Seeing The Whole Picture

July 16, 2009 in Codex, Logh
Tags: Collaborative principle, Intregral Vision, Leadership, Level 5, LOGH, Reinhard Von Lohengram

Mediators have the critical capacity to see the whole – and to act in its best interest. The potential for doing so is already part of each of us and part of our language. When we speak of someone seeing the “whole picture” or thinking “out of the box”, we are referring to one of the prerequisites for leading through conflict. (Conversely, when we comment on “groupthink”, “tunnel vision”, and “myopia”, we are referring to its absence.) Various researchers, who have studied it closely, have called this king of leadership “integral”, or “unitive”, Level 5“, “third-side”, and “second-tier”. But all of these diverse frameworks reach a common conclusion : some leaders are not stopped by differences but can lead across them effectively.
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Under ideal circumstances, leaders would always act according to what one of my colleagues, David Chrislip, calls the collaborative principle : “If you bring the appropriate people together in constructive ways with reliable information, they will create authentic vision and strategies for addressing the shared concerns of the organization or community. The three elements identified in italics – which can be summarized as the who, the how and the what of conflict prevention – are each vitally important. Leave out any one of them, and, sooner or later, conflict worsens. Incorporate them all, and conflict may be transformed.

Leading through conflict: how successful leaders transform differences into opportunities, Mark Gerzon, 2006, p49-51