[OSList] embracing paradox as a leadership competency

[Marie Nelson via OSList]

Thanks for sharing, Birgitt. It’s a thought-provoking insight.

I experience similar paradoxes in my work as well. They seems to result from distancing myself from a situation/opinion/issue/solution enough to hold my personal opinions and hunches in a light enough way to make shifts in them possible when new information appears.

In teaching I found that holding such openness for myself makes it more likely that others grow more open and shift as well.

Marie
-------------------------
Marie Wilson Nelson
Professor Emerita
Integrated Studies
National Louis University


From: OSList <oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org<mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org>> on behalf of World Wide Open Space Technology <oslist at lists.openspacetech.org<mailto:oslist at lists.openspacetech.org>>
Reply-To: Birgitt Williams <birgitt at dalarinternational.com<mailto:birgitt at dalarinternational.com>>, World Wide Open Space Technology <oslist at lists.openspacetech.org<mailto:oslist at lists.openspacetech.org>>
Date: Thursday, March 10, 2016 at 9:21 AM
To: World Wide Open Space Technology <oslist at lists.openspacetech.org<mailto:oslist at lists.openspacetech.org>>
Subject: [OSList] embracing paradox as a leadership competency

Dear Friends and Colleagues,
Facilitators, change agents, consultants, coaches, moderators and trainers, in my experience, struggle with their role and power as leaders. Years ago, I learned a lot from the late Angeles Arrien about the power of leadership: the power of position, the power of influence, the power of communication. In our roles especially as outsiders to an organization and to the lives of the people involved, we have all three of these powers. I have been active in my pursuit of understanding leadership since I was fifteen and catapulted into leadership positions that I may or may not have been ready for, despite what the adults around me might have believed.
In recent years, one of the leadership competencies that has grown and expanded in me is the ability to embrace paradox, to simultaneously hold two seemingly opposing views or emotions, with both being valid for me. For example, I can recognize in myself to be in extreme gratitude for something simultaneous to feeling extreme anger…containing both emotions simultaneously, not sequentially. I have come to understand how important this is as a leadership competency, and I write about it on this list as I feel it is a most valuable competency for facilitators of OST. I remember way back when Harrison teaching about OST assisting the people in a system working with both chaos and order. I was fascinated by this topic. And yet, today, I admit that as I learned about chaos and order, I seemed to have an internal picture of one, then the other, then the other, kind of like a teeter totter with possibly some kind of balance point at the fulcrum. As I expanded my capacity to handle paradox, I was able to genuinely grasp chaos and order both existing simultaneously.

In understanding and working with OST, I think it is important to embrace paradox and to expand our personal capacity to handle paradox in even very stress filled situations. For example, a paradox that we end up contending with is that everything is open space, and Open Space Technology is a tool. What is the benefit of grasping this paradox, you might ask? If I approach OST as a tool from the simultaneous perspective of ‘everything is open space’, I am going to influence different outcomes than if I approach working with OST only as a tool.

I wrote about embracing paradox recently, so you can see I am feeling deep interest in this topic at the moment http://www.dalarinternational.com/the-power-of-limits. What are your thoughts about ourselves as leaders? What are your thoughts about the importance of expanding personal leadership competency with embracing paradox? Or maybe, in working with OST you are currently developing other leadership competencies? I am interested to see if anyone has interest in showing up to this topic.

With blessings,
Birgitt

Birgitt Williams

President & Senior Consultant of Dalar International Consultancy, Inc.
http://www.dalarinternational.com<http://www.dalarinternational.com/>
Co-founder of the Extraordinary Leadership Network http://www.extraordinaryleadershipnetwork.com<http://www.extraordinaryleadershipnetwork.com/>
Co-founder of the Genuine Contact™program and author of The Genuine Contact Way: Nourishing a Culture of Leadership  http://www.genuinecontactway.com<http://www.genuinecontactway.com/>
Co-owner of the Genuine Contact Co-owners Group Ltd. http://www.genuinecontact.net<http://www.genuinecontact.net/>

Supporting leadership development for leading in a culture requiring agility and flexibility in a performance environment of constant change.

Leadership development at your own pace? Become a member of the Extraordinary Leadership Network http://www.extraordinaryleadershipnetwork.com<http://www.extraordinaryleadershipnetwork.com/> to participate in an online leadership development program designed to increase your leadership skills and capacity.

PO Box 19373, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA 27619
phone: 1-919-522-7750