A fitful journey at Axiom News this past year has created just the sort of anxiety-ridden conditions for provoking new revelations. One of the most recent for me was that these could be some of the most exciting and painful times for knowledge workers yet.

Much of global society has entered a strange land. Or perhaps it would be more fit to say a new land has descended around us. And we are its inhabitants, whether we care to be or not.

One of the most transfiguring features of this new space is the ability to engage across continents, hone skills, deepen knowledge and access a seemingly infinite buffet of services — all without leaving our desks.

This new reality is calling for new thinking and acting — so we not only survive but thrive.

To continue with the mixed imagery of desks and lands (I’m thinking Salvador Dali could come up with a great depiction of this), it seems that surviving in the “old country” happens through sitting with my head down. There I hone in on my task and deliver it with excellence. This is how not only I but the system of which I am a part, my team, my organization, seems to function best.

But in this new land, we as knowledge workers are being called — even shouted at — to build on our excellence-driven completion of daily tasks. 

First, it seems we must wrestle with and clarify our worldview, the paradigm from which we choose to live and move and have all our being.

Then, we must have a sharply heightened sense of the whole — which is much more than our workplaces, though we must also be clear on what the boundaries of that whole are for our particular situation including how permeable those boundaries are. We must also be keenly aware of the actors in that whole and the energy and anxiety points inviting our immediate action.

And then we must plant our singular, worldview-anchored action within this endless attentiveness to the swirling whole. Imagine a desk in a wilderness where the elements are flying around and the knowledge worker sits peacefully focused on the task at hand. Every so often he jumps up to dance or speak or engage with who or what has entered his world. He’s simultaneously attuned to the world around while laser-focused on his own specific work.

I’m still sorting this all out myself. Insights I’m finding helpful include:

1. Thinking of this shift as a move to a form of social leadership, as in social-mission leadership. This is not so much about leading anyone as it is about taking on the mind of a leader as one who is keenly aware of the larger context and also the unique place for himself and others within that context.
2. Putting attention to the “boundary lines” within which I must keep myself for the most part, not for the purpose of excluding, constraining or dampening relationships and activities, but to enable freedom, creativity and more meaningful relationships. It just seems our world is built this way — boundary lines are necessary for fuller thriving.
3. Choosing to perceive what could be considered an endlessly chaotic reality as the next level for humanity. We can allow the greater spread of opportunities to push us to dig deeper within, polish up our worldview glasses even brighter and make that singular contribution only we can make even more richly.

You can comment on this blog below, or e-mail michelle(at)axiomnews.ca.