Inspiring Your Authentic Week

Posted: 28 Jun 2010 12:01 AM PDT

2000 years ago in Rome it was acceptable to spend a day watching men fight to the death, a few executions over lunch and contrived animal hunts in the afternoon. It was normal to have slaves working in your house and on your land.

Today in most parts of the world these things are unacceptable. This an example of how, what is usually known as, the "level of consciousness" of a society evolves.

Like most things it is not linear or universal, but, on the whole our society's level of consciousness does seem to follow a path towards greater awareness and care.

It often takes us a while to work out how to respond responsibly to new innovations, like television or fast food. However if you look at the broader picture, with things that have always been around you can see the pattern.

Women on the whole have greater opportunity in more parts of the world. Child abuse is recognised, deplored and is prosecuted more often. The death penalty is less acceptable in more parts of the world.

The shift is from a way that deals with problems through conflict and aggression and towards one that deals with problems through negotiation and consensus building. Away from self serving individual greed and towards a more collective betterment.

It is an archetype of fiction as well as history, the bad guys are aggressive, violent and ego lead (wearing black or red). The good guys are more open, participative and want peace, (but are prepared to fight for it and wear white.)

We are facing unprecedented threats to our existence, far more serious that the second World War or the Cold War.

I call these threats " the triple challenge" they are:

Environmental: Pollution, species loss, water.

Economic: Peak oil, massively unfair and broken economic systems.

Spiritual: The war for the "ownership" of meaning.

If we attempt to solve these challenges the old way, through aggression, violence and ego, any one of them could lead to a literal and traumatic decimation of the human population. No bad thing for the rest of the world, but we humans may consider it an undesirable outcome.

In order to solve these problems without creating disaster we must evolve. We must learn to see that we are all part of the same whole. Humans are not separate or more important than each other or than animals. We are all vital to our future.

Killing, controlling, demeaning or reducing another in order to improve our own position is ultimately self defeating.

The alternative to disaster is not the current status quo. The alternative to disaster starts with far better education that focusses on creating confident, capable and balanced adults and delivers far greater global fairness.

Our successful future refuses to deplete natural resources in favour of one group or generation, at the expense of another.

Our successful future finds a way to embrace diversity and harness it for the dignity of all.

We can create a positive, peaceful and sustainable future. We have the emotional and intellectual intelligence, we just need to use it.

We need to grow up as a society and the more fortunate and mature among us need to empower and support the less fortunate, rather than exploiting them.

To do this we need mature leaders in all walks of life, in business, in communities, in politics.

Are you prepared to be that leader? To bring maturity and responsibility to your organisation. To create whole hearted alignment and to create a positive and sustainable future for your family, your business or your society?

If you would like to find out more about authentic leadership please visit the dedicated Authentic Leadership microsite and lets have a chat.

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With love

nx

Neil Crofts
Neil Crofts
authentic business

+34 646391384
neil@neilcrofts.com
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