Photo Credit: Lara Dawn Photography
In 2018, I was one of many planners who came together from partner organizations to deliver a multi-day forum to engage members of many stakeholder groups. We needed to hear their thoughts. I was placed at the back of the room, responsible to ensure everything on-screen ran the way it needed to, including queuing up videos at just the right time. Towards the end of the last day, I had gained a reputation as the guy who was not only making it all run smoothly, but was also teaching the 300-or-so people in the room how to use some of the cool new technology I was using. With only several hours to go, we somehow went off-script. The person at the podium decided the time was right to share a video that was deeply embedded within the files I was operating, and it was a very large file. Typically, these files would take more than just a few moments to “wake up” so the video could be shown. There, in the dark, at the back of the room, it was just me and the electronic files. And I was at their mercy. One other person was nearby – my Director. I did not realize she was watching me. In the soft glow from the multiple monitors I was running, she watched my hands moving swiftly as I manipulated files, folders and software as I willed for extra power to influence the speed at which my system was running. As the presenter closed off her final sentence that was introducing the video, everything in my system jumped to life like lighting into Frankenstein – it was alive! On que, the video appeared on-screen and began to play. Success!
Afterward, as we were all debriefing, I was congratulated by the presenter for making the video appear on short notice. My Director shared with the planners how I held my composure as I made it happen. Many agreed that I am the calm in the storm for so many of them. Another person in the group pointed out that she was not surprised, as I am a man of faith. And she was right. Although I have not always shown it throughout my career.
Rewind 19 years to 1999. I had just joined the ranks of a new organization through an entry-level position. Some might think this was a difficult move as I had been a member of the Executive Team within my previous organization. But the 16-month gap between the two careers was enough for me to just be thankful that I had landed on my feet in a stable position.
Somewhere around three years into my time in the corporation, I was moving up the ladder and finding my stride. Our management team had expanded, which meant they now had the capacity to conduct annual workplan and performance review discussions with their employees. I welcomed the opportunity to have the discussion and gain a sense of how I fit into the organization’s vision. Part of the discussion focused on my professional development. The standard question was asked: “Where do you see yourself in five years? What would you like to be?” The truth is, I was not entirely sure. I was almost completed my master’s degree and knew this would open the horizon of opportunity for me. I also knew that I wanted to get back into management. But did I have a future in this organization? What were the values of the organization? How did the organization’s vision impact my work? How did my work impact the organization? There was a lack of alignment between the organization’s plan and my personal plan.
This same round of questioning repeated annually, and I continued to struggle with the clarity of where I could be and what I could be doing. All these connections between the organization and work at the team and individual level remained vague and hidden. Even after I joined the management ranks in 2007 and was responsible to orchestrate these discussions with my teams, I continued to feel like we were not doing it right. But I could never quite put my finger on what was wrong.
It was not until sometime in 2010, when I entered a new arena within this giant organization, that I began to grasp what may have been missing. I was pulled into a powerhouse think-tank where the ever-present focus was teaching engagement practices and how to “change the conversation” to managers and aspiring leaders across Canada. We explored the process of “be-ing present” instead of just “do-ing things. “I contemplated the difference between the question, “Who do you want to be in five years?” instead of “What do you want to be in five years?” Then it dawned on me! This is where I need to start re-shaping the question: I would begin to shift focus from the strategic and operational plans of the organization to the plans and goals of the person, independent of the organization. “Vision” is a concept necessarily understood and built upon values – mine first, and then those of the organization. Why? Because anyone can learn how to build a strategic plan. But personal vision is something that we might completely overlook in the process.
“Vision” is a concept necessarily understood and built upon values – mine first, and then those of the organization. Why? Because anyone can learn how to build a strategic plan. But personal vision is something that we might completely overlook in the process.
You may be wondering: What does vision and servant leadership have to do with being an Edgewalker? Having a vision and being able to bring others into your vision is a servant leadership quality, and Edgewalkers, by their very nature, are servant leaders. Judi Neal had this to say about such vision: “Edgewalkers, like prophets of old, truly have visions. They see things from a different level of consciousness, from “other worlds” or “other realities” that help to guide them.”[i] Neal goes on to say that Edgewalkers practice a “Presence” best defined as a sense of deep listening and understanding concepts that go far beyond that which is tangible or normal.
Within this Powerhouse team of which I found myself an integral part, we not only considered what was beyond the normal of organizational structure and practice. No, we found ourselves dwelling in these far reaches of the world of reason, in the land of what if’s and possibilities. We were connected to our organization, even respected and abided by the rules of engagement. But in our practice, we were superheroes, agents of change not for the sake of change, but for the sake of the people who seek to survive and thrive within organizations cultures that would almost forbid free thought and challenging the status quo. We were willing to walk on the leading edge of reason because we were driven by a compelling vision of meeting an important need in the corporate world around us.
And we had vision. A collective vision not of how we were going to break down the structural walls of business, but of how we were going to find unity in our strengths and find ways to connect ourselves to the business lines and add humanity to policies and procedures that seemed to have no meaning or reason. Even more, our vision was to breathe new life into managers and aspiring leaders who were tangled in what Gordon MacKenzie refers to as the “Giant Hairball” that is corporate culture[ii].
Together, we shared this vision of ours through leadership events and workshop opportunities that equipped managers and aspiring leaders with new tools for engaging individuals, teams, and organizations. We equipped them with a new identity and an opportunity to belong to an engagement community of practice. For more than just a few, their response was a testimonial of how our team – this community – brought them back from the brink of despair and personal emptiness and placed them in a position of new possibilities. Some of us went on a guerilla-like rampage, co-facilitating strategic planning events, team-building and team-charter development sessions, and teaching the engagement tools that we used to whoever would listen. We were the ones who wanted to help others be transformed because we ourselves had been transformed and had new life from these possibilities.
Richard Rohr, Franciscan Monk and founder of the Centre for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, New Mexico, refers to the transformation process as being a motion from order to disorder to reorder. For Edgewalkers, disrupting the order of things by being true to ourselves and our personal vision brings about the healthy growth process of disorder. We are not afraid to meander here in this world of seeming chaos because we have a vision how we fit into the big picture. Out of this vision, comes our new sense of order – the reorder.
What, then, do reordered Edgewalkers look like? We are mentors who live in quiet service of others. Our wisdom tends not to be gained just from books, but from life’s struggles. We live compassionately for ourselves, then others, seeking to share our visions with anyone who will be willing to join us in our quest for reorder. We tend to be detached from things and stress, preferring to abandon these things for times of solitude and contemplation. Other may perceive us as separated from the world or out of touch, sharing impractical or underdeveloped ideas. We find our peace amidst the chaos of this world, be it corporate or otherwise. Our spirituality is the deep well that we return to each day. We find strength in mystic paths.
For me, I live out my vision by bringing peace to a room full of chaos. Others feel better when I am in the room because they know I will remain calm no matter what. When I practice edgewalking in this way, I find that the unlikely becomes likely, the impossible becomes possible. The video plays just at the right time – usually. And when it doesn’t, I know how to bring a “Plan B” to life at a moment’s notice. It is true that I am a man of faith. Faith is my second core value. Faithfully is the way I must step into the day and every circumstance if I am going to succeed. But my success is steeped in the success of the collective, the team. This is why Edgewalkers share the vision – so others can feel the success and be lifted to new heights, to orbit the hairball and discover new possibilities and their own vision. But perhaps that’s another story.
Donovan Mutschler, MA
For more information on the content or processes included in this article contact Donovan Mutschler at donovan@edgewalkers.ca.
[i] Neal, Judi. (2006). Edgewalkers: People and Organizations That Take Risks, Build Bridges, and Break New Ground. Westport: Praeger.
[ii] MacKenzie, Gordon. (1996). Orbiting the Giant Hairball: A Corporate Fool’s Guide to Surviving with Grace. Viking Books.
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