Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Doing Well and Being Well
I was having one of those wonderful existential conversations with a friend the other day, when I heard myself saying: “The Matrix isn’t really there.” Sometimes, I really know how to pull out the geek. All the same, it was a good metaphor. The conversation was actually in reference to how we’ve learned to compartmentalize this great big thing we call “life,” creating an artificial balancing act between work, one hand, and the things which bring us joy and purpose on the other.
The idea that work is separate from those things gets my goat. This matrix isn’t really there. It’s a social construct and we have the creative capacity to change it when we’re ready to. We can find great meaning in our professional lives, which taps into new energy and unleashes creativity.The University of Chicago psychologist, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, refers to this as Flow, and in their book How Remarkable Women Lead, authors Joanna Barsh and Susie Cranston, point to flow as a cornerstone to centered leadership.
The “matrix” thinking is also a road block to systems thinking. Have you ever noticed that while the problems in our world have become increasingly complex, solutions have become increasingly narrow? In efforts to create solutions, society tries to isolate a problem, separating a single leverage point from all contributing factors. In doing so, societal issues tend to be hyped as trends and lends itself to polarization.
Definitely goes against the grain of “it takes a village.”
In a recent Huffington Post article, blogger and consultant Andrea Learned argues that women’s empathy make them natural systems thinkers, people capable of seeing “component parts of a system, not just linearly, but in the context of their relationships with each other and with other systems.” She points to Worldview Learning research that found women more likely to be systems thinkers:
“Women displayed a significantly higher level of systemic thinking in relation to leadership and communication preferences (70th percentile nationally for women, vs. 56th percentile for men). Women were also more likely to be socially optimistic and to filter data based upon authenticity than men.
Learned is making the case that by being better systems thinking women are also enabling businesses to both do well and do good, marrying the previously polarized world of profit, values, and citizenship.
Interesting, yes? Want to learn more? Then mark your calendars. Our 2010-2011 Women’s Leadership Series is ready to launch in October. All four sessions are geared at women’s creative capacity to create change. In particular, we’ll be breaking down our notions of the “matrix” and putting on our systems thinking caps as it relates to our leadership—in the community, in our families, and in our industries. I hope you’ll join us.
