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Earth Wisdom and Evocative Leadership
What has Earth Wisdom
got to teach business? Sheridan Winn found out at a workshop
on 'Evocative Leadership
and Balanced Intelligence', run by the EHAMA Institute and
The Wisdom Meme Ltd
"The key is not to get the answer, but to
question - because the answers are always shifting," said RainbowHawk,
a man of 78 years, but with the energy and mental clarity you
would envy in a 30-year old. "The question means questing. The
mind opens when we question things and closes when we think we
have an answer. This is needed at times, when we have to go ahead
and do something; but we need to open up again. Questing and
seeking are very relevant to enlivening our human adventure."
'Ehama' means 'earth' in Cheyenne . "The
teachings of the EHAMA Institute in Los
Gatos , California ,
are about Earth Mother, the source of life force," explained
WindEagle, a radiant and strong Medicine Woman in her mid-fifties,
and co-founder of the centre.
EHAMA draws on the ancient body of Self-Knowledge
and Earth Wisdom evolved from the indigenous cultures of the Americas .
It provides a strong, deeply integrated leadership framework,
philosophy and practice for individuals and organisations.
Thirty of us sat in Council around the large
circle of the Medicine Wheel at Durham University ,
in a day rich with colour, imagery and symbolism. The proceedings
were formal: you listened and only spoke when it was your turn. "I
have spoken," indicated to the group that you had said all that
you wished to say. "Ho!" was the loud response, in recognition
that you had been heard.
We spent the morning learning about Balanced
Intelligence. This rests on the premise of Eight Intelligences,
which have evolved from an ancient design for wholeness and balance
in humankind and communities. These Intelligences are understood
to be present in everyone, though some are more developed than
others. The older cultures believed individuals have the capability
to fully develop and call on all of them, throughout their lives.
"If you don't have all the Intelligences,
you don't have a healthy organism - and you won't have a healthy
organisation," said WindEagle. One by one the Eight Intelligences
were described, each relating to a colour, and an example given
of a person who most epitomised it.
We began at the east
side of the Medicine Wheel with the colour yellow, signifying
Creation Intelligence,
the unique and driving force of who we are. Leonardo da Vinci
was given as a supreme example of creativity - a man able to
make quantum leaps of the imagination.
Next was orange for
Perceptual Intelligence, challenging us to use all our senses
to find meaning, and to
develop connection and understanding with the present moment. "This
intelligence gives us the deeper sense of understanding to see
what is really happening in an organisation," explained WindEagle.
Red, signifying Emotional Intelligence, lay
at the south of the Wheel. Richard Branson was given as an example
of a leader who demonstrated an 'adventurer' energy
for life, and who was able to remain emotionally stable under
duress.
The Intelligence that resonated most with
me was Pathfinder Intelligence: the ability to draw on the past
and remember your learnings, and to use it to hold a clear picture
of your destiny.
"Pathfinder Intelligence has a deep sense
of being able to find the way forward towards your goal, mission
or purpose," explained WindEagle. "It is being able to focus
on where you are going and have an understanding of the path
ahead - the navigator."
The Intelligence most people seemed to have
difficulty in understanding was Sustaining Intelligence, shown
by the colour purple at the west of the Medicine Wheel. This
signifies our deep sense of centredness and survival; of keeping
the balance of health within us, of keeping the organism or the
organisation alive, nourished, whole and able to renew itself.
Was this unease a reflection, perhaps, of
the growing dissatisfaction with much organisational structure
and thinking? Could it be that businesses are not very good at
sustaining themselves?
The eighth energy,
at the north-east of the Medicine Wheel was 'Energia', or energy
Intelligence. This symbol of vitality brings with it questions:
how do I use my energy
in my life? Can I shift it? What creates vitality in an organisation?
We divided into eight groups to each discuss
one of the Intelligences and its qualities. Gathering again around
the Medicine Wheel the groups shared and presented their ideas.
"It's important to understand that our teaching
is built on a cohort of tools," explained WindEagle. "Our approach
is to seed in to an existing culture ways that will make it work
better. We ask, 'What do you really want your organisation to
be? What kind of environment do you want to work in?' We prefer
to work with, and get a buy-in from, all different levels of
an organisation."
For the last eight
years RainbowHawk and WindEagle have been working within business
organisations worldwide and
sharing the teachings of Earth Wisdom. Their clients include
Mattell Corporation, Lucent Technologies, Honeywell Computers,
US Airforce, The Chartered Institute of Personnel Development,
BMW, Volkswagen, Interclass, McCown Deleeuw & Co and the World Business Academy .
WindEagle had over twenty years experience
in teaching and counselling, before she met with Rainbow Hawk.
After serving in the US Navy in World War II he had run a successful
architectural and building company in San
Francisco . They both spent many years
of study with Native American medicine teachers, before independently
becoming Medicine Keeper Chiefs.
In 1987, they joined
together to become 'Twin
Keepers of the Delicate Lodge' and founded the EHAMA Institute,
as a non-profit making organisation. One third of their work
is with youth, which they give for free.
There are now around 350 EHAMA trainees and
the word is steadily spreading. The Institute has an affiliated
centre in Germany and
new programmes are starting in Austria , Denmark and
the USA .
In the UK ,
EHAMA teaching is spearheaded by Mike and Patricia Bell, co-founders
of The Wisdom Meme Ltd, following their five years of study,
including two years spent with the institute in California .
Both RainbowHawk and
WindEagle are 'metis',
or 'mixed blood', and share Celtic and Native American ancestry.
RainbowHawk's maternal grandmother was full-blooded Delaware ,
whilst WindEagle's lineage is Mohegan.
"When we did our training," said RainbowHawk, "the
Elders told us, 'You are from both parts of the world. You are
from this world, where this tradition comes from, but you are
also part of the New World . Because
of that you will have your own way of breathing the Teachings
into the world. Breathe them into the world and maybe some good
will come of it.' We weren't given a vast amount of instructions!".
As the 21st Century
dawns, WindEagle and RainbowHawk see humanity at a crossroads. "Now is the time when leadership
needs to be calling for a higher level of inspiration, calmness
and patience," says RainbowHawk. "What else would we expect from
leaders and leadership? To join in leading the throng to paranoia?
Or to say, 'Let's slow down. Let's look at this'. But we need
ways to look at it."
"This is where we can learn from some of our
old human wisdom," says RainbowHawk. "We need to ask how can
we look at things in such a way, that we are not jumping to conclusions
or just coming from old, established opinions."
During the afternoon we explored the nature
of Evocative Leadership.
Here we looked at the 'central command' in
each of us, despite our many different personae. Underlying the
concept is the awareness of being in an interactive relationship
with oneself. It asks us to look deeper and to call something
forward in ourselves, to evoke the things that are needed from
an organisation: a sense of 'What is needed now for the benefit
of the group?'
"We're
coming to a time when being 'the people' isn't simply a time
of being a follower," said WindEagle. "In a healthy organisation
the line managers have genius in seeing things are well done - and
they're happy doing it. They rise to their own level, respecting
that. The more people become aware of their sense of well-being,
the less they're willing to work at jobs that separate the reality
of their life from the reality of their work."
"So many times we see an organisation of talented
people, but which is all dependent on one leader," said RainbowHawk. "In
the Council the people make up the circle. There is an understanding
in a tribe that everyone shares and participates. Nobody is depending
on somebody for providing. We'd like to see organisations change
to where they had the same leader, but everybody was playing
a part in a council - activating the wisdom that is inherent
in all of them to solve problems, instead of the formal leader
solving it."
"The Council studies and evokes in various
ways, what is needed and finds the solutions," continued RainbowHawk. "It
makes a tremendous shift in how the business is done, and makes
for a much more lively and happy atmosphere, because all the
people are contributing. Our training is to turn over to people
the power to be their own council and draw on their own inherent
wisdom, rather than just one person's."
I commented on the wariness, even cynicism,
with which organisations often approach much of the recent thinking
around leadership.
"We have a term in Medicine called 'dance
hammering'," replied RainbowHawk, "If you're given information,
don't just take it and swallow it, but dance hammer it. Hammer
it into your own knowledge, your own understanding. It's important
to be cautious, but it's not a cynical state of mind. It's one
that says, 'If I'm going to operate with this I need to own it.
And if I own it, it has to be passed through my own processing,
so that I'm not speaking from what somebody else has said: I'm
speaking from my own wisdom, as a result of my own exploring.
In the Old Teachings, to question was the most vital part."
"Ancient
common sense," concluded one satisfied participant. "I feel inspired
and nourished."
WindEagle and RainbowHawk's book, 'Heart
Seeds: A Message from the Ancestors' is now published.
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©
The Wisdom Meme 2007
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