Recent corporate scandals suggest that many business education offerings are simply not helping executives meet the challenges of 21st-century leadership. Business schools played a key role in educating those at the top of many organizations that were subsequently found to be wanting; and there has been very little radical innovation since, beyond making ‘programs’ shorter, faster, or more experiential, with much learning still based in the classroom with a teacher funneling wisdom. Whether educational institutions are achieving scale online or teaching via learning apps and the use of simulations, we argue that we need to go beyond ‘content’ and help address the meta challenges of how executives can learn for transformation rather than receiving information.

While the world of work is becoming increasingly complex and demanding, we have seen a paradoxical rise in the popularity of older practices such as meditation, ritual, and silence as a way to help leaders meet these challenges. These are increasingly being used as part of leadership development offerings.

’Mindfulness,’ for example, is now a mainstay within Silicon Valley; Google’s ‘Search Inside Yourself’ is the best-known example. But mindfulness meditation is also being adopted by organizations as diverse as General Mills and the US Army and police services. While research shows the efficacy of mindfulness programs in reducing stress and increasing efficiency1 there have been many criticisms, often under the label ‘McMindfulness’, that the practices have been stripped from their religious origins. There is also concern that they may only serve to make people content and therefore work even harder rather than challenge inhumane or unjust work systems; and could be seen as a further step of corporate interference in the domain of an individual’s personal life, their faith and belief taken over and used for commercial ends (Carrette & King 2004)1. We must be careful that contemplative practices are not simply the corporate use of ‘spiritual bypassing’ avoiding tackling what is difficult by jumping to the esoteric or abstract, or ‘flavor of the month’ initiatives, mandated by an enthusiastic CEO.

While mindfulness has received a lot of press, it is only one contemplative practice among many. So how are we to think more broadly about how contemplative practices may enable leadership development?

One recent initiative conducted by Caroline Watson from the World Economic Forum Young Global Leaders looks at the topic of ‘Spirituality and Transformative Leadership’ in the context of guiding global change2. She asked her Young Global Leaders community to reflect on what spirituality meant to them and, importantly, how it helped them address global challenges and relate to the everyday world of work. Among the various themes that emerged were ‘values-based leadership, focusing on qualities such as integrity for a more ethically inspired leadership and also a business case for spirituality and defining a vocabulary for this in the workplace.

Combining ‘contemplative’ with ‘leadership’ may sound like an oxymoron. But we contend that this very paradox is why it can serve us well in developing leaders today. Traditionally, contemplation has been considered to be an inactive or passive activity, perhaps associated with ‘reflection’ or ‘thinking deeply’ at best and ‘naval gazing’ or ‘squandering time’ at worst. Leadership on the other hand has always been synonymous with agency, getting things accomplished, creating and affecting change. We suggest it is not a question of either/or and that both the qualities of contemplation and action must go hand in hand.

So how may this wisdom be applied to leadership development? We suggest that there are four major themes.

A shift towards Planetary Purpose

To see the world in a grain of sand,

And heaven in a wild flower,

Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,

And eternity in an hour.

William Blake (from ‘Auguries of Innocence’ 1803/1863)

Contemplative practices that help leaders and organizations face the whole cycle of doubt, decline, and death can help develop a path beyond the need to focus solely on winning

The focus on personal purpose has been a feature in the world of personal development perhaps birthed in the self-help movement and the counter-culture of the 1960s. The emphasis on Organizational Purpose can be traced to an after-effect of the critique of the corporate excesses and greed of the 80s and 90s followed by the scandals of BCCI, Enron, and more recently Volkswagen. This led organizations to concentrate not only on resolving unethical practices but reflecting on their raison d’être. For example, after the LIBOR scandal, the former CEO of Barclay’s Bank in the UK, Anthony Jenkins, set up a Culture and Values initiative labeled ‘Transform’. Part of it was about going back to the Quaker roots of the bank and the purpose of the organization to ‘Help people achieve their ambitions, in the right way’. From the metaphorical adoption of Dawkins’ selfish gene, with companies competing to survive as the fittest in the marketplace, we have seen the rise of a new form of cooperative and collaborative market in which our interdependence and other reliance are coming to the fore. Inevitably this requires us to go beyond the focus simply on our purpose or even that of our organization. We think this is best described as a shift towards Planetary Purpose.

This term, “Planetary Purpose’ was coined by Roger Harrison (1995) in his article ‘Leadership and Strategy for a New Age’ and is being used by leadership development consultant and former theatre director Richard Olivier, who runs Olivier Mythodrama, as a way to describe this bigger context.

Planetary Purpose is not simply a new buzz phrase for sustainability, though language is critical. Richard remarks, ‘Sustainability is not a sexy word. If someone asks “How is your life, or marriage?” replying “It’s sustainable” does not convey a great feeling of things being good. Instead,d it implies a kind of subsisting. Sustainability is the lowest common denominator, a place where all those in leadership should enter, but it is not the end goal. If someone is not committed to sustainability, they should not be in a leadership role. Planetary Purpose is productive: it tackles our most difficult problems such as child labor or abuse of corporate lobbying and goes beyond compliance. ‘If we believe that individuals can find or create a purpose, why can’t an organization?’ says Richard. While a mission tends to focus on what we are doing developing a Planetary Purpose is more like what Einstein referred to as widening the ‘Circle of Compassion’ and speaks more to the ‘why are we doing things’.

So what can leaders do to develop this sense of Planetary Purpose? One of the key requirements is to enable leaders to adopt a global perspective and to see the impact of the organization’s work on a wider scale than through metrics such as stock price, profits, and market share. To acknowledge the impact in all elements of the cycle from raw materials to disposal as well as usage, may require executives to face what might be described as a ‘moment of despair’. It can feel overwhelming and depressing to truly face our impact but it is a necessary pre-condition for allowing something new to emerge. Leaders need to figure out how to create a liminal space, for a group of willing people to undergo this journey. Executive education could play an important role by providing a safe space for reflection, facilitating open peer and stakeholder dialogue, and helping leaders explore difficult realities without fear of criticism.

Many leaders see themselves as heroes and pride themselves on winning for their organizations in tough conditions. They are unlikely to pick a battle that they cannot win in the short term. It needs enough investment and a commitment to the long-term nature of the company, beyond quarterly results or the tenure of the CEO. This may mean facing declining profits in the short term and balancing the tensions this may create in managing the present to create a better future which the CEO or present leadership may never get to see. Contemplative practices that help leaders and organizations face the whole cycle including doubt, a d decline, and death can help develop a path beyond the need to focus solely on winning. It is to be open to evolution and recognize that this embraces a cycle of life death and then rebirth something that those who look at long-term patterns of technological innovation know well.

Speaking to the Shadows

“One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious” Carl Jung.

Many spiritual traditions talk about the need to embrace concepts (and associated behaviors) in areas such as death and rebirth, to refrain from behavithatatharm otothersand to live in the service of the other. In a world where certain products are increasingly seen to cause harm, for example high ‘hidden sugar’ in carbonated drinks and snacks, leaders derail due to personal or interpersonal reasons, and narcissistic behaviors are tolerated3 we can see the need for interventions that allow us to address problems that can be damaging at the level of society, the business and individual. In addition, there is complexity and pressure in many senior leadership roles, which if not addressed appropriately can be a cause of physical and mental health problems.

We can also see evidence of a lack of ability in some senior leaders, to recognize their ‘shadow’ or negative behaviors, causing damage to themselves and others. It is arguable that the fines (circa £50bn) that have been imposed on the banks since 2008 are an example of this damage, at least in part; as are numerous instances of leadership derailment causing major problems for businesses e.g. GlaxoSmithKline’s $490m fine for bribery in China.

The challenges of climate change, obesity, excess utilization of natural resources, and increasing tensions between rich and poor cannot be addressed through PR and CSR activities alone. Tough decisions need to be taken to mindfully move through cycles of life and death. For example, US healthcare retailer CVS removed tobacco products from its stores (after a strategic conversation about its purpose); the food company Mars said that some of their products should only be consumed one or two times a week, explicitly saying that their sales volume need to decline; and recently the CEO of Sainsbury’s spoke out against the UK Government’s Obesity Strategy and urged ministers to introduce compulsory targets to cut the amount of sugar in foods and ‘clear, consistent guidelines’ on portion sizes. They have also phased out multi-buy promotions on products including confectionery, biscuits, soft drinks, and crisps. All of this activity is being done to ensure that their behaviors align with their expressed purpose of ‘Live Well for Less’ and recognize that some things in their industry need to change radically, and certain practices die.

Making Space for Wisdom

“To arrive at the simplest truth, as Newton knew and practiced, requires years of contemplation. Not activity. Not Reasoning. Not Calculating. Not busy behavior of any kind. Not reading, Not talking. Not making an effort. Not thinking. Simply bearing in mind what it is one needs to know.” George Spencer Brown

The contemplative traditions propose that wisdom is not necessarily ‘acquired’ but instead arises by making space for new thinking to emerge. This is exemplified in the philosophical school of the via negativa, looking at how the opposites can support new learning – for example instead of knowing, examining the value of not knowing; instead of concentrating on action, exploring the benefits of non-action. In ‘Not Knowing’ (D’Souza, Renner 2014) we explored how while knowledge is useful, it also has its limits if we do not acknowledge our cognitive limits, the fragility of expertise, and the temptation towards overconfidence or hubris. An example is the Global Financial Crisis. There were many warnings: one bank now largely in state hands had thousands of risk managers. The problem was not a lack of knowledge but overconfidence and the blind belief in the expertise of a few. Former Chairman of the US Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan remarked ‘I have never seen a greater example of wishful thinking combined with hubris’. We do not need to deny what we know, but we need to make space for what we do not know, and holding the both together may lead to fresh insight and new answers.

Transforming Systems

“One of the ways that your project, your healing, or your social intervention can change the world is through story. But even if no one ever learns of it, even if it is invisible to every human on Earth, it will have no less of an effect” ‘De-growth activist Charles Eisenstein

..Lastly, many leadership development programs tend to develop personal capabilities or feature some form of community engagement, such as taking executives to do a project in townships in South Africa or visiting schools in inner-city London. At worst these can be ‘dark tourism’ masquerading as a ‘learning tour’, misguided educational imperialism abroad,d or simply ineffective. We argue that what they are at their best y sustainable, impactful, and meaningful learning engagement with a community needs to be built on. The lessons from contemplative traditions are that we should not make a false dualism between ‘inner’ and ‘outer’ leadership development and instead all executives’ learning needs to have a ‘twin’ trail and integrate the two.

At best contemplative practices point to a form of active engagement to transform systems and not simply individuals. Spirituality is not a solitary act but a communal one, and one of its forms is engagement in society,y, not denial. An example of a community living this new story is Findhorn in Scotland. This is an ecological and self-sustaining community that faces and convenes people globally to explore issues around the new story and provide ‘insight weeks’ where learning does not happen simply in the head but in the heart, gut, and hands too. To conclude, we are now facing challenges that require a different set of capabilities from leaders, and hence a different focus in leadership development. We have traced an emerging trend of contemplative practices being used to help executives face this edge. The variety of contemplative practices is very broad but we have identified four main themes that we think offer a way to engage in dialogue and begin to explore the connection further. We have not sought to be definitive, but rather provocative to have a conversation on. We hope that it will lead to more interest in existing studies of practices and also help develop future rigorous and systematic analyses of practice and impact. Finally, we cannot help but acknowledge the paradox that in meeting 21st-century challenges in the world of leadership development, we can benefit from ancient practices. As one of our colleagues quipped, ‘It’s not what’s new, it’s what’s true’.