Today, we are living in a world where leadership is challenged from all sides. Isolation and loneliness abound. Neighborhoods where people met face-to-face have been replaced with virtual neighborhoods made up of Facebook encounters and fleeting TikTok messages. Members of organizations work in silos. Our society is polarized with “camps” screaming at one another rather than seeking to find common ground. Whether this social condition of isolation is good for our heart and soul or not, it often seems to be a condition that is not of our choosing.
Leadership is also challenged by the multiple truths that seem to exist. Experts are suspected of bending the facts and politicians are commended for lying and promoting violence (Weitz and Bergquist, 2023). We live in a world where reality is being constructed by other people and we seem to be immune to any corrections on this imposed reality. We are left alone and ignorant in a world that is saturated with volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity, turbulence and contradiction (VUCA-Plus) (Bergquist, 2019).
Habits of De Tocqueville
Has this always been the case—at least in America? Alexis de Tocqueville (2000/1835), a French observer of early 19th century society would say this was not the case (at least in small-town America). According to de Tocqueville the residents of American towns and surrounding areas had developed and maintained “habits of the heart” that called for gathering together and sharing information. We might ask what these “habits” looked like in 19th century American life and ask what happened to these habits? In seeking to find an answer to these questions, I reflect back on American life as it existed in this world of times past (and as it existed up until the early years of the 20th century).
Alexis de Tocqueville identifies several key factors that enable humankind to build communities—by establishing “habits of the heart”. According to de Tocqueville, these community-building habits are based on seven factors:
“1. Equality of opportunity, knowledge and status exists in the community.
2. Settings exist in the community for vivid and sustained dialogue.
3. Shared interests and reasons of mutual support are to be found in the community.
4. Civic associations (nongovernment community-oriented institutions) are prevalent in the community.
5. Emphasis is placed on useful action within the community.
6. Emphasis is placed on experience-based action within the community.
7. Abiding belief is to be found in the community regarding human progress and a sense of greater purpose in life.
The first four of these conditions might be identified as “habits of the collective heart”, while the last three could be clustered together as “habits of the personal heart.”
We can begin our application of de Tocqueville’s factors by asking if they are to be found in American communities (or other communities around the world). Given the deep polarization that seems to exist now in American society, can there still be habits of the collective and personal heart—such as those de Tocqueville identified and celebrated more than 180 years ago? With American citizens living and working in isolation from one another, how do they effectively relate to one another in a way that allows them to address the diverse and critical challenges of their 21st century communities—ranging from the pollution of local estuaries to decline in the local economy, and from the absence of affordable housing and affordable theater to the health care demands of a graying population? Can interpersonal relationships somehow survive in our contemporary communities (let alone our contemporary state and national government)?
Robert Bellah and his colleagues (1985, p. 153) suggest that “. . . communities . . . have a history—in an important sense they are constituted by their past—and for this reason we can speak of a real community as a ‘community of memory,’ one that does not forget its past.” If Bellah is accurate, then our ghetto-based communities of memory were filled with the trauma of denied privilege and exclusion, whereas lifestyle-based communities of memory are filled with the hope and joy of shared interests and activities. Interpersonal relationships can thrive in a community that is freely chosen.
At the most obvious level, Coherence is embedded in the secular and sacred traditions of a community. It has a history that contains not only memories of separation and abuse, but also memories of collective action and recognition of shared contributions. Bellah and his colleagues (1985, p. 282) have more fully articulated this history of Coherence in the community:
“. . . we have never been, and still are not, a collection of private individuals who, except for a conscious contract to create a minimal government, have nothing in common. Our lives make sense in a thousand ways, most of which we are unaware of because of traditions that are centuries, if not millennia, old. It is these traditions that help us to know that it does make a difference who we are and how we treat one another. Even the mass media, with their tendency to homogenize feelings and sensations, cannot entirely avoid transmitting such qualitative distinctions, in however muted a form.”
Building on the frame offered by Bellah, we offer both a secular and sacred vision of community and accompany these visions with a list of ingredients to be found in a coherent community. We begin with the secular vision and ingredients.
Secular Perspective: Fostering Civic Virtue and Finding Community Capital
The secular domain resides in the civic virtues of those residing in the community. This notion of civic virtue is incorporated in the term, Paideia, that Bellah references. Paideia is a vision of a community that was first articulated in ancient Greece. As Bellah notes this vision refers to the socialization of children through education and the modeling of exemplary behavior, so that the children might become ideal members of their community (the Polis). In contemporary times, the domain of work seems to be critical in the engagement of civic virtue (Bellah et al., 1985, p. 288):
“Undoubtedly, the satisfaction of work well done, indeed “the pursuit of excellence,” is a permanent and positive human motive. Its reward is the approbation of one’s fellows more than the accumulation of great private wealth and it can contribute to what the founders of our republic called civic virtue. Indeed, in a revived social ecology, it would be a primary form of civic virtue.”
We wish to extend this analysis regarding the social ecology of coherence and enhanced interpersonal relationships by suggesting three additional ingredients. A coherent community needs rocks, pebbles and sand. Ron Kitchens and his associates (Kitchens, Gross and Smith, 2008) write about “community capital”—which I would suggest is needed in a community that encourages rich and productive interpersonal relationships. This capital comes from multiple sources—rocks, pebbles and sand. Community capital (represented as rocks) comes in part from institutions in a community that support broad based community participation and economic security for all members of the community. Kitchens proposes that there is a second source of capital in a coherent community.
Community capital is generated by the services and events being offered in this community. These are the pebbles. These services and events are inclusive and attractive to all members of the community if it is coherent. Regardless of their status in the workplace, all members of the community are invited to events occurring outside the workplace. One finds both the employers and employees at local concerts or at meetings of the city council. Lines might still exist, but they are easily crossed without repercussion. Community engagement should be just as democratic and broad-based as democracy inside the workplace.
There is a third source of community capital—that represents the sand—this is where coherence begins to bridge into the spiritual. Kitchens suggests that this is the specific quality of interactions that take place among those living in a coherent community. These interactions are respectful and inviting for all community members. The quality of interaction at the table is particularly important and diversity of perspective is welcomed (not just tolerated). Privilege is prevalent, with all members of the community being allowed (even invited) to enter and receive services from the institutions, to participate in the events and to engage in the many diverse relationships that are to be found when all members of the coherent community are interacting with one another. This is what civic virtue is ultimately about and how a coherent community can be created and maintained.
Ron Kitchens makes use of rock, pebbles and sand when offering a metaphor regarding how these three levels of community capital come together. He invites people to watch as he fills a bowl with rocks (representing the first type of community capital). He asks if the bowl can contain anything else. The obvious answer is “No.” Kitchens then adds in some pebbles to the bowl (representing the second type of community capital). They settle in among the rocks. The bowl can contain more than the rocks. It can accommodate pebbles. Kitchens goes one step further. He adds sand to the bowl (representing the third type of community capital).
Kitchens demonstrates that a community can be filled to the brim with rocks, pebbles and sand. All three forms of community capital can (and should) exist in what Bellah and his colleagues have identified as a community of coherence. Kitchens’ full bowl provides a compelling secular vision of this coherence. Rocks, pebbles and sand are essential ingredients in any secular vision of a viable, coherent community—and are needed if everyone, regardless of personality type, wishes to leave their psychic silo in order to venture out into a supportive, welcoming world of caring people who are residing in a coherent community. Coherence provides the container, encourages connection and builds community.
Spiritual Perspective on Building and Sustaining Coherence
A spiritual perspective regarding Coherence can be founded on the belief that everything in the life of a community has meaning and purpose—and therefore should be appreciated, celebrated and remembered. A community of memory can be founded on this sense of meaning and purpose. This community of memory becomes the primary forum for collective appreciation and celebration. Bellah and his colleagues (1985, p. 282) put it this way:
“The communities of memory of which we have spoken are concerned in a variety of ways to give a qualitative meaning to the living of life, to time and space, to persons and groups. Religious communities, for ex¬ample, do not experience time in the way the mass media present it-as a continuous flow of qualitatively meaningless sensations. The day, the week, the season, the year are punctuated by an alternation of the sacred and the profane. Prayer breaks into our daily life at the beginning of a meal, at the end of the day, at common worship, reminding us that our utilitarian pursuits arc not the whole of life, that a fulfilled life is one in which God and neighbor are remembered first.”
At this point, Bellah brings the secular and the sacred together:
“Many of our religious traditions recognize the significance of silence as a way of breaking the incessant flow of sensations and opening our hearts to the wholeness of being. And . . . tradition, too, has ways of giving form to time, reminding us on particular dates of the great events of our past, or of the heroes who helped to teach us what we are as a free people. Even our private family life takes on a shared rhythm with a Thanksgiving dinner or a Fourth of July picnic.”
As Bellah notes, the assignment of meaning concerns the relationship between a community and its deeply felt commitment to interpersonal relationship and group relationships. Ultimately, sacred coherence is based on the overarching relationship between community and some divine (sacred) entity.
Conclusions
In alignment with de Tocqueville, Robert Bellah and his colleagues, I propose that there are two ingredients that are essential to building and sustaining a community of coherence. The first ingredient is a shared sense of spiritual unity and a transcendent set of sacred values and purposes. This ingredient is one that Bellah and his colleagues return to in recognition of the final and most important habit of the heart identified by de Tocqueville. This final habit is the abiding belief to be found in the community regarding human progress and a sense of greater purpose in life.
The second ingredient turns us to the wisdom offered by Paul Tillich (1948), a prominent theologian of the 20th century. Tillich writes about the structure of grace in the shared history of a society. If we specifically introduce our focus on coherent communities, this structure of grace could be considered the history embedded in the collective memory of a history. It is a history that includes not just the success of relationships and community, but also the failures and suffering inherent in relationships and the formation of community.
As Parker Palmer (1990, p. 31) notes, “Our successes and our glories are not the stuff of community, but our sins and our failures are”. We love and hurt another person at the same time. We collectively provide benefit to those in need (often as charitable contributions) and at the same time block progress toward increasing the welfare of all members of our community (by failing to pass needed legislation). We are pulled to and pushed away from relationships and communities at the same time. We do good and we do harm—both are inevitable (Bergquist and Pomerantz, 2020). Tillich believes that Grace only comes with the act of acceptance and reform. This is a spiritual perspective. We are given the chance to do better in our collective actions within our community. Grace allows us to enter the world of relationships and community with both courage and hope.
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References
Bergquist, William (2019) Leadership in the Midst of Complexity, Uncertainty, Turbulence and
Contradiction. Library of Professional Coaching, Link:
https://libraryofprofessionalcoaching.com/concepts/organizational-theory/leadership-in-the-midst-ofcomplexity-uncertainty-turbulence-and-contradiction/
Bergquist, William and Suzi Pomerantz (2020) Harmlessness and the Leadership Spectrum. Published in
the Library of Professional coaching. Link:
https://libraryofprofessionalcoaching.com/concepts/leadership-foundations/harmlessness-and-theleadership-spectrum/
de Tocqueville, Alexis (2000/1835) Democracy in America, New York: Bantom.
Kitchens, Ron, Daniel Gross and Heather Smith (2008) Community Capitalism. Bloomington, IN.: AuthorHouse.
Palmer, Parker (1990) The Active Life. San Francisco: Harper and Row.
Tillich, Paul (1948) The Shaking of the Foundations. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons