Maureen Metcalf is an organizational consultant who has recently co-authored a book, the Innovative Leadership Fieldbook, on a process for leadership development. She reports on a discussion facilitated by Meg Wheatley and Deborah Frieze. I think Meg Wheatley’s model of leadership is integral, or at least post-conventional since she holds a global perspective, works with chaos and complex adaptive systems, and includes some subjective aspects in her work.
I attended a discussion this morning led by Meg Wheatley and Deborah Frieze about their latest book about leaders who walked out of limiting beliefs and assumptions and walked on to create healthy and resilient communities. These Walk Outs Who Walk On use their ingenuity and caring to figure out how to work with what they have to create what they need. They were quite compelling and for those studying Innovative leadership their work appears to point to the same or similar qualities as we do (using different language).
I am intrigued by the description of this group because it sounds like not only are they against or “letting go” of something — their limiting beliefs, but are also for something — “letting come” their visions of healthy and resilient communities.
Maureen poses an important question to help us to stay oriented in our activism and advocacy and that can help us center ourselves in the midst of collective shifting and our own individual restlessness for greater service.
“This is particularly interesting as the Occupy Wall Street movement is showing some signs of walking out. The next question is what are they walking on to?
What are you walking out of in your life? What are you walking on to?
Karilen Mays 