Fully Integrated Leadership

In this episode, I am joined by Brandon Williams.  Brandon is an ex-fighter pilot who used his experience in the military to fuel a mission to help leaders and organizations navigate increasing complexity.  Brandon shares stories from his fighter pilot training and tours of duty, and then we transition into how he has used these experiences as a keynote speaker, leadership coach and organizational consultant.  

Brandon specializes in something called Human Factors Leadership (originally developed by James Reason).  Based on this model, he looks at organizations with some of the following capabilities in mind:

• Commander's intent
• Situational awareness
• Decision-making
• Communications
• Roles and responsibilities

Ultimately, Brandon is committed to helping people understand the difference between complicated vs. complex challenges.  We talk at length about these topics and Brandon lays out some accessible practices and habits for leaders and organizations to adopt to help them embrace working in complexity.  

To learn more about Brandon and his organization, visit https://www.lead-tac.com/

In this episode, Garland and I talk about the pervasive issue of "busy-ness" and how it is causing physical and mental health issues in our world.  Garland shares his own story of coming to terms with his overcommitments and how it led to his breakthrough research on why we are busy, the stories we tell ourselves about the importance of being busy, and the steps to overcome it.  I love how Garland spends a lot of time on the why of busy-ness before he jumps into how to work with it.  It connects deeply with my own experience of working with subconscious beliefs as a way of creating lasting change.

Garland shares his five step process for "Gettin' Unbusy" and speaks to the real-life examples from his own coaching and consulting work.  

To connect with Garland and to order a copy of his book visit:

https://www.gettinunbusybook.com/home-page

https://advanceleadership.live/

In this episode, I offer some commentary on the current political situation in the United States.  I see this as a critical time in our country's unfolding story and I call on all citizens to rise above the hatred and vitriol and to demand more from ourselves and our elected officials.

We are in the midst of incredible VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity) and nowhere is this more true than with our elected leaders.  We do not need leaders who remind us of ourselves or shout soundbytes that resonate with whatever echo chamber we happen to be in at this time.  We need leaders who possess the skills and competencies needed to lead in VUCA...humility, compassion, collaboration, the ability to facilitate multiple, diverse and conflicting perspectives.  The issues we are dealing with are completely novel and require a "beginner's mindset", not the hero leader who swoops in and knows the right answer. 

We are better than this.  We are not the Divided States of America...we are the United States of America.  It is time for us to wake up from this dream we are in and get to work.  Join me!

I am so pleased to be joined by Carter Phipps in this episode of the Fully Integrated Leadership Podcast.  Carter is an author, speaker, teacher, economist, tech guru, and political thinker who has dedicated his life and career to expanding consciousness...in himself, in others, and in cultural and organizational systems.

Carter's new book, Conscious Leadership, which he co-authored with Whole Foods Market CEO John Mackey and Carter's business partner Steve McIntosh, is a highly anticipated book in the leadership space.  Carter and I dive into the concepts they lay out in the book, as well as some of the stories of the amazing people and organizations they encountered when researching and writing the book.  The book lays out nine principles for becoming a more conscious leader, which Carter explains in the episode.

We also dive into other interesting topics, including:

• How Carter's upbringing in Oklahoma shaped the decisions he made in young adulthood
• How he bypassed Stanford Law School and decided to pursue his spiritual development in India
• His path back to the corporate world, working in the tech industry in CA and MA
• A major decision he made to leave the corporate world to again pursue a more spiritual path, this time working for a magazine
• The founding of his think tank, The Institute for Cultural Evolution http://carterphipps.com/think-tank/
• How cultures evolve over time and how he views our current place in the evolution of consciousness

Please order a copy of Carter's book at https://www.amazon.com/Conscious-Leadership-Elevating-Humanity-Business/dp/0593083628

To learn more about Carter and his work, visit his website at http://carterphipps.com/about/

In this episode, we continue the exploration into our "fundamental self" as a way of collectively accessing the Consciousness Revolution that is being called for on our planet today.  We sit at a crossroads in the human story...in one direction, we choose to continue our path of self-destruction, exploitation and competition against one another.  This path will lead to, I believe, a major extinction event for our planet.  The other path is one where we individually and collectively reconnect with our essence, found in the blending of the head and the heart, where collaboration and cooperation are the accepted paradigms.  This path will lead to a more peaceful and happy future for the planet.

To connect with our true self, I am recommending the direct path, a practice that connects us with the irreducible, consistent awareness that is our true self.  We have become accustomed to noticing the parts of ourselves that are fleeting and impermanent...the thoughts, emotions, objects, relationships that exist outside of ourselves.  In this practice, we come back to experiencing that which precedes and remains when all fleeting objects disappear.  

In today's episode, we explore the practice of self-enquiry, something that Ramana Maharshi recommended to each of his students.  In this practice, we aim to break down the belief that ourselves exist in our minds and bodies, instead realizing we are the very consciousness that witnesses the body, the mind, the emotions, the thoughts, the sensations, and the perceptions.  This is a deceptively simple practice that has far-reaching impacts on how we show up in the world, how we make decisions, and how we experience ourselves, others and all of reality.

Those of us who are here now volunteered to be here at this time.  I believe we are here to show the power of our awareness.  Doing so first requires us to connect with the awareness itself, through experience.  

Who am I? What is my purpose? Why am I here? Why are we here? What are we here to do? These are common questions for human beings and we have been puzzling over them for millenia.  I too have struggled to find meaningful answers to these questions, so for the past decade I have been on an intense quest to seek out experiences, teachings and practices that can help to uncover deep truths about the fundamental nature of reality and our place within it.  

For the next several episodes, I will be presenting my findings and recommendations for ways to get at the answers to these questions.  I believe it is in answering these questions and living from the answers that we can avert existential crises in the human story.  I believe we sit at a critical point in the human story, a precipice of sorts, where our next decisions and actions will determine the trajectory of our story as a species.  We have the power to destroy ourselves and we lack the wisdom to wield that power.  What wisdom do we need? I believe it is the wisdom of ourselves...it is coming into direct contact with that part of ourselves that cannot be removed.  It is the part of us that makes us uniquely human...our consciousness...our awareness of our awareness.

In this episode, we explore the teachings of Ramana Maharshi, an Indian guru who lived and taught in southern India in the early to mid-1900s.  His teachings have become popularized in the west as more people begin to ask these questions about who we are and why we are here.  He encourages a practice called self-inquiry, where we deeply explore the awareness that precedes and remains before and after experiences (thoughts, emotions, sensations, perceptions).  I share a number of quotes from Ramana Maharshi and talk about ways to access the unchanging and irreducible awareness that is our true self.

To learn more about Ramana Maharshi and his teachings, visit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramana_Maharshi

We live at the most crucial time in human history.  Experts consistently predict that we are living through the sixth major extinction period in the history of our planet, and in his book The Precipice, Toby Ord puts the odds of a major human-cause extinction happening in the next century at 1 in 6.  Just for context, the odds were more like 1 in 100 a century ago.  Those of us who are living here at this time are not here by accident.  We are here to move us through this precipice period in the human story...and I believe we are here to give rise to the fourth major human revolution - the Consciousness Revolution.  

As part of this journey, we must individually and collectively explore the "default settings" in our human minds.  Our brain was designed and tested in vastly different conditions than the ones we are asking them to operate in today.  Our brains have evolved to detect threats and fulfill needs that will allow us to reproduce and spread our bloodline.  Coming to understand our fears and needs is a critical step in becoming more conscious - aware of our awareness.

In this episode, we first explore the four fundamental human fears: 

1. Being wrong
2. Failing
3. Experiencing emotional discomfort
4. Getting rejected

We then look at the needs we are each trying to get met in our daily behaviors, breaking it down between what Maslow described as "deficiency needs": the need for safety/security, the need for belonging, and the need for esteem/affirmation. and "growth needs": the need for exploration, the need for love, and the need for purpose.  Each one us must do the work to understand what drives our behavior, and these two "maps" can be an extremely helpful way to do so.

In this episode I am joined by Tara Jenkins, the founder of the Conscious Revolution.  Tara shares her wisdom and experience as a human resources professional turned coach/consultant and how she helps leaders and organizations evolve to higher levels of consciousness.  Tara has an amazing story that will hopefully inspire you to take a step back and think about the impact you and your organization are having on the planet.  She is on a mission to create more conscious leaders and organizations because she believes it is the unlocking of people that will lead to a thriving planet.  She helps organizations become more "purpose-driven", drawing on examples from some of the most evolved company cultures (for more on this, check out Frederick LaLoux's book Reinventing Organizations).  

Tara and I cover a wide range of topics, including:

• what does it mean to have a "conscious organization"?
• what is holding leaders and teams back from working on becoming more conscious?
• what are some of the steps a leader can take to build a more conscious organization?
• Ultimately, why does this matter?

To learn more about Tara, visit her website at: https://www.consciousrevolution.biz/about/

In this episode, I share a practice called "simulcasting" where you both experience the objective world while also maintaining awareness of your awareness.  I believe we sit at the dawn of a fourth major human revolution, one that is born out of frustration and fear but also out of a hope and optimism that we can overcome the existential challenges of our time.  This will be a revolution of consciousness where we individually and collectively begin to live as conscious beings, aware of our experiences and making choices from that open awareness.  This is not some theoretical idea...I experience life as a simulcastor every day and it makes me a better leader, a better father, a better husband and a better citizen of the planet.  When I experience anger, there's a major part of me (my awareness) that is not angry.  When I notice the desire to be right and control others, I simultaneously notice there's a major part of me that does not need to be right or control.  Living from this place, where we balance our experiences with our awareness, is what defines that consciousness revolution.  It will allow us to open ourselves up to our higher creative potential so we can solve the problems we face on the planet today.  

In this episode, I once again "go solo" to talk about the point in time we find ourselves in right now.  I cover a number of topics, including:

• Why now is such a critical time: we have developed the power to destroy ourselves but do not yet have the wisdom to wield such power
• How every time our species has faced problems it cannot solve we have risen to the occasion and leapt forward in our individual and collective consciousness
• Now is the time for the fourth great human revolution (the other three are the Agricultural Revolution, the Scientific Revolution and the Industrial Revolution). I am calling this next leap in human thinking the "Consciousness Revolution"
• We have a "map" of how to evolve our consciousness.  Adult Developmental Theory has been researching how our individual thinking can evolve over the course of our lives.  And Integral Theory and Spiral Dynamics shows that our collective consciousness can also evolve over time.
• We can use this map to aid ourselves in a personal learning journey to develop greater wisdom about ourselves, about one another, and about the systems we exist in on this planet
• How the "Holographic Principle" of the universe shows that change at the individual level impacts the whole.  Do your own work and it has ripple effects across the planet
• How we need to change paradigms for our human story: moving from seeing ourselves as insignificant creatures who must simply sit and watch as the march of time passes us by to seeing ourselves as creators of our reality (leveraging the power of quantum physics)

This is a podcast episode I am very proud of because it encourages us to step up to a new human story, one that is about empowerment, collaboration and creativity.  We stand at the dawn of a New Renaissance.