Reflections on "Leading to A World Without Genocide" Leadership Development Workshop - The Institute for Sustainable Peace
It may not be possible to put into words an experience that was co-sensed in community at levels other than that of the logic trains of the cerebral cortex. "The heart has reasons that reason cannot know." - Blaise Pascal. And I would not mislead, for what we learned together was far from soft and indeterminate. In truth nothing could have been less vague, but I am getting ahead of myself.
We were diverse ethnically (two African-Americans, seven Africans, one Asian, one Hispanic, one Albanian and eleven Caucasians among the participants), diverse nationally (six Sudanese, one Albanian, one Ugandan, two Germans, one Italian, one first generation Mexican-American, and the rest Heinz 57 Variety Americans inclusive of the speakers) and religiously (three Muslims, one Buddhist, several agnostics, one atheist, and followers of Jesus from Roman Catholic and several protestant denominational persuasions). We also represented multiple disciplines (three lawyers, a public health Ph.D., a current Ambassador who specializes in helping emerging democracies build civil society, a former ambassador with a degree and 30+ years experience in international relations and international banking, the founder of a mutual fund company with degrees from Swarthmore, MIT and Harvard, a marriage and family therapist, a bible study leader and mentor of young women, an expert in international relations, a school teacher, several student activists, a Young Life leader, a seminarian, a policing and security consultant and a former United States Senator with a PhD in English Literature who is a national hero in Burundi where he worked daily in his role as US Ambassador to save the lives of hundreds and called the attention of the world to the genocide and survived an assassination attempt for his trouble. And we were cross generational - ranging in age from 17 to 70.
In just ten days we moved from pseudo-community (“How are you? Oh, I am great”) to breakdown in the system (“don’t you get it that the government is the problem and we can never sit down and talk to them”) to reflective dialogue (no, I am not sure I do understand – help me see how you got to this position”) to generative dialogue – co-sensing, co-presencing and co-creating from the future that is emerging, to quote C. Otto Scharmer.
Eleven speakers (plus yours truly) traveled to Estes Park Colorado to spend at least three days/two nights making themselves available for conversations and dialogue with the participants. Several of our speakers invested five and even six days participating in every activity, including a very high ropes course the only exit from which was a zip line, and staying up late for those impromptu life changing conversations.
We also took the opportunity to open ourselves to learn from nature in all its splendor in the Rocky Mountain National Park, even when the conditions were not the most ideal. We took one hike into the mountains where it snowed, the wind gusted at 40 mph and the temperature dropped to 36 degrees. We managed to turn even that hike into an “empathy walk” in which everyone paired off and told each other their “life stories.” Later on another hike, one of our speakers even made his presentation near the highest waterfall in the National Park after a 3-mile hike in.
Each speaker provided key insights on the question we asked over and over again: “What are the qualities and skills the leader of the future must have in order to build sustainable peace?” But perhaps more importantly, each speaker fully embarked on the journey as a co-learner and not as an expert. For it quickly became clear to us all that no one has all the answers on how to build sustainable peace. To the contrary, we realized early in our effort that the complexity of the problems at both micro and global scales are beyond the known (if not worn) solutions of the past and will require a new means of co-sensing and co-creating systemic solutions.
There were multiple breakthroughs, both personal and collective, at the workshop. Among them were:
• Rapprochement among the members present of the Sudanese Diaspora from the north and south of Sudan;
• The creation of a coalition of organizations within the Sudanese Diaspora;
• A decision by our Sudanese participants to have a similar workshop for leaders of the Sudanese Diaspora;
• Commitment by the participants to continue to maintain the intentional action learning community begun at the workshop; and,
• Commitment by most, if not all, of the participants to continue the intense reflective process of suspending mental models, redirecting away from inadequate mental models to newly perceived truths, co-sensing with the eyes of the heart and not just the head the future that seeks to emerge, letting go of our fears and all that would hold us back, opening our will to co-presencing with and connecting to the Source, and co-creating the future of sustainable peace that seeks to emerge.
It is interesting that as we went deeper and deeper it became so natural to talk of the death of the old self and the emergence of a new more authentic Self. Our instrumentalities became an open mind, an open heart and an open will. The people who emerged on June 12 are not the same as those who embarked on June 2.
How are we different? We are quite a bit closer to claiming an identity that transcends nationality, race, ethnicity, and religion.
We are more likely to live in the question than to immediately download our mental models from the hard drives of our minds. We are less likely to re-enact the past – more likely to slow down and sense with the eyes of the heart what the Source seeks to call into existence through us.
We are more likely, having conducted the experiment successfully, to be comfortable in a truly open, free forum of ideas and ideals where no one ideological or religious group controls the conversation and everyone is truly free to speak of their own spirituality and faith traditions. We are far more likely to at least attempt to stand in the shoes of the other instead of succumbing to the voice of judgment and exclusion.
We are far more likely to see ourselves as vital parts of living socio-ecological systems in which we are each part of the problem and therefore also part of the solution.
We are far more likely to arise early each day for prayer or meditation as a centering exercise to maintain our connection to the Source (who many of us name as God or Spirit of Truth and are ok with those that don’t) and do so because we know that only in this way can we co-create, prototype and embody the future of sustainable peace that seeks to be called into existence.
In the words of Gandhi, we realize that we must become the change that we seek. It is not so much that we cannot be the same again. Rather we realize that we must not be the same again for sustainable peace to have a chance.
We were diverse ethnically (two African-Americans, seven Africans, one Asian, one Hispanic, one Albanian and eleven Caucasians among the participants), diverse nationally (six Sudanese, one Albanian, one Ugandan, two Germans, one Italian, one first generation Mexican-American, and the rest Heinz 57 Variety Americans inclusive of the speakers) and religiously (three Muslims, one Buddhist, several agnostics, one atheist, and followers of Jesus from Roman Catholic and several protestant denominational persuasions). We also represented multiple disciplines (three lawyers, a public health Ph.D., a current Ambassador who specializes in helping emerging democracies build civil society, a former ambassador with a degree and 30+ years experience in international relations and international banking, the founder of a mutual fund company with degrees from Swarthmore, MIT and Harvard, a marriage and family therapist, a bible study leader and mentor of young women, an expert in international relations, a school teacher, several student activists, a Young Life leader, a seminarian, a policing and security consultant and a former United States Senator with a PhD in English Literature who is a national hero in Burundi where he worked daily in his role as US Ambassador to save the lives of hundreds and called the attention of the world to the genocide and survived an assassination attempt for his trouble. And we were cross generational - ranging in age from 17 to 70.
In just ten days we moved from pseudo-community (“How are you? Oh, I am great”) to breakdown in the system (“don’t you get it that the government is the problem and we can never sit down and talk to them”) to reflective dialogue (no, I am not sure I do understand – help me see how you got to this position”) to generative dialogue – co-sensing, co-presencing and co-creating from the future that is emerging, to quote C. Otto Scharmer.
Eleven speakers (plus yours truly) traveled to Estes Park Colorado to spend at least three days/two nights making themselves available for conversations and dialogue with the participants. Several of our speakers invested five and even six days participating in every activity, including a very high ropes course the only exit from which was a zip line, and staying up late for those impromptu life changing conversations.
We also took the opportunity to open ourselves to learn from nature in all its splendor in the Rocky Mountain National Park, even when the conditions were not the most ideal. We took one hike into the mountains where it snowed, the wind gusted at 40 mph and the temperature dropped to 36 degrees. We managed to turn even that hike into an “empathy walk” in which everyone paired off and told each other their “life stories.” Later on another hike, one of our speakers even made his presentation near the highest waterfall in the National Park after a 3-mile hike in.
Each speaker provided key insights on the question we asked over and over again: “What are the qualities and skills the leader of the future must have in order to build sustainable peace?” But perhaps more importantly, each speaker fully embarked on the journey as a co-learner and not as an expert. For it quickly became clear to us all that no one has all the answers on how to build sustainable peace. To the contrary, we realized early in our effort that the complexity of the problems at both micro and global scales are beyond the known (if not worn) solutions of the past and will require a new means of co-sensing and co-creating systemic solutions.
There were multiple breakthroughs, both personal and collective, at the workshop. Among them were:
• Rapprochement among the members present of the Sudanese Diaspora from the north and south of Sudan;
• The creation of a coalition of organizations within the Sudanese Diaspora;
• A decision by our Sudanese participants to have a similar workshop for leaders of the Sudanese Diaspora;
• Commitment by the participants to continue to maintain the intentional action learning community begun at the workshop; and,
• Commitment by most, if not all, of the participants to continue the intense reflective process of suspending mental models, redirecting away from inadequate mental models to newly perceived truths, co-sensing with the eyes of the heart and not just the head the future that seeks to emerge, letting go of our fears and all that would hold us back, opening our will to co-presencing with and connecting to the Source, and co-creating the future of sustainable peace that seeks to emerge.
It is interesting that as we went deeper and deeper it became so natural to talk of the death of the old self and the emergence of a new more authentic Self. Our instrumentalities became an open mind, an open heart and an open will. The people who emerged on June 12 are not the same as those who embarked on June 2.
How are we different? We are quite a bit closer to claiming an identity that transcends nationality, race, ethnicity, and religion.
We are more likely to live in the question than to immediately download our mental models from the hard drives of our minds. We are less likely to re-enact the past – more likely to slow down and sense with the eyes of the heart what the Source seeks to call into existence through us.
We are more likely, having conducted the experiment successfully, to be comfortable in a truly open, free forum of ideas and ideals where no one ideological or religious group controls the conversation and everyone is truly free to speak of their own spirituality and faith traditions. We are far more likely to at least attempt to stand in the shoes of the other instead of succumbing to the voice of judgment and exclusion.
We are far more likely to see ourselves as vital parts of living socio-ecological systems in which we are each part of the problem and therefore also part of the solution.
We are far more likely to arise early each day for prayer or meditation as a centering exercise to maintain our connection to the Source (who many of us name as God or Spirit of Truth and are ok with those that don’t) and do so because we know that only in this way can we co-create, prototype and embody the future of sustainable peace that seeks to be called into existence.
In the words of Gandhi, we realize that we must become the change that we seek. It is not so much that we cannot be the same again. Rather we realize that we must not be the same again for sustainable peace to have a chance.
posted by Randall E. Butler at 7:01 PM
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