Leadership and the Beauty Principle

For Steve Jobs, making objects that were beautiful as well as functional was a cornerstone of Apple’s philosophy. He even insisted that the circuit boards fitted inside the early Macintosh computers looked good. “When you’re a carpenter making a beautiful chest of drawers, you’re not going to use a piece of plywood on the back, even though it faces the wall and nobody will ever see it,” he once said. “You’ll know it’s there, so you’re going to use a beautiful piece of wood in the back. For you to sleep well at night, the aesthetic, the quality, has to be carried all the way through.”
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Rediscovering a Mythic Worldview

Leadership isn’t just about knowledge, skills and the ability to inspire change and transformation. Increasingly it is also about worldviews or our visions of life. Worldviews are also a way of life, helping us understanding the beliefs, values and principles that motivate us to certain kinds of action and behavior.

Our current worldviews are mostly framed through the lenses of politics and power, strategy and structure, human assets and development. But there is a fresh lens emerging, a narrative of aliveness that taps into the ancient wisdom of our mythic imagination. As this new narrative – which is rooted in nature, art and community – begins to inspire our thoughts and ideas, our world may be truly transformed.

To read more visit the management-issues website at: http://www.management-issues.com/opinion/6983/rediscovering-a-mythic-worldview

Living The Gift: Creating an Economy of Generosity

Connecting with and acting in the service of our gift is such a fundamental human need that social upheavals are often motivated not only by financial poverty but the poverty of the imagination that arises when our gifts are not seen or wanted by others.

It is in the nature of the gift to transcend what we believe is possible so that our destiny can be fulfilled. This may lead us to wonder what the world might look like if we were rewarded not only for our productivity but for our gifts and deeper humanity as well.

To read more visit the management-issues website at: http://www.management-issues.com/opinion/6961/living-the-gift-an-economy-of-generosity/