Jonathan Lewis at Boye 18

1. Leadership
A context for growth - Jonathan Lewis

2. One Minute

3. Me
I’ve worked in leadership positions for just over a decade,
starting with rebuilding a small church in Sri Lanka. I’ve run
technical and creative projects at scale with universities,
which have over 30,000 students and 8,000 employees.
For most of the last eight years I’ve been supporting the
growth at Zengenti. I’ve worked as a developer and I built or
transformed several teams including Project Management,
Marketing, Account Management and most recently,
Professional Services.

5. I’ve taken several teams on the journey
into self-organising.
The biggest insight for me has been
around psychological development.
I’ve used it on myself and at work.
Things I care about

6. Main Ideas
Adults can move through distinct
psychological stages as children do
An organisation’s culture can
operate at one of these stages
It’s possible to own your own psychological
growth and see the benefits at work

7. What growth
looks like
Robin’s
journey
Identify an
organisation’s
traits

9. Impulsive
Authoritarian
Achievist
Pluralistic
Integral
Spiral Dynamics

10. Robin

11. • Degree in Communication and Media Studies
• Lecturers over-complicated everything
• Straight-talking
• Needs to get ahead
Robin

15. Respects Beckett
Let’s do this
Try out her ideas
Mindset on joining

16. Social Media Ninja
“Get more
customers”

17. “Mortality isn’t cool”
“What do you know?”

18. It’s all about Beckett
Craving consistency and structure
Mindset on leaving

20. Coffin Coffee
?

21. • Risk taking
• Bringing something new
to the world
• Energy and drive
Strengths and
weaknesses
• Fragile model, doesn’t
scale gracefully
• Fear-based culture
• Unconscious emotional
triggers, passive aggressive

22. Complexity

23. Mechanics of growth Pt.1

24. Subject to object
I AM

25. Subject to object
I HAVE

26. Subject to object
I AM

27. Subject to object
I HAVE

28. ?

29. “Mortality isn’t cool”
“What do you know?”

30. Ideas
Group
Progress
Equality
Purpose
I am my group
I have ideas

31. Ideas
Group
Progress
Equality
Purpose
I am progress
I have a group
I have ideas

34. Finally, some order
Meticulous
Reliable
Mindset on joining

35. • Print campaigns
• Host events
• Track the offspring
Tasks

36. Data

37. ROI

38. “Unproven and risky”
“Can’t see it working here”

39. Structure holds her back
Innovation almost impossible
She’s strategic about leaving
Mindset on leaving

40. Coffin Coffee
Due Considerata & Son
?

41. • Consistent over very
long periods
• Secure
• Safe, if you fit in
Strengths and
weaknesses
• If you don’t fit in you really
know about it
• Rapid innovation is almost
impossible
• Data isn’t a strong decision
making tool

42. Complexity

43. Mechanics of growth Pt.2

44. Unconscious
Competence
“I have an idea, tell me if it
makes sense to you.”
“I have an idea, tell me if it
makes sense to you.”
(I’m so enlightened)
Conscious
Competence
Stages of competence
Conscious
Incompetence
“Aargh, why can’t you simpletons
understand my ideas. It’s
obvious!!”
“Sorry, let me explain.”
Unconscious
Incompetence
“Aargh, why can’t you simpletons
understand my ideas. It’s
obvious!!”

45. Until you make the
unconscious conscious, it will
direct your life and you will
call it fate. - Jung

46. Growth is often
uncomfortable

47. One Minute

50. Finally, a place where logical
arguments win
It’s going to be a real test of her
capacity to deliver
This place isn’t a charity, it’s a profit-
making company that needs results
Mindset on joining

52. Winning and suffering
Dissonance; am I a member?
Mindset on leaving

54. Coffin Coffee
Due Considerata & Son
Achievon
?

55. Strengths and
weaknesses
• Getting shit done
• Rational
• Meritocratic
Can leave a trail of destruction
in its wake
◦ Environment
◦ Humans
◦ Economies

57. Mechanics of growth Pt.3

58. With two people
• Psychotherapy
• Coaching
• Transparent communication
• Candid & heartfelt feedback

59. Group processes
• Check-in rounds
• An emotional weather report
• Conferences
• Appreciation round
• Fishbowl
• Big talk/last remarks
• Action research
• Authentic relating and circling
• Collective shadow work

60. Contemplative practices
• Journaling
• Meditation
• Prayer
• Sitting and thinking

61. Psychedelics

63. • Physical and emotional extremes
• People that irritate us
• Political upheavals
• Tragedy and trauma
• Any disruption to normality
• Major new experiences such as travel

65. Anke

67. Finally, a place where people are
treated like humans
Meaningful work
Work and life together
Mindset on joining

68. Build relationships with enlightened
software engineering companies

69. Conflict

71. Coffin Coffee
Due Considerata & Son
Achievon
Inspirely
?

72. Strengths and
weaknesses
• Really good at equality
• Human potential is more
likely to be fully realised
• Doesn’t seek to control
complexity but works with it
Can be allergic to earlier stages
• Measuring and
differentiation can be seen
as oppression
• Group identity
automatically “excludes
others”
• Power can be hidden or
ignored

74. Robin

75. Survival
Generate security
Entrepreneurial thinking
and acting
Inspiring people /
meaning and harmony
Trust one’s own
intuition authenticity
Individual Growth
Inner motive
Unconscious thoughts
and feelings
Repressed thoughts
and feelings
Conscious thoughts
unconscious feelings
Conscious thoughts
and feelings
Awareness of intelligence
beyond thoughts
and feelings
Consciousness of self

76. Unscheduled and direct
Working groups, meetings
Meetings, strategic information
Informal and formal
communication platforms,
transparency
Free networking,
peer consulting
Organisational
Growth
Flow of information
Orders - enforced through
power and manipulation
Guideline - skepticism
and obedience
Goal - everything
is possible
Vision - idealistic,
culture over strategy
Big picture
Work attitude

78. Risk taking - Bringing something new to the world - Energy and drive
Group identity - Traditions - Clear roles
Use of facts and data - Empirical processes - Meritocracy
Equality - Human-centred processes - Navigating complexity
Evolutionary purpose - Wholeness at work - Self-organisation

79. Thanks Robin

80. Morning star
Buurtzorg
Patagonia
Sounds true
Favi
Makers

81. Listen to what the
organisation needs.Joachim Galuska

82. Bridgewater Associates
NextJump
Decurion

83. “We require people to be extremely open,
air disagreements, test each other’s logic,
and view discovering mistakes and
weaknesses as a good thing that leads to
improvement and innovation….”

86. Conclusion

87. Less reactive
Less distorted
More expansive
More perspectives
Trust-based thinking
Needing to simplify less
Becoming context aware
Becoming construct aware
Less blame, always learning
Can think further into the future
Aware of the stories they’ve been telling themselves
Takes greater responsibility for their thinking and feeling
Able to see more deeply and accurately into themselves and their world

88. Main Ideas
Adults can move through distinct
psychological stages as children do
An Organisation’s culture can
operate at one of these stages
It’s possible to own your own psychological
growth and see the benefits at work

89. The challenge for leaders

90. You
Meditate
Psychotherapy
Colleague
Be heard
Appreciate
Team
Start doing check-ins

91. THANK YOU
Suzanne Cook-Greuter’s Leadership Maturity Framework
An Everyone Culture - Lisa Lahey & Robert Kegan
Reinventing Organizations - Frederic Laloux
Managing for happiness - Jurgen Appelo
Spiral Dynamics
Sociocracy
Ken Wilber
@jonblewis
www.zengenti.com
j.lewis@zengenti.com