Unpacking Ideas

The principles of a just war were first articulated by theologian Augustine of Hippo in the 4th C. and later refined by theologian Thomas Aquinas in the 16th C. These principles describe what needs to be true before a nation enters a war (jus ad bellum), and what needs to be true about how the nation does the war (jus in bello).

It’s simple. Let’s say we will protect our children and babies. Let’s say we will feed all of our children enough. Let’s say we will do whatever it takes to keep more of our babies alive. The rest we’ll worry about later.

In my world fundamentalism — religious and political — lurks all around me, so I readily grabbed at doubt as a convenient handle for my reaction against the extreme that I tend to notice daily. I read the entire book but came away with what I needed — a fresh approach to help me counter the purveyors of hollow certitude around me. Also, it seemed to me, regardless of which perpective we carry, when we enter the dance of a conversation in hopes of a healthy “turn about” of ideas, it is the overabundance of certitude that more often smothers the music for one or both dancers.

If my willingness to doubt permits me to welcome additional, even oppositional ideas, then at the very least my original idea has an opportunity to be compared, tested and perhaps strengthened. At the very most, my idea grows creatively into much more than I considered possible or available before.

To lead with my center in a good conversation means I will care more about you and less about being right. To lead with my center in a good conversation means I might find myself following, or leading no one because we disagree. And what I might learn is that when I dancing or conversing if I lead with my center, whether my feet follow or not, I will still enjoy the dance. I will still enjoy you.

A good conversation is better than information sharing. A good conversation is like dancing. Linda and I are taking ballroom dancing lessons. Imagine the chaos. We are learning about conversation without words. When she and I dance, sometimes she knows where I am going, sometimes she doesn’t! Sometimes I go left and she follows, other times I go left and she goes somewhere else. This confusion of direction is usually not her fault because I am not very good communicating with her about where we are supposed to be going.I like good conversation. We all need good conversation, in every relationship, at home, at work, in government and across governments, and across cultures. I like good conversation and I have some hope because I like dance, even if I don’t know where we are going, and even if we do not end up in the same place.

Effective leadership watches over slow change carefully and patiently — without losing sight of the mission and the need for the change to continue. Effective leadership also understands the juggling act of watching over and nurturing individual change while also monitoring the entire organization’s slow progress toward accomplishing its mission. Mission-mindfulness and change are hard to maintain. They are hard to measure. They are even harder to measure if we care about the health and well-being of our individual members as well as the health and well-being of our entire organization — because the two are not necessarily the same.

Miss Nolfi would be proud.  You might remember her from my July 11 article, As Far As I Know.  She was my eighth grade Algebra teacher who hung the poster on her classroom wall: “Keep An Open Mind.  Something Might Drop In.” It occurred to me a few days ago (something must have dropped in).  Keep an [...]