What can Shapership bring to Leadership (Part 2)

"Since 10 years, I write here about the future of Leadership, in the context of the Disruption Economy. And in ten years, I have never come across a text summarizing so well what Disruptive Leaders do and will do to stay afloat."

We are honored by the comment our friend Didier Marlier made about this article and particularly proud he published it on his website. It was then published on ours.

Shapership is this capacity to Shape the Future and inspire others to engage in change.
What makes Shapers so inspiring? The Do's and Don'ts of Shapership will give you an answer.
If you are a Leader, what can "Shapership mean and what can it bring you? A real inspiration to become the kind of inspiring leader you may want to become in this disruptive economy. An Eye (H)opener.

Last week, we published the part 1 of this article, introducing a new concept we created: “Shapership”,the Art of Shaping new realities, opening up new path to the Future and bringing significant and beneficial changes to Society. It is the capacity  to reshape how people see the future, hence influence it. Given the success and quality comments of many of you, CEO’s, entrepreneurs, senior execs made, we recommend you read the first part before getting on to the 2nd part which we publish today.

This concept may be an inspiration to become a Shaper of the Future or add certain dimension of Shapership to your current Life.  It is food for “Brain disruption”.

Shapership is this capacity to Shape the Future and inspire others to engage in change.

What makes Shapers so inspiring?

As an answer, here are some of the Do’s and Don’ts of Shapership.

1. Shapers   don’t use the famous sentence “I only believe what I see”. They know that “I see  what I believe” is   much more appropriate. Because “the eye only sees what the brain is ready     to understand”. “Reality” is the “real as we perceive it”, filtered by our interpretations, lenses, paradigms and mental models. It     is a story we tell ourselves. Shapers have visions which open new eyes. The Transformative Vision Shapers embody and share is a ”Meaning-Making     Story”: it expands the limits of what people believe is  possible. It radically shifts the way they and others make sense of     Reality. It opens new paths towards the Future. Guided by a full commitment,  they make it a Reality that changes Reality.
2. Shapers  don’t necessarily “HOLD” a position “at the top” of anything. They “ARE” the Change they want to see happen. Who they are and what they do often initiates a “Movement”.
3. Shapers don’t accept the OLD SEPARATION between Vision and Action, Mind and  Matter, Head and Hands which generates abstract strategies detached from     Reality. Shapers adopt “The Altitude Attitude”, a helicopter view – yet NOT DETACHED from Reality or the “material” at hand.     They “tango” with Reality. They are IN TUNE with the world because they ask themselves what needs to happen, not what they want to “sell”. They     jump into the unknown, “acting” with a Vision, CONNECTING Body, Mind, Heart and Soul.
4. Shapers are not driven by FEAR, EGO or a desire for CERTAINTY which maintain  people in Known territories. They acknowledge an emerging state  of the world as needed and engage in authentic questioning, embodied participation to the movement with long-term Aspirations beyond  themselves, Courage, Imagination and a readiness to navigate UNCERTAINTY.
5. Shapers  don’t CONFORM to obsolete ideas or conventional Wisdom with usual pretexts. Shapers DARE “the Age of Unreason” when it leads to greater “Wisdom”.
6. Shapers  don’t use REALITY AS AN “EXCUSE” for not trying. Shapers have their way to FACE and SEE Reality as it is and as it is becoming.
7. Shapers don’t change people. They change people’s perceptions”. They expand people’s Vision of  what is possible, of what they can do and of who they can become.
8. Shapers  don’t focus on CONTROL; they have let go the illusion that it is possible anyway. They balance FOCUS and FREEDOM. They lead from within and they connect everyone beyond boundaries – organizational and others- to create collective action and solve real issues. They act with others for this larger purpose they allow to unfold, they listen and see with Openness, Empathy and a broadened Consciousness to generate a movement based on co-creation. There is no Mind/Matter split, no Thinker/Doer split.
9. When they are “chosen” as Leaders, Shapers  don’t “EMPOWER” others – empowerment supposes somebody has the power to empower others. They SHARE power with others to foster transformative Dialogue and Action

If you are a Leader, what can “Shapership” mean and what can it bring you?

Imagine a CEO, busy with a fundamental question: “What’s next for my company in this turbulent world?”

There are new issues to face. Shifts are happening outside!

He and his team observe 5 ruptures

1. an Ecological rupture
2. a Digital rupture
3. an Economical rupture
4. an Organizational rupture
5. a Purpose rupture.

He knows that to make his company Future-Relevant, incremental approaches might not be enough. A game-changing world needs game-changing approaches.

He knows all that. But that’s easier said than done.

Why?  Because it is a rational statement of what should be done.But at the end, decisions are generally made for emotional reasons.

So even if his mental maps are regenerated and now accurately represent the world as it is emerging, he might not be in the right state of Consciousness and Being to find in himself the courage to decide what SHOULD be decided and what the world calls for.

Instead of being radical, imaginative and purposeful, he might find himself trapped in the regression forces, tempted to preserve the status quo and the comfort zone.

He might even fall into the illusion that short-term corrective measures can be enough.

We had to face such a case once.

Reharsing the Future with options

We created 4 scenario-based strategies which told 4 alternative Futures for the company, depending on how much they – read the CEO as the main actor in this case – could DECIDE to be in tune with the world and operate from theFuture.

Have a look at the succession of “Nos” and “Yesses” we identified.

Scenarios 1 and 2 were ways to “operate from the Past” and certainly not to operate as Shapers

• The first scenario – “Mirror Mirror”     – was the story of minor adaptations, based on false assumptions that     Business as Usual was enough to maintain growth and that change was optional.     It was mirroring the CEO’s actual state of mind and beliefs. It was also his “preferred Future”
• The second scenario – “Hybrid” – was     a hybrid answer to the world and customer issues based on false     assumptions about customers, Innovation and the continued inward focus on     “Profit” rather than on Value Creation on 4 Bottom Line

Scenarios 3 and 4 were operating from the Future

• The third scenario – “Future Fit” –     was based on the assumption that a full alignment with key issues of the     world is indispensable in terms of Business. But the commitment was still very rational.
• The last scenario – “Vanguard” –     focused on pioneering, Life-sustaining solutions to real issues and the     “transformational difference” they could make in people’s lives.

It emanated from a radically different attitude: the Shapers enlarged and deeply humane Consciousness. And the big “Yes” emerged from the desire and capacity to give new shapes to the world.

Guess what happened?

By rehearsing their 4 possible Futures, – experiencing what the Future feels like within these alternative frames and what options it opens up or closes down – the entire team clearly identified the assumptions, beliefs and main decisions that would enable each of the scenario to become “reality”. They also developed a Memory of a desired Future that enabled them to identify their Big “NO” and their Big “YES”

They now had developed shared Perceptions on 4 key points:

1. They were implicitly thinking and   acting according to “Mirror Mirror”, in their illusionary comfort zone. To that, they could say a Big “NO”.
2. They were sure they had to move to at   least “Future Fit”…which remained a sort of rational way to outperform the     competition
3. The scenario they most desired and feared was the fourth: “Vanguard”
4. They could align what they SHOULD do with what they WANT. But that required 3 shifts to reach the appropriate  state of CONSCOUSNESS and BEING, well-balanced at the 3 levels

The 3 shifts needed to embody Shapership

1. a shift in INTENTION: from the intention to preserve the Past to the desire to shape the Future
2. a shift in FEELINGS: from fear to lose to the desire to make a difference
3. a shift in THINKING: from a linear, ego-centric thinking to a creative Holistic thinking

They are now busy making the impossible possible happen!

Shapership can be a source of inspiration for everybody. Everyday.

It is an Eye-(H)opener.

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