John Renesch: Exploring the Better Future

My Emails with Iran

In this past week, I connected with two Iranian futurists based in Tehran who are fellow members in Shaping Tomorrow’s Foresight Network. In our first year we have grown to nearly 1,300 members, mostly professional futurists from all over the world.

I invited these two men to engage in a conversation with me given the posturing of our two governments in recent years and the growing tension and talk of invasion by the U.S. I found myself deeply touched when I learned last week they were familiar with my work. I’m known in Iran? I suspect my surprise was largely due to a complete misunderstanding of what the people and the country are like. After all, I have never been there and have only known FORMER citizens of Iran, or Persia as it was called in its past incarnation, and a relative handful at that. As an example of my ignorance, I hadn’t realized Iran is not a Arab country. They speak Farsi and English.

The conversation has just begun, only a couple of days now, but I can already see we have much to learn from one another. One of the men sent me two documents yesterday; one was a 2002 open letter to Americans which he translated for a student-friend of his. It pleads for a creative, conscious and wise approach to resolving conflict rather than the saber-rattling and blustery rhetoric by both governments. Here is a link to the Letter.

The other document was a white paper created by Israeli intelligence on the subject of Iranian cultural values, self-image and negotiation style. He thought that while Israelis may be most critical and judgmental of Iran, I would still find their assessment interesting and informative. Indeed, I did.

I have invited each of them to post here if they so choose and invite anyone else to comment on this entry for the month of May. 

Liberating Ourselves From Our Slavemasters

In my newsletter this month, I wrote about liberating ourselves from the unwanted influences of all the systems in which we find ourselves - family, industry, schools, friends, work, location, race, nationality, religion, etc. Perhaps hundreds of systems find their way of influencing what we do and how we think and we are mostly unaware of theses forces.

New Dimensions Radio's Justine Toms emailed me after reading my editorial and asked:

You point out that emancipation "from insidious systems cannot take place until 1. we learn to recognize systems dysfunction and 2. we become more aware of the various systems affecting us. . . "

Good advice . . now, how do we do this? . . . after all, we are swimming in the sea of this dysfunction and, like fish in water, we are not aware of the very sea we are in.   To begin to actually name the various dysfunctions, and then to hear many points of view as to how others are going about dismantling them in their business and in their lives would be of interest to me.

Prompted by Justine's question I thought this month's blog subject could be sharing experiences others have had in breaking free of multiple insidious system influences.

I invite you to share your experiences or yoru challenges.

I also want to share this very inspriting video with you all: http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/229 .

Maintaining Good Attitudinal Hygiene: Getting Clean and Healthy - Mentally, Spiritually and Emotionally

Most of us pay pretty close attention to our physical cleanliness. We shower, brush our teeth and perform daily bodily functions with intention and consciousness. In the West, it is considered good personal hygiene and adds assurances we’ll remain healthy.

According to Wikipedia, “The term "hygiene" is a reference to Hygieía oder Hygeía, the Greek goddess of health, cleanliness and sanitation (Roman equivalent: Salus). Hygiene is also a science that deals with the promotion and preservation of health.

In some countries, personal hygiene has become more an issue of social acceptance or fear of offending others with annual sales of deodorant, lotion, mouthwash, powder and cream in the billions. But the hygienic focus is almost always physical. We pay close attention to our hair, teeth, underarms, genitals, nails and underarms – all parts of our physical bodies. Some of us exercise regularly, watch our diets and take supplements so we feel better and enjoy better health. But how much attention do we pay to our emotional, spiritual and mental health? What about our “attitudinal hygiene?”

How much attention do we pay to our intellectual diets? How discerning are we about what we read or watch on TV or hear on radio? What attention do we pay to the lyrics of the music we listen to or the talk shows and Sunday morning pundits we endure.

What degree of consciousness are we employing when we allow ourselves to become emotionally constipated, with suppressed feelings bottled up and turning rancid inside us? 

We take such care to avoid infections of our bodies yet most of us are so careless about exposing our thinking and feelings to infection from negativity, cynicism, resentments and imagined fears. How well do we nourish ourselves spiritually? Do we maintain our spiritual practice whether it is structured religion, private meditation or walks in Nature?

How would you rate your hygiene in these three areas of your life? This might be something to consider – perform an inventory of sorts. Where could you improve your health spiritually, emotionally and intellectually?

In seems to me that we’d have a much healthier society and a much better world if we spread the idea of good personal hygiene to include the entire environment around us, the people we spend time with, the physical space we occupy, the entertainment we consume as well as what we eat and drink. Good attitudinal hygiene offers us an opportunity to be healthy emotionally, spiritually and mentally as well as physically. As comprehensively healthy people we will more likely be making wiser more mature choices and, therefore, create a better future for ourselves, our children and generations to come.

Tragedy as Metaphor: How Dysfunctional Systems Can Be Fatal

Early last year I visited the San Francisco Zoo with a friend who was visiting from Germany. She had wanted to see the zoo and I hadn’t been there since childhood. Late one afternoon, we drove out to the beach where the zoo is located, bought tickets and set out on our adventure.

Even though it had been some time since I’d been to the zoo, I couldn’t help noticing the experience wasn’t at all what I expected. Surprisingly, I felt I had walked in and disturbed the people who work there, like I had intruded on their territory. Workers wouldn’t look at you as they walked by. Maintenance equipment was as much on display as the animals. There were places that would have been great for viewing the cats and the other wildlife but they were filled with wheelbarrows, hoses and other implements for tending the animals. I was well aware we had entered the grounds late in the day, perhaps an hour before closing, but they were still open! Why was I feeling so unwelcome, so intrusive?

As we were leaving the zoo’s grounds I realized we had been engaged with a bureaucracy, a system unused to being in contact with the general public. Yet this was a concession specifically intended for the public, especially children. How could such a dysfunctional system pass muster given its large public profile?

A day or so later I sent an email to our mayor, whom I had found to be more responsive than most of his predecessors, offering to deliver a two-day workshop on system dynamics similar to the one I had done last year for a graduate business school’s executive education program. The name of the workshop is “Recognizing and Curing Systems Dysfunction: How Organizations Behave and Misbehave” and I offered to present it pro bono for the City and County of San Francisco. There was no response, either from the mayor or from whomever he may have forwarded my offer to.   

Late last year, on Christmas Day, a tragedy occurred at the zoo which made the headlines around the world. Perhaps you saw the story. A young man who may or may not have been taunting the tigers, was killed by one of the magnificent cats when it leaped across the safety moat. She attacked three young men, who were later found to have slingshots in their possession, injuring one fatally. It was later determined the design of the cats’ enclosure was sub-par based on industry safety standards, so the management of the zoo, a private firm, appears to be complicit in this tragedy.

When police were summoned they shot and killed this beautiful 350 pound Siberian Tiger named “Tatiana.” The public was outraged, seemingly as much about the execution of the big cat as the young man losing his life.

Recently, a friend reminded me of mystical traditions that link great cats with power and large spirits, the embodiment of powerful spirit for which many cultures and traditions yearn. As she was talking I interpreted the death of this beautiful cat as a symbol of how dysfunctional systems suck the life from us, drain power and spirit from those who are in close contact with it. I could see the metaphorical irony in this: dysfunctional systems kill. They squelch the spirit, drain energy and contribute to decline in well-being and even death.

Think of all those people who work in systems sapping their “chi,” their spirit, their life force as they continue to endure conditions which are life-draining rather than life-affirming. Perhaps the story of Tatiana will inspire people who are putting up with work situations which are slowly killing them, like the parable of the boiled frog. Perhaps they’ll be inspired to either break free or transform their workplace to one that brings people back to life, performs at levels that excite everyone and allows for passionate engagement on the part of all who touch it, employees, owners, vendors, customers and, yes, even the animals!

A Gratification Society: Is It Driving Us to Extinction?

I am starting to write an editorial for my monthly newsletter, FutureShapers Monthly, in which I focus on the shift of paradigms society must experience to create a sustainable future. One of the  behaviors that will be changing when this paradigm shift occurs will likely be a reduced adolsecent demand for everything right away. We have become an “on demand society” and fully expect everything to be available to us now, right now! And the market accommodates this demand as things continue to move faster and faster to keep up with this mass obsession with “I want it now.”

Is this drive to gratification on demand healthy for us? Or is it serving as a palliative for our over-stimulated psyches leading us to becoming so obsessive about accumulating material stuff and experiences?

If there is any chance for us to transform to a sustainable society we must curb our propensity to obsessively consume. We will need to let go of this insatiable albeit adolescent desire for instant gratification.

As we accept greater responsibility for our reality, our world, we will pass through passages of emotional and spiritual maturity that we’ve all known only on a physical level. This is the transformation that awaits us as a species. This is the passageway to a new way of living and working together.

I welcome your thoughts.

If I’m So Sane the World Must Be Nuts!

Either I’m insane or the world is! Since I feel pretty much okay, I surmise that the world around me in certifiably insane.

Remember that old saw about the definition of insanity: continuing to do the same thing expecting a different result each time?  Well the collective consciousness we call society-as-a-whole appears to either insist upon or at least condone doing things we know don’t work. Yet we keep doing them, over and over again!

We resort to war when we know wars don’t resolve the conflict. We claim to want a better life for our children and heirs yet we continue sacrificing the environment and spoiling the ecosystem which future generations need for sustained life on Earth. We demand freedom, democracy and human rights yet we enslave ourselves with debt and a variety of addictions that rob us of free choice. We demand fairness and social justice but witness gross injustices without muttering a word of protest.

Most of the systems we have created are compromised. Their primary purpose is no longer what we created them to do but simply to survive. In systems lingo this means “not change” or remain stable. So the legal system may not be just. People may get ill in hospitals. Deaths increase when doctors take holidays. Democratic governments forget to serve the people and start serving themselves. Aggressive war decrees against drugs, terror and poverty results in escalating their use not diminishing them. Schools stunt learning in children. These are just a few of the examples of systems gone astray from their original purposes.

Our revered sciences tell us that we’re all interconnected yet we act as if we are quite separate from one another, almost alien to one another! We rush to fundamentalist viewpoints of all varieties despite knowing that it polarizes rather than integrates us. We engage the complex systems we have created with childish naiveté, as if the problems facing us can be solved simplistically. We are so in love with our technologies that we rush to put them to work for us without concern for the long-term effects they will have on life as we know it. If we possess the ability to do something, we feel compelled to do it! Discernment be damned, “progress” at all costs!

And, despite the feedback and the gross breakdowns we keep doing it over and over again!

Just who is insane here?

There’s been talk among modern mystics of a coming Age of Wisdom, when a more mature human surfaces to bring wise counsel to the widespread adolescence running amuck in the world today. But where are these wiser, more mature people who would bring sanity to today’s dominant cultures? Where are the elders who will show the rest of us what impact our insanity will have on us, our children and our children’s children?

Are these prophesized wise elders going to show up and save the day like modern day superheroes? Or are they already here, quietly pretending to be sane like the rest of us? Does this Age of Wisdom depend on people who haven’t yet arrived on Earth or is it living in potential within all of us, waiting to be called forth like the innate adult strength that resides in the older teenager, able to be tapped as soon as adulthood is fully embraced.

Are we all pretending everyone else is nuts so we can feel sane? Are we waiting for someone else to take the lead and save us from ourselves? Or, are we denying that we are the ones on whose shoulders our future depends? Are we avoiding the responsibility of invoking sanity and maturity in our world so our children and their children have a decent chance of lives worth living?

No wonder people choose to believe that God will rescue their butts, given the insanity that prevails in our world. No wonder others choose to believe that if they kill infidels they will be rewarded in the afterlife. Both of these extreme views rely on a next life to make the insanity in this life more tolerable, to justify an existence that is otherwise intolerable.

If the world is nuts, we might accept any beliefs that promise respite, consolations or temporary vacations from the insanity.

My choice is different. My choice is to ask us all to tap that mature adult that lives within each one of us and ask him or her to stand tall for a sane approach to affirming life here on Earth, now, transcending the dysfunctionality of the systems we have created, shaping a future that honors and respects all life, is spiritually fulfilling and environmentally sustainable.

Let’s all try sanity for a change and start acting more like the mature and wise adults we know we can be. Then our world will start looking better and the future will be much more promising.

Are We Willing to Change or Have We Lost the Will to Live?

While I know we human beings have everything we need to transform ourselves as a global society and am on the record for saying this, I do not know with anywhere near the same certainty whether or not we have the collective will. So when I watched this video the speaker caught my ear immediately.

Former editor-in-chief of Discover magazine Stephen Petranek spoke at the annual TED conference in 2002 on “Ten Ways the World Could End.” The video of his talk was just recented posted on the TED website (September 2007). In a segment of his talk titled “We Lose the Will to Survive” Petranek says that according to the World Health Organization “depression is the biggest epidemic facing humanity today.” Watch the entire talk here:

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/167

The evidence would suggest that as a species we aren’t willing to change even though we know we need to transform ourselves if we are to survive. Many of us have been serving as evangelists for social transformation for twenty or more years and my own experience would suggest mass unwillingness. What do you think?

Don't Get Even....Get Mad!

You’ve heard it before as a tongue-in-check cliché: “Don’t get mad, get even.” I received an email recently promoting a new book, published in the UK, entitled Getting Even, a collection of revenge stories! Personally, I wish far more people would really get angry instead of resorting to vengeance whenever they feel wronged. Perhaps for us Americans it is a carryover from our “wild West” roots and gunfighter lore, the John Wayne “real men don’t cry” stoicism. Our legal system is more steeped in vengeance than rehab. It infects our foreign policy and influences our readiness to go to war. Getting revenge instead of seeking reconciliation is at the heart of so many of our world’s problems. And we perpetuate this aspect of our culture in our movies, TV shows, books and magazine articles.  It even seems to have penetrated children’s cartoon shows on TV!

If we are ever going to grow up as mature human beings, we have to learn to responsibly express all our emotions, anger included, and not “act it out” by getting even. Vengeance is adolescent and immature. It may sell movies but it is pandering to the teenager mindset that seems to enjoy heroes bent on getting revenge. Sorry Arnold, Bruce, Charles and Mel. I know those vengeance-riddled roles helped make you all movie stars but you only served to glamorize a trait the human species must shed if we are ever going to transcend our “naked ape-ness” into wiser, more mature beings.

It isn't like we don't have examples of alternative approaches. The restorative justice movement is more concerned with healing victims' wounds and restoring offenders to law-abiding lives than seeking retribution.  As a nation, South Africa was the first country to transcend the vengeance model when it opted to reconcile its citizens’ differences and forgive rather than seek revenge for atrocities during the apartheid era.

Getting angry does not mean going on a rampage or a tirade. It simply means allowing the emotion of anger to rise within oneself, to feel it with all its intensity and stay with it until it resides. This is natural human process. You feel it in your body and stick with it. This is the mature approach to processing emotions of all kinds.

This “staying with it” is where most people bail out. I certainly did before I learned that suppressing my feelings didn’t make them go away so they festered inside me. Then the tendency is to find something for distraction (alcohol, yelling, driving fast, drugs, overworking, TV or something else) or get into our heads about it and wrap all kinds of justification or rationalization around it which makes righteous anger more thinking than feeling. Resentments and righteousness are intellectual positions and cannot be processed. Holding onto those thoughts is why most people can’t seem to let go of their desire for revenge. Obsessive thinking keeps the seeds of the emotion stored in the body where it stagnates or putrefies. Many holistic health practitioners, including some MDs, believe this is where most of our systemic diseases come from. Holding on to all that unexpressed emotion, they contend, contributes to cancer, chronic back pain and heart disease.

So, the next time someone advises you “don’t get mad, get even” tell them you choose a healthier way and find a place to be just as angry as you need to be. I promise it will pass quickly from your body unless you insist it take up permanent residence.

Choices, Choices, Choices

On those days when life seems incredibly simple and the complications we humans like to create have all gone into temporary hiding, it occurs to me all we need to do is be fully aware of our choices. It is that simple. We make hundreds of choices every day, mostly unconsciously. To make them more consciously may not be easy… but it is simple.

Dozens of times an hour we choose A over B, many out of habit, few with conscious intention, begrudgingly and, hopefully, a few that bring us joy and do not harm anyone or any thing. Smiling or not smiling is a choice. Saying “hello” or remaining silent is a choice. Picking up a piece of trash in the public commons or walking past it is a choice. Making eye contact with someone you are passing on the sidewalk or averting your eyes is a choice of A over B. Simple but maybe not easy.

Our choices are where consciousness shows up in the world. Choices we make each and every minute create the reality in which we live. The reality in which we live is a result of our consciousness. If we seek a new reality, and seek greater consciousness, how can we ignore the choices we make over and over again, every day throughout our lives?

The politician who chooses how to vote has intention, motive and thought invested in that choice. It is somewhat conscious. Even if it is a bad choice it is being made with awareness and deliberation. The choices that same person makes in traffic when another motorist cuts them off is often unconscious and reactive. Raising their voice with their child is another choice, usually unconscious.

Police officers who put their lives on the line each day in our large cities made a conscious choice to serve in this way but are their choices to be mean and brutal in an instant of anger, stress or fear being made consciously? Are they fully conscious of what they are eating “on the run” or that donut they grabbed in the morning?

Is the manager meeting with his/her team as present to each of them, as fully aware of their words, tone and eye contact as they were when they wrote the CEO about a sensitive matter?  Are members of the team as aware of their going along with decisions with whicj they do not agree as they might be in asking the person in the accounting department out for a date? Is their head nodding in agreement or silent tongue simply a habit now?

As far as I can see, this awareness is where “the rubber meets the road” when it comes to more conscious living. Our consciousness shows up in our buying decisions, each call we make, every conversation we have, what foods we eat, how we treat one another, any addictions in which we indulge, the expression on our faces and much, much more. And each choice is simple, like chocolate or vanilla.

For me, I seek to make more and more everyday choices with awareness, deliberation and intent. This is how I can create the reality I wish to see in the world. This is how I practice becoming a more conscious human being.

Leadership Development Programs: Worthy or Bunk?

[In my August 2007 newsletter editorial I challenged whether the billions spent on leadership development was being wasted. Colorado consultant Michael Cushman responded the same day (see his email below) and it looked like this exchange could be of interest to more people. Hence, he agreed to engage with me on the subject publicly, here in the blogesphere. I suggest you read my editorial (see link above) then our first exchange (below). - JR]

RELATED PODCAST:
Becoming a Conscious Leader...a few thoughts and ideas for your action. Click here to listen

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Hi John

Thoughtful message and thought provoking.  Thank you for sharing.

I agree with the overall view and comment, and a few nuances came to mind.

1. I agree that currently, much of the money is wasted, but I'm not so sure I'll go all the way and say training itself is useless. Much of the training on leadership is within companies and it focuses on technique because they don't want disruptive leaders, they really want manager--followers who work within the system and maintain the status quo leadership team.  The goal isn't really leadership, or leadership training what do you think?

2. What's the role of context?  Mother Teresa as President of Russia?  Most likely she would flop.  Churchill was great in war leadership and horrible in peace. 

3.  That raises the issue of personality.  Different personalities work or fail in different circumstances, isn't that so?

3. Values...the term "values" is much used, but seldom defined.  I use to be a proponent of values in leadership, but I've come full circle.  The leaders you mention have a passionate purpose and stay authentic to their purpose.  And by the way, their purposes are noble.  Hitler, Stalin, Mao...had many followers (# of followers being an objective standard of leadership ability), but didn't, in the end, obtain noble results.  Our judgment of Leadership ability seems to be influenced by cultural morality; it's not really objective, and without objectivity, can we really come to know what leadership and followership really are?

4. My own area of expertise is the biological basis for group dynamics, and naturally leadership is a part of that.  All leaders, in my opinion, raise the status of the group, whether that's the poor, blacks in SA, the Britons, Woman, Communists, Germans, etc.  It is obvious when you think about it.  However, without seeing leadership and followership  as a system, with roots in evolution, the obvious escapes observation. 

Anyway, your newsletter is well written and stimulating.  I always take the time to read it fully.

Regards,
Michael

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Michael, allow me to respond in the same sequence.

1. Knowing how systems tend to behave, it shouldn't surprise us that the system gets what it wants unless someone is conscious of its quirckiness and savvy to its insidious nature. So of course an unobserved or unexamined system is likely to make sure it doesn't breed any leaders who might upset the status quo. The respondents in Heil-Kyle's survey admitted they were folliwng the whims of the culture, not their own aspirations. This should be pretty clear...the system wants people who conform, like you say. I would also add that i did not mean to suggest ALL monies are a waste, only MOST.

2. Context is very important, of course.

3(A). So is personality, as is circumstance.  It is the qualities demonstrated that serve as aspirations for most would-be leaders.

3(B). Values is so abused these days. Each side of the many chasms between people claims they have values, implying or even accusing the other side of having none. That's bunk too. Osama bin Laden has strongly held values. So did Hitler. But they are DIFFERENT values that we might hold dear. Values, like taste and preference is individual not absolute. I suspect nobility is the same so one person's noble cause is another's sin against the world. Leadership is a skill or an art but it doesn't come with a conscience as far as I can see. That's why most of my writing about it is "conscious leadership" defining a set of values and priorities that accompany the skill.

4. I would contend your definition could be better stated as "All leaders, who share my values, raise the status of the group..."

I look forward to your comments,

John

One World, Indivisible

[I am posting my editorial from my July newsletter - FutureShapers Monthly - because I think the subject is important and there is urgency in addressing this. - JR]

The phrase “one nation, indivisible” is very familiar to Americans of my generation who have learned “The Pledge of Allegiance” to their country’s flag in their early school years. Ironically, the pledge was written in the late 1800s for a flag seller as part of an advertising campaign. More recently the words “under God” were inserted between “nation” and “indivisible” but I still recall the original version which I must have repeated hundreds if not thousands of times as a child and young adult. 

                                                                      American schoolchildren pledging allegiance to the flag circa late 1930s

Abraham Lincoln’s famous 1858 speech emphasized "a house divided against itself cannot stand” – words that also come to mind as I was pondering the excess divisiveness so prevalent in my country today. We are presently building silos of ideologies, isolating ourselves into factions and preaching to our choirs about the faults and defects of “the other.” Each silo is suffering from “groupthink” – reinforcing its own dogma and avoiding any feedback that disagrees with the party line. This simply builds the walls dividing us higher and higher, making reconciliation more difficult.

In my mind, there is no doubt that we are well along the way of irreparably dividing ourselves here in the U.S.  I get emails every week, from liberal friends and conservative friends, some calling themselves libertarians, some progressives, that shock me with their vitriol, the mean-spirited nature of their commentaries or, in lieu of their own compositions, the texts they are forwarding which contain such sarcasm and dismissive characterizations of people with whom they disagree. It is as if many people, friends of mine included, are sacrificing relationships in order to be right, subordinating community to their righteousness and, in some cases, putting their opinions ahead of friendships and family. Technology is allowing us to go beyond the limits of common decency because we don’t have “the other” facing us; we can hide behind the shield of technology and hurl our insults from the safety of our computers.

We are taking our opinions far too seriously when we put our prejudices and ideologies ahead of people. There is nothing wrong or unhealthy with contention, debate and even argument as long as it is in the context of respect and relationship with the other person. Successful people realize the benefits of contentiousness and debate. It often improves the outcome as both sides sometimes see value in the other’s position and, usually, a better result emerges. George Washington saw this in our nation’s founding. A strong advocate of opposing sides on issues engaging in debate, he recognized how this could lead to optimal outcomes. However, he was also wary of partisanship that could lead to concretized positions and less than optimum results, often a compromise to the lowest common denominator.

Healthy differences of opinion have helped America grow and prosper. Respectful contentiousness comes with citizenship in a democracy! The diversity of ideas and cultures has proven incredibly valuable in our nation’s history. After the contentiousness the opposing players can laugh together, have a beer and leave with good natured feelings for all concerned. But vitriolic, cruel and dismissive sarcasm and meanness leads to rifts that may prove permanently damaging to others – people, perhaps even friends and family members. Like war without explosions, it leads to deep wounds that cannot be healed with a beer or a laugh.

What effect does this “dissing” (disrespectful and dismissive behavior) of each other have in the rest of the world? How many culture wars are going on, above the surface and below, where the opposing parties harbor hate and disrespect for the other side. America, once a model for the power of a diverse democracy, has now become a model of separation, “us versus them” which reflects in our domestic politics (which is reported around the world every day) and our hegemonious foreign policy. The world is becoming more divided in stark contrast to the 1945 U.S.-sponsored vision for a united world (the United Nations). The United States is now engaged in a new “civil war;” instead of blue versus grey it is red versus blue..

We are creating a “divisble” nation and a “divisble” world. Can the nation still stand if it is divided? Was Lincoln wrong? Or will it fall apart as ideological factions take precedence over relationships with fellow citizens?

Borders on maps are human constructs which are artificial anyway so the world won’t really be divided – only the people will. States and nations are also artificial so they may go extinct but not the continents on which they once stood. The planet will survive our divisiveness but will our civilizations? 

Do you know the story of the collapse of the Easter Island civilization?  They could build 80-ton statues 33 feet high which remain there today as evidence of their civilization. And they could drag them 12 miles where they arranged them in a pattern, a seemingly impossible task given their lack of technology. They could navigate the Pacific Ocean, reaching the most remote islands in the world. However, to do this they could also cut down their rich rain forest, ultimately dooming themselves to extinction.  With no trees left for fishing canoes, the Easter Islanders turned to finding more and more reasons to hate one another, eventually resorting to cannibalism and devouring each other. The population fell by 90% in a few years and neither the society nor the island ecology have recovered in the 300 years since.

How can people be so dumb, you might ask? Evolutionary biologist Jared Diamond says that sometimes it's a failure to perceive a problem, especially if it comes on very slowly, like climate change. Often it's a matter of conflicting interests with no resolution at a higher level than the interests --- warring clans, greedy industries. Or there may be a failure to examine and understand the past.

Unless more people start insisting on respectful communications about their ideologies – their “interests” - and encourage dialogue rather than war as a means of reconciling their different interests, our species will continue to divide and fragmentize. Will our incivility toward one another degenerate into some modern version of cannibalism? Unless we cease this warring – domestically with each other and internationally through our foreign policy – we just might continue to perceive the problem until it is too late. 

We are better than this! We can do much better in getting along with one another. So let’s use technology to bring us closer together, not further separate us. Let’s stand for a higher road in reconciling our differences. If we insist on perpetuating this divisiveness, humans could be added to the endangered species list.

Recorded history has been consistent regarding the lifecycle of empires. All the ones with which we are familiar – Mongolian, Spanish, Portuguese, Roman, British, Soviet and Ottoman to name a few – have not been overturned by another power. All of them have imploded, weighted down by their own hubris, much like Easter Island. Let us walk a different path and cease this divisiveness before we ruin this great country. Let us start the essential self-reflection we have so stalwartly avoided.

Join me in ending the cycles of incivility, negativity, disrespect and sarcasm. Take a stand by refusing to engage in conversations or email exchanges that perpetuate these cycles that take us all down to lower and lower levels of human relationship. Stop listening to it; stop repeating it; stop encouraging this pattern of divisiveness. Instead of opposing what we don’t like, let’s start proposing what we do want. Instead of spouting our opinions and preaching to those in our silo, let’s reach out to those who have different viewpoints. Nothing will change unless we do.

The Future of Organizations

Two weeks ago I delivered a two-day workshop on systems thinking to a group of 40 executives for a business school in Trinidad. Subsequent mail exchanges with some of the participants has moved me to start this conversation, specifically on organization systems and their functionality, leadership and vitality. So here goes....

One cannot engage the subject of the future of the world without engaging the organizations we have created and address their dysfunctionality, the way they seem to resist change and the apparency that no one is in control of them sometimes.  The world will never change unless our organizations do.

When one is anticipating making meaningful change occur in a system - be it a company, institution, government - systems thinking is not only a huge advantage I would say it is essential if the change is major and you want it to last. Some people merely want to "tweak" their organizations, make an improvement in some aspect of its functioning. Sometimes incremental change can be perfomed linearly. But others may want to reinvent the culture entirely, or make significant changes to it. This would be meaningful change or what many call "organizational transformation."

I have written a lot about The Conscious Organization, which I envision as the ultimate system for functionality and effectiveness. You can read some of these articles and past issues of my newsletter at www.Renesch.com.

I would be interested in hearing of real life situations where meaningful change is desired but thwarted by the system. Anyone interested?   

NEW QUERY: See another inquiry that may interest some of you.

Rallying the Collective Will to Transform

Thanks to Yvonne from Canada for the challenging query (see her comment under "It doesn't have to be this way!"

There are a few things I know and many more I don't know when it comes to social transformations, such as the challenge of shifting from a global culture/paradigm of separateness, fear/terror, scarcity, reductionism to one that allows humankind to get along as a family, caring for one another and having a sustainable home planet. This can seem daunting for some, most of whom choose to simply occupy themselves with things they feel they have more control over, such as amassing more toys, having fun or doing the best they can "under the circumstances" Never mind the "circumstances" may mean significant degradation of the quality of life for more and more people on this planet, living more in fear and denial, and increasing division amongst people and nations making the arms industry the primary gainer in the marketplace.

Others may wring their hands about how sad this state of the world is, perhaps forward emails and go to see movies (911, The Corp, Truth, etc.), recycle, march, etc. A few of us (probably several thousand in the world) have been beating a drum of social change / transformation for a few years and more are joining our ranks every day. I do know many of these people and I can say from experience that they, like me, feel called to continue the rallying cry for change. It's our job.

Another thing I know: there is real possibility for this to happen. Despite the growing wave of cynicism on this earth, I KNOW we can collectively shift the paradigm, reach a tipping point (plus all the other cliches). It has been done before in human history and it can be done again.

Another thing I know is it will not take a majority of people to shift the collective consciousness for this to happen. Everyone needn't be a holder of this vision of a better future as long as some committed people are (ala Margaret Mead). I also know that it will only come about if we are talking to one another, having meaningful conversations about important things like where are we headed as a species, what is our destiny and other inquiries into our consciousness about the future. Conversations about trials, Anna Nicole, scandals, celebrities and such occupy precious amounts of consciousness that could be much better applied to constructive dialogue about changing the status quo.

So, I speak at conferences, write books and articles, publish my newsletter, even start a blog (thanks to the Global Dialogue Center) as my part in helping to bring forth this sea change in worldview. My work is to get better and better at communicating a vision, provoking and challenging existing entrenchments in thought, and trusting that someone is impacted to start thinking differently and taking greater responsibility for our future. Like a nulear reaction that accelerates exponentially, the collective will could be an "overnight phenom" once ignition takes place.

What I do not know is when that ignition will occur. Or even if it will happen at all? It is, after all, a question of will - more willingness than will power - not ability. But I continue to do what i do because it is my calling, it is my job, and it makes me come alive!

What say all to that?

Conscious Futures

This is my first experience at blogging so my rookie eyes and mind can be easily surprised, I suppose. I just heard there have been 150 visits to my last post of mine and I'm surprised there hasn't been at least one posting. So...since somebody is actually reading these, here's another thought fresh from my afternoon walkabout along the streets of San Francisco.

Envision a future where almost everyone makes each choice with consciousness and full attention on what they were doing. Think of the world we could have!

Look at how we got this far in our survival of the fittest evolution. Most people through the ages have been well-intentioned, passionate, caring folks who were doing the best they could with what they had and knew. A few gifted people did magnificent things with their passions and skills, inventing, discovering, creating art and literature, leading movements and serving humanity. And civilization as we know it has evolved pretty positively despite a relative few dark individuals who were more infatuated with hate and power over others than love for their fellow human beings - as most were.

Considering there has been almost no consciousness in play through the millennia, we've done all right so far! But now, for the first time in history we have a new ability...we can destroy ourselves, annihilate the human race. One person can destroy millions of us thanks to our technological advances.

With great power comes responsiubility say sages through the ages. With this significant increase in our ability to do great harm,  comes a need to be a bit more mature in the choices we make, recognizing the long term impact of our actions and converting all the wealth of information we have available to us to practical wisdom.

If we evolved this far without thinking much about it, merely following invention after invention, discovery after discovery, cure after cure, think of what an exciting, sustainable, peaceful and compassionate future we could have if we stayed awake all the time.

It Doesn’t Have to Be This Way!

I was walking in the rain, quite a torrential storm actually, somewhat of an oddity here in San Francisco. Rain-geared to the hilt, I was trudging up one of our steep hills with parka hood snuggly fastened leaving me a tiny face hole for visibility and air. As often occurs during my daily schleps about the city, my mind was somewhat blank for the moment, free of thoughts about the day. Then the now famous scene from the 1976 movie “Network” popped into my mind, where actor Peter Finch, playing the part of a deranged news anchor, asks his television viewers to go to their windows, open them and scream into the night, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!” 

I have been writing and speaking about creating a different kind of world for many years. There’s no question that the consensus reality is pretty resigned to it being “the way things are” as people go about doing “the best they can under the circumstances.” Yet their very behavior argues for the circumstances. Most people’s consciousness is rooted in this resignation, this defeated state of mind that accepts small consolations instead of holding out for larger visions.

As this movie scene from the 1970s flashed by it dawned on me that this might be a good subject to explore in a blog.

There is little doubt the human mind is a powerful force, for good or evil. We have plenty of examples which I needn’t detail here. Ideas can be transformative, uplifting and awe inspiring as well as destructive, depressing and the cause for widespread suffering in the world.

An idea that is killing us spiritually, emotionally and even physically is one that puts limits on what is possible for the world and all living things that reside here. This idea, this thought, is reinforced with lots of rationale conjured up by our collective ego-minds. Each of these reasons seemingly add legitimacy to the idea that we can do nothing to change things; that things simply are the way they are and our job is to do the best we can within that limitation. Here are a few samples:
• I’m only one person and don’t have the power to change things;
• There are too many big problems; the situation is out of hand; 
• Better people than me have tried and failed;
• I have enough challenges on my own without taking on the world’s problems;
• I’m much too busy to think about it much less do anything.

This is the litany with which we fill our head instead of putting our values into action. They are excuses for inaction. That’s all they are. Democracy is a team sport and we’re all on the team. Many people who claim to be champions of democracy have taken to sitting in the grandstands, self selecting to be spectators instead of players or coaches. They have chosen to observe democracy like a play or a movie rather than performing their role as a team player.

Reviewing the five excuses I mentioned above, do you see a common thread that runs through each of them? Besides each of them being a cop-out, they all reside in a context of self-pity, martyr or victim. Each of them is a means to avoiding that feeling of powerlessness one is bound to encounter when one takes on a project of global scope, a project beyond one’s familiar comfort zone. By avoiding that feeling of powerlessness, those who rely on these excuses argue for their own powerlessness. Ironic huh?

Can you imagine how the world would be if everyone subscribes to these excuses? How would the world be if everyone watched from the sidelines? Well, for one thing, there’d be nothing to watch!

Now can you imagine how the world would be if most of us got back onto the playing field and rejoined the team, either as a suited-up player, a coach, team managers or whatever role was there to be filled? Can you imagine an organization or a country where there were more players than onlookers? Wouldn’t that be exciting! Can you imagine the kind of company or nation we might have with enthusiastic, completely engaged workers or citizens? And what about a world that consisted on actively engaged global patriots?

What would this cost? What would it cost us to stop settling for a resigned reality and start creating the reality that we really want? It will cost us our cynicism. It will also cost our resignation. It will cost us our excuses. It will cost us our victimhood and self-pity. From where I sit, these are all things I’m very willing to let go of, perhaps even eager to turn loose. After all, holding onto them sucks vitality from my soul and occupies space in my consciousness that I could put to far better use.

The world doesn’t need to be this way. It doesn’t need to have growing disparity between the haves and the have-nots. We don’t need to be so damn busy all the time. We don’t need to be worried about spoiling our Natural home, destroying our environment. Our world doesn’t need to endure genocide, wars, murder and all the other violence.

Life for our kids doesn’t need to be an endurance contest, filled with shallow consolations here and there while individual spiritual fulfillment, a sustainable environment and social justice remain only dreams. It can be different. But it will take a bunch of us to get into action. Let’s get our butts off the bleacher seats and find out where we can be of the most service and have the most fun while doing it. Let’s get back into the game and shout “It doesn’t have to be this way and I’ll play my part in changing it!”