Ideals in Motion

Keeping our bearings...

I was recently sitting by a swimming pool in Maui where I was on a working holiday with my family. It was about 10:00 at night, the stars were out and a gentle trade wind was blowing. I had earlier been on the beach well after a spectacular sunset and had marveled at the clarity and abundance of the stars that were in the evening sky. As I sat by that pool I again looked up. The stars I saw on the beach were dimmed, and in some instances not visible at all. Of course, the stars were all still present. All that had changed was that I was attempting to view them through the ambient light coming from the pool deck and the pool itself. If I was a sailor attempting to use the stars to guide my way this ambient light could be a real problem.

This struck me as a wonderful metaphor for our busy lives today. When and how does the ambient life of our lives prevent us from seeing what we need to see in order to keep our lives on course? Are we even aware of when we are blinded by the ambient light in our lives? More importantly, what practices have we developed to allow us to step away from the ambient light in our lives – practices that enable us to see our stars in order to make sure we are, more or less, on course?

Raising the kids, balance between work and family, money worries, next quarter’s results, fears of disappointing someone significant. These are only some examples of what could be deemed the ambient light of life. These things aren’t going to go away and we put our ideals at considerable risk when are blinded by the unique “ambient light” that makes up much of our worldview. Being able to mindfully step away from (not leave behind) the ambient light in our lives in order to better see our guiding stars is a practice well worth developing. Quieting the internal voice that forces attention to the ambient light is a very useful way to approach this notion. I use a variety of meditation practices – sitting, walking, running – to quiet the voices of my ambient light in order to keep the stars of my ideals in view. Developing this practice is not easy – there have been many false starts. Knowing what keeping my ideals in view makes possible is the “for the sake of what?” that enables me to sustain the practice.

For the sake of what do your ideals exist? What practice(s) have you developed or could you develop that helps you keep your bearings as you move through the enormous complexities of modern life – the ambient life that keeps what’s truly important in view?

Prelude to Opportunity...

Often times I am asked by leaders I am coaching how to reconcile apparent conflicts between the values and ideals of their company and apparent and intransigent market realities. Rather than have these seeming conflicts be experienced as an either/or dilemma there is another alternative.

I was speaking with a client today who related an incident where an emerging conflict of values with one of their clients resulted in something other than a breakdown. One of the core values of my client's firm is environmental sustainability. A new client of theirs was asking them to assist with the development of a new product that would result in an enormous use of oil to transport critical raw material used in the product. Because of concerns about environmental impact (contributing to global warming through the burning of huge amounts of oil in transportation) the initial reaction of the project manager at my client's firm was to tell their new client that the firm wouldn't be able to work with them on this project. The dilemma this posed is that their client would likely retain another firm to do the work, my client's company would lose a significant amount of revenue as well as likely lose the client for other projects, and they would not have any positive movement toward one of their ideals of helping create environmentally sustainable business practices.

The solution as it was related to me was my client requesting that his project manager go back to the client and invite a conversation to explore alternative ways of developing the product that would not involve the use of this particular raw material (which is a definite but not obvious option). This would negate the need for oceanic shipping and would thereby provide this developing product with a new and previously unrecognized niche with "green" consumers. Rather than the value (sustainability) linked to the realization of of an ideal (environmental responsibility) being the source of polarization and breakdown it becomes the catalyst for exploring new ways of working together and of developing a uniquely new product.

Leaders cause movement. Effective leaders use values as one of the core mechanisms for doing this. A seeming conflict with a company's espoused values in the face of market "realities" can be used as a prelude to opportunity - the opportunity to keep the organization's ideals moving and an opportunity to challenge people to live into the ideals that we say are important to us.

Ideals and China....

I just returned from mainland China today where I delivered the first module of a six month, three module coaching program to 40 Chinese businesspeople. The passion and hunger with which the participants engaged themselves in the program was astonishing. For me, the week was a wonderful exhibition of ideals in motion. Each person had a reason for being in the program that was crystal clear - not just in the form of a personal goal but clear as well in terms of the "for the sake of what" that the goal made possible.

China is clearly a country that is on the move and it's truly exciting to be able to contribute to individuals who have dreams and are willing to pursue them despite significant obstacles. As just one example of this, I delivered the program in English and it was interpreted into Cantonese and also into Mandarin for those who weren't totally fluent in Cantonese. How many people do you know who would be willing to sit through three full days of interpreted training and teaching to learn something that they believe could possibly move them closer to their dreams?

Aboard Air Force One

The current rhetoric about making the world safe for democracy is a wonderful ideal. And, in order to move toward an ideal it seems useful to take some time for an introspective assessment of why this ideal is important - to myself as well as to those likely to be impacted. Without the benefit of an inward look I set myself up to be, at best, driven by my ego and, at the worst, influenced by others in ways in which I have no awareness (see my posting of Feb. 01).

This is what is so telling and so disturbing about President Bush saying aboard Air Force One on June 4, 2003: "I'm also not very analytical. You know, I don't spend a lot of time thinking about myself, about why I do things."

This Ideal May Be Cooked...

The sky is falling, the sky is falling!

Based on some of the latest studies citing increases in air temperature over Antarctica, melting glaciers in Greenland and increasing acidity in the world's oceans  it does indeed appear that the sky is falling. Why is this relevant to ideals in motion? Simply because one ideal that I believe is universally shared at some level is a habitable planet. The climatic reprecussions we are beginning to witness are a direct consequence of "I" and "id" (see my posts from March 16 and March 24) getting the best of the realization of an ideal. One need look no further than the Bush Administration's continued insistance that there is no problem ("...it's undeniable that the White House's environmental record--from the abandonment of Kyoto to the President's broken campaign pledge to control carbon output to the relaxation of emission standards--has been dismal." - Time, April 3, 2006).

When we trump our ideals by allowing ourselves to be swayed by small minded, ego driven, and fear spouting "leaders" who have the agendas of their constituencies in mind rather than a desire to move us to a closer realization of our ideals we get what we pay for. One of the primary "laws" of leadership I work from is that people will give us what they perceive we are willing to accept. Pandering to the lowest common denominator of parochial interests (Terry Shaivo and Jack Abrahmof come to mind) rather than insisting that we as a people live into the realization of our ideals of truth and justice for all is a good example of this. So too is making the difficult choices necessary to live on a habitable planet.