Foundations
The suffering and happiness each of us experiences is a reflection of the distortion or clarity with which we view ourselves and the world.
ā The Dalai Lama
We can sense that the world is changing in deep and fundamental ways.
Itās easy to throw up our hands and say, āHey, this is bigger than my pay grade. Itās out of my control. My job is to hunker down and do whatās in front of me to do.ā
True enough. And, wholly insufficient.
The complexity of the world and of the macro conditions for which we are all witnessesāglobal warming and rising sea levels, the rise of authoritarian regimes, growing economic disparities, displaced populations, and violence, to name just a fewāimpact all of us. The trickle-down effects of these and other disruptions affect everything. We are connected, whether we like it or not: What affects some of us affects all of us.
We each have a part to play in our particular time and location in the scheme of things. Hereās an example:
California suffered a five-year drought of historic proportions that came to an official end for most of the state in April 2017 after prodigious rains and a deep snowpack in the Sierras. Governor Jerry Brown had declared a water emergency through a series of executive orders, mandating twenty percent across the board reductions in consumption, Water Department contingency plans, and the replacement of grass lawns with arid landscaping among others.5 By most measures, the efforts were reasonably successful.
Yet much of California remains vulnerable, and future droughts are predicted to recur with increasing intensity, making complacency dangerous.6 Californiaās population is growing consistently, and water resources are stretched even in the best of conditions. A state initiative to require budget-based regulation of local water usage ran into fierce opposition from local utilities. As a state water official remarked, āPeople get tired of being told they have to do more, they have to do more.ā7
This is a perfect storm of Complexity. Rising global temperatures, increased aridity, growing population, political resistance to regulation, public apathy and fatigue, reduced water supplies and increased demand for a scarce resource.
Lots of interconnected moving parts! This is Complexity. And it affects everyone, from farmers making investments in crops based on assumptions about water for irrigation, to residents facing lifestyle and budget decisions, to local water boards trying to influence cultural and behavioral norms, to state regulators seeking to rally political support for legal measures, to environmental leaders trying to reduce habits of consumption backed by a sense of entitlement.
How might each of these human beings seek to reconcile personal interests with even their own perspectives on other interests? How might interests collide? How might this complex and dynamic situation be navigated wisely and together?
However tempting it might be, itās insufficient to bury our heads in the sand or to say itās up to others. We all face real limitations on our power and influence. And we all make a difference in our own spheres. As leaders, we are players in our relationships, in our families, in our teams and in our organizations and communities.
Reality offers no guarantees, either for well-being or for success. The challenge is to move past our comfort zones and to engage with our present conditions in radically creative new ways that generate a future worth having.
My fundamental premises, each explored in Part One, are that:
- We live in extraordinary times with perilous and complex consequences for business as usual.
- We are wired for business as usual.
- Not only are we inadequately prepared for this Complexity, but Complexity itself triggers us into responses that are both natural and counterproductive.
- We need the accelerated development of a critical mass of leaders who can respond to Complexity in new and generative ways.
- And those leaders need an understanding of the nature of development itself to do this well.
You are one of those leaders.
