Understanding and Using System Energy: Practitioner Competency Development

System energy is the felt sense that manifests in any human social system, when and wherever the proverbial two-or-more are gathered. It is the wave or vibration felt when one walks into a space where others are already present. Before you even make eye contact with another person, you have a sense of the energy in the room, and whether it is a place you want to be. You have a sense of whether the energy is aligned well enough with the energy of your own bodymind for your well-being to be supported. It may feel like home, or it may feel different enough to offer opportunities for learning and personal growth. Or, it may feel so unaligned or even mal-aligned, as it were, that it feels unsafe, and you may decide to walk back out before connecting with anyone.

Reflective Practice in Social Change: The Case of PRADAN, one of India’s most promising large anti-poverty NGOs

This article is intended to be the beginning of a conversation about how one species, at least, of social change practitioners works, thinks, and reflects.  This installment is the first of two, perhaps three essays on this topic.  We start with a robust example of what we mean by ‘social change’ and then propose a series of principles and definitions.  In our second installment (to be published in the next edition of this journal) we will return to the case to discuss three particular interventions, their results, and what the practitioners learned.  We will end our conversation with the broader implications for how social change practitioners can and should help institutions become learning organizations—but we argue that, first, we have to help ourselves to be better action-learners.

Grow Yourself, Grow Your Team, Grow Your Business: The Challenge for Today’s Leaders

How can leaders practise new behaviors when everyone is watching their every move?

This dilemma has long challenged leaders and those who advise them.  Changing behavior is no simple task—no matter how committed leaders are to the new state—because they live in an organizational fishbowl: everyone is watching them carefully and missteps are met with cynicism.  How can they safely experiment with, and move toward, internalizing new behaviors?  How can they get honest, constructive feedback to learn how their behavior is impacting others?

To create a breakthrough, leaders need a supportive environment in which to grow, learn, and hear honest feedback.  In the past 18 months, we have developed a process to foster that environment—with remarkable results to date.  It goes by the simple name of Pod.

Leadership: From Charisma to Character

‘Character’ refers to a person’s moral or ethical qualities, especially integrity, but it also includes traits like honesty and courage. Character is different from personality in that character implies making the choice to act in line with one’s principles. Ideally, character determines a person’s reactions regardless of the circumstances but, in fact, character is constantly tested and may not always be strong enough to resist temptation. Leaders are in particularly thorny positions for, as Abraham Lincoln observed: “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.”

This article reviews first some of the recent cases of charismatic leadership gone wrong and its impact on the public. It then considers recent research on character in leadership especially in the light of changing attitudes among the younger generation. Drawing on extensive experience working with leaders in the US, Europe and Asia, the article closes with observations of a trend towards a character-based leadership model in business.

Leading in Complex Times

Today’s environment is inherently uncertain and unpredictable.  Successful organizations, however, are converting uncertainty into opportunity and growth but, to do this, leaders need new approaches to navigate successfully the increasing pace of change and complexity.  Leading an organization in today’s inter-connected, high-tech, globalized world is becoming more and more challenging. As information is shared anywhere and anytime, the cycle time from event to reaction is reduced.  The pace and nature of change is changing. 

Academics Corner: A new method for Executive Development

Henry Mintzberg and Edgar Schein share their experiences of how real learning occurs, and reflect on why a new method for executive education, developed by Mintzberg with his stepson, Phil LeNir, is proving to be so effective. The first part of this contribution is an abridged extract of an interview between Mintzberg and Art Kleiner.  The second part is a short article by Schein in which he offers his reflections about how a group can become a learning unit which he gleaned from participating in a Human Relations workshop in Bethel, Maine in 1959.   

Past Master: Kenne Benne

Over his lifetime he authored more than 200 articles and books, usually focused on social change, democratic authority, and adult education.  In Boston and later as part of The NTL Institute, he would foster marvelous conversations about the critical difference between power and authority, one being coercive and the other being granted through a dialogic process.  He was forever curious about things and tireless in his pursuit of knowledge.  He was a colleague of Kurt Lewin, was part of the staff for the Connecticut Conference on Race Relations which spawned the basic idea for the T – Group, and he was a co-founder of NTL.