Book Review: The Good Struggle

One of the things I have embraced over the past couple of years is the concept of the “hard conversation” is not necessarily a bad conversation. It is hard. So what? Lots of things are hard. The unfortunate thing we face in today’s society is that it is easy for many to avoid the hard conversation. We can turn to social media or a myriad of other distractions to see the world the way we want to see the world. Makes it really easy for us to avoid the work we so desperately need to do. Work that helps us to step into these hard conversations.

In any event, I have been reading “The Good Struggle: Responsible Leadership in an Unforgiving World” this past month and actually finished reading it as the SCOTUS decision came down making it possible for everyone to marry the person they love. What an example of the “good struggle” in action. In one chapter, the author asks us whether we have the right core values when we enter these struggles. Quite often it is easy to lose track of our core values and start to defend our need to be “right” instead of our need to learn. 

LeaderShape’s vision of the world is just, caring, and thriving. I think this good struggle has helped us get a little closer to a just, caring, thriving world. Unfortunately, in my opinion, we still have avoided the conversation. The argument may have played out in D.C., but the argument, or rather the conversation, still needs to happen all over the world. Part of winning elections or winning decisions like that is to recognize that we still need each other regardless of how stupid we make think someone else is. The hard work is not finished when you reach 51% of the vote or come to a 5-4 decision. The hard work is in the need to continue to provide space for learning, caring, disagreement, and understanding. 

Of course this past month has had plenty of examples of conversations we don’t really want to have or just haven’t had like the confederate flag flying over government buildings…still. The difficult part of living in a “winner takes all world” is that it creates a constant contest for the next election, vote, or decision. Rather than trying to understand and explain our beliefs, we focus on winning. In this struggle to articulate our beliefs and our viewpoints, we often succumb to the sound bite, the meme, or the headline missing the nuance, the pain, the joy, and the distrust. 

Being a leader is not about doing a victory dance. As leaders, do we ever reach the finish line? Do we ever stop wanting to change the world, make it a better place to live for those that are struggling, or helping someone else do the same? Of course not. Responsible leadership is about being gracious and seeing the big picture. It’s the desire to understand trumping the compulsion to win. 

Some amazing conversations have been happening…let’s stay in the mess and keep the good struggle going. 

Paul

March Book Review: Community

Wow, what a month.

March was a blur. Not because of the nasty weather – ok, a little bit because of that – but of all the traveling, activities, and events that occurred in my life. From Tampa, to Chicago, to Arizona, to New Orleans, and back to Champaign, there were many nights when I didn’t know where I was when I woke up (no wise cracks).

Anyway, in the middle of it all, we held the Co-Lead Facilitator Retreat for the Institute program. What an amazing, talented, and challenging group we have the privilege to work with. I have never used the phrase “herding cats” before until I started with working with this crew. They give so much to the program and we try hard to provide them with an experience each spring to help them improve their abilities to deliver the curriculum and be present while doing so. 

In preparing for the retreat, I re-read a classic on my shelf, Peter Block’s “Community" because we were focusing on how to infuse the concept of community throughout the six days of the Institute. Simple task on the surface, but not so easy in practice. Block speaks about community in ways that I hadn’t thought about previously and one simple quote hit me and the staff hard - “How are we going to be when we gather together?” Such a simple question and yet amazingly profound. 

How many times have you asked that question before a meeting, before joining a team or organization, before choosing your friends? See what I’m getting at? Being intentional about how we enter community, how we enter the lives of others when we are the outsiders, how we create a space that can be safe and challenging at the same time. How we learn from each other. 

We started some hard and worthy conversations at the retreat, but didn’t get to finish them. Do we ever really finish those conversations that matter? The ones that have a huge impact on the our lives and the world? My thought is no. Once we think we have it all figured out, be careful. Being open to community, being a member of community, is not easy. It is very hard at times. My good friends in fraternity and sorority work are dealing with these questions about community now. Our colleagues who do business in Indiana and other states where threats to our community exist or could exist are dealing with these questions. 

They never escape us. We never solve them. That is the beauty of them. The work. 

I encourage you to pick up Block’s book, read it, think about it, and have a conversation about it with the communities you find yourself connected to. Stay engaged. Stay together. Make time to argue. Make time to be messy. Build a community that includes everyone and lives in possibility. 

Now.

Paul

National Sessions of The LeaderShape Institute: What is at the Heart of These Sessions?

Looking back at the history of The LeaderShape Institute, national sessions started as the way to get students together to talk about the concepts of leadership and help them develop as leaders. In 1986, colleges and universities didn’t offer much formal training for leaders of student organizations so the idea of The LeaderShape Institute was cutting edge. Fast forward 29 years, nearly every college campus has some formalized training for people interested in the topic of leadership. So, why does LeaderShape continue to host national sessions of the Institute? This is a question our staff has spent much time thinking about and it comes down to this….

 

As an organization we believe in the importance of providing time and space for people to come together to have conversations that matter. In our over-connected society where technology has been used as a tool to bring people together, we are seeing that people are spending less time face to face actually talking about things that are important to them and the world around them. The LeaderShape Institute provides that experience.

National sessions provide an opportunity for students from colleges and universities from around the country to come together and build a community. For six days they will explore their values together, learn from each other, and leave ready to do work that creates a more just, caring, and thriving world. While at LeaderShape, participants have an opportunity to explore. To immerse themselves in their own learning. To be challenged. To learn from others and to have fun!

When you ask a past participant about their experience you may hear things like “amazing” or “life changing.”  The LeaderShape staff and community never gets tired of hearing those stories. They provide the heart to why these sessions matter. 

We would love to hear from past participants about what was most meaningful about their national session experience! If you have attended a national session, please share your thoughts in the comments below.

If you have not yet had the opportunity to attend a national session and would be interested in finding out more or if you know someone who would love this experience, please direct them to the LeaderShape website or call our office at 888-988-LEAD (5323).

#Day 7: How Do We Begin?

The world is struggling. We are struggling. Sometimes it is difficult to know just what to do amidst such turmoil. Where do we start? How do we begin?

Inner Work
What if each of us committed to the ongoing exploration of self, asking ourselves questions such as, “What do I believe? Why do I believe that?” and “What are my core values? Do I live those out in my decisions and actions?” and “Who do I want to be? How am I becoming that person?”

Dialogue
What if we all created spaces that welcomed the authentic sharing of oneself along with the commitment to listen to the stories and perspectives of others with curiosity rather than judgment?

What if?

We think we know what might happen.

We might be more deeply aware of our own beliefs.

We might become more attentive to the impact we have on others.

We might be more open to what other folks have to contribute to the conversation.

We might listen with unguarded hearts.

We might be transformed.

We believe in the power of inner work and dialogue to transform us as individuals and as communities. With enough people doing their own work and engaging in meaningful, vulnerable, brave conversations we can change our communities. We can create a just, caring, and thriving world. It can start with one such conversation, followed by another, and followed by yet another.

What kind of inner-work are you doing? How do you create space for transparent conversations? We hope you’ll tell us in the comments section.