The Art of Contemplation: A storytelling perspective

 

“He who knows others is wise. He who knows himself is enlightened.” 

Lao Tsu

 

By weaving artistic practice into leadership training, executives can gain a profound understanding of organisational challenges and opportunities, facilitating better decision-making. A well-told story appeals to intellectual intelligence by presenting intricate information in a digestible and relatable manner, fostering clearer strategic thinking and visionary purpose.

 

The Art of Contemplation

Contemplation in this context is the place where conceptual knowledge meets the non-conceptual. In this capacity contemplation has the scope to be qualitatively more engaging than thoughtful reflection, as it opens up the possibility of rising above the two dimensional understanding of right and wrong, and instead allows the compassionate response of ‘perhaps’.

Leadership that facilitates ‘perhaps’ is more rounded and open to creativity. Instead of the fluency of concepts that are available to contemporary thinking, we can explore the alternative intelligence of visceral awareness, that has at its heart the field of contemplation. Visceral awareness reflects how the body feels, and to be sensitive to how the body responds is a decision is to be viscerally intelligent.

 

“As a leader, it is impossible to make sense of intellectual, emotional and visceral intelligence connections without resorting to the ‘inward gaze’ of contemplation.”

 

Meaning Through Mandalas

The ancient art of mandalas uses images that act as visual metaphors of self-realisation and group awareness. Although mandalas have their roots in eastern culture, they are pertinent today as helpful awareness prompts that can illuminate business leadership practice.

A mandala (Sanskrit for “circle”) is an artistic representation of higher thought and deeper meaning. They have been used to explore the spiritual, emotional, or psychological aspects of work and to focus attention on what lives most saliently beneath the surface.

In a leadership context, the meaning of a mandala depends on the individual or peers creating or observing the image. In many cultures they serve to centre an individual or community on a given narrative in order to encourage introspection. Ultimately it creates an awareness of one’s place and purpose in the world, and this awareness then allows for peace of mind.

The creation of a personal mandala can be used to explore a reframing of the individual self and relevant organisational mores. Leaders are able to communicate and share complex concepts succinctly and coherently in a creative way, and by combining the spoken word with the use of imagery it is possible to converse in a much more profound way.

A mandala image adds another layer of meaning to the more familiar use of post-it notes to explore personal sharing, which too often offers a more limited range of expression.

 

Organisational Reframe

As a word-based exercise, an organisational reframe is a more contemporary exploration which builds upon mandala images. As words are added, the mandala can become more personal as leaders become more individualistic in their response using images, words, and metaphors.

By using written metaphors for actual lived experience, and by including a few words or a sentence about themself and their peers, leaders have the freedom to relate to an actual experience within the organisation, such as a ‘cloudy sky’ or ’walking a tightrope’ or maybe the presence of a ‘dragon’ in your team. This process can, quite inadvertently and without difficulty, expose the leader, making them vulnerable by creating greater awareness of the organisational underbelly.

 

Fig. 1 - A mandala (centre) and organisational reframe (words) exercise completed by a group of senior leaders.

 

The ‘Big Picture’ of Leadership

Working with the ‘Big Picture’ of leadership will require the leader to have a working knowledge of the ‘little pictures’ that often govern organisational life. Your ability to ‘see’ the Big Picture of the organisation determines your ability to lead in that organisation.

Contemplation is in the essence of ‘Big Picture’ of leadership, and requires a sophisticated use of the three forms of intelligence that make up the Wheel of Intelligence; visceral, emotional and intellectual. Contemplation is the central axis around which these three intelligences revolve (see Fig. 2).

• Visceral intelligence uses the body and non-conceptual thinking as the centre of self-awareness.
• Emotional intelligence holds others to account.
• Intellectual knowledge remains constant as the information is common to all.

Contemplation requires the user to put to one side that what has taken years to get right. It factors in conceptual thinking as only one dimension of understanding. It respectfully asks the age-old question “What do you do when you do not know what to do?”

This question arises from a well-trodden koan perspective; that is, the Zen Buddhist story-type that provokes great doubt, leading to greater insight, often in the form of a paradoxical anecdote or riddle without a solution. It is the remit of the Art of Contemplation and its concomitant Big Picture leadership. It asks us to be wise, trusting of the heart and to take risks. It also may ask us to be fearless.

 

The Wheel of Intelligence

Storytelling relies on the wheel of intelligence, which brings together the intellectual with the often less understood emotional and visceral aspects of intelligence.

Fig. 2 - The Wheel of Intelligence.

Emotional intelligence is crucial in building strong relationships and fostering teamwork. Storytelling cultivates empathy by sharing personal experiences and emotions, enabling leaders to connect compassionately with their teams. This in turn fosters trust, loyalty, and a sense of belonging among team members, creating a more positive work culture.

Visceral intelligence, as the bridge that connects bodily feeling to what we intellectually know, is sometimes overlooked but is crucial to making experiences impactful. Storytelling can engage the senses and can establish a lasting impression. Leaders who master the verbal art of crafting the spoken word, by being more aware of their prosody (the patterns of stress and intonation in a language) and presence, as well as being strong in visually reframing concepts, can evoke emotions to influence and inspire their teams, driving them by example to achieve exceptional results.

 

Storytelling

A spoken personal narrative is a far cry from the fairy tale of Rumpelstiltskin or the pictorial come-uppance in the Three Pigs. These stories are more like fables with a single point of learning, they are not built to share the complexities of personal narrative.

A personal story is also very different from the media saturation of ‘alternative facts’ and spin. The aim of such hyperbole is to enjoin a certain kind of prescribed attention rather than explore the truth. Such stories do not anticipate a search for a deeper human context.

But when we speak out loud about our personal anxieties and triumphs, we evoke compassion and understanding in the listeners. Leaders often talk about the ‘community’ of the business, but rather than leveraging personal praise as a relevant signpost for such a community, refer instead to the most significant KPI or business objective. This creates the risk of being perceived as untrustworthy.

 

“Storytelling cultivates empathy by sharing personal experiences and emotions, enabling leaders to connect compassionately with their teams.”

 

By working with the enlightening aspect of story-making, a leader can utilise all three forms of intelligence:

 

• Intellectual: The ability of the leader to rationalise, use logic effectively, know the difference between fact and fiction, apply critical thinking to reduce abstraction and ‘spin’, all of which are important to demonstrate intellectual prowess in leadership.
• Emotional: The ability of leaders to relate to others, using their emotional intelligence to demonstrate prosody, people awareness and seeing when character types are behaving true to form.
• Visceral: The most telling, when leaders say nothing and instead rely on presence and leadership persona to act out leading the way. This requires the leader to call upon visceral intelligence to point out an attitude of contemplation that sits in the hub of leadership intelligence.

 

“It is important for a leader to become more aware of how they say what they say.”

 

When we combine stories with artistic expressions such as the mandalas about the self, and with reframes about the organisation, we may find ourselves with more questions than answers. As the discussion moves away from academic certitude it begins to address the challenge of leadership as being a very personal endeavour, making demands on the leader’s integrity along the journey.

To make sense of all this we have intellectual frameworks, as well as peers that can be relied on as friends and, hopefully, a refreshing sense of self-appraisal and wonder. But it also helps to have a practice of contemplation for our leadership.

 

Lessons from The Odyssey

The story of the Odyssey may well be the first story ever written, but it has lessons for leaders and organisations today. As a rollicking tale of love and loss, of daring to do the unusual, of being driven by fame and treasure, and of learning about real trust when the chips are down, it asks questions which are still relevant today:

• Whom do you trust as a friend in the organisation?
• Who has got your back at work?
• Who do you support, whatever?
• What do you do, when you don’t know what to do?
• What do the shadows out of sight conceal?
• What does bravery look like in this organisation?
• When does a leader lead the way?
• When do you lead and how do you listen?
• How might deeper listening seem like a ‘giving away’ of control?

 

A version of this article was first published in Developing Leaders Quarterly, issue 43 www.dl-q.com.