Who Shall Lead?

"His modern-day heirs might have the right formula. But they need an articulate leader who can explain social entrepreneurship to Canadians and give them a stake in its success."

  - Carol Goar, The Toronto Star

There it is again - we need a leader. 

I have heard this from academia, from the world of finance, from Not-For-Profits, from the public services, from teachers, students, parents, seniors, from government, from all walks of life across every cultural and social divide imaginable.  The world is changing, the models we have relied on for so long are simply not up to tomorrow's challenges - and nobody quite knows what comes next.

Everyone is waiting for someone to bring forth one answer that is so clear, so irrefutable, that we'll all have no option but to follow the singular path laid down before us.  Alas, the only thing that seems irrefutable is the KISS principle: even when we have seen that message brought forward as part of a broader context, we miss it, focusing on the trees rather than the forest. 

Of course we're talking societal development, economics and poverty, here - not religion.  Yet there's a common theme, isn't there?  It's not for us to take responsibility, think impossibly broadly, make the tough choices, risk being wrong and then owning our mistakes; that's someone else's job, right?

It all keeps bringing me back to this quote from LOST:

"It's been six days and we're all still waiting. Waiting for someone to come. But what if they don't? We have to stop waiting. We need to start figuring things out.

"We need to figure out how we're going to survive here. Now, I found water. Fresh water, up in the valley. I'll take a group in at first light. If you don't want to go come then find another way to contribute. Last week most of us were strangers, but we're all here now. And god knows how long we're going to be here. But if we can't live together, we're going to die alone."

Whoever you feel we are waiting for, consider this - leaders don't come down from on high, they emerge from within.  Same is as true in business, politics, social revolutions and industrial revolutions as it is in every major world religion being practiced today.

"The Master doesn't talk, he acts.
When his work is done,
the people say, "Amazing:
we did it, all by ourselves!”

If you're religious, call it God manifesting through His/Her/Its own creation.  If you're not, consider it social evolution.  Either way, the leadership we seek is already here; all that remains is for us to become conscious of that fact.