do it. Connecting with the living world and the human spirit are thekey sources for my courage to ght.

SCHIEFFER
x

MW: I think that the network form of organizing is a very powerful lever. In recent years,
enormously good work has been done on networks and network organizations, which isa whole new form of interacting and cooperating. This shift to become a network organization has been very difcult for any hierarchic organization that went through thisprocess, because, in networks, you have to depend on relationships rather than on directcommand. Relationships have been ignored for years. Networks rely on whole new levelsof openness, trust, honesty, integrity, and communication. This is exactly that kind of
behavior that leaders have not been practicing. International terrorist networks (in a veryefcient, although evil and destructive, way) have demonstrated the power of networkorganizations. We are now learning that it is impossible to  ght a network with a hierarchy.

The Essence of Leadership and the Power of Networks

AS: What could be the most promising eld for development in order to support thefundamental shift of mind that leaders and organizations need?

Reference
Wheatley, M.J. Leadership and the New Science. (San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, 1992).

71

REFLECTIONS, Volume 4, Number 4

RESEARCH

Building a CrossOrganizational Learning
Community: Reections
on SoL’s Greenhouse III
Carol Gorelick and Barry Sugarman

Introduction and Context
Carol GorelickA

Carol Gorelick
Visiting Assistant Professor
Pace University—New Yorkcgorelick@notes.interliant.com

72

G3 Design Committee
Carol Gorelick (chair)
Karen Ayas
John Carroll
Jim Ritchie-Dunham
Lilly Evans
Ben Bruce
Michael Pergola
Margaret Delaney Gorman
Sue SimmonsFrank Schneider
Jeff Clanon
Jackie Tabb
Barry Sugarman

2003 by the Society for Organizational Learning and the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology.
qs the chairperson of the Society for Organizational Learning’s (SoL) Greenhouse III
design committee, I hope to communicate the spirit of collaboration and learning thatwas palpable during the event. As a SoL Council member and a proud alumna of George
Washington University’s Executive Leadership Program, I was gratied to participate inbringing these two organizations together and quite thrilled to see all concerned so clearlyenjoy and bene t from the experience.
The Greenhouse design committee (see the sidebar) wanted to continue nurturing
the traditions that were seeded and cultivated at the two previous Greenhouses. Threeoverarching principles guided our efforts. First, we strove to increase participation by all
three SoL constituencies: researchers, practitioners, and consultants. Second, we wanted
to provide an environment that encouraged collaboration and interaction. The design
challenge was to balance structure and exibility. Third, we hoped to include diverse
perspectives into our conversations: for-prot and not-for-prot; organizations, teams,
and individuals; and local, multinational, and global organizations.
Dangerous external circumstances have set the tone for the gathering both this year
and last. Greenhouse II was poignant, taking place 10 days after September 11, andbrought us closer together as a community. This year, snipers besieged the Washingtonarea for several weeks but, fortunately, were found, barely two days before our event.
Once again, we were called to reect on what really matters, and we began with a senseof heightened awareness of what we individually and collectively value.
On Sunday night, more than 40 attendees met for an informal dinner. Our guest ofhonor, Egbe Osifo, manager for human development programs at the World Bank Institute, in her brief address on ‘‘Cultivating Leaders for Change,’’ raised our consciousness
about the enormous global health-care problems and opportunities to improve the livesof many. She eloquently described a serious societal threat supported by concrete data.
Osifo embodies many of SoL’s design principles with her practice and represents multiple
constituencies as a medical doctor and MBA, practitioner and educator. She is involvedin strategy, policy, implementation, and education in the UK, the US, and developing
countries in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa. She is a role model for inspirational leadership and left us individually and collectively with a mandate to act.
On Monday morning, Karen Ayas, cofounder (with John Carroll) of the  rst Greenhouse and our link to all three Greenhouses, skillfully introduced the history and led us

Volume 4, Number 4, REFLECTIONSGORELICK AND SUGARMANx
Q

Megan Buchanan Schopf

1. Have the Greenhouse at an academic site. The participation of George Washington
University staff and doctoral students added tremendous value. It seemed to legitimize the research agenda by setting the tone for discovery, capacity building, andcollaboration.
2. Allow space for unplanned sessions so germination can occur. The planned germination and plenary sessions may spark ideas that belong in a completely different
category from scheduled sessions. Although someone may not be interested in thespeci c research topic emerging in a particular session, it may initiate another ideathat could lead to collaborative research.
3. Provide a venue to answer an overarching question related to sustainability, which
concerns us all and is important for a global learning community to focus on. How
can we collectively become intelligent about the most basic systems shaping global
well-being?
We once again closed with the poem from Greenhouse II (see the sidebar). Eachparticipant left the Greenhouse with a rose, both to accentuate the theme of growth andto remind us of the collective spirit.
Several weeks later, a member of the research committee received a message from a
new SoL consultant member and rst-time Greenhouse participant: ‘‘SoL Greenhouse III
has de nitely gotten under my skin. I can’t work on any project now without thinking ofa potential research component.’’ This small win presents an exciting challenge—to makeresearch an integral part of every project and share knowledge across organizations.

73

Research Themes and Cross-Currents
Barry Sugarman
The goals for Greenhouse III, as set by the design committee, were:
1. To learn from collaborative research on organizational learning and transformation.
2. To explore the challenges of combining relevance and rigor in research.
3. To foster partnerships for further collaborations among researchers, managers, andconsultants.
Some 30 sessions took place, of which I can mention only a few here. I focus on thedominant themes: action research and systems thinking (the subject of plenary sessions)

REFLECTIONS, Volume 4, Number 4

Building a Cross-Organizational Learning Community

in a SoL tradition—check-in, a process to welcome all andbring the whole person into the room. Next, I provided thecontext for the work of the SoL community. I chose to emphasize the evident paradoxes with a picture in which eachof the three SoL constituencies—researchers, practitioners,
and consultants—are represented by a box, but as distinct
membership categories, SoL members struggle with the notion of belonging to a single constituency. Ultimately, SoL
aspires to become a web of inclusion or a spiral that integrates all three constituencies and encourages ow amongindividuals, groups, organizations, and functions. Thisapplies at multiple levels —individual, group or team,organization, and society—as well as within SoL’s
structure—founding SoL, local SoL fractals, and fractals
across the growing Global SoL Network. As re ected in theGreenhouse design principles and this year’s theme, the Three constituencies
overarching objective and research challenge is to do meaningful work that is simultaneously rigorous and relevant.
Representatives came from all constituencies and several countries, including Austria,
Canada, Japan, South Africa, and the UK. We built on past Greenhouse successes andenhanced the process. There was some new learning on which to build for the next
Greenhouse, including:Barry Sugarman
SoL Research Coordinator
Barry@solonline.org

GORELICK AND SUGARMANx
Building a Cross-Organizational Learning Community

It Felt LoveHow
Did the roseEver open its heart
And give to this world
All its
Beauty?
It felt the encouragement of light
Against its
Being,
Otherwise,
We all remain
Too
Frightened.

and leadership development and integrated infrastructures(emerging foci of collaborative research) (see the sidebar
for the complete list of topics covered in the germination
sessions).

Action ResearchBill Torbert and Alain Gauthier skillfully presented theopening session on action research. They demonstrated
why action research is essential to real transformation—
both personal and organizational—and why it is central toeffective leadership. Three members of the SoL Sustainability Consortium (researchers Hilary Bradbury and John
Carroll, and Rob Fredricks from Ford) presented theimplications of collaborative action research in a later ses—Hazsion. The consortium supports ‘‘green’’ product developFrom The Gift: Poems by Haz, The Great Su Master, translated byment and other change projects, using the tools ofDaniel Ladinsky. Copyright Q 1999 by Daniel Ladinsky. Reprinted byorganizational learning, and it conducts case studies of
permission of the author.
these efforts, some retrospectively and some concurrently.
The case studies focus on a triple bottom line, de ned as
people, planet, and pro ts. In a germination session, Dan
and Rita Kowalski, Joel Harmon, and Dan Twomey presented another good example ofacademic-practitioner action-learning research on a national scale from the US Department
of Veterans Affairs.

Systems Thinking

74

John Sterman, in his keynote session entitled ‘‘Cloudy Skies,’’1 demonstrated that the‘‘ fth discipline’’ itself remains at the heart of important research and thinking. Rather
than presenting one of his studies on how quality improvement studies fail to be sustained,
Sterman chose global warming as his topic. With shocking clarity, he analyzed key statements from the Bush administration’s position on this issue, contrasting its argument
based on ‘‘common sense’’ with that of the scientic community, using systems thinking.
He demonstrated once again that even the ‘‘smartest’’ humans usually perform very
poorly when facing problems that involve system dynamics. Sterman’s interpretation isthat the human brain appears to have evolved over thousands of generations to be goodat pattern matching but not at simulating stocks and  ows. So pattern matching is what
we use, leading sometimes to seriously erroneous conclusions, for example, the amountof time remaining to undo the effects of global warming and the magnitude of change
needed.
Two other teachers of systems thinking, Marilyn Herasymowych and Henry Senko,
who also noticed that their students used pattern matching to understand systems, decided
to nd a way to use this as an asset rather than treat it as a problem. They created anddemonstrated training that applies pattern-matching principles using 10 pairs of archetypes, each with both positive and negative versions. They are seeking research partners
to carry their work further.
Peter Senge offered his own re ections on ‘‘Cloudy Skies’’ and led the lively discussion that followed.

Leadership and Leadership Development
For SoL members and our cosponsors at George Washington University, leadership andleadership development remain dominant themes. Among the research featured was apanel with multiple presenters from GWU, surveying the work of the George Washington
Center for the Study of Learning. Because SoL audiences usually appreciate senior practitioners who speak candidly about their leadership practices, we also heard from Arjan
Overwater, senior vice president at Unilever Bestfoods. In his session entitled ‘‘Unilever’s
Path to Growth,’’ Overwater showcased its innovative and boundary-stretching work withemphasis on personal growth and community building. ‘‘Leadership Growth Journeys’’

Volume 4, Number 4, REFLECTIONSPresentation or germination topic

Clyde Croswell, James Leslie,
Chris Wagoner, GWU

Leadership and moving from ‘‘I’’ to ‘‘we’’: Transformational learning
experiences, building collective trust, and dialogic leadership in AA, formal
teams, and professional education associations

Marilyn Herasymowych andHenry Senko

Making systems thinking accessible using systems archetypal mapping

Katherine Holt

Exploring the people practices behind innovation

Arjan Overwater, Unilever

Human drivers of organizational success, research proposal from Unilever

Chris Kayes, Clyde Croswell(USMC, Ret.),Patricia R. Brown, GWU

Learning in multidisciplinary teams: Lessons from Marine Band combos

David Koehn and Rima Shaffer

Beyond rigor: A search for new practices for thriving in chaos andcomplexity

Christoph E. Mandl,
Vienna University

Organizational learning in early phases, before and in the rst three years
after the founding of an organization

Mebs A. Loghdey, University ofCape Town; Paul Alexander, Julie
LeRoux, Old Mutual Insurance

Model of organizational learning integrating scenario thinking, ROI, capacity
building, and knowledge management

Susan C. Hull, Carol Gorelick,
Barry Sugarman, and several SoL
organizational liaisons

Project LEAD research: Insights into design possibilities for phase II ofcollaborative research on leadership development

Ellen Pruyne andMichael Pergola

From consultancy to practice to research in building a learning organization:
Wachovia Corporation

Hilary Bradbury, John Carroll,
Rob Fredricks

Research collaborations in the SoL Sustainability Consortium

Fred Simon, Prasad Kaipur,
Jim Ritchie-Dunham

Systems thinking—a conversation

Rita Kowalski, Dan Kowalski,
Ellen Kollar, US Department of
Veterans Affairs; Joel Harmon,
Dan Twomey, Fairleigh Dickinson
University

New challenges and learning from large-scale, collaborative research project.
A national study of workplace stress and aggression in the US Department of
Veterans Affairs

Paulette Seymour,
Christine Klucznik, Universityof Massachusetts Memorial
Medical Center; Vince Pelote

Nursing leadership at UMMMC’s comprehensive leadership development
strategy utilizing action research and reective learning.

Arjan Overwater, Unilever

Lessons on intercultural leadership development. Framework andrecommendations on how to develop leadership in different cultures

Arjan Overwater

Unilever’s new way of learning and growing

Jim Hazy, Brian Tivnan,
David Schwandt, GWU

Boundary spanning activities in organizational learning

Karen Ayas

Young leaders’ forum in Asia: Learning about leadership, abundance,and growth

Brad Rassler‘‘A sustainable way’’: transformative leadership development inenvironmentally sustainable, socially responsible business practice

Betty Ann Rafuse, Doug Lawson,
Sano-Synthelabo, Canada Inc.

‘‘What competencies are needed to support and create hypergrowthforecasted for the next three to ve years?,’’ related questions

Marty Finkle, AT&T

Global implementation of e-CRM system—impact on organization

David Schwandt,
Marshall Sashkin, Andrea Casey,
Margaret Gorman, GWU

Bringing OL into change interventions; examples of research from theGWU Center

Sharon Drew Morgen

Human drivers of growth: beyond dialogue

REFLECTIONS, Volume 4, Number 4

Building a Cross-Organizational Learning Communityx

Presenters

GORELICK AND SUGARMAN

Greenhouse Germination (break-out) Sessions

75

GORELICK AND SUGARMANx
Building a Cross-Organizational Learning Community
Q

Emily Sperbrought the top 100 managers to Costa Rica one year, andnext-generation top leaders in this huge multinational to
Iceland and Croatia in other years. These ‘‘growth journeys’’ prompted participants to get out of their ‘‘executive
shells’’ in a back-to-basics human encounter, often in anatural setting. The experiences were intended to evoke
deep introspection about what is important to them as people. Although naturally challenging and sometimes scary,
the experiences promoted leadership capabilities by bringing a different perspective and purpose back into the business world. Overwater personally witnessed a marked
difference in the dialogues among the top leaders following
the Costa Rica trip, beyond anything he has experienced
before.
Boldly pushing the envelope in leadership development practice, such as the Young Leaders’ Forum in Asia (presented by Karen Ayas),
Unilever has begun research on ‘‘the human drivers of organizational success’’ (presented
by Tim Munden). In a different vein, a group at the University of Massachusetts Memorial
Medical Center (Paulette Seymour, Christine Klucznik, and Vince Pelote) presented aleadership development project guided by a solid, competency-based research component.
Another leadership session —Project LEAD—focused on mental models of leadershipas both an individual and collective capability. LEAD involved collaborative research thatwas seeded at a germination session in the previous Greenhouse. Six SoL member organizations participated in this joint research. The focus is on the broader systemic view ofleadership in each organization, and preliminary  ndings show the importance of examining the mental models of leadership and leadership development. Project LEAD has
also generated important learning for its participants about the process of collaboration
at each stage of the research: design, collecting data, analyzing, reporting, and interpreting. While this process takes longer, the knowledge created gets really infused into theorganization, increasing the capability to act on it.

Integrated Infrastructures

76

This research topic owes much to a proposal submitted to the Greenhouse by a practitioner
involved in a large, corporate, electronic customer relationship management (e-CRM)
implementation, alert to the high probability that this major change will have unintended
consequences for many parts of his system. Typical of a germination session, that exploratory conversation identi ed other participants and other organizations with similar
concerns and interests.
One SoL member company is deeply invested in lean operating systems and is eager
for research that would help support that work, while another is working on lean manufacturing and trying to overcome the fragmentation of related systems. Several are concerned about honoring the interdependencies among subsystems; others are interested in
making their support systems more  exible and sustainable.
Further conversations at the liaison of cers’ meeting of member companies following
the Greenhouse nurtured the seeds that were planted at the Greenhouse; some of those
seeds came from earlier liaison discussions. While a concrete plan is not yet de ned, thisgroup has identied an important area of shared interest and members have a commitment
to some collaborative form of inquiry.
The emergence of ‘‘Integrated Infrastructures’’ as a research topic provides an excellent example of the germination sessions and the role of the Greenhouse for seeding andnurturing research projects across constituencies and organizations. Martin Finkle from
AT&T proposed a session entitled ‘‘Global Implementation of e-CRM: Its Impact on the
Whole System.’’ Finkle took the opportunity to bring his practical workplace concern intoa larger community space where it could be collectively reframed as a research opportunity involving other practitioners and researchers.2 ‘‘Integrated Infrastructures’’ is likely

Volume 4, Number 4, REFLECTIONSAcknowledgments
George Washington University, speci cally, the faculty and students of the Executive
Leadership Doctoral Program and the Center for the Study of Learning, hosted and cosponsored Greenhouse III at its northern Virginia campus, October 27–29, 2002. Many
thanks to David Schwandt, program and center director, and to Margaret Delaney Gorman, executive director, for their contributions to the venture’s success. We are gratefulfor the bright energy of the doctoral student participants who took thoughtful notes during
all sessions and helped to staff the conference.
Greenhouse program information can be found on the SoLonline.org website, including a list of presenters and topics, their material, and some discussion notes in the formof handouts, slides, and video (for some plenary sessions only). Search by title, name ofpresenter, or ‘‘G3.’’ The SoL web-based archive also includes substantial material fromthe two earlier Greenhouses.

REFLECTIONS, Volume 4, Number 4

GORELICK AND SUGARMAN

The overarching theme chosen for Greenhouse III was ‘‘Rigor and Relevance,’’ a core
concern of SoL research. Relevance focuses on the practicality of new knowledge andrigor focuses on its accuracy and generalizability. SoL seeks to be a cross-organizational
community of practice whose members generate and share knowledge of relevance toother members through rigorous research. The theme may be perceived as calling for
trade-offs, but our challenge is to maximize both values.
The Greenhouse provided some opportunities to probe more deeply into these issues
with diverse examples. For example, systems thinking provides a rigorous method foranalyzing public policies on global warming, a topic of the highest relevance. But how
can this rigorous analysis be made to seem relevant to policy makers and voters who do
not have access to such rigorous ways of thinking? Similarly, rigorous research methods
are giving us better competency systems for leadership development programs, but theseoften do not satisfy the wish for transformational leadership. Different mental models
come into play, and rigorous methods that work within one mental model must be reevaluated before they are used for different purposes, for clients who use a different
mental model. What kind of research can assess, with appropriate rigor and validity, aprogram such as Unilever’s ‘‘growth journeys’’?
One of our greatest assets at SoL is an ability to focus collective attention on serious,
deep, difcult issues in ways that lead people to feel more energized to take relevant
action. A continuing commitment to rigor in our thinking and research need not drag us
down into defeatism or irrelevance. We must continue to insist on both relevance andrigor.
This Greenhouse created the context that enabled many great conversations about
important topics in organizational learning, and it brought more SoL members fully ‘‘into
the game’’ of collaborative action research. It helped to advance the germination of someideas and proposals for research, including the second phase of Project LEAD and the
new Integrated Infrastructures project. These two topics form a major part of SoL’s emerging research agenda. A third candidate, unveiled at G3 and now awaiting further discussion, is the ‘‘human drivers of growth’’ proposal, rooted in the two Unilever presentations
from Munden and Overwater.
As articulated by the SoL Research Committee, the vision for research at SoL is thatevery organizational member should be engaged in projects to improve its organizational
learning and engaged in research and assessment to strengthen its improvement andlearning process. The Greenhouse once again served as a good venue and vehicle forcreating and sharing new knowledge (know-how, methods and tools, and theory) aboutorganizational learning and transformation, helping SoL to be an effective community ofpractice and learning.

x

Rigor and Relevance

Building a Cross-Organizational Learning Community

to become the focus of a collaborative research effort, involving a substantial group of
SoL member organizations.

77

GORELICK AND SUGARMAN

Notes

Building a Cross-Organizational Learning Communityx

1. Paper coauthored by John Sterman and Linda Booth Sweeney and available on the SoL website.
2. The challenge in wording one of these proposals is simultaneously to identify a practical concernthat will be shared by other practitioners and to show the possibility for an interesting role where
researchers can contribute. What is needed is not to fully dene the problem but just to show
how it has potential for those who might help proposal writers nd something rewarding forthemselves at the same time. Helping dene the problem better may be where the collaboration
starts.

Commentaryby David R. Schwandt

David R. Schwandt
Director
Human and Organizational Studies
Doctoral Program
Director, Center for the
Study of Learning
George Washington University

78

Reecting on the Greenhouse is a difcult and rewarding task. The difculty stems from the diversity of the presentations and the depth that each manifested. My initial expectations were that thiswould be a conference of ‘‘beginning’’ ideas. However, as is true with a botanical greenhouse, thisgreenhouse displayed ideas at all stages of development, yet commonly characterized by a sincere
request for input by the presenters. This variety of topics and passion for inquiry form the basis of
my difculty and rewards. However, three ideas remain with me.
First, the interest that was voiced concerning the development of leaders and managers seems
to have evolved from the traditional ‘‘let’s identify competencies’’ to an emphasis on context ofleadership and management. The conference voices reected a leadership continuum that ranged
from individual development, shown by Loghdey, Alexander, and LeRoux, to collective, intercultural
leadership, depicted by Overwater. The themes reected in these presentations represented (1) the
acknowledgment of a highly complex, socially created leadership context; (2) incorporation of action learning experiences that make cross-cultural differences obvious and important; and (3) aconcern for the ethical foundations of organizations, both for-prot and not-for-prot. The papers
and ideas reect a philosophy that supports leadership development as more than mastery of a setof individual competencies, but rather leadership as a social phenomenon required for social structure, meaningful work, and individual dignity in a community. Leadership is not seen as ‘‘something
you do to someone else.’’
Second, the range of applicability of concepts put forward at the conference ranged from thevery micro to the macro social levels. The use of systems thinking and systems dynamics was evident in the analysis of learning in the multidisciplined teams, as presented by Crosswell, Kayes, andBrown. In this example, improvisation by the system (team) is seen as a function of the interactions
around language and social norms. This same dependence in social interactions and language wasevident in the macro issue of global warming. Sterman’s systems dynamics analysis of the ‘‘science’’of global warming was well positioned in the context of the social dynamics of learning. This
macro issue of information management was also the focus of systems thinking as demonstrated
by Finkle in the discussion of the global implementation of e-CRM.
Last, an issue that was not the explicit focus of any one presentation but was implicit in thework that is being accomplished is the relative orientation of the world. When organizations study
leadership, communications, or systems analysis, do we approach them from a ‘‘research’’ framework or from an ‘‘advocate’’ frame? Is there a line between these two orientations that can becrossed over? These can be difcult questions because of many factors such as a client’s pragmaticneed to solve problems, our need to promote a specied philosophy or worldview, and, of course,the eld’s need to experiment and create knowledge. The action learning process seems to be oneof the better orientations to this dilemma. The expectations for solutions are integrated with themethods of inquiry and represented by the many papers that were presented at the conference
and also reect SoL’s underlying theory of knowledge.
These three ideas—leadership development, cross-level analysis, and action learning —appear
to be strands of thought that permeated the proceedings. They were present not only in the substance but also in the spirit of the participants’ interactions. In this way, the conference lived in
the ideas of learning and knowledge creation.

Volume 4, Number 4, REFLECTIONSGORELICK AND SUGARMAN

Commentary

REFLECTIONS, Volume 4, Number 4

Tova Olson
Doctoral student
George Washington University
Human and Organizational Studies
tova@gwu.edu

Building a Cross-Organizational Learning Community

Knowledge creation as a continuous and evolving process seems to be at the heart of SoL. Collaboration among researchers, managers, and consultants is central to this process, and as student volunteers for the SoL Greenhouse III, we learned, rsthand, the advantages of enlisting multiple,
varied perspectives and creating a context that allows for knowledge creation.
As doctoral students who assisted in facilitating the conference, our volunteer responsibilities
evolved into a meaningful, contributing role. We served as facilitators, conveners, and summarizers.
However, our most important role was as collaborative learners in the SoL community.
Our assigned primary role was to assist in the germination sessions, the smaller and moreinteractive discussions. A presenter who was genuinely interested in creating a context in which
participants could explore and develop ideas facilitated each session. We were actively engaged inthis exploration, and through this experience, we learned about topics ranging from leadership toaction learning.
Following each germination session, we could further reect on our ideas and share collaborative learning with other conference participants. With a student partner, we developed conceptual
maps depicting the themes that emerged from each session. These visual maps, which we sharedwith other participants, later became the basis for the concluding plenary sessions. Through thisprocess, we learned how intentional efforts to share knowledge can result in more fruitful conversations. We witnessed how participants identied important areas of shared interest both within
the sessions and in the ensuing conversations. Our visual maps sparked conversations that allowed
collaboration to continue during breaks and meals, and we recognized how our small efforts could
greatly benet an entire organization.
In addition to learning through reection and conversation, we also learned by observing thealready established partnerships among SoL members. The conference participants included a wide
range of scholars, managers, and consultants. Most impressive was the genuine interest all participants showed in each topic. Participants seemed to challenge themselves to attend sessions outside
their specic area of interest or research, and wonderful opportunities for collaboration emerged.
As students or future organizational learning practitioners, we were included in the SoL communityand began to develop relationships that will help us to continue to explore our areas of interest.
Finally, we learned from the conference designers the importance of exibility in any learning
context. The design committee established a culture in which exibility was not only encouraged,
but expected. It was not uncommon to see session facilitators diverge from the topic at hand tofollow the group’s interests. In addition, as topics emerged, groups with shared interests held informal sessions. Finally, the agenda for the conference continued to evolve throughout the process tomeet the needs of presenters, facilitators, and the group as a whole. Although challenging at times,
what resulted was a context in which ideas could be followed and developed as they emerged.
SoL created the context for knowledge creation and learning. As student participants, wecame away with increased enthusiasm, an appreciation of the impact of collaboration, and, mostimportant, the beginning of relationships with other scholars, managers, and consultants.

xby Tova Olson79

Reections: Looking AheadW

80

e are pleased to announce that, in the coming months, Re ections: The SoL Journal
will move to a new format more in line with what we understand to be of greatest
value to our current and prospective readers. Through this change, we hope to focus in
depth on particular strategic topics, while preserving the high editorial and production
standards that have characterized the journal’s rst four years.
Beginning in October 2003, we will replace the quarterly publication of a hard-copy
journal with monthly articles sent to Re ections subscribers electronically and publishedon the SoL website (http://www.solonline.org). We will then publish these articles in
hard-copy form as a Re ections annual volume, to be sent to all subscribers.
Concentrating on one or two major articles per month will allow us to focus ondeveloping core themes and to engage readers in more interactive exploration of those
themes. Some topics we have in mind include large-scale change, sustainability, leadership development, cross-sectoral and distributed leadership, innovation in practice, andthe future of education. Each re ects a crucial dimension of the institutional changes thatare reshaping global economies and societies. Most importantly for Re ections, each represents an area in which organizational learning principles and methods and collaboration
across institutional boundaries are essential to sustaining change.
With each monthly article, we will initiate a web-based dialogue related to the article
and to the larger theme at its core, which will enable SoL members and Re ections readers
worldwide to engage directly with authors, practitioners, and one another. Over time, we
expect these dialogues themselves to yield interesting articles for subsequent monthly
publications.
Additionally, in the interest of providing a broad forum for knowledge exchange, wewill continue to accept contributed articles and post them on the SoL website, subject toour editorial criteria. We anticipate that this will provide a window to newly emergent
strategic themes and create an important content stream for future Re ections publications.
The Summer 2003 issue brings the quarterly publications to a close and marks the
beginning of the new monthly series. The 16 existing issues of Re ections will continue
to be available on the SoL website. And we plan to compile a book of the core themes
explored in many of the timeless classics and timely features published in these rst four
volumes. Please visit the SoL website (http://www.solonline.org) for the latest information about continuing or initiating a Re ections subscription.
The coming transition will be challenging and exciting. We have an array of provocative articles in planning that blend important new ideas with insights into the practicalchallenges of change. We hope to build on the wonderful foundation that Ed Schein andthe editorial team have provided during the past four years. Ed will continue to be a guideand inspiration as our founding editor, and we will do our very best to disturb his retirement on a regular basis.
We will also need your help in the coming months. Please let us know your thoughts
and suggestions.
Karen Ayas, Associate Editor, Re ections
Sherry Immediato, Managing Director, SoL
Peter Senge, Founding Chair, SoL

Volume 4, Number 4, REFLECTIONS