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“Listen. Make a way for yourself inside yourself. Stop looking in the other way of looking. You already have the precious mixture that will make you well. Use it.” Rumi
The process of cultural evolution begins with the awareness of individuals, and always in relationship to the culture’s current struggles.
The crisis in the culture stimulates reflection and evolution within the consciousness of emerging leaders. These individuals then exert influence on the system and change it — in terms of structure, processes, policies, and purposes.
The new system establishes conditions that encourage other members of that system to develop. As a critical mass of people develops, the potential of the new order is realized. The likelihood of regression to an earlier level of development is reduced.
When we work integrally — in all four quadrants — we set the stage for all four quadrants to move together to a higher level of expression.
The platform is built for the next evolutionary leap.
In this way, change leads to transformation.
Our bias is clear — there is no organizational transformation without a preceding transformation in the consciousness of the leadership. Taking the thorniest corporate and world dilemmas deeply to heart expedite individual transformation.
While inner transformation is easy to talk about, and most of us say we want it, it is all too readily avoided. There is a part of us that would rather side step the challenge of working on ourselves.
There is a part of us that would trade-in deep transformation for simple relief from the tension of living and working within our current situation.
But there is another part of us: an authentic part––a part that accepts no substitutes––a part that sees through easy answers and quick fixes. This part knows that if short cuts were possible, we would have all bought the package long ago and would now be enjoying the fruits of our success. This part of us knows there is no short cut to greatness of the soul. This part is willing to put in the time and effort required to do the deep inner work. This part knows that transformation is an acquired taste, which is developed with years of practice and sincere work.
Most leaders lack literacy when it comes to effecting inner personal and cultural transformation. Lack of literacy does not mean lack of intelligence or competence — it means we don’t know what we don’t know.
Many of us are parents. We have enjoyed, nurtured, and celebrated our children becoming literate in our language.
First, they recognized letters/characters and then learned the sounds of each. Letters became words, and words/characters became sentences, which in turn became paragraphs and books. Young children don’t know they are illiterate, but they are.
They also don’t always know why it is important that they become literate. From our view as parents, we know what literacy means and what it brings. We make it clear they don’t have an option and that claiming their place in adult society requires literacy. The development of literacy takes years if not decades. So we fervently support the process because we know it is essential.
The same is true for literacy regarding inner change: psychological, spiritual, and cultural — the domain of soul-work. We are not born literate in soul-work. It is not something we naturally know how to develop.
Furthermore, little to no attention is paid to developing this literacy in our educational systems. The development of inner literacy requires intentional efforts and sustained attention supported by skillful guidance.
Developing system literacy requires new worldviews. With this dual literacy (soul and system), we will be capable of pursuing the transformation in consciousness (individually and collectively) that makes organizational shifts in performance sustainable.