THE ARROW OF TIME: RESTORING SANITY

Where Is Your Organization on the Arrow of Time?

It is easy, although painful, to observe the decay and degradation of the human spirit and of our planet at the global, national, and local levels. But what’s going on in our own organizations? How can we assess our health versus our decay? As we attempt to fortify ourselves with sanity rather than fear, to open rather than close, what requires our attention?

Here are some of the characteristics of systems in decline. In all the descriptions of the pattern of collapse, there is both the human element of moral decay and the systemic element of institutional rot. Increasing disorder is fueled by money replacing service as the core motivator, hierarchical leaders focused on maintaining power at all costs, the disappearance of the future from decision making, the preservation of the status quo by the few elites who prosper from it. As things deteriorate, relationships disintegrate into distrust, self-protection, and opposition. Internal conflicts increase and no one even notices threats to the whole as they fight for their tiny piece of the pie. Leaders use fear to control and manipulate people and everyone moves into self-protection. Distractions, entertainments, and entitlements become primary instruments of allaying people’s fears and for controlling them.

Translating these predictable behaviors into assessments of an organization seems quite straightforward. Please develop your own; here are some that have proven useful in my work. It’s more helpful to answer these in terms of trends rather than snapshots. The real learning comes from noticing what’s changing, and in which direction, as you explore each topic.

Each of these explorations demonstrates your commitment to opening to what is. This in itself is important. It gives you a start to interrupting the destructive trends of our culture and offers possibilities for engaging people to join you in developing an island of sanity.

Quality of relationships: If you were to create a trend line from a few years ago to now and a few years ahead, how are people relating to each other? Has trust increased or declined? Are people more self-protective or less so? Are they more willing to be there for one another, to go the extra mile, or not? What’s your evidence for any of your conclusions?

Fear versus love: If these are the two ends of the spectrum of human emotions, which I believe they are, consider where you see examples of each. Also look for tendencies: which reaction, fear or love, is more likely in specific situations or with specific issues? Are either of these emotions coming to dominate as time goes on? In your leadership, what role does fear play: Are you more fearful? Are you using fear to motivate people?

Quality of thinking: When a crisis happens, how do you respond? Are your values used to resolve the crisis? Do you consider the future? Is long-term thinking still happening (in conversations, decision making, planning)? Has it made an impact? If so, is this visible to people? How difficult is it to find time to think, both for yourself and others?

Willingness to contribute: What invitations to contribute have you extended and why? How have people responded? Ongoing, what are your expectations for people being willing to step forward? Are those higher or lower than a few years ago?

The role of money: How big an influence, as a percentage of other criteria, do financial issues have on decisions? Has money become a motivator for you? For staff? Has selfishness replaced service? How do you know?

Other indicators, especially around learning from experience, are described in later chapters. For now, any of these topics answered with curiosity and concern can yield enormous benefit to your aspiration to be a good leader for this time. And they are questions that yield critical information for any attempt to bring greater sanity into the organization and among us as colleagues.