Presidential Presence

There have been a number of interesting articles about body use and language that have come out of the American presidential debates. Karen Bradley, head professor of the graduate program in dance at the University of Maryland, and a Laban movement analysis practitioner, has analyzed the movement of George Bush:

During a State of the Union address, Bush spent the entire speech swaying metronomically, straight down through his lower torso, a movement underscored, unfortunately, by the presence of a large vertical banner behind him. “Each shift ended with this focus that channels toward a particular place in the audience…It’s a little primitive, a little regressed.” The combination of the look, the sway, and the gaze was, to her mind, distinctly adolescent. When people say of Bush that he seems eternally boyish, this is in part what they’re referring to. He moves like a boy, which is fine, except that, unlike such movement masters as Reagan and Clinton, he can’t stop moving like a boy when the occasion demands a more grown-up response.

And recently on the Planet Waves blog the movement of McCain and Obama, Palin and Biden:

PALIN: Whenever she says “I am ready,” she’s really not answering the question. This means she isn’t adaptable to questions, nor is she listening. She’s all about persistence and no content. She’s really not saying anything, but she does it with great conviction.

McCAIN: Completely non-adaptable as well. Whatever is going on, he is not going to move. As maverick and leader of the “Straight Talk Express,” his stance didn’t shift or waffle. He owned the space he was in.　If he changes the message he believes in, he loses his grounding (meaning he verbally spurts, and his body lists like a ship). He wants you to believe he is holding down the fort, but it looks as though he doesn’t believe it himself. No moral center here.

BIDEN: Very consistent. What McCain should have been. He’s pointed, not broad. He’s got depth. He’s like grandpa: sometimes wise, sometimes goofy, but the goofiness is forgivable because he’s got depth.

OBAMA: He’s got challenges. Sometimes he wanders around the stage, but that’s when he is listening and thinking about how to respond. You don’t see this trait in any of the other candidates. He’s a very considerate and a good listener. He doesn’t appear to be impulsive. He decides deliberately. He has a center but also has tremendous range. Kids understand: This man is a grown up.

We like our leaders to have presence. We want them to be people we can trust. What we say with our bodies speaks volumes. And the body does not lie.

Next time you watch an organizational, community, political or global leader “speak” pay attention to what they are telling you with their body, energy and intonation and register. Pay attention to your responses. 

Ask yourself: what am I responding to? Words? Or something else?

Tags: biden, body language, leadership, mccain, obama, palin, somatics

Sustainable Leadership: No Waste

In the overview of Sustainable Leadership: Evolving Sustainable Leadership: Engaging the Core I wrote:

No Waste: No Waste means what it says and says what it does. On a tangible level it could mean looking for and implementing lifecycle oriented solutions that incorporate technology into the eco-systems into which it will be introduced. Intangibly it is about integrity: matching action with words and espoused values: being the change we want to see in the world.

As we watch our financial system unravel, our savings evaporate, banks implode, credit freeze and earnings contract, we should keep this principle in mind. Fundamentally, no waste means living fully in the here and now, living closely with that which sustains us. Flourishing while living simply.

Where can you simplify?

The further we venture from common sense, basic principles of economic exchange and move into sophisticated schemes involving trading the idea of the ideas of money chopped up like toxic sausage and served piping hot as investment vehicles, the further we move into the realm of waste: time, money, energy and resources wasted in the pursuit of the fallacy of unlimited growth.

How much time and energy are you wasting worrying right now?

No waste asks us to know our home (however big it might be), the names of our co-habitants and to create and trade with them in the most effective and efficient way possible. If we feel the pull for sophistication then, for example, let us focus on sophisticated (waste free!) technology that harnesses inexpensive, widely available energy from inexhaustible, readily available resources like the sun and wind that frees us from “energy dependence.”

Can you think of a really good reason why we shouldn’t?

We can invest in and work on technologies, products, services, projects and initiatives that will provide for and sustain us, our children and their children. From the ashes of our current economic debacle we can create a new way of doing business, banking and living that is both eco-nomically and eco-logically sustainable.

Are you willing?

Shifting away from excavating energy to capturing it, working with bioregional patterns instead of fighting them, creating the capacity for deep and brilliant green consumerism takes a huge re-orientation of the time, money, energy and resources squandered on our collective trip down financial fantasy lane. 

Are you ready to be the change you want to see?

We need to re-group, re-inspire and re-invigorate our selves to begin again. And, we need to do it NOW.

Why wait?

Things are going to get worse and things are going to get better.

Where do you want to live?

We are capable, we can build the capacity to move to a “no waste” way of living, doing business, even banking and investing. It takes vision, desire, courage, commitment & discipline, and accountability for our intentions and actions.

What can you do?

It takes and needs leadership. Sustainable leadership. 

As my friend Tony says: “Are you part of the problem or part of the solution?”

Well, are you ready to stop wasting time?

Tags: alternative energy, economic meltdown, green consumerism, no waste, sustainability, sustainable leadership

With Great Opportunity Comes Great Accountability

Just received this message from Richard Barrett, founder and chairman of the Values Centre. He has done and is doing some great work around the intersection of individual and corporate values. The excerpts below focuses on the opportunities arising from the current financial meltdown:

We are exactly where we need to be. The pain heralds a new era – the era we have been waiting for. It is a time for all conscious individuals to rejoice. As Leonard Cohen sings – there is a reason why there is a crack in everything…it is to let in the light.

It is becoming abundantly clear that we cannot solve our current problems of existence with the same levels of consciousness that we created them.

But the pain had to be felt in the rich countries before it could be remedied in the poor.

What we are witnessing is the beginning of a global species shift…in consciousness.

For this to happen, we had to totally deconstruct the paradigm of greed and self-interest that has characterized the past 50 years by doing away with the arrogance of assumed privilege that has permeated the rich nations and affluent societies of the world – both financiers and politicians.

We must move beyond nationalism. We must move beyond self-interest. We must individually and collectively embrace the common good. We must move beyond short-term thinking to consider the impact we are having on future generations. We must move beyond being the best in the world to becoming the best for the world.

We are learning that we live in a web of connectivity that goes beyond national boundaries. We are learning that sovereignty has no meaning in an interconnected world. We either come together as a species in a field of common values to make the concept of humanity palpable, leaving behind our national identities or we will remain separated by our beliefs and allow the suffering to deepen into chaos and mayhem.

It is going to get much worse before it gets better. But, I say again, rejoice in this pain. Rejoice in the crumbling of the old era, because from the ashes of this so called modern civilization we will create a new world built on…the principles of equality, empowerment, accountability, responsibility, and continuous learning. We must create a values-driven society. Beliefs always separate. Values always unite.

Just as atoms learned how to bond together to form molecules, and molecules learned how to cooperate to create a higher order entity called a cell; and just as cells bonded together to create organs, and organs learned how to cooperate to create a human being, so now it is time for human beings to learn how to bond together in democratic nations, and for those nations to learn how to cooperate with each other to create a new higher entity called humanity.

Thankfully, we are ready. We have the models and the tools to make the evolution of consciousness, conscious. The world is calling you at this time to make a difference in the world.

Richard Barrett, Founder and Chairman of the Values Centre

I agree there is great opportunity as we remake our financial and economic systems and relationships. And, while I, too, would like to hope that we are entering a new paradigm based on values of commonality, inter-relationship and inter-connection, I don’t believe this will just happen. 

As leaders, practitioners, mothers, fathers, grandparents and parents of the future we must intend and consciously create this paradigm. Innovation takes inspiration, discipline and whole lot of hard work. We must have the desire, commitment and accountability to be and create the change we want to see in the world. That change, to the limit of our awareness, understanding and effort, must focus on sustainable practices, systems and processes for all of us. 

What is the Real Work of sustainability?

 

• Having the awareness to see what could and what needs to be done. 
• Having the discipline to facilitate what needs to be done into concrete actions and effects.
• Creating waste free cycling of energy and materials.
• Maintaining the commitment to this process of innovation and capacity evolution.
• Creating communities that support and generate ongoing development and innovation.
• Nurturing the next generation to exceed and expand upon the good work we are doing NOW.

 

Tags: capacity evolution, Richard Barrett, sustainability, values