Evolutionary Servant Leadership, the final frontier of the Protopia journey
Evolutionary Servant Leadership, the final frontier of the Protopia journey
Leadership has a bad name due to all the hierarchical, oppressive practices associated with it. But there’s also “evolutionary leadership,” As I wrote in a blog in 2004, “evolutionary leadership is about the practice of looking at and thinking from the biggest context with the greatest clarity, AND acting to meet the needs of all parts for the good of the whole.”
There are many different frameworks and systems of inventory describing the qualities and competences that evolutionary leaders (should) have. Naturally, each collection of those competences is differently informed by the developmental journey and intellectual habitat of the different frameworks’ framers.
The Evolutionary Servant Leadership framework, the final frontier of the Protopia journey, is not an exception from that; it acknowledges its origin in the lifelong learning itinerary of its framers.
The concept of “servant leadership” is 50 years old and refers to a leadership philosophy, in which “servant leaders should seek to be servants first, to care for the needs of all others around them, in order to ensure the growth of future leaders.” (R. Greenleaf)
It was an edgy improvement over the classic, pyramidal concept of leadership, a post-modern challenge to the modern, Taylorist management philosophy and practices. Of course, attending to the needs and highest aspirations of fellow humans is still a valid intention, but a half-a-century later, a new wave of consciousness is emerging now, which is redefining the leading edge of what evolutionary leaders are serving.
When the biosphere and life itself on the planet are under attack by the careless practices of obsolete social systems, then the highest service is to protect and promote life. The wisdom of youth activists reflects that responsibility: “System change, not climate change!”
That is easier said than done because nobody knows how to get to the other side of the civilizational divide and we are certainly not here to peddle yet another sure-fix theory of it. That’s why the Protopia program at Campus Co-Evolve is not a usual academic course but a learning expedition that should help “piercing the fog of our not-knowing” to borrow an expression from the reason-for-being of the Campus’ research center.
What we do know is that humanity’s phase shift can neither happen without, nor be reduced to, a shift in our inner, relational, organizational, or societal transformation. We need evolutionary servant leaders, dedicated facilitators who can support and guide the necessary shifts at all scales and in all areas of social life and culture.
Depending on where we’re at, on our personal journey, some of us may feel more affinity with working on one scale than on another. For example, the primary longing of some may be for a more profound union with the natural world. Others may go one step further and seek to support and connect “life-affirming communities to increase the complexity and, therefore, the impact of a new way of being and acting in harmony with nature,” as one of the Protopian learners stated.
All that is good, and the best place to work for a better world is wherever you are. For example, some of us are pioneering the design of more soulful workplaces; others are going to the root causes of why they are not like that everywhere else. Correspondingly, some may join us for one segment of the journey, others may come for another.
The aspirations of budding, evolutionary servant leaders include making the largest possible contribution to transition from the old world that is dying to the new one that is yet to be born. If they come with us on the Protopian journey all the way, from the personal to the planetary shift, then they may just develop, together with us, the competences they need to effectively facilitate those shifts.
If that possibility or any of the 5 shifts calls you, come to the Open House where committed and curious Protopians will gather for the expedition, on Saturday, March 25, 3-4:30 pm UK time. (If you read this blog later than that time but want to get involved, contact Anna Betz at anna@campus-coevolve.org.)
For our co-evolution!
