Chapter 1 - Learning guide
"Leadership For a Sustainable Enterprise"
Activity 1: Leadership for a sustainable enterprise overview includes:
Activity 2: Nature and domains of leadership for a sustainable enterprise includes:
- A pre-reading to be assigned prior to the workshop
- Four brief activities that together provide an overview of the entire chapter
- Activities take 50 minutes
- Pre-reading: Transformation (pdf)
- Instructor's Guide - Leadership for a Sustainable Enterprise Overview Activity - The Leadership Diamond (pdf)
- The Leadership Diamond presentation (PPT)
Activity 2: Nature and domains of leadership for a sustainable enterprise includes:
- A pre-reading assignment
- An in-depth look at leadership for a sustainable enterprise
- The activity takes 80 minutes
- Pre-reading: Transformation (pdf)
- Instructor's Guide - Nature and Domains of Leadership (pdf)
- Power Point presentation - Nature and Domains of Leadership (PPT)
Activity 3: Listening Into Being - The Key to Deep Diversity is Deep Listening
In the essay, “New frameworks for leading sustainable enterprise,” we shared a matrix describing the similarities and distinctions between two African American organizations (International Black Summit and Black African Heritage Leadership Development Caucus) that, for the past 24 years, have been using focused dialogue as the vehicle for members’ personal transformation. While the membership of each organization is comprised of people of Black African descent, the participants are, nevertheless, deeply diverse. There is broad and vivid contrast among participants, in the areas of age, education, occupation, sexual orientation, regional residency, world view and religion. Ex-offenders sit next to medical and legal professionals. Laborers sit next to IT techs. Muslims sit next to Buddhists and agnostics. Government civil servants sit next corporate executives and entrepreneurs.
The value of this caliber of diversity is to make a multiplicity of perspectives available, in order to find the best options for success. Of course, this level of difference also offers endless opportunities for conflict and discord. However, conflict leads to breakthrough for growth, and the generation of yet newer options. Breakthrough occurs from the willingness to listen deeply, to hear what the hearts are saying; not just the minds.
The objective of each of the African American organizations is to generate provocative thought experiments for achieving exponential growth in the personal transformation of attending participants. The vehicle that each group uses - a process we call “listening-into-being” - is what is required in order to allow participants to get beyond apparent differences, in order to explore core values and ideals.
It is this level of Deep Listening that all organizations can implement in order to arrive at creative possibilities for reaching sustainable practices.
There is real skill associated with listening. We believe that because we have a natural physical ability to hear, that this is equal to listening. However, listening involves a cognitive capacity to hear meaning and nuance. It includes an ability to align with the speaker’s intent, for the purpose of understanding; agreement is optional. There is always something to be gained in the act of listening, for the both the Speaker as well as the Listener. The Listener acquires the ability to “see” from new eyes; to understand from the point of view of a completely different set of neurological pathways – taking in lessons that may have been hard-earned, but which came with none of the costs or pain associated with that learning. The Speaker gets the opportunity to share from a place that may never have been exposed to the light of day; a vantage point from which, the Speaker gets to see these feelings anew, with completely fresh eyes. Inevitably, new learning and new insight erupts from exposure. This is the process that organizations can incorporate, to bring fresh learning to the challenges of sustainability.
There are many readily available tools that teach strong listening skills. We want to offer two such practices, as well as a link to solid listening skills assessment. Let us know how they work for you.
