December 2020
Table of Contents
Leading Comments
12/21 — Pandemic, Planetary Thinking and Integral Leadership
Eric Reynolds Natasha Mantler and Jeremy Johnson
For the solstice issue, we return to the complexity of planetary crisis and ask: how do we best live in these times? What are the questions we should be asking? How does integral leadership inhabit the wicked complexity of the “thick present” (Haraway)? How do we hold both the light and the dark in the imaginal cocoon of our evolutionary becoming?
Leadership Quote
Leadership Quote
BidenFrancisHarris
President Elect Joe Biden (December 19, 2020): “Just like we need to be a unified nation in response to COVID-19, we need a unified national response to climate change. We need to meet the moment with the urgency it demands as you would during national emergency. And from this crisis, from these crises, I should […]
Leadership Coaching Tips
12/21 — Aging, Dying, and What You Leave Behind
Laura Johnson
I hope these suggestions and questions will help families think ahead, beyond the death of a loved one.
Fresh Perspective
12/21 – Integral Reflections on Science and Spirituality with Peter Merry and Nish Dubashia
Peter Merry Nish Nish Dubashia
Peter Merry and Nish Dubashia Dialogue One: Beyond Evolution and the Cognitive Mind This dialogue was transcribed from a video series between Peter Merry and Nish Dubashia. You can watch dialogue here. Peter: So the impulse was that I was reading your chapter on thought and time, and it suddenly clicked in to what you’ve […]
12/21 — Robin Lincoln Wood in Conversation with Kathleen Andrews
Robin Lincoln Wood and Kathleen Andrews
Robin Lincoln Wood, Kathleen Andrews Kathleen: Good morning, everybody. I’m here with Robin Wood. Today is September 25, 2020. I had a talk with Robin Wood earlier this week and we realized he has a lot to say. He’s been thinking about recording some things about his life for many years, so we’re meeting again. […]
Feature Articles
12/21 – Why Centrism Fails and How to Overcome Hyperpolarization
Steve McIntosh
By pointing to achievable next steps for America’s cultural evolution, integral philosophy accordingly offers a realistic remedy for America’s political dysfunction.
12/21 – The Importance of Trust: An Analysis of Five Drivers of Trust in the Published Statements of 20 Notable National and International Leaders
Irina M. Kopaneva Pamela Shockley-Zalabak Sherwyn Morreale
Irina Kopaneva, Pamela Shockley-Zalabak, Sherwyn Morreale There is much agreement that these are troubling times, characterized by high levels of distrust of many if not most U.S. leaders and institutions.  Indeed, political scientists and other observers of the national scene have noted that over time trust in the U.S. government has waned and never returned to […]
12/21 – The Unintentional Bully: An Autoethnographic Reflection on Leadership
Michael Wicker
Michael Wicker The pandemic and the subsequent isolation that so many have experienced has caused unprecedented interruptions in the lives of people. No more is this as true as it is in the working lives of people, people who may have been forced not only to live in isolation from most of the world but also […]
12/21 — Vision is Only the Beginning: Educators Talk about Highly Effective Leadership in Colleges and Universities
David L. Nickel
In these challenging times, it is not just leaders and leadership that are needed, but highly effective leaders and leadership to help institutions of higher learning both survive and thrive.
12/21 – Clare W. Graves Revisited: Beyond Value Systems: Biocultural Co-evolution and the Double Helix Nature of Existence
Said E. Dawlabani
Said E. Dawlabani Those who are familiar with Clare W. Graves’ work, know him as the academic behind a more popular conception known as Spiral Dynamics. The theory and the book with the same name were introduced to the world by Don E. Beck, PhD and Christopher C. Cowan in 1996.  While their model preserves much […]
12/21 — Commentary on Clare W. Graves Revisited Beyond Value Systems: Biocultural Co-evolution and the Double Helix Nature of Existence
Robin Wood
“Briefly, what I am proposing is that the psychology of the mature human being is an unfolding, emergent, oscillating, spiralling process marked by progressive subordination of older, lower- order behaviour systems to newer, higher-order systems as man's existential problems change.”
Notes from the Field
12/21 — Notes Towards an “Integral” Cosmopolitanism
Jeremy Johnson
Jeremy D Johnson I found myself struggling to find the appropriate leading note for this discussion. History seems to have irrupted this year, reminding us that, after all, things are still happening “out there” in the polis and “in here,” the indwelling and painful irruptions of new possibilities, and new regenerative visions, of a world enacted with […]
12/21 — Reasons and Methods in Dynamic Tension – Parsons School of Design at the UNESCO Futures Literacy Summit
Lisa Norton
Lisa Norton “2020 brought an unexpected opportunity: a powerful challenge to entrenched ways of thinking about the future. The pandemic shock, which has touched every single one of us in various and diverse ways, has allowed for a global experiment with uncertainty. This experiment unveiled a significant flaw in the way humanity uses-the-future today, and […]
12/21 — Why and How to Lead with Confident Vulnerability
J. Mathias Bennett
I’ve been compelled to share these principles across the world, most recently in 30+ events for young entrepreneurs and major corporations in Morocco and Africa, over the span of nearly 3 years.
12/21 — Unraveling the Gender Knot: Transformative Leadership at the ILA
Katie Hamaker Michael Munton Megan Quinn, Jenna Wes
The Thrive Paradox framework is a pathway for understanding the complex intersectionality of gender equity and acts as a powerful tool for creating fundamental shifts in beliefs and sustainable change in our living systems.
12/21 — Moving from Academia to the Business World? Anticipating cultural differences
David L. Nickel
Based on my own experience, I offer the following insights into differences in culture and the challenges a faculty member may experience on entering the new world of business.
Book Reviews
12/21 — Seeing Through the World: An Invitation to Begin the Healing Work
Cynthia Bourgeault
The book is called Seeing Through the World by Jeremy Johnson and is a brilliant introduction to the teaching of Jean Gebser, a name you may not even have heard of. As I devoured the book in a single weekend (fortunately, it’s short), I could feel my world once again gently rocking on its foundations, always a good sign that a book has really hit home. I knew instantly I had a tiger by the tail.
Notable-Reads
12/21 — Notable Reads
Jeremy Johnson
Editors note: The following books are aggregated from the ILR network— we’d love to see them reviewed in future issues! Please reach out to us if you’re interested in writing one. Conscious Leadership by John Mackey, Steve McIntosh, and Carter Phipps Institute for Cultural Evolution cofounders Steve McIntosh and Carter Phipps teams up with Whole […]
Coda
12/21 — Towards a Planetary, Deliberately Developmental, Regenerative Culture: The Butterfly Civilization
Eric Reynolds
Eric Reynolds I came across a short 2017 article from the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. It relates how the winter solstice marks the beginning of a season of storytelling and ceremony. I would like to honor that, with a bit of storytelling of my own, to be offered as a reflection of what […]