Leadership

Glimpses of What's Beyond

Bill Fox

24 Mar 2023 • 6 min read

The act of creation is an attempt to enter a mysterious realm. A longing to transcend. What we create allows us to share glimpses of an inner landscape, one that is beyond our understanding. — Rick Rubin, The Creative Act

Glimpses of what's beyond

The quote from Rick Rubin on creation jumped off the page for me earlier this week while reading his latest book, The Creative Act. Why? Because it captures the essence of what I experience through my work and writing here at SpaceB.

It allows me to share a slice of my inner landscape in words and images on many things that are sometimes beyond my understanding.

I had no idea how much more meaningful this quote would become as this week progressed.

This past week along with two of my colleagues, John Ryskowski and Wolfgang Fiebig, we hosted a workshop on Leadership in the 21st Century - leading from the inside out with a group of 14 leaders. The group included leadership coaches, facilitators, consultants, and executives from the US, Canada, and Europe.

The purpose of this week's event was to seek feedback from this group to help us create a workshop experience that equaled or surpassed what we witnessed this past fall at a conference.

At the fall event, John Ryskowski organized and led the opening session using the SpaceB cards at Consultants Camp 2022. The camp attendees experienced a highly engaged, expansive, and energized experience that many said was the best opening session they had ever experienced as part of this annual event.

Here are a few of the very interesting comments shared by the attendees on why they were at this week's event:

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I'm intrigued by having people tap into their unconscious and full selves to deal with the complexity of today's world. Because you can't just manage it through your prefrontal cortex. We've got to tap our entire brain and our entire body.

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I'm here today to try and understand more of this journey that I'm on and the wisdom of you folks, which for me, watching the comments go back and forth has been very refreshing and quite brilliant.

The workshop experience

The workshop this past week followed the same format used at camp. Attendees were presented with SpaceB cards and asked to pick one and why. Then after making their card selection, each attendee showed us the card they selected and their why.

If I had to sum up what happened next, every presenter selected a card that activated something inside for them. Sometimes it was the image, words, or a combination of the two.

Each person then shared a slice of their inner landscape that was uniquely theirs, which added to and deepened everyone's understanding of something that is quite often deep and hard for us to understand fully and beyond our grasp.

For a few moments, the group was transported beyond their current boundaries to the space beyond boundaries in a way they could not achieve on their own.

Collectively, we were all able to catch a bigger slice of something that exists in a mysterious realm that we can now bring back to our current life, work, and reality.

Enlightened Leadership, When to Do Nothing, and Trusting the Inner Voice from left to right (click on online image to enlarge)

Here are a few of the many valuable insights that the attendees shared:

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The Enlightened leadership card is the space I'm focused on helping people be in and being in myself. So I like to think of it as when we're at ground level, there's a lot of turbulence, right? We're in the midst of it, and there's stuff going on, and we're triggered, and people are saying inappropriate things, and things are happening. And then, when we can rise to a higher perspective, we can see what's really going on. But from that space, I may see this person has a core wound causing them to be very manipulative. So from that space, I can love them. I can appreciate them. I can feel deep compassion for them. And I can say, "No, thank you." I will not invest my money with you or have you as a client, or whatever it may be. So I believe that that domain of awareness is incredibly valuable for every little thing all day long.

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I liked the When to Do Nothing card because it resonated with me because it made me think of a lot of the leaders that I work with in the federal government, which are promoted to leadership positions because of all the good things that they've done as managers. And they have that transition of, "Oh, my gosh, no, I'm a leader!" but they continue being a manager. If there's this need to do something, this sense of, "Oh my God, something's got to be done!" But if you don't sit back and let a situation evolve, if you don't listen to others, if you don't try to pull information from others, you only know what you know. And if you've only got that, if your only tool is a hammer, every problem becomes a nail.

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I selected the Listening to the Inner Voice card. It reminded me that sometimes I sit and pay attention to what's happening in me and make the space to actually have an idea of what is happening around me. And my experience in big companies and leadership is it's about goals. It's about thinking.

Where we go from here

What I found curious was that the connection many related in their telling was very personal and went well beyond the words in the quote — a door opening of sorts. — Gwen Kinsey, Leadership Coach @ gwenkinsey.com

The quote from colleague Gwen Kinsey summed up what we all experienced very well. What we experienced, witnessed, and learned went well beyond what we brought into the room.

When each one of us shared our unique perspective of something that was a bit beyond our understanding, we all gained much more collectively.

This workshop will be the leading event for Leadership in the 21st Century - leading from the inside-out sessions beginning in May 2023 at LeaderONE.

Each month and for the following six months, we will focus on one of the categories, e.g., Forward Thinking.

They include all the categories defined in Figure 1 below:

Figure 1. Six Key Dimensions of the Space Beyond Boundaries

The month will begin with an online workshop and one or two support sessions the following week(s). Attendees will also get access to the online learning lessons at leaderone.org.

Because we are still finalizing the details of what this program will look like, we want to make this special offer available now.

Anyone enrolled as a Sponsor member at SpaceB will be eligible to participate in the LeaderONE workshops and sessions at no additional cost.

There is absolutely no risk. I guarantee your complete satisfaction and offer a no-questions-asked money-back guarantee.

This special offer expires on March 31, 2023. Go to the Membership page to sign up.

We will publish more information soon about the content of the course and hold several information-sharing sessions in April.

However, if you'd like to learn more or set up a meeting to discuss any of the above, please email me at bill@billfox.co or schedule a 20-minute call on Calendly.

— Bill

Bill Fox, Founder at SpaceB, LeaderONE, and Forward Thinking Workplaces

A good meeting is a meeting where everyone is listening, and there is space to hear something new beyond what anyone brought into the room with them.
— Michael Neill, The Future of the Workplace

Glimpses of what's beyond

The workshop experience

Where we go from here

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