The real culture of stewardship

Quantum Leadership: New consciousness in business

Author: Frederick Chavalit Tsao and Chris Laszlo

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Pages: 272

Price: Rs 699

The content of this book lies at the intersection of management, organisational behaviour, quantum science, and philosophy. To the casual or rapid reader, the book may come through as difficult. However, to the enquiring mind, the read is worthwhile.

Authored jointly by a business leader, Chairman of IMC Pan Asia, Frederick Tsao, and an academic at Case Western University, Chris Laszlo, the book elegantly harmonises practice and theory. Having the experience of coauthoring seven books with Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan’s SPJIMR academics, I sense the seamless intertwining of practice and academia in this book.  The book is about integrating life and philosophy with management practice. It is about leaders and companies which produce “economic outcomes that cultivate well-being and promote a culture of stewardship for others and for future generations.” This may sound like conscious capitalism, Level 5, and conscious leadership. The differences, if any, are subtle.

Everything is interconnected to everything else in the physical world. Quantum physics has shown that it is possible for a particle to exist in multiple places simultaneously. Henri Poincare has shown what we know as the butterfly effect —  that small things can have a non-linear impact in complex systems. The evolved consciousness that we are all interconnected brings out the “natural tendency of leadership towards creating prosperity and flourishing.”
 

Of the 16 exemplar companies mentioned in Chapter 4, two are well known to me —Unilever and Tata! Thus, the esoteric was experientially connected with practice for me. A decade ago, I had developed and shared a programme titled Learning What Nobody Teaches with about 30,000 managers in various institutions. That experience perhaps caused me to gain an advanced familiarity with the theme of this book.

British science-fiction writer, Arthur C Clarke, had observed, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” The same is true about the evolution of human consciousness. Conscious enterprises and conscious leaders have four characteristics. They are people-centric, relational, intuitively creative, and innately promote well-being, both inside and outside the organisation. Traditionally, leaders used to approach solutions to problems dominantly in a rational, focused, and task positive mode. Increasingly, they do so, in a default mode, where they display emotionally and socially focused orientation. One of the authors, Chris Laszlo, had posited, “…we cannot expect to have a thriving business in a flourishing world without individuals who are also able to experience a greater sense of well-being and connectedness to their self, to others and to the world around them.” 

Consequently, and most importantly, they point out a gap in modern leadership development: Apart from changing what leaders are doing,  leadership development must change who they are being.

Conscious leadership can be promoted through transforming consciousness of leaders by evolving the enterprise as a living system, towards oneness and in balance with the whole. The authors argue that this requires new insights and pedagogy, which combines the wisdom of the East and West. To actualise the concept, Tsao promoted the East West Learning Centre in Shanghai, later christened the AITIA Institute. Aristotle had used the Greek word, aitia, to mean “driving purpose”.  AITIA developed a four-pillar approach:Rewire-reframe-reskill-renew.

Exotic ideas are coalesced in AITIA’s pedagogy—for example, ubuntu, a word from the Nguni Bantu language of South Africa, yoga, a deep Indian concept, tao, a Chinese idea, and shinrin-yoku, Japanese for being close to nature through “forest bathing.” Between 2015 and 2018, a team undertook research in Asia, Europe, North America, and South America. For the research, the hypothesis defined consciousness as “the awareness by the mind itself and the world around it about how we behave toward others and Nature, and why we act the way we do.” There emerged seven implications regarding quantum leadership: (i) The known world is composed of vibrational fields of energy and information; (ii) physical reality is integral and connected; (iii) physical processes are organic and exhibit a high degree of coherence; (iv) the purpose of business is to create well-being, prosperity, and flourishing; (v) well-being and happiness are more important than material success alone; (vi) people and organisations are living systems; and (vii) humanity is an integral part of the web of life. Practical illustrations from my experience flit past my mind. Tata Chemicals wrote off several million dollars of pre-project expenses to save the nesting site of the little flamingo. Unilever arranged to airlift tea garden managers and their families when they faced an unacceptable extortion demand during the disturbed days in Assam. 

Is quantum leadership brand new? Arguably, perhaps it is a new expression of a long-prevalent idea. Sri Aurobindo’s principal teaching was that there is one Being and Consciousness in Matter, which is impelled to enlarge and develop to a greater perfection. Sri Aurobindo’s practice exemplified integral yoga.

Interestingly, in India, thinkers, educationalists, and philanthropists have grasped this deep concept. IIT Kharagpur alumni have endowed Centres at Kharagpur —PGAL (Partha Ghosh Academy of Leadership) and RCESH (Rekhi Centre of Excellence for Science of Happiness). An IIMA alum has endowed ADCLOD (Ashank Desai Centre for Leadership and Organizational Development). Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan’s SPJIMR has seeded CWIL (Centre for Wisdom of Indian Leadership).

If such fresh-thinking institutions selectively collaborate, they may accelerate and amplify the uncovering of what systems scientist Donella Meadows called “the highest leverage point to intervene in a complex system, the very mindset out of which the system arises.” This would be a great asset for India and Indians in the future.

The reviewer is an author and corporate advisor