Thu, Nov 13 · 5:00 PM PST
How can we lead, and live, more relationally in a world that feels increasingly divided?
Join us for a special talk with Jim Ferrell, bestselling author of Leadership and Self-Deception and The Anatomy of Peace , as he unpacks key concepts from his new book You and We: A Relational Rethinking of Work, Life, and Leadership . Specifically, he'll explore the transition from the mind-based economy of the last century to the post-AI relational economy.
For most of modern history, we’ve treated individuals as the core unit of analysis in organizations—as if each person is a dot on a chart, and performance is about optimizing those dots. But here’s the problem with this approach: The idea of a separate individual is a myth, and because it’s a myth, the strategies that mistake it as true generate systematically poor advice.
The inherent relationality of observed reality is the most important scientific discovery of the last century. When we observe and measure the world, we’re not observing and measuring a world separate from ourselves; we’re observing and measuring our own interaction or relation with the world and the world’s interaction with us. As the great physicist Werner Heisenberg said, “What we observe is not Nature itself, but Nature exposed to our method of questioning.” Everything we see is relation.
Coming back to the dot analogy, the real driver of performance, then, is not in the dots on the org chart. It’s in the space or relation between them. It’s in the connectivity within and between teams and departments. Team-sport coaches know this. Listen to the winning coach after a game, and you will often hear them say something like this: “We had great connectivity tonight.” What the coach means is that they won not primarily because of individual talent, but because that talent moved and functioned as a fully synchronized whole.
In this presentation, we will explore how the leadership paradigm of the future is the measurement and management of these relations—of the connective space between persons and groups—rather than the measurement and management of individuals or groups themselves.
About Jim Ferrell:
He is also the Founder of Withiii Leadership, a company devoted to helping individuals and organizations apply and operationalize the relational insights introduced in You and We. Prior to founding Withiii, Jim was the longtime managing partner of the Arbinger Institute.
Over his nearly three decades working with corporate and governmental leaders, Jim has developed a reputation as one of the world’s great innovators in the areas of leadership, culture, change, conflict resolution, communication, and interpersonal connection.
Jim has degrees in economics and philosophy and is a graduate of Yale Law School. He is originally from Seattle, Washington and now lives in the Washington DC area.
