Who Do We Choose to Be?, Second Edition: Facing Reality, Claiming Leadership, Restoring Sanity

by Margaret J. Wheatley

My aspiration is for you to see clearly so that you may act wisely. If we don’t know where we are, if we don’t know what to prepare for, then any path we choose will keep us wandering in the wilderness, increasingly desperate, increasingly lost.

We are walking the well-trodden path of collapse documented in the history of all complex civilizations. We cannot stop the descent, so we must find a new path of contribution.

Our purpose transforms to serving whatever is needed, not what we predefined as purposeful. We open to the world that is, curious to discover what is needed from us, willing to engage on the world’s terms, not ours.

And then meaning finds us. Not in grand gestures and large-scale projects, but moment to moment when we are available and willing to stay present: to someone who needs to talk; in meetings when a heated atmosphere is cooled by our calm presence; in team sessions when we attend to how people are doing, not just what they do; in our families when we are more patient, more available; in processes where we create the conditions for thinking and reflection, refusing to leap into action before we have understood the problem.

There is an undeniable need for leaders to create the conditions for people to remember who they can be when free of fear, engaged and creative in work that matters to them. Meaninglessness is a dark shroud that has smothered people’s aspirations and darkened the memory of what it feels like to be engaged with colleagues in purposeful, challenging work. It’s not victories or achievements that need to be recalled; it’s the quality of energy, inspiration, and creativity that we’ve experienced when engaged in responding to great challenges, in understanding complex problems, in making bold attempts that may or may not work but are satisfying in the attempt.

I know leadership is hard and challenging work, and growing more demanding by the day. In my experience leadership has never been more difficult. Yet I know it is still possible for leaders to use their power and influence, their insight and compassion, to lead people back to an understanding of who we are as human beings, to create the conditions for our basic human qualities of generosity, contribution, community, and love to be evoked no matter what. I know it is possible to experience grace and joy in the midst of tragedy and loss. I know it is possible to create Islands of Sanity in the midst of wildly disruptive seas. I know it is possible because I have worked with leaders over many years in places that knew chaos and breakdown long before this moment. And I have studied enough history to know that such leaders always rise when they are most needed.