Interconnected Leadership: What is it, and Why is it Time?

Almost 10 years ago to the day, a 9.0 Richter scale earthquake off the eastern coast of Japan triggered such a massive tsunami that it affected coastlines across three continents. A 15 metre wave disabled the power supply necessary to cool the reactors of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant and triggered the second accident in history to merit the grade of a level 7 nuclear event.

In a little-known case of brilliant leadership, Naohiro Masuda – the then-superintendent of a second Fukushima plant called Fukushima Daini, which was just 12 km south and built to the same specifications – orchestrated and executed the essence of best practice response for such an occasion. He was comfortable with uncertainty, capable of engaging all involved, committed to the greater good and, right at the core of it, he understood that leadership is about full inclusion of ideas, actions, results and rewards. By implementing a consultative process with all levels and roles in the plant, inspiring his workers to innovate never planned or practiced emergency procedures, and working up to 20 hours a day, Masuda and his team successfully cooled and shut down the station’s reactors.  

This might be an extreme example of how useful and able such a leadership mindset is, but its benefits are clearly appropriate for our current times and challenges. Through the transformational journey of moving from leadership rooted in a rational mind, ego-based hierarchical power, and individualism, to the intelligence that emerges through collaborative exploration of uncertainty and collective efforts in intuitive creativity. This re-emerging group-intelligence-based style of interconnected leadership is not just a good idea; it might be our only way forward when the stakes against a reasonable future are boiling high. If you thought that the loss of our manicured control over our lives by the current pandemic was bad, consider it as a minor dress rehearsal for the kind of challenges that climate change, outdated economic models and wayward geo-politics are hurtling our way.

Small Giants Academy’s new Deep Dive will explore this shift into an interconnected leader’s mindset and experience. At its core, interconnected leadership is about moving from a process of digesting information for the purpose of making better decisions, to a process of listening, shaping and applying an inclusive, living and adaptable narrative through self-reflection and social interaction alike. Its main premise is trust – knowing that in all of us collectively there is the innate capacity for a greater intelligence and that this capacity emerges naturally when we get our egoic minds in check, and our awakened minds empowered.

Throughout the program, we look to create a group shift from the individual experience to the collective intelligence of interconnected leadership. We seek a source of wisdom that combines inner and outer intelligence, and we explore reconnecting people with the practice of trusting their bodies and minds as they relate to others. This non-directive methodology facilitates a conversation which should feel natural and give birth to exploring solutions that give high regard to each other and nature. In essence, this is a group intelligence – our natural place of resting.

There are four aspects that underpin our conversation throughout the program: the gentle balance between the feminine and masculine traits; the pulse between birth and death; the continuum between self and others; and the courage to slow down to serve the greater good.

Richard Feynman, Nobel Prize winning American Physicist, stated that “The internal machinery of life, the chemistry of the parts, is something beautiful. And it turns out that all life is interconnected with all other life.” This might sound somewhat frivolous – more of a philosophical musing, but here this notion is offered by the trained eye and keen mind of one of our finest scientists in recent history. In an era where we struggle to find inspiring and savvy leaders fit for the uncertainties and complexities of a runaway world, actively seeking interconnectedness and serving its implications are core aspects of training a new cohort of future-oriented leaders, and even more importantly, people who are comfortable in their own skins and the strength of their connections.

Join leadership experts Tamsin Jones and Michael Bartura for The Interconnected Leader Deep Dive from Thursday 31 March to Thursday 9 June 7 – 9.30pm AEDT/AEST via Zoom. Tickets on sale now: https://events.humanitix.com/the-interconnected-leader