Wheatley - Who Do We Choose To Be?: Facing Reality, Claiming Leadership, Restoring Sanity

WHO DO WE CHOOSE TO BE?

Other Books by Margaret J. Wheatley

So Far from Home: Lost and Found in Our Brave New World

Walk Out Walk On: A Learning Journey into Communities Daring to Live the Future Now, coauthored with Deborah Frieze

Perseverance

Finding Our Way: Leadership for an Uncertain Time

Turning to One Another: Simple Conversations to Restore Hope to the Future

A Simpler Way, coauthored with Myron Kellner-Rogers

Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order in a Chaotic World

How Does Raven Know? Entering Sacred World: A Meditative Memoir

FACING REALITY
CLAIMING LEADERSHIP
RESTORING SANITY

MARGARET J. WHEATLEY

Copyright 2017 by Margaret J. Wheatley

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Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.
1333 Broadway, Suite 1000
Oakland, CA 94612-1921
Tel: (510) 817-2277, Fax: (510) 817-2278
www.bkconnection.com

Ordering information for print editions

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First Edition

Paperback print edition ISBN 978-1-5230-8363-3
PDF e-book ISBN 978-1-5230-8364-0
IDPF e-book ISBN 978-1-5230-8365-7

2017-1

Production management: Michael Bass Associates.

Book design: Canace Pulfer. Cover/jacket design: Margaret Wheatley and Canace Pulfer. Cover photograph: West Temple, Zion National Park Utah by Margaret Wheatley.

Energy 1 and Energy 2 paintings, pp. 148 and 153: Phil Robbins, used with permission. All other interior photos: Margaret Wheatley. Author photo: Filiz Telek.

Dedication

For Pema Chdrn who, with pure insight and compassion, led me onto the path of warriorship and continues to guide me ever deeper

and

For the Warriors for the Human Spirit who have joined me in training so we might learn how best to serve this time

The Warriors arise when the people need protection

We dont have to wait for some grand utopian future.

The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.

Howard Zinn, historian

This world does not need more entrepreneurs.

This world does not need more technology breakthroughs.

This world needs leaders.

We need leaders who put service over self, who can be steadfast through crises and failures, who want to stay present and make a difference to the people, situations, and causes they care about.

We need leaders who are committed to serving people, who recognize what is being lost in the haste to dominate, ignore, and abuse the human spirit.

We need leaders because leadership has been debased as those who take things to scale or are first to market or dominate the competition or develop killer apps. Or hold onto power by constantly tightening their stranglehold of fear until people are left lifeless and cowering.

We need leaders now because we have failed to implement what was known to work, what would have prevented or mitigated the rise of hatred, violence, poverty, and ecological destruction. We have not failed from a lack of ideas and technologies. We have failed from a lack of will. The solutions we needed were already here.

Now it is too late. We cannot solve these global issues globally. We can see them clearly. We can understand their root causes. We have evidence of solutions that would have solved them. But we refused to compromise, to collaborate, to persevere in resolving them as an intelligent, creative species living on one precious planet.

Now its up to us, not as global leaders but as local leaders. We can lead people to create positive changes locally that make life easier and more sustainable, that create possibility in the midst of global decline.

Let us use whatever power and influence we have, working with whatever resources are already available, mobilizing the people who are with us to work for what they care about.

As President Teddy Roosevelt enjoined us:

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.

Everything Has a Beginning, a Middle, and an End

Living Systems Change in Order to Preserve Themselves

Its Better to Learn Than Be Dead

Order for Free

What You See Is All You Get

Nothing Living Lives Alone

Let your wisdom as a human being connect with the power of things as they are.

Chgyam Trungpa, Buddhist teacher

It is possible, in this time of profound disruption, for leadership to be a noble profession that contributes to the common good. It is possible, as we face the fearful complexity of life-destroying problems, to experience recurring moments of grace and joy. It is possible, as leaders of organizations, communities, and families, to discover deep and abiding satisfaction in our work if we choose not to flee or withdraw from reality.

It is possible to find a path of contribution and meaning if we turn our attention away from issues beyond our control and focus on the people around us who are yearning for good leadership and engage them in work that is within reach. It is possible to use our influence and power to create islands of sanity in the midst of a raging destructive sea.