Work to be Done  

Unless we believe that there is no reality and that we are living in a timeless vacuum, there is the matter of daily life as it relates to our collective vision of the future. Until we are ushered into the mansion under construction in the heavenly city, we have work to do here. Even if the mansion is being repeatedly constructed (after the floods, wind or revolution has torn it down), there is daily work to be done (including reconstruction of the mansion).

We must discern the nature and demands made by a vision that is held by all members of a community. There is a unique plan for each person. Secular leaders often do not consider the greater vision or plan. However, a spiritually oriented leader cannot afford to take his or her eyes from that vision. Wherever we are placed, whatever work we must do, all of it must align with this higher, collective vision and purpose. From the street sweeper to the corporate CEO, to presidents and kings and prime ministers, the vision is to be found and engaged in establishing the collective direction for our work here on earth.

Leadership Practice Two: Collaboration and Innovation

Innovation best occurs within communities of shared values. Collaboration and innovation are most productively engaged when members of an organization or community are working together for the greater good. This is the central ingredient of de Tocqueville and Bellah’s habits of the heart.  Innovation is founded on the ability to remain open to thinking in new ways for us, or for our organization or community. It is remembering that while we may be limited in our understanding, or our concepts of how things should or do work, there is great wisdom to be found in collective wisdom and in often surprising wisdom that comes from a higher source–be it divine in nature or the more mundane of magic coming from collaborative dialogue (Gergen and Gergen, 2004).

Furthermore, a spiritual perspective on Best Practice Two suggests that collaboration doesn’t just happen. It requires the creation of original and inventive processes by which two or more people can come together to accomplish common goals – inside or outside a family of shared commitments and beliefs. When the spiritually oriented leader has a task to accomplish, his or her first step is to discern what is right and good, based on commitments made to a specific vision of the future and specific set of moral values. This process of discernment is not easy to engage in a swirling world of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, turbulence, and contradiction—however it is vitally important.

There is another important factor to keep in mind when fostering collaboration and innovation. This factor is diversity (Miller and Page, 2007). We are often told that all human beings are essentially the same (with remarkably similar genetic compositions). Many people misunderstand this to mean that we “look” like one another. It actually implies that we are made with similar attributes and nature. As Sandstrom and Smith (2005) note, we can trust that we have all been made with creative instincts—it is part of our shared genetic makeup. This does not immediately suggest that we are all artists and talented musicians, or any other “creative type” that we usually link with the use of this word. It means that we are able to use our creativity to problem solve, develop opportunities for potential and productive partnership, and generally think outside the norms, being constructively creative.