Creative Leadership Coaching

Another beautifully written post by Carman de Voer:
Hi Lisa,
For the last few weeks I’ve been pruning a figurative olive tree http://www.freewebs.com/gwencarm/–a Promethean task, to say the least, but one, I hope, will also “light up the mind.”
I’m not at all surprised that you would integrate love and leadership. Though we have never met I believe [...]

Carman, Thank you, as always, for your post. Your contributions really enrich this forum. The dynamics you describe resonate with what Riane Eisler would call Dominator dynamics, which describe theory x organizations. In a Dominator culture, one is either one up or one down from others. It also invokes the dual-nature you describe (”Who is [...]

Submitted on 2009/05/30 at 8:37am
Hi Lisa,
Thank you for the opportunity to engage in creative communion–and to make the “unconscious conscious.” I believe it was systems scholar Bela Banathy who said, “the beginning of wisdom is to call things by their right names.”
I have begun to question the traditional labor market [employer-employee] nomenclature as an example [...]

Hi Carman, I am glad to hear that you are feeling restored to health! It’s a pleasure to read your posts again.
Yes, I agree – Alfred North Whitehead once said that whatever constitutes a world view can be understood to constitute a religion. And, process theologian, David Ray Griffin, who interpreted and extended Whitehead’s work, observed that [...]

Hi Lisa,
My apologies for my slothful response: a cold came upon me like a highwayman, stole my strength, and left me a shivering mass of human impotence. I believe it was the symbiosis of sleep and flowers (Echinacea) that restored my soul.
I love your comment, “it is important to affirm and point out the deep [...]

Hi Carman, As always, your posts are both intellectually enriching and poetic.
Years ago, Alfonso Montuori and I wrote an essay on how our philosophical paradigm and guiding metaphors have shaped organizations and leadership, and created the blind spots that now limit organizations. A very perceptive reviewer suggested the article would be all the more impactful if [...]

Carman, You are a prolific writer and thinker!  You make several points in your post that all deserve some reflection and response. 
Yes, the Cave metaphor seems to “work” for world views/paradigms in general, and it can, therefore, certainly be applied to the worldview which shapes traditional organizations.  And, a — perhaps the — guiding metaphor [...]

Hi Lisa, Two elements that strike me about the Cave allegory are:
1) Dehumanization
2) Degradation
Interestingly, The Free Dictionary links dehumanization with mechanization:
1. To deprive of human qualities such as individuality, compassion, or civility: slaves who had been dehumanized by their abysmal condition.
2. To render mechanical and routine.
Given the resurgence of Scientific Management with its systematic reduction [...]

Carman, Your example of the transformation of Scrooge in the Christmas Carol, illustrates how third parties can stimulate transformation by helping a leader see the current situation and dynamic more clearly, and consider new perspectives and possiblities.
This whole area of the process of transformation is intriguing. By definition, it involves some kind of diversity — [...]

Carman, Sorry for the long delay! My executive and career coaching practice includes working with people in career transition, and, unfortunately, many people are needing this kind of support right now.
Regarding transformation, you wrote:  “It changes ‘how’ we know. Change thus appears to involve the re-perception of reality. [It...] involves the ‘deconstruction of a given [...]