Does Ecosystem Leadership Actually Work?
By: Antoinette Klatzky
Tags: Economics, Mindfulness, Insights, Leadership, Change Management

Picture of Jacye Lee’s work in the Ecosystem Leadership Program 2019, Nauen, Germany

They say it’s best to talk about challenges after you’ve gone through them. It gives a fresh perspective and you can see things in hindsight. Of course, it also means, you’ve somehow reached the ‘other side’ and it becomes easier to talk about. Perhaps we all need to hear a little bit of both — share the vulnerable moments as they’re happening to get support from community and the hindsight views to share the lessons learned.

This week, a group of 50+ dive into the final module of the Ecosystem Leadership Program in Berlin. It will be a moment of closing a nine month journey of exploration with a group of global system changers who have been doing everything from regenerating landscapes to shifting organizational structures. We use the word ‘ecosystem’ as a metaphor for the way systems work together (internally and externally) stemming from the way the natural world works so seamlessly in concert. Looking at our work from an ecosystem perspective means we broaden our view from seeing areas of our work in silos and look for a more holistic or full spectrum approach (more on Ecosystem Leadership).

As a leader of either an organization, a team, or a region, it’s not always easy to see the whole. In fact, it may be impossible. Single leaders need to hear information from everywhere and the truth is, they may never actually be fully informed when making a decision. There is always more to learn and know however, that doesn’t mean don’t act. What’s required of us is a letting go of what we think is supposed to happen or what we think is best. It’s about how we hold the whole, together. It’s about being transparent. It’s about holding flexible expectations with clear agreements and communication.

Over the last nine months, I’ve had lots of questions. Is it possible to soften an agenda or to let go of what we think we know? Is it possible to offer ourselves up in service of something larger without being swept away? While we’re trying to move from “ego-system” to “eco-system,” (see the work of Otto Scharmer, Leading from the Emerging Future) isn’t there always an underlying ego driving something forward? If nothing is going to be perfect, why not just forget it all — why even try?

I still don’t have the answers but I am reminded of one of the quotes shared on the first day of our time together: “we grow in the direction of the questions we ask.”

And then back to the challenge. What happens when a conscious business, or a purpose-driven organization faces a challenge? Like any of us as individuals, when we hit a stopping point, a blockade, a challenge, a point of cynicism or fear, do we let go of our values? A friend and fellow ecosystem leader asks a question about the zombie apocalypse — who would you care for? Who would you take with you? Well, here I wonder, what values do you take with you when you have to make the hard choices?

What I see, in these challenging moments: for me, it’s 100% about the practice and cultivating resilience. If you have ever meditated, you might notice a familiar pattern: 0.1) you may have resistance to sitting down for it or maybe you’re excited to sit 1) you sit down and begin the laborious task of focusing on your breath 2) a thought enters your mind 3) you may notice the thought, you may judge the thought, you may get curious about the thought 4) you may return to the awareness of the breath. The challenge is always there.

Here’s my process when meditating, “I’d like to sit and focus on my breath…. Ugh! Here is this pesky thought! Why is this thought here?….. Ok. I’m letting it go… Bye thought…. Ah, right, the breath.” I wish I was more evolved to be more of a “ooh, look at this thought… and here’s the breath…” but alas. That itself is the practice. Introducing a new form of leadership is the building of a similar muscle.

I see meditation as a metaphor on any level for building this muscle. If Ecosystem Leadership is my practice, perhaps I’m working to hold the whole and operate from a deeper place of purpose-driven action. Inevitably, challenges will arise — where there is light, there is also shadow. The question is actually not “does it work?” The question is “how do we cultivate the resilience and the awareness to get curious, to release judgement of reality, and keep coming back to the practice?” When we can release the idea of the outcome (things will be better, perfect, in accordance with what I envisioned) we can work with reality as it is.

Honestly, as I write it, I’m annoyed with myself. I want it to be more clear cut. I want it to be simple and not so complex. I want us to have an answer to things like climate change (just ban single use plastic!?) and to the pollution caused by oil or the fashion industry. I want us to just do better. I don’t want to accept the intricacies of what it takes to change. Yet, the irritation is of value too. It means there is still motivation to do something. It’s a sign of where the energy to make a difference lives.

Recently, I had a moment in my career in which I was faced with what Scharmer might call ‘forces of absencing.’ It can happen at any time, in any place, even at any moment during the day. Absencing is not necessarily the opposite of Presencing — it’s actually more what happens on either side of Presencing. One moment, we’re present to what’s going on and the next, we’re thinking about the future, stuck in the past OR we can go into denial and look for an escape route. In those moments, we can jump forward too quickly, stay stuck in the old routines or we try to get out altogether. For me, the practice has been ‘staying with’ the reality of what’s going on long enough to be able to move through it or rise above it. Sometimes it can look emotional — staying with a feeling of what’s actually happening and sometimes it can be physical, literally staying in a meeting or staying in the dialogue. Either way, looking at the present moment — what’s actually there in front of us and recognizing, “what is mine to do here,” can help us have the courage, resilience and awareness needed to keep moving forward.

So we get up, we keep going, we try not to judge ourselves too harshly and to accept that the possibilities lie directly within the problems themselves. Together, we work to evolve them.

For more on What Ecosystem Leadership IS, see the earlier article written after module 2 — and stay tuned for more later this month.