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Evolutionary Leadership Bootcamp

with Fyodor Ovchinnikov & Levana Saxon

November 2015

Oakland, CA

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Contents

Participants List …...………………………………………………………………………………………..3

Definition of Evolutionary Leadership …………………………………………………………………..4

Evolutionary Leadership Community: Strategic Vision …...………………………………………………5

Insights & Tailored References …...………………………………………………………………………..6

Evolutionary Leadership for Systemic Sustainability by Manuel Manga …..……………………………..7

Our Current Reality ….……………………………………………………………………………7

What Is Lacking in Our Current Leadership Model ……………………………………………...8

A New Model of Leadership .....…………………………………………………………………..9

Meeting the Challenge: a New Observer ...……………………………………………………...11

Some Personal Musings on the Seven Competencies of Evolutionary Leadership by Ken Homer ……...11

Ontological Design …………………………………………………………………………….11

Systems Thinking & Being ...……………………………………………………………………11

Emotions & Generative Language ...…………………………………………………………….12

Adaptive Work & Collaboration ...………………………………………………………………13

Evolutionary Visions, Scenarios, and Principles ..………………………………………………14

Systemic Sustainability .…………………………………………………………………………15

Personal Evolution ………………………………………………………………………………15

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Participants List

<<Information removed for privacy reasons>>

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Definition of Evolutionary Leadership

Evolutionary Leadership is the capacity to mobilize oneself and others to

consciously and effectively redesign worldviews, cultures, and institutions for a

more just, sustainable, and flourishing world.

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Evolutionary Leadership Community: Strategic Vision

We are building an international community of practice to effectively support the

work of Evolutionary Leaders. A community that would itself be just, sustainable,

and flourishing. A community that would not exclude anyone based on their ability

to pay. A community that would build on the solid foundation of knowledge and

practices of the Institute for Evolutionary Leadership but also grow and evolve its

wisdom through inviting various schools of thought to participate. A community in

which members are actively engaged in its designing and have an opportunity to

offer services such as workshops and educational programs to their fellow

members and have guaranteed decent financial reward for their contributions.

For more information see: http://www.evoleadinstitute.com/#!connect/c1g05

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Insights & Tailored References

In the follow up survey we asked you to share your Aha! Moments. Some of you shared personal

breakthroughs and insights, and some of you referred to particular pieces of content that you found

particularly helpful. Below is a compilation of your answers with some links that can help you follow up

on your interest and deepen your knowledge of a particular model or framework.

Particularly helpful content:

1. Explanation of breakdown of worldviews - culture - institutions

A particularly insightful perspective on the relationships between cultures and institutions can be

found here:

Majken Schultz: Relationships Between Culture and Institutions - New Interdependencies in a

Global World? (Academic Article)

2. The image of events, patterns, structures, worldviews

For more information on the Iceberg model please see:

A Systems Thinking Model – The Iceberg (article)

3. Reminder that models are not reality

For more information on the biology of cognition see:

Humberto Maturana: Autopoiesis and Cognition: The Realization of the Living (book)

4. The 7 competencies

For more information on the competencies see the two articles included in this resource book and

this video:

Fyodor Ovchinnikov introduces the Institute for Evolutionary Leadership (video)

5. Categorizations of speech acts

For more information on the six speech acts (Assessments, Assertions, Offers, Requests, Promises,

and Declarations) and alternative classifications see:

John R, Searle: Mind, Language and Society (book)

6. Categorization of conversations

For more information on the four types of conversations (Conversation for Learning,

Conversation for Relationship, Conversation for Possibilities, and Conversation for Action) see

Fernando Flores: Conversations for Action and Collected Essays (book)

7. The comment about who you are being when you are facilitating change

For more information Otto Scharmer’s research exploring Bill O’Brien’s insight (“Success of the

Intervention depends on the inner condition of the intervener”) see:

Otto Scharmer: Uncovering The Blind Spot of Leadership (article)

8. The 'holism' which is necessary when we look at change is necessary in these times rather than

looking at individual parts it is necessary to see how things work in relationship to each other

For more information on Systems Thinking & societal change see:

Peter Senge: The Necessary Revolution: How Individuals and Organizations Are Working

Together to Create a Sustainable World (book)

9. Ontological Design – we design systems and systems design us

For more information about Ontological Design please see:

Alan Sieler: Coaching to the Human Soul Ontological Coaching and Deep Change (book)

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10. How we can be in the 'groan zone' and give up when we are really on the cusp of a breakthrough

in business, in our personal lives and in the environment

For more information on the Divergence-Emergence-Convergence model and the concept of the

“Groan Zone” please see:

Kathy Jourdain: Navigating the Groan Zone is an Art (blog post)

Insights:

1. I have been very focused on one element of the model - personal evolution - and it was

fascinating to see how that one element fits into the broader model for change in one's culture and

one's society at large.

2. Small steps and small changes in your own life make a change constantly looking for new ideas

and ways to inform the community and include everyone in the process of making tomorrow

better than yesterday and today is how we can change the way we connect with other people to be

more socially, economically and ecologically responsible

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Evolutionary Leadership for Systemic Sustainability: Building a

Just, Sustainable, and Flourishing World

Manuel Manga

Co-Founder & Managing Partner of the Institute for Evolutionary Leadership

Our current reality:

Survival of the world as we know it is not possible. The world will have to be transformed and evolve for

continued survival. This is the necessity and the imperative of our time and will continue to be so long

into the future until this transformation has been achieved, or until there is no longer any hope that it may

be possible. (Jonas Salk, 1983)

It is undeniable that our modern industrialized world has brought many benefits to humankind. The

scientific and technological revolutions have provided many innovations and products that have made our

lives better and increased our understanding. Simultaneously such progress has had unintended and

unforeseen negative impacts. Water scarcity, energy security, poverty, terrorism and climate change are

not local problems, but rather systemic global problems interconnected to other social and natural systems,

interconnected to our quantitative focus on progress and growth. Jonas Salk suggests that we need a new

future, one safe from our current defuturing trajectory, one that goes beyond technocratic solutions for

survival. And the world seems to be awakening to Salk’s challenge. At the Institute for Evolutionary

Leadership it is our claim that to achieve this new future, we need to master a new set of leadership

competencies and a new way of observing, which includes observing the systemic nature of our planet

and world. Also observing the way we human beings design and construct our social reality and social

systems with the power of language. This new capacity for leadership, for observing and designing our

social reality will empower us to design and build new cultures, new technologies, new institutions, new

societies, and a new civilization that is just, ethical, sustainable and flourishing.

What is lacking in our current leadership model, what is required to meet Salk’s challenge:

In my 40 years of teaching, coaching, and developing leaders in corporations, universities, NGOs and

governmental organizations, I have studied and come across many transformational theories and

methodologies for developing leaders. Some of these theories apply to the private sector, some to the

public sector. Most are designed to bring out the best leadership qualities in that particular sector or

organization. What they all have in common is that they are focused on developing leaders to be effective

within the paradigm of their sector or organization and within the paradigm of the industrial-extractive

economy age. They often miss the big picture of our global reality and the historical challenges as well as

the opportunities that we face as one humanity. I call this the paradigm of industrial age effectiveness.

Given the hundreds of books and theories on leadership, and the hundreds of leadership programs and

hundreds of leadership consultants all over the world, it is easy to think that those people learning about

leadership, are being taught to focus on the big picture, that they are learning skills to build a just and

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sustainable world. But this is not the case. Most leadership programs are designed to run effectively our

modern industrialized world, the same world that is not working for all of humanity and its ecological

systems. Most leadership theories aren’t even imagining a sustainable future at all. What they do imagine

is more growth and more technology, in the name of progress. And yet we human beings are facing

historical global challenges. Why do our leadership models not address this fact?

A new model of leadership, an evolutionary model of leadership:

At the Institute for Evolutionary Leadership we are proposing a new model of leadership, an evolutionary

model of leadership. We are interested in developing leaders that have the purpose/vision, the

desire/commitment and the competencies to embark on Salk’s challenge. The evolutionary leadership

methodology that we share suggests that leaders mater seven core competencies or skills:

Mastery of these seven competencies supports an ethics that is based on love, trusting relationships, co-

inspiration and radical collaboration, imagination leading toward a new, transformative future and organic

social change.

Anyone can be an Evolutionary Leader. It is not based on hierarchy. And there are already wonderful

examples of leaders whom I would call Evolutionary Leaders. But we need to cultivate many more

Evolutionary Leaders across all sectors, geography, social strata, age, religion, gender and politic if we

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are to meet Salk’s challenge. We need a global network of Evolutionary Leaders directing a conscious

evolution toward a flourishing future for all humanity.

Meeting the Challenge, a new observer:

Leaders need to embrace an all-encompassing perspective that observes both the positive outcomes of the

modern world, while also observing the negative impacts of the modern world. And, rather than arguing

for the gravity of their positive or the negative attributes, leaders need to integrate all observed realities in

order to offer a systemic diagnosis that will aid the creation of a socially just, environmentally sustainable

and flourishing future for all.

Human beings exist within all kinds of systems: Natural systems, living systems, social systems and

technological systems. When we identify with these systems our sense of self-being expands, our

consciousness expands and becomes richer in its complexity. Systems thinking is a powerful tool for

observing the dynamics and outcomes of systems. It is a method for seeing the visible and invisible, the

wholes and not just the parts.

Our challenge is to design our social and technological systems to be in harmony with our living and

natural systems, so that all life can flourish on this earth, and humanity can live in a sustainable &

planetary civilization.

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Some Personal Musings on the Seven Competencies of

Evolutionary Leadership

Ken Homer

Founding Member of the Evolutionary Leadership Community

1. Ontological Design:

Ontology is a fancy word for the study of the nature of being. Ontological design

works a bit like a Mobius Strip. Evolutionary leaders know that people and planet are

closely coupled – what affects one, also affects the other. “Human nature” is a very

particular subset of “Earth Nature” – which we usually refer to simply as “nature.”

Over millions of years we have co-evolved with our planet – it has shaped us and we

have shaped it.

Ontological design recognizes that in addition to co-evolving with our planet, we also

co-evolve with our tools and our cultures. That is, we shape our world and our cultures

with our tools and technologies, and our tools and technologies in turn, shape our world, our cultures and

ourselves. The ontological design challenge for evolutionary leaders is to invite people into an experiment

of redesigning the human presence on Earth to ensure we are can thrive for millions of years to come.

This offers a whole new level of mindfulness for aspiring leaders and designers of civilizations.

2. Systems Thinking & Being:

You are probably familiar with systems thinking. Systems being asks us to identify

with the larger systems in which we are embedded. If we keep treating the natural

systems of which we are a part, as something separate from us, then, it time, we will

become separated from them through a process that 99.9% of all life which has ever

existed on Earth has undergone: extinction. Evolutionary leaders are betting that if we

combine systems thinking with systems being and add in the rest of the Evolutionary

Leadership competencies we stand a much better chance at joining the .01 percent of

species that beat the evolutionary odds. When you pause to think about it, is there any

other game in town?

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3. Emotions & Generative Language:

The domain of emotions is rarely addressed in many organizations. After all, emotions

are messy and unpredictable, and are often at the root of conflict, which, you may have

noticed, is something that most people prefer to avoid. Emotions are the behaviors that

move us towards or away from people and possibilities, they are always present and

always exerting influence in our relationships.

Evolutionary Leaders are people who’ve developed the capacity and skill to work with

emotions, even very powerful emotions, and use them for creating purpose, clarity and

focus among people in the service of bringing forth more enlivening futures.

Generative language is another way that Evolutionary Leaders work with challenge. Many people have

pointed out that our current way of organizing our societies, cultures, and institutions is actually a form of

“defuturing”, meaning we’re losing our ability to create a future where the world is welcoming and

nurturing of human flourishing. Although it’s rarely recognized as a medium for life, we live in language

the way fish live in water. Generative language allows us to play with the boundaries of thought and ideas

instead of being trapped inside “the way things have always been”, thereby opening up new domains of

possibility for flourishing and thriving.

We make things happen through generative language. The conversation is the basic unit of human

interaction and it is through our conversations that we coordinate meaning, possibility, action and learning.

The metaphors we use to organize our thinking, the words we use, the conversations we engage in, all

have tremendous impact on the kind of world that we create – intentionally or unintentionally. A root

cause of defuturing is due to our lack of understanding how language nourishes or denies life.

The rising dominance of commerce, with its central metaphor of time being equal to money, has hollowed

out our language to where what is valued is not the beauty and life support functions that a forest provides

to countless forms of life, but rather the number board feet of lumber an ancient tree contains, and how

much money can be made by cutting it down. If we keep living in the language of commerce defuturing

will loom ever larger on our horizon.

Generative language gives birth to ideas and images of enlivening futures by connecting people to what is

important to them and why they care about it. It also connects people to each other and to a set of future

possibilities worth living into that are grounded in solid linguistic theory. Generative language often

shows up in the form of provocative questions. The example of an old growth tree above illustrates the

kind of thinking that’s engendered by habitually seeing the purpose of business as that of making money.

What kind of value would an old growth forest have, if instead of seeing the purpose of business as that of

making money, we saw the purpose of business as nourishing life?

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4. Adaptive Work & Collaboration:

Ronald Heifetz and Donald Laurie assert that “The single biggest failure of leadership is treating adaptive

challenges as technical problems.” Heifetz and Laurie distinguish technical problems from adaptive

challenges by the following six criteria:

Technical Problems Adaptive Challenges*

1. Easy to identify. Hard to identify (easy to deny).

2. Lend themselves to quick and Require changes in values, beliefs, roles,

easy (cut and dried) solutions. relationships & approaches to work.

3. Often can be solved by an People with the problem do the work

authority or expert. of solving it.

4. Require change in just one or Require change in numerous places; usually a few places;

often contained within organizational they cross organizational boundaries.

boundaries.

5. People are generally People are often resistant to even

receptive to technical solutions. acknowledging adaptive challenges.

6. Solutions can often be “Solutions” require experiments and new discoveries;

implemented they can take a long time to implement, quickly a

be implemented by edict

*List adapted from The Work of Leadership published in The Harvard Business

Review, Jan/Feb 1997, by Ronald Hiefitz and Donald Laurie, and Leadership on the

Line, by Ronald Hiefitz and Marty Linsky.

Evolutionary leaders recognize the complex nature of adaptive challenges, and we

recognize that we live in a “nobody-in-charge” world. That’s why we cultivate seven

different competencies in leaders. We use a variety of strategies to help people to cope

with what we see as the biggest adaptive challenge of them all: the creation of an

ecologically sustainable, socially just and spiritually fulfilling world for as long as

grass grows and rivers flow.

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5. Evolutionary Visions, Scenarios, and Principles:

The concept of an ordered, rational, predictable world, a concept that acted as the

driving force and the central organizing principle for how we thought about and

planned our collective future for much of the last 400 years, has all but disappeared

from view. We now live in what is often referred to as a VUCA world. VUCA stands

for Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and ambiguous.

Evolutionary visions are those that both propel us toward and pull us into enlivening

futures. Because they need to be vast and sweeping and not bound by the dysfunction

of today’s prevailing ideologies, evolutionary visions can sometimes seem to be pie-

in-the-sky pipe dreams that are nice to talk about, but really, come on, we have to take

care of business here and everybody knows you can’t change human nature, so let’s put this aside and get

back to work.

However, evolutionary visions are not impossible dreams. Evolutionary visions paint pictures of a world

that works because evolutionary leaders know that painting pictures of compelling futures is part and

parcel of the process whereby we can unlock new ways of thinking and dreaming that will become the

foundation upon which the innovative structures that will change the world for the better will be built.

Evolutionary visions are different from mere fantasy because they tap into the deep maker instinct in each

of us, the desire to make a better life courses through our veins just as our blood does. An evolutionary

perspective looks backwards as well as forwards and sees that we have changed our world so profoundly,

in the face of those who claimed that it could not be done, so many times as to convince us of both the

need for, and the utility of, conjuring visions of a world that works for all. Evolutionary leaders are

unabashedly optimistic about what’s possible when we work together to bring about enlivening futures .

At the same time we are thoroughly pragmatic about coping with the challenges of life in the present

moment, of living at a time in which defuturing seems to be gaining ground everywhere you look.

Evolutionary leaders use the best tools available to explore scenarios to help us plot the most likely

course for success We know our visions of tomorrow will be different from the reality we imagine today,

but we’re willing to fail magnificently in making those imaginings a reality. We know that in the absence

of such visions the world of tomorrow is bleak indeed. We scour the world for knowledge and ideas and

the wise application of both to find those principles that can help us to cope with the incredible messiness

of life. We are constantly on the lookout to source the tools, practices and processes that will help convert

volatility to vision, uncertainty to understanding, complexity to clarity and ambiguity to agility.

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6. Systemic Sustainability:

Systemic sustainability is perhaps the biggest BHAG (big hairy audacious goal) of

them all. As Bucky Fuller pointed out, we need a design revolution. Evolutionary

leaders seek to address the question of how we bring all of our human designed

systems and structures into an alignment with the living systems structures and

principles that power our planet so that we can become a truly sustainable and

flourishing planetary civilization. At this point systemic sustainability, is but the seed

of a Giant Sequoia awaiting the right conditions in which to sprout. It is the goal

toward which all of the competencies of an evolutionary leader are applied even

though we know none of us will see it grow to maturity in our lifetime.

7. Personal Evolution:

Technically, we don’t evolve as individuals so much as we develop, but it is through

the personal development of millions of individuals that humanity has evolved over

the millennia. The core of Personal Evolution is increasing our awareness of what

constitutes being human. Personal evolution is recognizing that the challenges we face

as a species in the 21st Century are not going to be solved by the engineering mindset

that so profoundly shaped the 20th Century. Evolutionary leaders work first on

themselves, developing the requisite competencies of openness and learning, trust and

reliability, able to think in terms of systems, flows and interactions over time, so that

they can show up as the kind of leaders people want to follow. They work to develop

new ecologically-based literacies of inclusion, collaboration, and design, that will allow us to steward

ourselves and our planet toward a sustainable, just and flourishing world.

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