The Constellation Learning Newsletter
June 2005

“Management works in the system; leadership works on the system.”

Stephen Covey

Our world is changing at the speed of light. People are exhausted. Feeling pulled in eight different directions at once they have little time for reflective thinking or self-awareness. We’re too busy to make sense of what ails us.

Yet self-observation and understanding is exactly what is required in order to address issues at the core of our current stress levels; lack of meaning and purpose and an increasing need for human beings to express themselves creatively, authentically and immediately. The speed of light is working in ways less obvious than the computer or movie screen; we are speeding up. Of course our businesses and organizations are speeding up as well! They are comprised of us. The collective cannot remain unchanged when critical mass is reached among the individuals who comprise it.

Some large companies are losing their best and brightest to new dreams, dreams that aren’t about making more money. They want flexibility and creativity, purpose and meaning. These people are waking up and walking out, seeking radical departures from former lifestyle choices. Financial accrual is less a determining factor to a sense of self-worth and success. More and more employees are making choices that impact their companies’ survival.

It’s no longer necessarily what you know about business, it’s what you know about yourself that determines your ability to withstand the demands of the day. Flexibility is no longer a bonus to one’s arsenal of personal skills – a necessary component for professional advancement – it’s a requirement for survival.

In his newest book, The Eighth Habit, Stephen Covey rolls out a well researched, erudite tome aiming to point the business community in a radical new direction: spirituality. In this regard spirituality has to do with meaning, purpose, inclusion and value. Not God in the boardroom, or prayers at meetings. Not internal political policy setting based on religious viewpoint, but rather an awakening to an understanding of the difference between spirituality and religion: All people are spiritual beings; not all are religious. In fact, more and more people define themselves as feeling connected to something, just not the God of their childhood church-going upbringing.

Covey notes that the turnstile approach to training and culture assimilation has not worked well within many large organizations. People feel off-balance, off-center, and stressed-out. We feel anxious a lot of the time, resentful most of the time, and tired all of the time. These pervasive and therefore subtle feelings (because we have grown used to them!) undermine our real strength, our spiritual strength, which is the very aspect we need most to recognize, support and nourish in order to survive and grow. We must work on our systems in order to heal their symptoms.

This concept is new? Hardly. Many have preached it for many a year. Radical? Yes, in that Mr. Covey carries credibility within the big-business community others who have been a part of this turning may not carry on a global scale, including myself. He is validating the evolution of business leadership to the level it is already being dragged toward by its own people.

Years ago educators talked about IQ (Intelligence Quotient = Intellectual awareness, business knowledge). IQ tests standardized intelligence and quantified our desire to know and our capacity to learn. Later an inclusion of EQ (Emotional Intelligence = Emotional awareness, people knowledge) became part of our paradigm for performance improvement. We recognized the human need to relate to other people; not only do humans desire to know, we desire to connect. We are now on the cusp of SQ (Spiritual Intelligence = Spiritual awareness, self knowledge) becoming the defining factor of the truly successful human being, success being defined as one’s experience of life – one’s ability to embrace change, to welcome flux and to thrive in limbo and to laugh through it all.

In this regard, businesses are required to find other kinds of currencies to keep their best and brightest; working from home, off-hours, job-sharing. And some companies are making changes, at least those that see the proverbial handwriting on the wall, by providing their people with alternatives to traditional “training” classes that teach models and methods for achieving success. These models fail miserably when tested by real life application in our new speed of light world. Providing learning environments that foster self-actualization as well as self-awareness is a key in completing the turn that the business community must make in order to survive the next five years of massive upheaval.

There is very little that will ever be the same again. Get used to it. Get on board the change train or step aside, because you might be crushed in the pressing crowd clamoring to join the journey to personal freedom. It is pulling out from the station of today and it will arrive at the station of tomorrow within the next few years. Business leaders know this. IBM sees the destination in sight: sharing previously patented intellectual property with the world – for free. CI Funds leader, Bill Holland, is talking about lowering customer fees while increasing their transparency. There are many leaders making the same kinds of choices. How evolved of them. How enlightened. How spiritual. This is the future. The future is now.

As the future collides with the present, will you attempt to manage it, or lead others through it?

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