1
The 7 Pillars of Visionary
Leadership: PILLAR I takes her place alongside the arts
(Visioning)
By Michael E. Rock, Ed.D.
PILLAR I: Visioning
"Doing More With More,
Unleashing a Future"
(Part 1 of 7)
Do not store up for yourselves
treasures on earth, where moth
and rust destroy, and where
thieves break in and steal. But
store up for yourselves treasures in
heaven, where moth and rust do
not destroy, and where thieves do
not break in and steal. For where
your treasure is, there your heart
will be also.
- Jesus of Nazareth
To them self-worth is net-worth.
Theirs is the currency of the fast
deal. They know nothing is
inherited that only their abilities
make the difference. They have
adventures instead of vacations,
drink Evian instead of scotch,
would rather drive a Hummer
than a Rolls Royce and prize
survival over loyalty. They worship
efficiency, and luxury is their
addiction of choice. Gregarious,
ambitious and tough, they are also
suavely international. They have
assumed the power of the church
in the middle ages, and know
there is only one timetable for
success start today or else.
Wanna be one? 1
Wanna see one?
One day, when the monk is
absorbed into the life of culture,
theology will also have been
restored and revisioned. It will be a
rich study of religions and
nonreligions, philosophies and
poetries, fictions and musics,
beliefs and unbeliefs. In my
daydreams this new theology
and sciences, and her objects of
study include culture's diet of
ritual, prayer, icon, ceremony,
architecture, holy reckoning of
time, illness, death, birth, marriage,
yearning, melancholy, meaning,
lack of meaning, history, ancestors,
values, morality, atonement, and
initiation. One day, instead of
going to a therapist, troubled or
searching people will pay a call on
their theologian to consider the
mysteries that have befallen
them2.
The history of humankind is a
history filled with people who lived
their dreams and with people who
failed to live their dreams. We
become that which we love and
we become that which we hate.
The vision (and dream) is ours. We
live out that vision and dream
each and every moment of each
and every day. We become our
vision; we become our dream. The
hand of destiny moves on
inexorably. We have, as Dr. Carl
Jung said, a particular task in life
to complete. To fail that task is to
fail life. That task is our myth, or, in
the late Joseph Campbell's sense,
our "bliss." Blessed is the person
who knows his/her own myth.
Sometimes we may have to live
our whole life to find out what our
myth is. Sometimes the insight
happens in an instance, as it did
for Paul of Tarsus almost 2,000
years ago. He saw a vision, and he
then acted on what he saw.
We cannot but en-vision. Living is
visioning. We put into life what we
envision. What we see inside we
live outside. As within, so without.
To change the vision, we have to
go within. All true change,
therefore, happens inside out.
When we change the vision, we
change ourselves, because we are
the vision.

Our vision is the field; hence, we
have "a field of vision." Our values
structure the vision. To find out
more about your personal vision,
answer the following sentence:
The purpose of my life is
Your purpose is embedded in the
very marrow of your bones. You
live it, breathe it, sleep with it. Your
purpose brings meaning to your
life. Being without a purpose is like
being without a life. Sometimes we
hear people say, "Get a life!" What
they mean is, "Have a purpose to
what you are living." They could
easily have asked, "What is your
vision?"
Let Me 'Bug' You For a Moment
Recently I had the pleasure of
seeing the movie "A Bug's Life." I
kept thinking to myself, "This is a
leadership movie!" The character,
Flick, an ant, is the one who has a
different vision from all the others
in the ant colony. Of course, as it is
so often in business, Flick is the
one 3who is 'thinking out of the
box.' He's the Don Quixote of the
boardroom! He's one who has the
vision, rather, is the vision to
transform the colony. Without
Flick, the colony is condemned to
monotony and always doing
things "the way we've always done
things." Flick is counter-routine. He
is skunkworks personified. He lives
on the 'edge' literally. He is also
the creative one. He's the one with
imagination.
He's also the one who gets booted
out of the colony because one of
his many ideas didn't work. But he
is also the one who saves and
2
liberates the colony because he
never leaves his vision. His success
is directly linked to his high EQ: his
emotional intelligence smarts. He
is adaptable, flexible. He
perseveres under incredible odds.
He believes against all the odds
against him. And he wins.
The line in the movie that stuck
out the most for me was when
Hopper, the mean head
grasshopper, says to his
subordinates, "Ideas are
dangerous." He was certainly
correct on this account.
Ideas are dangerous, especially to
those who want to maintain the
status quo, who want to lead
through fear and power. Hopper
says this to his troops because he
recognizes that if the ant colony
realized or, in our terms, had the
vision or idea that alone they were
defenceless, but united they could
overpower the grasshoppers, then
he would not be a leader after all.
What was blocking the ants from
assuming their rightful sense of
leadership was their lack of this
vision. It took a crisis to initiate a
change in their thinking, and Flick,
the banished one who never gave
up, returned and empowered
them.
The Prairie Chicken4
An American Indian legend tells
about a brave who found an
eagle's egg and put it into the nest
of a prairie chicken. The eaglet
hatched with the brood of chicks
and grew up with them.
All his life the changeling eagle,
thinking he was a prairie chicken,
did what the prairie chickens did.
He scratched in the dirt for seeds
and insects to eat. He clucked and
cackled. And he flew for a brief
thrashing of wings and flurry of
feathers no more than a few feet

off the ground. After all, that's how
prairie chickens were supposed to
fly.
Years passed and the changeling
eagle grew very old. One day, he
saw a magnificent bird far above
him in the cloudless sky. Hanging
with graceful majesty on the
powerful wind currents, it soared
with scarcely a beat of its strong
golden wings. "What a beautiful
bird!" said the changeling eagle to
his neighbour. "What is it?" he
asked. "That's an eagle, the chief
of the birds," the neighbours
clucked. "But don't give it a
second thought. You could never
be like them.
So the changeling eagle never
gave it another thought. And it
died thinking it was a prairie
chicken.
The Business Case
While "vision" is a very "soft" issue,
it is also the hardest. No less an
authority than Dr. Margaret
Wheatley, who writes on quantum
theory and leadership issues, says,
"Power in organizations is the
capacity generated by
relationships."5 That's a vision. It's
a new vision, and like new wine,
cannot be6 "poured into old
wineskins." That's why
organizations with "old visions"
often have to die off, collapse of
their own "deadness."
To know if your organization has a
generative vision, one that brings
people alive, answer the following
statement:
In my organization, the
main emphasis is on YES NO
the quality of
relationships, how they
3
are organized, and the
energy flow between
and among people.
If you answered "yes," you're on
the right track. Until the advent of
Einstein and quantum theory, the
Newtonian mindset ruled much of
the world's thinking for the past
few hundred years. In Newton's
world, "space" is empty; hence,
loneliness pervaded the human
condition. Vision has a
consequence. To get through
space, therefore, demanded a
sufficient surge of power; hence,
exhaustion pervaded the human
condition as well.
In quantum theory, however,
space is not empty. Instead, there
are invisible "fields" which
structure the universe and are
known through their effects. In
quantum theory, space is a very
busy, bustling cornucopia of
energies made up of these fields.
Dr. Wheatley asks us to think of
the universe as an ocean where
interpenetrating influences and
invisible structures connect
everything to everything else.
When we apply quantum field
theory images to organizations
and employees, a whole new
perception and vision of who we
are and how we interact comes to
the surface. We begin to realize
that invisible, yet real, images and
visions influence everything we do.
For those who say they don't
believe in "that soft stuff," they
haven't read quantum theory very
carefully, if at all. If you ask one of
these "bottom line" managers, "Do
you think there is something called
cyberspace," he/she will, of course,
answer "yes." But, stop for a
moment: Where is cyberspace?
Where is the Internet really
located? None of us can answer
that question, but we know it

exists. We live and partake in an
invisible reality!
Case example #1:7
Joan Kenley and her modulated
voice commands, for instance,
"reside" in the Meridian voice-mail
system marketed by Canada's
Nortel Networks. "It's like talking
to the ghost in the machine." In
listening to her voice, all any caller
has is a "mental image" and her
"mellifluous tone." Her voice-mail
character "is the result of finding a
kind of emotional and tonal zen."
Case example #2:8
The "invisible" reality of what I
would call "mindshare" is clearly
evident at Sheridan Nurseries Ltd.,
of Oakville, Ontario. It is now
investing in its employees.
Employees are trained in the "TLC"
-- "Think Like a Customer" --
program.
Case example #3:9
Duocom Canada Inc., of Toronto,
matches their video data
projection equipment and services
with companies and their need for
conferences. Their vision of their
business? "A meeting of minds."
Case example #4:10
At Insystems Technologies Inc., of
Markham, Ontario, CEO Michael
Egan says, "We've got what I call a
BHA -- a big, hairy, audacious
dream. ... We started to grow
organically. [It's] the ability of our
staff to understand our entire
business. ... First I had an idea,
then I had the vision and built a
business plan around that vision.
Then all I needed was the people."
Case example #5:11
4
The Financial Post, in summarizing
the 50 best companies for 1998,
remarks: "One of the hardest
things about being selected as one
of the 50 best managed
companies in Canada is to live up
to the billing. Some companies
have made the list for a second
time. The secret of their repeat
performance lies in a host of
intangibles."
The fields that "fill up" our
organizational spaces are
"constructed" by the visions and
messages of managers and
employees working in the
organization. Vision gives purpose
and direction to an organization. If
we think of vision in a linear
fashion, says Dr. Wheatley, or in a
Newtonian mechanized construct
as we have often done we will
believe the following:
The Newtonian mechanized
leader: This person "gives" us the
vision. Our job as employees is to
"flesh it out" and arrive at the
vision's "anticipated destination
mark." Doing that makes us
successful. Sometimes fear is
necessary to get everyone to "see"
the destination; other times,
incentives do the "trick."
Hence, the carrot and the stick
metaphor has a long tradition in
management literature. In the
Introduction to this The 7 Pillars
series,12 I used the following quote
by Major-General Michael
Williams, a U.S. Marine Corp.
commander from Quantico, Va.,
"Leadership is the art of having
people do what you want them to
do and go in a direction that you
set, willingly or unwillingly.
Willingly is leadership. Unwillingly
is coercion."13 This Newtonian
leadership model has often been
seen as successful. A "good"
leader is one who takes all the
"pieces" of the organization and

"puts them into shape." That's a
tough job; hence, exhaustion,
burnout, stress and death 4-7
years after retirement have been
the norm! Insurance companies
became quite clear about their
policies because they could predict
the demise of their clients so
easily!
But with quantum theory and a
field theory of vision, we can begin
to imagine an invisible geometry
of fields filling organizational
space. Fields can be very powerful,
as we know from the intensity and
pervasiveness of corporate culture
an invisible, yet powerful, force
influencing behaviour and
organizational outcomes.14
Hopper, the lead and mean
grasshopper in "A Bug's Life" was
correct: "Ideas are dangerous!"
Robert Hass, CEO of Levi Strauss &
Co., says that "conceptual
controls" are what matter: "It's the
ideas of a business that are
controlling, not some manager
with authority."15
By shifting from the linear model
of vision to a quantum theory
perspective, as some companies
and organizations are now doing
we begin to believe the following:
The field theory visionary leader:
This person "creates and nourishes
the context" for vision to flourish.
The "conceptron" becomes the
liberating energy package of life.
The visionary leader not only
believes that vision and values
inform the organization, but also,
that vision and values and ideas
must be disseminated throughout
the organization. The visionary
leader creates a conceptual
network of thinking and feeling
and communicating the vision.
There is no such "thing" as a
"vision statement." Rather,
"visioning" is everywhere, just as
5
the field is. The visionary leader is
one who creates and nourishes the
context for everyone not just
executives or managers to be
"field creators" through ongoing
conversations of employee fields
continuously interacting and filling
organizational space. Since space
is never "empty," visionary leaders
know intuitively and concretely
that organizational space needs to
be filled up with coherent and
sincere vision. Authentic vision,
integrity, and ROIR Return-on-
Integrity/Investment-in-
Relationships, become the new
"life blood" of this visionary
organization.
The Book of Proverbs states,
"Where there 16 is no vision, the
people perish." We now know
from quantum theory why this so:
If we do not participate genuinely
and authentically is creating fields
of endeavour and of enterprise, we
will be at the mercy of the invisible
forces surrounding us and
experience the dissonance of
broken living. We can only tolerate
this kind of existential dissonance
for so long before something
snaps. In a world that is now given
so many concrete answers to
questions of the spirit, is it any
wonder that suicides, alcoholism,
despair and ennui pervade our
culture.
Spiritual questions of hope, of
vision, of meaning and purpose
demand spiritual pathways and
fields. Ironically, modern quantum
physics gives the modern spiritual
doubter a spiritual answer: field
theory constructs, or "invisibles,"
or "intangibles." Theology has
spoken of this mysticism of the
universe for thousands of years.
Science is now discovering what
we have known all along in our
hearts.
The Business Question

Question: Will business "buy" this?
Answer: What other choice have
they got?
The new organizational wine
cannot be poured into old
organizational metaphors and
constructs. When it tries to do
that, it creates what psychologist
Marti Smye calls 17the 3 Fs: fear,
frustration, fatigue . The statistics
on what these 3 Fs cost the
organization and the economy are
simply overwhelming, not only in
terms of lost money and
opportunities, but especially in
broken lives. There has to be a
better way.
In the chapter on "Visioning," The
7 Pillars of Visionary Leadership
book describes this time as one of
"dead reckoning." In a reductionist
vision, control is everything.
Hence, short-term thinking and
"quarterly results" mean
everything. "Making the numbers"
becomes the altar of sacrifice. And
what a sacrifice it is and has been.
In 1994 in Canada, $300-million
was spent just on prescriptions for
depression for employees!18 In
1995, workplace accidents due to
workplace change was estimated
to be now costing Canadians $10-
billion annually!19
For me personally, the most
devastating injury to ourselves and
our nation in the 1990s has been
our myopic vision around what
constitutes work. The national
vision has mistakenly equated a
job as being the same thing as
work. They are not the same. A job
is an industrial metaphor and
construct that shaped the
manufacturing plant and, by
extension, today's workplaces. It
was a "box" of duties and
responsibilities that employees
"had" and were required to
6
"perform." As you can see, it fits
perfectly with the Newtonian
quantitative mindset. But work is
an expression of who we are. In
the Middle Ages, the great
theologian Thomas Aquinas wrote:
"To live well is to work20 well, or
display a good activity." He also
said that "despair is the most
dangerous of sins," for when
despair takes over "all kinds of
wickedness follow."21 We are
seeing a lot of that now in the
tremendous social and economic
costs, as well as the lost
opportunities for people to belong
to the human project of living a
worthy life. The "top line" does
matter for it is more inclusive than
a "bottom line" with its number
crunching mentalities. The top line
includes vision, right brain
(intuition) and left brain (analysis);
but, most important, it provides
hope and asks people and
employees to live out their
vocation to be the best they can
be. We can make new choices with
new visions. We can "do more with
more" and truly unleash a future
worth going to.
If the Newtonian mindset and
vision "divided us up," the new
quantum mindset and vision
reconnects us, to one another and
to the world around us. Our real
crisis will be if we do not have
what it takes to be connected
effectively: through
communication, love and
compassion. At a time when the
world is "going global," many
individual countries and territories
(witness Québec) are
disconnecting! I believe it is not
coincidence that the topics of (a)
spirituality in the workplace and
(b) emotional intelligence loom so
large in society today. We are all
looking for meaning and heart.
The basics.

Is There A Business Payoff?
Although there are numerous case
examples available today of
organizations who aim for the top
line and have very robust profits,
one of the most remarkable
studies to highlight what The 7
Pillars describes as ROIR (Return-
on-Integrity/Investment-in-
Relationship) was done at
Michigan State University and the
Department of Management and
Organizations at the University of
Iowa. Researchers compared the
top 1%, or high performers, with
average employees and with the
bottom 1%, or low performers, on
three job categories: low
complexity jobs (e.g., frontline
workers in a fast-food restaurant),
medium complexity jobs (e.g.,
production workers in a high-tech
factory), and high complexity jobs
(e.g., an associate in an investment
bank). The research results?
The top 1% of performers
outperformed average performers
in the same category (low,
medium, high) by 52%, 85%, even
127%! Comparing the top 1% with
the bottom 1% ("the slackers" or,
as one senior vice-president told
us, people who have quit but
haven't left the company)
indicated 300% more productivity
on the part of those at the top in
low-complexity jobs, 1,200% more
productivity in medium-complexity
work, and the-sky's-the limit
productivity with the top 1% who
have high-complexity jobs.22
The Need for Good Work
We need to reinvent work. We
need a new vision. The following
story, for me, is the best
illustration of this need.
To Work or Not to Work!
That Is the Question!23
7
There is a wonderful story about a
man who woke up one day and
found himself in a place where all
his needs were met. He didn't lack
for anything. He had all the right
food, the great creature comforts
of life. Anything he wanted he
could have. All went well with him
until one day he realized there was
something more he wanted. He
wanted to do something besides
just taking in so much all the time.
He was bored being waited upon
and being served.
Finally, one day when he was really
fed up, he called to the head
waiter and said, "I am bored. You
are very gracious to me here. I
have everything I want. I lack for
nothing. But I am still bored. I want
to do something. I want to work,
to feel that I too can contribute
something." The waiter replied,
"But, sir, we can do everything for
you, but we cannot fix it so you
can work. That's the way things are
around here. You have to be
satisfied with having the best of
everything and being waited upon
day and night and not wanting or
craving anything, except your
desire to work."
The man became still, his face fell,
and he despaired. "I appreciate
everything you're doing for me
here, but if I can't contribute by
working too, not just being served
all the time, that'll just be hell for
me."
"But, sir," said the waiter, "you are
in hell."
Summary
Tom Cochrane, the Canadian
singer/songwriter who's sold
millions of records and won
countless awards, is a veteran of
the Canadian rock 'n' roll
campaigns of the 1980s and '90s.

He toured relentlessly for the best
part of 20 years, and earned the
kudos of critics around the world.
Perhaps he speaks for all of us
when he says, from his home in
Oakville, Ontario, that success is
"being able to make a living,
supporting your family by doing
what you love ... avoid[ing]
cynicism, ... be[ing] patient.
Impatience can make you
desperate, and desperation forces
compromise. If you compromise
your integrity, you've lost it all."24
Professor Stephen Ralls, director of
the opera division at the University
of Toronto's faculty of music, says,
"The touchstones of a successful
career in opera are self-
confidence, the concrete
possession of a good voice,
stamina, the ability to withstand
rejection and failure, the
conviction to make your career
work, and the ability to get on with
people."24
Should it be any different with our
vision for doing business?
Finally, I believe also that when we
experience laughter again in our
lives and in our workplaces, we will
have left behind the intellectual
fascism of political correctness. We
will have allowed joy and surprise
back into our lives and workplaces.
Dr. Wheatley remarks, "Were we to
become truly good scientists of
our craft, we would seek out
surprises, relishing the
unpredictable when it finally
decided to reveal itself to us.
Surprise is the only route to
discovery, the only path we can
take if we're to search out the
important principles that can
govern our work."25
When the day arrives, as surely it
must, when we become those
"good scientists of our craft," we
will have the new wineskins for our
8
new vision. We will then, as Pierre
Teilhard de Chardin, once
remarked, discover fire for the
second time.26
PILLAR II: Mapping
"Globalizing the Mind:
Charting a Future"
(Part 2 of 7)
We are marching towards a more
liberated society in which free
creativity will coexist with
interpretation of already written
texts. Okay, I like this. But we
mustn't say we have substituted an
old thing with another one. We
can have both, thank God. TV-
zapping is a kind of activity that
has nothing to do with watching a
movie. A hypertextual device that
allows us to create new texts has
nothing to do with our ability to
interpret pre-existing1 texts.
- Umberto Eco
"The British created a civil service
job in 1803 calling for a man to
stand on the Cliffs of Dover with a
spyglass. He was supposed to ring
a bell if he saw Napoleon coming.
The job was abolished in 21945."
- Robert Townsend
Canada Post's deep thinkers might
want to hire King Canute as their
advertising agency. The English
king achieved fame when he
demonstrated the limitations of his
power by showing that, even if he
commanded it, he couldn't keep
the tide from rolling in. A
technological tide is rolling in over
Canada Post. It is called E-mail.
The number of electronic missives
is today in the gazillion range.
- Editor, The Globe and Mail3
Life is a journey. Any journey
begins with a vision conscious or
otherwise of what the potential
path will look like. There is a age-
old sequence of step that I have

called archetypal images that is
built within us by Life that getsus
to first envision who we are (Pillar
I) and then guides us from within
to activate and structure that
vision (Pillar II).
Mapping is that instinct in each of
us that wants to ground our
images, our visions of who we are
and what we will become.
Mapping, so to speak, puts flesh
and bones on our hopes, wishes,
dreams our vision. Mapping
scopes out and sculpts the path
we need to take; it prepares the
way for the Journey (Pillar III).
We become aimless without a
map. There is an adage in
management that "those who fail
to plan, plan to fail."
For too long now, the map used
by business has been a strategic
one, one of quantification and
measurement. I am not suggesting
that we abandon that kind of map
or plan altogether. What we realize
in the new economy is that we
also need a discovery map, a plan
that doesn't lock us in so tightly.
"The best laid plans of mice and
men" often go awry in today's
world.
Thus, we have to rethink what the
map is. The map is never the
territory. Too often we have
equated both realities a locked-in
position that allowed us no room
to breathe or move or change with
circumstances.
A map cast in concrete has forced
many companies to go out of
business, to become obsolete.
Obsolescence may be the biggest
business threat today. A product
or service obsolescence is but the
physical manifestation of a
previous inner thinking
obsolescence4. As we saw from the
9
opening quotes, featherbedding,
or holding on to a job long after
its usefulness, was alive and well
for the British civil service. The
map that was needed in 1803 still
held its attraction until 1945!
Likewise today, Canada's Post
Office is trying to reinvent itself,
that is, design a new map. The
problem is that they think "snail
mail," elegantly repackaged with a
new $7- to $10-million advertising
budget, will win back letter-writing
E-mailers who have discovered
that e-mail costs nothing, never
goes on strike, doesn't need
stamps, and is instant.
King Canute can be a potent
reality check for those still locked
into the old thinking who believe
that the old map will always work.
William Pitt (1759-1806), on
hearing the news of the Battle of
Austerlitz, December 1805,
remarked, "Roll up that map, it 5will
not be wanted these ten years."
Many people today are walking
around with "cartographic
fallacies" in their minds. They are
using the wrong map to navigate a
future that is very different than
anything they have been used to.
Let me quote from my own book
The 7 6Pillars of Visionary
Leadership :
Your "mental map" is shaped by
your vision. In turn it helps you
reach for your aspirations. But
today our industrial-era road map
is in decline. Its hulking, rusting
smokestacks no longer correspond
with today's knowledge economy.
And its highly defended borders
are irrelevant, as we move into a
borderless world. A view of the
earth from space shows no
borders. Neither should our
mental maps.
 10

The ancient organization mental design and plan your business as

map was easy to understand. It one of railroads, you build a dead-
consisted of those who "slayed," end because the jet plane can take
and those who slaved. In our you and your goods more quickly
industrial-era organizations we to your destination. What CN
created a somewhat more realized was that they were in "the
complex map of functional silos, communications business." So the
what author Peter Block calls the vision, so the map; sow the vision,
ideal structure for command7. sow the map.
Inside these functional silos or
chimneys, employees have been Let's do an organizational check.
trained for years to compete Think of the organization you work
against one another rather than in. Estimate fairlyand honestly your
look outward to their external answer to the following seven (7)
competition. questions. Use the scale below
tomake your choice:
Like their rusting smokestacks,
they remain a barrier to change. 1. = To a very little extent
2. = To a little extent
And change we must because we 3. = To some extent
need to develop open thinking to 4. = To a great extent
respond to a borderless economic 5. = To a very great extent
map. The new mental map will be
an open systems model that will
enable us to reach out and receive The organization I work for ...
ideas and insights from anywhere.
The new mental map is less about
borders and individualism and Item Item My
more about connectedness and No. Score
the process of work and Always finds new and
relationships in the international 1 creative ways to do
marketplace. things.
Has the depth of its
Many think that McDonald's convictions to
perhaps is in the hamburger 2 genuinely manage
business, that that focus is their change.
map. I humbly submit that they
are in the convenience business 3 Develops shared
and, by the way, use hamburgers organizational goals.
to sell their message. The Knows what to do to
"convenience map" is very 4 make effective
different from the "hamburger changes.
map." While unlikely, people's Clearly has "leading
taste could shift from eating 5 edge" thinking.
hamburgers; but,in today's society,
convenience will always win hands Invents exciting new
down. We are a culture of 6 ways to invent the
convenience. Canadian National future.
Railways thought their map was Thinks "out of the
"the railroad business." They 7 box."
almost went out of business with TOTAL
that map. Why? Because of the jet
airplane. When you structure and Interpretation:

If you scored 32-35: You're
working well with the new map,
the new thinking.
If you scored 28-31: You're doing
all right, but need to improve.
If you scored 25-27: You definitely
need to take stock right now.
If you scored 0-24: You are, or will
be, in trouble.
There is an old saying that if you
want a garden, then be a
gardener. It makes no sense sitting
back and hoping that your vision
will come true. You and I need to
structure that vision somehow, put
it into reality. Mapping in today's
world means globalizing our
minds and this means charting a
future for ourselves. Since maps
have the power to shape our
imaginations, ask yourself: "What
map acts as a powerful catalyst
inside me to shape the events in
my life? The events in my
organization? The events in my
city? Province or state? Country?"
Selected Case Examples
1. Geeks and Execs: Bridging the
Maps8
The story of the Tower of Babel
from the bible is very well known:
"The people who lived there
(Babylon) began to talk about
building a great city, with a
temple-tower reaching to the skies
-- a proud,9 eternal monument to
themselves. " The biblical story
says that God destroyed the Tower
because people were building it
for their honour, not for God's.
They wanted to make a name for
themselves. It was their motivation
that was wrong. What follows is
quite interesting to ponder for our
purpose of understanding the idea
of a shared map: "The Lord said, 'If
as one people speaking the same
language they have begun to do
this, then nothing they plan to do
11
will be impossible for them. Come,
let us go down and give them
different languages [italics mine]
so that they won't10 understand
each other's words."
The biblical author says two things:
(a) The people's motivation was all
wrong; (b) The people were just
beginning to learn how to exploit
their linguistic and political unity.
God's solution? Confuse them!
When they became confused, they
couldn't complete the work; they
had to stop building the city, and
were scattered across the globe.11
If we take the computer industry,
as an example, I think it's fair to
say that it has created its own
dysfunctional 'Tower' with its many
products that are often
incompatible with other systems,
etc. Because of this fractured map
-- some would say because of the
mentality of greed that pushes a
manufacturer to build
incompatible parts -- the
consumer ends up paying for this,
as well as being confused and
frustrated. And so we have ended
up with 'specialists' who 'speak IT'
and the rest of us who fumble
around as best we can. Because
the IT map is so essential now to
our own computing needs, we
have to spend money if our
machine or system breaks down
because we don't know that
esoteric language.
Thus, we have the technologists
and the technologically unwashed.
In many companies today, we have
what I would call "map gaps," not
only around IT issues, but also
around reorganizational ones as
well. Prof. Les Wanninger, a faculty
member at the University of
Minnesota's Carlson School of
Management, says the solution to
the 'geek gap' is diligence about
communication and, I would add,

an ethic of respect for the different
maps that people carry around in
their heads.
Once again the importance of
emotional intelligence and EQ
(emotional quotient) is critical.
Multi-Health Systems Inc. (MHS), a
leading test publishing company
and owners of the world rights to
the BarOn EQ-i, the world's first
scientific measure of emotional
intelligence, recently tested (1998)
the emotional intelligence of 104
information technology specialists
using the BarOn EQ-i.
The groups surveyed included
systems analysts, technical support
specialists, MIS, network
administrators, systems analysts,
and programmers. Interesting
trends were detected. With an
average EQ score of 97.512, IT
people were found to have a lower
overall EQ than most groups that
have been examined (e.g., human
resources professionals tested had
an average EQ of 110). Among the
IT groups, the highest EQ went to
the technical support specialists
[113], and the lowest was scored
by programmers [92]. The MIS
group was 13 the second highest
scorers [110].
The message is clear: not only do
we need a new shared map, but
we also need well-developed EQ,
or emotional smarts, to build that
map. Otherwise, like the ancient
Tower of Babel, we will find, at
best, that nothing gets done or, at
worst, we end up with
interpersonal and financial warfare.
That's the recipe for potential
bankruptcy, lower profits,and
huge, costly stress-related
illnesses.
2. 'Fat'14and 'Lean' Maps and Flying
Planes
12
If you're the best in the world at
making airplanes and everyone is
using your corporate map to
navigate, so to speak, when it
comes to buying these planes,
what do you do when sales don't
materialize the way they once did?
That's exactly what happened to
the U.S. aerospace industry at the
end of the Cold War. Where
before the 'fat map' fostered a
mentality that "bigger and more
complicated was better," now the
new mantra is "simplify, simplify,
simplify." A radical shift to a new
map -- a new way of doing things
--has taken place.
The concept of 'lean' production
swept North America in the 1980s
and early '90s.
The concept of 'lean' is hardly lean
itself these days: It's been saddled
with mounds of mumbo-jumbo.
But at its heart, it's simple. It
involves mapping out all the steps
it takes to produce a product and
trying to eliminate those that add
no value. That includes such things
as storing an item in inventory, or
keeping it waiting on an assembly
line for a machine to become
available.
To address this need for a new
'lean map,' MIT (Massachusetts
Institute of Technology) put
together a consortium called the
Lean Aerospace Initiative. The
group studied how lean practices
could be applied to aid the
aerospace business amid such
tumultuous changes as we have
today.
The results of the new mapping?
Chris Cool, vice-president of lean
integration for Dallas - based
Northrop Grumman, holds 'lean
events' throughout the year at his
company. One of their products is

the wing for the Gulfstream V
business jet. Ron Vuz, its program
manager, points out that work
flows much more steadily from
one end of the building to the
other. A year ago it took 250
Northrop Gumman employees
eight days to make a wing; now it
takes91 workers just nine days to
do the same thing. Worker
acceptance through reassignments
became part of the new map as
well. The unions were promised
that no workers would be laid off
in the process. To get executives
on board with the new map, the
company based 35% of their
compensation on meeting the
goals of new lower costs and
higher production targets.
Was switching to a new map
difficult? For some it was. For
those workers used to procedures,
forms, and the bureaucracy of
doing things the old 'fat way', the
'leanness map' redefined their
jobs. Chris Cool said that the old
map was "their identity."
The lesson for us: oftentimes we
don't have a choice. We can live
with an old map and never get to
where were supposed to, or we
can learn to become familiar with
a new map. Like the Israelites
before us 4,000 years ago, we
must make the decision to rethink,
relearn, and eventually, rejoice in
the freedom of the new promised
land.
3. 'Brain Drains' and Maps15
James Gosling is a Canadian
turned Californian and a very
bright person. He has a Ph.D. in
computer science from Carnegie-
Mellon University in Pittsburgh. He
did his undergraduate degree at
the University of Calgary in 1977.
13
Why is all this important? Because
he is Canada's loss, even though
he's the computer world's gain. He
left Canada in the late 1970s
because Canada didn't have a
thinking map that would take risks,
foster innovation, and reward
excellence. David Crane,
economist - writer for The Toronto
Star, has long complained of this
lack of vision and map on
Canada's part16. Gosling casually
says, "The kind of stuff I was
interested in doing and had been
trained to do really wasn't being
done here [in Canada]."
What is Gosling now famous for?
The industry-shaking JAVA
computer language!
He says that when he was 22,
Canada's high-tech industry wasn't
worth sticking around for. In The 7
Pillars context, that's like saying
that Canada psychologically and
spiritually and intellectually didn't
have a map innovative enough to
appreciate who he was.
Technology reporter Tyler
Hamilton writes, "This country
treated him as the Canadian-born
guy who had to go south to do
something neat."
The lesson for us and the new
map? Gosling says, "The real
payoffs you never understand. You
should just give good people
money and tell them to do good
things."
Conclusion
Let me conclude these thoughts
on mapping by highlighting a
study that my colleague and co-
author, Dr. Michael Cox, did. He
researched 250 companies in the
province of Ontario to try to
identify if there was a direct
connection between attitudinal
mindset or map its readiness to

perform in a borderless economy
and organizational performance.
Only 12 percent of those 250 firms
had evolved their organizational
vision to the geocentric
perspective. The remainder of the
firms ... still had ethnocentric or
regiocentric maps. Organizations
with a geocentric or global vision
achieved a minimum of 66 percent
of their sales from international
markets because the vision and
attitudes at the top had led to
theimplementation of strategic
decisions to support a global
capability. Firms without a global
vision saw the world through
limited windows of opportunity
and achieved little or no success in
international markets. This kind of
bordered thinking doesn't prepare
an organization to respond to
external threats in a brutal global
economy.17
We have the maps we believe will
get us to where we think we
should go, personally,
professionally, organizationally. In
that sense, we have the maps we
deserve. We also have the
consequences of those mental
maps. If the map is outdated what
I called above "a cartographic
fallacy" we have outdated
consequences; they are no
consequence. We, therefore, don't
get the results we hope for. On the
other hand, if we allow ourselves
to change, be open to change
which, from an adult educator's
point of view means to be open to
learn then we can begin to
develop a new map, one that will
have consequences and results
worth cherishing.
The choice is ours. Like strategic
moments for people in the past,
the right choice can mean survival.
Welcome to map making!
14
PILLAR IIl: Journeying
"Parting the Mindsets : Sharing a
Future"
(Part 3 of 7)
"I can't adjust the wind against the
sails. I just have to make sure the
sails are set." - M.Douglas Ivester,
CEO of Coca Cola Inc. 1. "King
Tamatoa realized that there came
a time on any voyage when a man
and hiscanoe had to trust the gods
and to run forward, satisfied that
the sails had been well setand the
course adhered to whenever
possible; but when all precautions
failed to discloseknown marks, it
was obligatory to ride the storm." -
James A. Michener, Hawaii2
"Intellectual capital is useless
unless it moves. It's no good
having some guy who is verywise
and sits alone in a room." -- Hugh
Macdonald3
"Knowledge has become the
primary ingredient of what we
make, do, buy, and sell. As aresult,
managing it finding and growing
intellectual capital, storing it,
selling it, sharingit has become the
most important economic task of
individuals, businesses,
andnations." - Thomas A. Stewart,
writer with Fortune magazine4
"If R&D investment begins to
surpass capital investment the
corporation could be said tobe
shifting from being a place for
production to being a place for
thinking." - FumioKodama,
professor of innovation policy 5at
Saitama University near Tokyo
Journey. The word speaks volumes
to people all over the world.: we
beginjourneys; the journey of a
1,000 miles begins with the first
step; we must go on ajourney;
when did you get back from your
journey? where did your journey

takeyou? this is the end of the
journey; the motel chain "Journey's
End."
To go on a journey often signals
the time to begin a new phase of
one's life. I haveheard executives
and managers say at the end of
the 1990s' recession: "That was
quitea journey."
Journeys signal crossroads.
Journeys signal pilgrimage. "The
archetype of the journeyalways
includes a crossroads. One has to
choose a path, either to the left or
to the right.The journey moment is
a decision moment." 6
In today's turbulent world of
constant change and globalization,
the theme of journey isparticularly
important to organizations. As we
saw in Pillars I and II, when the
vision ismapped out, the decision
to get on the road begins. In
ancient Greek times, a people and respect for people."
personaljourney like this was often
referred to as the hero's journey
the discovery of oneself,such as
the journey Odysseus made, as
recounted in Homer's Odyssey.
Every hero goes into the
"underworld"; every hero "dies" to
the past and looks to thefuture;
every hero attains a new "identity."
A most profound change and
transformationtakes place. The
hero's journey radically transforms.
One is not the same person
asbefore at the end of the journey.
Even though one has the vision
and the map, thejourney takes one
through unknown territory.
What does the new corporate
journey look like today? Scott
Chate is communicationsleader at
Calgary, Alberta's TransCanada
Pipelines. He says, "Business is
increasinglybecoming an ongoing
conversation about what to do
and how to do things. The ability
15
tofacilitate those conversations is
an important aspect of what
people these days arecalling
knowledge-sharing."
Conversation is a very different
journey for executives than what
they're used to. Twentyyears ago,
executives might have imagined
the corporate journey as one of
"gettingthings done," "getting
problems solved," "making
decisions," "keeping track of
inventory,""maintaining the
books," etc.
"But conversation?" you might be
saying to yourself. "We never
studied that in businessschool."
Hewlett-Packard's Dan Branda, in
commenting on H-P's new
journey, says,"Our job is to set an
environment that allows risk
taking, creative thinking,
continuousprocess flow, trust 8 in
Just as it was for the ancients,
today's journey will involve
discovery. Discovery can
onlyhappen while one is on the
journey. Organizations are
struggling today to know
whichdirection to go in. They also
wonder if they can sustain
themselves on this new
journey.Antoine de St-Exup‚ry,
author of The Little Prince (Le Petit
Prince), said that he knew ofonly
one freedom, and that was the
freedom of the mind. In today's
new globaleconomy, the
competitive edge is surely with
those who have "intellectual
capital." Aswe saw in Pillar I
(Visioning), today's new journey
involves "managing the
intangibles"(relationships, context)
more than ever. At Necho Systems
Corp., the question TomDaniel
asks is, "How do younger, smaller
software companies compete with
companiesthat can dazzle

prospective workers with larger
budgets?" and his answer includes
"acombination of prudent
investment in employees and a
focus on a variety of intangiblesto
create an atmosphere that attracts
high-quality people and
encourages loyalty." 11
What companies are now
discovering in the age of the
"conversational journey"
soessential to corporate success, is
that IQ alone doesn't cut it
anymore. As my articleshave been
emphasizing repeatedly, EQ
emotional quotient or EI --
emotionalintelligence is central.
Chemical Bank, in the U.S., is one
such company stressing
theimportance of EQ and "the
intangibles" as the fuel for the new
corporate journey: At Chemical
Bank, Ernest Pelli's bosses
suggested he polish these
veryskills. So, late on a Thursday
night in Manhattan, Pelli, 32,
attends a DaleCarnegie class,
explaining to classmates that he is
there "to practiceshowing interest
in other people." Trained as an
accountant, he rates histechnical
skills as very good. But Chemical
wanted him to work on
"theintangibles" -- the people
skills required of managers.
"Especially inaccounting," he
explains, "you see a lot of people
who are interested onlyin the
technical aspect." When, for
example, the bank values an asset
oneway and the client another, a
lack of EQ skills can make
discussions "morecontentious than
they need to be." 12
In 1994, Alan Webber, former
editorial director of the Harvard
Business Review, andnow founding
editor of Fast Company, posed the
following question: "What's so
newabout the new economy?"
Author Don Tapscott, who wrote
16
The Digital Economy, has
awonderful reply to the question:
"I ... noted that Webber's question
is reminiscent of thetime Albert
Einstein was monitoring an exam
for graduate physics students and
was toldthere was a problem
because the questions on the
exam were the same as the
previousyear's test. 'That's okay,'
he replied, 'the answers are
different this year'." And
thisanswer explains why all
organizations, in order to survive,
have to be on the newjourney.
Tapscott then goes on to highlight
a quote from Wired magazine's
Kevin Kellywho, in speaking of the
new journey and the centrality of
the intangibles, writes:
"Theprinciples governing the
world of the soft -- the world of
intangibles, of media, ofsoftware,
and of services -- will soon
command the world of the hard --
the world ofreality, of atoms, of
objects, of steel and oil, and the
hard work done by the sweat
ofbrows." 14
QUESTION: "Are We Prepared for
This New Journey?"
Let's do an organizational check.
Think of the organization you work
in. Estimate fairlyand honestly your
answer to the following seven (7)
questions. Use the scale below
tomake your choice:
1. = To a very little extent
2. = To a little extent
3. = To some extent
4. = To a great extent
5. = To a very great extent
The organization I work for ....
Item Item My
No. Score
1 Celebrates people's
 17

accomplishments. companies in Canada,it wrote the

following: "One of the hardest
Follows through on things about being selected as one
2 well-thought-out of the 50best managed companies
plans in Canada is to live up to the
Effectively meets billing. Some companies
3 challenges as they havemade the list for a second
occur. time. The secret of their repeat
performance lies in a host
Knows what to do to ofintangibles." In reviewing
4 make effective selected companies from the list
changes. and searching for theintangibles,
Is well along the way the following ideas kept
5 to organizational appearing. Pay particular attention
health. to theextraordinary emphasis that
EQ plays for success on the new
Has a clear focus on journey.
6 what its priorities
are.  "TLC" Think Like a Customer
Is building a future program
7 worth going to.  Innovative ideas and
products
Interpretation:  Creating products and
services no one else has
If you scored 32-35:You're well on  Delivering in ways others
the new journey.If you scored 28- haven't
31:You're doing all right, but need  Knowing your customers,
to improve.If you scored 25- your market, and your
27:You definitely need to take employees better than
stock right now.If you scored 0-24: anyone else
You're are, or will be, in trouble.  Realizing that business is
100% people
Stan Davis and Christopher Meyer,  Dedication to quality
authors of Blur: The Speed of relationships starting at top
Change in theConnected levels
Economy, write that "the  Emphasis on human
capitalization of the individual" will problem solving
be the newcurrency and itemize  Having well-trained
the following factors as important employees
for this new journey:  Exercising the imagination
and seeing the success of
 Start colouring outside the results
lines.  Policies of promoting from
 Blur the division between within
work and personal life.  Taking care of and
 Seek novelty forever. motivating employees
 Sell your value on the web.  Having BHA: a big hairy,
 Let the market, not the audacious dream
company, determine your  Understanding the entire
worth. business
 Creating a high-performance
In 1998, when The Financial Post work culture
chose "The 50 Best" managed

Necessary Preparations for the
New Journey
The 7 Pillars of Visionary
Leadership discusses the following
eight things that areabsolutely
necessary for this new journey.
These eight symbolic items form
the newcompass that will guide us
safely along the path.
1. Body: Symbolically this
means that we must have
substance, a sense of who
weare. When people refer to
others as "shallow," they
usually mean "there is not
muchto them." People with
"body" are people who have
depth, character. Similarly
with thecorporate body,
unless an organization has
body, character, depth, it will
not lastlong. An example of
a company that "has body"
is Canadian Occidental
PetroleumLtd. of Calgary,
Alberta. When CanOxy does
business internationally, it
works from acode of
international business ethics
that bars employees from
paying bribes toforeign
officials. It has character.
"The code is sufficiently strict
that in some casesCanOxy
has lost business because it
refused to get involved with
partners known tohave paid
bribes in the past." CanOxy is
in step with the new Bill S-
21, whichcements Canada's
commitment to an anti-
bribery treaty negotiated in
1997 bymembers of the
Organization for Economic
Co-operation and
Development.Canadian
executives who violate the
new law could end up in jail
for five years.Other Canadian
companies with "body" and
character include such
18
notables asAlcan Aluminum
Ltd., General Electric Co.'s
Canadian affiliates, Northern
TelecomLtd., Ontario Hydro,
Shell Canada Ltd., and
Talisman Energy Inc. Peter
Eigen,founder of
Transparency International in
Berlin reminds us that
"having little body"
ininternational business
dealings is akin to being
seduced by corruption. It
hurtseveryone, making
poverty more intense,
distorting social and
economic developmentand
eroding the provision of
public service.
2. Alms bowl: Symbolically this
means having an attitude of
receptivity, of openness
tolife and opportunity. I
remind my students that in
the new economy they need
tobecome "opportunity
employees." We need to be
schooled in what Horace the
Latinpoet wrote when he
called his poem "Carpe
Diem" "Seize the Day." "Grab
theMoment." But that means
we must be open to
newness. The Institute for
Researchon Learning (or IRL),
in Palo Alto, California, was
founded in 1987. It's a
researchspinoff group of
Xerox's Palo Alto Research
Centre. Their mission is to
study howpeople learn.
What they discovered is that
learning is a social activity. In
otherwords, learning
happens in groups. This is a
very remarkable research
findingbecause it means that
our symbolic "alms bowl" --
or attitude of openness,
ofhumility, that I don't know
everything -- is more
necessary today than ever
beforebecause of the
Information Age. I submit

that one of the major
corporaterealignments and
adjustments is to the priority
of the big picture of well-
being, whatThe 7 Pillars calls
"the top line": people, pride,
and profits and in that order.
3. Star: Symbolically this
means having the correct
compass for this new
journey. Inmodern corporate
terms, the star is the centred
organization that 21is guided
by its corevalues. CanOxy
(mentioned above) is such a
company with its 10-page
handbookdetailing its
corporate values, including a
section dealing with
improper payments.Roger
Sant and Dennis Bakke
founded the now-giant AES
Corporation in 1981. In
arecent interview, Sant
remarked, "Empowerment
without values isn't
empowerment,"says Sant.
"It's just technique." Author
Suzy Wetlaufer, writing in
the HarvardBusiness Review
for January/February 1999,
writes, "When they founded
AES in1981, Sant and Bakke
set out to create a company
where people could
haveengaging experiences
on a daily basis -- a
company that embodied the
principles offairness,
integrity, social
responsibility, and fun.
Putting those principles into
actionhas created something
unique -- an ecosystem of
real empowerment."
4. Mirror: Symbolically this
means having the ability to
look at ourselves in the
mirror.We do this by
checking our motivations
and the geography of our
inner road. Forsome
companies, it means holding
an executive retreat; for
19
others, it is making a360
degree development
feedback process integral to
the organization. A case in
point isRoyal Bank's venture
into loaning money for so-
called microenterprises in
AtlanticCanada.22 The loans
are small- $5,000 or less -
and go to fund day-care
centres,corner stores and
crafts producers. And it's
limited to women only. Call
it Canada'sfirst major
microcredit program for
women. Executive Nancy
Barry, a Harvard MBA,once
worked at the World Bank
and is now president of
Women's World Banking.She
works out of a small office in
central Manhattan. She
found the model to help
setup these micro lending
loans projects. She believes
it can help depressed
regionssuch as Nova Scotia's
Cape Breton wean
themselves from perpetual
governmentaid. Her network
now has 200,000 women
clients; she hopes to reach
10 million by2008. She finds
much of her inspiration by
taking her staff on retreats to
poor regionsaround the
world: Chile, Dominican
Republic, and especially
Bangladesh,
wheremicrolending had its
start. "With American
candour and Wall Street
smarts, she istrying to whip
the global microcredit
movement into shape." It
was on one suchretreat with
her affiliates in Ahmedabad,
India where The Globe and
Mail's JohnStackhouse
interviewed her. Retreats
such as these allow Ms.
Small to assess whatshe
must truly do.

5. Apple Corer: Symbolically
this means peeling off the
layers of stuff that keep
usfrom knowing about and
relishing the centre of who
we are. It's an experience
ofgetting to the core, getting
back to basics, getting back
"to the knitting," as
TomPeters would say. The
1990s has seen a means judgment, judgment,
tremendous amount of this
experience indownsizing,
delayering, dehirings. If done
well, and for the right
purpose, it brings lifeback
into the body, the
organization. If done poorly,
it hurts and
maimsunnecessarily. Lynn
Anderson, enterprise
marketing manager for
Hewlett-Packard(Canada)
Ltd., says if you delayer for
the wrong reasons, you will
be guiding yourbusiness by
the past, not by the future.
At the end of the day, you
should instead besaying:
"What do I need to do?"
With too much pruning, the
workers left behind
aresimply too overworked.
Studies are now showing the
negative impact
thatmishandling the apple
corer is causing: "Depression
costs Canadian and
U.S.businesses about $60
billion per year in
productivity losses, disability
costs, wagereplacements
and product and service
quality and other costs not
directly related tohealth
care." Author Don Tapscott
remarks, "Mental health is
good business.
amconvinced that
organizations which pay
attention to the mental
health of their peopleare
better able to compete in
the new economy. The
20
reason is simple -- this is
aknowledge-based
economy. Is the problem
technology? I'd argue no. It's
nottechnology that designs
organizations or firms or
business processes or
systems orwork or families
or societies. It's people." 26
6. Sword: Symbolically this
judgment. It is the keen
edgeof discriminating
insight. How many times do
we hear executives,
presidents, primeministers
say that what they did was
"an error in judgment." We
also read aboutcompanies
"on the cutting edge." In the
Information Age, and in a
knowledgeeconomy, the
sword of discrimination is
people. Today's sword is
intellectual capital:human,
structural, and customer
capital. Today's sword-like
company is a
"smartcompany." Smart
companies honour
intelligence and thinking.
Since we now knowthat IQ
or mental intelligence
accounts for only 2-6% of
life's success and thatEQ or
emotional intelligence
accounts for up to 47% of
life's success,
smartcompanies invest in
their people. People are
assets, not costs. One
example of verybad
judgment which ended up in
court was the case in Calgary
a few years agoof Boothman
v. Canada. It seems that a
certain manager named
I Tomas was aliaison officer in
a federal government
department. Lorraine was
the employee inquestion.
She was also very nervous
during her initial interview.
She started her firstday at

the office by Tomas telling
her that he thought her lack
of eye contactsuggested that
she had a lot of guilt and
would probably need time
off for mentalreasons! The
rest of the story goes
downhill from there. In
subsequent
encounters,Tomas acted as a
bully, hassler, and abuser. He
would yell profanities at
her,threaten her with
violence, and one time
ripped the ribbons out of her
typewriter andthrew them
over her shoulder because,
he said, he didn't like that
type of ribbon. Itstates in the
court records that he told his
boss the following: "I cannot
bear muchmore of this
before I will wring her neck
gently, between my hands,
until all life hasceased." 27
This is a corporate example
of one person, Tomas, using
the sword forbad ends to cut
and maim another person, in
this case, his employee.
7. Notebook: Symbolically this
means executing the details,
having careful, detailednotes
and record keeping. The
centuries-old expression
"The devil is in the
details"comes into play here.
Ironically, in today's
corporate environment, we
literally havenotebooks. Item
#6 on Fortune magazine's
"What's Your EQ at Work?"
asks, " I'morganized28 and
careful in my work." The
"notebook," "emotional
intelligence," and
"attentiveness to details"
work together. Thomas H.
Huxley, British biologist and
educator (1825-1895), once
said, "Perhaps the most
valuable result of all
educationis the ability to
make yourself do the things
21
you have to do, when it
ought to be done,whether
you like it or not. It is the
first lesson that ought to be
learned." One suchcompany
that, in spite of its name
change, is sticking to its
traditions, is Captain
HighLiner, now High Liner
Foods Inc., of Lunenburg,
N.S. This company has to
reinventitself, but in doing
so, "company president
Henry Demone wants it
known that theformer
money-losing fishing giant is
now a profitable food
processing operation. Buthe
is careful not to stray too far
from its Bluenose roots --
the venerable Captain
HighLiner features
prominently on the
advertising logo." 29 For High
Liner Foods, obviously their
"notebook," their
"attentiveness to executing
the details" has to include
"its Bluenose roots," no
matter what changes occur.
To verify this, we could say
"Plus çachange...," "The more
things change..." Says
Demone, ""Years ago we
spent most ofour time on
catching, processing and
selling. Now the stress of this
job comes fromwalking on
eggshells all the time as we
try to formulate plans and
execute them."
8. Patience: Symbolically this
means having perseverance,
especially in the face
ofadversity. Patience allows
us not to lose sight of the
goal and to stay on the
path.Patience allows us
personally and corporately
to realize we are always
pilgrims on ajourney. Many
times we have to keep
reminding ourselves of what
Carl Jung told us,"The way is

the goal, the goal is the
way." I received an e-mail
the other day whichsaid
(quoting a certain Roger C.
Anderson), "Accept that
some days you're thepigeon,
and some days you're the
statue." Not every day is a
perfect day. Iremember also
reading one time about a
75-year-old Nobel prize
winning scientist.The
reporter remarked how
smart he must be.The
scientist replied, "Not
really.Many of us were
working on analyzing pigs'
brains. I just worked on more
pig'sbrains than my
colleagues did." In other
words, he never gave up. The
Chinese saythat success
occurs when preparation and
opportunity meet. Timing is
everything, inmany cases.
Dennis Sharp, chairman and
CEO of UTS Energy Corp., of
Calgary,Alberta, is a person
with patience. He says of
himself, "I'm a bunts and
singles guy.I'm not trying to
hit home runs." One project
will not open until early
2005. He haspatience. He is
used to riding the ups and
downs of the heavy oil
business, with itsmolasses-
like commodity. His timing
was also impeccable when
he cashed out at themarket's
peak in the summer of 1997.
Analyst Thomas Ebbern, of
Newcrest CapitalInc., said,
"Dennis did an admirable
job... He 30 had a lot of
foresight." Similarly, the
Ottawa-based software firm
JetForm Corp. found that
patience was its best tactic
inlanding a major military
contract with the U.S. Air
Force. "As part of its move
towarda paperless military,
the U.S. Air Force signed a
22
$5-million (U.S.) enterprise-
widelicence last year to lease
JetForm's FormFlow 2.15
electronic forms software."31
Making the Journey: Selected
Case Examples
1. Power Workers on a New
Journey 32
In the 1990s, many have asked if
unions had a future left. If
companies were able touproot and
employ the globalized workforce,
then unions could argue all they
wanted toabout their distinctive
value, or value proposition. The
only problem was: no one
waslistening. Globalization took
over the world.
John Murphy is the president of
the Power Workers' Union. He saw
the handwriting onthe wall. At a
February 4, 1999 "Implementing
Performance Incentives with
UnionPartners" conference in
Toronto, he said that they realized
globalization was a reality.Not only
that, "We also decided that
competition could actually be a
good thing forOntario generally...
We decided that we were going to
do our job as a union
byembracing the change sweeping
over our industry." Agreeing that
there was plenty ofevidence that
competition could create jobs,
Murphy then went on to discuss
what I callthe EQ skills and the new
journey the Power Workers' Union
is now on:
This is all about more than just
money. It's about being more
human. It's about feelinggood,
about working with others toward
a goal you all share. It's about
bringing out thebest part of our
nature -- qualities like co-
operation and teamwork, a sense
of purpose, abelief that the future

can be better, and a willingness to
work toward that future. We inthe
Power Workers' Union intend to
walk confidently down the road to
greater humanand economic
equality. We hope that many
others will join us. It will make the
journey shorter.
2. McDonald's New Fast-Food
Journey 33
McDonald's got lost on the
journey in the mid-1990s. Michael
Conley, the company'schief
financial officer, said, "In
retrospect, we lost our way back in
mid-1994. We weretrying to drive
the company almost exclusively
with national advertising."
Today, however, they have made
adjustments on their corporate
journey. The lengthyseries of
corporate miscues that began in
the mid-1990s are fading. What
new learnings-- or changes -- have
made the journey more effective?
 Decentralizing marketing
and decision making;
 Communicating the shared
vision more deliberately;
 Collaborating in marketing
and advertising;
 Allowing locals in the
international division to
create a supply infrastructure
withineach country or
region, financed in the local
currency;
 Paying attention to different
customs and food tastes. As
Jim Cantalupo, head
ofinternational operations,
says, "We don't run Spain
out of Portugal."
 Experimenting and
innovating; and
 Maintaining the distinctive
value of McDonald's. Jack
Greenberg, the CEO
says,"Decentralization
23
doesn't mean chaos or
anarchy. The things that
make McDonald's distinct
are going to be there. Those
things are negotiable."
3. General Motors Corp. and 34Ford
Motor Co:The Journey Ahead
The month of February 1999 was
not only a tragic opening month
for Ford Motor Co. --"the worst
day of my life," said William Clay
Ford Jr., chairman -- it was also
highlysymbolic of the new and
future journey that Ford Motor Co.
-- as well as General MotorsCorp. -
- has to embrace wholeheartedly.
First, the tragic news: Ford's
ancient Rouge complex in
Dearborn, Mich. had anexplosion
which killed two workers and
seriously injured 14 others.
Second, thechallenge of the new
journey for both Ford and GM:
while their product has improved -
-because of Japanese and German
imports -- over the last 20
yearswhat has notimproved are
the EQ issues I have been
discussing: business practices such
as costcontrol, labour relations,
product development. While the
price of cars has gone up131%
over a 15 year period, the price of
computers over a 10 year period
has gone down 30%!
While some readers may object to
my cataloguing costs under EQ
issues, think aboutthis: "The
inability of the car companies to
get their costs under control is an
indication ofserious management
problems." What will the new
journey need to encompass to
begin resolving these
"management problems"?
The Rouge dinosaur is a huge,
slow, inefficient industrial-age
operation, living onborrowed time

in an era of information-based,
opportunistic, quick-moving
suppliers whocan provide the
same good and services more
cheaply with less capital. If Ford
and GMare muddled about such
near-term objectives and
strategies, it is small wonder
they'veshown no inkling of being
able to deduce how they wish to
define themselves as
carcompanies in the 21st century,
and to share that information with
their stockholders.
Ford and GM will need to answer
some very serious and critical
questions forthemselves as they
stumble along this new millennium
journey. The Japanese
andEuropeans have already been
busy wrestling with the new
questions -- and thus, arealready
well on the new journey. "It
appears the commodity both Ford
and GM will mostneed to invest in
for the 21st century is 21st-century
thinking."
Conclusion
The most important task on the
new journey for the renewed
organization is inwardbound. "For
organizations to grow, a new spirit
of enterprise must begin from the
inside out."35
The new journey in the new
economy in the new millennium
will involve three things:
SELF Power
BRAIN Power
NET Power
Individuals and organizations will
have to quickly learn how to
harness (a) the best inpeople (SELF
Power), (b) the best in thinking
(BRAIN Power), and (c) the best
innetwork relationship building
24
(NET Power). Fortune magazine's
Thomas A. Stewartwrites, "The new
Boeing 777 airliner, designed
entirely on computers without
paperdrawings or mockups, has
three on-board computers, and
only two engines." Need wesay
any more about the critical new
elements on the new journey!
At a time when we need the best
of and from people- most
importantly, their spiritualmettle -
we may find we are in short
supply. This may be so from both
ends of thesupply chain: (a) upper
management, and (b) new recruits.
Executives and managershave
been well trained in the linear,
Newtonian, quantifiable mindset,
and, althoughnecessary at times,
this mindset will prove inadequate
for the new journey. Will
thesemanagers change? Die off?
Be replaced? As I have been
emphasizing throughout The
7Pillars articles, the new journey is
more about "managing the
intangibles," therelationship
contexts, the EQ-intuneness issues.
Current managers and executives
maybe graduates of the
Universities of Toronto, Harvard,
McGill, or Queen's, but have
theythat special spiritual and
psychological mettle that supports
discovery planning, the long-term
view v. the god of quarterly results,
the understanding of global
dynamics, theinterplay of work-
home dynamics, and the critical
importance of intellectual capital
andinnovative thinking as assets,
not costs? Time will tell. It is always
dangerous for anycompany to
have only one customer, but that's
what Canada in essence has with
its onemajor customer, the USA,
taking up 80% of its export
market.
And new recruits? The last two
generations in North America have

been weaned andraised on an
individualism ethic. While this
emphasis has brought about a
renewedfocus on human rights,
human resources management,
the rights of the individual,
theconsumerism focus, it has also
weakened, if not eroded, the
spiritual and EQ mettle ofthese
young people. If they do begin this
new journey, they will have to
acquiesce withthe thrust of Pillar
IV -- Learning, or Changing -- in
order to create a workable
valueproposition, or distinctive
value, for themselves personally
and professionally.
We know, for example, that while
IQ has consistently gone up over
the years (anaverage of 24 points),
their EQ has gone down! Dr.
Daniel Goleman, author of the
best-selling Emotional Intelligence,
and now the new Working With
Emotional Intelligence, writes:
There is a dangerous paradox at
work, however: As children grow
ever smarter in IQ,their emotional
intelligence is on the decline.
Perhaps the most disturbing single
piece ofdata comes from a
massive survey of parents and
teachers that shows the
presentgeneration of children to
be more emotionally troubled
than the last. On average,children
are growing more lonely and
depressed, more angry and unruly,
more nervous and prone to worry,
more impulsive and aggressive.
Dr. Goleman is referring to a 13-
year comparison research study
done with Americanchildren.
However, the results are applicable
across all economic groups. The
researchpsychologists asked the
question, "Are America's Children
Getting Worse?" The answerin the
1989 psychiatry report turned out
to be "yes"! When employers are
25
polled as towhat skills they need in
new recruits, the three most highly
sought after are thefollowing: oral
communications, interpersonal
abilities, and teamwork abilities
the veryskills that are in short
supply because of the low EQ skill
development in children andyoung
adults over the past 25-30 years!
Dr. Thomas Achenbach, the
University ofVermont psychologist
who co-authored the research
study, told Dr. Goleman that he
feltthe decline in children's basic
emotional competencies was a
worldwide phenomenon!The
practical evidence is found in the
"rising rates among young people
of problemssuch as despair,
alienation, drug abuse, crime and
violence, depressing or
eatingdisorders, unwanted
pregnancies, bullying, and
dropping out of school."
Thus, our question again: Are the
new recruits ready for the new
workplace and for thenew
millennium? The Harvard Business
School requires the following EQ
skills:empathy, perspective taking,
rapport, and cooperation;
corporations seeking MBAsrequire
communications, interpersonal
and initiative skills.
If we measure the new recruits
against the needed EQ skills
benchmark, we realizesadly that
our new recruits are not ready.
According to Lyle Spencer, Jr.,
director ofresearch and
technology for Hay/McBer, IQ is
simply "a threshold competence."
Whatreally makes "stars" and
superior performance are the EQ
skills the very ones thathave gone
down over the last 25 years
worldwide!
The answer, therefore, to the
question of whether individualism
has been worthwhile asan ethic

over these past 30 years is a
resounding NO!
The journey ahead will be a very
painful one for those individuals
and organizations whorefuse the
call of becoming a learning
organization. To refuse that call
which I take upin Pillar IVis to
refuse to change, because learning
= change. To change means to
letgo of old certainties and allow
oneself and the organization to be
transformed. When westart out on
the journey, we never know what
we will be like at the end of it. But
onething is certain: unless we start
the journey and unless we
embrace learning as we goalong
the journey, we die, symbolically,
even literally. We see that too
often withindividuals who give up
on life, despair, wander aimlessly;
and we see that withcompanies
and organizations that have lost
their sense of purpose, and
possibly evengo bankrupt as a
result.
The initial starting-point of the
journey is always vision and values;
it is also the journeyitself because
vision and values sustain us in
pursuing our personal and
corporate goalsand objectives. The
7 Pillars of Visionary Leadership
states:
Only by undertaking a personal
revolution of the imagination can
we begin our journey toindividual,
organizational, and community
transformation. We need to leave
behind theskewed value path that
celebrated the separation of work
and well-being and re-create
aculture in which imagination,
innovation, learning and mastery
of work are perceived aslabours of
love. We need to shift our thinking
and find new ways to
authenticateindividual self-worth
in the new organizational age.
26
Only by freeing our imaginations
canwe loose the spirit of enterprise
we need to build people pride,
and profits.
PILLAR IV: Learning
"Building the New Architecture:
Sustaining a Future"
(Part 4 of 7)
"The future is traditionally thought
of as an extension of the past. If
one knows the starting point, one
can predict the future path of an
event by following a straight line.
That's how most of today's
business projection tools work. But
the discovery of nonlinear,
dynamic systems by Edward
Lorenz of MIT in the 1960s
changed that worldview in
fundamental ways." – Louisa Wah1
"Most businesses do not move so
fast that foresight, commitment,
preemption, deterrence, and other
traditional strategic elements no
longer build business value. Even
in the fastest industries, good
managers can still add value by
creating the right working
conditions to spur creativity. In
other words, management still
matters a lot, Hout says, even in
the new economy." Harvard
Business 2 Review executive
summary
"Now, most of us, even those of us
with modest endowments, will
have to learn to manage ourselves.
We will have to learn to develop
ourselves. We will have to place
ourselves where we can make the
greatest contribution. And we will
have to stay mentally alert and
engaged during a 50-year working
life, which means knowing how
and when to change 3the work we
do. – Peter F. Drucker

"Man becomes man only by the
intelligence, but he is man only by
the heart." – Henri Fréderic Amiel4
If there is one word that best
describes the business
environment in the 1990s, that
word would probably be chaotic.
For many people, the experience
of chaos means things out of
control, all over the place,
disorder. While many people may
not be able to explain why chaos
seems to surround us as our
constant companion today – in our
personal and business lives – they
now know that things cannot be
the way they used to be; and, in
some strange way, the best answer
they can give to their why
question is, “That's the way it is
now.”
To make matters even more
difficult, we have two schools of
thought on “how to manage the
chaos”: (a) a “roll-with-the-
punches” school of thought, and
(b) a “don't- forget-the-basics-
also” school of thought. These
points of view are captured in two
of the opening quotes: (a) Louise
Wah, in her article, “Welcome to
the Edge,” reviews the current
thinking on chaos and complexity
theory and says that the best place
to be is on the “edge of chaos,” if5
we are to manage well today.
Managing at the edge gives the
manager “enough structure to
hold people and processes
together, yet enough flexibility to6
allow innovation and adaptation.”
The key EQ skill for managers to
learn in order to manage this
chaotic environment is
adaptability, because adaptability
is precisely the dynamic that
embraces most effectively the
elements in a chaotic system –
whether that system be the
weather or the flocking behaviour
of geese. Like jazz musicians,
27
adaptability allows managers to
follow a few rules, but improvise as
they go along. (b) On the other
hand, Thomas M. Hout, a senior
advisor at the Boston Consulting
Group in Boston, Mass., in his
article in the Harvard Business
Review, “Are Managers Obsolete?”
says in relation to chaos theory
that there are limits to self-
organization, especially when one
is talking about a market economy
-- precisely it is made up of human
beings. He is concerned that if
managers simply give in to the
“way of the geese,” so to speak –
that is, “going with the flow” in
celebrating freshness and flexibility
in companies – that they will
undervalue 7 the lessons of
experience. Thus, business today
still needs better managers and
strategists: “And if I had to bet, I'd
bet on the group who believes 8in
the importance of management.”
Whatever side of the chaos
argument you prefer – adaptability
v. strategy – we make the claim in
The 7 Pillars of Visionary
Leadership that learning will be
your centre pillar. If you look at
the picture of the temple (above,
and at the beginning of this
article), Pillar IV – Learning – is the
middle one.
Learning also equals change:
learning = change. In effect, what
we are claiming, therefore, is that
we have no choice about change
today. Change is not an option,
which is the same thing as saying
that learning is not an option.
What is an option is our attitude to
change or learning, and whether
we choose growth as a person and
as a business, or whether, as Carl
 28

Jung reminds us, we choose to go to improve itself.

like pigs to the slaughter because
of the challenges ignored. Allows employees to
7 learn from their
Hence, today's organizations have mistakes.
to be learning organizations. They Interpretation:
have to embrace change, move
with its dynamic flow, and use If you scored 32-35: You're well on
wisdom and experience as their the learning, or change, journey. If
backbone. you scored 28-31: You're doing all
right, but need to improve. If you
QUESTION: “Is Your Organization scored 25-27: You definitely need
Open to Change?” to take stock right now. If you
scored 0-24: You're are, or will be,
Let's do an organizational check. in trouble.
Think of the organization you work
in. Estimate fairly and honestly Learning is transformative. In The 7
your answer to the following seven Pillars of Visionary Leadership, we
(7) questions. Use the scale below believe there are at least four “hot
to make your choice: buttons” to press to transform our
hearts and minds. They are
1. = To a very little extent diagrammed below:
2. = To a little extent
3. = To some extent In other words, we need
4. = To a great extent
5. = To a very great extent  vision to have perspective to
see
The organization I work for ...  insight to inspire leadership
 images to visualize change
Item Item My  spirit to guide the
No. Score transformation
Fosters excitement Above all, learning in the new
1 about learning workplace and organization will
something new each now include what we call inner-
day. core competencies. These are the
Is a learning competencies of the knowledge
2 organization. worker, competencies such as
congruent thinking, seamless
3 Values innovation learning, conceptual research and
highly. development, emotional
Is effectively intelligence, innovation, and
learning how to creativity. I have included a chart
4 change structures below to illustrate an intuitive
and systems. appreciation of what the challenge
is now for organizations.
Promotes new
5 learning and new Explanation:
thinking.
Is constantly In the past, what we have known
6 learning new ways as “IQ” – mental smarts – was what
counted. I have indicated this by

the word “chart” in the legend
part of the chart (above).
Managers and executives spent
much time “charting” out the 5, 10,
and sometimes 15 year strategic
plan. It was a logical, analytical
experience, and when companies
stuck to the plan, they usually did
quite well. Mental smarts were at a
premium. While being mentally
prepared is still a sine qua non,
that preparedness is not enough
today. I tell my students, “Your
diploma or degree will get you in
the door. To have it does not
necessarily guarantee you a job.
Not to have it of necessity does
not guarantee you a job.” It's a
“Catch-22" for students and
potential hires. Even though
enough research abounds that
indicates a very high correlation
between traditional job success
factors and high IQ or intellectual
smarts, more is needed today for
success.
Research now also shows that this
IQ benchmark – while important –
only accounts for 2-6% of life
success and about 20% of job
success! What has emerged over
the past 20 years is Dr. Reuven
BarOn's research and his EQ-i
(Emotional Quotient-Inventory)
which now has studies showing
that “EQ” – emotional smarts –
accounts for almost 50% of life
and job success. Dr. BarOn tried to
answer the question, “Why are
some very bright people capable
of some very stupid and even
unethical behaviours?” The answer
was that high IQ did not
necessarily mean an emotionally
and interpersonally accomplished
individual. Actually, the opposite
was often true: a very bright and
intellectually adroit individual was
often cold, aloof, belligerent, etc.
The organization was then left
with a choice: keep this smart, but
interpersonally toxic, individual on
29
staff, or fire the person. While we
can argue that many toxic
individuals should have been fired,
we can also state that 75% of the
reason for those who were fired,
was EQ-related: they could not be
team players, get along with
others, show empathy, etc. Today,
this kind of toxic individual – an
employee, manager or executive
with low EQ – is an absolute
liability. Low EQ will cost the
organization – time, resources,
money, reputation – and possibly
even force it into bankruptcy. The
reason for this is that today's
workplace is a workplace
bombarded by change. Since
“change = learning,” if an
organization is not in “learning
mode” on a continual basis, it will
be unable to adapt. That is why
the second word I use in the chart
above is the word change. It
should also be obvious the much
larger area of competency (or EQ)
needed for managing this change.
Notice also the tapering of the
charting competency (or IQ). At
this point, managers and
executives have to learn to steer
more than plan.
Finally, there is a third element to
the chart, what I call “SQ” or
“strategic quotient” or “strategic
smarts.” What impacts the
organization in the globalized
marketplace are the chance
occurrences, the opportunities for
either success or deep failure. We
can have the best of mental and
emotional smarts, but we need
entrepreneurship of the mind and
execution of will to navigate the
waters of opportunity. The Chinese
have a wonderful expression:
Success is Preparation x
Opportunity. SQ allows an
organization to “seize the
moment,” as the Roman poet
Horace wrote in naming his poem
(“Carpe Diem”).

It is the organizations that refuse
to see these new dynamics that
will be the most vulnerable. A top-
down IQ-only organization will
insist on rationality and the “hard
skills” as the way to go; a top-
down EQ-only organization will
insist on emotionality and the “soft
skills” as the way to go; and a top-
down SQ-only organization will
insist on the instinctual and the
“reactive skills” as the way to go.
Taken alone, each of these factors
can lead to disaster.
The critical learning for
organizations today is (a) the
integration of these three natural,
necessary, and essential dynamics,
as well as (b) a keen awareness of
the weighting or emphasis of the
factors. While life does not easily
acquiesce to intellectual
distinctions and percentages, and
while different situations call for
different emphases, we can be
quite confident in the
proportionality and importance of
the three critical factors in the new
workplace:
Proportion and Importance of
the New Learning Factors
IQ Mental smarts. 20%
EQ Relational smarts 50%
SQ Strategic smarts 30%
The Teachable Point of View: Ford
Motor Company
The March-April 1999 issue of the
Harvard Business Review has a
wonderful article on learning as
the core construct for reinventing
the new organization. My
impression after reading the article
was that Ford is now moving into
the 21st century with the
metaphor of the corporate
classroom or learning space as
central to its vision. It is shaped
around what Ford calls “the
30
teachable point of view” – a
mechanism that turns leaders into
teachers and their students into
teachers and leaders as well. The
teachable point of view harnesses
not only the what that employees
know, but especially the why.
What is critical in this learning
environment are qualities like trust
and curiosity and what Jacques
Nasser, the newly appointed CEO,
describes as boundarylessness, or
“behavior that is open, where
people act without regard to
status or functional loyalty and
also look for ideas from
anywhere.”9
Conclusion
The most important message that I
would like to get across in this
article on Pillar IV – Learning – is
the joy that comes from gladly
acquiescing in the transformative
process. In some ways learning has
a thorny reputation because many
people equate it with their
academic experiences, tests,
homework, boring teachers
perhaps, etc. Those costly
experiences are unfortunate, but
they are definitely not the essence
of learning.
We don't have a choice around
change itself; but we do have a
choice around the possibility of
growth that change brings with it.
Growth, however, can only occur
when we are open, which means
when we are disposed to learning.
Once we open our hearts and
minds to learning, we also open
ourselves to changing and to
transformation.
The gift of who we are is always
potential; we are always “on the
way,” or, as Carl Jung remarked,
“The way is the goal and the goal
is the way.” Today's better or
financially successful organizations

are attuned to and living out that
ethic of learning. Eric Hoffer, who
lived from 1902-1983, wrote:
In a time of drastic change
it is the learners
who inherit the future.
The learned
usually find themselves
equipped to live in a world
that no longer exists.
PILLAR V: Mentoring
"Sharing Knowledge:
Empowering a Future"
(Part 5 of 7)
"If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep."
Lt. Col. John McCrae, M.D. (1872-
1918)
"In Flanders Field"
"How many roads must a man
walk down
Before they call him a man ...
The answer, my friend, is blowing
in the wind
The answer is blowing in the wind"
Bob Dylan, "Blowin' in the Wind,"
1962
"Where have all the flowers gone,
long time passing?
Where have all the flowers gone,
long time ago?"
Peter, Paul and Mary, 1960s
31
Purpose. Trust. Optimism. Action.
Four qualities the modern leader
must inspire or exemplify
according to business academic
Warren Bennis. Leadership helps
design the 'social architecture'
capable of building intellectual
capital. It is the main instrument
for leveraging that capital1.
We have just witnessed a
crystallizing point in the lack of
mentorship: the killings at
Columbine High School in
Littleton, Colorado. History may
show that April 1999 was indeed a
turning-point. The evil and the
horror that was evident in those
killings shocked the world and
especially North American society
in a way that other events did not.
Most parents were asking
themselves, "What have we bred in
our midst? What has happened to
us?" As in the opening quote,
"Where have all the flowers gone?"
Or, "Where have all the mentors
gone?"
The word "mentor"
comes from a character
named Mentor in
Homer's Odyssey.
Because Odysseus had
been away for many
years, his son Telemachus
was deprived of a father
figure who could serve as
a role model. The
goddess Athene
therefore disguised herself as
Mentes and encouraged
Telemachus to take a journey.
Telemachus was gratified "in his
spirit, courage, and determination,
and he remembered his father
even more." The next guise Athene
chose was Mentor -- Odysseus'
former companion -- who
encouraged the youth: "You are no
thoughtless man, no coward, if
truly the strong force of your

father is instilled in you, such a
man he was for accomplishing
word and action."2
We have lost our innocence. As a
society, we ask, "How can we
empower a future worth going
to?" This question is the mentor
question. It is the question that
asks how we can "pass on the
torch."
We also live in what is called the
"horizontal society." Our society
has an identity crisis going on.
"Traditional authority figures no
longer hold sway. ... We form
groups of like-minded individuals
who find their identity through the3
miracle of mass culture."
According to Yale law professor
Lawrence Friedman, in his book
The Horizontal Society,today we
live
 In a virtual reality where
traditional social hierarchies
no longer rule;
 In an environment where our
sense of identity has been
irretrievably altered, a no-
man's land.
 In a society without strong
ties of vertical authority --
ties that attach us to parents,
bosses, heads of state,
priests and others.
The result of all this
"horizontalism"?
 A strong tendency to reach
out, establish identities and
form relationships with like-
minded people in groups
that do not meet face-to-
face but through the
miracles of technology.
 A horizontal identity that
confers a feeling of power,
potency and freedom, and
distracts us from the barren
landscape of
32
disconnectedness that is
modern life.
 A society which can best be
described as a "public
opinion state.
 A disappearance essentially
of what we have known as
childhood, due to television
which is visual, non-
hierarchical, and understood
by anyone, with the net
result that we have the
adult/child, or the adult who
acts like a child4.
The world is "coming at us" very
quickly these days. It's difficult for
many to realize that William Butler
Yeats may be correct when he
observes that "the centre cannot
hold."5 Future shock is truly
present shock.
In the spring of 1999, I was
concluding a course on ethics and
values in business. The course
book was The 7 Pillars of Visionary
Leadership. For their final test, I
held small team interviews. I had
asked them to read the last three
pillars and come to class prepared
to discuss their most favourite
passage. Out of 65 students, at
least one-thirdchose the opening
quote from Pillar V: Mentoring. It
reads as follows:
"They be blind leaders of the blind,
And if the blind lead the blind,
both shall fall into the ditch."
Jesus of Nazareth, Matthew, 15:14
Intuitively they realized how
important it was to have trusted
guides. In The 7 Pillars of Visionary
Leadership, we refer to this
guidance as the leadership value
path. The leadership value path
includes all seven pillars.
A true mentor coaches people to
believe the following about
themselves:
 33

in. Estimate fairlyand honestly your

VISIONING I know where I am answer to the following seven (7)
going questions. Use the scale below
tomake your choice:
MAPPING I know how to get
there 1 = To a very little extent
2 = To a little extent
3 = To some extent
4 = To a great extent
JOURNEYING Istart
am willing to
5 = To a very great extent
The organization I work for ...
LEARNING I am open to
change Item Item My
No. Score
MENTORING I am open to
others 1 Values experience
and know-how.

LEADING I will set an Invests time and

example 2 energy in people
development.
VALUING I will do what is
right 3 Fosters a genuine
sense of community.
In a leaderless and horizontal
world where downsizing and 4 Cultivates and
dismissal of loyalty are now nurtures wisdom.
entrenched, is it any wonder that
the bizarre has filled in the vacuum 5 Develops good role
when true mentoring is absent. models.
Another third of these same
students chose the following Not only wants to
Chinese proverb found at the end do things right, but
of the Mentoring chapter (PILLAR 6 also do the right
V) as their favourite passage. It things.
reads as follows:
If you want one year of prosperity, Applies knowledge
grow grain, 7 constructively to
If you want ten years of prosperity, what it already
grow trees, knows.
If you want one hundred years of
prosperity, Interpretation:
grow people.
If you scored 32-35: You value
QUESTION: "Does Your mentoring in your organization.
Organization Honour Wisdom?" If you scored 28-31: You're doing
all right, but need to improve.
Let's do an organizational check. If you scored 25-27: You definitely
Think of the organization you work need to take stock right now.

If you scored 0-24: You're are, or
will be, in trouble.
The Teachable Point of View:
Ancient Athens
One of my favourite mentoring
passages in The 7 Pillars of
Visionary Leadership is the one
about the young man who visits
his mentor, Socrates, in the early
hours of the morning:
A beautiful story recounts one
young man's excitement about
learning. A young manknocks on
Socrates' door in the early dawn.
Socrates is still half asleep when
heanswers the door and says,
"What's here?" The young man
cries out, "O Socrates. Goodnews,
good news!" Of course, Socrates is
wondering what could be such
news at suchan early hour. The
young man continues: "O Socrates,
Protagoras has come. I heard
ityesterday evening. And I was
going to you at once but it was so
late ." By this timeSocrates is
getting curious and wants to know
what this Protagoras talk is all
about. Heasks, "Has he stolen
something of yours?" At this the
young man bursts out
laughing."Yes, yes, that's just it.
He's robbing me of wisdom. He
has it, wisdom, and he can give it
to me. Oh, come and go with me
to him. Start now."6
Concluding Scenarios
Case example #1:
At the heart of mentoring is the
reality of remembering. To forget
or not to know one's history, for
example, is to walk foolishly into
the future. One company that has
learned its lesson about mentoring
is Xerox Corp. It realizes today that
34
it let slip out of its hands the some
of the very heart of technology
that makes the new economy tick.
James Corridoren, an analyst at
Standard & Poor's in New York
says, "Top to bottom, Xerox has
the best technology in
documents." Writer Amanda Lang
of The Financial Post comments,
"To be true, there are examples
where the company seemed to
hold the future in its hands, only
to fumble on the way to a slam
dunk. Remembering that past
could be all Xerox needs to focus
on the future." 7
Case example #2:
In mentoring a roadmap to
manage stress, Elaine Calder, 51,
Canada's pre-eminent arts
troubleshooter, passes on her
wisdom. In her efforts to make
sure "the centre holds" (literally)
for the National Arts Centre in
Ottawa, she outlines her four
steps:8
 You have to do an enormous
amount of listening;
 You have to be really honest;
 Don't waver in your
commitment; and
 Have an understanding
partner who puts up with
long hours and rented digs.
Case example #3:
Women Entrepreneurs of Canada
is a volunteer program run by
partners who match
businesswomen with more
experienced advisors. Marian
Pitters found such a mentor in
Wendy Banting, the owner of a
secure paper shredding company.
Mentors provide the type of
guidance they are seeking -- from
a non-competitive standpoint.
Mentors, suchas Ms. Banting,
spend at least three hours a month

reviewing business plans, either
over the phone or in person, in
addition to attending monthly
workshop sessions. These sessions
help those seeking advice to
become more disciplined,
knowledgeable, and focussed.
Again, it's "passing on the torch."9
The time is now upon us to
critically examine our relationship
to history, the treasuresthat have
been passed on to us, and the
essential role we all play in
building a futureworth going to.
"We borrow the future from our
children," the saying goes; but we
mustalso remember that we alone
also connect the past to that
future. May we remember thepast
and may we reflect well on what it
is we are passing on to build that
future.
PILLAR VI: Leading
"Inspiring a Spirit of Enterprise"
(Part 6 of 7)
"But what does leadership mean in
the digital economy where
organizations are as decentralized
and as networked as the Web
itself? What does leadership mean
when the pace of change is so
rapid that decisions are made with
minimal information? And what
does leadership mean when the
people in your organization both
demand more independence and
require more guidance?"
--"Leaders.com," Fast Company,
June 19991
"Life is good only when it is
magical and musical, a perfect
timing and consent, and when we
do not anatomize it. You must
treat the days respectfully, you
35
must be a day yourself, and not
interrogate it like a college
professor . . . You must hear the
bird's song without attempting to
render it into nouns and verbs."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson,
"Passages"2
"IT'S THE LEARNING SPEED of the
slowest many,
not the learning speed of the
brightest few,
that will set the PACE FOR YOUR
COMPANY"
-- "Report From the Future," Fast
Company, June 19993
One mouse click away. If you
decide there's something
you don't like about a company in
the financial services industry,
that's as far as you need to go to
get to the competition.
- Stephen Pozgaj, a senior vice-
president and
CIO with Mackenzie Financial
Corp.4
Leadership in the new economy. It
leaves many people's heads
spinning. Can the essence of what
we have thought was leadership
even hold today? How many of us
think of leadership as "one"
charismatic person and "many"
followers? How many of us think
of leadership as the person who is
"the boss," the one who makes all
the decisions?
In the new thinking which is really
ancient, in the historical sense
leadership is more like a "field" in
the chaos or complexity
mathematical sense. Leadership in

this sense is more intuitive, an
intense zone of invisible radiating
energy. People who are able to
create that sense of leadership
leave us with the feeling that
"there is something very attractive
about what they do or who they
are."
Leaders, therefore, create a field of
vision. They constellate a visionary
activity within those around them.
Their field and presence draws
people toward every deeper, wider
and more profound experiences of
this vision.
Leadership, therefore, is very much
akin to what writers of spiritual
classics have written about for
centuries. How is it that so many
people over the centuries have
"left everything" and followed
what they believed was the
"Master"? In some cases, like Jim
Jones and the 900+ people who
committed suicide on his behalf,
this Master created a field of
attractive invisible evil; others,
however, like Buddha and Christ,
invited their "followers" into a
profound experience of living and
transformation.
There was a saying in the 1960s
that went like this: "If you meet the
Buddha on the road, kill him!" At
first sight this might seem like a
blasphemous saying, but on
deeper reflection, it reminds us
that true humanism is "an inside
out job." No one can self-actualize
for you. Each of us has our own
personal journey that no one else
can appropriate.
Today leadership is more about
"managing complexity,"
"managing the invisibles,"
"managing the context,"
"managing onself." André, in My
Dinner with André, remarks: You
see, I keep thinking we need a new
36
language, a language of the heart
... some kind of language between
people that is a new kind of
poetry, that is the poetry of the
dancing bee, that tells us where
the honey is. And I think that in
order to create that language
we're going to have to learn how
you go through a looking glass
into another kind of perception, in
which you have that sense of
being united to all things, and
suddenly 5 you understand
everything.
"Blessed is he that has ears to hear
and eyes to see."
Peter F. Drucker, in a recent
Harvard Business Review article on
"Managing Oneself,"6 writes:
Now, most of us, even those of us
with modest endowments, will
have to learn to manage ourselves.
We will have to learn to develop
ourselves. We will have to place
ourselves where we can make the
greatest contribution. And we will
have to stay mentally alert and
engaged during a 50-year working
life, which means knowing how
and when to change the work we
do.
In The 7 Pillars we write about a
time when people built soaring
cathedrals to honour the spirit that
dwelt within them. As within, so
without. Today, when we look
about our society, what holds our
rapt attention? Metaphorically,
what "soaring cathedrals" draw us
into their vision? What is the
essence of leadership that calls us
to honour ourselves and those
around us to ever greater and
deeper dimensions of growth?
Today, it seems, the "new
cathedral" or "church" is the mall.
How can that image and
"horizontal" experience sustain us?

We cannot find growth and a
future through acquisitiveness.
Perhaps we get blind sided by the
calls of Bay Street and Wall Street
that permit our pain to hide
behind money as we worship the
contemporary god of success and
productivity. In centuries past, "the
universe was filled with meaning,
consciousness and intent, a vast
and beautiful cathedral of
interdependent hierarchies and we
were at the centre of it, in both 7a
physical and metaphorical sense."
"And when we think we
lead we are most lead."
Lord Byron (1788-1824)
It was the Swiss psychiatrist Carl
Jung, M.D. who spoke about the
ego - the "I" that is each of us - as
a small ship on the huge ocean of
the unconscious. It is hubris - or
unwarranted pride - that tricks us
into believing that our ego is
everything. However, we know
from experience that the ocean
can be quite unsettling - witness
the outpouring of emotion around
the movie Titanic.
How about a different way of
thinking? How about thinking
"LeaderSHIP"?
Think of it as an archetypal
concept. The vessel. Your thinking.
Your crew's destiny. How are you
going to ride the wave? How are
you going to steer (lead), not row
(manage)?
Today many organizations are
rowing against the tide, not
steering with the new current.
They are 8 still managing, not
"leadering."
J.P. Bryan, formerly of Gulf Canada
and Torch Energy Advisors Inc.,
37
Houston, Texas, remarked one
time, "The suggestion that you
need to9 be managed should be an
insult." Peter Block, author of
Stewardship: Choosing Service
Over Self-Interest, argues that no
one should be paid for planning,
organizing, directing, or
controlling anyone.10 You will
recall that these have long been
touted as the traditional
management skills!
Listed below are some key
qualities that Bryan describes vis-
á-vis a visionary leader.
 The leader must be a good
listener.
 The leader should encourage
criticism but not disrespect.
 The leader should celebrate
employees' efforts.
 The leader must do what is
right rather than what is
popular.
 The leader must be
courageous and a risk taker.
 The leader must be open to
change.
 The leader must change to
be open.
 The leader must exhibit
humility and empathy.
 The leader must serve and
defend.
 The leader must aspire to do
better.
 A leader must be
accountable to a "higher
authority" namely, God.
"Before the gates of Excellence
the high gods have placed
sweat."
Hesiod, 8th. Century B.C.
QUESTION: "Does Your
Organization Honour a Spirit of
Enterprise?"
 38

Let's do an organizational check. If you scored 0-24: You are, or will

Think of the organization you work be, in trouble.
in. Estimate fairly and honestly
your answer to the following seven
(7) questions. Use the scale below
to make your choice: 1 = To a very The Leadership Value Path (LVP)
little extent True leadership today builds a
2 = To a little extent leadership value path. That's the
3 = To some extent way my friend, colleague, and co-
4 = To a great extent author Dr. Michael Cox and I wrote
5 = To a very great extent about leadership in The 7 Pillars.
The organization I work for ...
As well, leadership, says Gary
Robertson, Director of Industrial
Item Item My Relations for Kvaerner
No. Score Constructors Ltd., a division of
Kvaerner International
Demonstrates (www.kvaerner.com), the world's
1 obvious leadership largest engineering/construction
qualities. corporation, is not about "outside
going in."11
2 "Grows" champions.
I could hardly agree more.
Leadership is "inside going out."
3 Brings out the best
in people. It's what matters on the inside that
is crucial to the leadership value
Promotes shared path since it is the inner person
4 growth, prosperity, and his/her leadership value
and well-being. presence that creates and breathes
spirit into an enterprise. A
Has leaders who leadership value presence inspires
inspire trust, a future worth going to. A
5 originality, and leadership value presence
challenge. creates hope and passion for that
future.
Nurtures a real spirit Over the last three hundred years
6 of enterprise in the we have gradually become so used
workplace. to the split between mind and
body that we no longer question
Inspires its our schizophrenic vision of reality.
7 employees to meet "Business schizophrenia" has
their goals. created innumerable silos: the
marketing department which
Interpretation: doesn't communicate with the
accounting department; workers v.
If you scored 32-35: You value managers; results v. passion, etc. In
leading in your organization. the 1990s we are reaping the
If you scored 28-31: You're doing terrible cost of these splits. The
all right, but need to improve. new economy demands a holistic
If you scored 25-27: You definitely approach to living and working.
need to take stock right now.

Leadership is no different. True
leaders, in creating a leadership
value presence, even without
knowing or acknowledging it, live
the modern physicist's
understanding of the world: that
all of life is interconnected, so
much so that physicists are able to
show that an experiment is
influenced by the experimenter!
Taking this research into
leadership thinking, we find
tremendous support for my claim
that a leadership value presence is
not only something that good
leaders "have." Rather, a comprehension was a function of
leadership value presence is who
good leaders "are."
For two thousand years, following
Plato and the Neoplatonists, right
into the Middle Ages, people
never struggled with realizing that
reality was the spiritual (or soul)
interrelationship of human
consciousness and the physical
world around them. As a matter of
fact, reality was the fruit of that
interrelationship. Without this
dynamic interplay and transaction
of human consciousness and the
material world, reality was still
undifferentiated. In the case study
below, noted leadership professor
and thinker, Warren Bennis, Ph.D.,
says that a leader's job is to
define reality. That's pure Greek
thinking. The Greeks understood
that the material world exists and
comes into existence through the
interaction of people's senses and
minds (their consciousness) with
the undifferentiated particles and
energies that "make up" the
material world.
What visionary leaders do,
however,
is craft a compelling vision that
others find attractive
and wholesome. Francis of Assisi
39
once
said, "Preach the gospel
wherever
you go if necessary, use words."
True Leadership.
Each of us defines reality in our
own way. That is the human
project.
The Greeks, as Wade Rowland in
Ockham's Razor points out,
accepted that "intellectual
the soul and it was therefore
important to regulate the kinds of
things that occupied one's
interests. Because the soul
participated or, in a sense, mingled
with the object perceived, it was
affected and shaped in the
transaction."12 As Rowland
remarks, medieval people would
never have trouble with what we
call "virtual reality" since all reality
was understood by them to be
"virtual." They would have laughed
hearing us describe this "new
invention," or "new idea" called
virtual reality.
Thus, since visionary leaders are
healthy "inside out," they create
and craft an inspiring field of
possibilities, human
empowerment, and a future worth
going to.
Case Interview: "Leadership as
an Organizing Principle"
Leadership author Warren Bennis
speaks of four qualities the
modern leader must inspire or
exemplify:
 Purpose: a strong
determination to achieve a
goal -- a conviction, a
passion, even a skewed
distortion of reality that
focuses on a particular point

of view. In short, visionary
leaders define reality so
that it has meaning and
purpose.
 Trust: the social glue that
keeps an organization
cohesive and committed.
This is a very difficult thing
to do with a 20% "churn
factor" (employees in
transition through layoffs,
downsizings, or straight
unemployment). In addition,
there are the five "Cs" or
qualities necessary for trust:
competence, constancy,
caring, candour, and
congruity (a sense of
authenticity, being alive and
coherent to yourself).
Richard Sennett, a dream with a deadline."
distinguished academic who
teaches at New York
University and the London
School of Economics, in an
interview in the course of
writing his latest book, The
Corrosion of Character: The
Personal Consequences of
Work in the New Capitalism,
said that he
worries that upheaval in
companies has set workers'
inner lives adrift. "How do
we decide what is of lasting
value in ourselves in a
society which is impatient,
which focuses on the
immediate moment?" he
asks. "You can't imagine how
stupid I feel when I talk to
my kids about commitment.
It's an abstract virtue to
them.13
 Optimism: a sense of hope,
that obstacles can be
overcome, that adversity will
be met. In my series of
articles on emotional
intelligence posted at the
CanadaOne site - the EQ-i
40
articles14 - I show how
optimism is one of the
scientific factors that makes
up emotional intelligence.
Leaders who have optimism
believe realistically they will
achieve their goals. As a
matter of facts, while their
goals may be set up as
"stretch" goals, they are also
attainable.
 Action: a bias to action, to
commit, to act with
imperfect information, the
capacity to convert purpose
and vision into action. Bennis
ends up the interview by
saying that a banker told
him once that his philosophy
of management was15 "a
Why is all this discussion about
social capital so important?
Because leadership is about
designing and building the social
architecture that is needed to
leverage today's essential
intellectual capital. As soon as we
start discussing social capital, we
are moving directly into the area
of EQ and emotional intelligence.
As I like to say, "IQ tells you what
you can do, EQ tells you what you
will do." According to Bennis,
most corporate leaders ... realize
the only way they can leverage
intellectual capital is through these
knowledge workers. Leaders who
can release the brain power of
their staff, who can energize the
know-how and creativity of their
work force, are the only ones who
can be sure to be in the phone
book by 2001. The key to
competitive advantage in the
coming years will be top
leadership's ability to create the

social architecture that can
generate intellectual capital.
The question leaders need to
answer today is: "How can I
harness and capture the emotional
power of my entire workforce?"
Without that energy for the
enterprise - personal or corporate
- intellectual capital simply walks
out the door. Bennis points out
that a recent Conference Board
study shows that almost 60% of
the companies surveyed
worldwide claim that they do not
have the leaders capable of
successfully guiding their
organizations into the 21st
century!
Does this kind of effective
leadership pay off?
Or, to state the issue a different
way, does ROIR (Return-on-
Integrity-in-Relationships) pay off?
Bennis points out that a recent
study by Accenture has shown that
"well led" companies had a 900%
increase in their stock price
compared with a 78% increase for
the others! Further, Bennis states
that a 10-per-cent increase in
spending on training leads to
more than twice the productivity
gain as does a comparable
increase in capital. The real issue,
he says, is, "How do you release
the brainpower of16the people in
the organization?" I would take
that sentiment a step further and
say, "How do you release the
creative power of the human
person?"
What would a visionary leadership
charter of 17values require to be
successful?
Faith in a higher vision
41
Mastery in competence
Courage in shared vision
Trust in growing ideas
Spirit in enterprise
Service in leading
Integrity in relationships
Prophet in profit
Wisdom in thinking
Humility in purpose
"Return-on-Integrity-in-
Relationships (ROI-R)"
(Part 7 of 7)
"When you have a great culture
where you care for employees,
then employees care for you
and it releases
that deeper level of creativity and
productivity,
which comes from the heart."
–Richard Barrett, former "Values-
Coordinator," World Bank1
"Patients who walk into the Mayo
Clinic in Rochester enter an
environment of comfort and
tradition that is worlds apart from
the institutional atmosphere of
many modern hospitals. Fine art
hangs on walls throughout the
clinic. In the waiting areas of each
medical department, professional
greeters ease new patients
through the admission process,
reassuring them in homey upper-
midwestern accents. They greet
returning patients by name.

Doctors see patients in private
offices -- cozy spaces decorated
with personal items -- rather than
in sterile white-and-chrome exam
rooms. The overall effect is one of
orderliness,2 function, and, above
all, vigour."
"Integrity is the pursuit of values
consistent with our highest
insights about life. It goes beyond
expediency. To fail in integrity is to
violate one's inner soul or
personhood."
Michael E. Rock, Ethics: To Live By,
To Work By 3
"The human moment, then, is a
regulator: when you take it away,
people's primitive instincts can get
the better of them. Just as in the
anonymity of an automobile,
where stable people can behave
like crazed maniacs, so too on a
keyboard: courteous people can
become rude and abrupt."
– Edward M. Hallowell, M.D.,
Harvard psychiatrist4
We are trapped in an untenable
position in our conceptual
cosmology, according to Wade
Rowland, in his recent book
Ockham's Razor.5 We have sought,
as the bible has recommended, to
go forth, multiply, and subdue the
earth: "And God blessed Adam
and Eve and said, €˜Multiply and
fill the earth and subdue it; you are
the masters of the fish and the
birds and all the animals" (Genesis
2:28). The only problem with that
biblical encouragement is that we
built a dominator model of the
world. Today we need a in. Estimate fairly and honestly
partnership model, personally
and professionally. We don't need
42
"value added"; we need "added
valuing."
Carol Hymowitz of The Wall Street
Journal says it bluntly: "Note to
Managers: Dish Out Praise."6 As
she points out in her article, it is
the subtle things that matter -- the
EQ, or emotional quotient -- of the
managers that develops the caché
for a corporate culture that values
people, delivers pride, and is
rewarded with profit. For instance,
you notice in the morning that an
employee has sent you an e-mail
at 2:00 a.m. Do you say to yourself,
"Why is she up so late?" or "Is he
trying to impress me?" Dr. Dan
Conti, a psychologist and head of
employee assistance at Banc One
Corp. in Columbus, Ohio, says that
perhaps the employee is trying to
tell you something: VALUE ME !
Hymowitz continues:
While managers are routinely
warned by their bosses about the
difficulty of weeding out
underperformers, few are advised
about the more demanding
challenge of consistently
encouraging employees who are
"good enough," as well as the
ones considered stars.
Praising and giving direction to
employees can't be left to the
goodness of the managers' hearts.
And it can't be a sometimes thing
saved for the annual performance
review. It has to be made part of
the corporate culture.
QUESTION: "Does Your
Organization Reward ROIR
(Return-on-Investment/Integrity in
Relationships)?"
Let's do an organizational check.
Think of the organization you work
your answer to the following seven
(7) questions. Use the scale below
to make your choice:
 43

1 = To a very little extent yours would be if all the 20/20

2 = To a little extent Pillars were in place for you at
3 = To some extent work.
4 = To a great extent
5 = To a very great extent THE 20/20 LEADERSHIP VALUE
PATH
The organization I work for ... PILLAR PURPOSE PROCESS
VISIONIN Spirit of How do you
Item Item My G enthusiasm value
No. Score enduring
success?
1 Nourishes and MAPPING Spirit of How do you
values winners. direction value
Honours employees a higher
2 and their vision?
contributions. JOURNEYI Spirit of How do you
NG discovery value
3 Practices what it true north?
preaches. LEARNIN Spirit of How do you
Values risk-taking G transforma value
4 and innovative tion a temple of
ideas. learning?
MENTORI Spirit of How do you
Nurtures NG sharing value
5 commitment learning to
through motivation change?
and community. LEADING Spirit of How do you
6 Believes in what it is service value the
doing. transformati
7 "Walks the talk." onal
journey?
TOTAL VALUING Spirit of How do you
Interpretation: community value
enthusiasm
If you scored 32-35: You value at work?
ROIR in your organization. No matter what happens, we must
If you scored 28-31: You're doing never lose sight of valuing. Even if
all right, but need to improve. the outward temple -- call it a job,
If you scored 25-27: You definitely a house, loss of parents, etc. --
need to take stock right now. occurs, we still have that inner
If you scored 0-24: You are, or will temple with us always.
be, in trouble.
The Dalai Lama lost his physical
temple, but he still has great
The 20/20 Leadership Value Path influence. His inner temple has
pillars founded on an integral
Below is a renewed leadership
vision. In this time of insecurity he
value path, a path that gets us
offers us some very insightful
over the hurdles of despair, of not
advice: We have a good brain ...
seeing a future worth going to.
allowing us to judge what is right
Think of what kind of workplace
and what is wrong, not only in
terms of today's concerns, but

considering ten, twenty, or even a
hundred years in the future.
Without any precognition, we can
use our normal common sense to
determine if something is a right
or wrong method; we can decide
that if we do such and such, it will
lead to such and such an effect. ...
We must safeguard our mental
capacity for judgement. For that,
we cannot take out insurance; the
insurance company is within: self-
discipline, self-awareness. ... But
first we 7 must change within
ourselves.
A FINAL WORD
We have looked at 7 pillars of
visionary leadership throughout
these articles. While we can apply
the thinking to many areas of our
lives, one area that seriously needs
addressing is that of work. I
contrast "work" v. "job." The
concept "job" has been with us
really only since the time of the
industrial revolution. Job was the
term that could visually
summarize, if you will, the "things"
that went into what a worker did.
It was a package. Later, over the
next 100 years, if a person through
education or training had the
"qualifications" for the "job" or
"package," then that person stood
a good chance of "getting the
job."
Work is a very different reality.
Work is an expression of who we
are. Work expresses personhood.
If we believe there is "no work left
out there," then we are in a terrible
situation because we are, in effect,
saying that we are beginning to
die in a very real way. The Middle
Ages theologian and founder of
the Dominican Order, Thomas
Aquinas, said, "To live well is to
work well, or display a good
activity."8
44
In society today, there is enough
work for everyone -- as there
always has been. There may not be
enough jobs, but that's a very
limited way of seeing what needs
to be in our world today. That kind
of thinking is not vision, it's
myopia. Vision is seeing
abundance all around us and
offering our talents to bring that
abundance to fruition. If nothing
else - - as indicated by my
references to emotional
intelligence -- we can "grow
ourselves up" emotionally and
spiritually. The noted late
economist, E.F. Schumacher,
writes:
Everywhere people ask: "What can
I actually do?" The answer is as
simple as it is disconcerting: We
can, each of us, work to put our
own inner house in order. The
guidance we need for this work
cannot be found in science or
technology, the value of which
utterly depends on the ends they
serve; but it can still be found in
the traditional wisdom of
[humankind]."9We define ourselves
in the final analysis by the answer
we give to the reality of death. No
one on his or her deathbed ever
said they wished they could have
spent more time in the office. The
reality of death and dying can only
be answered through a process of
valuing. It's a Pillar VII existential
exercise, if you will. Again, the
measurement of our worth is in
how we became that which we
loved. It is no different
organizationally. The famed Mayo
clinic demonstrates that every day
with its genuine approach to
medical care.10 Hospitals across
Canada were in an uproar because
nurses were feeling not valued.11
When there is emphasis on
systems over service,12 investor
frustration escalates. Bruce
Bodaken, president and chief
 45

operating officer of insurer Blue

Shield of California, rightly says in
renforcing Pillar VII, Valuing: "I
believe that you get greater
effectiveness in your work when
you tie people's personal mission
with the corporate mission."13