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.

Promise

Moses reminded his people of the promise that God had made to Abraham. He persuaded them that this promise, made more than five centuries earlier, brought each of them into a personal relationship with the creator of the universe.

After the death of his father, God said to Abraham, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him that curses you, I will curse; and by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves.” (Genesis 12: 1-3). In response, Abraham left what is modern Iraq and traveled west of the Jordan River.

Twenty-four years later, God said to Abraham, “I am God Almighty, walk before me, and be blameless. And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly… Behold my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations… And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your descendents after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant to be God to you and to your descendents after you. And I will give to you, and to your descendents after you, the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God… This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your descendents after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised.” (Genesis 17: 1-10).

The Circumcision by Peter Paul Rubens (1605)

We tend to focus on the tangibles: many descendents, a promised land, circumcision. But this reduces the covenant to a pretty tawdry deal: I give you children and Canaan in exchange for you being circumcised. Is this why the promise given Abraham continues to resonate centuries later?

We give much less attention to the intangibles: “By you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves;” “I will establish my covenant between me and you and your descendents after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant to be God to you and to your descendents after you;” and “I will be their God.” At the core of the covenant is a relationship that Abraham has not requested nor earned, God will be God to him and his descendents, and because of this relationship even those who are not descended from Abraham will be blessed.

The fundamental differentiator is the relationship between God and his chosen people. There are tangible symbols of this relationship: a special place and the sign of circumcision. But the symbols are not the substance. Without the underlying relationship, the symbols lack power.

I am a member of several affinity programs – Hertz Gold, Marriott Platinum, United Premier Executive – and many more. Each of these affinity programs seek to differentiate the company from its competitors. Each program uses tangible symbols – membership cards, elite status, special offers, and personalized mailings – to communicate the promise of differentiated value through an ongoing relationship.

The affinity programs are designed to build customer loyalty and repeat business. Creating a sense of relationship – a shared identity – between the brand and the customer is the ultimate success. Differentiated value is intangible. The relationship is intangible. Crafting the intangibles is the real purpose of the affinity programs.

Hertz Gold allows me to move from my plane seat into the driver’s seat of a rental car with almost no hassle or delay. Hertz does not communicate with me very much. I do not perceive that Hertz is trying to create a relationship with me. Rather, the company delivers a recognized value at a competitive price and with consistent quality. I feel no sense of relationship with Hertz. I am open to competitive offers, but I usually choose Hertz. This company has my business, but it is not differentiated. I appreciate the service and product, but there is no promise of something more.

United Airlines does a great job communicating with me and rewarding my business. Through most of the 1990s I had a real relationship with United. I would not consider using another airline unless United could not get me where I needed to go. But the hassles of air transportation and the inability to actually use my benefits have, over the years, substantially reduced my loyalty to United. The symbols continue to have some meaning, generally as a reflection of the old relationship and its promise. But as the substance fades, the symbols lose their attraction. United or – perhaps more accurately – the airline industry failed to fulfill the promise offered.

Marriott properties can sometimes be less well situated than I would like or lack services I need. The architecture of most Marriott’s is atrocious. But over the years, in dozens of small ways, Marriott has created an intangible but very strong sense of relationship. The combination of services – a special reservations line, assured reservations at any location, free breakfast, a welcome gift, surprise upgrades, the way I am treated by reservations and at check-in – create the impression that I am personally valued.

In the case of Marriott this impression is certainly an illusion. I am just one of several thousand people who are enrolled in a database of high volume customers being served by a well-planned and consistently executed system. But Marriott made a promise and with each stay it renews the promise. The competence and consistency of Marriott has caused me to respond with a sense of emotional relationship that is irrational, but is also very real.

A promise is the beginning of a relationship, not its culmination. Each time we make a promise – as individuals or an organization – we initiate the possibility of a relationship. Tangible symbols play a role in building the relationship. But the promise is fulfilled only when the intangible relationship – rather than tangible symbols – is perceived as having the greatest value.

Purpose

The book of Exodus is about the journey to a promised land. It was a much longer journey than anyone – including Moses – had anticipated. The place that had been promised was symbolic of a purpose to be fulfilled. Achieving the purpose was much more difficult than crossing a wilderness.

The purpose given to Moses was to reclaim the unique identity of the descendents of Abraham. When God called Abraham, he promised him many descendents in a new place, “so that you will be a blessing… and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12: 2-3) The land was one of several symbolic expressions of the relationship existing between God and the family of Abraham. But the symbols are not the substance.

The substance was to be a blessing to humanity. For the last forty years of his life Moses would be challenged, as an individual and a leader, to distinguish between symbol and substance. The symbolic achievement of success was within reach many times. But to claim the symbol prematurely would have threatened achievement of substance.

Moses encountered failure after failure. But he persisted in his purpose. In some cases, his persistent pursuit of purpose significantly delayed entry into the Promised Land.

Most of us are inclined to focus on getting to the Promised Land as quickly as possible, rather than achieving our fundamental purpose as fully as possible. Purpose can be elusive, and not just in something as profound as finding our life purpose. Even in the practical world of commerce, finding and keeping purpose is tough. Peter Drucker writes, “’What is our business?’ is almost always a difficult question and the right answer is usually anything but obvious… That business purpose and business mission are so rarely given adequate thought is perhaps the most important single cause of business frustration and business failure.” (Drucker, Peter; Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices)

Drucker continues that, “To satisfy the customer is the mission and purpose of every business… The customer never buys a product. By definition the customer buys the satisfaction of a want. He buys value.” The real purpose of business is not self-satisfaction but satisfying others beyond the organization. The organization’s purpose is fulfilled in serving others.

For forty years Moses struggled with his people regarding how they would define value. Would they choose the empty promises of the Golden Calf; the beguiling populism of Korah; the sensual pleasure of Moabite and Midianite women? Or would they choose the purpose that God had given Abraham, “To keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice.” (Genesis 18:19) Would they choose to serve themselves or serve God by serving humanity?

Moses was sure the right choice was the purpose given to Abraham. But Moses could not choose for his people. He could lead them, teach them, and encourage them. But finally the people had to find this purpose and give it their own meaning. They could only do this through the struggle of Exodus.

Purpose is not simply proclaimed; it is crafted, refined and confirmed in daily experience. Each of us – and every organization – must undertake an Exodus. Some will be longer than others. But in every case the struggle to find our purpose and live purposefully is our most productive work. How we choose to respond to the struggle and what we learn from the struggle is a path to our most fundamental self.

Failure

We find ourselves in failure. For forty years Moses led his people through a wilderness. It was the wilderness experience that created a true community.

Generations later the descendants of those who had suffered the wilderness were conquered. They had forgotten the unique character forged in those forty years and were banished to Babylon. For another forty years they suffered in exile, were renewed, and were able to reclaim their unique identity.

There is a tendency to understate our failures and to obscure bad decisions. Moses does not do this. The books of Genesis and Exodus are mostly one disaster after another. Fundamental to the concept of “chosen people” is that the honor is not earned by merit, but extended as an unearned gift and often abused.

Moses faces impatience, laziness, misunderstanding, betrayal, rebellion, and more. Each event is recorded in some detail for our reading – and edification – more than 3000 years later. This is not a glossy, happy Annual Report. The first two books of Moses are much more similar to a 10-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission written by the toughest lawyers and accountants while the firm is going through a Chapter 11 Reorganization. It can be painful to read.

Peter Senge argues that this pain is an emotional response to the gap between what is envisioned and what is real. He encourages staying with the pain and using it to close the gap. “Failure is, simply, a shortfall… Failure is an opportunity for learning – about inaccurate pictures of current reality, about strategies that didn’t work as expected, about the clarity of the vision. Failures are not about our unworthiness or powerlessness.” Recognizing failure and making the investment to understand its cause is a pathway to success.

Holocaust survivor and psychologist Victor Frankl writes, “A human being strives for success but, if need be, does not depend on his fate, which does or does not allow for success. A human being, by the very attitude he chooses, is capable of finding and fulfilling meaning in even a hopeless situation.”

Finding the meaning in failure was fundamental to the leadership of Moses. For him meaning goes far beyond immediate cause and effect, it is an explanation of fundamental identity. How we choose to respond to failure is how we find, perhaps how we create, who we are to be.

Two stories: More than a decade ago my consulting firm was retained by a software company attempting to shift their market-leading products from hard-drives to the web. We were well-paid to utilize and evaluate their new web-based offering. The client product was poorly conceived and executed for the web. This was so early in the market’s transition to the web that the client could have re-conceived their approach and had a very good chance at maintaining their strong customer base. Instead they rejected our evaluation, insisted on retailing their product, were rejected by customers, lost tons of money, and the company no longer exists.

In April 2000 I was an outside director on the Board of a dot.com start-up. The product was not where we had planned it would be, we needed additional funding to get it to market. Our venture capital partners were considering a new round. We also had a merger offer.

For the founders and major investors every element of pride and hope pushed for continued independence. The outside directors and one VC director were not so sure. For reasons mostly related to internal realities, we pushed for serious consideration of the merger. One of the co-founders ultimately joined in pushing for the merger. He said, “We can’t let our dreams obscure our realities.” The company was sold. Everyone involved recovered their original investments and did a little better. We did not know it, but we were in the last days of the dot.com bubble. If we had waited another 90 days it is likely the entire enterprise would have crashed and burned.

In both cases there was failure – a gap between future vision and current reality. At the first company maintaining the illusion of success was more important than recognizing an actual failure. In my judgment this sort of behavior consistently characterized that company and its principal leaders. There was no true self at this enterprise, largely because there was not much interest in the truth.

In the second organization the co-founder’s readiness to accept reality was fundamental to a happy outcome. He was able to find fulfillment despite failure. The co-founder knew that his task was not to justify himself, but to understand reality and take actions consistent with that reality; and in the process to find himself, refine himself, and, perhaps in the words of Victor Frankl, even transcend himself.

Origins

“In the beginning…” are the first words of the Books of Moses, what is also called the Torah. How did we get here? What did we do – wrong and right – to be here and not somewhere else? What is our beginning? Moses knows he must answer these questions.

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.

Story

Moses tells a great story. Adam and Eve, the Serpent, Cain and Abel, the Great Flood, the Tower of Babel... These are still familiar narratives. He presents vivid characters engaged in conflicts that are resolved in a purposeful and meaningful way. The stories are memorable because they are meaningful.

They are meaningful because they provide individuals and the community a context for what is happening today. Susan Engel, a psychologist at Williams College writes, “We draw upon memories as a source for the present. We dig out, amplify, and create autobiographical material as a way to know and communicate who we are now.” (Engels, Sarah; Context is Everything)

Moses organized the memories of his people. Through stories he gave them a rich sense of where they came from and where they are going. Moses told stories that explained pain and suffering, encouraged self-criticism and self-correction, and described a path to better possibilities.

Many psychologists understand the human brain as a kind of story-engine. We are predisposed to look at events to find causes and connections. We want to know why something happened. If the cause is unclear, we will often create an explanation to ensure some sort of resolution. The stories of Moses explain cause and effect and do so in a way that reinforces individual strength and social unity.

In an interview with the Harvard Business Review, Robert McKee argues, “Businesspeople not only have to understand their companies’ past, but then they must project the future. And how do you imagine the future? As a story. You create scenarios in your head of possible future events to try to anticipate the life of your company or your personal life.”(HBR, Storytelling that Moves People, June 2003)

But most business people are bad storytellers. Instead of stories they use spreadsheets, PowerPoints, and many facts – but little passion and less meaning. They may do a very good job of explaining what is happening, but they do not explain why and why it matters – or what it means – to employees, investors, or customers.

Moses understood the power of stories.

"I am the Lord who brought you from Ur of the Chadeans to give you this land to possess. But Abram said, ‘O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?’… As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram, and lo, a dread and great darkness fell upon him. Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know of a surety that your descendents will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs, and will be slaves there, and they will be oppressed for four hundred years; but I will bring judgment on the nation which they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions … When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold a smoking fire pot and flaming torch passed between (the food offerings that Abram had sacrificed to God). On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendents I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates. (Genesis 16, 7-18)

What do you worry about most? There is an answer. It is an answer that includes suffering and sacrifice, but there is the chance of fulfillment.

For many - three millennia later - this story of Moses continues to define their understanding of past, present, and future.

Moses: Prophet of Differentiation

The job offer was unexpected. The challenge was attractive. Success would be very satisfying. The long-term compensation package was fabulous. He had credible guarantees for the kind of external support the challenge required.

But the problems were profound. The enterprise had lost its differentiated value and comparative advantage. Clients had become accustomed to making abusive demands. The enterprise had no real sense of purpose or direction. Years ago it had lost its identity and unique position.

Moses was well-past the prime of his life. He was not an effective public speaker. He had no track-record of success. He felt like an outsider and behaved mostly as a loner. But God asked Moses to lead his people and Moses, after some negotiation, agreed.

While it took a long time and he nearly failed on several occasions, Moses succeeded in transforming the descendants of Jacob from vanquished to victorious.

In modern business terms, Moses was a turn-around specialist. When he assumed leadership, the old family firm of Jacob & Sons was in trouble. Once a respected source of strategic consultants and senior officers, the organization had come to be taken for-granted and was commonly abused by their Egyptian client. Moses applied a consistent strategy of differentiation to transform the enterprise into a powerfully resilient and persistently renewing community.

Moses was a prophet of differentiation. Fundamental to his leadership was how his people could preserve themselves through differentiation. The struggles of the Exodus reflect an ongoing struggle of individuals – and a community – to find themselves, define themselves, and keep faith with their core identity.

The principles and techniques that Moses used to differentiate his people are still effective for both organizations and individuals and, if anything, even more valuable. Both organizations and individuals ask, what is my purpose? What is my unique contribution? What are my gifts? What is my authentic and essential identity?

According to Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School, differentiation is one of the principal strategies for comparative advantage. “In a differentiation strategy, a firm seeks to be unique in its industry along some dimensions that are widely valued by buyers. It selects one or more attributes that many buyers in an industry perceive as important, and uniquely positions itself to meet those needs.”(Porter, Michael; Competitive Advantage, page 14)

The psychologist Rollo May has called differentiation “the life pilgrimage of the human being.” He writes, “All through life a person is engaged in this continuum of differentiation of himself from the whole, followed by steps toward new integration.”(May, Rollo; Man’s Search for Himself )

Moses recognized the fundamental desire that each of us have to be differentiated: to be recognized as unique individuals. He organized and focused that inclination. He was also effective in connecting our self-identity to our relationships with others in an extended community. As set out by Moses, participation in community serves to enhance the individual’s sense of differentiation.

More than 3500 years ago Moses implemented a framework in which individuals could flourish as part of a thriving community. How did he do this? We will consider the answers in the weeks ahead.

(NOTE: A reader has asked if he can share a link to this blog with others. Please do. With today's new focus on Moses and the self, this would be a good time for new readers and commentators to begin.)