A Radical New Communication Mindset: Co-Creating Life Together
November 10, 2021
Climate Change Cries Out for Generative Communication
July 25, 2022
Sustainability Leadership
“Lead, follow, or get out of the way” is an oft-quoted phrase used by people who want others to get moving—NOW!
Sustainability Leaders
At the Sustainability Leadership Institute (SLI), we define a leader as anyone who takes responsibility for making good things happen WITH others—regardless of positional power, background, or social standing. A sustainability leader is:
- tuned in
- paying attention
- flexible
- able to adapt to unexpected changes in the external environment
- adept at moving with the energy of a self-organizing group dynamic headed in a mutually desirable direction
A sustainability leader quickly learns how to “lead, follow, AND get out of the way.”
Think of a flock of migrating birds flying in a V formation. At any given moment, we see one bird in the lead with multiple followers in specific positions, all forming a V shape together. But watch for even a minute or two and the V reorganizes itself, with some birds moving forward and others dropping back. Over a great distance, the arrangement is ever-changing, with birds taking turns at leading, following, and even getting out of the way—yet the V is maintained.
The birds’ interactions—signaling when and where to shift positions—is an instinctive element, imbedded in their DNA. They are perpetuating their existence through these self-organizing interactions that benefit the individual birds and the flock as a whole. The V-shape helps the flock fly more effectively, creating aerodynamic advantage and improving energy efficiency. The birds instinctively rotate positions to ensure the heavy lifting is distributed evenly among them, thus enabling the flock to fly farther and faster toward life-sustaining feeding grounds and warmer climes.
Understanding Dynamic Interconnections
Sustainability leaders recognize the holistic interrelationship between human/societal well-being, economic well-being, and a thriving natural environment as illustrated in the diagram below. They initiate interactions with others to move toward resolving complex, integrated issues within these domains.
Sustainability leaders also tend to recognize the interdependence of all life forms—humans, plants, non-human animals, etc.—and inanimate resources in what physicist, systems theorist and deep ecologist Fritjof Capra calls the “complex web of life.”
It’s little wonder, then, that sustainability leaders have the mindset and natural propensity for understanding and practicing Generative Communication (GC) as they seek to co-create a better, more sustainable world with others.
Generative Communication
Generative Communication is a particular way of thinking about human interaction. It’s grounded in complexity perspectives that reveal the dynamic, interactive, interconnected and interdependent processes of life as it’s happening. GC starts with an assumption that all forms of life interact naturally as a means of sustaining themselves—whether those lifeforms are microorganisms in a petri dish, diverse flora and fauna in a prairie ecosystem, a flock of migrating birds, or giant cities bustling with people. Not only does complexity thinking substantiate the view that everything is connected to everything else, it promises continuous movement and change as entities (including people) interact with and adapt to their continually changing circumstances. Interactions are the engines of “life” unfolding moment to moment—co-creating whatever they produce, good or bad. An example is cancer cells interacting (metastasizing), often rapidly, in a human body, creating illness and potential death. Gang members sometimes interact in ways that result in dangerous acts of retribution. People with differing points of view interact, sometimes respectfully and productively, to co-create mutually satisfying resolutions for shared challenges; others may interact with bitter animosity, co-creating a sustained, hateful and polarizing dynamic.
The question is how might sustainability leaders choose to interact to help themselves and others see new points of view, new ways of thinking? To help themselves and others generate, together, a mutual understanding of complex issues? To help themselves and others generate possibilities and resolutions for mutually contentious issues?
Unlike other life forms, we humans have the ability to consciously think through our interactions before, during and after engaging with others and our circumstances. We have the ability to size up a situation and adapt our communication behaviors to foster a generative space for people to think together in spite of their differences.
Understanding complex process of human interaction—especially, perhaps, for those who call themselves “sustainability leaders”— also means recognizing that predictability and control in dynamic, interactive processes of life happening are illusions! Similarly, ego and imposed certainty are obstacles to optimizing creative energy among individuals who seek deeper understanding through shared exploration and learning.
Sustainability leaders who communicate generatively welcome self-organizing spontaneity of creative innovation even in the messy conversations of disagreement.
They learn to lead, follow, AND get out of the way, deferring to the embedded wisdom within the groups with whom they are associated.
2 Comments
Outstanding presentation.
Thanks, Marilyn. I truly believe that generative communication will help us move together toward a more sustainable future.