At a more metaphor level, the centering of oneself in a vehicle (such as one’s persona life or one’s organization) while navigating a white-water environment requires clarity regarding values and priorities. Paul Tillich (1957/2009) would suggest that an “ultimate concern” should always reside at the center of one’s choices in life—especially when there are many choices to be made in a white-water environment that is often chaotic. As I noted in the previous essay on Essential, it is in our engagement of an ultimate concern that we find the courage to reenter or remain on the white-water river of VUCA-Plus
While Peter Vail (1996, p. 56) identifies seven “secular” modes of learning related to navigating the white-water world, he eventually turns to the spiritual core required to provide what I am calling the “centering” of the kayak. When reflecting on Vaill’s approach to spirituality, it should first be noted that he is not referring to specific religious dogma. Rather, he is describing a process that “centers” on a search for meaning (not unlike Tillich’s ultimate concern). According to Vaill (1996, p. 180):
“Genuine spirituality . . . is the willingness to enter into a process of dialogue about meaning, within oneself and with others; to stay with it over a period of time; and to remember that so far, no one has found the compelling once-and-for-all answer that warrants enforced universal adherence, the doctrines of several world religions notwithstanding. Rather than debate the absolutes of who is right, we all need to learn to think and communicate more theologically—something, however, that is probably not presently contemplated for any known M.B.A. curriculum or corporate management development program.”
The search for meaning resides in an ongoing search for and refinement of life purposes in one’s own life and for mission in an organization. With regard to our centering on a kayak, a spiritual orientation would be manifest in our ongoing integration of a solid physical positioning at the bottom of the kayak with a sustained (and sometimes altered) focus on the reasons for venturing onto to the white-water river. We look down to and prepare for the next turn in the river while envisioning desired outcomes further down the river.
Vail (1996, p. 182) offers this spiritual orientation (and the courage attendant to this orientation) when turning to the perspectives of Paul Tillich:
“. . . how do we know that there is something to search for, that there is learning available? There have been many answers and interpretations over the millennia. To me, one of the most persuasive is Paul Tillich’s, for he was concerned with precisely the conditions of modern life that make up permanent white water. In his extraordinary meditation on the spiritual significance of anxiety and meaninglessness, The Courage to Be, Tillich (1952) came to what I regard as a most heartening conclusion. The struggle with the unthinkability of the modem condition, the willingness to keep get ting back in the boat and shooting the next set of rapids, is funda mentally an act of spiritual affirmation.”
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