Exercises for a comprehensive perspective

By Jeanette Stanfield

This set of exercises designed to help readers expand the context in which they make a decision is an excerpt from the book, The Courage to Lead by Brian Stanfield (p. 77-101).

Objectivity
How big is your world?

Buckminster Fuller asks “If it is true that the bigger the thinking becomes, the more lastingly effective it is, we must ask ourselves how big can we think?”

• To lead is to be open to the largest context we can grasp.
• To lead is to seek out new perspectives that enlarge our thinking.
• To lead is to ask questions which break through closed thinking and open doorways to creative responses.
• To lead is to build models that address chaos emerging in our own life, our family, communities, society and the earth.
• To lead is to develop and live out of inclusive pictures and models throughout our lives.

Chris Hatfield, Canadian astronaut, spent six months on the international space station. During that time he talked with students in Canada and around the world from space. He showed many children what it was like to live in zero gravity. He showed what the universe looked liked from space and he took photos of our earth home, and the cities and towns these children lived in. He and musicians on earth created and sang a song together. Science students created experiments guided by Chris. When Chris returned to earth he showed students the pain and difficulty for his body of returning to earth’s gravity.

As I reflect on this six month “school” from space, I wonder what is happening to the thinking of the thousands of students who participated. What is happening to their perspectives as they have seen and talked with a person in outer space, seen the earth floating in blackness and imagined themselves floating in zero gravity?

Address
Remember a time in your life when your world got bigger and your thinking changed. Describe that experience. What
did it feel like? What happened to you during this thinking change and afterward?

Exploration
What helped you decide to say yes to that bigger world? Looking back, what effect has that new thinking had on the decisions you have made?
How is this thinking affecting the decisions you are making presently?
What changes in your world would you like to explore now?

Integration
These are some thoughts I have about integrating comprehensive perspective into my daily life as a leader:

• If I dare to grasp the big pictures emerging in the world and build models that care for the next generations:
  My life no matter my age will never be dull.
  My life will be a creative adventure from beginning to end. And why not!
  
  
• To lead from a comprehensive perspective, I resolve to let go of fear: Perhaps a ritual will help remind me of this.
  It is safe to change, grow and create the future.
  It is safe to invite others to change, grow and create the future.
  So be it.

What are your thoughts about integrating comprehensive perspective into your life as a leader? What ritual will help remind you of your decision?

You have “The Courage to Lead.”