The book of Genesis is a collection of several short-stories. Each story is important. But for most of his audience – then and now – Moses focuses on the continuing story of Abraham and Sarah, their son Isaac, Jacob the son of Isaac and Rebecca, and the twelve sons of Jacob.
Compared to the stories of Moses, Danielle Steele is demur. Sex, romance, violence, betrayal, revenge, and war fill the pages. Such is life. This is why the stories have continued credibility. Unlike many novels the saga of Abraham and family also has purpose and profound meaning; this is why the stories still have influence.
Max DePree, former Chairman and CEO of Herman Miller, writes, “Every family, every college, every corporation, every institution needs tribal storytellers. The penalty for failing to listen is to lose one’s history, one’s historical context, one’s binding values.” (Depree, Max, Leadership is an Art). Values emerge from how past threats and opportunities were engaged. The most long-lasting values generally emerge from pain and suffering. How we survived a threat, how we recovered, and what we learned are encapsulated in our values and sustained by our stories.
Moses reminds his people that God made a promise to Abraham, and they are heirs to that promise. Moses reminds his people that they have a particular place that is their own. He tells them they have left that place, and that choice is the cause of their suffering. Moses persuades his people they must renew their claim on their unique place, and in this renewal they will find ultimate peace and fulfillment.
For this argument to be persuasive Moses must convince his people there is something in their essential identity – individually and collectively – that is fulfilled by the promise to Abraham. Moses does this by reminding them of their origins, their past struggles, and how these origins are relevant to their current reality.
Every individual and group of individuals has a beginning. In these beginnings – at our genesis – we set in motion factors that have a continuing and powerful influence on how we proceed. As my Dad likes to say, “We are who we are because of where we were when.”
Has the journey from your beginnings until today been straightforward, problem-free, and predictable? If so, you are either very unusual or have an unusual ability to perceive the order in chaos. For most of us there is considerable randomness and surprise in our lives. This does not mean there is no source of order. T.J. Cartwright has written, “Chaos is order without predictability.” (Cartwright, T.J.; Planning and Chaos Theory, APA Journal, 1991)
What is your origin? What characteristics, potentialities, and limitations were embedded in this beginning? How do you make sense of these sources of order? Margaret Wheatley, an independent management consultant, writes that in our beginnings we find our “guiding visions, strong values, organizational beliefs – the few rules that individuals can use to shape their own behavior. The leader’s task is to communicate them, to keep them ever-present and clear, and then allow individuals in the system their random, sometimes chaotic-looking meanderings… If we can trust the workings of chaos, we will see that the dominant shape of organizations can be maintained if we retain clarity about the purpose and direction of the organization.” (Wheatley, Margaret; Leadership and the New Science)
Early in his career Moses was as interested in control and certainty as any of us. But over time we see his increasing acceptance of an order he cannot fully understand or predict, but in which he has profound faith. In this acceptance and faith – and in his consistent effort to clarify and communicate the purpose and direction of this order to his people – we see a master of organizational leadership at work.
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