In simply reading the newspapers we can see significant changes happening as people are becoming involved in directing the course of their own lives, as well as the life of their communities and the governance of their country.  These changes are not just happening to us, they are happening with our participation.  We have an opportunity to influence the change in both positive and negative ways.

Todd Goldfarb has set up a website, www.worldwidetippingpoint.com.  He hopes to gather enough people together to make a positive difference in our world.  He has interviewed over 20 influential leaders about what is happening at this point in history.  This site is not just about theory; it is about how we can practically participate in the changes that are happening, and I encourage you to check it out.

While we can wish each other a happy new year, we can also do more than that.  Where do you stand?  How will you participate?   (Photo by Kookkai_nak)

There are several such initiatives in major cities across Canada, and this morning we heard about a collaboration in St. John, New Brunswick that has been working for seven years to eliminate poverty there.  In the first four years they were able to reduce poverty from 27% to 20%, but they don’t yet have the statistics for the past three years that will measure their overall progress.

Tom Gribbons emphasized the importance of having clear problem definitions and outcome measurements.  He told us the specifics of  how they define poverty, how they measure results, and how government, business (he focused especially on the business involvement) not-for-profit and civilian sectors were all involved.  He mentioned that we often limit the involvement of the business community by seeing their contribution primarily as funding initiatives.  However, the business sector can also provide expertise and hands-on help such as mentoring.

In large-scale change, no one sector can make a significant impact without the other sectors’ participation.  Hard work, commitment and strong, collaborative leadership are essential for these big initiatives to make progress.  They take many years to get established and to begin to show results.  A long-term plan is vital to success.

The plan to end homelessness here in Calgary is a 10 year plan. I do not know how many years it took before the plan even got established, and this is a very significant part.  Finding the right people who have influence in the community and a passion for the project is essential.  Then these people have to commit to spending time together to get to know each other, learn about the issue/problem (make no assumptions), involve the experts (the homeless who know about the problem so they can teach the team developing the program) and then learn what is working and what is not.  One of the presenters this morning said, “If you end up implementing the initial plan you have not learned anything along the way, and have probably not succeeded in doing the right things”.

Community engagement is what this institute was all about.  We do not just do something to people or something for people; we participate with people to create a better community for all of us.  In Calgary a multi-faith alliance is just forming.  Their approach is to invite people to join the alliance as participants.  They invite you to get to know your neighbours and the other participants.  First we need to find a community of people who are interested and committed.  After that we will search out what we can do together to make our communities flourish.

While we may think that our city is already a wonderful place to live, if we look closer we will see people suffering and not being supported in their struggles.  And we will also understand that the gifts and strengths we enjoy are vulnerable too –unless we intentionally share our own gifts with others.  Community engagement is not just sharing with our friends or a group of like-minded people; it is finding ways of getting to know others and building bridges across boundaries of class, race, religion and or age so we support the diversity of our community.

Spiritual Directions is an inclusive personal and spiritual growth centre that is developing plans for training and supporting leadership that can transform communities. If you would like to know more please contact John Griffith at john.griffith@spiritualdirections.com .

This does not mean there is no room for help from other sectors.  In fact in complex situations/problems, it is essential to include all sectors in collaborative action.  In Calgary the Homeless Foundation is a good example of collaborative work.  It addresses the wider community issue of homelessness by engaging government, business, not-for-profits, and, perhaps especially, the homeless who are the experts in the field.

Community engagement is about developing relationships as a first step toward acting together.  If there is no trust and commitment to a common agenda and action, then isolated activities will not provide a solution; they will just help a small portion of the problem.  Community engagement is defined as: “Citizens engaged in inspired action as they work and learn together on behalf of their communities to create and realize bold visions of the future”.  The levels of community engagement are, in no particular order:  1) Dispensing information to get people in the community to act together, 2) Consulting to get wisdom from everyone.  This research can help determine what the action might be, 3) Involving people in the community because this is ownership, not charity, 4) Collaborating by inviting many sectors to provide resources in a common effort, 5) Empowering people to take initiative.  This is a long process which involves hard work and commitment.

In the afternoon we broke into groups and enjoyed “Jane’s Walks” in several areas of the city.  “Jane’s Walk honours the legacy and ideas of urban activist and writer Jane Jacobs who championed the interests of local residents and pedestrians over a car-centered approach to planning. Jane’s Walk often takes Jacobs’ ideas to communities unfamiliar with her ideas, in order to advance local engagement with contemporary urban planning practices.  The walk helps knit people together into a strong and resourceful community, instilling belonging and encouraging civic leadership.”  These walks are held regularly in many cities across Canada including Calgary.  Click here for more information or google “Jane’s Walk”

In the evening  Mayor Naheed Nenshi  spoke about Calgary’s efforts to develop neighbourhood collaborations that honour everyone’s gifts and encourage people to take responsibility for the quality of their own lives and the lives of their communities.  Naheed is very much in line with this kind of leadership.

Tomorrow we will discuss the role of cities like Calgary in providing leadership for other cities near and far.  We are 250 people from across Canada who believe we have a very good country and want to work to make it even better.  It is truly inspiring to be in the midst of so many people who really believe in new ways of providing leadership in business, government and the not-for-profit sector.

We live in a culture, rooted in a patriarchal or hierarchical system of power that Peter calls “a culture of Empire.”  The Empire is dependent on rugged individualism that isolates people.  It structures life in predictable patterns that can be easily influenced and controlled.  This gives the illusion of freedom, security and stability.  Or maybe it is not an illusion, but a reality in which we are trapped.  The teachings of the Empire focus on scarcity, problem solving, competition and promoting a consumer mentality as a way of identifying one’s value.  Life is structured around serving the Empire and receiving benefits and services from the leadership.

Collaborative engagement is the new way of living.  It is relationships that define our life and give it value.  Intimacy, abundance, and a focus on gifts, promise and the participation of everyone is the way that provides us with a quality of life.  This spiritual perspective welcomes strangers, gives everyone a voice and builds on people’s strengths rather than pouring all our resources into problem solving.

Today, in small groups, we experienced what it is like to be listened to, to share deeply from our own life experience and to be part of a discussion that can transform the world.  Peter teaches that in small groups we model the way we want the world to be.  We bring our gifts to each other and honour the wisdom that everyone brings to the circle.  This is hard work.  And as we change the conversation and the way we live together, we create a world that is more humane and supportive of our own journey.

This is leadership that transforms and it is the work of all of us.

This morning John Kania spoke on “Collective Impact”.  He says that many social issues are adaptive problems, not technical problems.  Technical problems are easily defined, with solutions often known beforehand, and can be addressed by a single agency or sector.  Adaptive problems are complex; the issues are not easy to define, solutions are not obvious, implementing a strategy requires learning, and all aspects of the problem must be addressed together by a multi-sector team. This is spiritual work in the sense that it requires relationships of trust, learning, commitment to long term work, and mutually respectful communication.

In the afternoon workshops we talked about the elements of collaborative leadership and the four phases of collaborative change: Exploration, Development, Maturity and Creative Destruction.  Every project or agency goes through these phases and they each require a different type of leadership.

Phase one, the Exploration phase, is full of possibilities and is quite unstructured and changing.  Finally a decision has to be made about a direction, and your agency or project moves into the Development phase.  This is a more focused time when possibilities become realities and leadership is outcome driven.  The Maturity phase begins when you have a product or a pattern, and it is time to maintain and use it.  Good management is needed.  Eventually, though, a lack of energy emerges, and more work is required to keep things going.  Now it is time to enter into the Creative Destruction phase.  A creative, visionary leader can lead the group into a new mission, letting go of old patterns and preparing for new work.   These phases can also be seen in one’s own development in a called situation.

In collaborative community leadership, it is important to have a flexible and contemplative attitude in order to understand where you are at and what is needed

Quotes from the day:

“You can’t put soup on the stove and then go away and come back 2 years later and expect everything to be going well.” 

“Who has a strategic plan for raising a child?” 

“The second mouse gets the cheese.”

More tomorrow…on the second day of the institute.

John Griffith

In the bigger picture of evolutionary relationships, not much has changed.  The world has stepped back into fear, tightened up its defences and limited its openness to other human beings who are different and hold opposing views.

One of the principles of evolutionary relationships is: “We are One”.   An evolutionary response asks, “What is my role in this tragedy, what can I do to address the issues that create an atmosphere of opposition, and what can I do to create an atmosphere of healing and understanding?”

I can understand the need to protect one’s self and country, but creating an atmosphere of isolation with a “them” and “us” mentality, demonizing the other and glorifying the self are not helpful, nor do they lead to a greater sense of security.

Karen Armstrong, in her Washington Post article, Time for Religion to be a Force for Good,  says,  “… the great sages – Confucius,  the Buddha, the sages of the Upanishads, the prophets of Israel, Jesus, and Muhammad – were not prepared to sit back and do nothing (about violence). They all worked hard with the religious traditions they had inherited and made them address the problem. They were innovative, creative and daring. They worked as hard to find a solution to the problems of their world as we do today to find a cure for cancer. The solutions they came up with were all different – our religious traditions are not all the same; they are all significantly and wondrously varied. But each of them evolved an ethic of compassion and respect for others and tried to help human beings from their violent, selfish and greedy influences. Each world faith has developed its own version of the Golden Rule  … The world faiths also insist that we cannot confine our compassion to our own group; we must have “concern for everybody,” love the stranger, love even our enemies and reach out to all tribes and nations.” … read the whole post

Deepak Chopra, also writing in The Washington Post, quotes from his most recent book, The Deeper Wound, saying, “The immediate wound was the grief and shock of 9/11 itself. The deeper wound was our fear of death, and doubts about whether good can really prevail over evil. I wrote a good deal about fear, because the voice of fear is so powerful and convincing; it blocks our ability to reason; more crucially, it rips the fabric of faith, trust, and our connection to the soul.  One of the reasons that such counsel was needed, I thought, is that religion offers consolation in return for faith. It doesn’t set a person on the path of direct knowledge or an actual experience of an inner reality where fear is absent, peace is real, and the soul connection is restored.”  …  read the whole post

Evolutionary relationships that will carry the human species forward to its next level of consciousness require us to have: 1) a vision of where we want to go, 2) a practice that will help us transform the old paradigm of “me centered” relationships into an expanded purpose that focuses on “us” and 3) a sense of the gift we can be to the world.

It is important that we all become aware of the story we tell ourselves about tragedy, and that we reflect on how we deal with differences.  Creating evolutionary relationships is everyone’s responsibility.

Here is what one group is doing: The Peace Intention Experiment  http://www.theintentionexperiment.com/peace/about.htm

An evolutionary relationship is rooted in an evolutionary spirituality, which asserts that we are living in an extraordinary time in history when there is a possibility for a shift in consciousness that will re-define our purpose and the way we relate to the universe.

Most spiritualities up to now have been focused on “me” –on what I need and want to be happy or successful.  Individual spiritual growth has often been seen as denying the world and moving us into some spiritual state where we are purified, accepted, forgiven and given a status –where we separate ourselves from the world to “awaken” or “become holy”.  We have believed that a spiritual power (God) organizes life to meet our needs.  An evolutionary relationship moves from a “me” perspective to a “we” perspective.  We are asked to embrace the world because it is a part of us, a part of the unity of all of life.

In an evolutionary spirituality the universe is not just material stuff that we sentient beings manage.  The integral world view holds that there is a material realm that would be like the body we have; it is the way we show up.  There is a spiritual realm that is aware of the physical universe and has a consciousness that can reflect on our place in it. We are seen as being at one with creation, acting as God or the Universe consciously determining the future.  Some spiritualities have called this “idolatry”, but the evolutionary perspective acknowledges it as a new shift in our consciousness.

It takes a leap of faith to entertain this belief.  The task here is to differentiate the “ego view” from the “true self view.”  The ego state sees religion in a selfish way, bringing me salvation or enlightenment.  It is all about “me”.  The true self state allows us to be in the world with a deeper call and purpose.  There is a collective goal, a common good that calls for our participation in order for humanity to evolve.  The ego does not like this world view because it is not in control.  The ego does not like the word “sacrifice” because it implies giving up something that I need to establish myself in the world (influence, power, money or position) in order for some other person or group to become empowered.

However, it seems that there are more and more examples of people making commitments and putting their lives on the line for justice, love, peace –issues that change the world and the way we relate to one another.  This doesn’t necessarily mean that these people sacrifice themselves for greater goals, but they do see their calling and purpose fulfilled by using their life and their gifts for a bigger purpose.  So their life is not lost in the process.  It is expanded and transformed.

All life is sacred.  This is not a new way of believing. There have been aboriginal teachings and mystical traditions in several major religions that have espoused this truth and acknowledged the inter-connection of all of life.  However, today this belief is being embraced by a greater number of people.  Craig Hamilton puts it this way, “We recognize that if the human predicament is going to change in a meaningful way, some of us have to be the pioneers who evolve ourselves, which means our humanity, our individual nature and our collective habits.”  This is not an easy process, and I doubt that one person can do it alone.  We need each other to help us see our blind spots that keep bringing us back to past habits, to help us be aware of how our ego urges us to keep control of the way our life unfolds, and to help us be accountable for our actions.

I am quite excited about being alive at this time with this opportunity to help the universe evolve more consciously.  However, this transformation is not going to happen easily, nor is it going to happen unconsciously.  It requires intentional action and reflective learning. Spiritual Directions Centre provides many opportunities to explore this evolutionary perspective and what it means for your life: Workshops, Conversation Circles, Inter-Species Communication, Energy Healing, and much, much more.  Visit www.spiritualdirections.com/courses_and_workshops.html to see a complete list of our programs.

I will be blogging  more about the tasks of transformation, and am interested in hearing your thoughts.

We live in a time when we are promised the world, but often experience emptiness or missed opportunity.  It seems like fulfillment is always a step away.  When we do not get what we want or think we deserve, we project the fulfillment of life into the future, either in this world or the next.  We want some reward for our hard work, faithfulness and commitment while dealing with frustrations and disappointments.

At first we may think retirement is the time of reward for our unfulfilled years of searching for the meaning of life.  Reality proves otherwise. In retirement many people are as busy as ever searching for “What”?

Now a whole generation of baby boomers is on the edge of retirement and there is a lot of interest in spirituality as the answer to life’s yearning, because the accumulation of awards, things and accomplishments did not satisfy.  You can tell this is a hot topic by this list of recent books on the topic:
The Second Half of Life – Opening the Eight Gates of Wisdom,    Angeles Arrien,
The Five Stages of the Soul, HR Moody,
The Shift (Video) Wayne Dyer,
Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life – How to Finally, Really Grow Up, James Hollis,
Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life, Richard Rohr.

Although “The way life is supposed to be” often gets projected beyond retirement into life after death, there is a growing realization that this is our moment.  Most major religions are now emphasizing religious practices that focus on the present – centering or mindfulness, connecting to a higher power, realizing new levels of consciousness, committing to acts of service and generosity.

We are called to make a difference by being in the world with higher values and deeper connections.  However, this is not an easy shift; there is a cost.  The cost is “doing our work”.

Wayne Dyer describes the work of a person who moves into this deeper way of being and experiencing life.  He/she must become: 1) independent of the opinions of others, 2) detached from outcome, 3) not invested in control or domination, 4) able to see the unfolding of God in everyone.

This is not growth.  It is transformation.  It is a leap of faith into the next phase of life.  This new place is not heaven as we traditionally have viewed it; and it is not retirement either.  It is a new beginning that blesses us with a new perspective on what it means to be alive in the 21st century.

by John Griffith

Matt Mayer of LeadWell Initiative sent me an email about a survey they have developed to help us determine the leadership capacities of our political candidates in the areas of competence, character, conviction and courage.

Matt says, ” We are deeply concerned as an organization that our politicians and our political process isn’t giving consideration to the importance of  leadership in bringing forward the change that we need to see in our country and world. With an upcoming federal election on the horizon, we wanted to try and divert our national conversation away from “coupon sales” (i.e. if you vote for me I’ll bring you this…) into one of societal leadership. Where are the visions from which our country can backcast from?  What are the capacities of our candidates to lead societally?”

Click Leader Scorecard to do this 5 minute survey. LeadWell hopes to share the results with the national media as a first step to hosting a wider national discussion.  Only 2 weeks until voting time!   For more information about LeadWell Initiative click here.

We seem to be standing on the verge of a cultural, technological, and spiritual tipping point.  This moment can be seen in the events all around us, all around the world.  As I write there are street demonstrations in three Middle Eastern countries demanding a radical change in government.  But this moment not only exists outside of us.  In a spiritual sense, you are this moment, you are this threat, you are this opportunity. You and the world are radically one, not two different realities.  This world, its suffering, and the many crises looming on the horizon, are things we need to take very seriously.  This is our time to participate in moving our world forward into an age of unprecedented wisdom, compassion, cooperation, and creative problem solving.  But it will not just happen.  It takes intention and committed action to support the evolution of consciousness toward a new age.

This is our moment.  Consider your options.  Consider how you will participate.

John Griffith