1 ∎ An Invitation to the Extraordinary
What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson
Let’s start with a question: Do you embody what it takes to lead the evolution of a high-performance organization? People are trapped within this underlying belief that “I’ve got this,” and it keeps them stuck.
We have discovered an alarming secret: most of what people believe about leadership, effective workplaces, and how to create lasting change is either incomplete or outright incorrect. Even worse, even when people know intellectually what to do, they are not actually doing it in practice. And furthermore, they fail to recognize the discrepancy.
We started out looking to create high-performance teams and organizations. We wound up finding peace with ourselves. This is the unexpected impact from a shift in leadership. It is also the key to unlocking what we all desire—successful outcomes.
We have cracked the code on high performance, and it’s not what you think. It’s who you are. This book can change your life.
A Tale of Two Organizations
We begin with a tale of two organizations. We share contrasting perspectives of the same situation to highlight very different understandings of leadership, change, and organizational performance.
Traditional
The room was filled with a sense of dread and gloom. There was a feeling of tension in the air. The project was late, and everyone knew it. It was a big room, and there were over 40 leadership representatives from various project teams. The meeting was supposed to start at 10:00 a.m. but Mary, the vice president, had not arrived, so people were huddled in quiet conversation.
When Mary walked in hurriedly at five minutes past the hour and sat at the head of the massive boardroom table, the room fell silent. Mary spoke clearly and confidently: “We are here to get this project back on track. We have a critical deliverable in two months and have board-level commitments. Failure is not an option. How do we get this back on track?”
The group was in various levels of fear and resigned to several hours of misery. They had been to this kind of meeting before and knew how to play the game of covering up problems and finger-pointing so that someone else would take the blame. Everyone knew it was impossible to deliver everything on time and that pointing this out was a career-limiting move.
As Mary took command on the investigation of how to get the project on track, the game of charades played out.
Evolutionary
Even though the meeting didn’t officially start until 10:00 a.m., Mary, the vice president, was there 15 minutes early to welcome people and connect with them on a personal level. This was going to be a big meeting with the whole project team of over 200 people, so Mary enjoyed the opportunity to meet with the new delivery team members. Some of them were surprised that Mary actually seemed to be interested and care about them as people.
At 10:00 a.m. there was an excited buzz in the room with people catching up and talking. As was typical in this organization, there was some time to connect as human beings. Between conversations, Mary noticed what the room felt like: Was it time to start yet? At around 11 minutes past the hour, Mary noticed that the sense of expectation was rising, and conversations were falling off, so she kicked of the meeting.
“Thank you so much for coming. I know there are some new people to our organization, so I want to make sure everyone understands how we do things around here.
“The purpose of this meeting is to use our collective intelligence and wisdom to create the best possible plan for this project. While the forecasts we have given to the board are important, as are our customer’s needs and expectations, what is most important is that we look after each other. And that starts with making ‘we’ statements. We are all in this together. There is no finger-pointing or blame in our organization.”
The room was crackling with excitement and energy—everyone knew this was what was needed, and they were looking forward to the challenge. Mary handed the meeting of to Kay, an expert in large group facilitation, who would guide the group though the hours ahead. Mary spent most of the day listening and learning—not only about the project but also about what she needed to do to develop the people and the organization system so that this kind of emergency meeting would not be needed again.
Patterns for Leading Beyond Change
We give you the business patterns needed to learn a new way of leading and approaching change to move from a traditional organization to an evolutionary organization. This book will not only explain the step by step of Leading Beyond Change, it will also, more importantly, help you create the inner shift needed to unlock practical skills and techniques.
We make the audacious claim that we have created a reliable path to solve business’s biggest challenges:
• How to address employee engagement, culture, and leadership challenges
• How to create business agility to support innovation and organizational survival
• How to evolve a Teal (high-performing) organization
• How to create change without creating conflict
• How to realize the promise of Servant Leadership through Evolutionary Leadership
• How to create a vibrant B Corporation or a conscious business
What to Expect on the Journey
Fully receiving this book will take you on a journey. We are talking about shifting from a static, cause-and-effect view of reality to a dynamic, emergent one. Every person, every organization, is on its journey of evolution. No matter where you or your organization is on the journey, we offer specific tools and techniques to help you on your way. Even more importantly, we offer you a space for self-reflection so that you can evolve your leadership capabilities.
Here are what some graduates of our training programs have said about the work:
And in three years, people say to me, “Oh, we cannot recognize you! You have grown so much.” It’s really true. I have a friend who was working with me five years ago and he said, “My God, what happened to you? You completely changed.”
—P. Bourgeon
You start connecting all the things. And you can say, “Okay, if I’m the problem, what can I do to also become the solution?” How can I start working with myself? How can I use all the techniques and the tools that you are happily setting with us? Yeah, that’s my biggest aha moment.
—C. Tsonis
Back then, I think it was a lot of confusion, because going from that state, from “You’re done” to “No, you’re not,” that took me a little bit.
It’s not easy, but it’s so worth it. Do it. Go through the stages. Trust the process, because it’s a process. It takes time, but everything will change for you. It will not only change how you show up at work. It will change how you show up as a partner, as a friend, as a family member. Everything, and I mean that … everything will be changed for you. It doesn’t matter what you do. You are a leader everywhere. As a family member, you are a leader. It will change you. Go on that ride. It’s worth it.
It turned out, it was not about the tools, and it was not about telling others to do that. It’s an Evolutionary Leadership journey, and that’s what it is in the end. Yes, you get tools, but you get tools to help you with that journey. You will eventually inspire people through your being.
You changed my life. One year ago, I didn’t know what I signed up for, but you changed my life.
—P. Zylka
Our Journey
The book in your hands represents our life’s work learning about how to evolve people and organizational systems. We have taught and consulted with thousands of leaders worldwide to help them get out of their own way to realize the extraordinary. We share something of our own unique stories to help you understand where this information is coming from and to begin to connect to the key themes of the book.
Michael
As a recovering perfectionist, I have had a lifelong passion for figuring out how to do things really, really well. Originally trained in an elite engineering program, I went on to complete a master’s degree and part of a PhD in artificial intelligence around how to build autonomous robots that can operate in complex environments. When I got involved with Agile software development approaches, I learned like crazy how to actually get them working in organizations. This quest took me on a journey of discovery into culture, change, and leadership.
I realized that the only way to create a high-performance organization was to help the leaders evolve. My wake-up moment came when I realized I was a well-intentioned asshole, and that there was no way I could help leaders evolve no matter how smart I was and how much I knew. I needed to grow first. This journey took me to India to study shifting consciousness and the rapid evolution of human beings.
Life didn’t deal me great leadership skills. For my own success, I have had to learn step by step how to stop making mistakes and start making better choices. That would be the alternate book title: How Michael Stopped Messing Up and Finally Learned How to Create Lasting Success with Others. It’s hard to escape the background radiation of conditioned behaviors and patterning to show up like an adult. It’s a moment-to-moment choice, and I can say it has been an extraordinary experience.
While my journey of self-evolution continues, I have seen markers of confirmation. We have given keynotes and trained thousands of leaders around the world. Early on these ideas were more controversial, yet people have a desire to create better working environments and lead successful organizational transformations—so for them these concepts make sense. We have seen the rapid spread of our approach. People we have just met tell us our own teachings without even knowing the source.
The most rewarding confirmations are the continued heartfelt stories of our students—of how every aspect of their lives has transformed. We hear about how application and impact of our work has given them peace, successful outcomes, and healthy relations. A marker of their shift in consciousness is that they are recognized as leaders and influencers, and this recognition results in promotions.
Audree
My education and career has been working with the psychology of disease as a professionally trained energetic healer. The approach was simple: heal yourself first to become a clear channel to heal others. It has been an intense personal growth journey since 1997. My passion for my own growth led me further into studying yoga, meditation, metaphysics, and professional coaching. My desire to heal others was foundationally set on a clear principle and truth—that it all began with me. The core belief of my work is that I am a transmission of what I want to see in the world.
During my career as a healer, I had the honor to be a member on a medical team. The five years I spent on this team was a crucial point in my career. It led me to further my studies of human consciousness, how pain and suffering creates psychological imbalance and physical disease. I studied in India to understand the truth of the egoic construct, its nature, and behavior. It was a deep personal journey of growth that changed the fabric of my life. My deep study and life integration led me to become initiated into advanced techniques to shift consciousness. The profound shift in my consciousness shaped my perceptions and greatly impacted the course of my reality.
Yet, how did it get me to this book? I had a hypothesis: Humanity is suffering, and the only way to change this is to change the consciousness of the society we live in. Simply put, when humanity shifts into a higher state of consciousness (i.e., inner peace, connection, abundance, and collaboration, etc.), thoughts will change and behaviors will change. The impact is a liberation of suffering that is the basis for a global “cleanup” of inequality, discrimination, poverty, pollution, and oppression. This seems impossible and overly optimistic, yet I had a plan.
The fastest way to help humanity is to go into the workplace. People work or they are in relationship with someone who works. Currently, the workplace is the most progressive mirror of truth in human behavior, perhaps even an accelerator of revelation. Humanity has not figured out how to get people to function without command-and-control behavior. This style of management creates severe damage to people. Not just physical health issues—deep psychological issues, which get perpetuated in their home environments.
What if we shifted the consciousness of the executives who govern the organizations? What if they created amazing workplaces and cared about people? Workers would be engaged, motivated, and high-performing. Products and services would be impacted by the high state of consciousness that people are in. The organizational purpose would be connected to society and the environment. The organizational focus would shift to humanity and the planet. People, planet, and profit—we can have it all. Most of all, there would be less suffering, poverty, conflict, and pollution.
So how do we get there? Read this book. Michael and I met in India, where we both were dedicated to our own personal evolutions. We both knew one thing: we are the problem, and we are the solution.
Why This Book Matters to Us
What most excites us about this work is that it is a framework—a step-by-step guide to evolving organizations to high performance, including yourself. We have combined our knowledge, our experience, and our purpose and have created the maps, models, tools, and the direction to create the extraordinary.
We are claiming the movement of Evolutionary Leadership to guide a shift in the world of work. Yet, more importantly, we have cracked the code on the “how to do it” and the “path to get there.” We can say this because we walk our talk. We created this body of work through our personal experience and developed techniques based on our personal success using them. This body of knowledge may seem simple, yet putting this into practice is not for the faint of heart or for those who want it easy.
We believe that what you are reading here will continue to evolve and spread into something bigger than anyone is able to conceive. We see this with our students and clients. What we do is difficult to explain, yet those who use this work experience a profound evolution in the way they show up to life. It impacts every aspect of your life—in your personal organization and your professional organization.
This work will evolve you as a leader. You will have the knowledge, tools, and skills for this new way of working. You will evolve into someone who is showing up in extraordinary ways. You will lead in a state of deep inner stillness. The leader you evolve into will make a great impact and deliver change.
Your Turn
• As you read each story (Traditional and Evolutionary), what were your reactions?
• What kind of leader do you aspire to be?
• How ready are you to let this book change your life?
