Give Thanks to Those Who Source Our Food

This just in from Food Democracy Now!…

Click here to watch this important video by the Coalition for Immokalee Workers. Join us on Facebook to tell us what you’re Thankful for this year!   This Thanksgiving, give thanks to the farmers and farmworkers who make this meal possible. It’s that time of year again. Every fall people travel across the country or just across town to share a meal with family, friends and loved ones in order to celebrate another year of health, happiness and good food. Born from the tradition of one tribe bravely and generously helping another tribe in a time of need, this celebration has turned into an annual feast where our nation sits down collectively to share in the gratitude over another bountiful harvest. Here at Food Democracy Now!, we wanted to take a moment and say that we are all thankful for the opportunity to work with so many amazing people across the country who are dedicated to building a truly sustainable food system that improves the lives of farmers, workers, eaters, communities and the planet. Every day I wake up looking for a way to convey one of the most important messages of our time: if you want to change the world, change how you eat. In addition, at Food Democracy Now! we strive to give you opportunities to help make that happen through positive action. Central to the growing understanding of how what we eat impacts the planet is knowing where our food comes from, how it was raised, who grew it and helped that food find its way to our tables. Fortunately, there’s no shortage of incredible people and organizations out there working to educate more Americans and helping bring the change we need to thrive in the 21st century. One tradition that we have in our household is that at every meal we take a moment to say what we are thankful for. Inevitably, it always comes back to the food: Who cooked it, who helped prepare it and who raised it and brought the food to our tables. Here at Food Democracy Now!, we’d like to ask you to join us in this tradition by joining us on Facebook and sharing with us what you are Thankful for. If there are any farmers that you’d like to give a shout out to, please mention them too. http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/285?akid=233.53115.00i8JC&t=8 As we sit down to eat this symbolic meal, nothing could be as important as honoring the individuals that labor everyday on farms and in the fields, often doing backbreaking work, with very little financial reward to make it possible for us to nourish our bodies. I wanted to share an important video with each of you and ask that you pass it on. http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/282?akid=233.53115.00i8JC&t=10 This video highlights an impressive campaign by The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) who have advocated tirelessly for the rights of farmworkers to be paid a decent wage for the work of picking tomatoes. Every day in Florida, workers go out into the fields under the hot sun to pick the tomatoes that end up on our plates. For a full bucket of tomatoes, weighing 32 pounds, farmworkers are only paid 45 to 50 cents. Unimaginably, this wage has not changed in more than 30 years. Fortunately, there are groups like the Coalition of Immokalee Workers who are advocating to change this. Incredibly, these farmworkers are only asking for a raise of as little as a penny a pound. As we eat our Thanksgiving meals this year, I want to ask that we all begin to think deeper about our food and the consequences that our meals have on everything around us. It’s really unfathomable that as little as a penny per pound could make a difference in someone’s life, but time after time, as we’ve found out, it’s the little changes that eventually add up. Here at Food Democracy Now!, we’d like to honor all the farmers and farmworkers who make this day possible and to all the people across the country working tirelessly to bring us the stories of those who help make the world a better place by growing and harvesting our food. With gratitude, Dave Murphy Founder and Executive Director Food Democracy Now!

Red Letter Christianity, Black Letter Epistle-anity, or Whole-Canon Spirituality?

Frank Viola pointed to Leonard Sweet’s Napkin Scribbles podcast awhile back, where Sweet explains why he won’t join Red Letter Christians or The Beatitudes Society. Frank asks what we think of Len’s reasons, which you can (and should, for the purposes of this post) listen to here. This is what I think.

I appreciate what Sweet’s saying here about the sometimes-seeming arbitrariness of exalting one portion of Scripture over & above others – for instance, many Reformed Christians seem to exalt the Old Testament to the exclusion of the New Testament altogether! But the flip-side of this observation is that we all do it – whether we acknowledge it or not, we all have our “canon within the canon” to which we afford pride of place. Sweet himself does this when he, after noting that “Red Letters” are themselves an outdated metaphor, then launches into how Paul seemed to care very little about the historical teachings of Jesus. I happen to agree with this assertion, but so what?

Using the “all Scripture is God-breathed” lens that he introduces as his hermeneutic, why should we care what Paul did or did not emphasize if we ought to be…I dunno what Sweet might call us…Whole-Canon Christians? The very existence of the teachings of Jesus in the Gospels would make the teachings of Jesus important, regardless of whatever is or isn’t found in Paul. (And of course, conversely, it would make Paul’s perspectives and understandings important, regardless of what is or isn’t in the Gospels) In short: I like his avoiding the ditch that could characterize some contemporary social justice emphasizing Christians, but I’m not yet convinced that he wouldn’t steer us into the opposite ditch of reading the Epistles to the exclusion of the Gospels – the ditch that the worst excesses of Protestantism has been steering us in for 400 years.

Why do we vacillate from ditch to ditch? Let me offer a possible reason, speaking as a very young Gen-Xer (born in the last years that it’s acceptable to be an X-er, but I’m rather out of place as a Millennial) who has deep sympathies with the theologies that make my friends Sweet and Viola nervous: The reason why groups like The Beatitudes Society seem to be more focused on following Jesus rather than believing in Jesus is because we, generationally, have significant doubts about the kind of world has been left in the wake of “believing in Jesus.” Even if Jesus’ teaching is simply a re-assertion and universalizing of core Judaic values (or indeed, an ethical core at the center of all the great world religions), these are values that we feel the world is out of touch with, and desperately needs. If the Church had followed the Sermon on the Mount instead of  canon law reflecting Christendom-Empire values, would we see the massive devaluation of human, animal, and ecological life that runs rampant today?

For many in my generation, an over-emphasis of the metaphysics of Paul’s Epistles seems to have created a world where ‘spiritual’ salvation is divorced from practical change, where the state of one’s soul seems to have little bearing on the way we treat one another. Nowadays we distrust metaphysics in general – too much talk of God (even in church!) makes us nervous. A dear friend of mine recently asked me wistfully, “Couldn’t we love another another, serve one another, sing, eat together, even pray and meditate, without God? ‘God’ seems to have caused so much pain, and so many problems, in our lives.”

Focusing on the beatitudes, justice and morality of Jesus might indeed be lowest-common-denominator stuff compared to the semiotic actions, signs and wonders, symbol-laden death, vindicating resurrection, astonishing ascension, and (allegedly) transforming indwelling of Jesus the Christ, but for many bewildered Christians of the Red Letter ilk, starting over from square one with the Son of Man seems not only the sanest course of action, but the only viable alternative we have, facing conceptual-metaphysical burnout. Just give us something to do, please, and don’t tell us we have to believe anything.

And yet, having swam in such waters for the past 3-5 years, I have to confess that this perspective is bankrupt, damaging, and most certainly not sustainable. I do not say this as a judgmental outsider, but a sympathetic insider. I love me some deconstruction, some Caputo, Kearney, and Rollins; if given a desert island Bonhoeffer choice, I’ll take Letters and Papers from Prison with it’s death-row-conceived Religion-less Christianity over the bright-eyed idealism of The Cost of Discipleship any day. Give me divine mystery, holy opacity, the via negativa and apophatic mysticism. Revelation conceals as much as it reveals, and I think such a perspective is a healthy corrective of overly-positivist, modernist articulations of Christianity, where there’s a 1:1 correlation to what we imagine to be true and What Exists.

Still – a human life and human faith cannot be nourished in the long term from wholly deconstructive faith paired with righteous activism. We’ll become burned-out husks, without an epistemological web of meaning to rest in. Further, the culture at large, while suspicious of metanarratives, craves a larger meaning-making story to situate ourselves in. It can’t be a contemporvant version of What’s Come Before, but needs to be a deeply-rooted yet wide-open faith, with the human and divine Christ at the center. And I stand by what I said in June – Sweet and Viola’s work is a crucial, needed, and important Evangelical contribution to the re-enchantment and re-faithing that must happen in the next 10 years if Christianity is to be transfigured.

It seems obvious that – given the very real ecological and humanitarian crises (as well as opportunities) that face us, things we need to act on immediately if we are to survive as a species and a culture – we all need each other. It doesn’t do to dismiss Red Letter Christians only to over-correct in a “Paul Only” Protestant throwback. We need a recovery of the mystical, the positional, and the activist dimensions of faith; we need a gospel that is Good News for the cosmos; we need Sweet and McLaren (and Boff, for that matter, not to mention the scores of unsung women theologians and leaders who truly make up half the sky); we need the same kind of risk-taking taken with early, transgressive works like Quantum Spirituality, and drawing on voices like Brian Swimme, Tim King, Ken Wilber, Cynthia Bourgeault, Michael Dowd, the late Thomas Berry, and Bruce Sanguin. We might not agree with everything these folks are saying and doing, but they’re out there, interaction with the questions and crises that people are facing today, as well as addressing the perennial questions of humanity’s search for meaning. Since when is 100% agreement the prerequisite for operating in grace? At what point did we begin thinking that any of our factions could compass an infinite God? Is the idea of a generous orthodoxy so hopelessly early 2000s? As Tim King says, we all need to come together at the intersection of mystery and humility.

All hands on deck, ladies and gentlemen. Spaceship Earth is in for some rough turbulence in the decades ahead – materially, spiritually, kosmically. We need a coordinated effort, not a spitting contest between so-called orthodox, so-called heretics, and everything in between. We’ll need the wisdom of crowds, the nerve of leaders, and the collaboration of every domain of knowledge – as well as its transcendence. Are you with me?

Big Agriculture Declares War on Food Safety, Small Farmers

This just crossed my desk from Food Democracy Now, a grassroots advocacy group promoting slow, local, regional, and sustainable food for everyone. Please read and take action.

Urgent: Big Ag is trying to kill food safety reform in the Senate today – Give farmers and our children a fighting chance.

Click here to call your Senators Now!

So far you’ve made over 7,000 calls to your Senators – Can they Hear US Now?

Are you committed to change?  Call your Senator to pass food safety legislation now.

This past week the action in the U.S. Senate has been fast and furious. In the past 48 hours more than 7,000 Food Democracy Now! members have made phone calls to their Senators asking them to include provisions in the Food Safety Modernization Act that protected family-scale farm operations from excessive regulations. You’re incredible.

Remarkably, as a result of your phone calls the Senate reached a deal on the Tester-Hagan Amendment yesterday morning. Now Big Ag has decided to throw a tantrum. Late yesterday afternoon a coalition of 20 produce groups sent a “letter” to Senate leadership urging the defeat of the Food Safety Modernization Act.

Big Ag is claiming that these important farmer protection provisions are part of an “ideological war” and are doing everything they can behind the scenes to kill this important legislation.

But we can’t let them. There’s too much at stake. Every year more than 5,000 people die as a result of foodborne diseases and more than 76 million fall ill according to the Centers for Disease Control.

If you care about food safety and family farmers we’re asking you to make one more call to your Senators to make sure they understand how important passing this bill is to their constituents. We can’t let Big Ag lobbyists put petty politics over lives or farmer’s livelihoods.

Click below to tell your Senator to pass the Food Safety bill, tell them consumers and family farmer’s deserve to be protected, not Big Ag lobbyists!

http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/279?akid=231.53115.cbSYY3&t=7

Late Thursday evening the Senate voted 57 to 27 to move forward on the food safety bill, incredibly, some 16 Senators skipped this important vote. No wonder they call it a lame duck session! As you well know, to get this bill to pass a full vote, we’ll need 60 votes, so every vote counts. Make sure these Senator are there for the next important vote!

Democratic Senators that missed the vote included:

Evan Bayh (D-IN) and Arlen Specter (D-PA)  – both lame ducks.

John Kerry (D-MA), Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) and Jim Webb (D-VA) — no excuses.

Since the bill is being supported down fiercely partisan lines, we wanted to make sure that Food Democracy Now! members knew which Democratic Senators did not make this vote. If they had showed up, the vote would have been 63 to 27 — enough to get it to a full floor vote and passed into law.

If you live in their state make sure you call them again and tell them how important this bill is to protect children and family farmers.

http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/279?akid=231.53115.cbSYY3&t=9

Call All Republicans!  They are Scheming with Big to kill food safety reform.

On the Republican side of the aisle, support for the bill is weak, with only 4 Republican Senators voting for to proceed. As with everything in DC in these past few years, partisans would rather throw up roadblocks than do the people’s business.

It’s time to remind them who they work for. If you have a Republican Senator in your state, call them now.

In an odd show of weakness, 4 of the Republican sponsors of the bill either voted against cloture last night or skipped the vote.

Republican S.510 Sponsor who went AWOL on Food Safety Cloture Vote:

Judd Gregg (R-NH) lame duck Senator retiring – if you live in NH make sure that you call him and tell him to VOTE FOR the food safety bill and support consumer safety and family farmers.

Republican S.510 Sponsors who voted NO on Cloture Vote:

Richard Burr (R-NC) , Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), Johnny Isakson (R-GA)

Remember, these are Senators who actually sponsored the bill, i.e. supported it until now, when the Tester amendment was added, the amendment that you called for, and then they started caving to industry pressure.

If you live in their state let them know you care about food safety, local foos and family farmers! Click below.

http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/279?akid=231.53115.cbSYY3&t=11

Special Treat Performance on Food Safety

And last, but not least, Food Democracy Now! wanted to let you know about Senator Tom Coburn M.D. (R-OK), the single biggest obstacle preventing the food safety bill from passing.

Yesterday on the Senate floor, Senator Coburn gave an unbelievable performance, rambling and misstating basic facts about foodborne illnesses in the U.S.

Not only is Coburn ignorant about food safety, but in his fierce partisan desire to kill this important bill — which will protect us from serious food safety outbreaks — he proves he doesn’t care about America’s 300 million citizens who urgently need this bill.

Instead, Coburn would rather stall progress for family farmers by demanding that the U.S. ban all earmark spending through 2013. As a result of Coburn’s unreasonable demands, what food experts Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser have called “the most important food safety bill in a generation”, it languishes on a pyre of self-righteous political grandstanding.

If you live in Oklahoma, please tell Senator Coburn to stop playing chicken with your children’s food.

Let Senator Coburn know that AMERICA needs food safety reform now. America’s citizens and our farmers deserve protection.

Word on the street in DC is that Senator Coburn tried to broker a deal with Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) on the food safety bill and take away important provisions like “mandatory reporting”.

Tell Senator Harkin to steal Coburn’s cookies and stand strong! Pass the food safety bill as is. No more compromise, no more wasted time.

Don’t let Big Ag and one angry man’s crusade stand in the way of this important legislation — Act Today — this could be our last best chance to achieve important food safety reforms.

Make a call today — don’t let America’s children wait to grow up before this opportunity comes up again.

http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/279?akid=231.53115.cbSYY3&t=13

As always, thanks for participating in food democracy,

– Dave, Lisa and The Food Democracy Now! Team

Why Did I Let This Man Put His Hands on Me? A Rolfing Immersion

So recently at a party my buddy Jared says to me: “Hey, have you ever tried Rolfing?” Now, we were each drinking some but I wasn’t feeling the slightest bit sick.

“Um, no, I’m fine – no need to throw up. Why do you ask?”

“No, not ralfing, Rolfing!”

“Like the Muppet?”

Jared was buzzed, but he was not inarticulate. He proceeded to describe Rolfing, a hands-on method of muscular and skelatal change that frees restrictions in the ligaments, tendons, and muscles, freeing up your body to to be footloose and fancy-free. Then I remembered: A friend of mine back in Georgia who suffered for years from the rare disease Dystonia had gained some benefit from Rolfing. Of course, that friend described Rolfing as “flaying the muscles from your body.” Didn’t sound too pleasant at the time.

Now Jared is the kind of guy you love to hate – athletic, like -2% bodyfat, a real go-getter. Why on earth was he of all people getting this Rolfing? Well, it was helping his posture, for one thing. And improving his biking and martial arts practice. I don’t have biking or martial arts skills to improve – sadly – but as a desk-jockey, I can always improve on my posture (though my posture is leagues better than many in my – ahem – position, thanks to Dr. Joe at North Raleigh Chiropractic). This was brought home to me in September when my friend Brandon snapped off an otherwise-amazing pic of me giving an announcement from the stage of Big Tent Christianity – I look like some kinda hunchback! (Brandon, why don’t you come down from the hills of West Virginia for a redo once I have my extreme makeover? You make even toads look good with your signature photography style – I can’t wait ’till I more nearly resemble a prince!)

“So who’s your Rolfer?” I ask Jared, trying to make it sound like it was all my idea.

“Jason Sager of Raleigh Rolfing,” Jared replies, smiling. I know Jared likes to see a man in pain.

So I give Jason a call – I figured I could use some help with these lingering posture issues, and – who knows – maybe getting more comfortable inside my own skin will get me one step closer to not being nuts?

Session One: The Experience

After a free consultation with Jason (which included about 20 minutes of actual Rolfing), we decided that a Ten Series would be best for me. Jason describes the Ten Series as follows:

While people often come to bodywork for relief from pain, Rolfing takes a longer view than simple pain relief and works to reorganize the body. While massage on a specific spot usually creates temporary relief from that pain, the alignment issues creating that pain will often cause the problem to crop up again within a few weeks. By realigning the entire body over 10 sessions, Rolfing creates long-term health as a more permanent solution to pains or disfunctions.

For a fairly typical complaint such as neck or lower back pain there are often extentuating circumstances. Shoulder rounded forward from hours at a keyboard [that’s me!] take the shoulders away from the support of the hips, various shoe issues keep you from effectively using your whole foot when standing or walking, the head is held out in front of the body rather than balanced on top of the spine, and often more than just one issue contributes to the pain. The back pain, while important to relieve, is often a symptom of a larger systemic problem which must be dealt with to achieve a long-lasting pain solution.

Dr. Ida Rolf designed the ten-series as a blueprint for covering the entire body in a way that the body can support the change with minimal relapse. Each session builds on and finishes up the work of the prior session and builds support for the body to integrate the next session.

It makes sense to me. I went in for my first session, which focused on my ribs, shoulders, and abdominal muscles. So how did it go? Well first off, it didn’t feel like flaying the muscle from my bones. Jason works very slowly and methodically, and so while there might be a sustained intensity for 10 seconds, or 30, there was never any sharp, harsh motion that could cause injury. I knew I was in the hands of a professional.

And..? And it was quite helpful. He noticed that while my breathing was more abdominal than most, that the goal for optimal breathing is not (contra to Yoga instructors everywhere) “deep belly breathing” alone – good breathing should be like a bit of a seesaw between chest and belly, inflating in tandem like a two-part hot air balloon. After my initial session, I am definitely (my wife and others will love this) more full of hot air.

Who knows how this will all turn out. But so far, so good. I’ll keep filling you in as I experience each step of the Ten Series. If you care to try it with me, find a Rolfer near you.

Urgent – Saharawi Massacre in Western Sahara

Spain, Morocco, a displaced people and the UN are mixing it up tragically in an unfolding travesty that’s recieving scarce media attention due to journalist expulsions*…this just crossed my desk from an aid worker who’s on the ground. Please read…pray…forward this on…and consider how we might take action:

*Update: This human rights abuse does seem to be getting at least some media attention.

—-

Hello . . . You are receiving this email because you have expressed an

interest in the Saharawi people.  I am in the camps right now, where we

have a large team on the ground.

We are in the midst of a never-before experience here.  Please read the

following message and consider passing it on to anyone who

might be able to help…either through prayer or in a practical way.

Thank you!    Janet

URGENT….URGENT….URGENT…..URGENT…..URGENT….Nov. 10, 2010

This is an urgent plea on behalf of the Saharawi people.  At this moment

in time, the situation has become explosive.  We, American citizens are in

the Saharawi refugee camps, watching a nightmare unfold before our very eyes.

In the Homeland of Western Sahara:

• Tens of thousands of Saharawi were amassing in a peaceful

demonstration “camp” outside their former capital city of Layoune,

Western Sahara.

• Morocco, the occupying government since 1975, expelled all

journalists and news media last week, cutting the homeland off from any

outside witnesses.

• Monday, Nov. 8, 2010…Moroccan forces surrounded the peaceful,

unarmed protest “camp” and began a crackdown; in the early morning hours

they began burning tents, beating women and children, spraying the

Saharawi with tear gas and hot water, and then turned to the use of live

ammunition.

Tuesday, Nov. 9, 2010

• The President of the Saharawi people

announced to the population that they are being asked to show restraint

and continue to hold to peaceful actions, as they have done since 1991.

• Tuesday, Nov. 9, 2010 . . . Negotiations which were scheduled to be

held between Morocco and the Saharawi were encouraged to continue by the

Saharawi President, even though his people were under Morocco’s attack.

The Saharawi negotiations representatives returned to the table, but

finding a continued, entrenched stand by Morocco, negotiations ended.

In the refugee camps of the Saharawi, Sahara Desert of Algeria:

• Wednesday, Nov. 10, … Our American team is living amongst a

people in the refugee camps who are receiving phone calls from their

family members in the homeland, hearing the terror in their voices as

they describe the brutality they are experiencing at the hands of

Moroccan troops, pleading for help.  Men and women are being beaten,

youth are being physically taken from their homes, bodies are decaying

in the street because the Saharawi cannot get out to bury them.  There

are a growing number of toddlers found wandering around, unable to

express what has happened to them, and their parents’ whereabouts are

unknown.

Today, 150 Saharawi are missing, 11 dead, and over 700 injured.

• Wednesday, Nov. 10, …  Frustration, anger and rage have pushed

the Saharawi in the camps to their own breaking point of patience for

any justice.  They cannot  bear doing nothing, knowing their families

are living in horror.  The governments’ plea for further patience may

not be able to restrain the anger that has built inside this peaceful

people since they were forced from their homes in 1975.

As Believers in the God Who Sees and the God of Justice and Mercy, we

are asking you to urgently take action to bring this story to the

awareness of the United States.

Saturday, Nov. 13, 2010

Here is an update Janet wrote just before leaving Saturday night on what we know about the Saharawi

situation….URGENT…URGENT…

Events are escalating in the Saharawi refugee camps. Each day there have been more and more reports coming into families in the camps via cell phone communication from the occupied homeland families. Some of that information is as follow:

• No known journalists remain in the area
• 37 identified bodies discovered in a mass grave near the now-destroyed protest camp outside Layoune. Many more bodies remain in the streets, unable to be identified by families due to their inability to come out of hiding
• Over 4000 have been injured.
• Frantic messages from terrorized family members in Layoune continue to pour into the camps via cell phone contact with their families, often from women pleading for help from the refugee population. Screams and crying have been replayed on the radio station throughout the camps. The effect on the refugees is wrenching.
• Eye-witnesses in the area outside Layoune report seeing Moroccan helicopters dropping bodies into the sea, clothed in the traditional blue robes of the Saharawi.
• Moroccan civilians clothed as Saharawi have been armed by Morocco with pistols and knives, and encouraged to attack and kill Saharawi civilians, who remain unarmed. This has heightened the terror of the already-panicked Saharawi, now unable to easily identify who might be a dangerous person.
• The number of dead continues to mount, including very young children and the elderly.
• The number of disappeared individuals is over 2000. Most of the dead who can be identified are those on the list of disappeared.
• More than 2000 were arrested.
• Last night 6 were judged in court, one of them a young man who had visited the refugee camps in the past year.

In the refugee camps:

• Today, Saturday, Nov. 13, larger and growing demonstrations are taking place, mainly by young men, demanding to go to war against Morocco. They are completely disillusioned toward any peaceful means after growing up in the past 20 years of cease fire, during which no progress has been made to give the Saharawi their chance for a referendum. They want to stop the killing of their family members on the other side of the land mined berm and to have their country 19s freedom from Morocco’s cruel oppression. The sounds of caravans of cars and trucks filled with shouting young people have filled roadways as they travel camp to camp, adding more and more cars of young people to their protest. This has been going on the past 3 nights, and all day today.
• The Saharawi President announced to the UN that if there is no significant action taken by the UN or the world community by this coming Tuesday, he cannot be responsible for what may happen as his people approach the brink of taking matters into their own hands against Morocco.
• Nov. 14 marks the anniversary in 1975 of the agreement made between Morocco, Mauritania and Spain to take control of Western Sahara, dividing it and its resources between the three countries. At that time, Western Sahara had been fighting to gain its independence from Spain, under which the Saharawi homeland had been colonized since the 1800’s. This further deepens the wounds of the Saharawi people, who have chosen to pursue peace until a resolution could come through the UN’s promise of a referendum.

The Role of Tomorrow’s Leaders

So today Wes Roberts, a man who acts as a mentor-type in my life, gave all of his legions of mentees some homework:

Watch and listen to these six [Harvard Business Review Future of Leadership] videos (none more than 15 minutes long…so take a breath…).  Two of them have multiple voices (like the first one…), so I will want your thoughts about each person speaking concerning what they are saying/suggesting…whether alone on the video as the one interviewed or in a short series.  Send to me via an email the 2-3 most important statements you heard that will help to inform your own developing leadership.  What struck you about their topic as a whole?  And what challenged you in your current and/or future roles as a leader?

I hate to waste perfectly good homework, so I’m going to blog these. : )  In this first one, The Role of Tomorrow’s Leaders, many things were said – some contradictory. Watch it for yourself:

 

 

Here are some one-liners that stuck out to me:

Leaders of the future…

• Need to give things away
• Have much less control in the present than in the past
• Manage across borders
• Are networking, connecting leaders – distributed leadership at all levels (Starfish)
• Are more hierarchical? Structure of management still there; Ambidextrous leadership
• Can’t be stuck in counterproductive, anachronistic mindsets
• Build connections – bridge-builders, crossing different assumed boundaries
• Are utilizing new resources in a rapidly-changing world; navigating uncertainty
• Are finding common purpose amid social, cultural, & identity difference

I have nothing profound to add to this on a lazy, hazy, returning-to-Raleigh Saturday (except that KedgeForward can help your company make the above deep-culture transitions and more!)…what are your thoughts?