Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #33079 in Books
• Published on: 1998-02-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 213 pages

Synopsis
Sparked by a conversation about the lack of moral and ethical standards at high levels in business, this text explores the issues of leadership.

Customer Reviews

Scenario plannning based on dialogues to change the world
The part I found most fascinating is the description of scenario planning in Royal Dutch Shell. Shell prepares on a regular basis detailed description of how the world might change over the next twenty to fifty years in two different scenarios. The author led the development of the scenarios covering 1992 to 2020. The two scenarios were based on (A) continued globalisation and liberalisation called "New Frontiers" and (B) on increased nationalism and protection called "Barricades". In developing these scenario's the author made two innovations (1) he brought groups together from widely different people and organised dialogues following the principles of David Bohm, a famous physicist with a unique approach to holding constructive dialogues, and (2) The author recognised that making scenario's is a way you can influence the outcome.
For example, in South Africa still during the apartheid period two scenarios were developed with participation of all different groups in South Africa, one scenario with the continuation of apartheid and the other without Some of the participants in the group were those in favour of maintaining apartheid and others strongly believing it should be abandoned. By working on two different scenarios the participants developed a much better understanding of each other's positions and of the consequences. The author believes that this had a positive effect on solving the apartheid problem in a peaceful way.
In the latest Shell scenario, 2008 to 2050 Shell presents the case of what will happen if governments in the world cooperate to take vigorous action to slow down fossil fuel consumption and develop alternative sources, scenario Blueprint" and a scenario where governments will only act after very serious crises have happened convincing governments to take vigorous and joint action, scenario "Scramble". The CEO of Shell, Jeroen van der Veer says, "in our view, the Blueprints' outcomes offer the best hope for a sustainable future".

The author also founded the American Forum of leadership to a large extent based on the dialogue ideas of David Bohm. That organisation makes important positive contributions to society.

Synchronicity is a concept launched by C.G. Jung the Swiss psychiatrist. The meaning is that two events occur simultaneously that has great effects that cannot be explained by probability. Every event at a specific moment in time is unique as it is based on innumerable interdependent chains of causes and effects. For that reason each specific event when specifying all its details beforehand has zero probability of occurring, but it does happen
It is also clear that people that are intensely searching for something with an open mind will see far more unique opportunities than a person not searching for something with a closed mind.
These coincidences that have a great effect can be good or bad. If Marx had not had net Engels communism would have never come of the ground. Fortunately for he author he experienced many positive coincidences.
Serendipity may more accurately describe these experiences than synchroncity as defined by Jung. Serendipity means to discover accidentally something fortunate, especially when looking for something else. That is even more improbable but still not a miracle. Louis Pasteur "In the field of observation, chance favours only the prepared mind".

Changed my life
...well perhaps that's a little OTT, but reading this book gave me hope for the future when I was ground down by managerialism at work, and gave me confidence that my vision of how work could be was realistic rather than naively over-optimistic as I was beginning to believe.

To be honest, I am surprised that there are no negative reviews on Amazon as it can be a bit 'cheesy' at times, and Jaworski can come across a bit self-obsessed and self-justifying at times - though for me his flawed humanity increases rather than decreases the value of the book.

Inspirational "business" literature
This book was first published in 1996 and has an introduction by Peter Senge. Senge refers to Robert K. Greenleaf's book "Servant Leadership", as the best book on leadership (to that date) and says that Jaworski builds on Greenleaf's thinking and goes further especially in dealing with the path of personal transformation that the effective leader must undergo. Senge also refers to the transformational effect that a meeting in 1980 with David Bohm had on Jaworski.

Jaworski's account of the influence of synchronicity on his life is well written and interesting. He describes how he became dissatisfied with his successful life-style, he was a highly paid trial lawyer, and wanted to do something else.

He resisted this, but details a number of influences and incidents that were important for his own development and growing awareness.

One example he gives is of an encounter with an ermine, in the Grand Treton Mountains of Wyoming; he says of the ermine, "She couldn't have been more than ten feet from me. All at once she appeared with her almost black eyes looking directly into mine … She sat there staring straight at me, moving not a whisker."

He added, "We communicated, that ermine and I, and for those few minutes, I experienced what I can only describe as a kind of transcendence of time and a feeling of oneness with all the universe."

Jaworski became to believe in the importance of teaching people the importance of good leadership and eventually founded the American Leadership Forum which focused on developing leadership in American communities, businesses and administration.

He had no formal training in leadership, but was heavily influenced by the writings of Robert Greenleaf who wrote that the essence of leadership is the desire to serve one another and to serve something beyond ourselves, a higher purpose, Greenleaf described this as "servant leadership", the leader as the servant of the people he or she leads.

For Jaworski, with his growing sense of the interrelatedness of everything Greenleaf's ideas made perfect sense. He saw relatedness as the organizing principle of the universe.

Jaworski has a concrete sense of the importance of following your own destiny, his description of his departure from his law firm to set up the new venture puts this well:

"At the moment I walked away from the firm, a strange thing happened. I clearly had no earthly idea how I would proceed. I knew no one who could help me on the substantive side of things, no network of experts. …. Yet, at this point, strangely enough most of my concerns and doubts about the enormity of the project were erased. I had a great sense of internal direction and focus, and an incredible sense of freedom that I had never felt before in my entire life."

Jaworski believes that when we focus on what we have to do then something miraculous happens. He says: 'The day I left the firm, I crossed the threshold. From that point on, what happened to me had the most mysterious quality about it. Things began falling into place almost effortlessly - unforeseen incidents and meetings with the most remarkable people who were to provide crucial assistance to me'.

Jaworski describes how a meeting in 1980 with David Bohm, the physicist, had a profound effect on him, coming as it did after he resigned from the law firm.

Bohm had just published "Wholeness and the Implicate Order". Bohm told Jaworski that the concepts of time, space, and matter no longer applied, they talked about what happens in a "bubble chamber", in the bubble chamber particles sometimes move backwards in time and notions of earlier and later are no longer clear; time-space processes sometimes run in reverse casual sequences.

They discussed Bell's theorem, which proves that the world is fundamentally inseparable. Bohm said that everything is connected to everything else, and told Jaworski that, "The oneness implicit in Bell's theorem envelops human beings and atoms alike."

Bohm said that everything is enfolded in everything, "If you reach deeply into yourself, you are reaching into the very essence of mankind. When you do this you will be lead into the generating depth of consciousness that is common to the whole of mankind and that has the whole of mankind enfolded in it."

Bohm said that we are all connected, but that people create barriers between each other, but if these barriers are removed then human beings could operate as one mind, and pull together.

Jaworski goes on to describe the successes and setbacks he met, and of the way in which synchronicity operated.
That when he tried too hard things did not work, but that when he let go then things flowed. He experienced the effectiveness of collective thinking, or dialogue. Jaworski also notes Bohm's idea that the fragmentation of thought is reinforced by a world view inherited from the 16th Century.

Jaworski describes the traps he encountered; the trap of responsibility, the trap of dependency and the trap of overactivity. But this book is above all a description of a process that transcends the "normal" existence of many humans.

As Jaworski says:
"If we have truly committed to follow our dream, there exists beyond ourselves and our conscious will a powerful force that helps us along the way and nurtures our growth and transformation. Our journey is guided by invisible hands with infinitely greater accuracy than is possible through our unaided conscious will." He uses the metaphor of the journey or the quest.

At the end of the book he also refers to the inscription that hung over the entrance to Jung's house in Switzerland: Vocatus atque vocatus, Deus aderit - "Invoked or not invoked, God is present".

I strongly recommend this unusual book which was published in order to inspire business people dealing with the issue of leadership, but one which deals with the real development of people and the need to connect to the higher powers that we are linked to. At their best the authors of "business" literature are trying to inspire - Jaworski achieves this.