As I bounced around in my seat at the Hayden Planetarium next to my Dad and sis, the museum’s overzealous astrophysics grad student from Columbia University lectured that day under the dome to a room of delighted kids and parents, divulging to us secrets of the universe.

From my coveted seat beneath the darkened dome, I stared upward in awe. The bright and diverse planets, swirling stars and esoteric constellations tweaked my psyche with a bold and comforting message that day.

In the beginning, there was a Big Bang 13.8 million years ago from which everything was created. The static sound on your TV is the continuation of that first Bang. The Bang’s primordial soup, given the proper conditions evolved into us, and everything else. Despite all the superficial differences humans inflict upon ourselves, every single one of us is comprised of the same stardust substance. We each sparkle when given the opportunity.

This got my five-year-old mind reeling…

If every human being was constructed from the same eleven chemical elements then we all must be related; we must all be part of one family?

My young planetarium-infused mind gleaned connectedness to all living creatures as something that was possible. From that moment of innocent, unified realization to this day, I gaze at the sky with affection and wonderment. And, as you have probably experienced yourself, not all people subscribe to my conclusion which has fueled a lifelong quest to guide others to understand, acknowledge and optimize our interconnectedness. I suspect it holds the key to our shared accomplishments, joy and salvation as a terrific, yet misguided species. That is why, as a leader, understanding this linkage is essential.

So, how does this translate and impact your Leadership Genius?

How do I, as a leader in life, optimize the secret power of interconnectedness?

How do leaders optimize the fact that we are all connected? Or, as I witnessed over the past few decades in my corporate transformation work, how is being interconnected a highly profitable business playbook?

First you must recognize our interconnectedness by exploring the mysteries out there. Allow me to offer some examples of how magical and elusive our interconnectivity is.

In his quest for a unified field theory, Albert Einstein spoke of spooky actions at a distance or quantum entanglement. This theory states that particles have an impact on one another even from a distance. Once a particle moves past another and is remote, it continues to have an influence on that particle. David Bohm, the father of quantum physics sought to connect scientific knowledge with spiritual principles to explain our place in the universe. Bohm was bold enough to refer to an underlying order governing this universe in his seminal book Wholeness and the Implicate Order, published in 1980. It is there he proposed that underlying physical appearances, the “explicate order,” there is a deeper, hidden “implicate order.” 

When the World Trade Center was attacked on September 11, 2001 the random number generators surrounding the globe all clicked into presenting the same numbers. The Princeton University Global Consciousness Project, whose goal since 1990 has been to determine whether human consciousness—that is, our minds’ awareness of the world in which we exist—can synchronize and act coherently. Those findings, have aroused some controversy in the scientific world.

This is what was discovered. The 100 random number generators set up by GCP around the world randomly generate a number expressed by 1s and 0s every second. Ordinarily the number of 1s and 0s in a number are the same. After the occurrence of a deeply emotional global event that focused millions of human minds on it, the number of 1s and 0s were no longer the same. This occurred after the death of Princess Diana and the attack on the World Trade Center on 9/11. The conclusion reached by the Princeton GCP was that when human consciousness becomes coherent and focused, the behavior of random systems change.

The Princeton GCP website explains it this way, “Random number generators (RNGs) based on quantum tunnelling produce completely unpredictable sequences of zeroes and ones. But when a great event synchronizes the feelings of millions of people, our network of RNGs becomes subtly structured.”  The odds that such a rogue behavior by random number generators is due to chance, according to Nelson, is one in a trillion.

“I think the data are pretty much indisputably in support of that we do: we interconnect, we interact, we’re not isolated,” the project’s director, Roger Nelson, explains in this video on the organization’s website. “My consciousness, inside my skull, and yours, extend out into the world, and they intermix. We’re a little like neurons, in a giant brain, that we know nothing about. The message is: collective consciousness impinges on physical reality”.

Perhaps this is another example of how the mirror neurons in our brains operating collectively, as explained in Kindling the Flame: the art and science of cognitive replenishment (Sherman, 2017). We are interconnected as humans in an invisible and powerful way.

The Japanese businessman and humanist, Dr. Masaru Emoto, using high speed photography in 2005 posited in Hidden Messages in the Water that the molecular crystalline structure of frozen water crystals was impacted by specific, concentrated thoughts directed towards them. The water from clear springs exposed to positive, loving words displayed “balanced, brilliant, complex, and colorful snowflake patterns.” While in contrast, “samples of polluted water, or water exposed to negative thoughts, formed incomplete, asymmetrical patterns with dull colors.” The implications of this research promote a new awareness of how our thoughts and words can positively or negatively impact the earth and our personal health.

Then as a final example of interconnectivity, let us look at the works of Dr. David Hawkins who calibrated levels of human consciousness in Power versus Force (Hawkins, 1995). A most revelatory finding embedded in Dr. Hawkins’ work is the ability for more elevated levels of consciousness motivated by love, mercy, compassion, win/win etc. to uplift the rest of humankind. He refers to it as a counterbalance and writes that, “In this interconnected universe, every improvement we make in our private world improves the world at large for everyone. We all float on the collective level of consciousness of mankind, so that any increment we add comes back to us. We all add to our common buoyancy by our efforts to benefit life. It is a scientific fact that what is good for you is good for me.”

Our class on Accomplishing Goals with Ease is a great primer on this particular topic.

If our emotions and thoughts and presence impact the physical world around us, and as leaders, we ignore this reality, how much does this form of ignorance cost us?

As an article in Forbes cautions us, a great deal in time, resources and energy. Synergy, the amplification of outcomes, does not occur in a vacuum. The members of your brain trust require guidance and encouragement to consistently apply their best options to achievement of your agenda and the last 5% of the profit margin.

Once you recognize that human interconnectedness exists, invisibly affecting all human systems and their outcomes, you begin to recognize the awesome power and responsibility of leading. It is Leadership Genius to honor the dignity of every member of your professional world. The once unimpressive arrogant ranting at the team to garner results no longer plays and is highly ineffective. It is only after you commit to forging a respectful, cogent, inclusive example and strategy that employs the wisdom of interconnectedness, that a leader can serve the diverse human stakeholders with whom you succeed or fail. From thestance of our mutual destiny, you are poised to harness the genius of your teams.

Where can you begin? Try on one of these for a week at a time. Rotate and expand list.
 

·      Develop your competency as a Socially Intelligent Leader which affords you the capacity to direct, manage and optimize human systems judiciously and empathetically for the benefit of all stakeholders. Be ready to integrate this new form of personal empowerment into every aspect of your game plan.

·      Create an environment of psychological safety for your team. Be whole and authentic as you employ interconnectedness wisdom to benefit diverse human stakeholders under your command and care.  When people feel it is safe to engage, they will take educated risks on your behalf. Partial solutions, difficult decisions and mistakes in the act of creating solutions are part of business life. Learn to admit yours and thank others for promptly bringing theirs to the attention of those who can help them fix or further the project. Colonel Chris Hadfield, Commander of the International Space Station (2006-2008) aptly points out how “Groupthink is a good thing when it comes to risks…Anticipating problems and figuring out how to solve them is actually the opposite of worrying, it’s productive.” (Hadfield, 2013, An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth).

·      Be a role model of a whole person, who is still learning and growing in kind and confident ways. The greatest feat of servant leadership is to be respected for walking your talk. Your actions are what every colleague measures you by. Alignment in your ideas, tactics and negotiations tell the team more about your truth than any stated mission. With this approach you exude integrity, confidence and boost a shared commitment to succeed. 

·      In all human systems there is a need for Kindhearted power. It is also referred to as the milk of human kindness. Master that as the essential aspect of interconnectedness and you will be sustained. It is through intentional connectivity we give and receive all things worth having, creating and sustaining in life.

As I said earlier it all started with stardust.

Let me close our time together with this amazing truth.

You and I breathe the same argon molecules as our ancient ancestors did thousands of years ago. This inert gas does not interact in the environment and so we breathe and exhale the same molecules transiting the planet as cave folk, Jesus, Buddha, Attila the Hun, Edison and Jules Verne. Mata Hari, Harriet Tubman and Mother Theresa as well. Breathing the air around us connects us in more ways than we ever realized possible as we have learned while contending with the Covid virus.

Interconnectivity is a force of nature and a mystery. Radio waves are invisible, but we all benefit and learn to accept them as a reliable resource. Accept the mystery, appreciate the science and learn how to optimize the benefit for the greatest good of all stakeholders, today. As we become more refined in our awareness and our options as a species it is up to leadership to leverage human interconnectivity as one of your best allies in the ongoing quest for profits, success and a stellar reputation.  

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