Spirit of Institutions

Within the field of professionals and academics working on organizational change, there are many models that connect with the values that I'm pursuing. The examples to the right are some of those. They tap into intuitive, relational, ethical, and integrative ways of building organizations. I can sometimes slip into thinking that my interest is in translating spiritual discernment into secular settings. However, I think it is much more of a mutual exchange. Religious communities can learn a lot about discernment from these secular models.

In addition to nurturing community transformation, I think that these spiritual practices also prepare our grounding and readiness for discernment.

I believe some secular approaches to organizational development use methods and philosophies that are similar to religiously based discernment. For example, I think that "Theory U," (http://www.theoryu.com/) has many parallels to how Quakers do discernment. Theory U talks about "leading from the future as it emerges" by cultivating open minds, open hearts, and open wills. In Quaker language, we seek to discern God's call for a group by centering down and setting aside our egos.

Social challenges and opportunities pushing us to new ways of knowing, deciding, and collaborating

I see these practices as building a trusting, sacred "container" where discernment and spiritually-grounded action can happen.

There are oodles of books and frameworks about leadership. I am most interested in the ones focused on the inner path of leadership and also collaborative, collective leadership. A definition of leadership that I resonate with is from Otto Scharmer:Leadership: The capacity of a system to sense and shape its future.From this view, leadership can come from anywhere within (or outside) of an organization. It is not limited to those with formal positions of authority.