Right now, the ops tempo, a military term about the pace of our current operations, keeps getting faster and faster. And due to the speeding up of the ops tempo, we feel exhausted. But at a deeper level, I think we actually feel lonely, isolated, and hopeless. We also feel numb by the tsunami of problems that are surfacing at this faster tempo. All of this is happening on many different levels, because we feel, and believe we don’t have the bandwidth or experience to handle what is happening. Modifying a quote from the work of Brene’ Brown, we are clearly the traveler and not the map maker given current events.
Recognizing all of this, an important question comes to mind: What is the center that holds all things together? Based on my recent readings, experiences, and observations, I believe that the center that holds all things together is “the invisible web of relationships,” referencing the work of John Paul Lederach.
First, I believe that successful organizations and successful people have a core that is a centrifugal and a centripetal. One element of the core is a force that pushes us out into the world to make the mission or purpose of one’s life and work come alive. It challenges us to be the change that needs to take place in the world. At the same time, this core pulls us in to remember what is most important. It reminds us that our heart and hands are as important as our mind and ideas. For it is the combination of the two that generates authenticity and integrity.
Second, this unique center is not a centralized hub that controls everything and everyone. Instead, it is a relationship-centric approach to service and to living. It is based on an understanding that successful living and working happens through a network of relationships, and when we understand these social crossroads and connections, our capacity to live our life’s purpose and to fulfill the company’s mission comes down to something Lederach pointed out, namely “the art of know-who, not just know-how.”
With all of this in mind, now is the time to focus on building relationships at work and at home. Now is the time to reach out to others when we feel alone, and to create a community of inclusion that welcomes all. For when we do this foundational work, we create social networks that have the capacity to make change happen and for it to be sustainable.
Yet, we live in a time and place where many people have a scarcity world view. They believe that there is not enough to go around. Thus, they believe we need to fight for our share of the pie. Otherwise, we will not get any pie at all.
These same people assume that the solutions to all their problems have a degree of permanency. However, current events does not support this conclusion. Instead, permanency is found in the processes that created “the solution,” and in the relational spaces where they were created.
Therefore, our job right now as leaders is to create and refine these processes, plus build and maintain the healthy relational spaces where people can engage with each other and these processes. For when we do this, these processes and spaces can become a dynamic platform for problem solving over time rather than the creation of a singular solution to a singular problem.
John Paul Lederach in his book, The Moral Imagination: The Art And Soul Of Building Peace (Oxford University Press, 2005), reminds us that we must find ways to connect and mobilize this web of relationships in and around the change that is happening. As he continues, relational platforms produce change that is more important than the individual solutions they create. In other words, platforms that create responsive processes must be permanent and continuously adaptive. In short, he notes “the key to sustainability is adaptability.” For when we have a center that holds all things together, and when we build a strong and diverse web of relationships, we create capacity that can evolve and adapt. And this is the true source of transformation.
© Geery Howe 2025
No comments:
Post a Comment