Good Morning!
Welcome to Big Sur, to Hanks' Place, as the Henry Miller Library is known to the locals, and to the 3rd annual Collaborative Event. It's great to see you here today! Some of you are charter members of this event and some of you are here for the first time.
Welcome and thank you to our speakers and panel members. I'd like to introduce them to you:
Speakers: Susan Griffin, Charles Kosmont, Jan Hauser
Panelists: Hal Zina Bennett, Joe Brown, Mary Harper, Joe Long, and David Whitman.
I'm also sorry to say that Joan Kerr who was to be on the panel was unable to make it here today.
I'd also like to thank:
- The Center For Changing Systems, a sponsor in-part today and Mary Harper, its founder.
- Lynn Thomas for her dedication to the video production and TEAMS, The Educational Arts and Media Society and the video crew here today.
- Dave Dildine and Judy Share of Big Sur Coast Foods for our superb food today.
- A very special thank you to Rose Benzel for her assistance and flexibility as my assistant over the last few months in preparation for today's event.
- And an extra special appreciation to Ted Jau for the design and installation of the stage canopy-, which is being donated for ongoing use to the Library.
Now here's how the day will go-
I'm introducing a more "collaborative" way for everyone to ask questions during the day-it's called the 'Dialog Process'. You'll first hear an individual speaker make a short presentation on their topic and I will then join them in a conversation of questions that I have prepared. Next, I'll introduce the 'Dialog Process', in which, first, the panel, and then secondly, the audience, will create a more 'salon-like' way to change the typical question and answer session-into a more collaborative discussion after each speaker.
At the end of the day, we'll sit in a circle to hear a recap from the speakers and panelists. This will lead to an open discussion. And as we instituted last year, we'll end with a closing ritual.
Now I'll open with the lighting of a candle, to help guide us to new clarity and awareness…
"Tell me and I'll forget
Show me and I may remember
Involve me and I'll understand"
- Chinese Proverb
We're coming together today, to consider "Integrating a New Awareness into Business Practices". That's our subject. But what we're really doing today is sharing an experience, speaking, thinking, and being together, creating collaboration! Through this collaborative process we can be nurtured and empowered to make a difference on our paths…in this process we may gain understanding in how to influence others through the decisions we make, we'll be encouraged to re-think the way we do things: to become clear in our values, our principles, our virtues. Also to become clear with trust, accurate and complete information and leadership.
Each one of us here today is a leader in one context or another. A recent article in the Toronto Globe and Mail Newspaper offered these thoughts about leaders:
Leaders are described as individuals who:
- Are purposeful
- Who engage people's hearts
- They articulate a meaningful purpose
- And they are committed to others
…Hierarchy can force compliance (or complacency) but NOT commitment.
And the article continues…
- We follow leaders who engage our hearts
- Purposeful leaders understand a basic human tenet:
- People choose whom they will follow.
The article was written by a young woman who I met over a long weekend gathering, called "Consciousness in Commerce" in Toronto, last February. In fact, David Whitman, one of today's panelists, joined me there. That weekend gathering was like so many movements now starting to take shape as we move into what is becoming increasingly reactive times: Informal gatherings, groups of employees, salons. New community organizations are now concerned about making positive change happen. Organizations, businesses and groups such as:
- The Center for Holistic Management
- The Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability (LOHAS)
- Business for Social Responsibility
These groups, among many others, are dedicated to evolving and integrating a new awareness!
Consider the Earth Charter, a copy of which you were given today when you arrived. The idea of the Earth Charter was born in 1992 at the U.N. Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit.
In 1994 Gorbachev helped launch a new initiative to complete it.
In 1997, a new commission started its completion, with the final version completed in March 2000.
The Charter's core messages are these:
- Respect and Care for the Community of Life
- Ecological Integrity
- Social and Economic Justice
- Democracy, Non-Violence and Peace.
- Intelligence, Humility and Humanity
These are the qualities that are being set forth…
Whether through the Cultural Creatives, Natural Capitalism or Social Venture Network or others.
The times we are in, ask each one of us to:
- BE responsible
- Be aware
- Be accountable for our decisions and our actions
- Be involved in seeking remedies to help bring us to a new level of awareness in all areas of our doing and being.
Let's face it; we live in a capitalistic culture. However, at this point, the impact of capitalism on the environment, our mental and physical well-being and on our very ethics are being questioned… So how about taking a new approach: How about basing capitalism…on character, instead of acquisition or dominance?
We must ask ourselves, at these critical junctures in our environmental and moral climates, to make the shift. We need to ask ourselves only one question!
ARE WE CONSUMERS OR ARE WE CITIZENS?
Freud's challenge in his historic article, entitled, "Civilization and Its Discontents" asks a moot question: Why have men created a culture in which they live with such discomforts?
We live in noisy and increasingly disruptive times. To survive and endure such upheaval, we need to focus and get rid of the clutter and re-inspire ourselves.
It's not about staying away from creative risks…as the entertainment industry is currently doing. It is about searching for more meaningful work…understanding the need for flexibility…and experiencing less stress.
We can do that! RIGHT?
As we embark on the day, open yourself and open your fertile imagination to a fresh perspective.
It's time to bring enlightenment to our visions of tomorrow.
You know, that in the Buddhist tradition, enlightenment is defined as a state of supreme knowledge, combined with infinite compassion.
Today you will hear discussion about knowledge, spirituality in business and science, among other subjects.
Knowledge should teach is about the nature of the world around us and about our own minds.
The great spiritual traditions, whether they were dogmatic or based on pure contemplative experience, provided powerful, ethical rules that people could use to structure and inspire their lives.
Science is an instrument.
Science does not produce wisdom. Only human thought and concern can enlighten us about the path we should follow in life. So, we must cultivate a "science of mind" so to speak or what we call spirituality.
Today, more than ever, spirituality is not a luxury but a necessity.
Ignorance does not mean a simple lack of information but rather a false vision of reality.
Knowledge gives power. Power requires a sense of responsibility, and the idea that we are accountable for the direct or indirect consequences of our actions…
Let's wisely invest the funds of knowledge and wisdom that this day provides.
Lets make the most of our time here today: taking new strengths and resources with us into the days to come.
Resources that will serve us, our community, and our environment in positive and productive ways.
That what leaders do!
