There is no doubt: I learn better through conversation. Dialogue means “thinking together,” so when I have the opportunity to be with people with diverse perspectives and experiences, that thinking together is incredibly productive.

That’s what I experienced again in our most recent learning conversation. The topic was “Evolutionary Leadership for Sustainability: a learning conversation among practitioners” hosted it at Saybrook Graduate School a week ago. We set it up as a space for organizational practitioners in the sustainability field – consultants, educators, change agents – to reflect together and share knowledge, insights and questions.

We had 18 people join this conversation. Before the event, participants were invited to share the questions they are asking themselves about leadership and sustainability. These were the initial questions:

•    Where are we heading with this sustainability movement and what are the roadblocks that could be slowing it down if so?
•    How do we effectively increase the pool of decision-makers with knowledge and consideration of environmental issues?
•    How to inspire leadership with regard to deep sustainable change?
•    What makes sustainable relationships in the context of global organizations?
•    How to develop leaders with the capacity to address global sustainability issues?
•    How do we activate and sustain the evolutionary impulse in leaders?
•    How to expand the sustainability conversation and make it more accessible and 'approachable' to more people around the globe?
•    What will it require of us as leaders ( skills, knowledge, commitment) to be able to transform the culture of business to a model of restoration and regeneration?
•    How can we introduce these new ways of being and doing into the world with the greatest possible speed and effectiveness?
•    How can we take this economic downturn and transform it into and opportunity to advance socially and environmentally responsible practices that will improve social relations, the environment and the economy?
•    What are the limits of sustainable development (scarcity paradigm)and how can they be transcended to evolutionary development (abundance paradigm)?
•    What are the characteristics of a sustainability civilization?
•    What kind of leadership is needed for this civilizational shift?
•    What are the organizing methods to achieve the shift?
•    How can we leverage the current crisis to the creation of a different society that grounded in a sustainable and abundant paradigm?
 
Alexander, Manuel and my role as conveners and facilitators of the learning conversation was to hold the space and provide some guidelines and minimal structure to support the process. To our delight, we were also able to participate fully in the conversation.  Alexander shared some “guardianship roles” to share the responsibility of a productive dynamic among all the participants. These roles are a subset of the guardians created by our beloved mentor Bela H. Banathy: Guardian of participation, of keeping the focus, of staying with the selected group technique, of accepting and honoring all contributions, of values. Manuel shared his perspective on the importance of active listening as a combination of the physiological function of hearing and, more importantly, the cognitive function of interpreting meaning. These created the context for a respectful and open dialogue in which participants are willing to be vulnerable and to change perspectives – that’s why it is a learning conversation.

Here some of the rich ideas generated in the first hour of our day together. These ideas are my synthesis, a compilation filtered through my lenses, rather than an attempt to “objectively” represent other’s thoughts.

As we began the day, the role of Saybrook as a graduate school with roots in humanistic and transpersonal psychology were acknowledged. Saybrook is committed to provide “graduate education for a humane and sustainable future” and this conversation among peers was an example of the kind of inquiry that characterize its educational model. Saybrook is my alma matter so I am very happy to see them embrace sustainability as a purposeful reference to guide their personal, transpersonal and organizational transformative work.

Several of the participants expressed the need and importance of coming together in person to reconnect. Sometimes our formal or informal roles as champions of sustainability can be demanding and isolating. Engaging in collaborative learning is a way to recharge our batteries and expand our capacities to respond to the ever increasing challenges in organizations and communities. A participant expressed the need to create “villages of practice.”

It is simpler to change the exterior infrastructure of a system to make it “greener” than to change the mental models of people and their culture. That’s why for us, sustainability is an inside job. A participant shared her frustration in seeing managers focused only on compliance. How do we reach the deeper need for meaning?

Developing the leadership skills for sustainability won’t happen only through formal trainings. We need to come together to share experiences, and to help people learn what they want and need to learn to respond to their specific challenges. We need to create evolutionary learning communities!

The importance of systems thinking came up several times during our conversation. A participant reflected how it was weird when for her undergraduate program she decided to combine Political Science and Chemistry. But today, interdisciplinary studies are much more common. I like to think of systems thinking as transdisciplinary, blending and re-integrating the meaning that in our lived experience was never separated.  When there is not a systemic understanding, it is easy to act with “good intentions” but without the ability to perceive and prevent undesirable side effects.

Conversation is a powerful means to engage in the creation of new narratives and new relationships. If a change of mindset, or even deeper, if the evolution of consciousness is a prerequisite for practicing and living sustainability, then we need to come together to challenge each other’s perspectives. This needs to be done in a respectful and open way, so that we may expand our view and align our intentions for action. Changing light bulbs to save energy is a positive action. Changing mindsets to enable new cultures and lifestyles is an enabler of innumerable positive actions.

Through critical and creative media, we can see reflections of our culture. We need to ask tough questions that will move us into action: What are we doing (to ourselves, to each other, to the planet)? What kind of people are we? Do we like what we see? What does it mean to be human in today’s world?

And yet, it is too easy to feel overwhelmed and to shut down and ignore what is going on around us. It is too much, it is uncomfortable, it hurts. Can we move away from fear and pain? Can we find ways that are fun, joyful, meaningful? Can we evolve through play? Can we learn to love life?  This group of leaders said yes in many ways. We certainly experienced fun and excitement in our conversation. As evolutionary leaders, our role is to remove the blocks in the road for people to connect and engage in the quest for a better life and a better society.

A design mindset and skillset is required. This work is like art. The creation of a new civilization is a monumental sculpture. We need inspiration and sensitivity as well as the scaffolding and tools. We need to invite those individuals, from all walks of life, that resonate with this task. Finding the tribe, our people, with whom we can become and express our fuller selves. The tribe with whom we can  work, learn, play and live authentically.

Evolutionary leadership for sustainability is so much larger than crisis prevention or management. At its core, this work is about a radical shift from scarcity to abundance mental models. We have a wonderful opportunity here and now.

As I said, these ideas were the beginning of our conversation. We then went on to explore the meaning of Leadership, the role of Vision, and the means for the Transition. I hope to write more about the outcomes of this experience another day.

Kathia