Evolutionary Co-Leadership KEYNOTE

Alain Gauthier

Evolutionary Co-Leadership

The Next Stage in Leadership Development?

EBBF Keynote

©Alain Gauthier Core Leadership Development

www.coreleadership.com

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3Available as an eBook at amazon.com

Addressing four questions today

● Why are new forms of leadership urgently needed?

● What characterizes evolutionary co-leadership?

● Which integral practices enable its embodiment?

● How to develop it and scale it up?

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1. Why are new forms of leadership urgently needed?

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Survival/well-being of humanity

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Time

Adapted from Ervin Laszlo

?

or going through a metamorphosis…

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Chaos

Time

Fitness

Inspired by Itchak Adizes

…with emerging forms of leadership

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Chaos

Time

Fitness

Entrepreneurship

Management

Financialdominance

Aristocracy/plutocracy

Bureaucracy

Inspired by Itchak Adizes

Disintegration

Co-entrepreneurship

Co-leadership

Four domains of human experience

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Interior/Invisible Exterior/Observable

Individual (I)

Collective (We)

(it)

Culture Structures/systems

AwarenessInteriority

Biology Behavior

Adapted from Ken Wilber

(its)

Two dimensions of evolution

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Interior/Invisible Exterior/Observable

Cultural memes Structures/systems

Awareness levelIntention

Biology/ Behavior

InteriorEvolution

ExteriorEvolution

I

We

it

its

Inspired by Ken Wilber’s four quadrants

What can we learn from evolution?

● Adversity and the “edge of chaos” stimulate evolution

● Life rewards the best combination between individual creativity and cooperation

● Complexity, diversity, interdependence and self-organizing capacity increase with evolution

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Evolutionists and Evolutionaries

● Evolutionists: are strongly influenced by the scientific theory of evolution (Darwin and his followers) – and limited to its externally observable aspects

● Evolutionaries: appreciate both exterior and interior aspects; have fully internalized evolution – non only intellectually but viscerally; are committed advocates and activists for evolution at both individual consciousness and cultural levels

12Adapted from Carter Phipps, Evolutionaries, 2012

From a domination paradigm…

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Superior/inferior ranking; scarcity

High degree of fear, violence, competition

Myths and stories legitimizing domination, presenting it as normal and efficient

Authoritarian and punitive social structures Pyramidal hierarchy Controls

Adapted from The Power of Partnership by Riane Eisler, New World Library, 2002

I

We

it

its

The current “polycrisis” is caused by the prevailing domination paradigm…

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Ill-adapted education

Financial “casino”, hyper-debt

Ecological threats, pillageof the planet

Prevailing domination paradigm

World hunger,pandemics, violence

Widening gapbetween richand poor;urban ghettos

Economic disparities and instability

Meaning-lessness,addictions

Ethnic/religiousconflicts

Lack of credibility/corruption of leaders

Inspired by Edgar Morin’s La Voie (The Way)

Erosion ofsolidarity

…to a partnership paradigm

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Equal intrinsic value Equivalence. Abundance

Mutual trust Low degree of fear and violence

Myths and stories honoring partnership, presenting it as normal

“Flat” structures Governance/guidance of the wise. Self-regulation

Adapted from The Power of Partnership by Riane Eisler, New World Library, 2002

I

We

it

its

Organization: from machine… to living system

singularity

innovationagility projects

CollaborativeDynamics

creativity

openness

Rigidity

Hierarchy

Authority

Bureaucracy

Secret

Status

Formalism

Uniformity

A more complex and fast-changing economy coupled with new expectations of the younger generations

Adapted from In Principo

Command & control

communityProcess16

Forms of collaborative leadership

● Learning, level 5

● Shared, distributed, rotating

● Complementary, co-creative

● Consultative, accompanying

● Collegial, cooperative

● Collective, community

● Partnership, co-leadership

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2. What characterizes evolutionary co-leadership?

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Redefining leadership

● Lead comes from the indo-European root “leith” which means “going forward”, “crossing a threshold” or even “dying”> A threshold must be crossed so that something new can emerge> Letting go of something we think we know or control can be experienced as death, as stepping into the unknown

19Inspired by Otto Scharmer

Co-leadership?

To practice co-leadership: > invite others (as co-leaders) to cross a threshold together

> venture together into the unknown, the non- familiar, letting go of what we think we know> sense together what is trying to emerge> open up a space where individual creativity and collective wisdom can be combined, with a connection to the larger field

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Examples of co-leadership in action

● Sports: relay race, climbing team, hockey team, etc.

● Arts: jazz ensemble, theatre improvisation

● Movies: diverse teams in Lord of the Rings, Star Trek, Star Wars, Matrix, X-Men, Indiana Jones, etc.

● Economy: exceptional team; collaboration between line innovator, internal networker and executive leader; professional partnership; open innovation; alliance between company, NGO and public sector

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Examples of co-leadership in action

● Sports: relay race, climbing team, hockey team, etc.

● Arts: jazz ensemble, theatre improvisation

● Movies: diverse teams in Lord of the Rings, Star Trek, Star Wars, Matrix, X-Men, Indiana Jones, etc.

● Economy: exceptional team; collaboration between line innovator, internal networker and executive leader; professional partnership; open innovation; alliance between company, NGO and public sector

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An evolutionary

• discerns deep patterns and integrates disciplines that have been separated, in reflection as in action

• looks at reality with a sense of long, “deep” time

• trusts life’s process and shows a profound faith in the future

• experiences self as co-creating and being co-responsible for evolution

23Adapted from Carter Phipps, Evolutionaries, 2012

Evolutionary Co-leadership: A new synthesis or a next stage in leadership development

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Individual heroicleadership (thesis)

Collective/cooperative leadership(antithesis)

Evolutionary co-leadership (synthesis)

© Alain Gauthier

Evolutionary Co-leadership:

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● Evolutionary Co-leadership is practiced among leaders who regard each other and behave as co-creative and co-responsible partners – in service of the the common good

● They assume flexible, rotating, or joint leadership – according to what is perceived and required

● They feel no personal need to stand out or to impose their views

● They cultivate the ability to know or sense what needs to be said or done by contributing their unique gifts and tapping into collective wisdom

Inspired by Collective Leadership Institute

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Are they evolutionary co-leaders?

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Learning to face complexity together

Co-leadership consciously integrates and balances

“both and” capabilities

• reflection and action

• intuition and logic

• body, heart, and intellect

• presence and vision

• emotional intelligence and complex thought

• individual creativity and collective intelligence

• unique agency and communion with the whole

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Different levels of partnering

● Within self (internal voices)

● With others (team, organization, across organizations and/or sectors)

● With nature

● With the larger field

● With evolution, Life, or Source

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Inner and external dances of evolutionary co-leadership

Inner dance

External dance

Personal practices

Interpersonal & systemic practices

Evolutionary dance

Metasystemic practices

© Alain Gauthier30

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Co-leadership development practices span the four quadrants

Subjective/Invisible Objective/Observable

Individual (I)

Collective (we)

(it) Personal Practices

(its)

Interpersonalpractices

(Meta)systemic practices

Inspired by Ken Wilber’s four quadrants

Possible next steps

● Individual and collective inquiry, experimentation within own organization/community, feedback, and sharing

● Identifying, connecting with, learning from and supporting other evolutionary co-leadership experiments

● Peer development through communities of practice

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Question

●What questions do these distinctions raise in you?

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To learn more and go further

● Read:

Evolutionary coaching by Richard Barrett

Evolutionary leadership by Peter Merry

Evolutionaries by Carter Phipps

● Consult: www.coreleadership.com

● Contact: alaingauthier@coreleadership.com

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