Are we ready to lead from an emerging knowledge of our interconnection with other human beings, nature, and the cosmos? Can we nurture the development of leaders who depend on insights from both the rational and the transrational? We here at IONS believe that the answer is an emphatic YES. And in support of that mission, we are excited to be launching the IONS Noetic Leadership Initiative.
Launching with Fundamentals
Claire Lachance, CEO of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, has long been a champion for Noetic Leadership. This past Fall, she presented three webinars featuring Alan Briskin, PhD, Anita Sanchez, PhD, and Tami Simon, Sounds True Founder and CEO. More recently, in February 2021, Claire sat down with Alan Briskin and became an interviewee herself.
During her interview, Claire explained her vision for a Noetic Leadership Initiative that launched with a three-part “Foundations in Noetic Leadership” last month. Attendees focused on the roots of what noetic means, and how to access and cultivate inner meaning for themselves, focusing on the synergy between interconnectedness and leadership.
Interweaving the Rational with the Transrational
The language of noetic leadership is becoming familiar to many of us, but it’s still new to most business and community leaders. That represents an opportunity for growth.
Claire explains that the noetic leadership movement will “meet people where they are,” helping them to understand that, in most cases, aspects of noetic experience are already a part of their lives.
To move Noetic Leadership forward in collaboration with more traditional leaders, Claire envisions weaving together noetic tools and language with those of classic business models. “I believe it takes both the classic and the noetic. If you’re looking for insight, and you believe that input is coming from sources that have the greater good in mind, it’s going to unfold. But I believe in the rational and the transrational — allowing for both.”
How can noetics be used for traditional organizational work? One example Claire mentions is using noetics for strategic planning. “No matter how your organization is organized,” she says, “we are accountable to the greater impact we’re having on the world. We can incorporate more noetic exercises into planning activities — meditations and guided visualizations can open up broader concepts. At the same time, we have to be sure there is structure and the strategic plan can be implemented.”
Stewarding Change
While IONS is eager to facilitate and steward a noetic leadership movement, says Claire, “We are not the owners. It’s a community and a dialogue which leads to further learning and growth. We are a community of people in dialogue about what noetic leadership can be.”
One of the best aspects of Noetic Leadership, Claire notes, is that it can and should be complementary to other non-traditional forms of leadership: “It can dovetail with other leadership models such as Servant Leadership and Participative Leadership. Noetic leadership is intended to enrich rather than replace.”
Leading from a Sense of Interconnection
Claire’s definition of Noetic Leadership encompasses leaders of every kind, from CEOs to community leaders. The hope is to engage leaders at every level and in every part of society. The new initiative, she explains, will be focused “on cultivating and nourishing inner wisdom and helping people to lead from an understanding of interconnection.”
Now that the Noetic Leadership Initiative has launched, IONS is deeply committed to bringing our material into the world and making it accessible.
