Bob Stilger's article on a new form of leadership arising in the world based on his doctoral research at CIIS in the early part of this century.

1. The Berkana Institute
The Berkana Institute
Enspirited Leadership:
Landmarks for Uncertain Times
Bob Stilger, PhD
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2. The Berkana Institute
Enspirited Leadership:
Landmarks for Uncertain Times
Bob Stilger, PhD
All around the world, people in community initiatives in many
are stepping forward in new parts of the world. They practice a
ways to provide leadership. In kind of leadership that comes from
many cases, they are not the mind, heart and spirit and provides
people in positions of power in a foundation for effective action in
organizations or communities; the world. They practice what I call
they are simply those who see “enspirited leadership.”
what must be done and are willing The leaders I’ve worked with
to speak, and then to act. Often, come from places like Santos, Brazil,
as they begin to step forward, where the Instituto Elos works in
their hearts are pounding with favelas, or slums, where people have
fear, but they believe the time has few material goods but where the
come to offer a new possibility human spirit is still strong. They
for the future. always begin their work by asking
Where do these leaders come the elders to talk about their lives and
from? What gives them the cour- by looking for patterns of possibility
age to speak up? What capacities in their stories. These leaders come
and practices, if cultivated, support from Edcouch-Elsa High School
people in developing their own in Texas in the United States,
leadership? where a school serving migrant
Over the last four years at The workers has gone from having one
Berkana Institute, I’ve worked with a of the highest dropout rates in
number of younger leaders involved Texas to having the highest rate of
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3. placement in top U.S. colleges. They A Sense of True Calling
come from Johannesburg, South Each of these pioneering leaders
Africa, where the GreenHouse has stepped into his or her work
Project demonstrates how to build because of a strong sense of calling,
green, grow food in urban areas rather than through a methodical,
and practice zero waste. strategic decision-making process.
To support this enspirited work In many ways, life leads them to
in the world, in 2004 Berkana their work. And, of course, their
launched the Berkana Exchange. work then leads them to their life.
We work primarily with learning
centers around the world that
are helping ordinary people step
forward as leaders. Working with
urban youth in Dakar, Senegal,
with villagers in rural Zimbabwe,
across the generations in Udaipur,
India, and with indigenous peoples
in Chiapas, Mexico, these learning Marianne Knuth
centers are helping people offer
whatever leadership they can in Marianne Knuth from Kufunda
these changing times. Learning Village in Zimbabwe ex-
I have identified six key land- plained her commitment to her
marks for enspirited leaders: work in this way:
1. They work from a sense of true “I had this feeling that I had
calling to do it. If I would have thought
2. They journey in the company someone else was going to be able
of others to do it, I would have let them.
3. They live with a spiritual center Maybe that’s being arrogant, but I
4. They demand diversity just had to do it. There was a real
5. Reflective learning guides their fire that was burning—and it was
lives really exciting.”
6. Their work is filled with ambi- Tim Merry, who began a
guity and uncertainty learning center in Holland and
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4. The Berkana Institute
in 2004 started the Shire in Nova the confidence and courage to
Scotia, Canada, said it this way: respond to that which called them?
“It has been a really personal How were they able to step forward
journey. The reason I am doing this while so many who hear such a
work is because it is making me calling choose to ignore it?
stronger, and because it is making
me happy in what I do. I am In the Company of Others
beginning to understand the great- Part of the answer is that they
est gift we can give to the world is don’t do their work alone. Close
friends and family who share deep
bonds of trust, love and respect are
essential for finding the courage
to follow the inner voice. Moving
into new territory, doing work that
seems unconventional and perhaps
even foolish to some, requires com-
panions.
Tim Merry
Some of the most striking
characteristics of the companions
our own happiness, and that’s all we who move together are that they
really have to do. We don’t need to come from different age groups
do anything more than be content and are frequently family members.
with who we are. We don’t have to This pattern is different from the
change the world.” activists of the 1960s. What I recall
What stands out to me from from my twenties was precious
many conversations is that these little connection with siblings, a
leaders follow deep gut instincts distancing from my parents’ ideas,
that tell them where to place their and suspicion about most people
attention and where to create their over thirty.
intentions for action. Their actions In describing how he began , Cire
are conceived in a place of spirit, Kane of Synapse Center in Senegal
not in a place of thought. What said that he kept remembering his
gives these young men and women grandfather’s and parents’ advice:
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5. “‘Dare to build on your relation- predictable world? A partial an-
ships rather than pursuing money. swer, I suspect, is that holding an
Success in life lies in relationships.’ encompassing view requires, at least
I have learned from them the from time to time, a higher level
value of understanding myself and of consciousness. The evolution of
my place in this world. I’m here such consciousness seems to require
because many people contributed to a spiritual practice. Each of these
my development. And I remember learning center founders works from
so much of what happened to me a spiritual center. Their practices are
and understand more myself when
I listen closely to others. My whole
life is a simple movement circling
around community, relationships
and joy. And this community is
expanding every day beyond the
borders of my birth land, crossing
oceans and connecting with many
good-hearted people around the Zoë and Una Nicholson
world.”
There may be some who believe simply a part of their daily lives.
they can make these journeys alone, Zoë Nicholson, founder of
as rugged individuals. But why? Why LifeWorks in England, says:
wouldn’t we all want to find close “I started a meditation practice
companions to share our journey? about the same time I began this
Why wouldn’t we seek others excited work and I realized it was possible
by the same possibilities and the same to have a fuller life at a slower speed.
questions? Where would we find I didn’t really need to run around
nourishment if we traveled alone? filling up my life. I could just slow
down, unpack and my life would
A Spiritual Center be a lot fuller… We can do all the
What do leaders need to have intellectual stuff about saving the
in order to stand with confidence planet, but the bottom line is how
in a complex, changing and un- can I find a way to feel alive?”
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6. The Berkana Institute
Una Nicholson, Zoë’s sister, adds: leaders to hear and trust their inner
“Things just seem to happen a voices and follow their calls. They
lot more harmoniously, bountifully also move, with that spirit, into a
and easily. The right things happen place of reflective learning that acts
at the right time. Surprises come as a compass to guide their action.
along and good things happen.
For me, it just becomes a practice A Demand For Diversity
of being aligned with myself—that When these leaders look at a
seems to provide the path.” given situation, they look for the
surrounding web of relationships
and systems. They look for the
whole picture. The younger leaders
I’ve worked with all have had
experience in multiple cultures.
Such experiences may not be a
precondition for enspirited leader-
ship, but they usually shake people
Manish Jain
up enough that they begin to see the
world more broadly. Ante Glavas
When I asked Manish Jain from who started Horizon in Croatia
India about his work at the core of says:
Shikshantar, the learning center he “When one is born in one
has created with others in Udaipur, culture, it is taken for granted that
India, his response was: the world is as it is. When one then
“This work is not about saving truly learns another culture deeply,
or changing the world, but about then one realizes that there is not a
how I live my own life and live it set way of seeing the world.”
as an invitation to others. As the The capacity to understand that
Bhagavad-Gita says: ‘Try to live the way we view our lives is a con-
the way that you feel is true with struct our minds have created makes
your own inner values. Don’t worry it easier to let go of false certain-
about the results.The presence of a ties. In Beyond Culture, Edward
spiritual center is what allows these Hall suggests that multicultural
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7. experiences demand an expansion in Institute’s board of directors, first
consciousness. Expanded conscious- coined the term “laboratories of
ness is required for this work. grace” in the late 1990s.
The presence of others whose • This work is bigger than any of us
ideas and experiences differ greatly separately, and it still calls on each
from our own invites us to let go of of us to be separate and ourselves.
our limited view of what’s needed • We are called upon to use our
and what can happen. Diversity is a full imagination and learning, our
key to open exploration and inquiry. collective diversity, our respect for
It is what helps us let go of old ideas
and solutions and to search for what
else might be possible.
Reflective Learning as a Guide
For these leaders, the search for
spiritual ground is accompanied by
an ongoing process of surfacing facts
and impressions, revealing patterns Ante Glavas
and assumptions, examining actions
and behaviors, and affirming or synchronicity and mystery, and
changing the course of action. our willingness to be transformed.
This continuous process makes up • We do this important work with
reflective learning. a spirit of play, humor, friendship
In early 2002, I met with many and love. We are connected and
younger leaders in Prague, and we we connect to others.
characterized this approach as follows: • Our local work is critical ground
• Above all, this is a creative adven- from which global transform-
ture. It is experimental. It calls us ation can emerge, with integrity.
to focus our attention on the now. These reflections are alive.
Our work, our lives, are labor- They hold a sense of genuine cur-
atories of grace. Ann Dosher, an iosity. This kind of reflective learn-
elder and community psychologist ing affirms life and invites in-
who has served on The Berkana quiry into the uncertain path of
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8. The Berkana Institute
transformation. The process of supposed to be in charge, when our
making such reflections explicit is self-confidence is based on being
as ordinary for these leaders as their able to predict what will happen
spirituality is. They have a capacity and how things will turn out, then
to move easily from the realm of ambiguity and uncertainty usually
spirit to the realm of thought, and invite our fear to rise up and bite us.
this motion gives them balance. When we are able to release
ourselves into the uncertainty, we
Ambiguity and Uncertainty are invited to become explorers, to
discover what lies ahead as we work
with others to create that future.
Cire Kane put it well:
“Today, the path is still unclear.
It is literally invisible, and yet my
heart is often being moved and
my soul split open. My lovely
work is taking me every day on a
Cire Kane
journey of new experiences. These
experiences are opening my heart
Ambiguity and uncertainty are to the unimaginable beauty of life
befriended in this work. To follow and community around me. Every
a sense of calling, in the company day I awaken to a new day. I go
of others, aware of a diverse world, out into the world with a feeling of
from a spiritual center and with a excitement and joy and a feeling of
clarity about assumptions, is to let being at home, everywhere in our
go of control. There is simply no diverse supportive community. I do
other way. Doing all of those things my work with engagement and joy,
throws the doors of ambiguity and with lots of downs and still many
uncertainty wide open. ups. I break for prayer, sometimes
A choice each of us can make is meditation, often to be with my
whether ambiguity and uncertainty parents or to hang out with friends. I
open a pathway to fear or a pathway love my work. I love my community
to balance. When we think we are and I love the life I’m living. I will
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9. persevere through uncertainty and enspirited work, and they often feel
fear about my ability to carry out discouraged, isolated, lonely and
the mission before me.” disconnected. They’ve forgotten to
make sure that what they are doing
Landmarks in Your Life is their true work. They have lost
The work of these leaders is touch with those around them.
enspirited, in that it comes from a They’re just too busy to slow down
strong inner force that demands and be quiet. They’ll get to reflection
attention. It is appreciative, in that it later. The views of others are just too
looks for strengths that can be built distracting. And, oh yes, wouldn’t it
upon. It is emergent, in that it creates be nice to have some certainty?
both its path and its destination. My work, and that of The
These six landmarks are a guidance Berkana Institute, is to help people
system for work in this territory. be wildly excited and grounded in
As exciting as this work can this kind of work. These landmarks
be, it is also easy to get lost. I have are part of this process.
opportunities to talk with people How are they present in your
all over the world engaged in this life and work?
You can find out more about the people and learning centers that we work and learn
with at www.berkana.org.
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10. The Berkana Institute
Bob Stilger has been helping people create the communities they want
since the early 70s. He’s championed a number of nonprofit ventures where
people are building the world they want tomorrow, today. Bob is the Co-
President of The Berkana Institute, where he works and learns with
younger leaders around the world. His doctoral dissertation, presented in
2004 at the California Institute of Integral Studies, was a joint inquiry with
seven leaders around how they created six learning centers in different parts
of the world. Enspirited Leadership shares some of their collective learning.
www.berkana.org
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