Change in Current

A chat with Brian Bacon

by Peter Serafin

Organization (n): The structure or arrangement of connected or related items.

-Oxford American Dictionary

For mediator and organizational theorist Brian Bacon, we're all connected and related at much deeper levels than is commonly acknowledged. As head of the Oxford Leadership Training Institute, Bacon spends much of his time continent-hopping as he advises top government and corporate leaders throughout the world on coping with the rapid, unprecedented change facing all of us. Having practiced Raja Yoga for 23 years, he also believes that what he terms "spiritual intelligence" is an essential tool to help humanity move into what he sees as a new era. HIJ caught up with him a few weeks before he spoke at UH-Hilo on August 29.

As an advisor of President Vicente Fox of Mexico, Bacon was called upon to help Fox "modernize the instruments of government," and noted this was no small task as there were nine political parties, each with its own agenda. The challenge: to move beyond the endemic, influence-peddling, corrupt politics of the country into a "convergence of values," Bacon told HIJ. The goal: to take the values, purpose and vision of the various leaders and unify them into a common purpose: which they defined as the "development of Mexico."

Bacon held that any organization-private, governmental or NGO-must focus on something beyond the acquisition of wealth and power as an end in itself. He noted that human beings generally want to be connected to a "purpose beyond themselves," and people naturally want to collaborate. According to Bacon, in far too many corporations and governments, this sense of higher purpose no longer exists-profit and power are ends in themselves. Yet he noted that successful leaders have a vision and are able to articulate it with clarity.

"Think big, start small," he said.

According to Bacon, much of the malaise and background dread suffered by so many these days was because corporate and governmental entities have lost what he calls "legitimacy."

He cited the rapid fall of the Soviet Union, which the western intelligence services failed to predict.

"Nobody saw it coming," said Bacon, who holds that an increasing number of citizens, especially in the Soviet satellite countries, no longer believed the Soviet "lies of legitimacy." Ergo, Bacon said, the entire system fell rapidly.

Today in the United States he sees the same "abandonment of trust in big corporations and governments. I mean, how many people vote?"

Now that Karl Rove is gone and the Bush Administration is in free-fall, we wondered how Bacon would approach the situation if he were called in (as he had been at the highest levels of the Mexican and Swedish governments), to advise the administration on moving beyond a hostile, divisive, intractable political situation.

"Well," he said diplomatically, "first you must have a leader who is completely committed to the process."

On the other hand, he cited a number of factors that could make Hawai'i a "new model for civilization." These include "racial diversity and cultural respect, the aloha tradition, and the traditional Hawaiian cultural values of malama 'aina and respect for nature," he said. "This could be a prototype that could be used as an example-to learn from traditional Hawaiians," he said.

On the Web

Oxford Leadership Academyoxfordleadership.com/

Top of Page