The recipe of organic leadership

A seminar that I attended this past week addressed how the development of humanity can be likened to seeds that are planted and leaven yeast with dough emerging into the bread of kindness, universal love and caring. In dwelling on these thoughts, I realized that the development of that organic leadership is very much in the same vein.

As the seminar revealed to me: “From even the smallest of seeds, mustard seeds, pine nuts, and mighty plants emerge” I realized that great and wonderful things can grow from things that seem to us humans so insignificant and out of everyday ordinaryiness…. Just like that of a “few tiny grains of yeast can leaven whole loaves of bread”.

Organic leadership is like kneading dough… in our daily bread- in the making of it and in the sharing of it. This process is like herbs growing and farmers farming, we are much more conscious of where our bread comes from . It is a daily journey of every day ordinary work . The seminar brought forward Oscar Wilde’s poignant reflection that “ what people need is not so much high imaginative art, but that which hallows the vessels of everyday use” seems to apply very well here indeed.

The vision of humanity expressed at this seminar can be that of organic leadership because we need the vision of the caring and humane world to inspire us as healers and reconcilers in creation of the human spirit – an important ingredient for the recipe of organic leadership.

So, loving leadership -the highest form of organic leadership- can be part of this creation.. The art of making bread can be an analogy for the art of loving leadership. The seminar mentioned that” Good recipes are like good stories- they embody truth and experience.”

There is a well known tradition in the Amish culture – a great well-loved and time honored custom. This custom is a great bread recipe known as Amish Friendship Bread, which found its seeds of origin( pardon the pun) among the Amish people- Mennonites essentially- in Pennsylvania. This practice involves a form of sourdough bread that begins with a starter portion and is in turn shared amongst the community, along with the ensuing batches of bread.

Each person nurtures a portion of the starter for several days, and then uses some to bake bread. S/he then passes on some to other people who nurture and tend it, then gives some to others and thus it continues in this fashion.

The analogy of the starter in essence spreads like yeast throughout the community is a core principle of organic leadership.

This tradition is an example of every day ordinariness that is transformed into universal community values. Organic leadership and its end result - loving leadership, is not rocket science, you don’t need a Ph.D. to develop it, nor do you need a highly complex matrix of systems for its evolution. Possibly, this is why it is so hard for us to comprehend and assimilate it into our natural ecosystems. Organic and loving leadership has to ferment and grow from the natural yeast of our organic foundation: a foundation that is built upon caring, respect and honouring of the individual no matter who or what they are.