Transcendence

Moses was a change leader. He found his people in bondage to a false identity. He led them to discover the freedom and opportunity of an authentic identity. He helped his people understand their origins and purpose; make sense of their failures; and perceive the promise that was theirs to claim.

Moses pushed his people to see beyond the security of fulfilling their minimal needs in Egypt to the possibilities of claiming a great purpose in another place. He led them through the risks and failures of the Exodus in order to find and define this purpose.

In the journey through the wilderness Moses encountered every aspect of the human condition. We sometimes try to obscure the very human and, therefore, complicated nature of business relationships. This is a mistake. John Kotter, a leading consultant on corporate strategy, writes, “The emotions that undermine change include anger, false pride, pessimism, arrogance, cynicism, panic, exhaustion, insecurity, and anxiety. The facilitating emotions include faith, trust, optimism, urgency, reality-based pride, passion, excitement, hope and enthusiasm.” (Kotter, John; Leading Change). There is no real change without engaging these emotions. Moses confronted all of them on a large scale.

Moses understood that people are motivated to change in order to avoid the bad or achieve the good. Fundamental change usually requires something more than avoiding a threat or advancing narrow self-interest. Radical change requires a vision of a transcendent good. This is not idealistic. This is a realistic recognition of what motivates us.

Charles Taylor writes that one of the most basic aspirations of human beings is “the need to be connected to, or in contact with, what they see as good, or of crucial importance, or of fundamental value.” (Taylor, Charles, Sources of the Self) Professionals, craftspeople, knowledge workers – most workers – want to know how the task they have been assigned is related to an overall outcome. They want to know how their task helps achieve a meaningful outcome. They want to know why the outcome is meaningful. Assuming the answers make sense, having this context is motivational to most professionals.

The management consultant Margaret Wheatley argues that, “one of the most potent shapers of behavior in organizations is meaning… I have seen companies make deliberate use of meaning to move through times of traumatic change. I’ve seen leaders make great efforts to speak forthrightly and frequently to employees about current struggles, about the tough times that lie ahead, and about what they dream of for the future. These conversations fill a painful period with new purpose, giving reasons for the current need to sacrifice and hold on. In most cases, given this kind of meaningful information, workers respond with allegiance and energy." (Wheatley, Margaret, Leadership and the New Science).

For Moses the destination was not so much a physical place as a source of meaning. The journey from the Nile to the Jordan was less about where the people were going than who they were going to become. He insisted that they could choose a powerful and profoundly fulfilling destiny.

Moses was seeking a long-term comparative advantage. To maintain his peoples’ independence and identity would be tough. The wilderness had to be crossed. The Promised Land had to be conquered. Powerful empires loomed both South and North. The multitude he led out of Egypt was divided into twelve tribes. There were many other sources of internal division and dissension.

Moses realized that differentiation would be a key to the survival of his people. His leadership was focused on defining and refining that differentiation. Business strategists often try to differentiate by focusing on competitors and highlighting superficial differences through packaging, marketing, and similar devices. Instead Moses focused inside.

Michael Porter has argued, “Differentiation grows out of the firm’s value chain. Virtually any value activity is a potential source of uniqueness.” (Porter, Michael; Competitive Advantage). Porter has found that most firms are simply unaware of existing value and, therefore, unable to deploy it effectively. Many firms already possess the potential sources of differentiation that would give them a comparative advantage. But because they are not aware of what they have, they do not organize and use it in a purposeful way. The firm fails to become its essential self.

As a leader, Moses focused his people on their core value. He told and retold stories of where they had come from and where they were going. Moses explained their struggles and failures as a path to meaning. He advocated a transcendent purpose. Most of all, he modeled a close relationship with God that empowered his ability to be totally himself.

Moses claimed his true self. In becoming authentically and fully himself, he claimed a position – a promised place – that was grounded in ultimate reality and fundamental value. He demonstrated that the power, resilience, and fulfillment of differentiation depend on becoming consistently and authentically yourself.