ARE:A Renewal Enterprise

Five Good Books On Leadership & More

I just wrapped up teaching an 8-week course on leadership in the nonprofit management graduate program at Spertus College, located here in Chicago's south loop neighborhood. Many of my students are in management positions, already, in social service and nonprofit agencies across Chicagoland; others hope to be. On our last night together I asked them how their understanding of "leadership" has changed as a result of the work we've done together. Here are the top five things I heard them say. Also, just in case you're looking for a good read and/or movie this summer, I'm including both the "reading list" and the "movie list" for the course:

Why You Need To Learn To Learn

We are living in exponential times:

There are 540,000 words in the English language. About 5x as many as during Shakespeare's lifetime. It is estimated that a week's worth of the New York Times contains more information than a person was likely to come across in a lifetime in the 18th century. The amount of new technical information is doubling every 2 years. For students starting a 4 year technical degree this means that half of what they learn in their first year of study will be outdated by their third year of study. (Did you Know?, Karl Fisch, Scott McLeod, and Jeff Brenman)

What does this mean? For starters, it means this: You (and the organization you care about) need to learn more than facts these days. 

You need to learn how to learn. 

Are you paying attention?

Nettlehorst Elementary School is a located in the East Lakeview neighborhood of North Chicago. Ten years ago, Nettlehorst was a failing school with a bussed-in student population, depressed teachers, and a revolving door of principals (7 interim principals from 1990-1998). Nettlehorst was a neighborhood school that the neighborhood had given up on. In 1999 not one family who lived in the neighborhood sent their children to Nettlehorst. Not one.

Into The Unknown!

We heard from a lot of readers off-line over the past few days, in response to a previous post, thanking us for a) acknowledging that making the shift to a new, renewable approach to life and work can be lonely and b) giving them some ideas to get started. But we also got an email from someone encouraging us. 

This is for all the lonely people

One of the things we're finding as we've been out on the road this fall is that a lot of people get the difference between a consumable and a renewable way of living and working together – in other words, instead of acting like dollars and cents are the bottom line, they want to spend their lives doing what matters – but they're not sure how to get started. 

Immerse Yourself

According to The Greater Good blog a recent study has shown that people who live abroad and are really immersed in a new culture are more creative than those who haven't had a similar experience:

"...the researchers consider that people who spend portions of their lives in a foreign country, and allow themselves to be absorbed into the host culture, may become practiced at seeing other perspectives and comparing different possible solutions to life’s challenges, thus boosting their skills at creative thinking."

We're not surprised. And this is just one more reason to take place seriously.

You Are Not Alone

There is not a moment of any day where any one of us is really and truly alone anymore. We are connected via e-mail, voice mail, Facebook, Myspace, Skype, instant messaging, text messaging, etc. We are linked-in and synced-up and shaped by dozens, hundreds, and thousands of relationships. Why would you think you could work alone? Why would you want to? 

Are You In This Conversation?

Modern organization theory has tended to objectify "the world." It teaches you to see your context as a threat, resources as scarce, your neighbors as competitors, the planet as a thing to be used until it's used up, and people as "human resources." This consumable approach to life and work is killing us, it's not too good for the organizations we care about, and it's wrecking the planet.

There are a lot of voices out there helping us make the shift from this consumable to a more renewable way of doing life and work. For example, there's a new conversation emerging around the concept of ethonomics (i.e., ethical economics). There is no single definition of ethonomics yet and, as a term, it may not even have much longevity. But in this cultural moment it is giving us a way of thinking about what it might look like to really embrace a triple bottom line: 

• People
• Planet
• Profit

No Excuses

Although we meet together by phone at least weekly and use online technology to work collaboratively, because our team is international, we are physically in the same space together only a few times a year. So it was a blast to kick off our tour all together in Chicago a few weeks ago. We were struck once again by what a strong bunch of personalities we have assembled, each one as unique and powerful as the next. No whiners or cry babies here. That could be why, as a team, we are so passionate about helping people be who they are and see what they have for the sake of doing what matters. Few things are more frustrating than people and organizations who choose to wear the cloak of victimhood, uttering one version or another of The Great Excuse: "...if only we had more [fill-in-the-blank with money, people, time, etc.] we could  [be bigger, try something new, take that risk, etc.]." The result? Impotence and apathy. 

Grrrrrr. 

Do You Have Any Of These Symptoms?

In a consumable approach to life and work, you view your environment as a threat. You believe resources are scarce. You see yourself in competition with other people and organizations in your community. You do whatever you have to in order to get the resources you need for survival. You end up treating people – and the planet – like they're disposable because nothing, including your mission, matters more than money. This is the approach that has characterized the way things are done in every arena – including business, nonprofit, education, religion – in the modern era (i.e., since the Industrial Revolution got underway).

Are you sick and tired of it, yet?