Archive for Leadership Development

Richard Feynman

// February 20th, 2007 // 2 Comments » // Leadership Development

I just finished a series of four lectures on quantum physics, given in plain(ish) English by the incredible Dr Richard Feynman (1918–1988). Feynman’s genius won him the Nobel prize for physics, saw him publishing revelatory dissenting opinion while investigating the Challenger disaster and publicly envisioning nano-technology in the 50′s.


His engaging, authentic and accessible style made him a legendary lecturer and watching him speak in this series is a pleasure in itself, let alone the fact that he makes one of the most complex aspects of our physical reality comprehensible for the non-scientist.

I’ve never been able to figure out how to explain Quantum Electro Dynamics and I thought that this was an opportunity to try a poor, unhappy audience to see whether it was at all possible to explain this subject in a finite number of lectures. And I chose to come to a part of the world as far distant as possible from my home so that if I were not quite successful I wouldn’t have to suffer so directly.

Richard Feynman, University of Auckland, 1979.
Feynman lived a remarkable life; from his work in the Manhattan Project and the anguish the atomic bomb caused, to his passion for translating Mayan hieroglyphs and latin drumming. He was a a true Renaissance man- simple and complex in all the best ways.

“The Pleasure of Finding Things Out” is a 50 minute interview with him in later life, revealing much of his history and life philosophy, available on GoogleVideo. His blackboards at his death.

“I don’t have to know an answer. I don’t feel frightened by not knowing things; by being lost in a mysterious universe without any purpose — which is the way it really is, as far as I can tell, possibly. It doesn’t frighten me.”

Richard Feynman, The Pleasure of Finding Things Out

Get Happy

// February 19th, 2007 // No Comments » // Leadership Development

Not that I’m saying you’d be any happier where I grew up in Manchester, where two of my three uncles have been fired at with Uzis…”

“What,” Ricard interrupts, “is an Uzi?”

“It’s a machine gun.”

“Ah.” The monk pauses. “I understand what you’re saying. I believe that, if I had to live where you live, I could. By choice, I would not move there. But if you allow exterior circumstances to determine your state of mind, then of course you will suffer; you become like a sponge, or like a chameleon. I have lived in difficult areas. I lived in Old Delhi for almost a year. That really is a miserable place. And yet sometimes I felt so light there. It was like – how can I put this – different weather.”

Robert Chalmers interviews Matthieu Ricard- a Buddhist monk, confidant of the Dalai Lama and neurologically speaking, a most remarkable man.
Full article in The Independent online edition

A Letter to the Delegates

// January 16th, 2007 // No Comments » // Leadership Development

A Letter to the Delegates of Solution 2006
A unique platform for positive change, hosted by AIESEC and the Two Wings Foundation, which I am most excited to be chairing in the beginning of February in Vienna.

“Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.”- H.G. Wells

The struggle of human progress- in both politics and philosophy- is the unravelling of two fundamental paradoxes within our collective and individual humanity. The first is found in the ascent of human civilization. Over the last ten-thousand years we have learned through experience, reacting to the lessons of failure. This is how we have developed democracy and separation of powers, the fundamental rights of man and state, restricted use of nuclear weapons and complete environmental destruction. Although we have learned slowly, often tragically so, we have indeed learned and the potential for a human born in the 21st Century to experience, create, generate and protect is far greater than every before. However, in the approaching ecological/geological collapse we face a challenge that our time-tested reactive approach cannot solve. Simply put, if we do not learn before the fall, than we will learn because of it. There will be massive consequences for the cultural and technological achievements of humanity, yet it is these same achievements that give us, for the first time in our long history, a chance to learn proactively and change our fate. This is the first paradox I would like to explore with you in the rare thinking space provided by Solution 2007.

“What is education? I should suppose that education was the curriculum one had to run through in order to catch up with oneself, and he who will not pass through this curriculum is helped very little by the fact that he was born in the most enlightened age.”
– Søren Kierkegaard, “Fear and Trembling”.

Two questions underlie all schools of philosophy, psychology and spiritual development; what is? And, what should I do? This search for the self, for meaning and comprehension of reality has been critical to the development of political, intellectual, artistic and spiritual leadership throughout history. By looking to both the sciences and wisdom traditions we can gain clarity on this leadership path- but also explore the deepening paradox between self and selflessness, individuality and interconnection, experience and reality, that lines the way. The learning journey of leadership is challenging and personal, yet it holds the key to unlocking our potential for unique self-expression and the fundamental global changes necessary for the continued progress of our civilization. In the platform of Solution 2007 I hope you discover the map of your own leadership path, and by the end of our time together you find yourself already well upon your way.

peace

Arthur Josephson

Chair, Solution 2007
Leadership Development Consultant, ABN AMRO
Director, AIESEC International 04-05
arthursblog@gmail.com
arthur.nomadlife.org

Two-thousand and Seven Dawning

// January 10th, 2007 // No Comments » // Leadership Development

This has been a time in the coming.

In 1922, shortly before publication of “The Prophet”, the great humanist poet Kahlil Gibran started to complain of the illness that would deteriorate until his early death nine years later. In his letters from the time we read,

“But my greatest pain is not physical. There’s something big in me. I’ve always known it and I can’t get it out. It’s a silent greater self, sitting watching a smaller somebody in me do all sorts of things.”

What strikes me about Gibran is his ability to express the deeply spiritual element of the Human, without religion or philosophy. Many other traditions, notably the Hindu sages, have delved deeply into these concepts. They name this greater Self the Atman, and this smaller somebody the Maya, or source of illusion. Perhaps looking at Gibran they would say that he knew only moments of this greater self, and that his end found him before be found his end. But I feel this is only a half-truth. Gibran was a sage of the seasons and knew their rise and fall within him. He played a game, that these bearded ones seem to shy from, and was duly elated and crushed by it. And how else could it be?


Depending on the moment, I am certain that there are many roads or one. For some time I have considered the benefits of this path or that, critiqued this choice or that. But I realised once again that I am well upon my way and a good many more footfalls is what is needed if I wish to see these mountains that loom so large upon the horizon of my mind.

Like Socrates I see sophistry everywhere; purveyors of packaged truths aimed at our recurring desire for the absolute- that impossible ecstasy of the answer. Yet I too see wisdom flowing abundant in the Great and the Human. In leading physicists and philosophers alike I see a depth of truer understanding, a knowledge which cannot be easily known, lest communicated, lest taught. Would it be folly to tease it out and make it one’s work? And perhaps, as for Gibran, how else could it be?

Travel well my friends and may we meet at many crossroads in the coming year.
Peace.

Merry Christmas

// December 23rd, 2006 // 3 Comments » // Leadership Development


“If those who lead you say, ‘See, the Kingdom is in the sky,’ then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, ‘It is in the sea,’ then the fish will precede you. Rather, the Kingdom is inside of you, and it is outside of you. When you come to know yourselves, then you will become known, and you will realize that it is you who are the sons of the living Father. But if you will not know yourselves, you dwell in poverty and it is you who are that poverty.”

Jesus, The Gospel of Thomas, 3. Similarly expressed in Luke 17:21.

Wishing you the very best in this beautiful struggle. Merry Christmas.

Arthur

Will Durant- Historian for Humanity

// December 7th, 2006 // No Comments » // Leadership Development, My Personal Journey

“I feel for all faiths the warm sympathy of one who has come to learn that even the trust in reason is a precarious faith, and that we are all fragments of darkness groping for the sun. I know no more about the ultimates than the simplest urchin in the streets.“

The Story of Civilization, Will Durant


I’ve been listening to an audiobook of Will Durrant’s “The Greatest Minds and Ideas of All Time“, seemingly a most ambitious work- until I discovered Durrant’s previous epic, the 10 volume “integral history” of “The Story of Civilization“. The final volume of this 6 million word overview of the human story won Will, and his wife Ariel, both the Pulitzer Prize for literature and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Will was a historian who resonates very deeply with me, not only for his erudite and objective scholarship, but his passion for drawing the lessons from history for the progression of our human story. For his 96 full years he offered calm reflection for our journey of chaos and creation, yet for far longer still his historical narrative will provide us bridge to the past so that we may yet learn for the future.

Will and Ariel’s 68 year union was a joint journey of discovery; they wrote together, learnt together, travelled together, and ultimately, passed away within two weeks of one another in 1981. A man of 25 years of age can say naught about such a union- he yet lacks the words and the years to touch it’s tender bonds.

Read about the development of his celebrated 1945
“Declaration of INTERdependence“

And a final quote from Will,

“I felt more keenly than before the need of a philosophy that would do justice to the infinite vitality of nature. In the inexhaustible activity of the atom, in the endless resourcefulness of plants, in the teeming fertility of animals, in the hunger and movement of infants, in the laughter and play of children, in the love and devotion of youth, in the restless ambition of fathers and the lifelong sacrifice of mothers, in the undiscourageable researches of scientists and the sufferings of genius, in the crucifixion of prophets and the martyrdom of saints — in all things I saw the passion of life for growth and greatness, the drama of everlasting creation. I came to think of myself, not as a dance and chaos of molecules, but as a brief and minute portion of that majestic process… I became almost reconciled to mortality, knowing that my spirit would survive me enshrined in a fairer mold… and that my little worth would somehow be preserved in the heritage of men. In a measure the Great Sadness was lifted from me, and, where I had seen omnipresent death, I saw now everywhere the pageant and triumph of life.

Transition (1927)

The Challenge of the Hour

// November 14th, 2006 // 9 Comments » // Leadership Development

Professor Sacks is Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth and a world leader in interfaith dialogue. His address, extracted below and in full on mp3 which you should really listen to, is one of the most beautiful religious expressions I’ve ever heard. A call for openness between religions supported by a humanistic interpretation of Exodus that is both educative and compelling.


“I believe that at the university, and in the public square in general, in the 21st century we are being tested. Anyone of religious beliefs and certainly the three great Abrahamic monotheisms, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, to become open to one another rather than closed off from one another…

I actually believe that if we do not do this we face a great danger, of a return to the wars of religion that scarred the face of Europe in the 16th and 17th Centuries. And we really must have thinking equal to the challenge of this hour…

Friends, I have tried to suggest that the great test which religions will face in the 21st century is, are we open to the other? Are we open to the stranger? Are Jews open to non-Jews, Christians to non-Christians, Muslims to non-Muslims? Are we willing to stand up and insist in the name of our faiths for the rights of one who is not like me to continue to be not like me and yet be my equal serving God and bearing his image within me? Can we see the human other as a reflection fo the divine other? That will require all our humility, all our generosity of spirit but above all all our openness.

And that is the meaning of the otherwise cryptic phrases in Exodus when Moses asks God, “What is your name?” And God replies, “I will be where I will be”, meaning quite simply, in the place where you least expect me to be, there I am. And I will be there too in the face of one whose faith and language and culture and history are not like yours. You will see the trace of God in the face of a stranger, even in Pharoahs daughter, even in two Egyptian midwives, and I believe that is the openness we need to survive the terrible risks of the 21st century…

I just wish to give expression to the still small voice that never gives up hope, and that prepares the ground maybe between just a few in each religion, because those few when the time comes, will become the leaders of a new way. That is all I can say. “

Professor Jonathan Sacks was speaking in Australia at Monash University, via SBS.

The God Delusion

// November 14th, 2006 // No Comments » // Leadership Development


Richard Dawkins, the Charles Simonyi Chair in the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University, speaks on his latest book “The God Delusion”. In the first part he focuses on debunking the ethical primacy of the Bible and the illustrating the logical fallacy underlying supernatural belief, however, my favourite part is in winning back Einstein in the religion debate. He differentiates “Einsteinian religion”, whereby some scientists use the word “God” as a metaphor for nature or the mysteries of the universe from revealed religions with the belief in “a supernatural creator that is ‘appropriate for us to worship’”. Christians have often misrepresented Einstein’s references to “God” (“”God does NOT play dice”, etc), whereas Dawkins answers this with Einstein’s own definitive clarification.

“It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly.”

Again in his own terms, Einstein did in fact “believe in Spinoza’s God, Who reveals Himself in the lawful harmony of the world, not in a God Who concerns Himself with the fate and the doings of mankind.”

Spinoza’s belief, expressed as Naturalistic Pantheism, hold at it’s fundament that God is Nature (nature means all things), and that there is no real difference between “Good” and “Evil”- everything in existence is perfect. He makes no account for the revelatory status of the Bible or for any religous practice as fulfillment of convenant or Word. A far cry from any Abrahamic doctrince preached at the Synagouge, Church or Mosque.

Back to Dawkins, in the second half of his presentation he takes questions from students of the hosting Randolph Macon Women’s College- and also visiting students from the Jerry Falwell’s Baptist “Liberty University”. The undoubting faith shown by the Liberty students makes me wonder if they followed the argumentation at all or merely closed themselves off and prepared to try and untangle Dawkins on morality questions- in which they fail. I would love to hear the reactions of a rationalist believer to Dawkins presentation- someone who is open to doubt, can follow the logic and still maintains their belief in the Koran, Bible or Torah and a personal God.

Shipwrecked by the Laughter of the Gods

// November 2nd, 2006 // 1 Comment » // Leadership Development

In a June 2005 Wall Street Journal article, “Ted Haggard, the head of the 30-million strong National Association of Evangelicals, jokes that the only disagreement between himself and the leader of the Western world is automotive: Mr. Bush drives a Ford pickup, whereas he prefers a Chevy.” Link

Perhaps Bush’s Press Secretary would like to add one more difference to the list- Mr Bush spends his free time clearing scrub in Texas- whereas Haggard flies to Denver for amphetamine heightened sex trysts with male escorts. Link

In 2004, the NAE that Haggard led reaffirmed, that “Homosexual activity, like adulterous relationships, is clearly con­demned in the Scriptures.”

As Kahlil Gibran wrote-

“But what of those to whom life is not an ocean, and man-made laws are not sand-towers,

But to whom life is a rock, and the law a chisel with which they would carve it in their own likeness?

What of the cripple who hates dancers?

What of the ox who loves his yoke and deems the elk and deer of the forest stray and vagrant things?

What of the old serpent who cannot shed his skin, and calls all others naked and shameless?

And of him who comes early to the wedding-feast, and when over-fed and tired goes his way saying that all feasts are violation and all feasters law-breakers?

What shall I say of these save that they too stand in the sunlight, but with their backs to the sun?

They see only their shadows, and their shadows are their laws.”

Doubt and Confidence

// October 27th, 2006 // No Comments » // Leadership Development, My Personal Journey

Sitting in an Indian restaurant last night, as the sound of a sitar gently beckoned the falling dusk on my street outside. I decide to pen some thoughts on doubt and confidence concepts that have been frequently bubbling up into contemplation. Below is the transcript from my notebook.


What is the role of confidence if all knowledge is fallible?
Confidence in what is, the confidence that our beliefs and the world-view model they form is. Just that, with all it’s inherent imperfections and most definitely not to be relied upon as absolute reality. To be closed to confidence is to to deny what is clearly manifest, though illusory, to deny this illusion as part of reality is to refute consciousness itself.

Then what is the role of doubt?
Doubt is the reminder that our experience is illusory, that there exists a deeper reality that is the source of our illusion, but closed to us- unknowable. Doubt propels us to an ever closer approximation- freeing us from false ends. To be closed to doubt is to be lost in a sea of illusion.

Both doubt and confidence should be cultivated, this means both should be nourished and pruned- depending on the season. These are the twins from which the art of our consciousness is born; doubt the tool that shapes the clay of confidence.

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