leadership for sustainability

Leadership journey in the Deep End

In AoH, leadership, learning, social change, theoryU on April 7, 2012 by eccemarco Tagged: AOH, leadership, learning, social change, theoryU

No matter at which stage of my life I have been, I have always been longing for exploring my purpose and going deep into conversations around my role in the world.
Over the past five years I have been immersed in an incredible environment where stimulating conversations happened all the time. Lucky to be around the MSLS community, people who connect with their purpose and push you on those conversations. I have also learned a lot via co-organizing the Leadership Thread of the MSLS course.

The majority of the world’s population is young. Everywhere I ask, it seems that the educational system needs to adapt fast enough to meet the expectations of this generation to be conscious citizens of the world. Education shall be seen a service to give back to society (Schumacher posited in Small is Beautiful, 1973). All this has made me desire to call for a leadership course that would provide an opportunity for youngsters to have a potentially “transformational” experience to deeply investigate their purpose and their contribution onto the world.

What is sketched from here on is my reflections and notes after the Pro-Action Cafe’ in Copenhagen during the Art of Hosting Learning Village (Dec 2-4, 2011, See my previous post). This is the idea that I brought forward:
“Leadership in the Deep End: A theory U shaped course for youngsters. An individual and collective journey of exploration and connection to the source”.

::What is the Quest behind the question?::
I need to explore “what is needed in the world?” From which source am I operating? I am working from (within) the desire of making inner revolutions happen. (I need to bring more clarity around the intention). Eve Ensler argues: when we give away what we need the most you heal the broken part in ourselves. I have experienced a slow but substantial inner change over the last seven years and I feel ready for the next steps. I feel privileged to have had the opportunity when I was younger to expand my zone of “proximal development” through drama, music, literature and meaningful conversations with friends. All this showed me a doorway to something to aspire to. And lately the environment in which I have been has challenged me gently and decisively to always connect with my purpose and being intentional about how I show up in the world and intend to make a positive contribution. Out of gratitude towards what life has given to me, and out of desire to give back. My own “fire” and passion arises from a desire: I have seen the potential of personal transformation in a relatively short time and I really LOVE to be outsmarted by the people I can help coach / mentor. I have faith in the courage and craving for life of this generation (except for my neighbors upstairs who are wasting their time with a loud party with tasteless music, but alas) and believe they are longing for meaning and positive change in the world.

::What is missing?::
I need to explore more who is this course for. Who is the ideal audience for it? I envision the young.
But wait a minute. Transition from what to what? Martin Luther King puts it in his beautiful rhetoric

“An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.”

At what developmental stage are they at? At what level of experience?* Perhaps it is possible to assess at what level or stage are people at by the beginning of the course and plan intentionally with them to stretch them onto a further developmental level.
At whichever point of the spectrum you are the idea would be to broaden the scope of that awareness to reach out towards a positive contribution to the world. The journey shall create some conditions for inner revolutions around the fire happen. A revolution at the personal level that is mirrored by a community revolution.

What are some conditions for inner revolutions and community revolutions to happen? A few that I can think of for now: Trust in the entire group to share deep feelings; Connection with the sense of what’s sacred and trusting oneself;

(*on this I am grateful to Barrett Brown who recommended to me the article “Seven transformations of Leadership” on HBR (opens pdf here) This article posits that it’s possible to assess at what developmental stage are people at.)

::What next steps will I take?::
Connect. There are many amazing courses and leadership journeys already happening out there. One example is Embercombe – I need to connect with them and experience the Journey (Note: I wrote this on my journal in December, but now that I type I have actually gone to Embercombe myself for a leadership journey and was quite fantastic).
- Connect with people who are comfortable with being in nature. I need to reach out to people who are experienced, skilled, rooted in paths of self-development (not necessarily leadership courses).
- It’s time for it! People are ready for it and to deepen their personal leadership journeys. I got the recommendation to consider the masculine and the feminine component of leadership alike, to go beyond labels…
- I was recommended to tap into the power of storytelling skills through the stages of the leadership journey (couldn’t agree more!) And to
- Connect with rituals and ceremonies. Not replicating any but creating meaningful rituals for the group.

::What am I grateful for?::
At the end of the dialogues I felt gratitude towards all the participants for questioning my motivation! It is always a bliss to go deeper into my purpose and question it. I feel gratitude for sitting down with me and sharing their perspectives and wisdom. I also feel grateful for the invitation that has come from some to create this leadership journey together.
Lastly I feel grateful for giving me a sense of support through the simple act of witnessing. Your listening really gave me the strong conviction that the times are ready for this journey and that there is a need out there for such inner revolutions to happen.

Lastly. Please consider this blog post an open invitation for all to create this course together! It is of crucial importance that this idea go out and be co-owned and created by all. You are invited and most welcome in designing this journey.

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Harvesting the Art of Hosting Learning Village – December 2011, Copenhagen

In AoH, emergence, leadership, learning, social change on January 8, 2012 by eccemarco

Art of Hosting Learning Village 2011 in CPH on Prezi

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Open Future Festival, July 2011 – Harvest

In AoH, emergence, engaginKna, karlskrona, leadership, learning, social change on October 9, 2011 by eccemarco

I have been lucky enough to co-host a wonderful festival at the end of this July in Mundekulla, Sweden based on Art of Hosting dialogue style. The aim was to gather around people from the southern part of Sweden and provide an opportunity to share and voice their dreams in new ways, and connecting existing efforts and initiatives. This below is the way my colleagues and I have captured the essence of the conversations and the entire wonderful experience.

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Open Future Festival 2011 Harvest on Prezi

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Global Mind Change – by Willis Harman

In harman, learning, philosophyofscience, quotes on May 5, 2011 by eccemarco

I just finished reading this really good book by Willis Harman.

I wrote on Amazon my invite to read this book
For everyone who is working with sustainability and is trying out new, deep, participative forms of leadership in order to create together meaningful future scenarios, this book is a must. Also recommended for those fascinated by the emergence of the ‘new’ scientific paradigm (from Einstein and Bohr, onwards) with all the implications about the role of consciousness in the new science.

Willis Harman was an authentic futurist, in fact in his pages originally written in 1985 he hits the heart of the matter in so many key points of today’s civilization: the link between economic growth and environmental degradation, the perception of nature as a mere ‘resource’, the eroding sense of meaning that today’s societies are facing despite an apparent wealth of scientific knowledge. Lastly, it gives many good insights in the type of leadership that was emerging in the early 80ies (still very relevant today).

From page 101 on there is a nice dissertation about the old idea of causality in science. [Causality for beginners - If I let a drop of black ink fall on a white sheet of paper and one second after the sheet has changed its color I can say beyond doubt that A caused B. Simple, no? Well, not so simple]. The mechanistic worldview, on which modern science is grounded, has given us so many benefits and helped us so much in our exploration of nature and our capacity to predict and control events. But the implication was that a worldview rooted in the concept of causality and the aim to predict and control was in essence seeing the relationship with nature as an exploitative one.

So here a big question arises. How much do we owe to the old, carthesian, mechanistic worldview? How much of it is still relevant today, taking into account all its positive implications (it makes our life easier to know that water boils at 100 °C, that time on this planet can be counted in standardised ways, to know the table of elements, etc)?
And how much do we blame this worldview for the negative (say, unwanted?) side effects? Have our worldwide troubles happened because of such worldview? Despite it? Or it didn’t make any difference?

And here comes Harman to help:
“Perhaps the mistake of modern society has been to assume that, ultimately, reductionist ‘scientific’ causes should explain everything”. So for one thing this science has led us to believe that was all encompassing, able to “explain everything” but at the same time was leaving at the door values, consciousness, and a conversation around the implications of this worldview. The paradox is that this science has given us gret powers to manipulate nature, harm each other as a human species, and flip the balance of some key ecosystems thresholds on which we depend. So science (defined in this old, traditional sense) has continuously eroded the ground for values and the ‘spirit’ (human consciousness) leaving those who didn’t agree with this mechanistic worldview dispute with poets, the Church and the dreamers.

Small wonder there is a spiritual crisis and a value crisis today -in a time where the most fundamental problems are not about science but the values that will suggest where to direct our attention and efforts.
Well spotted some twenty years ago by Willis Harman. Who at the beginning of this great book wrote, looking into an issue extremely relevant today as well:

“If the world that science tells us about is reality, how does it happen that we don’t feel more at home in it?”

Related tweets
“No economic, political or military power can compare with the power of a change of mind” – Willis Harman #

Reading “Global Mind Change” by Willis Harman great link between the old and the new paradigm #

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Learning at the speed of light (almost)

In leadership, learning on February 19, 2011 by eccemarco

Our capacity to learn must outpace the speed of progress and innovation.#

As the world is moving fast and innovation is quickly changing the landscape of our communication patterns and of our perception of the world, we must learn at the speed of light so that we can deal with this change.

I had this insight –well, it’s fair to say: I learned it- from Mike Hohnen, which I met at the Art of Hosting in Århus. As an avid learner myself, I found it a quite intriguing and challenging idea.

Last year I set forth for myself some goals, framed in a nice vision and some strategic goals along the way, in a one-year plan. In order to accomplish the vision, one of the strategic goals was to increase by far the speed of my learning. Mostly I was referring to books, articles and online publications that I could read and remember as I had them on my fingertips. Now, even though overall I could see some progress, it has been below my expectations. I did read, but not as much as I wanted, and I remember only a few very outstanding articles and publications. Because of this, it has been natural for me go be thinking about how to learn faster. But there was something that overwhelmed me for I could see that I have been exposed to more information during last year (mostly for taking care of this little child @SustainBTH ) but at the same time having the sensation that I wasn’t equally learning new things at the same speed. Or, even trickier, accommodating that new knowledge into my pre-existing background and assumptions about reality.

I believe that there is some potential in exploring the difference in attention that is required for learning, while dealing with different kinds of media that require a different way of “reading”, or listening and memorizing. For my own use, I came up with this idea that I am already using in practice and will see how it works for me.

It’s the metaphor of a learning pyramid. (And you will excuse my handwriting, right?) My assumption is that I should be aware of the building blocks and master each of the blocks at a lower level before trying to master one at a upper level.

The red blocks are about listening, reading and memorizing that are focused ‘outside’ of us (outward-oriented). The black ones are about listening to the self (inward-oriented). I believe the ones focused on the self are fundamental since without this awareness we would simply be not equipped to give our full attention outside of us.

::Body:: A first basic block would be about connection to the body, and checking in with the pre-conditions that can make our brain alert enough to be open to learn.

::Connection to the self:: I call this second one hosting myself. It is quite common to say that in order to host conversations and listen to others one should listen to himself first. This speaks to me about the idea that in an era of attention deficit disorders the most sever hinder to listening is that we can’t pay our full attention and we are not even aware of our lack of attention. Nice article here.

::Listen others with attention:: Once we are present, we can open our senses and listen. Probably our capacity to understand each other and retain information in verbal communication is a quality we should master before other forms of listening, for it calls for our true attention and our capacity to empathize. A nice exercise I used to do after long conversations with a friend was this. After our conversation, I took my journal and started sketching what was his point of view during the chat. First things that came to my mind were my own opinions, not his. Surprise: it’s easier to remember your stance in a conversation than someone else’s. Definitely needs exercise. Wonderful talk by Daniel Goleman on our (in)capacity to listen.

::Read, memorize, map:: This is a very traditional kind of learning. One thing that might help me in the speed of this learning would be to make the mind maps of books, and get used to make summaries. An interesting technique I was using a while ago is called PQ4R (Preview Question Review Recite Reflect Review)

::Long articles on the web:: I would learn these in the same way as learn materials from books. My main difference is to watch out for the potential of distractions while reading online and at the same time use simple ways to archive, connect articles with each other, organize them in semantic categories (I am using bit.ly bundles and a software to organize my bookmarks now)

::Speeches, videos, podcasts:: Absolutely love them. Because in many of them I find inspiration and some little gems and quotes, I have a hard time in memorizing the overall structure of an informative speech (podcast or video). I wonder if it’s worth to use any techniques to try and retain not only the gems but also the structure of the overall flow and content.

::Twitter, Facebook, fast media:: Since you might know they are a waterfall of information, I try to use them in the most selective way. When reading, I am applying continuous filters to the information flow (lists on twitter, hiding some profiles on Facebook, sorting friends by area of interest, etc). I also set the expectations that on twitter I might find the equivalent on a daily newspaper, using my retweets and favorites as the only bookmarks. If something of great interest and worth storing comes up, I would use some categories to archive it such as bit.ly or bookmarks.

Another reason why this idea of the pyramid makes sense to me is that a very traditional education would teach you analytical skills in reading and memorizing texts, and stop there. And is not nearly enough. Maybe it’s true that solid skills in one block can help you a great deal in reading / learning with a critical eye the next.

I will use this concept of the learning pyramid to stretch myself into new learning adventures.

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On the dignity of Man

In growth, quotes on January 30, 2011 by eccemarco

[...] You, however, are constrained by no limits, in accordance with your own free will, in whose hand We have placed you, shall ordain for yourself the limits of your nature. We have set you at the world’s center that you may from there more easily see whatever is in the world. We have made you neither of heaven or earth, neither mortal nor immortal, so that with freedom of choice and with honor, as though the maker and molder of yourself, you may create yourself in whatever shape you prefer. You shall have the power to degenerate into the lower forms of life, which are brutish. You shall have the power, out of your soul’s judgment, to be reborn into the higher forms, which are divine. [...]

Pico della Mirandola -
Horatio De Hominis Dignitate (Oration of the Dignity of Man)

On this note: @eccemarco #

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On Prosperity Without Growth and ecological economics

In ecological economics, growth, prosperity, sustainable development, Tim Jackson on November 27, 2010 by eccemarco

On the train I was listening to a podcast by Tim Jackson about his latest book “Prosperity without Growth”. I read the book few months ago and found it full of insights and great ideas that are still lingering in my mind. It analyzes the dilemma of “growth” and his linkage with material consumption on a planet that is running out of resources and putting too much carbon into the atmosphere. In the second part shows some possible pathways for a sustainable future where we have “decoupled”, i.e. broken the link between prosperity and material throughput. I promised myself I would read it again, so a refresh by listening to a podcast on the LSE website was more than welcome.

:: Consumerism ::
During the presentation he shows a graph with two trends over the last years in the UK. One line shows a drastic increase in personal debt; the other shows a sharp decline in household savings.

(Source: graph as shown in the Report Prosperity without Growth, p 22, data from www.statistics.gov.uk)

Jackson explains: “ So what’s going on here? People are borrowing more money and liquidating their savings because they have been persuaded that they should spend money they don’t have, on goods they don’t need, to create impressions that won’t last on people who won’t care about it”.

I find it simply superb.

@SustainBTH

::Ecosystem services and natural capital::
Jackson also suggested an economic model where ecosystem services are taken into account in the model as THE vital component. An estimate of the value of such services and assets tells us that this value exceeds the monetary value of our conventional economy. I believe that Jackson refers to a famous article by Costanza et al 1997, “The value of world’s ecosystem services and natural capital”.

My reflection on Costanza et al. and a follow-up article that came soon after that to clarify some figures: authors of the article provide a monetary value to the world’s ecosystems. In a later article, they though make very clear that the total absolute value of such services nature provides is infinite. What is the value of services like photosynthesis, water purification, or biodiversity? The argument they use is that we are using such services anyways and the monetary value they have calculated can help us to figure out / calculate some marginal values.

::Putting a price-tag on Nature?::
An intuition that comes to my mind: can we think of a model for pricing such assets and ecosystem services (as upstream as possible) in marginal values up to a certain point, and after that point draw a line with ecological thresholds? What does it mean “in marginal values up to a certain point”? An idea of environmental economics is to give a price tag to the environment in terms of resource extraction, green taxes on pollution, etc. The school of thought of ecological economics argues that such green taxes are good but not enough, because you can still price a scarce resource but use it over the safe threshold (examples can be pollution from fertilizers, extraction of fossil fuels, overharvesting, etc). So the need, for ecological economics, is to draw a line where an ecological constraint is. Still, the idea of the marginal value of ecosystem services can be helpful for it informs us on what does it cost to extract a little bit more of that resource (so here is the idea of the marginal value) always keeping in mind that there is a limit we can’t exceed (absolute values). These limits can be informed by the state-of-the-art research we have with publications like the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA 2005) or the more recent Planetary Boundaries from the Stockholm Resilience Centre.

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Invite people to something meaningful

In AoH, emergence, leadership, social change on November 14, 2010 by eccemarco

I have been to two trainings of the Art of Hosting, and both were absolutely fantastic. In short? It’s about hosting meaningful conversations as a pre-condition to make positive desirable big change happen. The last one was in Århus and someone called for a dojo where to continue practicing the skills and the spirit of the Art of Hosting. Below some reflections from this experience.

Train to Århus, Thursday evening
I am expecting much from the dojo of practitioners in Århus. Thank you T. for making the space for this to happen, and calling it. “Invite people to something meaningful”, as one of my mentors say.

Saturday morning, 11am.
I am writing from a café where there is good music and good cappuccino, and I sat to have some time to write down my impressions from yesterday. I feel very grateful for what happened yesterday. I knew from the beginning that it was a valuable use of time, a way to recharge my energy, to pause and reconnect to my energy. Thank you all.
Arrived at the hostel on Thursday night, the place was okay, a guy was snoring like hell but I managed to sleep decently nevertheless and got outside in time to reach T’s place some half an hour in advance.

D. and M. are hosting the conversation, we start around the same table with an unfolded sheet of paper and markers. D. gives us an overview of the aim of the dojo and a debrief of the last one. In essence is a place for peer-learning, not for teaching; a place to ask high-level questions, but not to practice new methods. We share a reflection about the uniqueness of the Scandinavian context, where many forerunners are practicing new ways of conversations and we seemed to be on the verge of bringing many other people to the next level. We go on with M. asking why we have come here. I have come to recharge my energy, because I trust the circle of conveners, because I want to stop and reflect. Before lunch we collect the questions we have come here with that we’d like to explore and put them in the circle.

#1 How to facilitate the emerging knowledge.
#2 When does the facilitator need to restructure patterns in order to be fully present in the process?
#3 “Have you been fully present, acting from the spirit and skillfully at the same time?” What made it happen?

#1 How to facilitate the emerging knowledge.
Of utmost importance for the facilitator is his consciousness, allowing people to see things. The Facilitator should be conscious of the structure of the process, and will have expectations about some new knowledge to emerge. His expectations may influence the dynamic of the group.

Train back to Copenhagen, Sunday morning.
#2 When do we need to restructure patterns as facilitators to help the dynamics ?
That is to say: when we are there in the fire as facilitators, when do we need to do things differently, restructure our own mental models, or behavioral patterns, in order to be fully present? I have been waiting for this question for a while –it has been with me and gave partial answers every now and then. This weekend I found some answers. The first is that you can and you have to be present, without fear of being judged because is not an attack to your ego. The real ego comes in when you want to be liked by everybody. The second sounds like a paradox to me: exactly by being fully present and giving “personal” examples you achieve the detachment that is necessary to make it objective “It’s not about me”. Example of TM sharing his personal stories with a school of leaders some years ago. Some of the students found him way too hippy and challenged him personally. Half the class left the room. He stood there, continued, and had an amazing workshop with the other half that stayed.
Here an emerging theme from the conversation with C., T. and B. was that we should recognize the line between what is internal (happening in the facilitator) and what is external (happening in the group).

Thinking back about my questions on the way here, I believe they have been addressed mostly. Such a sense of gratitude! And so many wonderful and meaningful conversations, and gems I bring back with me.

@eccemarco: In a nice cafe’ in #Århus – after a great day with Art of Hosting #AoH practitioners. Profound sense of #gratitude for you all.

On the way back, continued reading “Getting to Maybe” -how the world is changed. Wonderful collection of stories and some high-level reflections about social change and the business of big innovations. The book so far is highly recommendable! Some gems so far:

- Social change works in the gray area of the “emergence” when it comes to planning. It’s not a planning that is totally inspired by the present (forecasting) because the social change business acknowledges that there is something that needs big, transformational changes, of a kind that the forecasting can’t address. It’s a planning that can’t be totally informed by a grand or clear picture of the future either, because the social systems are so complex that is like this wild horse you have to enter into a relationship with and play with what is possible and what is emerging;

- As a guiding light for any social innovation (almost needless to say, but still): the purpose. What is motivating you, where is the flame of this need? Interesting particularly now for me as I am giving my free time to many projects and I may have to prioritize my efforts and energies.

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a soul generated by love

In leadership, quotes, theoryU on October 31, 2010 by eccemarco

Everybody can be great. Because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to have your subject and your verb agree to serve. You don’t have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don’t have to know Einstein’s theory of relativity to serve. You don’t have to know the second theory of thermo-dynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.
Martin Luther King

This sermon made me think a lot last year. In an increasingly complex world, it seems to me that a capacity to understand the “big picture” and to operate in complex systems is a key if we want to make substantial, transformational change. We need to be skilled, fast learners, systems thinkers, able to understand the key “leverage points” (one of my previous posts) and act strategically.

And there is more to this. Such a clear understanding of the system is never going to be enough without a deep connection to the source of our actions. Many have been drawn to understand more about the key factors of success -primarily in our competitive business world in the last years.

The what
When exploring the key factors of success of an intervention -in business, in politics, in sports etc, it has been common in the last years to compare outcomes in similar field and “learn from the best”. It was the era of “benchmarking”. Analyze the product of your competitor, the lawn of your neighbor, the result at the elections of the other party, try to extrapolate the key success factors and tailor them for your situation.
There is value in it. There is a lot we can learn from other organizations’ success. Though, benchmarking alone was not enough, as so many solutions must be relevant for your context, your audience, your market etc. Also, there is such an easy risk to put together a Frankenstein of patches and bends copied somewhere else, that gives a false impression of professionalism while being a primal example of mediocrity (I am sure you have seen such examples).

The how
Analyzing the final product is not enough to learn from it. And it’s relevant to expand the search and look for the processes. The how we/they do it, and learn from it. Focusing on the process instead of the final result is also more open-ended in the possible solution, because the process is informed by high-level principles that are not stuck to a particular situation. If a key success factor is the principle of “Participatory Decision Making”, such how is more general than all the concrete solutions you will find, for it’s on a higher level of abstraction. Analyzing this “how” is a step forward.

The why
But the “how” may be not enough, because it may be not relevant to you. Much more than the final product, the process involves values, beliefs and assumptions around the world that are very personal. If you copy-paste the values of someone else without asking yourself how they relate to you, your story and where do you want to go, likely they will be short-lived. At the essence of your interventions in the world when you want to contribute for a transformational change there is your inner source of motivation. Your “why” do you do it.

Otto Scharmer has been doing lately a fantastic job in exploring such inner source of motivation, and it’s from his work that I have taken the frame of reference Product-Process-Source. The idea of Theory U, and other leadership theories today, is the need to explore this inner source as it has been for so long a blind spot in the leadership discourse.

Back to the great quote at the top. While I still believe the capacity to understand the “big-picture” is so key, and is an important factor of success. (This is why I am so passionate about the FSSD, Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development). And I believe we need that strong connection to the source. I am so inspired by the assumption of MLK that the source of our action must be a place of love.

[...] You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love. [...]

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bridging cultures in an increasingly crowded room

In engaginKna, havel, karlskrona, quotes, social change on October 28, 2010 by eccemarco

Imagine our world. Increasingly interconnected and packed.

“Our modern civilization could be compared to a common room in which we are doomed to live together, but which does not change the fact that each of us is a different being. More than that, as we become more numerous, and the conforming pressure of of the present civilization increases, we seem to be ever more irritated by others’ dissimilarities, feeling an ever greater urge to defend our individuality against all that may tend to dissolve it in some cosmopolitan sauce – or even against anything that is simply different”

Vaclav Havel – “A revolution in the human mind” 1996, speech before the Latin American Parliament.

This simple metaphor was used by Vaclav Havel to explain the reaffirmation of national and local identities in often violent expressions. I was struck by the simple metaphor that explained (and predicted) the radicalization of some local identities.

I am living in a city in the south of Sweden that is facing challenges with integration amongst cultures. As I am quite enjoying my life here and feeling extremely lucky to be doing a job that I love, I also felt at times that the connection with the community was still missing (as in my other post). This town represents for me a small-scale reproduction of some common challenges of the northern Europe: many people from other countries have been moving here in the recent years to settle and have a better life, and there are significant cultural gaps that need to be bridged.

In the last months I have been reflecting a lot about how do these challenges and hopes relate to me personally and found a close connection in many ways to this topic.

Long story short: I have been witnessing discouraging examples of how a place / community / country can become over time closed minded and unwelcoming to the strangers. I learned from that experience that simply accepting the presence of the “other” and his diversity in a community is not enough to get real integration. We need to reach out and build bridges. Intentionally, with our compassion, getting rid of our fears, accepting the possibility that after meeting “the other” we may change our look at the world – with all the comfort that this gives us. I found in this a strong motivation to explore what’s happening in Karlskrona about social cohesion and integration between different cultures.

The “why”
Only three years ago, had I had inspiration for an initiative (volunteering, a new work or whatever) I wouldn’t have talked much about my motivation. Like those things that are too big to talk about, I would have rationalize it or -even worse- taken it for granted. New explorations in leadership have moved the focus of attention from the process to the source as the most powerful leverage point. Focusing on the “why”, on the inner source of motivation and continuously checking in with that motivation is a key aspect in modern theories of leadership – I compare it with taking care of your fireplace.

I had some beautiful chats so far with Augusto Cuginotti and Kiara Nagel (thank you both!) to check-in with my motivation and explore my quest behind this. From Augusto I got the suggestion to explore my commitment and to look at the “big picture”, ie how this challenge on the small scale is relevant in the world today. From Kiara I got the advice to be ready for some push back, and be ready to carry on when that happens – because there will be some push back.
My passion starts from the belief that intentional transformational change can and does happen, and we have to be compassionate, caring, skillful and graceful to make it happen.

What is happening for now is a round of exploratory interviews with people who have a stake in the issue of integration. I am keeping the conversation very open, exploring how comfortable people here feel in talking about it.

The game of social change is on.

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