Finding ground among us
Reflecting on three weeks of interactions (conferences, reunions, gatherings) among: journalists and writers, economists, entrepreneurs and investors, political and social pundits, management consultants, coaches, and leadership gurus.
From formal speeches to informal chats, panels to closed-door conversations, morning coffees to late-night drinks, one message has been consistent:
Everyone is searching for ground.
Five years ago, these conversations were sharp, didactic, at times even confrontational. Not everyone was grounded in the same place, but everyone was clear and confident in their stance.
Now, the Confident Class appears to be having an existential crisis.
The bombastic social pundit who once delivered an incisive, scathing criticism of global elite’s mission to change the world, now struggles to find a message.
The tech entrepreneur carrying the flag for public discourse sheepishly avoids the question about how much money they just made taking their platform public.
The hubris is still there, but it is wrapped in layers of hedging, entangled with tendrils of self-doubt.
The messages aren’t as sharp. The answers aren’t as clear. The talking points are couched and clarified. The solutions are shaky, slippery, superficial.
‘Polycrisis’ is on the tip of everyone’s tongue – signaling uncertainty, caution. There are too many interdependent variables. The rate of change is accelerating too quickly.
Maybe ground is in a Collective.
Off-stage, there is a growing humility, an acknowledgement that our challenges maybe more complex than our current specialized frameworks, models and approaches can handle.
Nobody has ‘the answer’ or even a clear view on the entirety of our situation across the interwoven dimensions of society, economy and environment.
The myth of the singular hero is dying. Individualism, as glorious as it is for the privileged ego, is corrosive for humanity’s future if left to its own devices.
Our challenges are simply too complex for any one perspective to solve.
Are our specializations blinding us to the full picture: to the interdependencies, to the tensions, to the tradeoffs?
As we consider our successes, we need to help each other confront hard questions.
Over the past thirty years economics and global trade have lifted more than 1 billion people out of extreme poverty – the largest transformation of economic prosperity that the world has ever seen. And yet the growth that has led to that transformation has also fueled eye-popping wealth inequalities. The poorest half of the global population barely own anything, estimated at just 2% of the total, while the richest 10% own 76% of all wealth.[1] It has also left our natural resources and environmental systems in grave danger.
Even as we pulled billions out of poverty, did we unwittingly enable the growing inequality across the world and the ultimate ‘tragedy of the commons’ taking place across the planet?
When I ask a leading Development Economist if we, economists, could do a better job understanding and incorporating the perspectives of environmental and social movements, he responds, “well, you know there are a lot of bad ideas in those movements.”
Perhaps, but isn’t this all the more reason to proactively question, engage and attempt to work together to integrate our different perspectives?
If the answers do not lie in any one of us, maybe they must emerge among many of us?
Our future will be determined by the collectives that we enable today – with presence, intelligence and action. Collectives that are cross-disciplinary. Collectives that are rigorous. Collectives that are conscious.
We can 'be' and 'do' better.
It’s all too easy to dismiss the other side as uneducated, naïve, or just plain wrong.
Last week, I stood among hundreds at Harvard’s Kennedy School Forum as one of the world’s leadership gurus, for whom I have deep admiration and respect, suggested that the student protests sweeping across the US had gone too far and had become counter-productive to their mission. In his eyes, if the students had been better educated and known more about the history of the Middle East region, they would not have taken such a strong stand. But the student protestors were not at the Forum to share their own perspective. Perhaps if we had been able to ask them, some (many?) of them might say that they had not gone far enough? Maybe they have done their homework and are just coming to a different conclusion?
We won’t always agree. But if we take the time to listen and work to integrate different perspectives and lived experiences, we may be able to get closer to understanding each other and reduce the collateral damage of our conflicts.
Integration and cooperation are hard. They require us to let go:
…of strongly held opinions and revisit underlying assumptions
…of our pre-formed ideas of ‘what’ a solution should look like
And instead focus on ‘how’ we work together. How we…
Embrace diverse perspective – seeking out the artists, the scientists, the philosophers, the activists, the ones on the frontlines and ask them about how they see the world. We need to have the courage to question our own assumptions and be open to adjusting our perceptions.
Enable connected identity – honoring our connections to show that we have more in common than we think. As we acknowledge and appreciate alternative perspectives, our approach to the world becomes richer, more inclusive, more just and more resilient.
Foster collective presence – maintaining shared awareness, understanding and intention requires work. Honest communication, clear information, rigorous analysis, inclusive narratives.
Actively integrate – stewarding coordination is a full contact endeavor. It’s not enough to bring together diverse perspectives, our work must land in a new way of working, a shift in how we all imagine, engage with, and create the future.
Over the past few weeks, amidst the uncertainty, the hard questions, the grappling with the very real challenges in front of us, I glimpsed the threads of a new social fabric emerging.
Collectives are forming that are incorporating these practices and reimagining new possibilities for ‘being’ and ‘doing’ together. These threads give me hope.
Thank you to all of the delightful souls that shifted my perception, engaged in provocative conversations, stretched my imagination, and filled me with awe and inspiration. It was such an honor and joy to have crossed paths, pondered and played together.
We have more work to do, together.
[1] World Inequality Report 2022, https://wir2022.wid.world/