"Power doesn't come from knowledge. What people know doesn't make them
powerful. It's being present to what you're dealing with that gives
you power."
...
"I do not put what I think I know from my learning and experience as a
lens between me and what I am dealing with. I keep what I know, so to
speak, above the space between me and what I am dealing with so that
it shines some light on what I am dealing with rather than being a
filter."
Immersed in an inquiry about this so-called leading edge, I find
myself asking two questions:
1)
exactly what is on this leading edge?
and then
2)
exactly where is this leading edge?
Having been around
Werner
for almost thirty five years, first as just another self-righteous
skeptic then as a
friend,
and having
observed
and experienced the leading edge he brings forth ongoingly, there are a
slew of answers to the first question "Exactly
what is on this leading edge?". In my
view
this slew is simplified by collecting it into two areas:
transformation
/ possibility and
leadership.
So the answer to the first question "Exactly what is on
this leading edge?" is
"Transformation
/ possibility and
leadership.".
On the leading edge of
transformation
/ possibility,
Werner
makes available proven,
count-on-able methodologies for bringing forth
transformation
/ possibility of the individual ie personal
transformation
/ possibility, as well as
transformation
/ possibility at the level of group, as well as
transformation
/ possibility at the level of society, as well as
transformation
/ possibility at the level of humanity. These methodologies don't
require practice. While they've been studied, studying them isn't a
precursor to having them
work.
They're certainly not to be
believed - in fact believing them may even impede them.
Rather,
participants
in
Werner's
programs come away with direct access to
transformation
/ possibility ie with their hands and feet on the levers, dials, and
pedals of
transformation
/ possibility - whether understood or not.
In addition,
participants
in
Werner's
programs discover their responsibility not just for themselves (as has
been widely misrepresented in over-zealous, biased commentary of the so
called "Me decade"): they also discover their
responsibility for their relationships, their responsibility for their
family, their responsibility for their groups, their responsibility for
society, indeed for humanity as a whole.
On the leading edge of
leadership,
Werner's work
has successfully focused with
laser-like
accuracy
on sub-areas of integrity, performance, and
mastery.
This isn't merely studyingleadership
- like "What actions do great leaders take, and how do we emulate
them?". Rather, people
participating
with
Werner
with
his work
on
leadershipcome away being leaders. This isn't merely
moralizing about
integrity
- like whether or not bad people don't have
integrity
and good people do. Rather, people
participating
with
Werner
with
his work
on
integritycome away with access to integrity. This isn't merely analyzing
performance - like "What actions do high performers take, and how do we
emulate them?". Rather, people
participating
with
Werner
with
his work
on performance come away as high performers. This isn't merely
defining or setting up tests to quantify
mastery.
Rather, people
participating
with
Werner
with
his work
on
masterycome away applying
mastery.
Furthermore
Werner's work
with
leadership
is starting to
show up
in the
language
of global business and finance conversations. Can you
begin to
imagine
the ramifications of our government (any government, actually)
in integrity
with its finances? (our finances, actually).
Werner's work
continues to receive wide acclaim in the business world for providing
authenticbreakthrough
thinking which reinvigorates tired old business paradigms. His
voice
is also receiving a new, ever wider reception in
academia,
being hosted by Harvard University and
many other fine
institutions of learning.
Now, exactly where is this leading edge?
When I got this for myself, I said (literally, to
no one in particular
...
laughingout loud): "It can't possibly be so
simple?!".
This leading edge is right in front of me - like the tip of my nose ...
only more
interesting.
This leading edge is
out here
in front of me where Life as it's really livedshows up,
where the game as it's really played, happens.
This leading edge is open to
creation
- which is to say it's open to
being created.
By definition, this leading edge isn't
created
yet, yes? If it were already
created,
it would be of the past. If it were of the past, it wouldn't be
the leading edge. For it to be the leading edge, is has to be of the
future. For it to be the leading edge, it has to bring forth
that which is yet to come. Being on the leading edge isn't
simply riding up front in the locomotive's cabin of the
train.
Being on the leading edge is getting
out here
in front of the
trainand laying new track (as
Werner Erhard
may have said).
So the answer to the second question "Exactly where is
this leading edge?" is
"Out hereright in front of you.". That's it.
Out here
right in front of you. That's why it's called the leading
edge.
If you're skeptical of these two ways of looking at the leading edge,
try on both of them for size in the two collected areas of
transformation
/ possibility and
leadership
(and in
leadership's
sub-areas of integrity, performance, and
mastery)
in both the business world as well as in
academia
to see if they hold up to scrutiny.