Leadership As Stewardship

A combination of ‘going through the motions of having COVID’ and ‘Earth Day on 22/4’ made me reflect on the different levels of decision making and leadership without having authority: coming from a focus on SELF to expanding my perspective to the whole SYSTEM again.
 
Get a cuppa and have a read…
 
Every day, we all still miss crucial elements of decision making.
 
We often think too small and ignore the basis for all life: the planet we live on. Every system is part of the planetary and universal system. Every society, every ecosystem, every organisation, every workplace, every team, every home, every person. All are systems in a system. Accepting this makes taking on the role of caretaker of the world a logical next step.
 
Increasing your level of care will ultimately enable you to deliver better results.
 
A Turning Point
 
Well-known and respected primatologist Jane Goodall, who worked with chimpanzees for many decades and then became a very outspoken environmental activist, has always seen the connections and influences of systems in and between our natural and human worlds. And all the problems that come with them.
 
In 2020, Goodall started to intensify her warnings. ‘We have come to a turning point in our relationship with the natural world.’ Jane believes that there is only a small window of opportunity to make drastic changes before we face disaster.
 
This is your opportunity to expand your circle of influence as a leader and contribute to the solutions — in whatever small way you can.
 
During the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, Jane Goodall voiced her belief that humans have (at least partly) contributed to the emergence of the COVID-19 virus. By over-exploiting the natural world, we created a situation that made it possible for the virus to jump from animals to humans. The Guardian newspaper reported that Jane Goodall warned that humanity will be ‘finished’ if we fail to drastically change our food systems in response to the coronavirus pandemic and the climate crisis.
 
Jane Goodall said that we have to do things differently. For example, by lifting people out of poverty, we can decrease the strong negative impact on the natural world. Poor people with no alternatives to feed their families cut down forests to survive, and in urban areas they will choose the cheapest food — no matter what harm its production might have caused. By empowering these families to come out of poverty, a positive impact on the environment is likely. Goodall wants wealthy people to stop buying from companies that use factory farming or cause harm to the environment in any way.
 
The Guardian said of her appeal: ‘One of the lessons learned from this crisis is that we must change our ways. Scientists warn that to avoid future crises, we must drastically change our diets and move to plant-rich foods. For the sake of the animals, planet and the health of our children.’
 
Changing your diet is a small, very personal contribution you can make to show your care. At work, your influence and potential impact might be even bigger. Any social change empowering people to make better food choices adds more positive impact. Integrating social and environmental sustainability at the core of your business strategy increases your positive impact.
 
Given the fact that a fully intact ecosystem was designed to function sustainably for long periods, I suggest that we take nature as a role model for our own actions. Nature can help us decide which actions are beneficial for people and planet.
 
We can refer to the natural world as a basis for all living systems’ design, including humans. Thus, the following principles can help you to understand how systems work and where to intervene for change.
 
7 Universal Stewardship Principles
 
These seven universal principles are reference points for you when deciding on your next actions as steward. They give you added perspectives and may help explain specific events.

1.           Interconnectedness: Everything is connected.
2.           Circularity: Waste is food.
3.           Cooperation: Competition creates loss.
4.           Rhythm and timing: All things grow and decline.
5.           Change: Everything changes all the time.
6.           Polarity and correspondence: There are always two sides.
7.           Diversity and optimisation: Differences support growth.
 
Are you including these principles in all of your work? How much do you know about them? How well can you use them on a daily basis? The more you expand your skills in these areas, the easier it will be to navigate a VUCA world of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity.
 


The caring aspect of stewardship opens up new pathways to more effective and positive impact on people and planet.
 
It takes courage, persistence, knowledge and good influencing skills to practise good stewardship and make a positive difference.
 
For stewardship to successfully create sustainable change, you need to also be in tune with the natural flow of life and understand all relevant systems around you. The context-awareness that you gain by applying systems thinking and sensing helps you to explore the whole system contributing to your challenges. It enables you to identify optimal intervention points and be aware of blockages.
 
Systems can be hard to understand and navigate. Thus, many people choose just to focus on selected snippets. Unfortunately, this limited perspective wastes a lot of energy, time and money — often with negative consequences.
 
It doesn’t have to be this way. There have been countless generations of wisdom keepers before us, and it is very possible to tap into large parts of their knowledge today. All that is needed to start improvements is an open mind, curiosity and collaboration. Stewardship takes a holistic and systemic approach to optimising care for systems.
 
However, we have forgotten some of the basic skills that are necessary for practising good stewardship, and they are no longer taught. These skills include navigation, patience, caring for the land, understanding time/rhythm, reading and interacting with nature, channelling energy flows and seeing the whole. A fully nature-connected mindset is often missing.
 
Not knowing how to be in and with nature, or how to work with it with respect and reciprocity, has led to the development of activities and products that are slowly destroying planet and humanity. It is a dysfunctional relationship that can’t be repaired by technology or science alone. We have to go back to what came before and integrate this into our work today. Investing time in some basic activities that create a firsthand experience and knowledge of nature can help us to rebuild the connection.
 
Approaching work with a stewardship mindset will make you feel more connected, engaged and satisfied when delivering a positive impact.
 
Ultimately, your role as steward and wise leader is to channel the world’s natural flow for performance and wellbeing. That is a big task. Are you up for this?
 
Naturally yours,
 
Ingrid