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Last week the Secretan Center made a little bit of history — we certified an inaugural team of Higher Ground Leadership practitioners from across North America using the new material from my latest book, The Spark, the Flame, and the Torch. We lived together for 2 1/2 days surrounded by beautiful art and gorgeous scenery, learned, laughed and shared a lot, ate too much,  made new friendships, and resolved to change the world.

Participants were equipped with new information, many tools, an alumni organization, and a commitment to future support and collaboration. It was an exciting few days and promises to make a difference in the insurance, health care, travel, coaching and government organizations represented.

In the August 16, 2010 issue of Fortune magazine, Geoff Colvin interviewed Randall Stephenson, the CEO of AT&T. Colvin asked Stephenson this question, “An internal document showed that the company figured it could save $1.8 billion a year if it dropped health insurance. Is that actually a possibility?” Randall Stephenson’s chilling response was, “I do not know where we’re going to land on this. Long-term, things will land where economic gravity takes them…”

Economic gravity? So has it come to this?  The number ten company on Fortune’s Top 500 list decides how to take care of the health care needs of its 300,000 employees on the basis of “economic gravity”?  Is this newspeak for current attitudes in Corporate America? This calculating approach is what is sending a chill into the hearts of employees today.

Our work with the latest team of Higher Ground Leadership® practitioners and teachers aims to change this – to create organizations that inspire and therefore inspire customers and the world. If you would like to become certified in this work, and join the global team of passionate colleagues who believe there is a better way, please contact us.

I salute my colleagues last week for sharing their passion and energy and commitment to honor the sacredness of people and to join the thousands who are practicing and teaching Higher Ground Leadership® across the world, including 13 of Fortune Magazine’s list of Most Admired Companies. There is much that is more inspiring than “economic gravity”.  Let’s roll up our sleeves and restore hope and trust in business.

I am on an airplane heading to Atlanta to work with America’s 13th largest school district. It is a proud moment for me because this school district has moved from 682^nd place in Newsweek magazine’s “Top Public High Schools” list in 2004 to 212^th place – and they are on their way to being one of the top hundred in the country. I have told their story in my new book The Spark, the Flame, and the Torch.

Some years ago they adopted the CASTLE Principles™, among other leadership development practices, in an effort to teach leadership and help formulate the character of future leaders. This initiative has made an amazing difference to academic performance, self-esteem and building the leaders of the future.

If there is dysfunctional behavior in the management teams of American business, perhaps one of the reasons is that we do not teach functional behavior, or Inspirational Leadership® in our education system. This is been a passion of mine for many years. If we can enhance the quality of the humans we teach and grow and introduce into the world through our educational systems, then we may see a significant change in the way our world works. To say that we have lost our moral compass in business today may be an understatement, but there is much we can do, both through the education of our leaders, and also the education of our young people.

School systems across the country could learn a lot from this experiment. It is rare that we teach the skill to inspire other people — not in our schools, not in our universities or MBA programs, not in our churches or in our governments, not even in our leadership development programs — in fact hardly anywhere. And yet today, the yearning to be inspired, to do meaningful and fulfilling work, and to make a difference in the world has never been greater.

It buds at home of course, but it is brought into bloom in our schools.

I discovered this on the Internet - I am not sure where, nor do I know the name of the artist who created this. (Please let me know if you do so I can provide attribution).

I love this image for a number of reasons – it is so rich with lessons.  Here are some that jump out for me.  Please add yours by posting a comment.

1. It is simple – just a few brush strokes - less is often more.

2. It is elegant – elegance and grace are central themes in my new book The Spark, the Flame, and the Torch.  What ever is elegant and graceful inspires.

3.  It is timely – our examples, metaphors, teaching methods and theories need to be constantly revised and replaced in order to be relevant. Relevance is an essential ingredient for success.

4. It is subtle – notice the skin tones of the players.  Blunt and abbrasive messages are the currency of earlier times.  We are tired of being bludgeoned with marketing and teaching messages that wear us down. Instead, nuanced messages have greater potency because they will be listened to, while we tune out the loud noises.

What other metaphors for excellence, growth, spirit and inspiring leadership can you find in this image?

I read a press release this morning in which the first line was, “Big business has fallen from grace.”

I come from a generation and a belief that the greatest agent for change in our world is big business. I’ve also come to the conclusion that, very often, big business does not understand, or know how to, reach its world-changing potential. If we simply see ourselves as purveyors of goods and services to consumers, then the playing field can become mundane and sometimes venal. But if we reframe our perspective, seeing ourselves as agents of change in the world– if we have a dream of how the world could be as a result of our contributions — then we may be able to raise the flag of business proudly once again.

All of us watched with horror as the nightmare of BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil catastrophe unfolded– and continues to unfold. (Disclosure: in previous years BP was one of my firm’s largest clients). From my previous work with this organization, I am convinced that there was never any willful intention to cause damage. On the other hand, it seems safe to say that humility and transparency do not appear to be BP’s favorite characteristics.

BP now faces nearly 250 lawsuits, some fueled by greed, and others by fear and pain. BP’s stock has fallen by 50% and it plans to suspend its dividend.

In my new book, The Spark, the Flame, and the Torch, I have included many case studies of organizations where transparency, authenticity and accountability have dramatically reduced the cost, legal wrangling and stress of dealing with mistakes. In the simplicity and elegance of an apology lies a path to stregthening trust and corporate relationships–and therefore future business opportunities.

We can forgive many things, even things that put our lives at risk, damage our financial security, or in other ways are hurtful. But it is very hard to forgive arrogance. A simple apology–from Toyota, Boston Scientific, Golman Sachs and many others–very early in the game, with a clear acknowledgment of responsibility, can go a long way to ease public anger. And it can go far to restore public confidence in big business.

(Cartoon by Clay Bennett of The Chatanooga Times Free Press–please visit to see some of the wittiest and most brilliant opinion cartoons of our time)

I am about to embark on one of the most important projects I have ever undertaken – a mission that could have a profound impact on the world – or fizzle.  This will depend on three things:

1. How well prepared I am, and how well I execute this mission.

2. The readiness and appetite of my audience for the message I am going to deliver.

3. Your support.

This week, I am going to Ottawa to meet with representatives of the Canadian Parliament to present a heartfelt message for Canada.  We are working on arranging similar meetings with Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid in the US Congress and Senate respectively.  But this first meeting is crucial.  And I know you can have a significant influence on the outcome. With your support, we can build a grassroots movement, organize a Twitter and Facebook campaign, write letters to elected officials, and let our voices be heard loud and clear in these and many other ways that you know well, and I do not. Please show your support for this initiative and make it plain and clear to our leaders that we are looking for change – we want to be inspired. Here is the message I will deliver this week:

Rebuilding Canadian Confidence in Politics and Politicians

There are many reasons why Canadians are more disenchanted with politicians than at any time since polls have been measuring this question. In 1965, for example, 49% of Canadians thought that “the government does not care what the people think”. By 1979 this proportion had grown to 53%, by 1984 to 63% and by 1990 to 70%. The level of rhetoric and bombast in the media about politicians and politics has risen to match the decline of civility in Canada’s House of Commons.

And there we may have both a definition of the problem and the solution.

Most Canadians would say today, that our political system is either broken or rapidly approaching a broken condition. A minority of the population study issues and assesses our political condition through a calm discernment of facts, knowing that we can’t have everything we all want, and not without paying for it or making some trade-offs. But the majority doesn’t think this way. They are looking for leadership, and they yearn for—and deserve—something different from what they experiencing today. They watch what they perceive to be a collection of argumentative, insulting, yelling, name-calling boors behaving in ways that they would never tolerate from their children. And these are the “leaders” they have elected to represent them in the world—and they are ashamed and disappointed.

When we ask politicians why they behave in such a disrespectful and unproductive way, they make excuses like, “politics is adversarial”, “politicians are paid to oppose”, or “that is the way the system works”. And when they are asked if it is effective or inspiring they acknowledge that it is not, that it is disgraceful, but that they feel powerless to change it.

But if our elected leaders can’t change it, then who can? And who should? Surely this is the very group who should arrest this behavior now, so that Canada does not become governed in the same way as the Greeks or the Italians, and more recently and shockingly, the British and the Americans. (According to Rasmussen Reports, 45 percent of likely voters in the United States think a group of people selected at random from the phone book would do a better job of leading America than the current Congress). We have not reached this same critical condition—yet.

Before we do, let’s reverse the trend. This could easily be done if Canada’s House of Commons made an all-party commitment to being inspiring in every communication and action. This does not mean we have to change our views or compromise our beliefs—it just means that we make our points in ways that make people feel better, not worse; that we honor the other human being with whom we are communicating; that we are conscious of the example we are setting for 40 million Canadians—especially young Canadians, and that we model—every day—the behavior we wish to see in a civil society. We cannot continue to slander or libel colleagues with the impunity afforded by Parliamentary Privilege, and then put citizens in jail for doing the same thing.

The party Whips could join together to raise the bar of Parliamentary decorum and respect, setting a new standard for all levels of government in Canada and eventually the rest of the world. And Canada is the one best suited country to set this example. The example displayed by Canada as host of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games demonstrated to the world the country’s status as an international good neighbor—famously captured in Tom Brokaw’s “Love Letter to Canada“.  This is a momentum that can be built upon. By declaring our intentions, and then living up to these new standards, we would begin the renewal of confidence in politics and politicians—and we would become the envy of the world. Politics could, once again, become a vocation that attracts the best and brightest of our citizens.