Aurora
Explore the beauty of Northern Lights and learn leadership for complex times in this edition!
In this issue:
how to see the magical beauty of the northern lights
leadership for complex times
This week’s a short one, folks! Probably a relief after the last two monster issues.
Hell Yeah I Remember Aurora
The northern lights rolled through Minnesota and most of the nation this week, and we all stepped outside together. It reminded me of the massive power outage in San Diego in 2011, when I remember lots of friends and family talking about wandering outside, talking to neighbors and just spending time in driveways chatting. It also reminded me of the times when, back in the early 2000s at Walmart.com, we’d lose the network in the building and everyone would get up from their desks and - unsure of what to do - just connect and talk. In times like this, your experience gets very narrow and intimate, and also, you’re experiencing the same thing as a great number of people are doing at the same time. People talk more, and pay attention differently. Time takes on a different quality that you can feel in your body because very little is competing for your focus, and the entire experience becomes about one shared event unfolding in front of you.
My entire feed filled with images of green, pink and red light, and people kept posting new angles all night, and every platform I opened echoed the same excitement. I do not know anything about magnetic storms, but I am hoping that whatever caused the sky to light up has some broader upside that scientists will eventually explain.
Northern Lights seem to have a dirty little secret though: THIS IS NOT WHAT THEY LOOK LIKE! You typically cannot see the lights like this with your eyes alone. You need to look through the lens of a camera. This kind of shows what it commonly looks like to the naked eye but if we’re being honest I don’t know how they got a photo of it?
A Lens for Complexity
The 6 Capacities of Leadership is kind of like the phone phenomenon with the Northern Lights. You can only see the lights through a camera, and you can really only understand the motivations, fears, needs and worldview of your stakeholders through the 6 Capacities framework.
I introduced a group of leaders to the model this week and it was eye opening and insightful for them to understand the complexity of needs in their business challenge. They were able to find themselves in the framework as well as identify what is true in the complicated group of stakeholders they need to influence and partner with.
Most leaders know what is happening inside their system, but they can’t name it or understand its structure. They feel tension, but can’t identify the source, let alone feel equipped to address it strategically. The 6 Capacities of Leadership gives them a unique advantage - a super power - that lets them understand and design systems of trust, order, success, strength and harmony. Building mastery in these five capacities actually yields the sixth: the capacity for systems.
Tell Me Your Story of Complexity
I want to hear the situations that feel tangled in your world. The more complex, the better. The less known, the better. If you’ve tried to solve it through effort and still don’t see progress, I would like to help you try looking at it another way - through special lenses that reveal human fears, needs and motivations.
Send me examples from your role, team or organization. I snack on complexity and would love to noodle on your use case.
Bring Me To Your Leaders
If you want your direct reports to build skill and confidence in how they navigate complexity, let me come in to present the Introduction to the 6 Capacities. This session is best done in person, but extends easily to both virtual and hybrid meetings.
Contact me to book a session or to ask a question.
Your Capacity is the Next Frontier
You’ll find more range and less friction when you expand and deepen - not just stack on more tools or strategies.
Leading in complexity is how the future gets made. Leaders who can flex across all six capacities will be able to shape the systems, organizations and communities they go on to lead. No one can do it on their own, but my mission is to equip as many leaders as I can so that the wave we ride into the next chapter is sustainable, serves humans and keeps improving our quality of life.
What a time to be alive!
