SM 2022JAN19 Mobius-Strip PDF

A P U B L I C AT I O N F O R L E A D E R S H I P P R O F E S S I O N A L S
where best practice meets next practice
THE MOBIUS STRIP WINTER EDITION 2022
Blue Square
by Jim McManus, Mobius featured artist
THE
MOBIUS EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP
U.S. +1 781-237-1362 NEXT PRACTICE
[email protected] INSTITUTE
www.mobiusleadership.com
A NOTE
FROM AMY
Dear Friends:
As we look forward to the year ahead, we welcome you to this issue of our
transformational leadership magazine The Mobius Strip.
With so many members of the community, including several Mobius Senior Experts and
Transformational Members of Faculty, recently publishing timely and important bodies of
work, we found ourselves spoilt for riches putting together this edition.
As you will see, several of these pioneering thought leaders and practitioners refer to
one another in their writings as significant sources of influence. Common themes surface
throughout: the wisdom inherent in emergent groups; the need for compassionate action
and courageous voices to do the deep restorative work needed in the world; and finally, the finesse of
the inter-disciplinary nature of self development with organizational development.
This issue also serves as a companion for the upcoming Annual Gatherings of the Next Practice
Institute (NPI). We showcase faculty contributions and introduce the teachers and their methodologies
offered as part of our week-long immersive study program and much-awaited reunion, taking place
October 23-28, 2022. We also feature faculty who will be joining us the following year for the 2023 gathering.
We are delighted to include contributions from NPI keynote speakers Rasmus Hougaard of Potential
Project and Professor Thomas Malone, founding director of the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence.
This edition also features book excerpts and articles from 2022 Track Leaders: Robin Alfred, Dr. Paul
Dunion, Dr. Dick Schwartz, and from mystical teacher Thomas Huebl, who leads an annual intensive one-
day workshop at this year’s program.
In addition, this issue includes a book excerpt by Arawana Hayashi, who will lead a track at the 2023 NPI
and is a founding member of the Prescensing Institute along with Mobius Senior Expert Otto Scharmer;
book excerpts from Mobius Friend and McKinsey advisor Kayvan Kian; a book excerpt from Mobius
Senior Expert, Professor Amy Edmondson on the ever-important topic of psychological safety; a book
excerpt and special interview with the peace negotiator and leading systems change facilitator,
Adam Kahane; and a series of recent Forbes articles from Mobius Chief Thought Leader, Erica Ariel Fox.
Finally, we are delighted to promote the work of our featured artists in this edition: Jim McManus and
Trevor Tyne.
We welcome you to share the digital version of the magazine with friends and colleagues. This is available
on our website under the Next Practice Institute.
We hope you enjoy our magazine and look forward to our continued journey together.
Warmest best,
The October 2022 annual global practitioner event is sponsored by the professional development arm of our organization, Next Practice
Institute. NPI has been established to codify the disciplines of transformational leadership, spread thought leadership in its interrelated fields of
study, and professionally develop a generation of facilitators, coaches, mediators, consultants and team interventionists deeply skilled in the arts
of transformational change. For more information about Next Practice Institute programs and thought leadership, please visit our website.
THE MOBIUS STRIP
Winter 2022
table of contents
7 The Fearless Organization: Creating 53 Wisdom: Apprenticing to the Unknown and
Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Befriending Fate by Mobius Senior Expert and
Learning, Innovation, and Growth by 2022 NPI Track Leader, Dr. Paul Dunion
Mobius Senior Expert Professor
63 Leading from the Future by 2022 NPI Track
Amy Edmondson
Leader, Robin Alfred
11 Superminds by 2022 NPI Keynote speaker, 69 Social Presencing Theater by 2023 NPI Track
Professor Thomas Malone Leader, Arawana Hayashi
15 Facilitating Breakthrough, a book excerpt 75 Wisdom for Emerging Leaders and the Next
and interview with Mobius Friend and leading Generation, Selected Readings by Mobius
systems thinker, Adam Kahane Friend and McKinsey advisor, Kayvan Kian
29 Winning from Within, Selected Readings by 83 No Bad Parts by Mobius Senior Expert and
Mobius Chief Thought Leader Erica Ariel Fox 2022 NPI Track Leader, Dr. Dick Schwartz
89 Healing Collective Trauma by spiritual teacher,
36 Selected Readings by 2023 NPI Keynote
Next Practice Institute Faculty, Thomas Huebl
speaker Rasmus Hougaard of
Potential Project 95 Professional Development Opportunities
THE
NEXT PRACTICE This edition highlights recent scholarship from Next Practice Institute Faculty,
INSTITUTE along with other important selected readings in our field.
FEATURED ARTISTS: JIM MCMANUS AND TREVOR TYNE

PAINTINGS BY JIM MCMANUS
“In much the same way that musicians use melody and tempo to create a mood and move the listener,
Concord-based painter Jim McManus uses color, texture, strokes, drips and marks to create a kind of
visual crescendo, evoking feelings connected to people, places or events from the recent or distant past.”
The extraordinary beauty of Jim McManus’ imagery appears on our website and throughout this edition of the
magazine. When not in his studio, Jim has worked as a creative director and consultant for several of the world’s
leading publications and corporations. He currently runs the visual storytelling firm Complex Stories.
ORIGAMI MÖBIUS STRIP FROM TREVOR TYNE

“Like the movement and flow of the natural landscape and life that surrounds us all, behind the 'veil' of
the artwork lies its mathematical foundation.” On page 60, we are delighted to showcase the work of emerging
artist Trevor Tyne in his exploration of where mathematics meets art.
2 0 2 2 A N N U A L G AT H E R I N G
OCTOBER 23–28, 2022 | BOSTON, MA
REGISTRATION NOW OPEN: www.mobiusleadership.com/npi

We are once again privileged to be joined by a world-class group of presenters, faculty and guides for an intellectually rich,
emotionally stirring and artistically inspirational week-long program.
2022 TRACK LEARNING

Track 1 Designing and Leading Systems Change Track 5 Team Coaching with Alexander Caillet & Amy Yeager
with Dr. Gisela Wendling & David Sibbet Track 6 Working with Different Parts of the Self
Track 2 Adaptive Leadership and Alignment to Change with Dr. Richard Schwartz
with Zander Grashow Track 7 Organizational & Personal Healing with
Track 3 Resilience, Wellbeing and Purpose in Business Constellation Principles with Ester Martinez
with Andrew White & Sophie Maclaren Track 8 Leading from The Future with Robin Alfred
Track 4 Advanced Coaching and Somatics Training Track 9 The Maturing Masculine Soul
with Jennifer Cohen with Dr. Paul Dunion (men-only track)
2022 KEYNOTE TALKS, WORKSHOPS AND EVENING EVENTS

We continue the tradition of devoting Wednesday to an intensive day-long workshop with mystical teacher Thomas Huebl.
As in previous years, we are joined by inspiring thought leaders and pioneers in the field for daily keynote presentations.
Please see overleaf for the complete schedule of speakers.
In the evenings we have the opportunity to work with Mobius Director of Presence, Anne Gottlieb; we welcome back the
musician Ellis Paul; and are delighted to be joined by Emmy Award winning actor Mauricio Martinez and his colleagues
for a sing-along evening celebrating Broadway.
For full brochure visit: www.mobiusleadership.com/npi

Purple: Pantone 511
Sage Gray: Pantone 443
Font: Priori to Outline
OCTOBER 2022
A N N U A L G AT H E R I N G G U E S T S
We are deeply honored to welcome these six important speakers. If you are unable to attend this
year’s week-long program, we welcome you to watch the livestream recording.
To watch, visit Mobius Executive Leadership Facebook Page
PROFESSOR TOM MALONE DR. DIONNE WRIGHT POULTON DR. STEVEN HASSAN
Founding Director of the MIT Diversity & Inclusion Expert Director, Freedom of Mind Resource Center
Center for Collective Intelligence and Executive Coach
How to Determine the Integrity
How Hyperconnectivity is Changing the Racial Healing and Trustworthiness of
and Harmony Spiritual Teachers and Communities
Way We Solve Problems
ANDREW SZEGEDY-MASZAK BILL TORBERT PUJA JASPAL

Professor of Classical Studies and Professor Emeritus of Leadership Senior Vice President for People &
Historiography at Wesleyan University at Boston College Communities at Cisco Systems and former
SVP of Talent at Visa
Lessons from the Ancient Greeks Action Inquiry and Transforming Organizations: The Future
and their Gods Organizational Learning
of Leadership Development
www.mobiusleadership.com/npi
ne 511
ne 443
Outline
SAVE THE DATES

2022
ANNUAL GATHERING
October 23 – 28, 2022
Boston, MA
2023
ANNUAL GATHERING
October 15 – 20, 2023
Boston, MA
2024
ANNUAL GATHERING
November 10 – 15, 2024
Boston, MA
For more information, please email [email protected]
www.mobiusleadership.com/next-practice-institute
MO B I U S S T R I P | W I NTER 2022
The Fearless Organization

Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace
for Learning, Innovation, and Growth
A book excerpt by Mobius Senior Expert and the
Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at
Harvard Business School, Amy Edmondson
MAKING IT HAPPEN most expensive product failures, describing why each

Excerpts from Chapter 7 was valuable and what the company learned from
each. Recall, also, Ed Catmull’s assurance to Pixar
Reframing Failure animators, that movies always start out bad, to help
Because fear of (reporting) failure is such a key them “uncouple fear and failure.” Here, Catmull
indicator of an environment with low levels of is making a leadership framing statement. He is
psychological safety, how leaders present the role of making sure that people know this is the kind of work
failure is essential. Recall Astro for which stunning success occurs
Teller’s observation at Google X only if you’re willing to confront the
that “the only way to get people “In the End, we “bad” along the way to the “good.”
to work on big, risky things . . . is Learning to learn from failure
if you make that the path of least will remember has become so important that
resistance for them [and] make it Smith College (along with other
safe to fail.” In other words, unless
not the words of schools around the country) is
a leader expressly and actively our enemies, but creating courses and initiatives
makes it psychologically safe to do to help students better deal with
so, people will automatically seek
the silence of our failures, challenges, and setbacks.
to avoid failure. So how did Teller friends.” “What we’re trying to teach is that
reframe failure to make it okay? By failure is not a bug of learning, it’s
saying, believing, and convincing Martin Luther King, Jr a feature,” said Rachel Simmons, a
others that “I’m not pro failure, I’m leadership development specialist
pro learning.” in Smith’s Wurtele Center for Work and Life and the
Failure is a source of valuable data, but leaders unofficial “failure czar” on campus. “It’s not something
must understand and communicate that learning only that should be locked out of the learning experience.
happens when there’s enough psychological safety to For many of our students – those who have had to be
dig into failure’s lessons carefully. In his book The almost perfect to get accepted into a school like Smith
Game-Changer, published while he was still CEO of – failure can be an unfamiliar experience. So when
Proctor and Gamble, A.G. Lafley celebrates his eleven it happens, it can be crippling.” With workshops on
Reprinted with permission from the author and Wiley, ©2018. All rights reserved.
www.mobiusleadership.com | Mobius Executive Leadership 7

MOBIU S S TR I P | W I N TE R 2 0 2 2
impostor syndrome, discussions on perfectionism and correct deviations from best practice. Here, celebrating
a campaign to remind students that 64% of their peers failure is a matter of viewing such deviations as “good
will get (gasp) a B-minus or lower, the program is part catch” events and appreciating those who noticed tiny
of a campus-wide effort to foster student resilience. mistakes as observant contributors to the mission.
Note that failure plays a varying role in different At the other end of the spectrum lies innovation and
kinds of work. At one end of the spectrum is high- research, where little is known about how to obtain
volume repetitive work, such as in an assembly plant, a desired result. Creating a movie, a line of original
a fast-food restaurant, or even a kidney dialysis center. clothing, or a technology that can convert seawater to
Failing to correctly plug a patient into a dialysis machine fuel are all examples. In this context, dramatic failures
or install an automobile airbag in precisely the right must be courted and celebrated because they are an
manner can have disastrous consequences. So in this integral part of the journey to success. In the middle
kind of work it’s vital that people eagerly catch and of the spectrum, where much of the work done today
LEADERSHIP SELF-ASSESSMENT
The practices described here are dominated by complex interpersonal skills and thus not easy to master.
They take time, effort, and practice. Perhaps the most important aspect of learning them is to practice
self-reflection [including the following illustrative questions explored further in the book]:
I. SETTING THE STAGE

▶ Framing the work. Have I clarified the nature of the work? To what extent is the work complex
and interdependent? How much uncertainty do we face? How often do I refer to these aspects of
the work? How well do I assess shared understanding of these features? Do I point out that small
failures are the currency of subsequent improvement?
▶ Emphasizing Purpose. Have I articulated clearly why our work matters, why it makes a difference,
and for whom? Even if it seems obvious given the type of work or industry I’m in, how often do I talk
about what’s at stake?
II. INVITING PARTICIPATION

▶ Situational Humility. Have I made sure that people know that I don’t think I have all the answers?
Have I been clear that the situation we’re in requires everyone to be humble and curious about
what’s going to happen next?
▶ Proactive Inquiry. How often do I ask questions of others, rather than just expressing my
perspective? Do I demonstrate an appropriate mix of questions that go broad and go deep?
▶ Systems and Structures. Have I created structures to systematically elicit ideas and concerns?
Are these structures well designed to ensure a safe environment for open dialogue?
III. R
ESPONDING PRODUCTIVELY
▶ Express Appreciation. Have I listened thoughtfully, signaling that what I am hearing matters?
▶ Destigmatize Failure. What more can I do to celebrate intelligent failures? When someone comes to
me with bad news, how do I make sure it’s a positive experience?
▶ Sanction Clear Violations. Have I clarified the boundaries? Do people know what constitute
blameworthy acts in our organization?
8 Mobius Executive Leadership | www.mobiusleadership.com

falls, are complex operations, such as hospitals or

financial institutions. Here, vigilance and teamwork
are both vital to preventing avoidable failures and
celebrating intelligent ones.
Reframing failure starts with understanding a basic
typology of failure types. As I have written in more detail
elsewhere (see for example "Strategies for Learning from
Failure" in HBR), failure archetypes include preventable
failures (never good news), complex failures (still not
good news), and intelligent failures (not fun, but must be
considered good news because of the value they bring).
reventable failures are deviations from
•P
recommended procedures that produce bad
outcomes. If someone fails to don safety glasses
in a factory and suffers an eye injury, this is a
preventable failure.
• Complex failures occur in familiar contexts when AMY C. EDMONDSON is a Mobius Senior Expert
a confluence of factors come together in a way and the Novartis Professor of Leadership and
that may never have occurred before; consider the Management at the Harvard Business School.
severe flooding of the Wall Street subway station in Her work explores psychological safety and
New York City during Superstorm Sandy in 2012. teaming – the dynamic forms of collaboration
With vigilance, complex failures can sometimes, needed in environments characterized by
but not always, be avoided. Neither preventable uncertainty and ambiguity. She has studied the
nor complex failures are worthy of celebration. role of psychological safety extensively – especially
• I n contrast, intelligent failures, as the term implies, in teamwork and innovation. Before her academic
must be celebrated so as to encourage more of career, she was Director of Research at Pecos
them. Intelligent failures, like the preventable River Learning Centers, where she worked with
and complex, are still results no one wanted. founder and CEO Larry Wilson to design change
But, unlike the other two categories, they are the programs in large companies. In the early 1980s,
result of a thoughtful foray into new territory.
she worked as Chief Engineer for architect and
Some failures are genuinely good news; some are not, inventor Buckminster Fuller. Innovation in the built
but no matter what type they are, our primary goal is environment remains an area of enduring interest
to learn from them. ▪ and passion for her.
Out of the Blue by Jim McManus, Mobius featured artist

Before you know what kindness really is

you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.
Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness

you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.
Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,

you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.
Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to gaze at bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
It is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you everywhere
like a shadow or a friend.
Naomi Shihab Nye

Superminds
The Surprising Power of People and
Computers Thinking Together
By Thomas Malone, the Patrick J. McGovern Professor of Management at
the MIT Sloan School of Management and 2022 Next Practice Institute
Annual Gathering Keynote speaker
According to Superminds, while much has been promised about

the rise of artificial intelligence, in the immediate term the greatest contribution computers
will make to our collective ability to solve complex problems, will be hyperconnectivity
– how computers link human minds together in unprecedented ways. In particular, how
human-computer superminds will outsmart anything we have seen before.
“ Mthere’s
any believe that humans are the most intelligent animals on our planet. But
another kind of entity that can be far smarter: groups of people. In this
groundbreaking book, the author shows how groups of people working together
in superminds (the combination of many minds) – in the form of a hierarchy,
marketplace, democracy, or community – have been responsible for almost all
human achievements in business, government, science, and beyond. And these
collectively intelligent human groups are about to get much smarter.
Using dozens of examples and case studies, Malone shows how computers can help
create more intelligent superminds simply by connecting humans to one another in
a variety of rich, new ways. And although it will probably happen more gradually than
many people expect, artificially intelligent computers will amplify the power of these
superminds by doing increasingly complex kinds of thinking. Together, these changes
will have far-reaching implications for everything from the way we buy groceries
and plan business strategies to how we respond to climate change, and even for
democracy itself. By understanding how these collectively intelligent groups work,
we can learn how to harness their genius to achieve our human goals.
Drawing on cutting-edge science and insights from a range of disciplines

Superminds articulates a bold picture of the future that will change the ways you
work and live, both with other people and with computers.
”
An overview from the publishers
From Superminds by Thomas W Malone, copyright © 2019. Reprinted by permission of Little, Brown Spark, an imprint of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

Introduction contributions. In a subsequent post, he gave his group

In January 2009, Tim Gowers posted a blog entry that the task of proving the Hales-Jewett theorem, which
would make history. Gowers is a mathematics professor is part of an esoteric branch of mathematics that has
at Cambridge University, and he proves mathematical applications in computer science and other fields.
theorems for a living. If you’re like most people, you Other mathematicians quickly took up his
probably haven’t proved a theorem in your life, or at least challenge. Within seven hours after Gowers put up
not since high school geometry class. But the rigorous, his blog post, the first comment was made by Jozsef
logical thinking that is captured in mathematical proofs Solymosi, a mathematician at the University of
is at the heart of many of humanity’s most important British Columbia. Fifteen minutes later, Jason Dyer,
scientific and technological achievements. a high school mathematics teacher in Arizona, made
Usually, proving theorems requires hours of the next comment. Three minutes after that, another
solitary work, trying to figure out how comment came from Terence Tao
to do just one piece of one subpart of of UCLA (a winner, like Gowers, of
a complex proof. In 2009, Gowers
“The test of the Fields Medal, the equivalent of
decided to try a different way of doing leadership is not a Nobel Prize in mathematics).
things. He wanted to see if a large By mid-March, the participants
group of people on the Internet could
to put greatness had solved the core of the problem.
prove a theorem together. into humanity, but By the end of May, there had been
In a blog post titled “Is Massively over 1,500 comments in which 39
Collaborative Mathematics Possible?”
to elicit it, for the different people made substantive
Gowers invited anyone on the greatness is contributions. And in October, the
Internet who was interested to group submitted the first of several
collaborate in proving the theorem. He
already there.” articles describing their results, all
speculated that this kind of large-scale of which were attributed to “D. H.
collaboration might be useful for at – James Buchanan J. Polymath,” a pseudonym for the
least three reasons. First, in many kinds whole group.
of problem solving (including mathematical proofs), With all the famous mathematicians involved, you
luck often matters. Having many people working on a might wonder whether this was really a group project or
problem increases the chances that at least one of them whether the key work was done by a handful of the most
will get lucky and have an important idea. prestigious contributors. It’s true that some members
Second, different people know different things. of the group contributed much more than others, but a
So even if everyone just contributes ideas that seem detailed analysis of the complete working record of the
obvious to them, the group as a whole can bring to bear project shows that almost every one of the 39 substantive
much more knowledge than one or two individuals participants contributed influential content.
ever could alone. In other words, the Polymath project made
Finally, different people think differently. Some history as the first example of a real contribution
are good at coming up with new things to try, to mathematics from a loosely organized group of
others at finding the faults in someone else’s ideas, dozens of people on the Internet, many of whom
still others at putting together lots of pieces into a didn’t even know each other before the project started.
coherent new picture. As Gowers summarized, “. . . if
a large group of mathematicians could connect their What’s Old Here?
brains efficiently, they could perhaps solve problems The Polymath project was successful because it used
very efficiently as well.” new information technology (IT) to connect people in
The post went on to suggest ground rules to make ways that would never have been possible before. We’ll
the collaboration easier, such as keeping discussion see many more such stories in this book: vast online
respectful and making only bite-sized, focused groups creating an encyclopedia (Wikipedia), solving

difficult scientific problems (Foldit), entertaining

each other with gossip (Facebook), and responding to
humanitarian disasters like hurricanes (Ushahidi).
But in a sense, these digital-age accomplishments
are all just examples of one of the oldest stories in the
history of humanity. The story goes like this: “There was
a problem. Different people worked on different parts
of it. Together, the group solved the problem better than
any of the individuals could have solved it alone.”
In fact, it’s not too much of an exaggeration to say
that almost all our important problems are solved by
groups of people rather than by individuals alone.
For instance, it may be a common shorthand to say
that Steve Jobs created the iPhone, but of course the
iPhone was really designed and made by thousands THOMAS W. MALONE is the Patrick J. McGovern
of people all over the world who in turn built upon Professor of Management at the MIT Sloan School
a vast edifice of technological inventions that came of Management and the founding director of the MIT
before them. Even making the turkey sandwich I Center for Collective Intelligence. At MIT, he is also a
had for lunch today required hundreds of people to Professor of Information Technology and a Professor of
grow, transport, and prepare the meat, bread, lettuce, Work and Organizational Studies. Previously, he was the
mustard, and other ingredients. founder and director of the MIT Center for Coordination
Compared to “simple” problems like these, trying to Science and one of the two founding co-directors of the
solve big societal problems like what to do about climate MIT Initiative on Inventing the Organizations of the 21st
change, crime, war, poverty, health care, and education Century. He teaches classes on organizational design,
is far more complex and requires far more people. information technology, and leadership. His research
focuses on how new organizations can be designed
One name for the ability to solve problems well is
to take advantage of the possibilities provided by
intelligence, and we usually think of intelligence as
information technology.
something that individuals have. But as all these examples
make obvious, intelligence—in the sense of solving Professor Malone predicted in an article published in 1987
problems well—is something that groups can have, too. many of the major developments in electronic business
We’ll call the intelligence of groups collective over the following 25 years, including electronic buying
intelligence, and this book is the story of that and selling for many kinds of products. In 2004, he
ubiquitous—but often invisible—kind of intelligence. summarized two decades of his research in his critically
acclaimed book, The Future of Work. In addition to his
We’ll see that it was the collective intelligence of
books, including Superminds, he has published over 100
human groups, not the intelligence of individual
articles, research papers, and book chapters and is the co-
humans, that first differentiated our human ancestors editor of four books.
from all their animal relatives. We’ll see that human
progress has been mostly a story of what groups of He has also been a co-founder of four software companies
people—not individuals—have accomplished. And and has consulted and served as a board member for a
we’ll see that, over time, information technologies— number of other organizations. He is an inventor with 11
like writing and the printing press—allowed groups patents.
to become dramatically larger and more intelligent. His background includes work as a research scientist
Most important, we’ll see that we are now in the at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), a PhD from
early stages of another dramatic change in collective Stanford University, an honorary doctorate from the
intelligence, this time enabled by new electronic University of Zurich, and degrees in applied mathematics,
information technologies. ▪ engineering, and psychology.

Just beyond
yourself.
It's where
you need
to be.
Half a step
into
self-forgetting
and the rest
restored
by what
you’ll meet.
There is a road
always beckoning.
From Just Beyond Yourself,

by Mobius Associate Fellow, the poet
David Whyte

In My Life by Jim McManus, Mobius featured artist
Facilitating Breakthrough
How to Remove Obstacles, Bridge Differences, and Move Forward Together
A book excerpt from Mobius Friend, leading systems thinker, peace negotiator,
and systems change facilitator, Adam Kahane
From the Foreword by Edgar H. Schein
“The stories that Kahane tells us make us realize how much

third-party intervention has evolved. In the transformative
facilitation model described in this book, we see elements
of what we learned in the research on group dynamics and
in my process consultation, Senge’s learning organization,
Heifetz’s adaptive leadership, the open systems emphasis
and spirit of inquiry that launched experiential learning in
the early labs and is again being reaffirmed in Bushe and
Marshak’s dialogic organization development, and most
recently in Scharmer’s Theory U. This history of the field
invites us to think of transformative facilitation as a far
broader and deeper set of practices rather than a single
formulaic facilitation method. What makes this book so powerful is that in a concise and
beautifully presented model, Kahane brings all of this together.
The Kahane model moves us forward in a significant way from just describing a
consultant’s interactive skills in dealing with clients to offering an in-depth overview of
facilitation as the creation and management of new social systems and cultural islands
that enable conflicting parties to get unconflicted, using both formal and informal methods
as needed. Kahane provides us with key concepts that build on traditional polarities yet
also offers a creative, fluid conceptual model of how to think about intervention in a more
dynamic manner. Most of us who have consulted or coached would not even begin to be
able to figure out how to work in some of the situations Kahane describes, much less know
how to create the containers that enable this work in the first place.
I encourage you to find out in this book what this very courageous transformative facilitator
has done to bring power, love, and justice together in real-world examples.
”
– Edgar H. Schein, Professor Emeritus, MIT Sloan School of Management
and pioneer in the field of organizational development
Reprinted with permission from Facilitating Breakthrough ©2021. All rights reserved.

Moving forward together is becoming less straight- Transformative facilitation doesn’t choose either
forward. the bossy vertical or the collegial horizontal approach:
In many contexts, people face increasing complexity it cycles back and forth between them—not in a
and decreasing control. They need to work with more straight line—employing five pairs of outer moves
people from across more divides. This is true both and five inner shifts (discussed here and summarized
within organizations and in larger social systems. at the end of the book). In doing this, it produces a
In such situations, the most straightforward and third approach that delivers better results than either
commonplace ways of advancing—some people the vertical or horizontal one alone. Transformative
telling others what to do, or everyone just doing what facilitation is a structured and creative way to help
they want to do—aren’t adequate. diverse groups remove obstacles, bridge differences,
What is a better way? and move forward together. Transformative facilitation
One better way is through facilitating: helping a enables breakthrough.
group collaborate across their differences to create This book is for anyone who wants to facilitate
change. The word facilitate means “to make easier,” breakthrough, be it as a leader, manager, consultant,
and facilitation enables a group to work together coach, chairperson, organizer, mediator, stakeholder,
more easily and effectively. But for diverse groups or friend. A facilitator isn’t only an earnest, energetic
facing increasing complexity and decreasing control, professional in a windowless conference room or in
the most common approaches to facilitating— a window in a video conference. It isn’t only someone
bossy vertical directing from above and collegial who runs training or strategic planning exercises.
horizontal accompanying from alongside— also It isn’t only a referee or timekeeper. It is anyone
aren’t adequate. These common approaches often who helps people work together to transform their
leave the participants frustrated and yearning for situation: in person or online, as a professional or
breakthrough. amateur, in the role of team leader or team member,
This book describes an uncommon approach in an organization or community, with a small
to facilitating such breakthrough: transformative alliance or large movement, during one meeting or
facilitation. This approach focuses on removing the over an extended process. A facilitator is anyone who
obstacles that stand in the way of people contributing and supports groups to collaborate to create change.
connecting equitably. More fundamentally, it focuses This book offers a broad and bold vision of the
on removing the obstacles to love, power, and justice. It contribution that facilitation can make to helping
enables people to bring all of themselves to making a people move forward together.
difference. It is a liberating way to make progress. – an excerpt from the Preface
River Run by Jim McManus, Mobius featured artist

Conventional Vertical and Horizontal above the smaller). When you’re part of such a system,
Facilitation Both Constrain Collaboration you sometimes have the feeling of being held down
Excerpts from Chapter 2 or boxed in, and find that you’re silencing yourself or
A facilitator helps a group, and the tension starts right compromising on things that are important to you.
there. The word group is both a singular and plural In these ways, verticality constrains contribution,
noun, and the task of the facilitator is to help both the connection, and equity.
singular group as a whole and the plural members Vertical facilitation is the default approach in most
of the group. This is the core tension underlying all organizations in most sectors in most parts of the world.
facilitation. Most people in positions of authority depend on and
Some facilitators deal with this tension by focusing default to verticality because they believe that it is the only
primarily on the first part of this task: helping the group feasible way to produce forward collective action (and
as a whole address the problematic situation that has also to protect and advance their own interests). When
motivated their collaboration. Other facilitators focus they are involved in a collaboration to create change,
primarily on the second part: helping the diverse they employ their authority to push for the contribution,
individual members of the group address the diverse connection, and equity that the work requires—although
aspects of the situation that they find problematic. not necessarily more than is required.
These two approaches, the vertical and the
horizontal, are the most common and conventional
approaches to facilitation. Both have their proponents Unconventional Transformative Facilitation
and methodologies. Both can help a group collaborate Breaks through Constraints
to create change. But both also have limits and risks Excerpts from Chapter 3
The vertical and horizontal approaches are more than
just opposite poles: they are complementary. This
Vertical facilitation is the most common approach means that each of these approaches is incomplete
to facilitation because verticality is the dominant without the other approach and that the downsides
organizing principle of most organizations and of of each can be mitigated only through including
other social systems. You know you’re in a vertical the other. [Note: This model for understanding and
system when you keep looking up to the boss to know working with polarities is based on Barry Johnson’s
what to do (the higher above the lower), and when body of theory and practice.] Facilitation can therefore
fitting in and being a good team player or community only be transformative—can only break through
member are of paramount importance (the larger the constraints of the vertical and horizontal—if the
In transformative facilitation, the facilitator cycles back and forth

between the vertical and horizontal to unblock contribution,
connection, and equity, and thereby to enable the group to move
forward together.

facilitator chooses to employ both approaches. This is Transformative facilitation enables change
the more powerful, unconventional choice. in organizations
Early in my career as an independent consultant, my
colleagues and I facilitated a two-year strategy project
Cycling removes obstacles for a Fortune 50 logistics company. The company’s
Both vertical and horizontal facilitation focus on established way of doing things was vertical: the CEO
pushing through the structural obstacles to moving managed through giving forceful, detailed directives,
forward together, but transformative facilitation which had produced the coordination and cohesion
focuses on removing these obstacles. This approach that enabled outstanding business success. But
to creating change has a long pedigree: in the 1940s, the COO thought that the company’s situation was
pioneering organizational development researcher problematic in that globalization and digitization
Kurt Lewin posited that removing obstacles is more were changing the competitive landscape, and he
effective than increasing pressure: wanted employees from across the organization to
collaborate more horizontally to create innovative
Instead of simply applying pressure or responses.
forcing a change, Lewin’s research supports My team worked with the COO and his colleagues
identifying and addressing restraining forces vertically to agree on a project scope, timeline,
as a foundation for successful planned change: and process, and to charter a cross-level, cross-
“In the first case [of applying pressure], the departmental team. The process we designed for the
process . . . would be accomplished by a state team was more horizontal, participative, and creative
of relatively high tension, [while] in the second than they were used to. They immersed themselves
case [of addressing restraining forces] by a in the changes in their market by spending time on
state of relatively low tension. Since increase the front line of the organization, going on learning
of tension above a certain degree is likely to journeys to leading organizations in other sectors,
be paralleled by higher aggressiveness, higher and constructing scenarios of possible futures. They
emotionality, and lower constructiveness, it is participated in workshops that emphasized full
clear that as a rule, the second method will be participation by all team members and that included
preferable to the [first].” structured exercises to generate, develop, and test
– Gilmore Crosby on why Lewin remains innovative options.
best practice (2020) This transformative process enabled breakthrough
by creating a space within which the company’s
In transformative facilitation, the facilitator makes culture of command and control, which assumed that
both vertical and horizontal moves to remove structural the bosses knew best, was suspended. This enabled
obstacles to contribution, connection, and equity. greater contribution by participants across different
departments and from different levels in the hierarchy.
The cross departmental project team cut across the
Cycling back and forth between the vertical and siloed organization, where lines of communication
horizontal is like rocking back and forth a boulder that ran up and down rather than side to side, so the
is blocking a stream, in order to dislodge it and enable process enabled greater connection. And the company
the stream to run with greater coherence and flow. had a steep hierarchy of privilege, with senior people
having much greater compensation and agency, so
the process also enabled more equitable contribution
You can’t push a stream to and connection. Transformative facilitation enabled
flow, but if you remove the this team to come up with and implement a set of
initiatives to launch new service offerings and to
blockages, it will flow by itself. streamline company operations.

Five Questions all Collaborations Must Address How vertical and horizontal facilitation
From Chapter 4 answer the five questions
Every collaboration is different because the particulars Vertical facilitation is common and seductive because
of the problematic situation, the participants, and the it offers straightforward and familiar answers to these
process are different. But in all collaborations, the five questions. In this approach, both the participants
participants and facilitators need to work through the and the facilitator typically give the following five
same five basic how-to questions about how they will confident, superior, controlling answers about the
move forward together: work they are doing:
1. How do we see our situation? In other words, VERTICAL

what is actually happening here, around,
among, and within us? This question is about
the reality (including the reality within the 1. “We have the right answer.”
group) that the group is working together to
address. If we can’t understand our reality, we 2. “We need to agree.”
can’t be effective in transforming it.
3. “We know the way.”
2. How do we define success? What outcomes are
we trying to produce through our efforts? This 4. “Our leaders decide.”
question is about where we are trying to get to 5. “We must fix this.”
through our collaboration. If we don’t know
what our finish line is, we can’t know whether
we’re making progress. In horizontal facilitation, by contrast, participants
typically give the following five defiant, defensive,
3. How will we get from here to there? What is
autonomous answers, and the facilitator supports this
our route from where we are to where we
want to be? This question is about the way we autonomy:
will move forward—the approach, process,
methodology, and steps.
HORIZONTAL
4. How do we decide who does what? What is our
approach to coordinating and aligning our
efforts? This question is about how we will
1. “We each have our own answer.”
organize ourselves to collaborate across our 2. “We each need to keep moving.”
differences (without necessarily relying on our
usual roles and hierarchies). 3. “We will each find our way as we go.”
5. How do we understand our role? What is our 4. “We each decide for ourselves.”
responsibility in this situation? This question
is about how we each position ourselves vis-à-
5. “We must each get our own house in order.”
vis our situation and our collaborative effort to
address it.
These questions all arise right from the beginning How transformative facilitation answers
of every collaboration, but they usually don’t get the five questions
answered all at once or once and for all. Facilitators The vertical and horizontal approaches answer the
and participants need to deal with them repeatedly five collaboration questions in opposite ways. These
and iteratively over the duration of the collaboration, pairs of statements constitute five polarities that are
whether that is days or decades. focused versions of the overall vertical–horizontal

River Run by Jim McManus, Mobius featured artist
polarity. In transformative facilitation, the facilitator within the group and what the participants need to do
makes five sets of moves that help the participants about this; in doing so, the facilitator encourages the
cycle back and forth between each pair of poles. This group to do the same in regard to what is going on in
is how the group obtains the best of both approaches, the problematic situation and what they need to do to
avoids the worst, and moves forward together. address it. Through this cycling between advocating
and inquiring, the group and the facilitator gradually
1. How Do We See Our Situation? and iteratively clarify their understanding of where
The facilitator helps the participants work with they are and what this implies for what they need to
this first question by helping them cycle between do next.
advocating and inquiring. Often both the participants
and the facilitator start off a collaboration with the 2. How Do We Define Success?
confident vertical perspective, “We have the right The facilitator helps the participants work with the
answer.” Each person thinks that “If only the others second question by helping them cycle between
would agree with me, then the group would be able concluding and advancing. Often both the participants
to move forward together more quickly and easily.” and the facilitator start off a collaboration with the
But when the group takes this position too far or for vertical perspective, “We need to agree.” But when
too long and starts to get stuck in rigid certainty, the they take this position too far or for too long and
facilitator needs to help participants inquire to move start to get stuck in this demand for a conclusion, the
toward horizontal plurality. When participants are facilitator needs to help them keep moving. One of
pounding the table, certain that they have the right my most important learnings as a facilitator has been
answer, the facilitator can encourage them to add “In that, in order to move forward together, agreement is
my opinion” to the beginning of their sentence, and not required as often or on as many matters as most
if that is insufficient, to try “In my humble opinion.” people think.
This playful sentence stubs open the door to inquiry. Then, when the participants start to get stuck in
Then, when the participants take this horizontal the unfocused horizontal “We each just need to keep
“We each have our own answer” too far and for moving,” the facilitator needs to help them pause to
too long and start to get stuck in cacophony and work out what they can agree to focus on.
indecision, the facilitator helps them advocate in order In doing this cycling, the facilitator is working with
to move toward the clarity and decisiveness of vertical a key tool of facilitation: the pace and timing of the
unity. process—when the group needs to slow down or pause
The facilitator moves back and forth between to reach an agreement or conclusion, when it needs to
advocating and inquiring about what is happening keep advancing even with no or only partial agreement,

and when it needs to declare that the collaboration Working with polarities
must end. Through this cycling between concluding
and advancing, the group and the facilitator gradually 1. H
ow do we see our situation – cycling
and iteratively clarify their understanding of where between advocating and inquiring
they want to get to.
2. How do we define success – cycling
3. How Will We Get from Here to There?
The facilitator helps the participants work with between concluding and advancing
the third question by helping them cycle between
mapping and discovering. Often both the participants 3. How will we get from here to there – cycling
and the facilitator start off a collaboration with the between mapping and discovering
assured vertical perspective, “We know the way.”
But when they take this position too far or for too 4. How do we decide who does what – cycling
long and start to get stubbornly stuck, the facilitator between directing and accompanying
needs to help participants experiment to test their
understanding and to discover new options. 5. How do we understand our role – cycling
Later, when the participants start to get stuck in the between standing outside and standing
horizontal “We will each just find our way as we go,” the
inside
facilitator helps them map out a common way forward.
Sometimes the facilitator needs to persist with
the planned process for the work of the group and
the group needs to persist with its planned course
of action to address the problematic situation. Sometimes the facilitator needs to direct from the
Sometimes they both need to pivot to deal with front of the group, and the group needs to be directive
what is actually happening, which is different in addressing the problematic situation. Sometimes
from what they had planned. Through this cycling the facilitator needs to accompany from alongside the
between mapping and discovering, the group and group, and the group needs to do the same from
the facilitator gradually and iteratively clarify their alongside the situation. Through this cycling between
way forward. directing and accompanying, the group and the
facilitator gradually and iteratively clarify how they are
4. How Do We Decide Who Does What? coordinating their work.
The facilitator helps the participants work with the
fourth question by helping them cycle between 5. How Do We Understand Our Role?
directing (like the director of an orchestra or band) The facilitator helps the participants work with this
and accompanying (like an accompanist playing last question by helping them cycle between standing
piano or drums). Often both the participants and outside the problematic situation and standing inside
the facilitator start off a collaboration with the it. Often both the participants and the facilitator
unambiguous vertical perspective, “Our leaders start off a collaboration with the objective vertical
decide.” But when they take this position too far perspective, “We must fix this.” But when they take
or for too long and start to get stuck in ineffective this position too far or for too long and start to get
bossiness, the facilitator needs to help all participants stuck in cold remoteness, the facilitator needs to help
take responsibility for their own actions. participants consider how they are part of the problem
Then, when the participants start to get stuck in and therefore have the leverage to be part of the
the misaligned horizontal “We each need to decide solution.
for ourselves,” the facilitator helps them align their Then, when the participants start to get stuck in
actions. the self-centered and myopic horizontal “We must

each put our own house in order,” the facilitator

helps them stand outside the situation to get a clearer,
more nonpartisan and neutral perspective on what is
happening.
Sometimes the facilitator also needs to stand
outside to get a clearer perspective on what is
happening and sometimes to stand inside it to
recognize the ways in which they are also part of
the problem and therefore have the leverage to be
part of the solution. Through this cycling between
standing outside and inside, the group and the
facilitator gradually and iteratively clarify their roles
and responsibilities.
As the facilitator works with each of the five
collaboration questions, they need to pay attention Every group that is collaborating needs to work
and shift in a specific way: through the five basic questions, not just once at the
beginning of the collaboration, but multiple times,
1. To cycle between advocating and inquiring,
iteratively, as the collaboration unfolds.
the facilitator needs to open up: to pay
attention to what is happening and what is
The Facilitator Knows What Move to Make
needed in the situation and in the group.
Next by Paying Attention
(This first shift is foundational for the four
Excerpts from Chapter 5
others.)
Sports psychologist Tim Gallwey says, “In every
2. To cycle between concluding and advancing, human endeavor there are two arenas of engagement:
the facilitator needs to discern: to pay the outer and the inner. The outer game is played on
attention to when the group needs to slow an external arena to overcome external obstacles to
down to agree, when to keep moving forward reach an external goal. The inner game takes place
without or with only partial agreement, and within the mind of the player.”
when to stop and end. In the outer game of transformative facilitation, the
facilitator makes the ten moves (e.g. advocate or inquire).
3. To cycle between mapping and discovering,
In the inner game of transformative facilitation, the
the facilitator needs to adapt: to pay attention
to when to persist in following a planned facilitator makes five attentional shifts within themself
route and when to pivot to try a new one. (see sidebar). These shifts enable the facilitator to know,
at each moment, what move they need to make.
4. To cycle between directing and accompanying,
the facilitator needs to serve: to pay attention Paying attention requires dealing with
to when the group needs firm instruction and distraction
when it needs relaxed support. Paying attention in these five ways is partly rational
and partly intuitive. For example, when I am opening,
5. To cycle between standing outside and
I am listening to and analyzing the words participants
standing inside, the facilitator needs to
partner: to pay attention to when to focus on are using, and also responding to subtle shifts in their
being apart from the group and the situation visible gestures or invisible energies. When I am
and when to focus on being part of it. facilitating, I am not only or always listening to what
people are saying: I am using all my senses to grasp
what is going on in the group and what I need to do. ▪
Nocturne by Jim McManus, Mobius featured artist

In the introduction to his book, Kahane writes about a conversation he had over dinner with Francisco
de Roux, the former head of the Jesuit order in Colombia and a renowned peacemaker. In the story
below, de Roux was reflecting on the workshop Kahane had facilitated that day with various leaders in
Colombia who have major political, ideological and cultural differences. Kahane recounts:
By the end of this first, long day, the participants and are blocking and dispersing the water, would
had begun to relax and to hope that they could run freely downhill in a strong, coherent flow.
do something worthwhile together. One of them
said he had been amazed “to see the lion lie down The practice of removing obstacles
with the lamb.” Then, when we all got up to go De Roux’s observation enabled me to see my
to dinner, de Roux rushed up to me, overflowing longtime work as a facilitator in a new light. Most
with excitement. “Now I see what you are doing!” facilitators, including me up to this point, talk
he said. “You are removing the obstacles to the about their work in terms of getting participants
expression of the mystery!” to do things. But now I realized that in fact most
I knew de Roux was telling me something that of the people I work with want to or think they
was important to him—in Catholic theology, need to collaborate, in spite of or because of their
“the mystery” refers to the incomprehensible differences. And when they succeed in doing so,
and unknowable mystery of God—but I didn’t they are overjoyed. The essence of what I am now
understand what he thought this meant for what we calling transformative facilitation is therefore not
had been doing in the workshop. Over dinner we getting participants to work together but helping
talked for a long time and he patiently tried to give me them remove the obstacles to doing so. You can’t
a secular explanation: “Everything is a manifestation push a stream to flow, but if you remove the
of the mystery. But you cannot predict or provoke or blockages, it will flow by itself. This realization
program it: it just emerges. Our key problem is that transformed my understanding of facilitation.
we obstruct this emergence, especially when our What I found particularly intriguing in
fears cause us to wall ourselves off.” de Roux’s observation was not his esoteric
I found this conversation fascinating but reference to the mystery but his pragmatic focus
baffling. I said, “I am not aware that I am doing on removing obstacles to its expression. After
what you say I am doing.” He shrugged and said, dinner, I went back to my room and made a list
“Maybe that’s for the best.” of all of the actions our facilitation team had
De Roux’s cryptic comments intrigued me. I taken over the months leading up to this first
understood that the mystery is intrinsically, well, workshop (our facilitation work had started as
mysterious—not in the sense of a mystery that is soon as we had begun the project and engaged
solved at the end of an Agatha Christie novel, but the participants ten months earlier) and during
in the sense of something that is important but that first day that I could now interpret as
cannot be seen or grasped. Maybe, I thought, it aimed at removing obstacles to these leaders
was some sort of felt but invisible force, like gravity, collaborating to transform the region.
that, if we could remove the obstacles, would pull The approach we took in Colombia unblocked
us forward—like a mountain stream that, if we the three essential ingredients to moving forward
could remove the boulders that have tumbled in together: contribution, connection, and equity.”

In conversation with Adam Kahane

Helping People Work Together to Overcome Complex Challenges
Adam Kahane is a leading systems thinker and peace negotiator. He has spent
more than more than thirty years facilitating breakthrough with leadership
teams of companies, governments, foundations, churches, educational
institutions, political parties, and nonprofit organizations. He has also
facilitated diverse teams of leaders from across larger social systems at the
local, state, national, and global levels, including executives and politicians,
generals and guerrillas, civil servants and trade unionists, artists and activists
– sometimes over hours or days, and other times over months or years.
His work helps people face the most critical challenges of our time: climate
change, racial equity, democratic governance, Indigenous rights, health,
food, energy, water, education, justice, and security. He has helped people
bridge divides in, among other places, the US, Canada, Colombia, Haiti,
Northern Ireland, Israel, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Myanmar, and Thailand.
He is a director of Reos Partners, an international social enterprise that helps

people work together to address their most important and intractable issues.
Q What was the impetus for writing your

new book, Facilitating Breakthrough?
put up with a situation that was not acceptable. The
difficulty of control arises from increasing complexity
and interconnection, but also increasing voice.
There are fewer and fewer things that can be done These days there are other elements like the lack of
unilaterally, by force or alone. Therefore, the world a common media landscape. Also, I worry that in the
needs more and better collaboration, especially in the US and the UK especially, we see increasing levels
context of issues that are increasingly complex and of polarization, fragmentation, and demonization.
hard to control. (There is a difference between: "I disagree with you.
This difficulty of control can arise from both positive You're wrong." and "You're evil. You're the devil, and
and negative developments. The riots in Brixton in the I can't work with the devil because that's beyond the
1980s, for example, could be viewed positively in that pale.")
compared with previous generations, the people who The logic behind my new book is that collaboration
were rioting would have once thought they just had to is becoming both more necessary and more difficult,

and therefore we need better ways to do it, better

facilitation. This book is my attempt at explaining
Transformative facilitation enables
what better facilitation entails. A facilitator is
change within and beyond organizations
anybody who helps people collaborate to effect
change.
While the main case study in the book focuses
on peace work and nation building in Colombia,
Q In what way does Facilitating Breakthrough

build on your earlier books?
transformative facilitation applies wherever
people have come together to work on a
complex change together. Kahane writes:
In my previous work I focused on power and love –
this book brings in the missing element of justice. I “I have told the story of facilitating
also talk about these forces in terms of contribution the extraordinary process in Colombia
(power), connection (love) and equity (justice). because it illustrates this approach in
Secondly, this book introduces the concept of bright colors. I have also told it because
vertical versus horizontal facilitation. I haven’t seen this is where I started to understand the
facilitation conceptualized like this before. essence of transformative facilitation:
But the main thing I want to emphasize from the removing obstacles to contribution,
outset, is that the book focuses on the role of the connection, and equity.
facilitator. Previously I wrote about collaboration and
the general subject of solving tough problems and But transformative facilitation is powerful
working together across diverse teams, including in many settings.
people from different organizations. In this book, I
focus on the facilitator’s role. I define that in a bigger At Reos we have used this approach to
and broader way than it is normally understood. help all kinds of groups work together
Bigger in the sense that the book is intended to offer on all kinds of challenges all over the
a practical guide, a handbook, for anyone who finds world: retail company managers in Mexico
themselves trying to help people work together to making a plan to enter new markets,
effect change. Facilitation is bigger than a specific university administrators in the US
professional title that few of us carry. Broader in that redesigning their emergency financial aid
the reality is much more time is spent preparing and system, First Nations leaders in Canada
following up – in cajoling and supporting members finding new strategies for improving
of a group, than it is being in the room with everyone population health, community members
engaged in what we traditionally think of as the in the Netherlands implementing low-
facilitation part. carbon energy systems, businesspeople
in Thailand creating systems to reduce
Q . Does the book codify a new approach

or are you describing an existing
approach in a new way?
corruption, and food companies, farmers,
and nongovernmental organizations
around the world creating more
sustainable food supply chains.
Transformative facilitation isn’t a new approach. It’s
just a new way of explaining the type of approaches Transformative facilitation is a widely
that work. In my earlier book Transformative Scenario applicable approach to helping people
Planning (2012), I set out a specific methodology collaborate to create change.”
for collaborating to shape the future. This book
explains a foundational approach that facilitators
can apply to any collaborative methodology – be

it Appreciative Inquiry, Emergent Strategy, Open

Space Technology, Theory U and so forth. I provide
a language and a framework for something that
Q Why is facilitation increasingly
imperative in the workplace?
many, if not all, skilled practitioners already do. My Well, before we even get to the long list of complex
book simply offers a new framework for an existing organizational challenges, there’s a fundamental,
practice. ongoing issue alive in most workplaces.
A few weeks ago, I got an email from a man in Decades ago, I had the chance to meet the influential
his eighties who had been doing leadership training editor and writer Harriet Rubin. She said something to
and facilitation for a long time. He told me I had me that really stuck in my mind. It always surprised her
described things he had done but that he had never that people insisted on being free when they walked
tied together before. I was very happy to receive that down the street, but seem contented to be bossed
email. That was exactly what I was trying to do. A more around the moment they got to the office. That's a
pertinent example comes from working with a group lot less true today than it was then. To deal with this
of managers in the Netherlands many years ago. When dynamic, the team leader, the manager, “the boss”
I talked to them about power and love being about needs to look after the whole and the individual parts –
attending to the team as a whole and to the individual employing vertical and horizontal moves, if they really
members of the team (which is the central idea behind want people to be engaged and contribute.
vertical and horizontal facilitation), they said: Well, this Harriet’s idea also ties to the point that you have
is completely obvious. That’s what we do all day every day. certain rights at work – there needs to be this notion
That’s all you’re doing in management. I thought this was of equity and fairness. When we witnessed Derek
a wonderful point – that a good manager is constantly Chauvin press his knee into the neck of George Floyd,
attending both to the group as a singular noun and the this was the most grotesque example of inequity or
group as a plural noun. injustice. Without wishing to be inflammatory, in most
organizations, someone somewhere is suffocating the
Q Can you tell us more about why you

added justice to the equation of power
and love?
needs and contributions of subordinates – whether
they mean to or not. We are so accustomed to the lack
of equity and fairness in hierarchical organizations,
where someone plays the role of the boss, that we fail
I’ve spoken a lot about the about Martin Luther to realize this.
King Jr.’s phrase, “power without love is reckless and It’s a particular issue with visionary founders who
abusive, and love without power is sentimental and focus on the good of the whole and undermine the
anemic.” needs of the parts. A long time ago I realized that when
Justice was a missing aspect. People want to you are a part of a team, there’s only one or maybe two
contribute (power). They want to connect (love). people for whom the good of the whole and their own
And they want their contribution and connection interests are identical. Those people are the facilitator
to be equitable, to be fair (justice). People have and the boss. For everybody else, their interests
different definitions of what fair is, but these are hopefully overlap with the interest of the whole, but
the three imperatives for teamwork, management, they have the interest of their department, their job,
and leadership today. I’m just raising their profile by their family, and themselves. When the visionary
referring to them as Power, Love and Justice. leader or the facilitator say, let’s all leave our agendas at
Adding justice to the power and love equation the door, they are prioritizing their own interests above
is not a minor point. It is what gives all this work a the interests of the members of the team. And then
directionality – it says we’re not just trying to connect we wonder how we get stuck with the status quo!
and contribute, there’s something positive we’re A healthy system requires attending to all three
trying to achieve. In the most general sense of the elements – Power, Love and Justice, to the interplay
word, what we are trying to achieve is a more just, between a sense of agency, of unity and equity. This,
fair, and equitable world. in turn, requires facilitation.

Q In your book you describe five pairs of

moves a facilitator can make to cycle
between vertical and horizontal forms of
We all have different gifts. My strength is lucidity and
clarity. It’s nothing to be proud of — I got it from my
father. You can’t take credit for a gift. But you must
facilitation. In your experience are some learn not to waste it. There are other gifts I just don’t
moves more challenging than others? have. For example, I have become more aware than
I used to be of the emotional dimensions of trauma
Not necessarily, no. Several of them are well-known. in the environments in which I work. I am more
For example, advocating and inquiring – Peter Senge empathetic and sensitive to that than I used to be.
used exactly those words in The Fifth Discipline. I
think mapping and discovering can be very challenging
in many organizations where you are supposed to
know things in advance of doing them. The pair
Q Is it possible there’s an alchemical
magic to facilitation – that just like de
Roux said (see page 23), you don’t need to
that interests me the most is standing outside versus know what it is that you seem to know how
standing inside, because it’s the one closest to identity, to do – once you build the right container,
asking where am I, as a facilitator, with respect to the one that can hold the ten moves?
system. Am I a part of, or outside the group? Do I need to
shift perspective for the situation to change? That’s a very important point. Our work is about
But really, all ten moves are well-known already, healing. That’s been my point whenever I discuss
in one way or another. The difficulty is not the the conflict, disconnection, and fragmentation I have
individual elements. It’s seen throughout my
like having a vocabulary life’s work.
of ten words or a recipe Transformative facilitation isn’t In an earlier book, I
with ten ingredients. The told a story that captures
challenge is that there’s no a new approach. It’s just a new this beautifully. A
formulaic order. You can’t woman once told me
know in advance which way of explaining the type of that her husband had
you have to use or how been swimming in a
much. You have a recipe
approaches that work. lake when he was run
that says you have these over by a motorboat.
ten things, but I can’t tell you the proportions or the The propeller cut a very deep gash in his thigh. They
sequence to introduce them. So, the challenge is rushed him to the hospital where the surgeon cleaned
not in the individual moves, but in paying attention the wound and then said something along the lines
to what’s happening in the moment in a way that of: There’s nothing more I can do. I must send you home.
allows you to know which move to use next. That’s Your job is to keep the wound clean. The two sides of the
the really hard part. wound – they want to be one, they want to be whole. I
Bill O’Brien, the CEO of Hanover Insurance was cannot sew this together, but they will reach toward one
my former business partner. He had a big influence another when they are ready. This idea that the two
on me before he passed away. He once said, “The sides always want to be whole, they just need to heal,
success of an intervention depends on the interior is at the heart of our work. Our job, as facilitators, is
condition of the intervenor.” That insight has been to keep the wound clean, to remove the obstacles. ▪
re-quoted many times, often in support of various
esoteric practices, but what he was really talking about Adam Kahane was in conversation with Nathalie Hourihan,
was much more basic stuff. In my case, the truth is I a writer, researcher and organizational behavior
need a good night’s sleep. That and I try hard not to be knowledge expert, who serves as Mobius Chief
distracted when I work. That’s it. Ensuring those two Knowledge Officer, and Editor of The Mobius Strip.
conditions is where I place all my attention.

“Life is denied by lack of attention,

whether it be to cleaning windows
or trying to write a masterpiece.”
Nadia Boulanger
(French music teacher,
composer and conductor)
Miniscape I by Jim McManus, Mobius featured artist

Selected Writings from

Erica Ariel Fox
In this selection of recent articles, Mobius Co-Founder and Chief
Thought Leader Erica Ariel Fox explores what is driving the so-called
Great Resignation – a widespread phenomenon in many parts of the world, where employees have quit their jobs or
plan to, in search of better pay, greater flexibility and balance, and more fulfilling work. Here, she surfaces timeless
wisdom about the sources of meaning and seasonality in our lives – themes that help leaders respond to the demand
for better work, and which Erica will be exploring in her next book which she is currently at work on.
Erica is the author of the New York Times bestselling book, Winning From Within: A Breakthrough Method for Leading,
Living and Lasting Change. The methodology is based on twenty years of Erica’s research at the Program on Negotiation at
Harvard Law School and extensive experience as a C-suite advisor. Considered a seminal work in leadership and executive
development, the book forms the basis for the proprietary Winning from Within Method® – the transformational model
and methodology we teach in many of our offerings.
Work-Life Balance Is Over —

The Life-Work Revolution Is Here
By Erica Ariel Fox | October 19, 2021
Work-life Balance flamed out in 2020. The life-work Now that we’ve felt it, we’re not going to give it up.
balance revolution blazed in its place. Yes, lots of us are itching to break out our work
Back in the day, before Covid-19, we struggled to clothes or make a trip to the office to convene with
squeeze a bit of our lives into the consuming vortex colleagues around a white board. But this movement
of work. We charmingly called this “work-life balance” is much bigger than the work-from-home debate.
while knowing such “balance” was a lie. We changed the math. We looked the lie of work-
Then Covid-19 hit, and we traded our platinum life balance in the eye as we experienced its mirror
miles to sleep in our own beds, care for our aging equation: life-work balance.
parents and reconnect with our childhood friends. We
drank from the well of our cozy, messy, maddening, What Happened in the Grand Experiment?
nourishing lives, only now realizing how thirsty we The wisdom of the ages tells us we have finally arrived
were for non-working time and experiences. back where we belong.
Reprinted with permission from the author, ©2021. All rights reserved.

The ancient Greeks placed the protection of home Studies over the past 18 months have found flexible
in the goddess Hestia. Her job was to safeguard the work arrangements did not materially damage business
hearth at the center of life. Her fireplace was the productivity. This new way of working actually boosted
source of safety and well-being in the home. It drew productivity 5% as workers adopted new technology
the family together for warmth, for food, for light, for and spent less time commuting, according to a study of
celebration and for spiritual sustenance. It formed the 30,000 Americans by researchers at the Becker Friedman
inner core of well-being. Institute for Economics at the University of Chicago.
Whether we gather around the kitchen island Less tangible but more fundamental than avoiding
for homework or around the TV to watch the big traffic and the advent of Zoom is this groundbreaking
game, our modern desire for a hearth persists. We reversal to life-work balance. The opportunity to go
intuitively understand the sense that our home back to our metaphorical hearth — to put life first
needs a “center” – a gathering place that provides — allows us to recalibrate and prioritize those things
comfort, warmth, and togetherness. that keep us connected to our core of well-being.
When we connect to this core within ourselves, The Great Resignation demonstrates that the life-
we access what I call our “center of well-being.” The work balance revolution is well underway. As reversing
space of safety, warmth and wellness symbolized by the equation becomes the norm, company cultures will
the ancient hearth now radiates within us. need to transform to embrace it or they will watch their
performance aspirations go up in flames.
But Will the Work Get Done? The old work-life balance was a lie because there wasn’t
This is the modern world — not ancient Greece. The room in it for life. All was work. The new equation – life-
equation must balance. If we switch the variables to work balance – is true. We’re living it. We can have both as
life-work, will we stifle productivity? long as we put our lives first and our work second.
Actually, no. This is the life-work revolution of our time. ▪
To Work Through The Great

Resignation,Take A Cue From Nature
By Erica Ariel Fox | October 28, 2021
The Life/Work Revolution — the reversal of priority Decades of hyper productivity driven by game-
from our jobs to our lives — is transformational changing technology has severed our connection to
because it rejects a mindset 100 years in the making the principles and cycles of the natural world. The
that human beings can perform like machines. We Great Resignation is a revolt against the assumption
are not machines — and we are done with leaders that people are willing to live like machines to
who see us or treat us as if we are. participate in a growth-obsessed economy.
From Henry Ford’s car assembly line to Amazon’s Companies need not fear this evolution, nor should
on-demand warehouse operations, businesses have they resist it or seek to reverse it. They should learn
developed ways of working to optimize productivity from it and adapt with it.
and eliminate waste. Along the way, they forgot How?
the essential qualities and needs that separate their Many companies want to meet this moment with
machines from the human beings who operate them. tactical solutions. They don’t know what else to do so

they instinctually revert to conventional responses.

They hope to coax employees back into the fold with
People belong to the natural,
hybrid work-from-home flexibility, salary incentives not the mechanical world.
and work-life wellness perks. That’s a “business-as-
usual” response. It’s not enough. In our mechanistic framework, leaders face
Aligning with this world of work metamorphosis relentless, unforgiving pressure to be the best, the
begins with reclaiming our link in the natural order. biggest, the first, the most. Markets and boards expect
We often think of nature as a place to visit, whether peak performance all year round — year after year.
for a weekend hike, a beach holiday, or family apple- We’ve even appropriated the language of machines
picking outing, rather than as something deeply to describe our own experience. When we need a
rooted in our existence. break we talk about unplugging, getting off the grid or
This is a fundamental miss in how we shape recharging our batteries. The Life/Work Revolution
our identities. Here are three principles we should allows us a chance to transcend the artificial mindsets
embrace instead: that deny our humanity. We can take our cues from
• Acknowledge that we belong to the natural nature instead.
world. Consider the tones of different seasons as a starting
place for a grounded way of working for individuals,
• Integrate nature’s inherent wisdom into the
ways we design, run and lead organizations. teams and organizations. Nature gives us the rhythm
of preparation in spring; exertion in summer; fruition in
• Generate return on investments by creating
autumn; and rest in winter. Spring represents fresh
workplaces that treat people humanely and
new beginnings. Summer is hot and intense. Fall is
account for their needs.
the time of harvest. Winter provides rest and renewal.
Philosopher and renowned ecologist Gregory This natural rhythm represents a healthy range
Bateson wrote that “the major problems in the world of pace and productivity. Each tone serves a unique
result from the difference between how nature works and necessary purpose. Organizations would benefit
and the way people think.” Companies that survive from recognizing and internalizing the importance
and thrive through this Life/Work Revolution will take of cycles to people’s health and well-being: Rest must
cues from nature and its basic operating principles. follow exertion to deny burnout a chance to take hold.
Without different rhythms and varying intensity in
Integrate Natural Cycles into the our (work) lives, we feel stressed, depressed, and even
Workplace lost.
Aligning with natural cycles is the basis for sustaining We crave the chance to step back from the action
health and well-being. It is now also a guiding principle to take in the big picture or reacquaint ourselves with
for workplaces that want to retain and attract talent. the purpose of our endeavors. We want the resources
For millennia, communities of people have to plan properly before we jump into action, and space
embedded natural cycles into their lives. Societies to pause, reflect and adjust along the way. We need
have marked time with the waxing and waning time to savor our successes when things work out and
lunar cycle and its four distinct phases. People act process our disappointments when they don’t. All of
in alignment with the changing seasons. Spring these needs require time, energy and legitimacy that
plantings and summer toil bring fall harvests. In we cannot achieve if we are in the constant motion of
winter the fields lay fallow, giving way to restoration delivering the deliverables.
until spring comes again. This lesson of The Great Resignation is clear. We
Workplaces don’t reflect the wisdom of natural are putting life first. We are not machines. We want to
rhythms. The world of business abandoned the four- regain humanity in our work.
phase natural cycle and substituted the artificial The broken and burned out masses leading the
quarterly report. Great Resignation will not settle for less. ▪

Summer Of Love Defined A Generation.

We Have An Autumn Of Meaning.
By Erica Ariel Fox | November 2, 2021
Existential Dread: COVID-19 Drives A look around and wonder if those socially-sanctioned
Quest For The Meaning Of Life measures of success mean much to us at all.
In 1967, a generation of young Americans emerged
from the Summer of Love with a radically different What is the meaning of life?
view of how they wanted to live their lives. Now, 54 Before the pandemic, few of us lost sleep grappling
years later, we’ve arrived in the Autumn of Meaning. with the meaning of life. Big Questions stayed in
Lurching toward a post-pandemic life, we find the background, popping up before big birthdays or
ourselves in a form of collective mid-life crisis. People on New Year’s Eve. COVID-19 brought existential
of all ages are confronting questions that in normal questions to the foreground. Now questions about our
times haunt mainly the older set whose kids have left purpose and full promise command our attention.
the nest and whose lives feel half empty. For some, this newfound focus uplifts. For others,
The winds carrying Covid-19 spread more than it frightens. Either way, there is no escaping the
just the virus. They dispersed seeds of discontent that salient call for self-inquiry. We’re seekers now, looking
have taken root in our shared consciousness. for direction, wisdom and abiding truths.
We thought life would improve once we got Notwithstanding The Great Resignation trend, we
vaccinated. Instead we feel agitated by the ghost need not quit our jobs to contemplate what gives us
of Socrates who is whispering in our ears: “The fulfillment. On the contrary, we should make self-
unexamined life is not worth living.” reflection an on-going practice, much as we do with
It’s okay if you feel rattled. The ground beneath exercise.
us shifted when we contemplated the real possibility Introspection is a skill, and we can learn it. As with
of death from an invisible threat. Fundamentals any skill, mastering the art of introspection takes
changed even more if you lost loved ones to the virus time, discipline and practice. This is the time. This is
or you experienced trauma incessantly as health care the Autumn of Meaning.
workers did. We each must find our new place to The zeitgeist of this moment is a longing to
stand and redefine the source of our well-being. examine our lives. When a new generation looks
Many of us are unaccustomed to scrutinizing back on us decades from now, they will recognize our
ourselves and the choices we’ve made. We use external passionate, collective pursuit to grasp the meaning
markers, such as raises and promotions, as milestones of life, and to experience each unto ourselves a life
to tell us whether our lives are on track. Now we imbued with meaning. ▪
On approaching life as a voyager,

“Your life is not like a quest, it is a quest.”
– Erica Ariel Fox

If You’re Looking For Deep Answers,

Linger With Your Questions
By Erica Ariel Fox | November 9, 2021
Good questions are sometimes better than good Wardrobe” moves between home and Narnia through
answers. a portal in an armoire. Peter Pan leads Wendy, John
As we ease into a post-pandemic rethink, while and Michael Darling through an open window in the
we contemplate the consequences of The Great nursery to Neverland. In “The Wizard of Oz,” Dorothy
Resignation of 2021 and the The Great Reshuffle, we travels from Kansas to Oz in a mind-bending tornado.
are searching for answers for life’s deepest questions. These characters needed to leave behind the
I have called this season the Autumn of Meaning. known and experience the unknown to gain new
With every possible piece of wisdom and insight into their
information a few clicks away, our own lives. Renowned American
attention span and our patience mythologist Joseph Campbell
has vanished. Even a few extra “Be patient called this “the departure” from
milliseconds between our the “ordinary world” to discover
question and the Google answer
toward all that is the insights and enlightenment of
frustrates us. For a change, at unsolved in your these magical, enchanted worlds.
this moment we need to let our That is the journey we’re on
questions soak and marinate heart and try to now.
before we consider serving up love the questions Resigning workers don’t want
answers. to walk back through the office
In timeless stories we read themselves.” door to their stagnant, ordinary
as children, young characters world. They want passage to a
imbued with the wonder and – Rilke different world, to lead a different
curiosity of youth explore way of life, in a different reality
meaningful life questions than the one they already know.
powered by an urgent need to understand their world They seek a world with radically new rules, radically
— not entirely unlike how some of us feel now. They new expectations, and radically new measures of
are hungry to comprehend the nature of the world success. If they reach Emerald City and there is no
and their place in it. Wizard to hand it over, they will create this new world
What is important for us to notice about and to themselves. As that story’s wisdom teaches, they have
learn from these tales is that the characters don’t had that potential and power inside them all along.
rush the process. They travel. They journey. They Now they know it.
quest. They wander off the familiar road, even when
it means breaking the rules and facing their fears, to Siri and Alexa Can’t Tell You The Meaning
find their wisdom within. of Life
A common thread among these quests of wonder Lingering on a question requires discipline. Search
is the journey from a known, familiar, comfortable engines are great tools for accessing knowledge, but
world into an unknown, unfamiliar and challenging wisdom is different from knowledge. Wisdom is not
world. Young Lucy in “The Lion, the Witch and the about how much you know. It is about how you live,

how you love, how you lead, how you labor, how you
listen, how you learn. Today’s search for meaning and
purpose will not be met by SEO terms and trending
hashtags.
Our COVID-19 era is marked by a collective soul-
searching. We need to linger in the pause between
posing the question and finding the answer. We
need to find energy in the engagement and savor the
experience of not yet knowing, rather than shutting
down the exploration for the relief of an easy or
conventional answer.
German poet Rainer Maria Rilke advised a young
writer in a selected set of “Letters to a Young Poet”
that we should “love the questions themselves.” Follow Erica on LinkedIn and on Forbes
for her latest thought leadership.
“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your
heart and try to love the questions themselves, More information about the Executive
like locked rooms and like books that are now Breakthrough Program and the
written in a very foreign tongue,” he wrote. “Do Discovery Program is available on
not now seek the answers, which cannot be given both the Egon Zehnder and Mobius
you because you would not be able to live them. Executive Leadership websites. For
And the point is, to live everything. Live the information about other programs
questions now.” based on the Winning From Within®
methodology, visit Flagship Offerings
Rilke understood this profound truth. on our website. Also, Erica’s teachings
are now available through Mobius
When I teach a five-day seminar for C-Suite Touch, our online learning experience.
executives, they pepper me with questions the first
day. They are good questions, but I decline to answer Visit www.ericaarielfox.com to read a
them because there is so much benefit to lingering sample chapter of her bestselling book.
with such questions. Over the course of the next few There's also a resource section, where a
days, their departure from their corporate world and companion bibliography explores each
their journey to unexplored realms leads them to of the Big Four leadership archetypes in
their wisdom, not mine. They do, as Rilke says, live depth.
their way into the answers. ▪

“Your task is not to seek for love,
but merely to seek and find all the
barriers within yourself that you
have built against it.”
Rumi
For the Good Times by Jim McManus, Mobius featured artist

Select Readings from

Rasmus Hougaard,
Founder of Potential Project
We are delighted to share three recent publications

from Mobius Friend Rasmus Hougaard, founder and
CEO of Potential Project, who joins us for the
2023 Next Practice Institute to deliver a keynote address.
In 2021, Potential Project in partnership with

Harvard Business Review, produced the special report that appears on pages 37-40.
Based on an analysis of data collected from 5,000 companies across 100 countries,
the report highlights the impact of wise and compassionate leaders on a series of
organizational outcomes.
On the pages that follow, we are thrilled to share an excerpt of the latest book from
Rasmus and his co-authors, Compassionate Leadership released in January 2022.
Building on their previous research, the authors interviewed 350 CEO and CHROs
as part of an exercise to distil the ten lessons or mantras that pave the way toward
becoming a wise and compassionate leader today.
Finally, The Mind of the Leader, published in 2020 by Harvard Business Review Press,
is the culmination of a two-year study of how leaders achieve extraordinary results.
Based on assessments of more than 35,000 leaders and interviews with 250 C-level
executives, The Mind of the Leader concludes that the most successful managers
and executives lead with three core mental qualities: Mindfulness, Selflessness, and
Compassion. In this work, Rasmus and his co-author Jacqueline Carter, provide
a detailed map of how these three qualities help leaders understand and lead
themselves, their people and their organizations.

This is a special report published in 2020, reprinted with permission from the authors.
A New World,
A New Kind of Leadership
The world has shifted, and nothing will go back to the way it was.
It's imperative for leaders to lead in new ways.
Leaders Leaders have

are the single new challenges,
biggest contributor from reskilling teams
to how employees Relationship with leaders 86% of people now for hybrid work to
experience work, is the #1 factor in a expect CEOs to lead and addressing racial
person’s job satisfaction. speak out publicly on justice and climate
especially post (McKinsey) societal issues. (Edelman)
pandemic. change.
People are placing CEOs say their top

higher levels of trust in
Leaders priority is delivering
their employer (76%) need to care innovation through an
and CEO (63%) post the for employees empowered remote
pandemic. (Edelman) experiencing grief, workforce. (IBM)
anxiety, and
uncertainty.
41% of adults have reported
symptoms of anxiety or mental
health challenges, up from 19% in Anxiety is on the rise as
2019. (Kaiser Family Foundation). employees return to offices.

What’s needed now are leaders who can do the hard things
41% of adults have reported
symptoms of anxiety or mental
health challenges, up from 19% in Anxiety is on the rise as
2019. (Kaiser Family Foundation). employees return to offices.
What’s needed now are leaders who can do the hard things
of leadership but in a human way.
DOING As a leader, how do you care for your people but still do the
hard things that leadership demands? Many think this is a
HARD THINGS binary choice, but making tough decisions and being human
IN A are not mutually exclusive. In truth, they are aligned.
HUMAN WAY There are two key ingredients: WISDOM and COMPASSION.
“Doing Hard Things” “In A Human Way”

REQUIRES REQUIRES
WISDOM COMPASSION
The courage to be transparent with others Care and empathy for another person,
and to do what needs to be done, even combined with an intention to support
when it is uncomfortable. and help.
Our study of 2000+ leaders shows the extraordinary power of

wisdom and compassion.
As an ancient Chinese proverb says,
“Observe your thoughts THE POWER as they OF become actions.
WISDOM + COMPASSION
Observe your actions as they become habits.
And
Employees withobserve
leaders whoyour habits
show either asorthey
wisdom shape
compassion haveyour life."
net positive experiences.
They enjoy and are engaged with their jobs and are less likely to burn out.
But, when a leader demonstrates both wisdom and compassion, the impact on employee
wellness and productivity is exponential.
38 IMPACT
Mobius Executive Leadership OF A LEADER’S COMPASSION
| www.mobiusleadership.com AND WISDOM
ON THE EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE
when it is uncomfortable. and help.
Our study of 2000+ leaders shows the extraordinary power of

wisdom and compassion.
THE POWER OF
WISDOM + COMPASSION
Employees with leaders who show either wisdom or compassion have net positive experiences.
They enjoy and are engaged with their jobs and are less likely to burn out.
But, when a leader demonstrates both wisdom and compassion, the impact on employee
wellness and productivity is exponential.
IMPACT OF A LEADER’S COMPASSION AND WISDOM

ON THE EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE
PERCENT IMPROVEMENT
Ø A LEADER WITHOUT WISDOM OR COMPASSION (BASELINE)
C A COMPASSIONATE LEADER
W A WISE LEADER
C+W A COMPASSIONATE AND WISE LEADER
Job Satisfaction Decreased Burnout

Ø Ø
C +34 % C +22 %
W +35 % W +25 %
C+W +86 % C+W +64 %
Organizational Commitment Satisfaction With Leader

Ø Ø
C +33 % C +54 %
W +31 % W +48 %
C+W +61 % C+W +77 %
Job Performance Job Engagement

Ø Ø
C +9 % C +21 %
W +7 % W +26 %
C+W +20 % C+W +53 %
Leadership styles are not hardwired.

Set a goal to lead from the Wise Compassion quadrant.
C +9 % C +21 %
W +7 % W +26 %
C+W +20 % C+W +53 %
Leadership styles are not hardwired.

Set a goal to lead from the Wise Compassion quadrant.
THE WISE COMPASSION LEADERSHIP MATRIX
The right balance of Wise Compassion is best captured by the Leadership Matrix below.
Four quadrants represent four distinct leadership styles. In the Wise Compassion quandrant,
leaders deliver the best results, balancing concern for people with the courage and candor
to get hard things done. When tough action is needed, these leaders get it done with
genuine care for people’s feelings and wellbeing.
C O M PASS I O N
CARING WISE
AVOIDANCE COMPASSION
Letting empathy be a Getting tough things done
barrier to action in a human way
Lo
IGNORANCE WISDOM
rem
INEFFECTIVE UNCARING
INDIFFERENCE EXECUTION
Lacking interest in Putting results before
and concern for others people’s well-being
INDIFFERENCE
The Human Leader is Potential Project’s bi-annual study of the critical attributes that constitute a new
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH
model of leadership. Based on data from 5,000 companies across 100 countries, The Human Leader
provides ground-breaking insights into how leaders can unlearn management and relearn how to be
human. The research was done in partnership with academic experts at Harvard Business School,
Columbia Business School, Haas School of Business, Rotman School of Management at the University of
Toronto, and the University of Amsterdam School of Business.

Compassionate Leadership
How to Do Hard Things in a Human Way
A book excerpt by Mobius Friend, Next Practice Institute Keynote speaker,
and Founder of Potential Project Rasmus Hougaard and his colleague
and co-author, Jacqueline Carter
INTRODUCTION We unleash the best in each other and cultivate

happier, healthier, and more productive teams and
The Wise Compassion Flywheel companies.
Our research shows that there are four skill sets
needed for a leader to operate with wise compassion Getting to Wise Compassion
when doing hard things. The first is to have caring With this book, we offer you everything we have
presence: to be here now, with the person you are learned about becoming a wise and compassionate
with. The second is to have caring courage: to choose leader. It is based on the best advice from the many
courage over comfort. The third is to have caring seasoned executives we spoke with. It is based
candor, because direct is faster. And the fourth is on more than one million data points from our
to act with caring transparency, remembering that research. It is based on fieldwork in more than five
clarity is kindness. When practiced in this order, these hundred companies. And it is based on the collective
four skills can create a virtuous cycle that we call the intelligence of everyone in our organization.
Wise Compassion Flywheel. You can see this cycle in To make it easy for you, we have condensed it all
the figure on page 42. into ten simple principles or mantras. The mantras are
As we start to spin the Wise Compassion designed to be easy to remember and apply. But keep
Flywheel, we are present when doing hard things, in mind that the idea of these mantras is that they are
and we have the courage to show up with candor more than just words; they are concepts to be mastered
and transparency. When you show up in this way, it so they become habitual to how we lead. This is to say,
creates greater trust and psychological safety in your remembering and practicing them on a daily basis is
teams. Why? Because people know exactly where what will make you a wiser, more compassionate leader.
you stand and where they stand. They know you will These mantras may seem deceptively simple and make
speak your mind and that there is nothing you hold intuitive sense, but they require testing, reflecting, and
back. They can trust you and feel safe and cared for repeating. There is a deeper level to them all that you
in your presence. will only realize when you start to explore and practice
When spinning the flywheel, we enable others them in day-to-day leadership. The following is an
to show up with presence, courage, candor, and overview of the mantras and a preview of what’s to
transparency. Over time this becomes our culture. come in each chapter.
Reprinted with permission from Compassionate Leadership. Boston. Harvard Business Review Press. Copyright 2022.

Caring Presence
“Be here now”
The Wise
Caring Transparency
4 Compassion Caring Courage
“Clarity is kindness” Flywheel 2 “Courage over comfort”
3
Caring Candor
“Direct is faster”
1. Unlearn Management, Relearn Being Human. we avoid taking necessary action (caring
Wise compassionate leadership is about avoidance). Chapter 3 explores how compassion
creating truly human connections between is empathy plus action, and how it enables us to
yourself and the people you lead. The problem connect with others while also doing necessary
with many management training programs hard things.
is that they risk turning leaders into robotic 4. Your Oxygen Mask First. Many senior leaders
managers, often speaking and behaving based are plagued by self-criticism and self-judgment.
on scripts and models. Chapter 1 shows you Research shows that is a poor mental and
how to lead as an authentic human being to emotional state for achieving excellent
improve followership, commitment, and sense performance. Chapter 4 dives in to how to
of belonging. silence the inner critic and embrace strong self-
2. Great Power Comes with Great Responsibility. compassion as keys to leading others with wise
Wise compassionate leaders realize that they compassion.
have an enormous impact on the people they 5. Busyness Kills Your Heart. We’re all busy
lead. Therefore, when doing hard things to juggling many priorities. But that does not
others, we must ensure we do them in the mean we have to feel busy inside. In today’s
most human way. Chapter 2 provides guidance fast-paced culture, being busy is a badge of
on leading with skillful means, reflecting on honor. But busyness is a choice—and a bad
our company’s purpose, and ensuring we are choice, at that. Busyness kills our heart and
considering the greater good. thereby our ability to do hard things in a human
way. Chapter 5 provides strategies for how wise
3. Connect with Empathy, Lead with Compassion. compassionate leaders can recognize and avoid
Empathy is important. It enables us to connect the busyness trap.
with other human beings. But in leadership,
empathy has its downsides. We can have 6. Be Here Now. Mindfulness enables compassion.
empathetic burnout or care so much that Our research shows that the more mindful

we are, the more we’re capable of greater Each of these mantras can be read as a modular
wisdom and compassion. Because of this, wise experience with its own specific tools and techniques.
compassionate leaders benefit from cultivating There is much to be learned by embracing each
greater awareness of their own mind and individual mantra—and you’ll see immediate
the mental experiences of others. Chapter 6 improvement in your leadership practice. This means
covers the first, foundational step, in the Wise you can jump from chapter to chapter and pull out
Compassion Flywheel. what you need, when you need it.
7. Courage over Comfort. Making hard decisions But there is an advantage to reading the chapters and
often means that others disagree with you, embracing the mantras in order. They are designed to
resulting in a confrontation. Having the courage follow a specific logic that builds proficiency through
to willingly approach confrontation is one of the the understanding and implementation of each one.
most important skills of wise compassionate The first five chapters help you develop the mindsets for
leaders. Chapter 7 helps you develop the ability wise compassionate leadership. The next five chapters
to choose courage over comfort; we examine the (chapters 6 through 10) help you to hone the skill sets of
fear-based boundaries we need to cross to bring wise compassion. These last chapters are each a deep dive
more courage into our leadership. into the individual elements of the Wise Compassion
Flywheel, helping you to lead from the second quadrant
8. Direct Is Faster. Wise compassion is the difficult of the illustration on page 40: Wise Compassion.
art of balancing professional candor—or As mentioned earlier, the purpose of our research
directness—with personal care. We must hold and our work is to create a more human world of work.
people accountable while maintaining a level
It is our hope that this book will make you a catalyst
of compassion. This type of directness, done
in this movement. We bring its insights and strategies
with care and courage, is always faster. Chapter
to you with great confidence, knowing that if you put
8 focuses on how to apply caring directness,
them into action, you will become an even better leader
so people receive necessary messages quickly,
enabling real conversations to begin. who is able to do hard things in a human way.
9. Clarity Is Kindness. As leaders, we need to

be transparent. If not, people will not know THE AFTERWORD
where we stand and what awaits them. But if
we are clear and open, it helps create a culture Your Transformation Makes for a More
of transparency that fosters a greater sense Human World of Work
of psychological safety. Chapter 9 covers how Becoming a wise and compassionate leader is
being transparent and clear is both a wise a challenging but deeply rewarding process. It
and a kind way to lead that, in turn, enables is an experience of personal and professional
us to be more “here now,” enabling the Wise transformation. And it is a lifelong journey. In the
Compassion Flywheel to spin. many interviews we conducted for this book, a clear
10. The Only Way Out Is Through. In chapter 10, pattern emerged. One of our questions was, “Knowing
we reveal how to make doing hard things easy: what you know now, what would you have told your
practice. In the complex dynamics of navigating younger self?” Nearly all the responses focused on
difficult conversations, the only way out is being more courageous earlier to more readily do the
through—and by through, we mean through hard things of leadership. Rich Lesser, CEO of Boston
doing. By stepping into a difficult situation Consulting Group, put it this way: “One of the lessons
and coming out on the other side with a little I wish I learned when I was younger is to have harder
more wisdom and a little more compassion, we conversations earlier. When I was younger, I was
become more skillful at doing the hard things way too cautious. I was either worried I might lose
necessary to lead in a wise compassionate way. people or worried I would make them unhappy. As

“ In compassion, when we feel with the other, we dethrone ourselves

from the center of our world and we put another person there.”
– Karen Armstrong
I have matured as a leader, I have become better at growth. In this way, people provide the critical fuel
immediately addressing issues.” for us to become compassionate leaders. Nearly every
This response is both hopeful and informative. It situation is an opportunity to learn. And the more
is hopeful because it shows that wise compassionate we learn, the better we become. When we experience
leadership is effective— that bringing the most challenges from the people we work with, we have a
human aspects of ourselves into the workplace choice: we can either resist them or we can see the
can raise performance and improve results. It is situation as an opportunity to practice our leadership
informative because it reflects the fact that wise and our compassion.
compassionate leadership is developed through Therefore, when people offer you a challenge,
practice and experience. But it is important to keep in welcome it. See it as a gift.
mind that we must be deliberate in this practice. Wise Challenges make you better. They make you work.
compassionate leadership does not happen unless Avoid pointing fingers or blaming others. Rather,
we put in the effort. Just as musicians and athletes ask yourself what you can learn from the challenge
practice their professions, we, too, must practice to in front of you. Don’t pity yourself, and instead see
become good leaders. As you pay close attention to it as another opportunity for lifelong growth. When
how you think, speak, and act, with the mission of challenging things happen in relation to other people,
developing wise compassion, you can gradually shape train yourself to avoid saying things like “Why did this
your character. You can soften your hard edges and happen to me, and especially today when I’m so busy?”
transform yourself into a more effective leader. Instead, begin saying, “Here’s a great opportunity for
Be forewarned, though, that practicing wise growth. I’m lucky to experience this right now. Even if
compassion is not easy. As you’ve discovered throughout it takes up a bit of my time, it’s time well spent.” This
this book, wise compassion can often conflict with is the shift from resistance and avoidance to gratitude
our neurological wiring. It sometimes can make us and responsiveness.
unpopular. And it definitely requires a lot of courage. “Comfort and growth can never coexist,” Ginni
But hardship and challenges, especially with the people Rometty, chairwoman and former CEO of IBM, told
we lead, are worthwhile prices to pay in the journey of us. “It’s through doing hard and difficult things that
becoming a truly great leader. Breakthrough leadership you grow and become better. Don’t wait until later in
comes from having had many great challenges your career to make hard decisions. Frontload your
with the people we lead. Each of these experiences career, so these experiences will make you grow and
provides us with vital learning and acts as a catalyst become a great role model for others.”
to be and do better. In truth, the more challenging or By putting ourselves on the line, facing and
difficult people are, the greater the gift they offer us. embracing hardship, we can transform and develop
This sounds counterintuitive. But in bringing great more wise compassion for others. To really see and
challenges, other people provide the opportunity for us understand the perspectives of people, Francine
to strengthen our wisdom and compassion. Katsoudas, chief people, policy & purpose officer
Think about this idea for a moment: the people of Cisco, asked her entire management team to
who pose the biggest challenge often provide us the individually have conversations with two people
greatest opportunity for our own development and who had just been told they were being let go. She

Imagination by Jim McManus, Mobius featured artist
wanted them to connect with people impacted to making and implementing them in a human way.
not only demonstrate that they cared, but to have the In hard times and in hard situations, your impact
opportunity to learn from hearing first-hand about the and your legacy are amplified. For you as a leader, hard
employees’ experience. We learn nothing by trying to situations offer unique opportunities to clearly define
avoid the difficulties coming from leading others. If and state who you are and what you stand for. Don’t
you want to truly grow, you must turn toward, not squander these chances. Also, keep in mind that any
away from, the opportunities for practice that you small, kind action will be experienced more strongly
are offered. Whenever you experience a challenging during periods of duress than during normal times.
situation with another person, ask yourself two Likewise, any unkind action will be amplified. As the
questions: “What can I learn from this?” And, “How impact of your actions is amplified, so is your legacy.
can I bring kindness and wisdom to this situation?” You will be best remembered for the decisions you
make and the actions you take during difficult times.
Hard Times, Great Hope There are many reasons to be concerned about
Former US president Barack Obama had a plaque on the state of the world. But there are also compelling
his desk that read, “Hard things are hard.” This is an reasons to be optimistic. We at Potential Project
important reminder for all of us. Being a leader is not have a unique vantage point for observing the state
easy—it’s hard. We should remember this so we are of individuals, organizations, countries, and the
not surprised when we face difficult situations and world. Through our work with leaders of companies
find them challenging. Remembering that leadership and public organizations, we see a massive global
is hard helps us to overcome these difficult situations movement. This movement includes an increase in
and acknowledge other people’s hardships with human, social, and environmental responsibility.
compassion. If we remember that leadership is hard, It includes the incorporation of purpose and strong
we can see leadership as an opportunity to grow into values as part of taking action.
every day, rather than be overwhelmed by it. We lead It is a movement of wise and compassionate
because people and organizations need leaders, and leadership.
doing hard things is par for the course. Embracing the challenge of becoming a wise
Consequently, remind yourself every day that compassionate leader is an urgent calling. The fact that
challenges and hard decisions are bound to come your you, like thousands of other leaders, are reading this
way. This may be the single most inevitable aspect book now shows there is much good in the world—and
of leadership. Challenges are not mistakes. And they this goodness is gaining momentum. We are confident
are not anyone’s fault. No one is to blame. When we humankind will make the changes needed to improve
acknowledge this reality, we can make necessary our world, our societies, and our organizations. But we
decisions in a way that serves the greater good, even also know this will require the effort of every single person
when they negatively impact individuals. And we can capable of influencing others through wisdom and
do it with caring presence, caring courage, caring compassion. You’ve already shown your commitment to
candor, and caring transparency. The harder the times, this change. We hope this book has provided you with
the harder the decisions that will need to be made. the inspiration and the tools to be an even bigger part of
And the harder the decisions, the bigger the need for creating a more human world of work. ▪

The Mind of the Leader

How to Lead Yourself, Your People, and
Your Organization for Extraordinary Results
A book excerpt by Mobius Friend, Next Practice Institute Keynote speaker,
and Founder of Potential Project Rasmus Hougaard and his colleague
and co-author, Jacqueline Carter
From the Introduction of a lack of effort. According to a recent report,

How can we create more human leadership and organizations around the globe invest approximately
people-centered cultures where employees and leaders $46 billion annually on leadership development
are more fulfilled and more fully engaged? programs. That’s a lot of money for seemingly little
As human beings, we are all driven by basic needs return. What’s going wrong?
for meaning, happiness, human connectedness, and In part, the system is broken. According to
a desire to contribute positively to society. That’s true research by Dacher Keltner, professor of psychology at
whether we’re at home, out in the world, or at work. University of California, Berkeley, when many leaders
But it’s one thing to realize this and another to act on it. start to feel powerful, their more benevolent qualities
As Javier Pladevall, CEO of Audi Volkswagen, Spain, start to decline. Leaders are three times more likely
reflected when we spoke with him, “Leadership today than lower-level employees to interrupt coworkers,
is about unlearning management and relearning multitask during meetings, raise their voices, and say
being human.” insulting things. He also found that leaders are more
The Mind of the Leader provides a way to do this. likely than other people to engage in rude, selfish, and
It outlines how leaders can lead themselves, their unethical behavior. None of this is going to speak to
people, and their organizations to unlock intrinsic the intrinsic motivation we all share.
motivation, create real people-centered cultures, and While the $46 billion spent on leadership training
ultimately deliver extraordinary results. might improve leaders’ effectiveness— at least in
How important is the message of this book? Consider a strictly business sense of focusing on the bottom
this: In a 2016 McKinsey & Company study of more line— something more is needed: leadership that truly
than fifty-two thousand managers, 77 percent rated engages employees, is truly human, and addresses
themselves as inspiring and good role models. But this basic human needs any employee has.
stands in stark contrast to how employees perceive their And it starts in the mind of the leader.
leaders. A 2016 Gallup engagement survey found that 82 Leadership pioneer Peter Drucker said, “You
percent of employees see their leaders as fundamentally cannot manage other people unless you manage
uninspiring. In fact, the same survey found that only yourself first.” If this is true, the majority of leadership
13 percent of the global workforce is engaged, while 24 education and training programs have it backward.
percent are actively disengaged. Most leadership education starts with skills like
This seeming lack of good leadership is not because strategy, people management, and finance. But from
Reprinted with permission from The Mind of the Leader. Boston. Harvard Business Review Press. Copyright 2018.

Drucker’s point of view, this approach starts at the end and unleash better performance? By applying
and misses the beginning. It’s like building a house mindfulness, selflessness, and compassion first
by starting with the roof. to yourself, then to your people, and then to your
Like Drucker, we argue that leadership starts with organization. The Mind of the Leader takes you step by
yourself. More specifically, it starts in your mind. By step through this process.
understanding how your mind works, you can lead
yourself effectively. By understanding and leading
yourself effectively, you can understand others
and be able to lead them more effectively. And by ENABLE ORGANIZATIONAL FOCUS
understanding and leading others more effectively, From Chapter 11
you can understand and lead your organization more Through working with organizations in various
effectively— and by “more effectively,” we mean in a industries all over the world, we’ve found four
way that’s going to tap into your own and your people’s consistent challenges to maintaining focus for both
intrinsic motivations and sense of purpose. If you’re leaders and employees. Leaders and employees are
able to do that— and we have witnessed that with under pressure, always on, information overloaded,
practice and persistence, anyone can— you’ll have a and working in distracted environments. We call it
more engaged and productive workforce. And perhaps the “PAID” reality. The problem with the PAID reality
more importantly, you’ll be part of creating more is that it’s a multipronged attack on our attention. It
happiness, stronger human connectedness, and better makes us multitask and turns us into action addicts.
social cohesion within and beyond your organization. Multitasking and action addiction, as explained in
For over a decade, we and our colleagues at Potential chapter 3, destroy our focus and ruin our prioritization
Project have trained tens of thousands of leaders in skills. Instead of focusing on the big issues, the high-
hundreds of companies like Microsoft, the LEGO
Group, Danone, and Accenture, utilizing the practice
of mindfulness. The outcomes have been thoroughly
researched and proven to deliver remarkable results. THE THREE LEVELS OF LEADERSHIP
But with the emerging movement of employees looking
for more meaning, happiness, and connectedness, we
have asked ourselves what else leaders need for leading Organizational Leadership
themselves, their people, and their organizations for ORGANIZATIO

extraordinary results. O UR N
Y Organizational Awareness
As part of this research, we and our research team
surveyed and assessed more than thirty thousand
People Leadership
leaders from thousands of companies in more than
a hundred countries. We have conducted in-depth U R PEOPLE
YO
interviews with hundreds of C-suite executives. And People Awareness
we have reviewed thousands of studies on leadership
in the fields of neuroscience, leadership, organizational Self Leadership
development, and psychology.
Based on this research, we have conclusively U RS E L
found that three mental qualities stand out as being YO F
foundational for leaders today: mindfulness (M), Self
selflessness (S), and compassion (C). Together, we call Awareness
these foundational skills MSC leadership.

So how do you as a leader achieve MSC leadership,
to better engage your people at their intrinsic level

value actions that drive performance, we keep ourselves

occupied and become overwhelmed with busywork—
small, easily accomplished tasks.
When this is a widespread characteristic of an
Many distracted minds organization, the organization as a whole lacks focus.
Many distracted minds equals a distracted culture.
equals a distracted culture. Having a clearly defined mission statement or an explicit
strategy is not enough to counter this problem. It can
only be accomplished by training and rewiring the brains
of individuals in the organization in a way that increases
attention and reduces the appeal of distractions.
Some years ago, the Carlsberg Group undertook
a series of significant reorganizations and layoffs.
Leaders and employees alike were left with new
responsibilities, ongoing changes, and a strong
feeling of uncertainty. Understandably, this generated
significant levels of distraction within the organization.
Then CIO Kenneth Egelund Schmidt observed how
individuals, teams, and the organization failed to
focus on the longterm plan. “Groups of people were
working in different directions and reacting to every
bit of news that came their way,” he lamented. “Entire
teams would get caught up in low-priority projects
for days before realizing that they were on the wrong
path.” As a result of this turmoil, people at Carlsberg
became severely stressed, which only made them
more reactive. Collaboration faltered. Distraction
became more widespread. Performance suffered— all
part of a downward cultural spiral.
Kenneth decided it was time to act. He believed
that he needed to reinstate a collective focus and
enhance well-being. For a year we worked with him
and his teams to first develop their individual skills
in mindfulness and then to create more focused and
mindful collective work habits. Assisting Carlsberg
for a year helped us gain greater insight into the
anatomy of organizational focus and prioritization.
Individual focus and prioritization is about doing
the right things rather than trying to do everything.
Similarly, organizational focus is a collective focus on
doing the right things rather than doing lots of things.
In this sense, it’s a high degree of shared focus and
awareness toward realizing well-defined goals and
objectives. In a mindful organization, leaders and
employees have greater clarity on collective priorities
and, therefore, greater organizational focus.
Get Rhythm by Jim McManus, Mobius featured artist

Organizational focus allows individuals and teams

to make better decisions about what to do— and THE MINDFULNESS MATRIX
often more important, what not to do. It facilitates
constructive conversations among colleagues when FOCUSED
priorities conflict, providing clarity and reaching
consensus based on the overarching goals and
objectives of the organization. 1 2
As a leader, your role in securing organizational FLOW MINDFUL
AUTOPILOT
focus is to continually help your people have clarity.
AWARE
What are the right tasks to do at the right time? Do these
tasks serve the larger objectives of the organization?
Depending on employees’ level in the organization,
3 4
their function, and job requirements, this clarification MINDLESS CREATIVE
may need to happen once a month, once a week, or
even daily. It must be done not only at the individual
level but also for all teams across all functions.
Based on our years of experience helping DISTRACTED
organizations develop stronger organizational focus,
here are a few practical tips that you as a leader can
implement in your organization.
able to decrease their average meeting time by 30
percent. What was most interesting about this result is
that reducing meeting time was not a core objective of
CULTIVATE MINDFUL MEETINGS the initiative. The reduction in meeting time happened
One of several tactics described in Chapter 11 naturally as people became more focused and less
Meetings are low-hanging fruit in a journey toward distracted. They were simply able to get more done
creating a more mindful culture. According to a survey in a shorter amount of time. Here are some simple
reported in Industry Week, two thousand managers guidelines for creating more mindful meetings.
claimed that at least 30 percent of their time spent in At the beginning of each meeting, invite everyone
meetings was wasted. And similarly, according to a 3M to join in one minute of silence before getting started.
Meeting Network survey of executives, 25 to an alarming Although for some people a moment of silence can
50 percent of meeting time was viewed as wasteful. seem strange, in our experience, it can become quickly
Meetings in most organizations tend to be adopted as people appreciate the benefits of having a
unfocused for a number of reasons. First, with back- moment to settle in. This simple one minute can be
to-back meeting schedules, the beginning minutes key to helping everyone mentally arrive— versus just
are generally wasted, because people are late or being there physically— in the meeting with a little
mentally lingering on the meeting they just left. more focus and presence.
Second, many meetings lack collective focus because During the meeting, have a collective agreement
it is culturally accepted to bring and use phones and that phones and laptops are off or put away unless
laptops in meetings, creating distractions. Third, if specifically required. If even one person is busy
people have too much going on and are overwhelmed writing emails, texting, or reading the news during
by busyness, they will have a difficult time being a meeting, it has a negative impact on the collective
fully present, especially if the meeting objectives and focus. It is also important that meeting objectives are
agenda are not crystal clear. clear and that someone is leading the meeting and
After we worked with Carlsberg’s people to bring ensuring everyone sticks to the agenda. This helps
more organizational focus to their culture, they were everyone stay more on task and engaged.

Toward the end of the meeting, establish a collective Southwest cracked the turnaround time code, it was
discipline of ending five minutes before the scheduled big news throughout the airline industry. Of course,
end time— often at the top or the bottom of the hour. in a short time, every other airline copied Southwest’s
These five minutes enable everyone to have time to turnaround procedures.
transition mindfully to their next meeting. But there was a problem. Nothing changed for the
other airlines when they copied Southwest’s actions.
Even using Southwest’s procedures, other airlines
couldn’t cut their turnaround times. Why? Because
COMPASSION AND THE POWER OF other airlines lacked Southwest’s social cohesion.
SOCIAL COHESION Southwest had established a strong culture of
From Chapter 13 compassion in its teams, which led to a stronger sense
Social cohesion is the invisible glue that connects of social cohesion— the bond for collaboration. To get
us as human beings in cultures. It’s the bond that a plane turned around requires up to twelve different
makes us stick together, collaborate, and collectively teams to collaborate efficiently and willingly. Pilots,
contribute to a shared purpose. Compassion and ticketing agents, baggage handlers, maintenance
trust create social cohesion, and social cohesion can teams, and tarmac crews all need to work together to
make the difference between a good company and a more quickly get a plane in the air. In most airlines,
great company. these functions aren’t particularly keen to collaborate
To better understand this relationship, consider because of distinct power hierarchies and cross-team
Southwest Airlines. Southwest is the most profitable disputes. The culture instilled in Southwest Airlines,
airline in the world and one of the fastest-growing however, is one of genuine respect and concern.
companies since it was established in 1976. The Pilots aren’t seen as superior, and maintenance crew
company made headlines throughout the airline members aren’t seen as expendable. They’re all part of
industry when it achieved record-setting gate the same organism, with the same purpose of getting
turnaround times. Turnaround time may not sound their passengers in the air as quickly as possible—
exciting, but in the airline industry, turnaround and accomplishing this while experiencing joy and
time is money. As Southwest cofounder and former kindness toward one another.
CEO Herb Kelleher said, “Planes make money in Much to the chagrin of other airlines, operational
the air, not sitting on the ground.” When planes are procedures are not the cause of quick turnaround
parked, they’re a direct cost to the company. So when times — compassion and social cohesion are.
Three mental qualities stand out as being foundational for leaders

today: mindfulness (M), selflessness (S), and compassion (C).
Together, we call these foundational skills MSC leadership.

LEADERSHIP FOR A HARD FUTURE storm, or the roar of a truck coming full speed toward
From The Afterword us. But the brain doesn’t sense the thinning of the
Leadership must be about serving for the greater ozone layer; the increased carbon dioxide levels in the
good. We are all children of this planet. We all want to air and oceans; and the very slow changes in climate,
be happy. No one wants to suffer. Our most honorable temperature, and rising seas. We have no neurological
responsibility as leaders is to help increase happiness alarm system for slow change. When it comes to
and kindness and decrease unnecessary suffering. slow change, the normal fight-or-flight reaction of the
And to serve our societies in a way that they become a amygdala draws a blank.
little better by means of our actions. If the brain could react to slow change like it does to a
In this light, we as leaders must think and lead for fast-approaching truck, we would all be dogmatic about
the long term. We must have the courage to face the decreasing our individual environmental footprints
facts of the challenges lying ahead of us and be ready and would take to the streets to make companies and
to make unpopular decisions when needed. And such governments do the same. But it doesn’t. And we are
decisions are much needed today. all blind to the fact that we may be killing the planet as
The biggest and most dramatic challenge is a habitat for our children. We are indeed facing a hard
undoubtedly climate change, which forever will future, and we don’t really see it coming.
impact our life on this precious planet. The seas As leaders today, we have a responsibility to face
will rise. The weather will become unpredictable. the hard challenges of the future. Even if the brains of
Some regions will dry out. Others will wash away. the people we lead are not alarmed by the slow threats
The natural balance of nature is being disturbed far we face, we can’t neglect them. We have to stand up
beyond our reach of understanding and influence. to face the future with clear minds. Because when
Why are we not reacting? the challenges hit, as slowly as they will, if we don’t
Because our brains don’t perceive it. stand together— clear minded, with selflessness and
Imagine this: You are standing on the highway and compassion— we will do what humans have always
a truck is coming toward you at full speed. What do done: stick with our tribe and fight the others.
you do? Do you start contemplating whether the truck We can’t change the tsunami of challenges coming
is real and how much it will hurt you to be hit? Or do our way, but we can prepare ourselves. Prepare to
you do everything you can to get out of the way? stand together, rather than fight one another. We can
Our brain is designed to help us survive by being start now by building more mindfulness, selflessness,
tuned to immediate changes, such as an oncoming and compassion in our organizations and societies, so
As leaders must think and lead for the long term. We must have
the courage to face the facts of the challenges lying ahead of us
and be ready to make unpopular decisions when needed. And such
decisions are much needed today.

that trust and social cohesion is in place when things

become more challenging. That is the responsibility
we all have, and especially those in positions of power.
And it starts with our own minds.
Any conflict or war, at any time in history, has
always originated in a mind or in a collection of
minds. Conflicts do not come out of nowhere, and
wars are not made of weapons but of minds that hold
anger, attachment, or ignorance. In a rapidly changing
world, with hard challenges coming our way, we need
leaders with stable minds who can respond mindfully,
with selfless confidence and wise compassion. It gives
us great hope to see that leaders across the world and
across industries and cultures are embracing these
qualities and creating more social cohesion in their
organizations. ▪

RASMUS HOUGAARD joins us at the 2023

NPI to offer a keynote address. He is the Founder
and Managing Director of Potential Project, a global
leadership training, organizational development and
research firm.  They help leaders and organizations
enhance performance, innovation and resilience
through mindfulness and other practices grounded in
neuroscience and research. They partner with forward
thinking companies like Cisco, LEGO, Accenture,
Microsoft and 500+ other global clients helping create
people centric cultures and truly human leadership.
He is the author of One Second Ahead: Enhance Your
Performance at Work with Mindfulness (2016); The Mind
of the Leader – How to Lead Yourself, Your People and
Your Organization for Extraordinary Results (2018) and
Compassionate Leadership (2022).
JACQUELINE CARTER is a partner and the

North American Director of Potential Project. She co-
authored the three aforementioned booked with her
colleague Rasmus. Prior to joining Potential Project,
Jacqueline was a leader in Deloitte Consulting’s
Change Leadership practice.
Out of the Blue by Jim McManus, Mobius featured artist

Wisdom: Apprenticing to the

Unknown and Befriending Fate
A book excerpt by Mobius Transformational Faculty Member Dr. Paul Dunion
At the 2022 Next Practice Institute Annual Gathering,

Paul will lead the week-long track Maturing the Masculine Soul.
Dr. Paul Dunion’s Wisdom is a must read for anyone on a path of personal
development or spiritual seeking. It is a handbook for a modern seeker who
wishes their life to be infused with meaning, joy, closeness and devotion. It’s
precision, practicality and beauty are the fruits of Paul’s lifetime exploring
the human psyche, intimacy and attachment, and the embodied path of
meeting the Mystery. This is a rare and sweeping look at where modern
life places us away from immanent experience and inside a series of costly
bypasses in habit, mindset and practices. At the same time, it is a beautifully
articulated call to descend into life, encounter the nature of the forces that
move and shape us, and enjoy the fruition of a life elevated by wisdom,
compassion and love. I recommend this book for anyone wanting to address
an addiction, repair a relationship, or apprentice themselves to a life-long
journey of awakening.
– AMY ELIZABETH FOX, CEO, MOBIUS EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP
I suggest you take this thoughtful book, obviously based on to let go of what seemed time-consuming and trivial. I
an intelligent, open-hearted willingness to live fully and entered his home through the front door, took off my
courageously, and read it slowly. Write in the margins and shoes, and stepped upon a dark blue-and-gold Persian
empty spaces. Make it your own. See how each particle of rug. There was something uplifting and regal about
the big picture applies to you. Don’t over-intellectualize walking slowly across such a plush floor covering.
your life. Read the book the way it was written, distilling a The sight of George emerging from his office with a
livable philosophy of life out of a willingness to cooperate robust greeting only amplified this feeling.
with what life wants from you. “Good morning, good morning, my friend! I
– From the Foreword written by Thomas Moore, watched you walk from your vehicle to the house,
author of the acclaimed Care of the Soul (1992) looking very much like Alexander the Great crossing
into Mesopotamia,” cried George, once again offering
On Meandering unsolicited feedback regarding my persona.
From Chapter 1 “Well, I don’t feel much like Alexander,” I
It was late October, with the first frost heralding responded.
winter. I pulled into George’s driveway, glad to be “Okay then, come in, and let’s talk about this less-
arriving for our regular 8:00 AM meeting in his than-Alexander feeling of yours,” George offered.
basement office. The rural surroundings invited me I took my regular seat: a beige leather chair with
Reprinted with permission from Wisdom. Gatekeeper Press. Copyright 2021. All rights reserved.
oak-grained armrests. George sat across from me in a jocularity and sarcasm revealed by the sparkle in his
large rocker that swayed in tune with his excitement. eyes.
He was dressed in a blue denim shirt with a brown “Okay, so maybe I don’t get why I haven’t acquired
leather vest and a pair of baggy khakis. He leaned some level of wisdom. I don’t know how to make it
forward, ready to hear my truth. happen,” I confessed.
“I’ve been committed to living a self-examined life, “You don’t make it happen. It happens to you. You
and I don’t feel closer to attaining any measure of make yourself available to be touched, moved, and
wisdom or enlightenment. After all, I just turned fifty!” mindful of your experience. You’ll need to learn to let
I proclaimed, attempting to convey my frustration and go of trying to get life right, and let it get you right
disillusionment, as if something might be wrong with instead. The gods willing, you may stumble more in
the self-examined life itself as opposed to my deficient the direction of enlightenment. However, you’ll first
efforts in seeking it. need to get accustomed to fumbling along a more
“It sounds like you’ve been on some kind of quest circuitous route,” instructed George, bringing a more
for wisdom and you’re not thrilled about the outcome,” sober resonance to the conversation.
George reflected. “Can you tell me more about being available and
“No, I’m not thrilled. I continue to make choices the purpose of fumbling along a circuitous route?”
I regret. I hold some adolescent beliefs, and what’s “The key is to honor the meandering and not the
really unfortunate is that I don’t ever seem to make arrival. There’ll be no arrival. Attachment to your
any profound statements,” I continued, building arrival at some place of wisdom is simply another
a case for why I should be seeing more impressive attempt to impress. Such an attachment will take
results due to my investment in being wise. you a long way from your truth and an even longer
“So, you want to make more profound declarations,” way from life as a sacred odyssey. Meandering loses
teased George, making no attempt to withhold his its ability to teach anytime you judge a moment
amusement. as falling short of your expectation. You’ll get lost
“Come on, George, you know what I mean. because you turn your back on where you are now.
What’s the use of attaining wisdom if you’re not able Do that many times and you are many times lost. The
to demonstrate it and allow it to benefit others?” I journey becomes sacred when you live the questions
suggested, attempting to bring a measure of altruism of meandering rather than pretend you’re not lost or
to a statement laden with a desire to impress. that the moment is somehow an unfortunate belch of
“I really appreciate your willingness to gift life, signifying nothing because it doesn’t meet your
humanity with your wisdom, and I’m sure there’ll expectations.”
be an outpouring of gratitude from the multitudes,” George continued by suggesting that I live the
responded George, his soft tone failing to buffer the questions that allow fate— defined here and throughout
You’ll need to learn to let go of trying

to get life right, and let it get you right instead.

as the “will of the gods”—to teach me. “Questions of “The fool because only he is willing to be seduced by
meandering include: What is here? How did I get here? fate and continue to meander, holding a kind of naïve
What else is here? Who is here? How am I responding to faith that more will be revealed, even when feeling
this situation? What is this situation asking of me? Do I deeply lost. And you will get lost, again and again.
know how to be defeated by things larger than myself? Fate is all that you encounter; it is the people, places,
Can I respond to these questions more honestly? and events that constitute your outward experience.
And when you ask them, see if your responses carry It is what you can call your life: your dance with fate
adequate heart, measured by compassion, generosity, and the destiny you create by such a dance,” explained
and gratitude. And then, ask these questions again and George.
again. The path is circuitous, with ample opportunities ____________
to be distracted, get lost, and act foolishly. And you will
get distracted, again and again. You’re only asked to be Much time would pass before I began to understand
honest about your distraction while paying attention the relationship between getting life wrong and living
to the messages carried by the redundancy of your wisely.
experience. That was the last time I saw George. He died shortly
“Your ego will insist on being above such after that meeting. Like all good mentors, he enhanced
impediments. However, you’re asked to remain an my vision with his strengths and weaknesses alike.
apprentice of distractions, getting lost and acting He was a bold man who sometimes stepped away
foolishly along the way. Do that well, and you’ll be from his limits, confident he could wrestle with life
welcomed into an apprenticeship with the unknown,” victoriously. George taught me that, in the quest
offered George with no hint of condescension, leaving to be rightsized, one must err in the direction of
me touched by his encouragement. going too big and allow life to make the appropriate
“One more thing before you leave. Remember to modifications. Slowly I learned that fate was not shy
remain an apprentice to defeat. It’s the best way to about modifying me. But first, I needed to befriend
become acquainted with the contours and edges of fate as its apprentice.
your soul. You might learn where you begin and end. Life guarantees that we meander. It also guarantees
You might open to whatever invitations the gods are that we get lost. If we can tolerate and be honest about
extending to you. Oh yes, make sure you greet the fool being lost, then we may come to see being “lost” as
when you encounter him,” George added with a drop the transition from old to new eyes. We are touched
of his chin, his gaze sustaining a downward slant and by genius.
his lips separating into a smile that baffled me. Fate makes its strongest alterations by defeating us.
“Why the fool?” I asked, hoping for a more uplifting Just as defeat can devastate us, so can it steer us away
suggestion. from where we do not belong, moving us in the right
Warm Valley by Jim McManus, Mobius Featured Artist

“The basic contribution one can make to one's community

is not to add to the general unconsciousness of the time.”
– Thomas Moore
direction. The risks are inevitable. Yet fate favors those way. I am here simply to wow you and give myself a
who show up in a big way, vulnerably placing our self- temporary respite from self-contempt.
inflation in the hands of life’s immensity. And from Recently, over coffee, my friend looked at his watch
that place, life might get us right. We shall see that and said, “I’ll need to get going soon. I want to catch
our fall from self-inflation may be what apprentices us up with my brother before he begins four months of
to the unknown, making wisdom possible. Until this silence.” I lost my breath and felt a bit numb. I moved
occurs, we must acknowledge how we get distracted toward my vehicle in a robotic fashion and drove two
from understanding ourselves and the journey on miles down the road before I realized how shallow my
which we have embarked. breath had become. My friend’s words echoed within
The ego knows how to build a case in favor me, as if yelling into a steep canyon. Why was his
of meandering. Efforts toward some success or brother’s intention to remain silent for four months
achievement, as well as exhortations of being correct, having such an impact on me?
will bring some credibility to the circuitous path, even Twenty-four hours later, I got it. I had scheduled the
if it is the only one initially available to us. What we autumn months such that I would be dancing as fast
encounter in our meandering informs us about the as I could, my banners flapping wildly in the breeze.
relationship we have with ourselves and with life. Could it be that my father’s son was continuing to seek
Each situation offers an opportunity to deepen our his father’s blessing? When I thought of my father on
mindfulness of how we become distracted, lost, and the other side, separated from this earthly plane, I
ready to learn. imagined his satisfaction and joy regarding who I was,
with no need for me to win his favor. Was I waiting for
____________ the world to confirm my worth? The lifelong task of
remaining responsible for my essential goodness was
Letting the Banners Fly again knocking at the door.
“Human events become trapped at the soul-starved Life was asking me to slow down and let go of
surface of life where brief ashes of fame become a an attachment to be chosen by someone or some
substitute for struggling to live the dreams inherent organization outside of myself. I was being asked to
in one’s soul. Narrow forms of egotism pass for remember that no one can hold our value the way we
accomplishment, and cleverness takes the place of can, just as no one can really know us the way we can.
genuine learning and the search for real knowledge” It was helpful to hear a colleague say to me: “You’ve
(Michael Meade). We can be distracted, marching downloaded quite a bit of learning. If you don’t slow
while waving our banners in declaration of our down, your rapid pace will be an impediment to
achievements, knowledge, acquisitions, or pedigree. wisdom.”
This distraction can deepen as we grow obsessed We must become mindful of an attachment to
with our own performance. Often, the desire to impression. We can begin by noticing how impressive
impress drives performance. When driven to impress, we were in retrospect, without harsh judgment. The
I do not really know who I am in your presence and I more we are able to notice an urgency in the moment to
certainly do not know who you are in mine. In fact, I impress, the more choices we have. Having the choice
am not here to actually be with you in any meaningful to impress or not impress is empowering. Knowing

the need to impress is personally disempowering, genuine connection and, possibly, deep belonging. We
I was convinced it would be no problem to simply must be in the presence of another to be appreciated
interrupt my desire to arouse some favorable reaction. and loved. Our banners merely generate a moment of
Time and time again, however, I felt a wave of heat attention and possible fascination.
gathering in my chest as an opportunity arose to stir There is an immense gift in an apprentice’s banner
an admiring gaze in my listener. I finally admitted waving. In our efforts to impress, we are unable to
that I was truly a novice when it came to laying down fully take in our life experience. A profound settling
my banners. accompanies the acceptance of our essential goodness.
I knew I did not want to grow old striving to move Such acceptance can give rise to a celebration of our
others toward perceiving me in some glowing fashion. gifts and accomplishments. We are not attempting to
It was simply too much work. I had repeatedly impress, but rather inviting the other to join us in our
experienced the emptiness of walking away with celebration.
flattering words drifting out of reach. Still, I occasionally
allow myself to be seduced by a quick fix. The good
news is that I seduce myself less often; and when I do Striving
succumb to a vigorous wave of my banners, I hear a Striving is the first cousin of performance. It can be
voice within asking to be remembered and cared for. extremely seductive and distracting since it is often
Some questions can help to identify when we camouflaged as either moral or spiritual laboring.
meander into being impressive: Where in my body Meandering in the embrace of striving may therefore
do I feel the urgency to impress? What do I have to go on for some time. No wonder that a root meaning
gain once someone is actually impressed? What is of the word strive is “to quarrel.”
lost in my most impressive moments? What must Striving has a double edge. On the one hand,
take the place of my desire to impress? Lowering our it may be quite helpful in allowing us to “quarrel”
banners becomes easier as we allow ourselves to feel with contrived or artificial limits. We live within
the emptiness of striving to look good. constricted margins, driven by fear and lethargy under
The emptiness that often follows banner waving the influence of striving. We become more of who
is a good place to begin understanding the price of we are meant to be by striving. Another perspective
being impressive. The resounding hollowness of an is that in our striving we are “quarreling” with our
impressive moment can be highly instructive. We essential worth, determined to better ourselves. In the
step away not really seen, heard, or understood, and words of Sheldon Kopp: “I am no longer interested
certainly not chosen in any meaningful way. Only in in character development, as long as that implies in
choosing to be authentic can we know the richness of any way that my Buddhahood is not already at hand.”
INSTEAD OF STRIVING WE CAN …

▶ Deepen personal acceptance of our wounds and our gifts. We come to this planet, where we receive
wounds and gifts. Our wounded caregivers pass on legacies of both psychological injury and strength.
Wounds and gifts call us to the business of being fully human. The apprentice is asked to respond to
fate with a renewed willingness to heal and learn every time. We remain open to the wound’s request
for healing and the gift’s request for learning. We are asked to identify and develop our gifts, then allow
them to serve others.
▶Remain curious about what fate is asking of us. Fate must be treated like any person we care for. We are
in constant relationships with the people, things, and events of fate. If we fail to be curious and caring
about our experience with these materials of fate, we impede fate’s ability to teach. Our apprenticeship
with the unknown can be sabotaged indefinitely.

Kopp apparently understood the price of striving. He striver often feels the exhaustion and inadequacy of
refused to toil in the mere interest of developing his unfulfilled arrival, resulting in a posture of moral
character, as long as that suggested his goodness was superiority. It sounds something like: “I must be
not already present. Were he better than most folks. Look at
not presently accepting his how much I do!” Striving can
goodness, his essential worth be a compensation for shame.
would continue to elude him. Each excessive act of fortitude,
How many pure thoughts Wounds and gifts call or so we tell ourselves, keeps
and noble deeds will it take? us just one step ahead of the
Quarreling with our
us to the business of shame running us down.
essential worth does not being fully human. We can interrupt the
allow us to fully apprentice meandering of striving by
ourselves to the unknown becoming curious about our
as we meander freely in the striving: How might I labor
grip of striving. Such feuding in a way that fosters growth,
keeps us busy trying to get life right or get ourselves without discrediting who I already am? It may be
right. Living in pursuit of alleged betterment does not helpful to acknowledge that our soul’s task is not to
allow us to be informed by our wandering. Striving become better but to remove whatever obstructs the
points us toward possibility and not what is. The life of our uniqueness. ▪
PAUL DUNION, Mobius Transformational Faculty, Senior Expert, and track leader at
the Next Practice Institute, earned his Doctoral degree in Counseling and Consulting
Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and his M.A. in
Philosophy from the University of Connecticut. He taught Philosophy for thirteen years
at the University of Connecticut and Three Rivers Community College.
He has been in private practice for the past thirty-seven years. As a holistic psychological
healer, employing an existential modality as well as a somatic approach to treating
trauma, Paul is trained in EMDR and is a graduate of the Somatic Experiencing Institute.
From its early beginnings, Paul represented the State of Connecticut at the national
gatherings of the mytho-poetic men’s movement, sponsored by Wingspan. As the
founder of Boys to Men, he created a mentoring community for teenage boys. He is
the co-founder of COMEGA (Connecticut Gathering of Men), having served over 6,000
men since 1992, which continues to offer biannual retreats. In 2013, Paul established
the Croton Mystery School and designed its curriculum with a focus on teaching
students how to make peace with life’s mystery and unpredictability. He has offered
over 200 workshops on topics related to Human Potential. Currently, Paul offers
supervision for younger psychotherapists.
Paul has published six books: Seekers – Finding Our Way Home (2016); Dare to Grow-
Up – Become Who You Are Meant to Be (2016); Path of the Novice Mystic – Maintaining
a Beginner’s Heart and Mind (2013); Shadow Marriage – A Descent into Intimacy (2006);
Temptation in the House of the Lord (2004); and his latest offering Wisdom – Apprenticing
to the Unknown and Befriending Fate (2021).

“Everything in the universe has

a rhythm, everything dances.”
Maya Angelou
Water I by Jim McManus, Mobius featured artist

REFLECTIONS FROM THE ARTIST

Through my creative process, I often find myself relating to Einstein's comment about
art in which he says:
“Art is standing with one hand extended into the universe and one hand extended into the
world, and letting ourselves be a conduit for passing energy.”
As an emerging artist my aim is to explore the interaction between art and

mathematics – without the complexity of formulas. My goal is to create simple yet
elegant pieces for the observer to feel my art and see more than initially meets the
eye. Like the movement and flow of the natural landscape and life that surrounds us
all, behind the 'veil' of the artwork lies its mathematical foundation.
My journey in the art world commenced many years ago. It was born out of my
passion for mathematics, the interconnectivity between art and maths, the idea
that mathematicians can happily work in many different dimensions, even those
dimensions not even conceivable.
The world around us contains the same timeless simplicity within natural and artificial
structures. However, beyond this simplicity is the natural and human-made landscapes
that are underpinned by detailed and complex mathematical formulas. In my art, I
explore this comparison.
Immersing myself in Japanese culture, I found myself drawn towards its Zen, art, food,
the inherent beauty of Haiku poetry, and origami with its simple use of Washi paper.
Many Japanese artists and the 'simplicity' echoed in their work continue to inspire me
today.
My work also centers around the concept of transformation or transforming from

one dimension to another with ease. I create my origami works using unique Washi
paper from the west coast of Japan, usually one piece of paper and one joining line.
The pieces appear simple; however, each is engineered to contain carefully

considered attributes such as lighting, shadowing, size, and many others behind the
veil of simplicity.
My journey as an emerging artist is always "just beginning" and a most wonderful

journey indeed.
Trevor Tyne grew up in Sydney and now lives by the ocean at Manly Beach, Australia.
Reprinted with permission from Trevor Tyne


“We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.”
T.S. Eliot
Violet Embrace by Jim McManus, Mobius featured artist

Leading From the Future

A White Paper from Mobius Transformational Faculty
Member, Robin Alfred
At the 2022 Next Practice Institute Annual Gathering, Robin joins the
faculty to lead a week-long track.
To say that these are challenging, interesting, from the solar, hero-centered age to the lunar, collective
unprecedented times is more than a cliché. We are age; move from the Piscean to the Aquarian age (see
living through unparalleled degrees of uncertainty. Laurence Hillman); journey through Otto Scharmer’s
Although, in the words of Thomas Friedman, writer Theory U, shift from planning to emergence, and
for the New York Times, it is not so much that the many more. What they have in common is the need to
coronavirus is a black swan (an sensitize ourselves, both individually
unusual event compelling attention) Start close in, and collectively, and to create the
or even a white elephant (something don't take the second spaciousness for real innovation,
we may find hard to address directly) real freshness and real creativity
step
but more one of a herd of stampeding to emerge. Contemporary mystic,
black elephants that we have ignored or the third, Thomas Huebl, talks about creating
for too long: the climate emergency, start with the first the conditions where we can ‘listen to
increasing inequality of wealth around thing the whispers of the future.’ The future
the globe, ocean acidification, loss of close in, is not so much a point towards which
biodiversity, rogue states, international we walk but more like a voice that is
the step
terrorism, the plight of refugees, civil quietly and constantly calling us if we
wars, the rise of nationalism and more. you don't want to take. can but create the inner stillness and
______________
In light of all these phenomena, spaciousness with which to listen,
which render us incapable of planning From ‘Start Close In’ and then summon up the courage to
with any degree of certainty, we are by Mobius Associate Fellow act on what we hear.
being required to live and lead from David Whyte So, what are the conditions
a place of sensing, intuiting and and practices that can support the
responding (see Laloux's Reinventing Organizations), creation of such a sensitivity?
rather than predicting, planning and controlling. It is
as if we are in a deep mist. Occasionally we can see Conditions for spaciousness
a dim light beckoning us forward. Do we see clearly I want to invite you to remember the best idea that you
enough to know what our next step is? If we can take ever had. What was happening within and around you
just the one step, the next will then become clear. as that idea landed in you? Perhaps it was a time when
There are many ways to language what we are a new project, a new insight, a new home called to you.
being called to do: move from the masculine planning Perhaps it was when you decided to marry and had a
paradigm to the more emergent feminine; transition deep sense of inner knowing that this is your partner.
Reprinted with permission from the author. All rights reserved.

When I ask this question in workshops, the answers In ‘Creativity Under the Gun’ (HBR, 2002) Amabile,
usually involve some kind of inner spaciousness. Hadley and Kramer suggest that there are four mindsets
Maybe you are taking a shower, maybe you are walking at play:
in the woods, maybe you are meditating, gardening, Creative thinking is unlikely when people feel as if
doodling, journaling – something outside the usual they are on Autopilot, receiving little encouragement
busyness appears to help create the conditions, the from management to be creative, engaging in less
inner spaciousness, in which the new can arrive. collaborative work overall, and feeling little time
This inner spaciousness has two dimensions to it. pressure. Equally, experiencing a highly fragmented
One is simply doing something or being somewhere workday with many activities and high time pressure,
unfamiliar which creates new contours in our inner without a sense that the work they are doing is
landscape in which new insights can nestle. The other important, can create a Treadmill experience and,
is a spaciousness which allows digestion of our previous again, low levels of creativity.
experience. If we are full, busy, running from one In contrast, creative thinking is more likely when
thing to another, there is no space to digest and thus people feel as if they are on an Expedition, and able
to create the emptiness into which the new can arrive. to show creative thinking that is oriented towards
It is as if we are literally so full we cannot receive any more! generating or exploring ideas and identifying problems.
If our glass is full of water we cannot simultaneously fill it On a highly time-pressured Mission, people focus on
with champagne. We need to empty something out first. one activity for a significant part of the day and are left
undisturbed or even protected from management.
The role of urgency and pressure This research is helpful but also limited. It locates
If we need spaciousness to both digest our daily the key determinants in the external environment
experience and to create the emptiness into which the and, in particular, whether people are allowed to focus
new can arise, does this always have to mean slowing on their work, and whether a sense of meaningful
down, or can time pressure and a sense of urgency time pressure is being conveyed.
also fuel processes of innovation? What is the balance While external constraints clearly are impactful, I
between allowing things to emerge and engaging our would like to suggest that how we respond to these
will to act? Two diagrams support the next step in our constraints is also a product of our inner conditioning.
inquiry (see page 65). Having one hour to complete a complex task, even with
Diagram 1 shows urgency in our outer context unsupportive management and in a chaotic workplace,
leading to a degree of inner focus. Time pressure, for does not, in and of itself, constitute pressure. The pressure
example where we have to arrive at a new solution to is, in the end, our own creation. It will be composed of
an engineering problem within 12 hours, might well many inner experiences including our own histories,
create a sense of focus that supports our creativity. culture, previous experience of similar tasks and more.
Diagram 2 suggests that an inner spaciousness that If, for example, we have grown up in a culture where
supports a sense of inner expansion can create the time feels more relaxed and elastic, we may notice the
conditions in which we are more likely to be able to requirement to complete the task within an hour and feel
support and facilitate emergence. calm about whether or not we do that. If we have grown up
It’s important to also note that, for some people, the in a culture where we are rewarded for achieving optimal
same time pressure might instead lead to a contraction productivity within a given time frame, we are likely to
in our nervous system, a tightness, which inhibits the approach such a task with a different degree of inner
flow of innovation — see Diagram 3. spaciousness. If we have experienced abuse and trauma
The question then arises as to why some people in our past we are likely to carry fear and contraction in
might experience time pressure as helpful and our nervous systems which make it harder to relax and
focusing while others experience it as leading to a feel calm. These are just a few examples of how our inner
contraction in their nervous system which makes it state, and our inner conditioning, are likely to affect how
less likely that they will innovate. creative we are under time pressure.

DIAGRAM 1 DIAGRAM 2
Urgency leading to focus Inner spaciousness supporting
expansion and emergence
EMERGENCE
URGENCY
URGENCY FOCUS URGENCY EMERGENCE EXPANSION EMERGENCE
URGENCY
EMERGENCE
DIAGRAM 3 DIAGRAM 4
Urgency with high pressure Four mindsets at play
creating a lower chance of
emergence
HIGH TIME PRESSURE
TREADMILL MISSION
PRESSURE LOW HIGH

CREATIVITY CREATIVITY
AUTOPILOT EXPEDITION
LOW TIME PRESSURE
(Amabile, Hadley and Kramer, 2002)

We might summarize this as: Practicing inner and where we are really accessing something new and
spaciousness, whatever the external circumstance, will drawing in something fresh, which can, in Thomas
support our capacity to perform and to innovate. Huebl’s phrase, “expand the gameboard of humanity.”
We might also note, that while inner expansion and When we conjure up our imagination we are often
inner spaciousness can create the right conditions for using thought processes, concepts and ideas that are
allowing new things to emerge, they can also lead to already known to us, but re-formulating them and
our energy becoming diffuse and ineffective unless reconfiguring them in a way that feels new. It is not
harnessed to a clear intention and a sense of agency. actually drawing in new energy or insight, but it can
feel as if the presenting idea or image is fresh and new.
Intention is a catalyzing power Intuition, on the other hand, gives us access
The clearer and stronger the intention, the more to information that is already in the field of
magnetic the field it creates. Intention is like a pebble consciousness, but not so apparent to us because we
dropped into a still pond. When we drop the pebble are more focused on our immediate senses – sight,
smoothly and from a great height it creates large hearing, taste, touch and smell. When we access our
ripples. Similarly, when we announce, to ourselves or intuition, we are not actually experiencing anything
to others, a clear intention, people and resources are new, but more refining our sensitivity so that we can
more likely to be drawn to support the realization of become aware of more subtle parts of our energy
that intention. A clear intention catalyzes a field of fields that have always been present, but that we are
resonance in which projects and plans can be realized. usually too fast or insensitive to notice.
A strong inner intention has a similar energetic In Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, we see how
quality to a commitment. WH Murray, leader of the Caesar ignores the warning of the soothsayer:
Scottish Himalayan Expedition in 1951 wrote: “Beware the Ides of March” and goes ahead with his
Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance plan to enter the Senate and start a bid for power.
to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts Metaphorically we might equate the soothsayer with
of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth our intuition. How often do we have a nagging doubt,
the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid an intuitive hunch, that we ignore because we already
plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, have a plan of action that we are committed to?
then providence moves too. Inspiration, in contrast, involves the practice of
All sorts of things occur to help one that would never opening to the mystery of creation, some would call
otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from it God or the Divine, and to realms that are more
the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen closely connected to our soul – allowing something
incidents, meetings and material assistance which no man really new and fresh, something from beyond our
could have dreamed would have come his way. usual habit of thinking, to arrive in us. For thousands
It starts to become clear, then, that we need to of years the top of the head, or what is sometimes
create a “sweet spot” where there is sufficient inner known as the crown chakra, is often described as the
spaciousness – to meet whatever time requirements, place where this inspiration arrives. The anointment
to allow us to listen to the whisper of the future and of a new monarch; the blessing of a child when a
for innovation to arise. priest or rabbi gently touches the fontanelle of the
baby; the wearing of a crown where the points serve as
Listening through imagination, intuition lightning rods to attract this inspiration, are just a few
and inspiration of the many symbolic representations of this practice.
But what is this “whisper of the future” and how do we One contemporary practice we can engage in is to
recognize it? It may be helpful to distinguish the natures meditate and allow our crown chakra, the highest
of imagination, intuition and inspiration. The reason for point of our head, to open, inviting in new insights
this is to draw a distinction between where we are re- and inspiration. See Diagram 5 overleaf for a simple
packaging ideas from the past and calling it ‘the future’, graphic representation of this.

What these practices – accessing intuition, cultivating learning through feeding more form, the learning through
our imagination, and drawing in inspiration – have emptying. And they are both important. It’s important
in common is that each is enhanced by the practice that we learn about form and it’s important that we learn
of presence. through emptiness. Why? Because it keeps the mind open,
it keeps the mind creative. It says, ‘This is how we look
Presence enhances listening to the future at life right now and this is all we learned about life, and
Presence lies at the core of our life. It is the place of we’re open to it being a relative perspective, that there’s
stillness, expansion, sensing, deep feeling. It is both more to it.’
empty and full at the same time. As Thomas Huebl says: Diagram 5 attempts to show this. Once we receive
The empty space is not empty-empty. It’s full-empty, real inspiration, the call of the future, we want to
which means it is super-intelligent. By listening to stillness, allow it to land fully in our physical body so we
there are many, many inspirations, innovations, insights, become aware of how it feels physically within us. We
understandings, a different learning, that arise. Not the want to allow it to land in our emotional body so we
DIAGRAM 5 Manifesting Inspiration

Derived from the teachings of Mobius Master Transformational Faculty Member, Thomas Huebl
PRESENCE
INSPIRATION INSPIRATION
(drawing in the new)
MIND
IMAGINATION
(based on prior
experience)
EMOTIONS
BODY
INTUITION
(sourcing what is in
the field already)
MANIFESTATION

understand and feel how it touches us or moves us

or maybe even frightens us. We want to allow it to “The future downloads
land in our mind so we understand and can witness
our thoughts in relationship to it. In these ways,
itself through us.”
inspiration becomes a fully embodied insight which
– Thomas Huebl
can then, when woven with a horizontal network of
relationships and alliances, manifest a new impulse
in the world. When this happens, we will experience
a sense of satisfaction. A sense of our purpose being
manifested in life and in form. We will have a sense ROBIN ALFRED worked as a trainer, educator
that we are making the contribution we are here to and social work manager for 15 years in
make. It doesn’t matter what size the contribution London, before moving to Scotland in 1995
where he founded the Findhorn Consultancy
is. What matters is that it is your contribution. Your Service and then later, Open Circle Consulting.
unique offering. Your gift to the world. He has extensive experience of leading and
I close with this touching and humbling reminder, developing groups and individuals across all
from the poet Martha Postlewaite, who writes: sectors – corporate, public, and third sector.
For more than 25 years, Robin has facilitated

Do not try to save groups of all sizes, from 6 – 600, in all sectors.
the whole world He was a registered facilitator for the UN
or do anything grandiose. Framework Convention on Climate Change and
Instead, create was part of the design and facilitation team
a clearing for the 2013 UN Global Compact in New York.
Robin is trained in a wide variety of approaches
in the dense forest
to personal and organizational development
of your life including: Appreciative Inquiry, the Frameworks
and wait there for Change Coaching Process, Process Work,
patiently, Spiral Dynamics and Tools for Corporate
until the song Transformation. His facilitation work draws
that is your life on these processes as well as Open Space,
World Café and other innovative processes to
falls into your own cut hands and you
maximize the group’s collective intelligence.
recognize and greet it.
Only then will you know how to give yourself Robin’s clients include BP, the National
to this world Health Service, ABN-AMRO Bank, RBS,
so worth of rescue. Tasweeq Qatar, BAE Systems, UN, Friends of
the Earth, Greenpeace, CDP, Weleda and the
UK Cabinet Office. Robin also spent 15 years
My proposition is that we need to create inner as an Associate with Olivier Mythodrama,
spaciousness, even in times of intensity and time working with Shakespearean stories and
pressure, in order to both digest our daily experiences Jungian archetypal psychology to develop high
and to open to the future. The future is not simply level leadership in many of the world's major
tomorrow – where we often merely recycle the past – corporations.
but something fresh, new and creative. Differentiating Robin is a Senior Student of contemporary
between intuition, imagination and inspiration, and mystic, Thomas Huebl. He offers coaching and
aware of the catalyzing power of intention, we can trainings in Trauma-informed Leadership and
support the development of each of these capacities the Art of Facilitating Transformational Fields.
He also serves as a Mobius Transformational
in us. Then we will be able to listen to the whisper
Faculty Member and joins us in October 2022
of the future, which is always calling us, and act in to guide a week-long, highly experiential track
accordance with the highest evolutionary movement on Leading from the Future.
of which we are aware. ▪

Social Presencing Theater

The Art of Making a True Move
A book excerpt by Arawana Hayashi
Arawana Hayashi, along with Mobius Transformational Faculty Member
Matthias Müller-Lindenberg, will lead a track at the 2023 Annual Gathering
of the Next Practice Institute
When I first met Arawana Hayashi, I was co-facilitating If we assume that to be true, then the real question
a workshop in Nova Scotia. The organizers of the on the table is of course: How? How do we do that?
conference had structured the event such that each How do we lean in to the current moment in a way
workshop was paired up with a different team of artists that lets us sense the resonance of our highest future
each day. Arawana was one of them. On the day she possibilities? How do we do that as individuals? How
joined our workshop, she introduced a practice called do we do that as a group? How do we do that as an
Duet, a type of explorative, meditative dance. In order organization or as a larger social system?
to demonstrate the practice to the group, she needed
a partner. She picked me. I don’t think I had a choice This book is all about the how. It lays out the
(I probably would have tried to avoid that role). foundations of a new discipline, a social art called
Social Presencing Theater. Arawana has co-created
What do I remember from that dance? Not much— this new social artform— a set of methods and tools
except that it changed my life in less than five minutes. that change-makers worldwide are using to facilitate
Within moments, I was in a different state of awareness transformational change in their relationships, in
and attention to what wanted to emerge from the their communities and organizations, in local and
“social field”—that is, from the quality of relationships national government agencies, and in international
that we have with each other, with ourselves, and with institutions like the United Nations. This rapidly
the unfolding situation. growing community of change-makers knows that to
really change the outer world we first need to shift the
In much of our lives our attention tends to be distracted inner place that we operate from, both as individuals
by either the future or the past, by worrying about and as communities.
tomorrow or regretting things we did or didn’t do
yesterday. But in reality, there is only one access point for — From the Foreword written by Otto Scharmer,
how we as humans actively participate in the unfolding Mobius Senior Expert, Senior Lecturer at MIT,
of the universe: the now. Connecting to the now enables co-founder of the Presencing Institute, and author of
us to sense into the resonances of the past and the Theory U: Leading from the Future as it Emerges
resonance of the future wanting to emerge.
Reprinted with permission from the author. Copyright © 2021 Arawana Hayashi

Deep Water by Jim McManus, Mobius featured artist
Introducing Social Presencing Theater happened yet, a future in which we have a role to
From Chapter One play. He calls this experience presencing—a blend of
Social Presencing Theater got its name from Otto presence and sensing. When I asked Otto to remind
Scharmer, and the words describe what it is. Social me where the word presencing came from, he
refers to both the social body, the physical arrangement wrote in a text message, “I saw the word first in the
of a group of people in a space, and to the social field, English translation of a Heidegger text by a French
the quality of the relationships between the people. translator. I liked it. I was looking for a word like that.
Presencing relates to awareness and a larger sense Then I googled it. No hits. Nothing came up (it was
of environment. Theater refers to the visible choices in the 1990s), except that some nurses talked about
we make (what we do) and the relationships created presencing when they described their experience
from those choices (what we sense). Those choices with end-of-life care. Then I knew. That’s the perfect
are determined by our level of collective awareness, word I was looking for. Later I found it in one of my
or social presencing. interviews with Henri Bortoft. He didn’t use it in the
The practice is social because it is engaged in by interview, but later, in one of his books he said, ‘the
groups and teams—social bodies. It invites us into whole presences itself within the parts.’”
an experience of social awareness—knowing that is Presencing is defined as “to sense, tune in, and act
shared by a group. Individuals engage in a process from one’s highest future potential—the future that
wherein they are present and able to collectively “sense depends on us to bring it into being. Presencing works
into” both their limiting patterns and their wellspring through ‘seeing from our deepest source.’” In other
of creative potential. Individual insights and words, we can collectively perceive and experience
transformations have great value; however, many of the present moment without the limitation of our
us realize the need for others as co-creators, partners, habitual concepts, opinions, or projections. In doing
supporters, and challengers. We need others to listen so, we contact our innate intelligence, tender caring,
to and hold us, both in our stumblings and in pursuit and courage—three qualities that manifest as the true
of our highest aspirations. There is wisdom in groups. moves we make as we co-create with each other the
Often it is hidden under discord and confusion; but systems in which we live and work.
it is there. Social Presencing Theater accesses and The root of the word theater comes from the
makes visible the deeper wisdom that informs our Greek theatron—literally, “a place for viewing”—
engagement with complex and demanding issues. from theasthal, meaning “to behold.” We use the
In the book Theory U, Otto posits that when we word theater not in reference to drama or theatrical
can attend to the present moment fully, not only do performance. We use the word in this original
we connect with a vivid sense of being, but we can meaning—as a place where things become visible. In
also experience a sense of possibility—an emerging ancient times and in many cultures, the theater was
future. Collectively we can sense into what has not a place where people enacted ceremonies and rituals

Three 'divides' challenge our times – the disconnects

we experience from the natural world, from each other,
and from our own true nature.
for connecting to gods, for healing, for amusement, and they express a view that is essential if the work
for good harvests, for mourning, and for making is to continue in its truthfulness. They represent an
visible the rich stories of what it is to be a human attitude with which to approach the work. They shape
being with other human beings. From times long past not only the form of the practices, but also how we
until now, theater has been a social form of collective engage in and facilitate the practices with others.
seeing and sensing. People gather to be moved,
informed, uplifted, challenged, amused, transformed, Basic goodness is our innate nature
and connected. Theater makes visible the fullness of Social Presencing Theater is based on the premise
humanity; it is a mirror in which we can see ourselves that basic goodness is the fundamental nature of
in all our difficulties and glories in order to experience ourselves, others, and society itself. I am not using
a transformation and a deeper understanding of what the word goodness in a moral sense—good as
it is to be human. opposed to bad—but more in the sense of wholeness.
The practices are called theater not because we are I first heard the words basic goodness from Tibetan
acting or pretending, but because we are embodied meditation master Chögyam Trungpa, who described
physical beings who are visible. Unlike thoughts it as an innate healthiness and wakefulness inherent
and words, bodies are visible. We are visible to one in all humanity. There is a lot of evidence that this
another. I am not referring to “body language,” the might not be true. Terrible, terrible things happen
psychological implications of postures and gestures. every day to people, to animals, to the natural world.
Instead, our interest lies in movement choices. However, the teachings on basic goodness invite us
As we move about with others, we create visible to see and sense what is underneath fear, aggression,
patterns and structures. Because Social Presencing and stupidity. Social Presencing Theater invites us to
Theater is primarily nonverbal and without goal contact the unconditional wholesomeness that lives
orientation, it opens our awareness to the subtle ways in us all.
we communicate through the movement choices we Basic goodness is a view or an attitude that sees
make. Relationships arise and dissolve, creating an an underlying sanity in everyone and in systems. An
ever-changing landscape of possibilities. We make opposite view would be to believe that individuals,
visible the social fields of relationships that we create including oneself, are basically “messed up,” or that
moment by moment. organizations of individuals are toxic to the core.
The view of fundamental healthiness is not ignorant
of neurosis and dysfunction. It is not blind to the
The Ground We Stand On fact that people treat each other badly. However,
We hold some grounding principles that establish having positive regard for others prevents us from
the integrity of the work. They are the foundation buying into a narrative that people and systems are
on which Social Presencing Theater was created, at their core corrupt and unworkable. It invites us

to turn toward our and others’ shadows and “stuck” meeting, throwing what was said into some category
places with clarity of mind and gentleness of spirit. or opinion in my mind without really considering or
It tempers a tendency to think that it is our job to fix,feeling it. I wonder, where was my awareness?
change, or save everyone around us. It loosens the A workshop attendee told me that he had recently
habit of thinking that we know better, that we occupy received professional feedback that he had become
the higher moral ground, that we have the solution a “talking head.” He resonated with the expression,
to other people’s problems. In Social Presencing “My body is just a transportation system that carries
Theater we begin by acknowledging that wisdom my brain from meeting to meeting.” He became
lives in all systems, individual and collective, and aware of a disconnect between his body, his mind,
that change is a naturally unfolding process. We have and the environment. His awareness noticed physical
the privilege of accompanying, out of genuine care, and mental stress. It noticed that people were not
the journey of our fellow humans as we collectively actually listening to him; that he was less effective
discover our way forward. than he knew he could be. He noticed a growing
distance from family members.
Awareness opens and transforms His innate intelligence told him
experience There is wisdom that things were out of balance.
The mind has a fantastic ability The awareness that noticed this
to simply notice. The practices
in groups. Often it disconnect was not in itself
invite us to notice the moment-by- is hidden under disconnected.
moment unfolding of experience. discord and confusion; Awareness is the leverage
Noticing experience is, of course, point for change. When we
not the same as thinking about but it is there. suddenly become aware that
experience. Awareness is a direct we are lost in thought and
knowing, a felt noticing. Awareness disconnected from our body
is knowing where we are, what we are doing, how we and the environment, that noticing immediately
feel, and what we think. It is also knowing presence shifts us into a moment of connection. We experience
and the social atmosphere in which we live. Awareness being fully present, even if just for a second. My
is always available. However, when our mind is colleague Antoinette says that gardening, feeling
occupied with memories, opinions, assumptions, and her body engaged with the activity of planting and
imaginings, open awareness can be obscured. When weeding, is her therapy. Some of us feel our body and
thoughts about what we want or don’t want occupy mind naturally synchronize when we are doing yoga,
all of our mind space, we lose touch both with our walking in the woods, or sitting on the porch doing
sensing body and with the felt awareness. nothing. When our mind is less active and our feeling
Given today’s speed and pressures and the amount body is more grounded, we appreciate that awareness
of time we spend in front of our computer screens is naturally present. Most of us yearn to experience
and devices, many of us notice a disconnect and this more regularly or consistently, even in the midst
imbalance between our thinking mind, feeling heart, of the speed, uncertainty, and demands of life.
and active body. We can feel pulled in multiple and The intensity of the world situation, work, and daily
opposite directions. Without taking deliberate time pressures can cause us to contract. We try to hold all
to settle into a sense of wholeness, we can live in a the pieces together, try to get control of our schedules,
mental world of projections. With hindsight, I notice multiple projects, kids, work teams, eating habits,
that frequently I do not actually sense “in” to my finances. We try to do the right thing, be available,
body or sense “out” into the environment with much keep all the balls in the air, manage. But maybe trying
accuracy. I am often not settled enough to really listen harder, focusing more, and doubling down are not the
to what a colleague is saying, let alone feel the full answer. My meditation teacher, Trungpa Rinpoche
resonance of what is said. I am on to the next online says in the book True Perception, “In the case of

awareness experience, there is simply appreciation.

Nothing is hassling us or demanding anything from
us. Instead by means of awareness practice, we could FOUNDATIONAL PRINCIPLES
simply tune in to the phenomenal world both inwardly
• Basic goodness is our innate nature
and outwardly.”
• Awareness opens and transforms experience
Open mind, open heart, and open will are essential • Open mind, open heart, and open will are
leadership qualities in these challenging times essential leadership qualities in these
challenging times
Presencing work is grounded in the recognition that
all beings can cultivate a mind of curiosity and sanity, • Creativity arises from nowness
a heart of wisdom and compassion, and a will of • Making a true move is powerful engagement
courage and strength. These inherent human qualities • Appreciating daily details is art in everyday life
can be deepened and strengthened. We can actually
practice being more open-minded and open-hearted
when habit inclines us to enclose ourselves in narrow
behaviors and ideas. “Presencing work” assumes that and conceptual interpretation about that experience.
human beings care about one another and do not want We let those go in order to stay with the rawness of
to destroy the planet and themselves. It recognizes the feeling and allow the present moment to be as
the “three divides” that challenge our times—the it is. True creativity arises from the very moment of
disconnects we experience from the natural world, nowness. It does not depend on our cleverness. Nor
from each other, and from our own true nature. does it depend on our training (although engaging in
However, we can think, speak, and act from discipline is, of course, important). Nowness enables
our deepest resources of kindness and creativity. us to face forward and take the next step in our work
We can engage in work and life from a place of of creating a good society.
appreciation and also hold a sadness of heart when
we experience the “absencing” that we and others Making a true move is powerful engagement
engage in. Absencing refers to the ways in which we Basic goodness, awareness, openness, nowness—all
fail to acknowledge our own basic goodness. Social well and good—but how do these qualities show up in
Presencing Theater practices reveal our blind spots everyday life? These are intangible values, and we live
and also our natural insightfulness. They are an in a difficult and pragmatic world that needs skillful
invitation to touch our collective tenderheartedness action. I refer earlier in the book to the true move.
and the clarity, kindness, and bravery that we need to The true move is the enactment of these non-material
create a good society today. qualities. Social Presencing Theater, like many art
practices, joins intangible qualities with materiality.
Creativity arises from nowness The inseparability of the invisible and the visible lives
Nowness is a word used by Chögyam Trungpa to in each moment. When the limited, self-conscious
describe the true nature of our experience—that self is not thinking and planning, our movements and
every moment is open, spacious, and vividly present. words arise naturally as the true move.
I remember once hearing him say that nowness is False moves in gesture or speech express a disconnect
a state without struggle. We do not deny the depth between the thinking mind, the genuine heart, and the
of suffering and trauma that we individually and engaged body. They lack resonance with their exterior
collectively carry from the past into the present. We surroundings. They are an expression of speed or anxiety.
are not bypassing the complexity or power that the The true move is fresh. It is powerful in its directness
past holds. Social Presencing Theater practices invite and simplicity. It cuts through staleness and confusion.
us to experience whatever we experience, without Social Presencing Theater is the practice of making true
denial, and also to suspend and let go of our thoughts moves, and it is, indeed, a practice—something we do

Appreciating daily details is art in everyday life

Maybe trying harder, I love this observation by Trungpa Rinpoche:
focusing more, and doubling “Everyday life is a work of art if you see it from a point
of view of nonaggression.” The Social Presencing
down are not the answer.
Theater practices do not force or manipulate
experience. They invite us to appreciate what is. This
over and over again. It is not something we try once, is an expression of nonaggression that can inform
put in our arsenal of trendy change methodologies, our everyday life. We engage genuinely in the
and turn to when we need something a little different. moment-to-moment unfolding of our movements.
By practicing we begin to discern when the true move This habit continuously draws our attention to
appears and what the conditions for its appearance the present moment and begins to permeate our
are. When we engage with subtlety, we begin to notice ordinary, everyday lives—how we carry ourselves,
spontaneous genuineness. We gain confidence in the how we regard challenges, how we relate with
true move as the full expression of this moment of life. others. We appreciate the tasks and conversations
When I first met the world of systems change, I that constitute our daily routines. Our gestures and
called my work The Art of Making a True Move. It was words arise from awareness. These true moves, full
a series of improvisation and performance practices of presence and appreciation, express the unique
that were expressions of meditation in action or art moments of our daily lives.
in everyday life. If I remember correctly, the title __________________________________
came from looking at a book of photographs of the In every moment we co-create our experiences and
Russian ballet dancer Vaslav Nijinsky, who danced the social bodies that we inhabit. We face challenges,
in the early twentieth century. The photos captured conflicts, and uncertainty daily. The core concepts
images of him dancing. A friend looking at the and practices of Social Presencing Theater provide
photos with me remarked that there were no images a foundation for engaging creatively with the
in which Nijinsky was making a false move. To me, vicissitudes of life. They help us align with our
this meant that his body and mind were completely deeper values and commitments in order to create
engaged, unselfconscious, and present in every photo. what is most important. We can strengthen and
I reflected on this idea of a true move. Can I access the celebrate our collective will to enact the true moves
one genuine gesture of this present moment? that will bring benefit to our world. ▪
Arawana Hayashi is a dancer, choreographer, and teacher, trained in both

Japanese and Western art forms. She is also an Acharya (a senior teacher of
meditation) in the Shambhala Buddhist lineage. From her career’s inception,
her work as an artist and meditation practitioner has been intertwined with
innovations in community building and education. Since the 1970s her focus
has been on using non-verbal collaborative improvisation methods to increase
personal presence and group performance.
Arawana is a founding member of the Presencing Institute and is currently
on the faculty of the ALIA Institute in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She teaches
embodiment, collaboration and leadership performance to educational
institutions, corporations, arts organizations and meditation centers
internationally. She also teaches meditation and embodiment in the capacity
building programs of the Presencing Institute, and together with Otto Scharmer
and others, created the co-sensing method called Social Presencing Theater.
We look forward to the opportunity to study Social Presencing Theater with
Arawana at the 2023 gathering of the Next Practice Institute.

Wisdom for Emerging

Leaders and the Next
Generation
Kayvan Kian, Mobius Friend and Senior Advisor to
McKinsey & Company
Based in Amsterdam, Kayvan Kian is an entrepreneur,

teacher, and Senior Advisor to McKinsey & Company.
His work has helped thousands of leaders and their teams
thrive during difficult and uncertain times. Whether it's
scaling a start-up, launching a new initiative in a complex
organization, leading teams, or striving to have a positive
impact on society, he enjoys developing tailor-made
tools, approaches and ways of thinking that increase the
chances of success.
He is the founder of the Young Leaders Forum – a

program hosted by McKinsey & Company, and has given
guest lectures at Harvard Business School, HEC, Sciences
Po, and other leading institutions.
His leadership articles have been published by Forbes,

The World Economic Forum, and Fast Company.
We are delighted to include an excerpt from each of

his recent bestselling books, What is Water? (2019) and
What is Wisdom? (2021). Both contain easy-to-digest
lessons and practical exercises for leaders of any age,
but especially those emerging in these complex times
— to approach challenges from a place of wisdom,
awareness and choice.

What is Water?
How Young Leaders Can Thrive in an Uncertain World
A book excerpt from Mobius Friend and Senior Advisor to McKinsey & Company,
Kayvan Kian
This book contains exactly zero new ideas. Instead, you Accomplishment.] The book is structured into the
will find a synthesis of many ways of thinking that have following six chapters exploring:
helped people in real life grow stronger through their • Awareness & Choice
difficulties, whether two thousand years ago or just • Positive & Negative
this morning. Throughout the chapters, you will find • Strengths & Weaknesses
strong influences from Epictetus, Martin Seligman, • You & Others
Nassim Taleb, Marie Curie, Tim Ferriss, Julie and John • Why & How
Gottman, David Allen, Maryam Mirzakhani, Amelia
• Start & Finish
Earhart, Seneca, Florence Nightingale, Bruce Lee, Ryan
Holiday, Lao Tzu, and less well-known thinkers. Throughout, there are exercises allowing you to
The goal is to offer something that is universal and practice with the concepts we discuss. The practical
simple— something of help to people of all ages—not exercises you’ll find have been tested over the course
with the intent of improving you or changing society of seven years by thousands of participants in the
but of giving you a sense that you have more choice, in Young Leaders Forum workshops around the world
any given moment, in any situation. You can therefore (hosted by McKinsey & Company), and also by the
see this book as a good friend, a guide that helps you author and other contributors.
navigate and thrive wherever you are.
In the first chapter, you will find a perspective Taking Everything Away That Isn’t the Statue
for how to view the world we all live in and the From Chapter 4 You & Others
challenges it presents. We then borrow a mindset As history has shown, social life is an integral part
from the ancient Stoics as a basis to deal with these of human life. The term “social life” is quite broad
challenges. After creating this common ground, the and could refer to a great many things. In this chapter,
remainder of the chapters apply this basic mindset to we’ll zoom in using a narrower definition.
a variety of themes, researched, brought together, and Someone once asked the great artist Michelangelo,
structured into the PERMA model by the thoughtful “How do you create your statues?” His response was
pioneer Martin Seligman. [Note from the editor: Dr. quite surprising: “Well, that’s quite easy. First, I take
Seligman’s theory of well-being incorporates five a piece of marble. Then, I take away everything that
building blocks that enable flourishing – Positive isn’t part of the statue I’m trying to create. What
Emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and remains is the statue.”
Reprinted with permission from the author. Copyright © 2019 McKinsey & Company

If the broad term “social life” is a large piece of marble, The central feature here is that you feel cared for.
let’s start by clarifying what this chapter doesn’t The source or potential sources of caring can be wide-
consider to be part of the statue for now: ranging. This chapter won’t be defining this for you,
• Having over five thousand people in your but rather will help you create awareness of what
address book these things could be.
If you have been paying attention, you may notice
• Frequent invitations to interesting events
what appears to be a problem. The central philosophy
• A sense that you are “popular” and that people of this book is “a radical focus on what you can
like you instantly
control.” How much is it in your control for others
Some of these qualities and descriptions might sound to care about you? How successful would you be if
familiar to you, and they can be very beneficial. you were to ask somebody on the street to care about
However, if we take away you from that moment
many of the different forms onwards?
that human interactions Let’s assume that this
can take on in daily life, How much is it in your is not possible at all. How
what remains is the one should we address this
thing we want to focus on
control for others to difficulty? Do we say,
in this chapter, namely the care about you? “Not in my control, not
sense that there is someone of concern,” so we might
in the world who cares as well skip this chapter
about you. altogether? Or is there an elegant way to solve this?
People who experience that there’s someone in the Can we creatively think about what is within your
world who cares about them can cope significantly control when it comes to you and others?
better with life challenges than those who don’t.
Most of us sense intuitively that having somebody There might be at least two ways to approach this:
who cares about us is an essential component of life. • First, what is in your control is to be there for
Especially in a VUCA world, the sense of not being others. That, you can do. There are most likely
alone serves as a buffer for many challenges. It can people around you and in your life that you
help you cope with disappointments, keep your mind genuinely care about. To what extent do they
sharp, help you through tough times, and even boost sense that?
your physical health. • Second, you can become more aware of all the
If you are one of those people who has two, three, or people who might already be there for you. To
even five of those individuals in your life, even better. what extent do you sense their care?
These people can be anyone—a family member, a
partner, a friend, even a colleague to whom you’ve Let us start by taking a closer look at the first approach:
grown close. What can this look like? It can take on how to be that person for others.
myriad forms. Some examples are:
• You can call this person for support when The Wedding Speech example
you’re having a bad day. What does “being that person for others” look like in
practice? There are different ways of showing other
• This person often makes decisions with your
interest in mind. people that you care about them. One skill that you
can further develop to convey your care is empathy.
• These people help you out in crucial moments
When we use the term “empathy,” different people
of your career.
might have different associations with it. Therefore,
• This friend is here for you whenever you need let’s first explore a practical definition of what empathy
him/ her, even at 3:00 a.m. is and isn’t through a thought experiment. To do this,

we’ll return to our wedding speech scenario from situations where this can be a helpful approach. For
Chapter Two for an exercise. example, think of moments of danger, urgent tasks,
Imagine that you and your cousin have finalized the or crises when being decisive is all that counts. It is
surprise wedding speech for your niece’s wedding. In no coincidence that you’ll see a lot of “dismissive”
the months and weeks leading up to the wedding, you communication happening in hospital emergency
have spent your rare spare hours writing, laughing, rooms or military environments. Here are some
brainstorming, and rehearsing together. It’s so great examples of Category One responses to the wedding
now that even your uncle is enthusiastic about it! speech exercise:
As the wedding draws closer, you get ready to get • “It’s okay. No one knew that we were going to
on the train. The wedding is far from home. You are do this anyway.”
excited and look forward to it. It’s the first time that
• “What?! You idiot. I had emphasized three
you’ve had a formal role at a wedding. You can’t wait times to bring a backup. How could you be so
to see the bride and groom laugh at your jokes. neglectful?”
During dinner, on the night of the wedding party,
• “Oh wow. I saw this happen once in a movie.
your cousin seems to be missing. As the time for the
Do you know which one I’m talking about?
speech draws closer, you get more and more nervous.
The one with that comedian…what’s his
Finally, five minutes before the time for the speech, name?”
he shows up and slowly walks up to you. When he
• “Don’t you get how it will make me look if we
reaches you, he pauses for a moment and then says:
can’t give the speech?”
“Hey…I think we have a problem. You know the
speech I was supposed to print for us to read from? I What do the above responses have in common? They
think I left it at home…in my other bag." are dismissive of the emotional (and, to an extent, even
Now, write down all the things you could say in that the verbal) message that your cousin is conveying.
moment. You can write down what you personally The messages are like balls that your cousin throws
would say or can imagine that someone else would say. toward you, but you dodge them.
Once you’ve written down everything that came to
your mind, let’s look at a simple structure by which Category Two: Problem-Solving
you can analyze your responses. Another way is to take the literal, verbal message,
Every communication between people contains at process it, and come up with a host of correct or
least two layers of information. incorrect, timely or untimely solutions for the issue at
The first layer is easy to notice: it is the literal, verbal hand. It might not be a surprise that many problem-
message. These are the actual spoken words, in this solving answers arise often and automatically: in
case: “Hey…I think we have a problem. You know the school and at work, we are trained to become skilled
speech I was supposed to print for us to read from? I problem solvers. As such, when we hear about
think I left it at home…in my other bag.” someone’s challenge or predicament, it can feel
There is also a second layer. The extra message, if natural to ask: “How can we solve this?” or “What are
you will. This is known as the emotional message, our options?” or “How can I help?” Here are some
which conveys information about the emotional state examples of Category Two responses to the wedding
of the communicator. speech exercise:
The way you deal with these messages can fall into • “Let’s just improvise without the text.”
one of the following five categories.
• “Is there a printer in the area?”
Category One: Dismissing • “Let’s recreate it as best we can tonight and
One way of dealing with messages is to—for whatever move the speech to tomorrow.”
reasons—dismiss the emotional message and • “Shall we just forget about it and enjoy our
perhaps also the verbal message. There are many evening then?”

Category Three: Acknowledging Category Four: Naming

A very different way of responding is to acknowledge Another way of responding is to not only acknowledge
the existence of the emotional message of the other that there is an emotional message, but also attempt
person, even though its content might not be clear to to name what that specific emotion might be.
you. By doing this, you open a door to their emotional You could be right, you could be wrong, but you try.
world. It’s like an invitation: the other person can The strength of this approach can be that it makes the
decide to share a glimpse of that world or not—it’s up other person feel psychologically visible, as opposed
to them. Here are some examples of Category Three to only physically visible. When the other party cannot
responses to the wedding speech exercise: yet articulate their emotion, it can be a huge relief that
• “Oh gosh, how are you doing?” you do. Even if the feeling you name does not reflect
the other person’s experience, you make it more likely
• “How are you feeling right now?”
for them to begin to articulate their feelings, and
• “The speech isn’t the most important thing to thereby, you also open up a space for intimacy to exist
me; how are you?” between you—if that is what they need from you.
Miniscape by Jim McManus, Mobius featured artist

“In the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, for in the

dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.”
– Khalil Gibran
Here are some examples of Category Four responses It goes without saying that Category Five is not always
to the wedding speech exercise: per definition the best response. There is a time and
• “Oh, you must be sad…” place for each category. The main question is: are you
responding out of choice or out of habit?
• “I can imagine you’re upset.”
• “Aren’t you relieved that we don’t need to give Going Full Circle
the speech anymore?” Let’s go full circle. We defined a relationship as having
someone in this world who cares about you. While this
Category Five: Contextualizing is outside of our control, it is within our control to be that
A final way in which you could respond is to not only person for others. Not in the cases where you genuinely
acknowledge and name the emotional message, but don’t care, but in all those situations where you really do
also put it into the context of the other person’s life. care about someone and would like them to know.
This will be our practical definition of empathy in this The intent of this section is to create more awareness
chapter. Here are some examples of Category Five of the choices that you always have available to you, in
responses to the wedding speech exercise: each and every interaction in your daily life. When you
• “I can imagine you’re feeling sad because want to show others that you care, you can do many
you worked so tirelessly on this on your things, such as solving their problem, relating to their
weekends.” situation, or empathizing with them.
• “I can imagine you feel relieved, given how Of course, doing the above may increase the chances
much you were dreading this…you often of others also caring about you. However, as the
mentioned how you never liked public ancient Stoics would say, that could be considered a
speaking.” “preferred indifferent”: very welcome if it happens, but
• “You must feel angry, especially since you had fundamentally not in your control and, therefore, not of
asked me to print a backup version as well, concern.
rather than putting it all on you, as usual.” As you practice this, of course, nothing stands in
your way to do this for yourself as well. How often are
As you might notice, by adding context, you you your own best friend? At the end of the day, after
acknowledge this particular person, with his or her facing difficulties, how often do you ask yourself how
history, wishes, hopes, values, and dreams. You show you’re feeling? Profoundly sad, sincerely relieved,
them that you see how this moment fits into all of overwhelmingly anxious, overcome with joy? How
that. does that feeling fit in the context of everything else
Can you recall either giving or receiving a Category that is happening in your life? And can you offer
Five answer? What kind of effect did it have on you or yourself any creative solutions to deal with your
on the other person? difficulties? ▪

What is Wisdom?
A Collection of Practical Thoughts for Better Decisions in Life
A book excerpt from Mobius Friend and Senior Advisor to McKinsey & Company,
Kayvan Kian
The sociologist William Bruce Cameron once wrote, The goal of this book isn’t to promote a certain way
“Not everything that can be counted counts. Not of thinking above the other. Each situation is unique,
everything that counts can be counted.” In today’s and certain approaches will be more appropriate in
world, we often attempt to resolve tough questions by certain cases. In essence, the main goal here is to
reducing a problem or opportunity to something that practice switching between these ways of thinking.
can be counted in order to weigh the costs and benefits, Just as the ability to switch between gears in a vehicle
regardless of the risks, scale, or nature of the decision. provides more safety and freedom, the ability to
This approach, if taken mindlessly, can disconnect us switch between these ways of thinking will also bring
from the complexities of the real world. It can miss you numerous benefits.
the most important “noncountable” criteria for the It will help you better adapt to a changing
decision at hand, lead us to an unfounded sense of environment and prevent you from making
confidence, and therefore cause more problems than unnecessary and irreversible mistakes. It can help you
it tries to solve. make a better distinction between what matters and
In an uncertain world with much at stake, what doesn’t and how to make regret-free decisions.
broadening your perspective beyond what can be It can give you the courage to take action when the
counted can increase the chances of better decisions. opportunity arises, the prudence to pause when
In the coming chapters, you will get the opportunity perspective is needed, and the diligence to follow
to playfully practice unique ways of thinking and through to get closer to where you want to be. In other
approaches to problems, each introduced by another words, this ability to switch can help you answer the
philosopher from the past. question, What Is Wisdom?
Thales can help you spot patterns you might
otherwise be missing. Cleobulus cautions against Democritus Can Help You Connect Theory
getting too comfortable during prosperous times or too with Practice
uncomfortable when times are tough. Nietzsche can “The most dangerous thing about an academic
help you live with fewer regrets, while Occam can save education is that it enables my tendency to over-
you time and energy when making decisions. These intellectualize stuff, to get lost in abstract thinking
and many others you’ll meet in the coming pages, with instead of simply paying attention to what’s going on
room to write your own thoughts, ideas, and more. in front of me.” —David Foster Wallace
Reprinted with permission from the author. Copyright © 2021 Kayvan Kian

thinking can bring our observations and actions

closer to the world as it is.
What Would Democritus Do?

As you can see, this “inductive method” pushes you
to get in touch with how things actually work, not
just how they should work. It’s rooted in this idea of
being connected to your environment and reacting to
the feedback you receive. Think of Thomas Edison as
he worked on the light bulb. His focus was on the
results of each experiment; he continuously refined
and tested his formulas and scientific principles.
His work exemplified this quote, which is attributed
to many, but remains of unknown origin: “In theory,
there is no difference between practice and theory. In
practice, there is.”
Books and other trusted and curated sources of
information are a great way to gather knowledge, but
they are simply a jumping-off point for the acquisition of
wisdom, which also comes from practice and experience,
New Day I by Jim McManus, Mobius featured artist
as well as opening your eyes to that experience.
The ancient thinker Democritus is considered by Thankfully, cultivating a mindset that is in touch
many to be the father of modern science and is known with the “world of atoms” is easier than you might
for his theory that everything is made of atoms. think. It starts with using your senses more often.
He believed that knowledge was something to be When you’re out on a walk, for example, don’t just see
reached through the intellect, based on observations the path in front of you. Listen to the world. Smell the
through the senses. In other words, theory couldn’t be air. Touch the rocks and plants.
detached from everyday experience. This practiced form of observation will also serve
This line of thinking isn’t just appropriate for you well at work. When you finish a meeting with a
science classrooms and laboratories. It’s applicable in client or employee, ask yourself, What did I see or
daily life, too. When you pay closer attention to what hear firsthand during that interaction? Were these
is happening right in front of you, you will notice observations relevant? Did they reduce uncertainty?
important signals you would’ve otherwise missed. In other words, were they informational? These
Intellectual people, especially those fresh from reflective questions ensure you don’t overlook or
university, are often eager to grasp new concepts forget the signals your environment was giving you.
and ways of thinking. However, this can lead to a Don’t be afraid to experiment or break out of
trap of overlooking what is actually happening. To your routine. Let’s say instead of writing a message,
be sure you don’t become lost or disconnected, the you call a friend. Did that work better to de-escalate
advice is therefore to “look and act closer.” When you the situation? What can you learn from your new
do this, life becomes richer. You taste the food you’re observations?
eating and hear the music that’s playing. You’re able Finally, cultivate a curiosity around how things
to understand the conversation instead of just being actually work. Expose yourself to different areas of
physically present. You receive immediate feedback society to see how others do their jobs. Do they match
from your environment and can adapt to it instead your notions of how that work was done? You might
of thinking, “Well, the book said this,” or “That’s be surprised—and enlightened—by what you find,
not what I thought would happen.” Democritus’s not only in theory but also in practice. ▪

No Bad Parts
Healing Trauma & Restoring Wholeness with the Internal
Family Systems Model
A book excerpt by Mobius Senior Expert Dr. Dick Schwartz
At the 2022 Next Practice Institute Annual Gathering, Dick will lead
the week-long track Working with Different Parts of the Self
“IIFSamaround
very grateful that Dick has continued to spread the word of
the world. Watching him do IFS work with people is
a heartwarming and deeply connective sight to behold. I believe
we need IFS now more than ever before. His work offers each
of us nothing less than the cultivation of kindness, wisdom, and
empowerment if we’re willing to look within. Doing this work allows
every single part of us a moment in the sun. In giving our attention to
the parts that need it most, true healing happens. As the compassion
grows within us for our very selves, slowly but assuredly it affects
the world at large, supporting our efforts to grow and shift toward a
world of less divisiveness, strife, and needless suffering. We see that
our delicate and brilliant humanity is shared among us all. ”
– From the Foreword written by Alanis Morissette
Introduction them that had dominated their lives from regaining

As a psychotherapist, I’ve worked with many people dominance so they can explore what else is inside
who came to me shortly after their lives had crashed. them. In doing so, I can help them access what I call
Everything was going great until the sudden heart the Self—an essence of calm, clarity, compassion, and
attack, divorce, or death of a child. If not for that life- connectedness—and from that place begin to listen
jarring event, they would never have thought to see a to the parts of them that had been exiled by more
therapist, because they felt successful. dominant ones. As they discover that they love the
After the event they can’t find the same drive or simple pleasures of enjoying nature, reading, creative
determination. Their former goals of having big activities, being playful with friends, finding more
houses or reputations have lost their meaning. They intimacy with their partners or children, and being of
feel at sea and vulnerable in a way that’s unfamiliar service to others, they decide to change their lives so as
and scary. They are also newly open. Some light can to make room for their Self and the newly discovered
get through the cracks in their protective foundations. parts of them.
Those can be wake-up call events if I can help them Those clients and the rest of us didn’t come to
keep the striving, materialistic, competitive parts of be dominated by those striving, materialistic, and
Reprinted with permission from No Bad Parts. Sounds True. Copyright 2021 Richard C. Schwartz.

competitive parts by accident. Those are the same Inherent Goodness

parts that dominate most of the countries on our We can’t make the necessary changes without a
planet and particularly my country, the United States. new model of the mind. Ecologist Daniel Christian
When my clients are in the grip of those particular Wahl states that “Humanity is coming of age and
parts, they have little regard for the damage they’re needs a ‘new story’ that is powerful and meaningful
doing to their health and relationships. Similarly, enough to galvanize global collaboration and guide
countries obsessed with unlimited growth have little a collective response to the converging crises we are
regard for their impact on the majority of their people, facing.... In the fundamentally interconnected and
or the health of the climate and the Earth. interdependent planetary system we participate in,
Such mindless striving—of people or of countries— the best way to care for oneself and those closest to
usually leads to a crash of some sort. As I write this, oneself is to start caring more for the benefit of the
we are amid the COVID-19 pandemic. It has the collective (all life). Metaphorically speaking, we are all
potential to be the wake-up call we need so we don’t in the same boat, our planetary life support system,
suffer worse ones down the road, but it remains to be or in Buckminster Fuller’s words: ‘Spaceship Earth.’
seen whether our leaders will use this painful pause The ‘them-against-us’ thinking that for too long has
to listen to the suffering of the majority of our people defined politics between nations, companies and
and also learn to collaborate rather than compete people is profoundly anachronistic.”
with other countries. Can we change nationally and Jimmy Carter echoes that sentiment: “What is
internationally in the ways my clients are often able needed now, more than ever, is leadership that steers
to? us away from fear and fosters greater confidence in
Espana II by Jim McManus, Mobius featured artist

the inherent goodness and ingenuity of humanity.” (to your parts) and externally (to the people in your
Our leaders can’t do that, however, with the way we life), so in that sense, IFS is a life practice, as well. It’s
currently understand the mind because it highlights something you can do on a daily, moment-to-moment
the darkness in humanity. basis—at any time, by yourself or with others.
We need a new paradigm that convincingly shows At this point, there might be a part of you that’s
that humanity is inherently good and thoroughly skeptical. After all, that’s a lot to promise in the
interconnected. With that understanding, we can opening paragraphs of a book. All I ask is that your
finally move from being ego-, family-, and ethno- skeptic give you enough space inside to try these
centric to species-, bio-, and planet-centric. ideas on for a little while, including trying some of
Such a change won’t be easy. Too many of our the exercises so you can check it out for yourself. In
basic institutions are based on the dark view. Take, for my experience, it’s difficult to believe in the promise
example, neoliberalism, the economic philosophy of of IFS until you actually try it.
Milton Friedman that undergirds the kind of cutthroat
capitalism that has dominated many countries, ____________
including the US, since the days of Ronald Reagan
and Margaret Thatcher. Neoliberalism is based We’re All Multiple
on the belief that people are basically selfish and, From Chapter 1
therefore, it’s everyone for themselves in a survival- We were all raised in what I’ll call the mono-mind
of-the-fittest world. The government needs to get out belief system—the idea that you have one mind,
of the way so the fittest can not only help us survive, out of which different thoughts and emotions and
but thrive. This economic philosophy has resulted in impulses and urges emanate. That’s the paradigm I
massive inequality as well as the disconnection and believed in, too, until I kept encountering clients who
polarization among people that we experience so taught me otherwise. Because the mono-mind view is
dramatically today. The time has come for a new view so ubiquitous and assumed in our culture, we never
of human nature that releases the collaboration and really question the truth of it. I want to help you take
caring that lives in our hearts. a look—a second look—at who you really are. I’m
going to invite you to try on this different paradigm
The Promise of IFS of multiplicity that IFS espouses and consider the
I know it sounds grandiose, but this book offers the possibility that you and everybody else is a multiple
kind of uplifting paradigm and set of practices that can personality. And that is a good thing.
achieve the changes we need. It’s full of exercises that I’m not suggesting that you have Multiple
will confirm the radically positive assertions I make Personality Disorder (now called Dissociative Identity
about the nature of the mind so you can experience it Disorder), but I do think that people with that
for yourself (and not just take it from me). diagnosis are not so different from everybody else.
I’ve been developing IFS (Internal Family What are called alters in those people are the same
Systems) for almost four decades. It’s taken me on as what I call parts in IFS, and they exist in all of us.
a long, fascinating, and—as emphasized in this The only difference is that people with Dissociative
book—spiritual journey that I want to share with Identity Disorder suffered horrible abuse and their
you. This journey has transformed my beliefs about system of parts got blown apart more than most,
myself, about what people are about, about the so each part stands out in bolder relief and is more
essence of human goodness, and about how much polarized and disconnected from the others.
transformation is possible. IFS has morphed over In other words, all of us are born with many sub-
time from being exclusively about psychotherapy to minds that are constantly interacting inside of us.
becoming a kind of spiritual practice, although you This is in general what we call thinking, because the
don’t have to define yourself as spiritual to practice it. parts are talking to each other and to you constantly
At its core, IFS is a loving way of relating internally about things you have to do or debating the best

course of action, and so on. Remembering a time have to speak in public, feeling like a failure, and
when you faced a dilemma, it’s likely you heard one wondering what’s wrong with you. To make matters
part saying, “Go for it!” and another saying, “Don’t worse, you go to a therapist who gives you a diagnosis
you dare!” Because we just for your one, troubled mind.
consider that to be a matter The diagnosis makes you feel
of having conflicted thoughts, We often find that defective, your self-esteem
we don’t pay attention to the drops, and your feelings of
inner players behind the the harder we try to shame lead you to attempt to
debate. IFS helps you not only hide any flaws and present
start to pay attention to them,
get rid of emotions a perfect image to the world.
but also become the active and thoughts, the Or maybe you just withdraw
internal leader that your from relationships for fear
system of parts needs. stronger they become. that people will see behind
While it may sound creepy your mask and will judge
or crazy at first to think of you for it. You identify with
yourself as a multiple personality, I hope to convince your weaknesses, assuming that who you really are
you that it’s actually quite empowering. It’s only is defective and that if other people saw the real you,
disturbing because multiplicity has been pathologized they’d be repulsed.
in our culture. A person with separate autonomous
personalities is viewed as sick or damaged, and ____________
the existence of their alters is considered simply
the product of trauma—the fragmentation of their Willpower and Shame
previously unitary mind. From the mono-mind point The emphasis on willpower and self-control
of view, our natural condition is a unitary mind. permeates American culture. We think we should
Unless, of course, trauma comes along and shatters it be able to discipline our primitive, impulsive, sinful
into pieces, like shards of a vase. minds through willpower. Countless self-help books
The mono-mind paradigm has caused us to fear tell us it’s all a matter of boosting our ability to control
our parts and view them as pathological. In our ourselves and develop more discipline. The concept
attempts to control what we consider to be disturbing of willpower, too, has historical roots—namely in the
thoughts and emotions, we just end up fighting, Victorian Era with its Christian emphasis on resisting
ignoring, disciplining, hiding, or feeling ashamed of evil impulses. The idea of taking responsibility for
those impulses that keep us from doing what we want oneself and not making excuses is as American as
to do in our lives. And then we shame ourselves for apple pie.
not being able to control them. In other words, we Sadly, our worship of willpower has been used by
hate what gets in our way. politicians and pundits to justify increasing levels of
This approach makes sense if you view these inner income disparity. We’re taught that people are poor
obstacles as merely irrational thoughts or extreme because they lack self-control and that rich people
emotions that come from your unitary mind. If you are wealthy because they have it, despite research to
fear giving a presentation, for example, you might the contrary. Studies show, for example, that lower-
try to use willpower to override the fear or correct income people become empowered and productive
it with rational thoughts. If the fear persists, you once they are given enough money to cover their
might escalate your attempts to control by criticizing basic survival needs. However, the very real fact—
yourself for being a coward, numbing yourself into especially considering the economic effects of the
oblivion, or meditating to climb above it. And when current pandemic—is that the rug could be pulled out
none of those approaches work, you wind up adapting from under most of us at any moment, and that threat
your life to the fear—avoiding situations where you keeps the survivalist parts of us humming.

EXERCISE
Getting to Know a Protector
Take a second and get comfortable. Set up like you would if you were going to meditate.
If it helps you to take deep breaths, then do that.
Now I invite you to do a scan of your body and your mind, noting in particular any thoughts,
emotions, sensations, or impulses that stand out. So far, it’s not unlike mindfulness practice,
where you’re just noticing what’s there and separating from it a little bit.
As you do that, see if one of those emotions, thoughts, sensations, or impulses is calling to
you—seems to want your attention. If so, then try to focus on it exclusively for a minute and see if
you can notice where it seems to be located in your body or around your body.
As you notice it, notice how you feel toward it. By that I mean, do you dislike it? Does it annoy
you? Are you afraid of it? Do you want to get rid of it? Do you depend on it? So we’re just
noticing that you have a relationship with this thought, emotion, sensation, or impulse. If you
feel anything besides a kind of openness or curiosity toward it, then ask the parts of you that
might not like it or are afraid of it or have any other extreme feeling about it, to just relax inside
and give you a little space to get to know it without an attitude.
If you can’t get to that curious place, that’s okay. You could spend the time talking to the parts
of you that don’t want to relax about their fears about letting you actually interact with the target
emotion, thought, sensation, or impulse.
But if you can get into that mindfully curious place relative to the target, then it is safe to begin
to interact with it. That might feel a bit odd to you at this point, but just give it a try. And by that, I
mean as you focus on this emotion or impulse or thought or sensation, and you notice it in this
place in your body, ask it if there’s something it wants you to know and then wait for an answer.
Don’t think of the answer, so any thinking parts can relax too. Just wait silently with your focus on
that place in your body until an answer comes and if nothing comes, that’s okay too.
If you get an answer, then as a follow-up you can ask what it’s afraid would happen if it didn’t do
this inside of you. What’s it afraid would happen if it didn’t do what it does? And if it answers that
question, then you probably learned something about how it’s trying to protect you. If that’s true,
then see if it’s possible to extend some appreciation to it for at least trying to keep you safe and see
how it reacts to your appreciation. Then ask this part of you what it needs from you in the future.
When the time feels right, shift your focus back to the outside world and notice more of your
surroundings, but also thank your parts for whatever they allowed you to do and let them know
that this isn’t their last chance to have a conversation with you, because you plan to get to know
them even more.
Reprinted with permission from No Bad Parts. Sounds True. Copyright 2021 Richard C. Schwartz.

Because this willpower ethic has become hypersexual, etc.) parts will seize any momentary
internalized, we learn at an early age to shame and weakness to break out again and take over, we have
manhandle our unruly parts. We simply wrestle them to constantly be on guard against any people or
into submission. One part is recruited by this cultural situations that might trigger those parts.
imperative to become our inner drill sergeant and
often becomes that nasty inner critic we love to hate. ____________
This is the voice that tries to shame us or attempts to
outright get rid of parts of us that seem shame-worthy Don’t think that this critique of willpower reveals
(the ones that give us nasty thoughts about people, for that there’s no room for inner discipline in IFS. Like
example, or keep us addicted to substances). children in external families, we each have parts that
We often find that the harder we try to get rid of want things that aren’t good for them or for the rest
emotions and thoughts, the stronger they become. of the system. The difference here is that the Self says
This is because parts, like people, fight back against no to impulsive parts firmly but from a place of love
being shamed or exiled. And if we do succeed in and patience, in just the same way an ideal parent
dominating them with punitive self-discipline, we would. Additionally, in IFS, when parts do take over,
then become tyrannized by the rigid, controlling inner we don’t shame them. Instead, we get curious and use
drill sergeant. We might be disciplined, but we’re not the part’s impulse as a trailhead to find what is driving
much fun. And because the exiled (bingeing, raging, it that needs to be healed. ▪
and Family Therapy from Purdue University, after

which he began a long association with the Institute
for Juvenile Research at the University of Illinois at
Chicago, and more recently at The Family Institute
at Northwestern University – he is an associate
professor at both institutions. He is co-author,
with Michael Nichols, of Family Therapy: Concepts
and Methods, the most widely used family therapy
textbook in the United States.
In 2000, he founded The Center for Self Leadership.

He has published over fifty articles about IFS and
other psychotherapy topics, along with several books
including Internal Family Systems, 2nd Edition (2019);
Dr. Dick Schwartz is a Mobius Senior Expert and a Internal Family Systems Skills Training Manual: Trauma-
renowned psychotherapist who created Internal Family Informed Treatment for Anxiety, Depression, PTSD &
Systems. IFS is one of the fastest-growing therapeutic Substance Abuse (2017); You are the One You have Been
approaches in the United States. Developed in Waiting For (2008); Introduction to Internal Family
response to his clients’ descriptions of experiencing Systems Model (2001); and the audio book published
various parts of themselves – many extreme, IFS is a by Sounds True: Greater than the Sum of Our Parts –
non-pathologizing, hopeful framework. It is considered which is read by Dick and includes a collection of his
revolutionary by experts worldwide including Bessel van guided meditations to meet and work with parts.
der Kolk, author of The Body Keeps the Score, and Gabor
Maté, known for his ground-breaking work in addiction. His latest book, No Bad Parts, published in June 2021,
offers the reader a chance to discover, listen to and heal
Dick began his career as a systemic family therapist their own parts against the backdrop of understanding
and an academic. He earned his Ph.D. in Marriage how parts work meets greater societal needs.

Healing Collective Trauma

A Process for Integrating our Intergenerational and Cultural Wounds
A book excerpt by Mobius Friend and core Next Practice Institute faculty Thomas Huebl
writing with Julie Jordan Avritt
At the 2022 Next Practice Institute Annual Gathering, Thomas will lead
a day-long intensive on the mystical principles of transformation.
Whether or not we have experienced personal trauma, we are all—in very

real ways—impacted by the legacy of familial and cultural suffering. Recent
research has shown that trauma affects groups just as acutely as it does
individuals; it bridges families, generations, communities, and borders.
In Healing Collective Trauma, Thomas Huebl has summarized two decades

of experience working on personal and collective healing in Germany,
the Middle East and in the United States. In this breakthrough offering,
he unpacks the many societal symptoms of collective trauma and traces
them back to their roots in family trauma and collective events such
as war, genocide, inequity, and societal destabilization. He also shares
his own proprietary method for large group processes that restore and
repair the deep aftermath that such violence leaves in its wake.
Thomas is a profound teacher, trauma expert and process facilitation expert working with professionals
on their inner lives, guiding restorative group processes for teams and organizational leaders, and
attending to geopolitical hotspots experiencing multi-generational national traumas.
His work integrates the essence of the great wisdom traditions, with scientific knowledge, findings
in child and adult development, neuroscience, cognitive science and cultural theory. Thomas’
leading-edge work has spread worldwide through workshops, multi-year training programs and
online courses—including supervisory training with Mobius' transformational faculty and coaches.
In 2008, Thomas founded the Academy of Inner Science to bring his lifelong interest in the dialogue
between science and spirituality to wider audiences. In 2016 Thomas founded the ‘Pocket Project’,
a nonprofit organization devoted to interdisciplinary trauma research and human outreach in
conflict zones across the world. In October 2020 and 2021, he hosted an annual Summit on
Collective Trauma where some 150,000 participants came together to learn from seminal trauma
experts including Dan Siegel, Gabor Maté, and Mobius Senior Experts such as Dick Schwartz and
Terry Real.
Reprinted with permission from Healing Collective Trauma. Sounds True. Copyright 2020 Thomas Hübl, Julie Avritt
Forty years ago, Helen Epstein, a young journalism consequences, or symptoms of historical trauma
professor at New York University, published a that they directly experienced, such as poverty,
groundbreaking book that altered the course of illness, alcoholism, family separation, mental
Western psychological research in trauma and and emotional health conditions, and more. The
validated many things that aboriginal peoples and Western world had become dominated by clinical,
Eastern thinkers had known for centuries. The book, pathological descriptions and labels for all manner
titled Children of the Holocaust, was part ethnography, of emotional and interpersonal distress, but these
part oral history, and part memoir and was the first communities didn’t use such terms. Instead, they
published work outside academia to explore the referred to the suffering that had blighted their
subject of the second generation (2G) — the sons people during European colonization and had been
and daughters — of Holocaust survivors. Her work passed down through the generations since as
inspired startling new questions: Had the unspoken “spiritual injury, soul sickness, soul wounding, and
horrors of Nazi Germany been in some way passed ancestral hurt.”
down to the descendants of those who had lived My work has shown me that trauma is never
through them? If so, what might this traumatic purely an individual problem. And no matter how
inheritance mean for other traumatized groups and private or personal, trauma cannot belong solely to
their progeny? a family, or even to that family’s intricate ancestral
Epstein’s book was a noble exploration of the tree. The consequences of trauma — indeed, the
intergenerational transmission of cumulative effects of personal, familial,
trauma, kicking off decades of often and historical traumas — seep across
difficult, and sometimes illuminating, Shadow, like communities, regions, lands, and
research in Israel, the United States, nations. The burden borne by a single
Switzerland, and beyond. While more conflict, is person, family, or community invariably
research must be done on the subject, a driver of and inevitably reaches its larger society,
there is much to learn from what has touching even those who share little in
emerged. evolution. the way of common identity or custom.
In 1981, the Jewish scholar and The impact of human-created suffering
theologian Arthur A. Cohen described extends beyond the original subject or
2G this way: “It is the generation that bears the scar subjugated group; trauma’s legacy weaves and wires
without the wound, sustaining memory without our very world, informing how we live in it, how we
direct experience.” In his 2006 text, Healing the see it, and how we see and understand one another.
Soul Wound, clinical psychologist and researcher Many of us are aware of the manifest ways that
Eduardo Duran assessed that in the overall body of unhealed trauma can create long-term personal pain
research on the subject of historical trauma and its and developmental problems for individuals. What
transmission, there is evidence to suggest that “not is perhaps less well understood is how unhealed
only is the trauma passed on intergenerationally, collective trauma may place similar burdens on the
but it is cumulative.” Duran further contends health of human cultures and societies, even placing
that “when trauma is not dealt with in previous our planetary home at risk. The symptoms of collective
generations, it has to be dealt with in subsequent trauma appear to reveal themselves in the condition
generations.” Moreover, when unresolved trauma of collective bodies of all kinds — our communities,
is passed on, it may become “more severe” in schools, organizations, institutions, governments,
successive generations. and environments — revealing where we are injured,
Early in his career, Duran’s work with Native fractured, or imbalanced. Indeed, it is my belief that
American populations in California uncovered a unresolved systemic, multigenerational traumas delay
critical cultural difference in how the indigenous the development of the human family, harm the natural
community perceived and spoke about the effects, world, and inhibit the higher evolution of our species.

I vividly remember sitting with my grandfather,

Opa in German, as a young boy, listening attentively
as he shared stories from his experiences of the Willingness to go into
Second World War. He had been a private in the
Austrian Bundesheer, or “Federal Army,” and was the dark with a light is
serving when Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany.
Sadly, this meant that he and his fellow soldiers were
evolutionary work; it
conscripted into service for the German Third Reich. brings healing, clarity,
Opa’s stories of the war included being met in
the open by enemy soldiers, where both sides chose
and integration. If we’re
simply to turn around and walk back, rather than committed to the work, it
engage in lethal combat. He often spoke of the good-
heartedness and heroism of ordinary men, many of opens us—not to more pain
whom had been forced to fight, even though their and darkness but to a more
hearts weren’t in the cause. A young man at that time,
my grandfather was badly injured by an exploding brilliant luminosity through
bomb. Sustaining severe injuries to his leg, he was
sent home, no longer able to serve.
which we can access higher
Before the war, my grandfather had been a passionate capacities, deeper potentials,
soccer player, full of vigor and athleticism. Afterward,
both his passion and agility were reduced. Though
and a clearer, more creative
he kept much of the evidence buried throughout his state of being.
life, he had been changed by unrelenting heartbreak,
wrought by the trauma of his experiences in the war.
For the rest of his life, Opa was weighed down by the
stygian gloom of the past, which was ever present in
the room. At times, a distant, disconnected quality
colored his benevolent eyes.
Though I could very much feel these things as a boy,
I couldn’t yet understand them. I was very close to my
grandfather, and as I grew, I began to feel even more
things. Some of these I couldn’t name; they stemmed
from hidden emotional layers, the consequences
of the scars of war. Others were more tangible. The
relationship between Opa and my grandmother,
Oma, for instance, was often eruptive. (Oma had lost
her mother when she was only fourteen, forcing her
to fight her way through life.) Deep trauma haunted
my grandparents’ lives, as it had everyone who’d been
touched by the war. Quietly, this quality of hidden
personal and cultural suffering — present everywhere
in Austria as I was growing up — began shaping my
life and my future. I became compelled to learn all
that I could about it.
While still in high school, I became passionate
about emergency medicine and determined to
become a paramedic, volunteering for the Red Cross.
Miniscape II by Jim McManus, Mobius featured artist

Complexity is simplicity in the right container.
After a long period of training, I reached my goal and in my country. Whenever I traveled outside Austria,
threw myself into work I cared deeply about. When which I loved, I felt a strange sense of liberation,
I wasn’t working or studying medicine, I served as a as though I could breathe more easily somehow.
teacher for new paramedics. I loved the fast-paced, But each time I returned, a sense of resistance and
deeply present work. It required quick thinking, constriction came back. This quality mystified me
sound judgment, and fast action, as well as a grounded and began to feel like a call toward some deeper
stance toward human suffering. Being called to assist or higher understanding. I continued working and
at one crisis after another taught me how to see more studying, until at twenty-six, I felt a powerful pull
deeply into human lives, all walks of them. I attended to leave it all behind and embarked on a period of
to both the rich and the poor in their most intimate silence and meditation.
moments of fear and pain and observed those of all People close to me were concerned. Why was I
ages and creeds as they struggled to survive the most choosing to give up everything to just “sit around”?
traumatizing situations of their lives. But I knew I had to do it; I had to enter deeply into the
Many times, I was present in the final moments of roots of the I am in order to learn the answers to the
a person’s life. questions I sought.
Over time, I observed how the experiences of our I started my quest in India, then with my former
patients weren’t held in isolation, solely impacting the wife, Lenka, I traveled to the Czech countryside
injured or dying and their loved ones. As emergency where I spent many hours per day in meditation,
responders, we were exposed to that cascade of driven to explore deeper levels of consciousness. I’d
human suffering, and it affected us. Paramedics at been inspired by inveterate sages and philosophers
that time received no guidance about how to deal with like Sri Aurobindo, Ramana Maharshi, and the
the psychological repercussions of trauma, neither writings of American philosopher Ken Wilber since
for our patients nor ourselves. Even so, my desire to I was twenty years old. I longed to experience what
understand suffering so that I might better serve in a they were pointing to, to deepen my awareness and
healing capacity only continued to grow. I decided to investigate the vast terrain of the interior world. That
become an emergency physician. experience lasted four intense years and not only
At nineteen years old, I had begun my own regular altered the course of my life, but profoundly grew
meditation practice. And, in parallel to my coursework and changed me.
and medical studies, I began investigating many of I never went back to medical school.
the world’s wisdom traditions. I took these habits
with me when I entered medical school in Vienna,
where I spent my days working shifts and my nights
deep in study. It was an amazing time, and I loved it There are many current crisis zones in our world
— I felt I was in service to life itself. It was there that today, places where the reality of war is imminent
I first sensed something going on beneath the surface and ongoing. Yet, even where peace appears to exist

Miniscape II by Jim McManus, Mobius featured artist
on the surface, the ravages of the not-so-distant past in the realm of the unconscious, or shadow. These
can be felt. Every region has its own distinct trauma experiences have not been integrated by the psyche or
signature. It’s as if a massive elephant sits in the spirit, and so they will — indeed, they must — surface
human living room; few may see or acknowledge it, but again and again in new but familiar forms. What we
we are all impacted by its presence. Everything about think of as destiny is in fact the unintegrated past. And
our societies — from geopolitics to business, climate, the fragmented, unintegrated past appears always as a
technology, health care, entertainment and celebrity, false future of repetition, a preprogrammed path along
and much more — is dominated by the existence of which every individual and every culture sets out until
this elephant, by the residue of our collective trauma. the contents of that past have been brought into the
And as long as we fail to acknowledge or adequately light of consciousness, reconciled and healed. This
care for it, the elephant will grow larger. mystical wisdom reveals itself in the study of history
This book is offered as a step toward recognizing and psychology, and undergirds philosopher George
and attending to the growing crisis of collective trauma. Santayana’s words, “Those who cannot remember the
It provides an exploration of the symptoms, habits, past are condemned to repeat it.”
and unconscious social agreements that collective We may choose to understand these repetitions of
trauma creates. Growing like mold spores in the dark shadow content as karma, a Sanskrit word originally
and fragmented underground of the human psyche, meaning “effect” or “fate” (i.e., destiny). Or we
trauma’s seeds are evidenced all around us: widespread may recognize them in light of our contemporary
isolation, endemic depression, violent divisions, understanding as trauma — specifically as
systemic injustice, and countless other destructive retraumatization, the unconscious act of repeating the
forms, including our burgeoning climate crisis. But, conditions of earlier traumas upon self and others.
though it is urgent, this book is not apocalyptic. Its Everything that resides in my unconscious inevitably
pages offer possibilities for how we might shed light flows into and blends with yours and everyone else’s.
on the dark and come together in revolutionary ways to All together, this forms the collective shadow, which
directly address our generational and cultural traumas may be visualized as a series of dark subterranean
in order to heal ourselves and our world. lakes, flowing deep beneath our everyday awareness.
The dark water of the collective shadow becomes a
way station for the energetic residue of unresolved
Mystical Principles of Healing conflicts, multigenerational suffering, and all manner
From Chapter One of unhealed trauma. It harbors the unacknowledged
hatred of one nation for another, the suppressed
DESTINY OF THE UNHEALED HERO terror echoing within a racial group or gender, and the
From a mystic’s (or Jungian’s) perspective, every unexpressed outrage felt by a tribe or religious faction.
experience or emotion from the past that remains Psychic energy that is held in the shadow remains
unacknowledged, unprocessed, or denied is stored out of sight until it becomes activated by external

Our ancestors are not gone; they live on with us and in us.
This truth comes as a clarion call from future generations,
who require that their ancestors be healed so that they
may live in a better world—or that they may live at all.
conditions and an accumulation of energetic

momentum within the social field. Once activated,
the dark contents of the shadow surface like a Loch
Ness monster, cresting in the form of patterns of
human behavior and consequence, from recurring
toxic relationship patterns to poisonous social
histories. These repetitions are the silent summoning
of our unhealed injuries and unexamined failures.
Freud termed the tendency to repeat the painful past
Wiederholungszwang, or “repetition compulsion,”
theorizing that unconscious retraumatization is an
Thomas Huebl is a mystic, healer and teacher
attempt to find conscious resolution to the original
who is blazing a path of 21st century spiritual
trauma. Whether surfacing as histories of poverty, practice, helping thousands of students around
family violence, or addiction, or on the social scale the world to live their awakening amid today’s
as ethnic hatreds, war, or social collapse, repetition busy world. His annual summit on Collective
compulsion is an ancient undercurrent in human Trauma and his non-profit, Pocket Project, are
affairs — one that can be healed. leading beacons in the field.
While our will is our own, our choices are
inevitably bound and restricted by karma, by Mobius is privileged that for the past several
trauma, by what we conceive of as “the past” — years Thomas has been guiding many of our
practitioners in the professional development
all that we have denied, disowned, dissociated,
of state-of-the-art healing practices and trauma-
and suppressed. The unconscious denial of any
informed approaches to executive development.
experience freezes some portion of our available Through the Next Practice Institute, Thomas
energy in shadow, thereby restricting our freedom offers workshops, supervision groups/hyper-
and movement. With every denial or suppression learning circles, and study groups exploring
of the past, we create our destiny, which is the mystical principles.
repetition of suffering.
Still, as the great spiritual myths reveal, the hero In 2020, he published his ground-breaking book
discovers that by acknowledging and repairing the Healing Collective Trauma: A Process for Integrating
folly of his past, by integrating all he has been, he our Intergenerational and Cultural Wounds. This
opus explores how significant collective trauma
may become truly free — and more of what he truly
symptoms are in shaping our modern society and
is. ▪
contains cutting-edge remedies that serve as a
beacon of hope for generations to come.

PROFESSIONAL
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A DIGITAL EXPRESSION OF HIGH TOUCH LEARNING PROGRAMS
ASYNCHRONOUS STAND-ALONE OR INCORPORATES

LEARNING, PROPRIETARY ENGAGING USER ADAPTABLE TO YOUR BEST PRACTICE
POWERFUL CONTENT EXPERIENCE ORGANIZATION AND NEXT
PLATFORM CONTEXT PRACTICE
OUR CORNERSTONE PRODUCTS COMPLEMENT EACH OTHER
To build adaptive teams and learning-oriented organizations, it is critical leaders first learn to lead themselves, and
undertake their own inner development work to cultivate mature leadership capacities. In turn, demands of external
uncertainty require leaders to simultaneously refine their change agility and executive fluidity.
These two e-learning programs are a two-part journey for becoming Future Ready: Leading adaptively, cultivating
intuition and centeredness, and preparing for the life-long journey of self-discovery, service and innovative leadership.
WINNING FROM ADAPTIVE

WITHIN® LEADERSHIP
How to lead your self How to build key
and cultivate: Innovation capacities to adapt
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creative self-expression
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TM
Egon Zehnder, the world’s foremost leadership advisory firm and

Mobius Executive Leadership, a pre-eminent leadership development firm
are proud of the global business partnership launched in the Fall of 2018.
The historic partnership combines the firms’ proprietary methods for accelerating
the personal and professional development of senior executives and for stimulating an
organization’s ability to transform.
The partnership focuses on three capstone executive development programs: the

Executive Breakthrough Program, the Executive Discovery Program and the Voyager
Leadership Development Program.
VOYAGER
EXECUTIVE EXECUTIVE
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PROGRAM PROGRAM
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PRIVATE 10 -DAY IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCES
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2022 10-Day Foundational Program: 2022 Advanced Programs:

March 18-27, 2022 May 16-20, 2022
Warren Conference Center, Light Sides of the Patterns
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eventbrite.com Registration to come
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April 22-May 1, 2022 November 14-18, 2022
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For further details, please contact: [email protected]

email [email protected] | phone 617.499.0007 | www.actiondesign.com
Creating Productive
Conversations
2022 ONLINE WORKSHOP | MARCH 2, 9, 16, 23
The work of the leader, colleague, coach, and consultant is

accomplished in conversation. This program will enhance your skill
in making conversations work. It combines a strong conceptual
framework with experiential learning, skill practice, and application
to a real-life challenge of your choosing.
WHO SHOULD ATTEND

This program is for those whose professional effectiveness requires helping people
learn from their different perspectives, put new ideas into practice, and build WORKSHOP SCHEDULE
relationships based on trust and accountability.
Four half-day sessions:
March 2, 9, 16, 23
WHAT YOU WILL GAIN
12pm–4pm Eastern Time*
A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK for creating productive conversations that addresses
both mindsets and actions; * The United States goes on
Daylight Time on March 13, 2022.
A REPERTOIRE OF MOVES for skillfully advocating your view and inquiring into the
views of others; TUITION
INCREASED ABILITY to recognize and manage your own reactions in
$2,800
difficult situations;
AWARENESS OF THE IMPACT of blind spots and cognitive biases on relationships. This program is based on over
three decades of research and
WHAT YOU WILL DO practice by Action Design
Meet online in a group of four to six participants led by Phil McArthur or Bob Putnam partners in collaboration with
of Action Design; senior leaders in the field. For
Bring a brief dialogue case of a challenging conversation to use as learning material; further information please
Apply concepts of productive conversation to a variety of case situations; visit our web site at
Practice productive conversation through role play with feedback and coaching; https://actiondesign.com/
Develop a learning plan in a 1:1 consultation with your group leader after session four.
Online Course
Seven Stones Leadership presents:
Heal Collective
Trauma & Embody
Anti-Racism
An 8-Session Online Course
February 18 - April 29, 2022
Join Gina LaRoche and Jen Cohen

for an amazing learning journey
where we will examine the
personal, interpersonal and As part of our eight sessions together,
structural dimensions of racism. we will discuss:
From our point of view, the traditional language of diversity, • The Power and Importance of Practice
equity and inclusion (DEI) is rooted in a model of scarcity. • Collective Trauma
This causes anyone in a subordinated group to feel excluded,
• The Real American History
unwelcome and potentially unwanted.
This is a new moment for the work of equity, power and • Unpacking Our Racial Autobiographies
belonging. It is about realizing that systems of inequity cause • Authentic Communication
harm to all of us in different ways. It’s time we made a shift
• Understanding Power
from denial to reckoning, from numbness to deep care, and
from burnout to resilience. • Completion and Creation
In this interactive eight-session learning journey, we will
examine racism as the historical, vicarious, institutional and
collective trauma that it is. You will learn distinctions, For pricing and
techniques and practices that allow you and your teams to
more information
envision new ways of speaking and working mindfully and
bravely across differences. visit our website
sevenstonesleadership.com k
Our Website k The Communityk LinkedIn k
sevenstonesleadership.com/community k 1
THE
NEXT PRACTICE
INSTITUTE
SYSTEMIC INTELLIGENCE AND ORGANIZATIONAL CONSTELLATIONS

ADVANCED PROGRAM
by Mieke Jacobs and Paul Zonneveld, Mobius Transformational Faculty
What participants of previous

programs say:
ADVANCED PROGRAM 2022
March 20 to March 23 (4 full days), 2022 “Great head start to systemic work,
Location: Italy great teachers, immediate take aways.”
“I have more tools and better skills now

This program is for alumni from all our masterclasses (in person and online), or to look at my clients holistically. I was
for people who come with a solid background in systemic and constellation work. able to change completely my approach
In case you have not worked with us before, we will invite you for an in-take call to to one Top Team.”
jointly explore your background and systemic experience.
“Personally, experiencing a lot of relief
after taking my appropriate place
Content
in the order. The work has been very
• A map of systemic constellation work: from structured to free flow
useful in drawing out client scenarios.”
• Systemic diagnostics and systemic consulting
• Seeing, understanding and dealing with repeating patterns in organizations
• Systemic leadership “I would say it is an excellent
• Table constellations (for family systems and organizational systems): educational experience that translates
continued and deepened complex material in a way that it
• Facilitating organizational constellations with real representatives (with the becomes immediately useful to an
client’s team members as representatives) experienced coach or facilitator.”
• The coping mechanisms of systems and their healing movements
• Expanding the contracting for 1-on-1 coaching to include the family system “I have already recommended to a
• Being the facilitator and representing the system or elements from the system Coaching client of mine! I feel the
at the same time (transfer constellations) systemic perspective is extremely rich to
• Deeper and wider exploration of how your family dynamics show up in your anyone.”
professional life, as leader, coach, consultant, facilitator
Included
• one 1-hour supervision session – on one of your business cases
Contact
To register please contact [email protected] or
[email protected]
Paul Zonneveld &

Mieke Jacobs
EVENTS with DAVID WHYTE
THREE SUNDAYS
SERIES
Broadcast live from

David’s study
Join poet and philosopher David Whyte to explore some of the

great questions of human existence. All sessions are recorded
and available for three months, and include tiny daily disciplines
to support participants between sessions.
Learn more at LIVE.DAVIDWHYTE.COM
INVITAS: ASILOMAR: A WEEKEND WITH

THE INSTITUTE FOR DAVID WHYTE
CONVERSATIONAL LEADERSHIP Pacific Grove, California
JANUARY 7 - 9, 2022
Learn more at INVITAS.NET Learn more at DAVIDWHYTE.COM
[email protected] 360.221.1324 davidwhyte.com

2022 WALKING TOURS
with DAVID WHYTE
Join David Whyte and an eclectic group of fellow travelers for a week of
poetry, breathtaking walks, superb meals and an opportunity to meet
extraordinary people deeply committed to the place they call home.
WEST OF IRELAND HILLS OF TUSCANY

April 30 - May 7, 2022 May 14 - 21, 2022
ENGLISH LAKE DISTRICT NAKASENDO TRAIL, JAPAN

June 24 - July 1, 2022 November 2022
[email protected] 360.221.1324 davidwhyte.com

Online Meditation
Seven Stones Leadership presents:
Establishing
Mindfulness
with Gina LaRoche
Through the Seven Stones Online Community,

we offer Establishing Mindfulness, a virtual
meditation with Gina LaRoche, Seven Stones Session
Session Dates
Dates &
& Times
Times
Leadership Co-Founder and Mobius Senior Expert. Every
Every Wednesday
Wednesday atat 9:30am
9:30am ET
ET
Why practice mindfulness? Mindfulness practices are core beginning January 5, 2022
beginning January 5, 2022
practices for our learning and leading. When we can rest in All sessions will be LIVE. If you cannot
a calm, centered place, we can think strategically, manage All sessions will be LIVE. If you cannot
attend, each session will be recorded and
well and create a climate that fosters creativity, productivity attend, each session will be recorded and
available for replay in the Seven Stones Online
and well-being for all. available for replay in the Seven Stones
Community so you can practice when your
Online Community so you can practice
Benefits of Mindfulness: schedule allows.
when your schedule allows.
• We see that we are not our thoughts.
Program Pricing
• We can create a gentle loving attitude towards ourselves Program Pricing
Join the Seven Stones Online Community
especially through times of transition. Join the Seven Stones Online Community
sevenstonesleadership.com/community kk
• We can soften our harsh judgments with self and others Establishing Mindfulness is included
Establishing Mindfulness is included in in
and invite a softening of our critical tone. the
the Seven
Seven Stones
Stones Online
Online Community
Community
• We find an easier stance with difficult emotions and body membership
membership pricing.
pricing. To
To join
join this
this ongoing
ongoing
sensations, such as grief and pain. offering
offering along with everything else available
along with everything else available
in
in the learning portal, please register for
the learning portal, please register for a
a
• We develop a willingness to be transparent and address
paid
paid membership.
membership.
conflicts more readily.
Join
Join Establishing
Establishing Mindfulness
Mindfulness Live
Live k
• New neural pathways get built in the brain that allow us
If you are interested only in Establishing
to access a calm and centered presence.
Mindfulness at this time, please register at
Whether you are new or masterful, join us. for each event.
sevenstonesleadership.com/get-involved k
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Our Website k The Communityk LinkedIn k
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“Deepening in Love”
A Retreat for Couples in Mexico!
with Robert Gass & Judith Ansara
Are you and your partner ready
to deepen and renew your relationship?
Let your love to flourish as you move beyond limiting
Judith Ansara and Robert Gass are gifted patterns, open to new levels of intimacy and co-create
teachers and friends of Mobius who a relationship you are both excited to be in now and
integrate a rich background in psychology; into the future. Relax, swim, hike, eat and simply be
spiritual practice; leadership and
together at a gorgeous, quiet, beachside retreat center
organizational development; and social
on the Pacific. All genders and orientations welcome.
change. They bring a depth of compassion
and insight forged in the living laboratory of
their 50-year marriage.
Learn more: SacredUnion.com
“This profound workshop totally rejuvenated my relationship with my wife. It helped us

practically create and live the relationship we’ve always wanted."
-Jack Canfield, Author, Chicken Soup for the Soul
Podcasts featuring
Mobius Senior Experts and
Mobius Transformational Faculty
Mobius faculty and affiliated experts are

regularly featured in some of the most
popular podcasts in our field.
To keep up-to-date with what to read,

watch or listen to across a range of
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“Friendship is the only cement that
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Woodrow T. Wilson
Birdland by Jim McManus, Mobius featured artist

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please write [email protected]
All images herein by Mobius Featured Artist, Jim McManus.

Design by Mobius Art Director, Mary Allen.
This magazine has been edited by Mobius Chief Knowledge Officer, Nathalie Hourihan.

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What is the purpose of the magazine?

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A P U B L I C AT I O N F O R L E A D E R S H I P P R O F E S S I O N A L S

where best practice meets next practice

THE MOBIUS STRIP WINTER EDITION 2022

FEATURED ARTISTS: JIM MCMANUS AND TREVOR TYNE

ORIGAMI MÖBIUS STRIP FROM TREVOR TYNE

REGISTRATION NOW OPEN: www.mobiusleadership.com/npi

2022 TRACK LEARNING

2022 KEYNOTE TALKS, WORKSHOPS AND EVENING EVENTS

For full brochure visit: www.mobiusleadership.com/npi

ANDREW SZEGEDY-MASZAK BILL TORBERT PUJA JASPAL

SAVE THE DATES

For more information, please email [email protected]

The Fearless Organization

MAKING IT HAPPEN most expensive product failures, describing why each

www.mobiusleadership.com | Mobius Executive Leadership 7

I. SETTING THE STAGE

II. INVITING PARTICIPATION

8 Mobius Executive Leadership | www.mobiusleadership.com

falls, are complex operations, such as hospitals or

Out of the Blue by Jim McManus, Mobius featured artist

www.mobiusleadership.com | Mobius Executive Leadership 9

Before you know what kindness really is

Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness

Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,

Naomi Shihab Nye

According to Superminds, while much has been promised about

Drawing on cutting-edge science and insights from a range of disciplines

www.mobiusleadership.com | Mobius Executive Leadership 11

Introduction contributions. In a subsequent post, he gave his group

12 Mobius Executive Leadership | www.mobiusleadership.com

difficult scientific problems (Foldit), entertaining

www.mobiusleadership.com | Mobius Executive Leadership 13

From Just Beyond Yourself,

14 Mobius Executive Leadership | www.mobiusleadership.com

From the Foreword by Edgar H. Schein

“The stories that Kahane tells us make us realize how much

www.mobiusleadership.com | Mobius Executive Leadership 15

River Run by Jim McManus, Mobius featured artist

16 Mobius Executive Leadership | www.mobiusleadership.com

In transformative facilitation, the facilitator cycles back and forth

www.mobiusleadership.com | Mobius Executive Leadership 17

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1. How do we see our situation? In other words, VERTICAL

www.mobiusleadership.com | Mobius Executive Leadership 19

River Run by Jim McManus, Mobius featured artist

20 Mobius Executive Leadership | www.mobiusleadership.com

www.mobiusleadership.com | Mobius Executive Leadership 21

each put our own house in order,” the facilitator

22 Mobius Executive Leadership | www.mobiusleadership.com

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In conversation with Adam Kahane

He is a director of Reos Partners, an international social enterprise that helps

Q What was the impetus for writing your

24 Mobius Executive Leadership | www.mobiusleadership.com

and therefore we need better ways to do it, better

“The stories that Kahane tells us make us realize how much