A 3-Day Pilgrimage toward Self-Mastery

“If a person rises to a level of authority that exceeds his virtue, all will suffer.”
-Guanzi
LDP # 12

Introduction

Guanzi, a predecessor of Confucius, wrote the above lines 2500 years ago. His advice is no less relevant today than when it was written. Many a lives suffer both inside and outside of organizations from abuse of power, from leadership lacking wisdom and deep understanding, from decisions base on shallow, frenzied thinking which nonetheless affect thousands. What is more in need now than ever before is a set of guiding percepts to aid in the formation of leaders, so that power would be in balance with virtue.

We assume that people rise to positions of authority because of their competence, their intellectual skill, or their proven ability to produce results and that these are the results of power and virtue. How often we realized that our assumptions are a far cry from reality. The reality is that many rise to positions of power because that is their ambition, they know how to make impressions, and they are masters at the internal political game playing that dominates most large enterprises. Even if we did embrace a vision that power and virtue should go together, we have little shared understanding of why one person has developed integrity and another has not. The result is that many in positions of authority lack the capabilities to truly lead. They are not credible. They do not command genuine respect. They are not committed to serve. They are not continually learning and growing.

Our study, research and experience of the ancient traditions of China and India indicate that they have something to contribute to the understanding of true leadership development. They believed that the cultivation of virtues was the result of the development of consciousness. And that development has the same root as envelope. Development literally means “de-enveloping” or opening up. This is to say that when the human being opens up, their awareness expands to embrace more and more of the complexities of life, the realities of their organization, and principles of nature. Higher virtues are, at some elemental level, nothing more or less than deeply appreciating laws of nature that enables harmony and functioning of life: see reality as it is (committed to the truth), take no more than you need (waste not, want not), do not control unnecessarily (hierarchical power should be used only when local solutions are not possible), and balance of action with non-action (the power of presence, true listening, and non- intervention).

This 3-day leadership Training is based up on Debashis Chatterjee's groundbreaking book, Leading consciously-A Pilgrimage Toward Self Mastery. He has done a brilliant job of connecting contemporary scientific truths about work, organization, and leadership to classical spiritual wisdom and self-mastery. He says that internalizing such virtues does not come from “the outside in,” taught to us as moral codes that must be followed blindly. These are virtues that we experience and follow naturally as our consciousness opens up, de-envelops. This constitutes a very different approach to leadership development than practiced in most contemporary organizations.

Session 1 Leadership and Personal Mastery
The Art of Seeing
The Play of Energy
From Capability to Copability
From Self-image to the Real Self
The Body: Foundation of the Self
The Senses: Taming Wild Horses
The Mind: Inner Instrument
Toward an Integral Person: The Leadership Profile

Session 2 Leadership and Consciousness
The Nature of Consciousness
The Evolution of Consciousness
Consciousness as the Field of Intelligence
Four States of Self-Consciousness
Transformation of Consciousness
The Middle Path: The Way of Right Perception
Leadership and Cosmo centric Consciousness
Leadership and State of Consciousness

Session 3 Leadership and Work
Three Rules of Work
Modern Misconceptions about Work
The Missing Link: Spirit in Action
Workship: Work as Worship
Leadership Work: The Adventure of Consciousness
The Fourfold Paths of Workship
Is Workship Workable?
Towards Effortless Effort

Session 4 Leadership and Organization
Organization: the Alchemy of collaboration
Organization as a Community
Organizations: From Construction to Creation
Leadership in a Learning Organization
Organizational Values and Self-Learning

Session 5 Leadership and Communication
Silence as a language
Leadership and the Art of Listening
Words: How they Shape Our World
Problem Solving: Living in Questions
Communication: A Tryst with Truth

Session 6 Leadership and Human Values
Tradition and Transformation: From Metaphor to Metamorphosis
Human Values: The Deep Structure of Leadership
Hierarchy and the New Order in Organizations
Shared Values: Leadership as Relationship
Leadership Motivation: The Law of Giving
Leadership Role: Fostering Unity in Diversity
Human Values and Management of Change
Identity and Change: A Human Values Perspective

Session 7 Leadership and Love
Leadership: Love in Action
Nature of Love: Three Habits of the Heart
From High-Tech to High-Touch Leadership
Leadership and Intimacy: the Feminine Consciousness
Leadership: The Way of Unconditional Love

Session 8 Nature's Manuscript: the Leadership Manual
Consciousness in Nature
Three Laws of leading consciously
Breath: the Bridge to Transcendence
Nature's Work: Inertia, Dynamism, and Awareness
Nature's Cycle: A Tryst with Time
Nature's Manuscript: Meditations for Leaders

Session 9 Epilogue: The Sacred Path of Leadership
Virtuous Reality: The Leadership Pilgrimage
Buddha: I am Just Awake
Gandhi: My Life is My Message
Mother Teresa: Small Work with Great Love
Lao-Tzu: The Tao of Leadership
Confucius: The Moral Leader
Swami Vivekananda: Servant Leadership

Tuitions: NC Rs. 3,500-per participant. Lunch and Snacks included.
Number of Participants: 25 Max
Timing: 8:30 AM—5:00 PM