In their struggle for peace, the laureates modeled a behavior that I call being-in-it-and-transcending-it . Greenleaf (1977) referred to these acts of being-in-it-and-transcending-it as living “a kind of schizoid life” in which leaders are both in the world and somehow detached from it at the same time (p. 14). 1. Living the And Life. This being-in-it-and-transcending-it sense of possibility was repeatedly discussed by the laureates. These leaders were able to see a host of transcending possibilities even when they were living in exile, prison, jail, under house arrest, and within oppressive regimes. 2. Telling Bigger Stories. While being-in-it-and-transcending-it, the laureates acted as meaning makers in often- trying situations. They looked towards a better future by using foresight to form and then share metanarratives or overarching and integrating stories. Metanarratives are our “big stories” that make sense of all the other stories. 3. Navigating Time and Memory. A being-in-it-and-transcending-it sense of possibility was also enacted by the laureates as they navigated time in their lectures. A single paragraph in any of the lectures was more likely to include one or more time orientation than to be grounded or isolated in a single time orientation. The laureates located their lectures in the past, present, and future, but they largely were not contained by only the past, only the present, or only the future. This pattern of integrated time orientation aligns with Greenleaf et al.’s (1996) description of foresight and leadership: Foresight is a wholly rational process, the product of a constantly running “computer” that is regarding the events of this instant and comparing them with a series of projections made in the past, which are in turn being projected into the indefinite future. (Greenleaf et al., 1996, pp. 317-318) Suddendorf and Corballis (2007), drawing from empirical neurological studies, published an extensive discussion about the evolution of foresight. They argued that mental time travel into both the past and the future is an essential human capacity that has played an important role in human evolution. An interesting twist from this stream of research is the notion that memory no longer is the exclusive territory of the past. Since mental time travel has been shown to use the same mental apparatus whether remembering the past or the future, the Nobel Peace Prize laureates were helping their audiences remember the future by narrating the future. I Learned that Vision, Foresight, and Leadership Are Interfused (Activity: your past or current project) Without the ability to foresee, a leader is likely to fail to understand the future consequences of present actions. Greenleaf et al.’s (1996) servant-leadership framework emphasized the conceptualizing power of leaders in which foresight is presented as the only genuine “lead” that a leader has (p. 285). Greenleaf’s foresight is described as three capacities used in concert to expand awareness so that a leader is ready to “see things whole” (p. 274): Intellection is the creative, cognitive capacity of a leader to strategically prepare, analyze, and anticipate; imagination is the creative cognitive capacity of a leader to visualize scenarios, pictures, images, or symbols that complement or expand intellection; and insight is the creative cognitive capacity of a leader to open her senses to the
“imponderable” that lies beyond intellect and image. Together, leader intellection, imagination, and insight constitute foresight and fuel vision. Additionally, narrative leadership is seen as the mechanism by which visions of the future, constructed through foresight, are communicated so that people are mobilized. In acts of narrative leadership, the perspectives a leader takes or roles a leader performs are described by Greenleaf (1996) as those of “historian, contemporary analyst, and prophet [or futurist]” (p. 319). These three roles are evident in the narratives that leaders live and speak. The integrating dynamics of Greenleaf’s interactive framework of foresight are summarized in Figure 1.
Figure 1. An illustration of the relationship among foresight, vision, and narrative leadership (incorporates ideas from Robert K. Greenleaf).
Central Wisconsin Report - Spring 2023
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