In the pursuit for Growth

I read an inspiring post on Worldchanging to commemorate the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. It celebrates his words of wisdom and the power of his speeches to challenge our societal worldviews – especially the notion of unsustainable economic progress; the continues pursuit of “Growth for Growth”, creating in effect the largest Ponzi scheme of all (though our health care systems around the world make for a nice scheme as well!).

R.Kennedy’s words are surprisingly relevant, 41 years later.

Though R.Kennedy is from a different time, his moral leadership transcends the issues of his period. He was not president himself and may not have afforded to speak out against the tabacco industry if he were, yet I can still imagine the power of these speeches on the zeitgeist at that time.

EnlightenNext wrote a blogpost last year, on the power of speeches at the occassion of the democratic acceptance of Obama as democratic candidate, calling it the “birth of a moral leader”. It is a beautiful celebration and reflection of leadership, morality and the power of speeches. I particularly enjoy the introduction of the notion on “grown-up idealism”, referring to leaders, like Obama, “not afraid of the most progressive ideals, that is not hesitant to think in moral terms, and that is willing to embrace the kind of difficult realism needed to actually make change happen”..

From my limited experience, I sense getting the balance right between this progressive idealism needed for the betterment of the future, and the realism required to move the current state towards that desired future, is the key to sustainable change. My boss speaks of something similar, though arguably more pragmatic as view. The key line-manager’s skills are to (1) campaign for a vision, (2) and then put structure, rigour and discipline around it to execute and get things done. Much of what I am professionally engaged with in Asia Now is exactly this; supporting leaders/managers in MNC to do find the clarity and language to define their vision and develop a conceptual solution, and then put structure and detail around it to execute.

“My brother need not be idealized or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life, to be remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it.”

– Ted Kennedy eulogy for Robert Kennedy after his assassination.