A Humane, Creative, Empowering Culture

As readers of this all-too-infrequently posted blog know, I will be completing my full-time service at American University, this spring, after 35 years. The recently published School of International Service Newsletter (The Diplomatic Pouch) included a “farewell” interview in which I described creating a “humane, creative, empowering culture” in AU organizations that I helped develop and lead as a major accomplishment. (The complete interview is posted at

http://www.american.edu/sis/news/upload/DPouch_Spring_2011_F_web.pdf )

A colleague wrote that she liked the concept but that it was new to her. In response, I provided the following elaboration.

I’m glad you liked the concept of a humane, creative, empowering culture, (perhaps sub-culture would be better) though I haven’t thought of it as all that revolutionary. This was my goal both as Director of Doctoral Studies and especially as Director of the Centre for Teaching Excellence. Creating such a culture simplifies the task of leadership since those functioning within it come to behave appropriately as a matter of habit - like not picking up food with your left hand in rural India and Sri Lanka and presenting a credit card or accepting a cheque deferentially with both hands extended in Singapore. If the culture is, indeed, humane, creative and empowering, members of the organization come to look forward to their work day - my staff often told me so and they stayed on, turning down higher paying jobs. I believe most human beings want a work environment where they feel productive; feel that they are making a difference; feel that their creativity is being affirmed. This is a self-reinforcing process. In such a culture individuals become more productive and the rewards they receive, both intrinsic and extrinsic grow.

Leadings - powerful messages that may be available to those who listen.

Most mornings I am able to set aside time for quiet reflection, reading and, most recently, Tibetan Buddhist meditative practice.  On rare occasions, during these times, I seem to experience what Quakers call ‘Leadings.’  (For those interested in Quakers’ views on leadings, information can be found on the website of New York Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, http://www.nyym.org/leadings/ ).  ‘Divine Guidance’ is how some define a Leading.  However I am not entirely comfortable with the notion that an anthropomorphic Divine Being (God) has taken a personal interest in me.  This seems presumptuous.  My preferred definition of Leadings is  ‘powerful messages of guidance that may be available to those who listen.’

In my life, Leadings have been few, but defining.  The decision to embark on an entirely new research direction, studying the relationship between conflict and development, responded to a Leading.  So did my decision, nine years ago,  to become Director of American University’s Center for Teaching Excellence.   Two years ago, I received a leading to change the direction of my research once again; to begin focusing on the question how do nations that transition from high to low levels of poverty, over time, achieve that goal.

Soon after visiting one of the nations I propose to study, Singapore, this summer, I received another leading.  I was reading the magnificent autobiography of Singapore’s former Primer Minister, Lee Kuan Yew,  In a concluding chapter, he wrote of his decision to step down as Prime Minister.  He explained how he observed the energy levels of some Cabinet colleagues, who had been at his side since Singapore’s founding, flagging. Though still vigorous,  Lee recognized that his own energy level, too, was less than it once had been. Soon afterwards, he announced his resignation from the Prime Ministers post, accepting, instead, the position of “Senior Minister.’ In this role he has continued to attend cabinet meetings and provide policy guidance, but has distanced himself from day-to-day decision making.  

Reflecting on Lee’s words during a period of quiet reflection (I was then in Malaysia) I received the Leading that it was time to step down as CTE Director.  Soon I began exploring, through reading and meetings with my personal management consultant, how I could effect a transition that was both seamless and sustained the Center’s eight year trajectory of growth and high performance.  I remembered an aphorism taught me by my mother (who was a virtually inexhaustible source of aphorisms): 'always leave the stage while the audience is still applauding.'

Leadings provide direction. I believe they must be taken seriously.  But the scenario to which they point can be uncertain... ambiguous.  The scenario that is now unfolding, following my announcement that I would be ‘passing the baton’ (Lee Kuan Yew’s phrase), is different than the one I might have hoped for.  Leadings can point us to new directions, but life’s realities periodically remind us that we can not fully control the destinies of others or even our own.