CONFESSIONS OF A CORPORATE SHAMAN. Harrison Snow
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to intellectualize and analyze the problems they face. I point out that they can’t conceptualize their way to a place of insight and innovation. They have to risk a dip into the “felt-sense” part of their psyches where feelings and sensations lurk just below the surface of awareness. This unarticulated, yet felt within the body, sense of knowing could be a part of ourselves that wants to be heard. Energy from our past is stuck there waiting to be released. Maybe somewhere in our unresolved past there is a small kid who is sad, afraid, or angry. Many expend a lot of energy avoiding or denying those disowned or forgotten feelings, not realizing that this is the path forward for becoming a fully aware person who has the power to lead and innovate.
There are many examples of organizational, social, or even mundane issues where the solutions seem obvious and should work if implemented. Almost all scientists agree that climate change is man-made and will result in serious if not devastating consequences.3 Likewise, we know that about a third of the population in the United States is obese.4 The costs of these and other problems are clear. Viable solutions exist. Yet, our unwillingness to act is constrained by factors that can’t be grasped by the inner dialogue of the rational, verbal thinking mind.
The Freudian framework offers one explanation for our lack of logical action by assigning the self three parts: ego, superego, and id. The personal ego sets goals. The superego scolds like a parent when those goals are neglected. But the id, the subconscious, ignores them both and imposes what it wants even though the other parts believe they know better. Most people realize from personal experience that our conscious mind can make any number of resolutions. It’s our subconscious that determines whether or not our resolutions produce results. In making a decision, the conscious mind has 10 percent of the votes; the subconscious has the other 90 percent.5 The subconscious is the abode of what we don’t know we know; the home of our tacit knowledge. Unless the subconscious considerations are surfaced and addressed, positive change will be a fraction of what is needed.
What is true in one’s personal life is also true in the life of an organization. Accessing that reservoir of intelligence enables you or your group to make better decisions and to effectively implement them. This level of intelligence, the knowing field, is accessible to us when our subconscious and conscious minds work together. The roots of our perennial problems, along with their solutions, are hidden in the nonverbal subconscious. If we want deep change, that is where our conscious minds have to look. Currently in the corporate world, the tools used to foster individual or organizational change remain on the level of the conscious, verbal mind. Like the old joke about the drunk doggedly searching for his car keys under the streetlamp, we keep looking there for solutions because that’s where the light is. Yet, the essential insights that would rewire the brain for new actions reside in the shadow of the subconscious, beyond the chatter of the inner dialogue.
Accessing these insights requires giving the verbal thinking mind a timeout and focusing attention on the felt-sense of the emotions, the spirit, and physical sensations. Quantum mechanics and neuroscience are often used to explain how vast realms of knowledge can be accessed in a nonlinear fashion that transcends the cause and effect laws of classical physics. The list of relevant articles, books, and blogs about the latest parallels between science and metaphysics grows longer every day. While understanding how nonlinear processes work is important, it’s not as crucial as benefiting from them. Few people can explain how a cell phone works, but that does not stop anyone from making a call.
Simplifying complexity and uncovering insights will appeal to those who are divergent, nonlinear thinkers. The Swiss psychologist Carl Jung famously said that the sign of maturity is the ability to hold seemingly opposed ideas together in the mind at the same time. Has your executive team tried the usual approaches yet is still in need of a breakthrough? If so, then utilizing the practices in this book will be worth the perceived risk of doing something unfamiliar.
Change leadership is not an either/or between the objective and the subjective approach. The advanced analytic methods of “big data” highlighted in books such as Money-ball,6 offer effective tools for operational decision-making, especially when the relevant criteria can be measured and expressed numerically. Leadership, however, focuses on the people and the ambiguities that drive individual and group behavior. Because of their inherent ambiguity the most pressing leadership questions cannot be answered numerically. M. Scott Peck understood the dilemma managers increasingly face: “The more ambiguous our choices the more likely they are to be painful. Inherently, there are no rules for dealing with such ambiguity.”7
Collecting and making sense of large datasets take analytical skills. Acting on those data in a meaningful and innovative way, especially when people are involved, demands nonlinear insights. Change leaders who develop their abilities in both domains have an edge over those who discount one over the other.8
As the futurist Alvin Toffler predicted, the more hightech a society becomes the more critical it will be to integrate the hard sciences with high-touch, soft skills.9 This book explores how to access and use that nonnumerical knowledge to make decisions and solve problems that are people related and systemic. As a leader or consultant, you can draw upon these systemic principles and exercises to breathe new life into how you inspire and conduct change, strategic planning, coaching, leadership development, team-building, and innovation. This mother lode offers a new world of possibilities for those who are willing to use it. To quote Internet marketing guru Seth Godin, “Our future is created by those who replace the status quo, not those who defend it.”
PART I
Losing Your Mind
and
Finding Your Senses
Our educational system, according to some critics, educates creativity out of its students. The emphasis on the “school solution” and getting the right answer trains people to avoid trusting their own inner knowing. The verbal mind has its place, yet any strength overused to the exclusion of other capacities is self-limiting. Developing your nonverbal competencies will deepen your effectiveness as a leader.
Chapter 1
Change Dynamics
Machiavelli famously said in the sixteenth century, “There is nothing more difficult . . . more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain . . . than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.” Five hundred years later it has not gotten any easier. The metaphor of turning around an aircraft carrier gives the impression that the leader just turns the wheel and results gradually follow.
Complex systems, however, have complex dynamics that are loaded with unanticipated contradictions and unintended consequences. A ruthless leader might gain compliance—at least in the short term—but gaining the commitment and collaboration that fosters sustainable, long-term change demands a softer set of skills.
Gandhi’s admonishment to “be the change you want to see in the world” is an essential step that too many leaders neglect with unhappy results. The case study of the Washington, DC, Metro system in chapter 13 (“Wicked Problems”) is an example of a long-term attempt to change the culture of a large organization. The soul of the organization may need healing, but until the leadership confronts their own need for inner change, the changes they seek will be stalled. The consciousness of the leader or leadership team affects the collective consciousness of the group. If the leader changes his or her own consciousness, the collective consciousness will change as well. This can work the other way around, too, given their shared connection, but the role of leadership is to take the lead.
This maxim seems simple, obvious, and self-evident. The sticking point is the level of self-awareness and efficacy required. Leaders who are observant and reflective, who seek feedback and address their disowned or never-owned dysfunctions, will have more capacity to change