Seekers Anonymous

The problems we face in the world today are often related to our addictions – addictions to drugs, alcohol, gambling, sex, codependency, video games, violence, work, oil and other cheap energy sources, and consumption to name a few.  With so many of us in one way or another suffering from these addictions, it is no wonder that we inflict the damages we do on our world and our fellow human beings.  Often times these addictive behaviors can actually be encouraged or taken advantage of by the dysfunctional organizations that make up our society.  These organizations include our families, schools, religions, governments, places of work, or corporations.

If we wish to change our behaviors and improve our relationship to the rest of the world, we need to face our individual addictions and challenge our organizations to change.  One suggested method of doing this was outlined in Robert Greenleaf’s essay “On Being a Seeker in the Late Twentieth Century” which was included in the book SEEKER AND SERVANT.  Greenleaf proposed the formation of an organization called "Seekers Anonymous" that would be modeled on the group Alcoholics Anonymous.  He suggested, “For those who participate, healing, in the sense of being made whole, will come from deep involvement with creative work on the structural flaws in our society, work that has both meliorative and society building consequences”.

The organization would be "religious in the root meaning of the word, re ligio, to rebind: to bridge the separation between persons and the cosmos, to heal the widespread alienation, and to reestablish men and women in the role of servants — healers of society."  And he asked this question, “Are we adequately reinforcing one another as seekers in order to build, in each of us, the required competence, clarity, and strength to serve?”

If we hope to implement something like what Greenleaf proposed, we will need to follow the same universal principles contained in the Alcoholic Anonymous Twelve Steps. 

A possible Seekers Anonymous version of these steps might include the following:

1. Admit that our current lifestyles are not working and our powerlessness over our current lifestyle.

2. Believe there is a better way to do things, and trust this better way can be found and restore us to sanity.

3.  Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to this better way, however we understand it.

4. Conduct a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

5. Admit to ourselves and another human being the nature of our problems.

6. Become ready to accept that our old troublesome behaviors and ways of life can be replaced with better ones, and begin looking for what these better options might be.

7. Humbly request that our problematic behaviors and lifestyles be changed.  

8. Make a list of others we have harmed and become willing to make amends.

9. Make direct amends wherever possible; begin implementing changes in our lives.

10. Continue to take personal inventory, and admit and grow from our mistakes.

11. Practice some form of meditation, seeking to find a better way, and the power to carry it out.

12.  Having a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, carry the message to others, and practice these principles in all our affairs.  

For another take on the concept of Seekers Anonymous download and read Larry Spears and Richard Leider’s essay on the topic here. 

I have also posted another blog about the 12 Traditions which could be some guiding principles for operating Seekers Anonymous groups here.

The Absurd

A different form of leadership from what dominates our world today will be needed to guide us into a sustainable future.  In my latest posts I have been referring to Robert Greenleaf’s   servant leadership, which is a prime example of what this leadership will need to encompass.  I have included several quotes from his seminal essay on the topic “The Servant As Leader”.  
 

Reading the essay is what convinced me of the need for servant-leaders to guide us. Delving further into the lives and works of servant-leaders who Greenleaf quotes in the essay has helped me to flesh-out Greenleaf’s ideas on the servant-leader.  A few names from this long list includes the likes of writer Herman Hess, Saint Francis, philosopher Alfred North Whitehead, and poet Robert Frost.

One interesting servant-leader from this list of influencers is the author/philosopher Albert Camus.    According to Greenleaf “Albert Camus stands apart from the other great artists of his time, in my view, and deserves the title of prophet because of his unrelenting demand that each of us confront the exacting terms of our own existence, and, like Sisyphus, accept our rock and find our happiness in dealing with it.”  

What intrigues me about Camus is his writing that delves into the philosophy of absurdism.     Some quotes from his book THE MYTH OF SISYPHUS that help define the philosophy follow. 

There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide.  Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy.

Living, naturally, is never easy.  You continue making the gestures commanded by existence for many reasons, the first of which is habit.  Dying voluntarily implies that you have recognized, even instinctively, the ridiculous character of that habit, the absence of any profound reason for living, the insane character of that daily agitation, and the uselessness of suffering.  

(…), in a universe suddenly divested of illusions and lights, man feels an alien, a stranger.  His exile is without remedy since he is deprived of the memory of a lost home or the hope of a promised land.  This divorce between man and his life, the actor and his setting, is properly the feeling of absurdity.  All healthy men having thought of their own suicide, it can be seen, without further explanation, that there is a direct connection between this feeling and the longing for death.

One kills oneself because life is not worth living, that is certainly a truth – yet an unfruitful one because it is a truism.  But does that insult to existence, that flat denial in which it is plunged come from the fact that it has not meaning?  Does its absurdity require one to escape it through hope or suicide – this is what must be clarified, hunted down, and elucidated while brushing aside all the rest.

All great deeds and all great thoughts have a ridiculous beginning.  Great works are often born on a street corner or in a restaurant’s revolving door.  So it is with absurdity.   

Rising, streetcar, four hours in the office or the factory, meal, streetcar, four hours of work, meal, sleep, and Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday and Saturday according to the same rhythm – this path is easily followed most of the time.  But one day the “why” arises and everything begins in that weariness tinged with amazement.  “Begins” – this is important.  Weariness comes at the end of the acts of a mechanical life, but at the same time it inaugurates the impulse of consciousness.  It awakens consciousness and provokes what follows.  What follows is the gradual return into the chain or it is the definitive awakening.  At the end of the awakening come, in time, the consequence: suicide or recovery.   

As I look around at the absurdity that fills our world today, I find myself asking the question why.  Until we start to ask that question and then begin our search for the answer, we cannot awaken.  It seems though that the world is starting to awaken and a search for a new way is beginning.  Greenleaf’s message on the servant-leader is a key to finding the answers we seek and his prophet Camus can guide us through the absurdity that fills our world.      

Lunar Eclipse

Last weeks lunar eclipse reminded me of the movie Moon and how our corporations of today try to hide the impacts of their profit motives.  In the movie, it is the near future and astronaut Sam Bell works a solitary job on the far side of the moon.  His cooperate employer Lunar Industries is mining the answer to earths energy problems – Helium-3.  As he nears the end of his three-year contract to keep the operations running, he experiences an accident while trying to conduct repairs to the mining equipment.  

Waking up in the sickbay of the moon station, he is confronted by a clone of himself.  Sam and his clone discover that the corporation has stockpiled a multitude of incubating clones each one waiting to be woken in turn to replace the acting clone when their bodies are worn out by the end of their three-year contract.  By simply replacing the workers with clones, the corporation can avoid the high costs of sending new recruits to the moon and the extensive training that would be required to replace them every three years.

The corporations of today may not have reached the levels of unethical behavior portrayed by Lunar Industries, but they are driven by the same motive that fueled it – profit.  Robert Greenleaf understood well the consequences of corporations driven by profit, or money above and beyond that needed to meet their needs.  

In his essay “Spirituality As Leadership” from the book SEEKER AND SERVANT, he wrote, “Another aspect of money that concerns the quest for spirituality as leadership is the problem of those who have more money then their legitimate needs require, thus giving them power over those who have less money than they think they need, including those at or below the poverty level.  The power exists whether they loan the money at interest, invest it for the return of rent or dividends, speculate in some venture, hide it in a mattress, or give it away.”

For Greenleaf, the only bottom line that mattered in an organization that practiced servant leadership was his best test of the servant-leader from the essay “The Servant As Leader” in the book SERVANT LEADERSHIP – “Do those served grow as persons?  Do they, while being served become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants.  And, what is the effect on the least privileged in society?  Will they benefit or at least not be further deprived?”
 

Where this best test becomes a true test and where our current corporations fail is when you expand the concept of who is served by the organization.  Who is served is not just the shareholders, it is not just the CEO’s, it is not just the management, it is not just the workers, nor is it just the customers of the corporation.  Those that are served needs to include all those who are touched by the consequences of the corporation’s actions and operating principles.        
 
The key question “what is the effect on the least privileged?” really gets at the need to be aware of who is served and who and what are the impacts. These consequences need to include those from the supply chain, the environmental impacts on the ecosystem and our planet, and the social and cultural impacts on the community. 

It is the complex global nature of today's corporations that makes determining who is served and what the impacts are nearly impossible, which is not an accident.  Avoiding consequences and maximizing profits are the main reasons our corporations of today move operations to areas with low labor costs and lack of environmental regulations.

As we become more aware of the consequences of these motives on our people and our planet, moving corporate operations off earth and to the moon does not seem so far fetched. To avoid an even worse future, it is time to stop cloning the profit driven motive of our corporate world and it is time to stop trying to eclipse their effects with terms like “corporate social responsibility” or “the triple bottom line of profit – people – and planet”.   

Instead, we need to create new models of operation where we can truly be aware of our actions and truly test the resulting servant-leader institutions.  And local production to meet local needs is a key to unmasking the consequences of our production and consumptive driven lives.             

Loving The World

As we come to the end of another year, we naturally tend to reflect on the past, and look for hope for the future.  Looking back at the past year, it reveals much opportunity for growth in our world – we have to find better ways to get along with the people we share our planet with then going to war with them, we have to find better ways to share our material wealth, we have find ways to help the ecosystems that sustain us to thrive, we need to find ways to scale back our obsession with possession and live more simply, more sustainably. 

In his 1970 essay “The Servant As Leader” Robert Greenleaf pointed out that “the only way to change a society (or just make it go) is to produce people, enough people, who will change it (or make it go).  The urgent problems of our day – a senseless war, destruction of the environment, poverty, alienation, discrimination, overpopulation – are here because of human failure, individual failures, one person, one action at a time failures.  (…).  We will recover from this by growing people, one person at a time, people who have the goals, competence, values, and spirit to turn us about.  (…).  But at the base it will be one person and one action at a time because there isn’t anything else to work with.” (Page 72, THE SERVANT LEADER WITHIN ). 

Things haven’t changed much in the forty years since Greenleaf first wrote that essay, and his suggested solution to the problems of his day is also the solution to the problems that remain with us today – we as individuals need to take our individual actions to get the ball rolling.  In his parable “Teacher As Servant”, Greenleaf pointed out what I believe is a key factor for individuals to grasp if they have any hope of being successful in taking the actions that are needed to turn our society towards a better path:  “I can only urge that you ponder those wonderful lines from Hermann Hess (but I cannot tell you where they are in his writing): ‘It is only important to love the world,’ he said, ‘… to regard the world and ourselves and all beings with love, admiration, and respect.’”  (Page 138, THE SERVANT LEADER WITHIN )

And so as our world make begins another circuit around our Sun,  I would encourage you to reflect on the question and some other thoughts posed by Margaret Wheatley in her book TURNING TO ONE ANOTHER, that can lead us towards becoming more loving toward our world, so that we can take actions to make our society more loving. 

“What is the relationship I want with the earth?  Other species don’t have the same challenge as we humans.  They participate with their environment, they watch, they react.  We humans, in contrast, dream, plan, figure things out.  Because we have consciousness, we create our own set of rules rather then submitting to the laws of nature that govern all life.  We use consciousness to try and bend the world to our own purposes.”

“There’s a principle in ecology that nature always has the last word.  And that’s what’s happening now.  We believe waste could just accumulate, but polluted air and poisoned water are teaching us this is not true.  We believed we could grow as large as we dreamed, but the ungovernable nature of huge organizations and the devastated lives of those in mega-cities are teaching us this is not true.  We’ve invested in science to manufacture life to suit ourselves, hoping we might even overcome death, but frightening pandemics and new diseases are teaching us that we live in a web of interconnectedness, and that death is a part of life.”  

“We need to learn how to be good neighbors.  I believe the easiest way to become partners with life is to get outside, to be in nature and let her teach us.  About half of us no longer have this option.  Half the world’s population live in large cities, breathing polluted air, unable to see the stars, never knowing peace or quiet.  I grieve for those of us who cannot know the feel of wild places, the sound of the small stream, the shade of a grove of trees.  But for those of us who still have nature available to us, it is even more important that we get outside.  We need to experience the power and beauty of life on behalf of all humans who no longer can do this themselves.”  

“If we can do these things, we will fall in love with life again.  We will become serious about sustaining life rather than destroying it.”

“We have to take care of everything, because it’s all part of the same thing.”    


A peaceful holiday to all.

Servant-Leader

In his essay titled “The Servant As Leader”, Robert Greenleaf spelled out his ideas on a type of leadership that he believed was needed to address the urgent problems of his day – “the disposition to venture into immoral and senseless wars, destruction of the environment, poverty, alienation, discrimination, [and] overpopulation (…).”  Greenleaf’s essay put out a call for servant-leaders to step forward and take on these issues.  He defined the servant-leader as follows.

The servant-leader is servant first (…).  It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first.  Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead.  That person is sharply different from one who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possession.  For such, it will be a later choice to serve – after leadership is established.  The leader-first and the servant-first are two extreme types.  Between them are shadings and blends that are part of the infinite variety of human nature.  

The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant-first to make sure other peoples highest priority needs are being served.  The best test, and difficult to administer, is this:  Do those served grow as persons?  Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants?  And, what is the effect on the least privileged in society?  Will they benefit or at least not be further deprived?

Forty years have passed since Greenleaf first put out his call, and unfortunately not many servant-leaders have stepped up to face the challenges.  Our world continues to be ravaged by senseless wars, the wealthy get wealthier and the poor poorer, and our world continues to be destroyed at own our hands.  These problems continue to occur just as they did in 1970, “because of human failures, individual failures, one person at a time, one action at a time failures”.  So now, more then ever servant-leaders need to step up and take action, one servant-leader at a time and begin to “Create dangerously”.  

Post “Black Friday” Thanks

How does thanks-giving relate to leadership?  Being thankful is definitely a key to being a good leader, without this “attitude of gratitude” it becomes to easy to become mired down in wanting more; forgetting that more often then not we have all that we really need.  Satisfying the most important needs is really what leadership is all about, for it is in helping others to meet their own needs that we become more whole ourselves.  I believe that a key to being successful as a leader is to be able to discern what an important need is, and what is a want for more.  

Yesterday was  called “Black Friday”, one of the biggest shopping days of the year.  A day that is really not about meeting needs, but mostly about wanting more.   So how to we remember to be thankful after this day of meeting wants? 

 I came across a few articles that helped remind me what I need to be thankful for. 

An article on Wikipedia discusses the alternative to the “Black Friday” consumption celebration of “Buy Nothing Day.”   For me this is a good reminder that everyday should be about becoming more aware of what it is I buy, and what my motives are for buying it.  Do I buy because I really need something or just because I want to buy something?

An article by Robert Jensen titled "No Thanks to Thanksgiving points out that we often forget about some of the real costs of the pilgrims and other settlers coming to American, namely the genocide of the native peoples that occurred in the aftermath of the first thanksgiving. 

The essay titled “Thanksgiving: A Native American View” by Jacqueline Keeler is a reminder that many native people believe in the importance of giving rather then the concept of selling. She writes, “Among many of our peoples, showing that you can give without holding back is the way to earn respect. Among the Dakota, my father's people, they say, when asked to give, ‘Are we not Dakota and alive?’ It was believed that by giving there would be enough for all -- the exact opposite of the system we live in now, which is based on selling, not giving.”

So perhaps it is time to be thankful for our needs being met, to remember atrocities that have been committed in the name of greed, to learn to grow to be more accepting of all people, and to share the gifts that have been bestowed upon us.  

Twelve Traditions: Foundations For Community Sustainability.

If we want to create a sustainable society, we have to overcome many dysfunctional practices that dominate our existing organizations.  We will need to create healthy organizations that have new focuses.  A proven model for creating a healthy organization was developed by the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA).  AA and other Twelve Step groups have a history of demonstrating a power to help their members to become healthier.  They also have a history of sustenance, they have been around for many generations, and most likely they will be around for many more.  Typically, these groups utilize some form of the Twelve Traditions    written by the founding members of AA as operating guidelines for the groups.  Practicing the Traditions keeps the groups healthy and functioning to achieve their purpose, in the same way that the Twelve Steps keep the individual members of the group healthy.

The traditions embody a number of universal concepts that are requirements for any healthy community to embrace.  These concepts include 1 - common good, 2 - deeper meaning, 3 -  inclusiveness, 4 - autonomy, 5 - purpose, 6 - respect, 7 - self-sufficiency, 8 – cooperation, 9 -creativity, 10 - focus, 11 - attraction, and 12 - anonymity.  The Traditions can be refined, combined, or better defined to fit the specific needs of the community, but their core concepts need to be retained for community to be sustained.   What follows is a suggested generic version of the Twelve Traditions that could be used as a starting point for guidelines for any community or organization.  The Traditions described below are based on writings contained in the Alcoholic Anonymous publication Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions (PDF Version of the book available here )and the Al-Anon Family Groups publication How Al-Anon Works.
 
Tradition One:  Our common good should come first; personal progress for the greatest number depends upon unity. 

This is the tradition that requires that the purpose of the group needs to come before the individual desires of the group members.  It is about working for the common good.  Diversions often times prevent healthy growth or productivity in organizations. This roadblock to real productivity can come from dominating leaders or members.   The First Tradition reminds us to stay focused on what the group is really about, and to avoid diversions by personal agenda’s.  Private agenda’s may have a place in our personal lives, but when we choose to participate in a community, it needs to be because we believe in the power of working together.  The synergistic power of the group can accomplish exponential results as compared to one-person agendas.  Consensus builds unity.  A clear mission and focus as defined in the Fifth Tradition is required in order to implement this and the other Traditions.    

Second Tradition: We are called to a higher meaning or purpose in life - expressed in our group conscience.  Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.

This tradition could simply say, “We practice servant leadership guided by meaning.”  What makes this Tradition different from many other groups is the focus on being led a higher meaning or purpose, and the freedom individuals have to express what it is they hear their higher calling to be.  What is important is not how you define the source of this calling, but simply that you acknowledge its existence.  This purpose as expressed through the individual members is the group conscious.  All members are equal, junior members and senior members bring equal value to the group; all are capable of expressing wisdom to inspire.  Rotation of leadership roles occurs throughout the membership.  The primary role of leadership is to carry out the group conscience, not to dictate it.  There is no dictator; there is cooperation.     

Tradition Three - The only requirement for membership is a desire to participate in the purpose of the community.

Only an individual member has the authority to decide if that individual will belong to the group.  If the individual wants to belong, they belong.  There are no requirements, credentials, gender limitations, income limitations, ethnicity restrictions, religious preferences, or any other restrictions.  No applications are filled out, no dues are paid, no membership lists are kept, and no attendance is taken.  Participation is equivalent to membership.

Tradition Four:  Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting the community as a whole.

For individuals to achieve autonomy, the groups to which they belong must also be autonomous. Real change in organizations occurs through self-governance, not outside control.  Restrictions, rules, dictations, and governance from outside the community restrict creativity.  Autonomy empowers the individuals that make up a group to speak their mind and participate in the creative process.  This is the tradition that grants freedom of choice to the groups to meet their own needs.  This tradition also links back to the first tradition in that the only time group autonomy is overruled is when the common welfare that guides the whole community is threatened. 

Tradition Five – Each community has but one purpose: to help the members to reach their full potential.

There needs to be clarity about why the group has come together and what it is the group hopes to accomplish. This Tradition is the glue that holds the community together. This is the tradition that reminds us that neglecting those who still suffer is a threat to our own sanity and that the essence of all healing is compassion; compassion of not only others, but also ourselves.  Compassion is about respect, tolerance, and acceptance of ourselves, others, and those who may have wronged us.  Carrying the message of healing to others (who are receptive to hearing it) allows us to hear the message ourselves as we see it reflected in others.  When we help others to reach their potential, we in essence reach our own. 

Tradition Six:  A community ought never endorse, finance, or lend the community name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property, and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.

Affiliation with outside groups can lead to distraction from the primary purpose of the group.  Staying focused on the goal of the group is what makes accomplishments possible.  Group supports of external organizations can be the downfall of purpose.  It can also be a form of manipulation or control of these outside groups.  Respect for others and focus on the group’s goals are required.           

Tradition Seven:  Every community ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.

A self-supporting organization, one that relies on its members for sustenance, will be self-sustaining and self-sufficient.  It will exist as long as its membership exists.  Funding provided from outside the community cannot distract the community from its primary purpose.  The corrupting power of excessive wealth, beyond what is needed to meet essential needs, does not come into play in organizations that practice self-support.  Self-supporting organizations create interdependence amongst the members, not dependence on outside influences. This tradition also goes beyond the monetary aspects of support in that the membership also takes responsibility for the service work that is needed to keep a community functioning.  The members step up to perform duties needed to keep the community intact.  The members are the organization.  

Tradition Eight:  The work of the community should be done by the community, not outside professionals or organizations.  At times special workers may be needed to assist.  
The work of the community is the glue to holds it together and that gives it its meaning.  Therefore, it needs to be done by the community members, not outsiders.  There may be times when specialized knowledge or assistance is needed to help reach the goal of the community, and in these cases it is alright to utilize outside help.  Cooperation is what is needed to form community.   

Tradition Nine:  The community as such, ought never be organized: but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve. 
 
This is the tradition that prevents the implementation of rules and regulations that restrict creativity and community building, and that place the power of control into the hands of a few.  Instead, the group needs to be empowered to accomplish great things.  Creation from the heart cannot occur with hampering restrictions.  This does not mean there is no guidance or order that guides the group.  The Traditions are examples of guidelines that encourage meaningful creation to occur through nourishing creativity. Dis-organizing is what allows organization to evolve.

Tradition Ten – The community has no opinion on outside issues; hence, the community ought never be drawn into public controversy.

Like Tradition Six, this tradition is designed to avoid diverting attention to issues that are not directly related to the group purpose.  It helps avoid the self-righteousness that can overcome groups that try to take on other issues, or force their views on others outside the organization. And it can help to avoid the trap of symptom chasing - trying to deal with the symptoms of what is wrong with society, rather then helping the community (and the membership) to become all that it can be.  This Tradition requires neutrality on controversial topics like religion and politics; for focusing on these charged issues can alienate those, we hope to serve, and divert us from our common cause.  This does not mean that individual members give up their rights and responsibilities to act on issues or causes that they believe in.  The group does not have the answers for everyone; the path we choose to follow is one that works for us.   

Tradition Eleven – Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather then promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity in the media.     

Organizations need to be able to share what they have to offer.  A successful community does not need to sell itself; its success speaks for it. As the members of the community find meaning through participation in the organization, that meaning reflects in their interactions with others.  No one member of a successful community can speak for the whole organization.  The community is not about one person; it is about the whole.  The failures or actions of one individual acting as a spokesperson for the community can bring down the whole organization.  Charismatic leaders do not build successful organizations; cooperation among the membership does.  

Tradition Twelve – Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.

The work produced by the community is important, personal ambitions are not.  Successful organizations outlast the personalities that make them up.  Anonymity is what keeps us humble; it is what keeps us equal; and it is what reminds us who we are.  Giving up personal desires for the common good is the foundation of all the traditions.  Depending on the type of organization, there may also be a need to protect the anonymity of the membership, in order to allow the membership to thrive.