E2C Manifesto
Introduction
In 2014, still as the European School of Coaching, we wrote what would become, without knowing it at the time, the seed that germinated Way Beyond: a manifesto. A manifesto to elevate simplicity. We believe that the first steps towards change are awareness and the manifestation of the need for it. Therefore, in November of that year, we drafted and presented a manifesto, our statement of intent; the sharing of what we propose to accomplish in all our actions, interactions, reflections and sharing. This is the guiding compass of our purpose.
We are a school, a company, a team and a community interested in uplifting people and organisations; we exist to help our clients live better lives and achieve their results by creating learning contexts. We believe that knowledge and know-how are not enough. Today, and always, what makes the difference is knowing-being.
We do not claim to have an answer for everything, we do not find solutions for all challenges, we do not have models that adapt to and solve all situations. We do believe that we have the courage, the humility and the human quality to say "we don't know"; to declare that "we are in exactly the same situation of doubt and uncertainty; that we are willing to follow paths and create contexts, together and in co-construction, that lead to innovation, evolution and the discovery of new solutions to problems that are both old and modern.
Convinced that a first step towards change is the manifestation of the need for it, we present a manifesto, our declaration of intentions, which we propose to put into practice in all our actions, interactions and reflections.
1. We want to claim our right to time
We will seek to abolish the idea of a balance between "personal life" and "professional life".
Today the religion is that of time. As "time is money", the latter also enters into the equation. The current paradigm is that of productivity, entrepreneurship, proactivity, growth, profit, well-being and happiness. Today we can easily find lists of behaviours, actions, strategies and characteristics that, if followed to the letter, would make us happier. Are we?
Today, in most people, a sense of permanent urgency is evident, of constant haste, of running against a time that one feels does not exist or does not exist.
We believe that time is paramount:
for a good integration of learning;
for the elevation of self-knowledge;
for the integration of affections;
for the transformation of knowledge into wisdom;
to find balance between all the dimensions and roles we play in life;
to do "nothing".
Who said that time is money?! A nonsense that is true for so many and that influences and stalls us so much. On a par with other historical bullshit that has defined and continues to define us, like wanting to separate body from mind and reason from emotion. Time is time! Like the weather, it cannot be controlled. We can, however, change the way we live with the limited time we have.
Work is part of life. The rift between these two dimensions will lead, sooner or later, to a lack of authenticity, genuineness and spontaneity; it will lead to greater difficulty in being aligned with values; it will cause a greater expenditure of energy in the search for a balance between these two dimensions which, if separated, will be difficult to combine in a balanced way. The way the institutions of "work" and "family" are organised today makes a harmonious combination of both incompatible. The way we live our time will help to achieve an integration of the different roles we play in life.
2. We will work to help distinguish information from knowledge and wisdom.
We are against "solutionism". We are in favour of integration between Art, Science, Academia and Culture.
Today there is a tendency, a will, which sometimes becomes a need for some, to have followers; there is an urgency to show our example, the way we lived through episode X, solved situation Y or overcame adversity Z, which when allied to the pretension of turning these stories into universal recipes and, therefore, useful for others, become pseudo-intellectual pills that seduce, alienate and deceive the most naive, amuse the sceptics and sadden the serious.
Wisdom springs from the integration of affections into knowledge, from thinking about lived experience. Knowledge is also produced by people through "intelligent thinking". Information is in books, on the internet and the like. For many, it is of interest that we remain confused. For example, who has not felt wiser or more knowledgeable after watching a TED video? Wisdom is not achieved by "injections".
We look at wisdom as the ability to understand what life has of value for oneself and for others. Wisdom, therefore, includes knowledge but is beyond knowledge. It has a moral dimension: that of respect for oneself and for others.
More than knowledge and know-how, we work to elevate knowing-being.
We do not seek or offer "recipes" or lists of steps to follow in order to be and/or do things in a certain way. We are against "solutionism". We create contexts, spaces and learning times so that people can discover their own ways, draw on resources that are available, but not always "at hand", and find the answers needed to move forward.
Pursuing wisdom is, for us, the same as seeking integration between knowledge and experience, it is the incorporation of what is learned, it is the complementarity between Science, Art and Culture. It is the acceptance of leisure as something positive and useful and not necessarily the opposite of [neg]idleness.
3. We are a team, a company, a community devoted to helping develop a new leadership community.
Leaders who contribute to (re)humanising the relationships of people within companies and between companies and their people.
Leaders have a fundamental role in their teams, in their organisations and in society. By helping them to be wiser, to talk better, to listen better, to connect better with others and to know themselves better, we seek to contribute to paths of excellence in achieving results.
We risk saying that today, most people and organisations, at various levels and in various dimensions, undervalue the human, intangible and qualitative dimensions, falling into the illusion of trying to solve the complex challenges we face by adjusting quantities. We believe that the social, cultural, artistic, scientific and human transformation in which we believe should not occur through an abrupt break with the current paradigm. We do not advocate a break but rather an evolution. For the same reason that it would be wrong today to devalue the human, subjective and quantitative dimensions, the future cannot ignore the quantitative dimensions and perspectives. We advocate an integration and harmonisation of the two perspectives.
The shift from the paradigm of human resources management to that of people management brings with it a basic inconsistency, not to say incompatibility. How do you measure people? How do you manage people? One way of resolving this paradox may involve a little language play: moving from managing people to managing with and for people.
Language games are obviously not the solution, on the contrary, they will be part of the problem. It will not be enough to declare a paradigm shift. This declaration must be accompanied by congruent actions, not forgetting that the discourse itself is already action.
We must recognise that, in companies, in the country, in the world, in people, inconsistencies between speech and action are part of human nature. Nevertheless, we are beings capable of coherence and it is on these occasions that humanity takes steps towards prosperity.
People, in their immense complexity, must be able to be open and above all available to other areas of their lives. This right must not be a luxury for the few. It must be demanded by many. It will not be possible to continue on this path of productivity, efficiency and effectiveness at all costs. It will not be sustainable. We must recognise the limitations of the human condition.
It is imperative to rediscover the human dimension in its fullness. Only in this way can there be an active promotion of the quality of people as such, so lacking in today's leaders. It is often said that leadership should start from a posture and attitude of authenticity, often forgetting that many authentic people are execrable.
We cannot stop at names, concepts, paradigms and theories. A new philosophy has to be found, a practical philosophy, in which we all ensure, by our example, that it lives and is applied.
For all these reasons we see ourselves as a "school" which, in the ancient Latin and Greek notions of the term, meant "interruption for learning"; "leisure devoted to study"; "place for discussions/conversations"; "place where leisure/free time is employed".
4. We want to nullify the obsession with happiness
(...) happiness and unhappiness are sisters and even twins which, always together, sometimes grow or remain small
Today, and perhaps not exclusively in these days, there is an almost obsessive concern and occupation with the pursuit of happiness. So much so that, in addition to its inherently painful condition, unhappiness, sadness and depression are compounded by stigma, humiliation and shame.
Now enters a cliché or a "little depth", as the philosopher Daniel Dennet tells us, this is an old question that has occupied and concerned human beings since forever. Of course, the way in which we address the subject has changed over time. Changes that often forget or even try to forget what was said, thought and written before. As if change implied a cut with the past. That seems to be the fashion today, to devalue the past and direct all the effort to discover something totally new.
Perhaps that is part of the challenge, to see change as something inevitable, which must integrate the past and not ignore it, seeking only to build a future.
In this temporal dance, which paradoxically can only happen in the "here and now", we forget the present.
We believe that it is exactly in paradoxes, in ambivalence, that some kind of what we call happiness will reside. In the same way that crime is normal, necessary and useful in a society (Durkheim), that illness is part of health (Canguilhem), sadness and happiness cannot be separated nor can they be placed at opposite ends.
No, ... being unhappy is not humiliating. Physical suffering is sometimes humiliating, but the suffering of being cannot be, it is life.
5. Raising simplicity in the way of being and in the way of doing
One notices a tendency to consider today's world as uncertain, fast moving, complex and paradoxical. However, when we look at history, we believe that our ancestors could have said exactly the same about the times in which they lived, if they did not.
We seek an "advanced simplicity", that is, to invent, discover simple models and actions for complex realities.
Returning to the idea of paradox, we believe that simplicity is complex. The differentiating factor in human relationships of any kind is the simplicity of interactions and actions. Achieving simplicity in human relationships, in the way of being and being, is an exercise, a journey, which involves great complexity. Simplicity implies authenticity, genuineness and being comfortable with vulnerability. It implies self-knowledge, it implies having an interest in knowing others, it implies an attitude of listening, of respect for silence and respect for others.
Because listening to others (and the facts) is not a physiological capacity, but an ethical one - and every decent person knows it.
Simplicity has a lot to do with clarity, and clarity is important in communication. It's a cliché, we know.
It will be through the clarity and simplicity with which we should make ourselves known to others; through them we will be able to access a more sophisticated understanding of who we are, which will extend to others, with whom we relate.
Such understanding will emerge through "intelligent living", where life is not just a succession of events, perceptions and feelings but a constant learning process that springs from active, critical and reasoned reflection on those same episodes and experiences. Knowing how to live well is also knowing how to think well.
Life is well lived when the experience is integrated in the affections and these, in turn, cannot be separated from it. The simplicity of actions implies complex reflections. Living well implies thinking and feeling well.
The Launch
Watch a bit of what happened on 20 November 2014, during the launch event of the E2C Manifesto. Everything happened at Hotel da Estrela, also a school.
