| Volume 3, Issue 11 - November, 2004
As a consultant, I am constantly reading in an effort to expand my knowledge base and to help me better help my clients. Periodically, I find
things that I think might be beneficial for the readers of “Taking Aim” and to that end, I will try to present a synopsis of what I think
are important thoughts for your consideration.
Recently I finished reading the book, “Presence” by Peter Senge, C. Otto Scharmer, Joseph Jaworski and Betty Sue Flowers. This was a
bit difficult for me to get into because it had a lot of “hug-a-tree”, save the earth stuff at the beginning that didn’t help me.
There are people like Dee Hock with “Birth of the Chaordic Age” and Margaret Wheatley with “Leadership and the New Science”
who present similar thoughts without the environmental entanglements.
Having said that, I really started to enjoy the book and the thoughts presented from about page 178 on to the end. It started with Betty Sue’s
comment, “Sometimes I wonder if we’re just at the beginning of the age of democracy and self-governance.” She was talking about
the unique organization Dee Hock helped develop in building VISA. She goes on to say, “most practical managers don’t really understand
democratic principles and reject them out of hand as impractical. Consequently we have a society that espouses democratic ideals, but most of our
institutions still function as totalitarian dictatorships.”
Maybe, just maybe the failure of institutions we are witnessing ranging from financial institutions to churches to business to government, etc. are
because we have reached the limits of the U.S. brand of capitalism and democracy.
Many pages later, Betty Sue continues, “ As models of leadership shift from organizational hierarchies with leaders at the top to more distributed,
shared networks, a lot changes. For those networks to work with real awareness, many people will need to be deeply committed to cultivating their
capacity to serve what’s seeking to emerge. That’s why I think that cultivation, becoming a real human being really is the primary leadership
issue of our time, but on a scale never required before. It’s a very old idea that may actually hold the key to a new age of global democracy.”
A few pages later, the book tackles an idea that has been troubling me for some time. “In short, the fundamental insight of the twentieth-century
physics has yet to penetrate the social world: relationships are more fundamental than things.” With the latest management thinking, we have
fallen victim to the dictum, “You can’t manage what you can’t measure.” “Not only does over reliance on measurement
doom modern society to continuing to see a world of things rather than relationships, it also gives rise to the familiar dichotomy of the “hard
stuff’ (what can be measured) versus the “soft stuff” (what can’t be measured). The problem is not measurement per se. The
problem is the loss of balance between valuing what can be measured and what cannot, and becoming so dependent on quantitative measures that they
displace judgment and learning.”
The book does a good job of outlining how quantum theory in the form of Bell’s Theorem and nonlocality reveal a level of interrelatedness that
defies common notions of cause and effect. There is also an example of a study of random number generators around the world behaved in highly nonrandom
ways on September 11, 2001. These examples are used to support the idea that we need integrate the study of the inner world with the study of the
outer world. We need to think of practical know-how and human development as two aspects of the same process. The mind and the world are not separate.
All of this builds to support Betty Sue’s contention that, “becoming a real human being is the primary leadership issue of our time.”
The group evolves to believe that, “life has intention.” Joseph suggests, “This is the call to service that most of us deny throughout
our whole life. This call to give ourselves to something larger than ourselves, and to become what we were meant to become.” In order to develop
this capacity, there is a process of cultivation that must be undertaken. “There are three basic areas in which you must work. First, you must
meditate or ‘practice’ – you must have a discipline of quieting the mind. Second, you must study – the sutras, the Koran,
the Torah, the Bible – whatever helps to develop a theoretical understanding. And you must be committed to service, what the Buddhists would
call ‘vows.’ Your cultivation grows out of all three.”
“What we’re talking about is sensing the unfolding whole within each of us, within the present situation, and acting in service to it,”
said Otto.
The book concludes with an Epilogue that includes information on the work of Masaru Emoto of Japan. “Emoto has developed a way to apply magnetic
resonance imaging to photograph the crystals formed when water freezes. His results are controversial and clearly exploratory. In short, healthy
water forms beautiful crystal structures, and polluted water does not.” In one experiment distilled water, which has simple crystals, was placed
into a vial and placed in front of speakers. Hundreds of tests were run with music from Bach and Mozart played through the speakers. The distilled
water that previously had very simple crystal structures after exposed to the music developed beautiful, complex crystals.
In another experiment, “they took water from a highly polluted reservoir and froze it. The samples had virtually no crystal structure. Then
an elder priest, Reverend Kato, sat next to the reservoir and prayed for one hour for the well being of the water. When they then took new samples
of the water and froze it, the crystals were stunning.”
Just as so many others including Willis Harmon in “Global Mind Change”, is it possible that thought creates reality?
I hope you found this to be as thought provoking as I did. Your comments are always encouraged.
I have been busy working on what I call the “Momentum Model” for organizations. Currently, I am validating an 18-question diagnostic
and could use some help testing the diagnostic. If you would be willing to take the test and send me the results, I would be happy to provide you
with my findings. Send me your email and I will send you a copy of the diagnostic.
Wow! It hardly seems possible that another year has passed and we are rapidly approaching one of my favorite Holidays. I have so much for which to
be grateful. I am striving to live with an attitude of gratitude and it is making a huge difference in how I perceive everything around me.
My Holiday wish for you is that you experience and enjoy the many blessings available to us all not just during this season, but throughout the year.
If you have a subject that you would like to see covered in future issues of “Taking Aim,” please send me an email at aim@CannonAdvantage.com.
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Robert E. Cannon
Management Consultant
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Chagrin Falls,
OH 44022 USA
866.598.8450 phone/v-mail
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aim@cannonadvantage.com
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"It is not economical to go to bed early to save candles if the results are twins."
Chinese Proverb
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U.S. Andersen
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