Finding Our Way

How do you find your way as a leader?

Margaret J. Wheatley has taken her finest practice-oriented articles on leadership in the past 10 years and collected them into the book, Finding Our Way: Leadership For an Uncertain Time. Margaret did not just collect the material with cut and paste zeal, rather she updated, revised or substantially added to the original content of each article so that every article is up to date with her current views on the topic. I have always enjoyed reading Margaret's work and I love having so many of her fine articles under one cover.

When I conduct leadership education this book is now required reading. Although not meant as a textbook it makes a much finer textbook than most of the books currently used as leadership textbooks. But you don't have to take a course in leadership to apply this book, Margaret Wheatley will help you find your own way in these uncertain times.

The book is organized into 5 Sections and in total it includes about 30 different chapters. The sections are:

1. Organizing: There is a Simpler Way
2. Leadership: We Make the Road by Walking
3. Obstacles: Where the Road Gets Hard
4. Personal: Attending to Our Footsteps
5. My Own Footsteps

I encourage the reader to take their time with each chapter. Read it once. Reflect on what you have read. Find a few lines that stand out for you. Take more time to reflect on this. Determine how you can put this into practice.

Margaret writes so powerfully that I would like to honor her cogent and careful writing by offering you 3 snippets from the book:

Organization as machine or living system...

These days, a different ideal for organizations is surfacing. We want organizations to be adaptive, flexible, self-renewing, resilient, learning, intelligent --- attributes found only in living systems. The tension of our times is that we want our organizations to behave as living systems, but we only know how to treat them as machines. p. 32

Participation and change...

We never succeed in directing or telling people how they must change. We don’t succeed by handing them a plan, or pestering them with our interpretations, or relentlessly pressing forward with our agenda, believing that volume and intensity will convince them to see it our way. You can scream and holler as much as you want, but if people don’t regard what you’re saying as important, they’ll just ignore you and go on with their own life. (In this way, all people behave like teenagers.)...It is impossible to impose anything on people. We must participate in anything that affects us. We can’t act on behalf of anyone, we can’t figure out what’s best for somebody else. If leaders or task forces refuse to believe this and go ahead and make plans for us, we don’t sit by passively and do what we’re told. We still get involved, but from the sidelines, where we’ve been told to sit and wait. We get involved by ignoring, resisting, or sabotaging all plans and directives that are imposed on us. p. 105.

Listening...

Listening is such a simple act. It requires us to be present, and that takes practice, but we don't have to do anything else. We don't have to advise, or coach, or sound wise. We just have to be willing to sit there and listen. If we can do that, we create moments in which real healing is available. p. 208.

I hope you read this fine collection, listen to to how it speaks to you, and experience your own form of leadership healing.

*****

Reviewed by David Zinger David's own website (www.davidzinger.com) is devoted to work engagement and he is working hard to foster higher levels of authentic employee engagement that will be of benefit to all. Click here to visit and join the exciting and growing network David founded for people interested, involved, or engaged in employee engagement. He found Margaret's book an inspiration and practical source of ideas and approaches to further his work.

Comments

[Steve Sherlock]

Dave, thanks for leading this month. This is an appropriate book to lead with. I like 'organizations as living systems'. This is reinforced by 'participating' and 'listening'. We do need to be involved.

[David Zinger]

Steve:

Margaret has such a strong and powerful and caring voice. I am pleased you thought it an appropriate book to lead with as Margaret can lead us to some inspiring persepctives on leadership.

David

[Dean Boyer]

David, This so relates to education! There is hardly a more "living system" than a school setting. I love the simplicity, example, determination and self awareness that she presents. I believe education could learn something from this book. Thank you!

Dean

[David Zinger]

Dean:

I have taught in the Faculty of Education for the University of Manitoba for about 20 years and I would have to agree with you. I think the living metaphor is very relevant to education and we need to engage students fully in their learning. Good Point Dean.

David

[Joanna Young]

David, even the section titles speak to me and get me interested! "We Make The Road By Walking" is a very powerful philosophy - and I suspect one that many joyful jubilant learners subscribe to.

I'm glad to hear your new network is going so well. I am personally very relieved not to be involved in a large organisation any more, to have anyone managing me or to have responsibility for managing anyone else! But it's fresh enough in my mind to know how important it is that we learn how to do it well.

Joanna

[David Zinger]

We make the road by walking reminds me so much of Thich Nhat Hahn's, Peace is Every Step and the old saying that there is no use walking anywhere to preach unless our preaching is our walking.

To me, the interesting thing is that we are all leaders and that in many ways the essence of this book is not really about organizations or management but sound and effective human relationships when we come into communities.

[Michael Lee Stallard]

David,

I love the healing message I hear in the passages you selected. It seems that nearly everyone has experienced some trauma in their lives that requires healing. And, in the absence of healing, their interactions with others are usually doing harm in some way. It sounds like Margaret's book may be a useful guide to stimulate healing conversations. Thank you for bringing this book to our attention.

[dave]

Joanna - you and I are very close to traveling on the same road. Your observation of David's essay was precisely what caught me eye as well. Weird.

This book goes on my list of books to get David. "We make the road by walking..." This hits home. It certainly isn't going to happen perched upon a tree branch observing the road. Sweet.

[David Zinger]

Dave, keep on walking and walking and walking and what a road you both travel and make.

Michael: In my first career in teaching counselling psychology I often taught my students about wounded healers. As our wounds are healed, we become less self-focused and begin the connection and focus on others. We become true wounded-healers. I believe it was Robery Bly who wrote: Our wounds transformed become our gifts to our community.