Wisdom for Your Week: Thought Leader Dialogue between Richard Barrett and Marc Gafni: The Unique Self and Societal Development: The Path of Societal Transformation

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Listen to Richard Barrett, founder and chairman of the Barrett Values Centre and author of many books—e.g. What My Soul Told Me, The New Leadership Paradigm, and Building a Values Driven Organization—and Marc Gafni as they talk about an exciting new role that nations and our democratic systems can play in the evolution of consciousness, when they awaken to their Unique Selves, and what that might mean.

You can also listen to the first two parts of the dialogue and read a summary or partial transcript here:

Part 1: Wisdom for your week: Unique Self, Organizational Leadership, and the Destiny of Nations – Dialogue with Richard Barrett and Marc Gafni

Part 2: Wisdom for your Week: Thought Leader Dialogue between Richard Barrett and Marc Gafni: The Unique Self and the Organizational Success: The Path of Organizational Transformation

Part 3: Unique Self and Societal Development: The Path of Societal Transformation

Synopsis of the dialogue:

• Every nation has a unique instrument to play in the symphony of culture.
• Nations are going through the same 7 stages of value development as organizations and individuals.
• Western Democracy is in deep trouble. Democracies are failing to deliver what they are supposed to deliver. Even in countries like Sweden, the level of entropy is increasing. Sweden is moving backwards in terms of value development. At the same time, countries like the United Arab Emirates and Bhutan, which are not democracies, but have strong leaders with democratic values, have a low level of entropy. Are we lacking enlightened leadership in our democracies?
• Yet, non-democratic countries are dependent on their leaders. Democracies do at least have the intention to apply certain values, and leaders can be removed, if they don’t apply those values.
• We need to reinvent democracy. Democracies need to move beyond the existent “crony democracies” to more “conscious democracies,” in analogy to “crony” and “conscious capitalism.” “Crony democracies” are used by their leaders for the fulfillment of their own needs and desires, while “conscious democracies” engage in searching their true purpose. The true purpose of a nation is to facilitate the emergence of the Unique Self of the individuals.
• Yet, a nation also has a unique purpose, which is related to its Unique Self. A nation—as the Unique We-Space that emerges from Unique Selves coming together—needs to become conscious of its unique purpose and embody a unique set of values. When a nation asks itself “What is my Unique Self?” that is the true birth of a nation.

The questions from the exercise in the dialogue:

1. Is being part of a nation an essential part of your identity?
2. If it is, why? If it isn’t, why not?
3. What is the unique talent of your nation?
4. What are your nation’s unique values?
5. What is the unique need your nation can address in the world?
6. What is the unique need of your nation?
7. How does your Unique Self talent align with your nation’s Unique Self mission?

 You can also listen to this dialogue on Unique Self between Ken Wilber and Marc Gafni>>>