Recently my colleague Barbara Nussbaum, who lives in Franschhoek, South Africa, coauthored a book on uBuntu, an African based spiritual philosophy of life which recognizes that we are not independent beings so much as the co-creations of our relationships, especially those in which there is love and caring.
She asked my thoughts on strategies for marketing the new book:
"How do you create opportunities for visibility? What strategies work for you?
With thanks, always.
And this is what I wrote her:
"————— To create visibility, I walk around aimlessly and staple pictures of myself on vacant lots.
Recently, I've been reconsidering the strategy.
— In some cases, I've given out copies of our book as door prizes for non profit organizations or provided them to radio shows like New Dimensions Radio as part of membership drives. We've given books to selected people like yourself who we believe will "find" the right people.
Personally, I've done numerous radio shows and given talks at churches, universities, non profits and other gatherings.
More personally, I carry a few books with me to events and when I meet someone I think would feel gifted by it, I make a personal gift of it. Visibility is not about the naked marketing of a product or service but a way of joining with others, creating community, making visible common values and aspirations. It's showing up in the full sense and hopefully without the baggage of feeling self conscious about it.
———– But walking around aimlessly, for me, is still the most natural."
And Barbara wrote back:
"Thanks for making me laugh out loud! And for your wisdom,!
I walked around aimlessly in the local pub and ran into Ugly Betty’s boss, Daniel Meade, played by actor Eric Mabius who is here in Franschhoek, doing a movie shoot."
The magazine Leadership Excellence dedicated its recent issue to wisdom and wise judgment. Review the entire magazine, including my article, Collective Wisdom: Where has all the wisdom gone in organizations?
From my article:
Peter Senge writes in the foreword of our book, The Power of Collective Wisdom: “Few words have a longer historical association with leadership than wisdom and few words have less credibility in that association today.”
What has happened to account for such a discrepancy? And, what does the concept of wisdom offer today in a networked world driven by speed, time pressure, and fierce competition? Download my article (pdf)
I did an interview with colleagues from the Life Science Foundation and the Center for Spirituality and Healing. They put on an amazing conference this year whose theme is “Whole System Healing.”
This is a short video of Lauren Artress talking about the importance of collective wisdom. Lauren is the founder and creative director of Veriditas, a non profit organization dedicated to introducing people to the healing, meditative powers of the labyrinth.
On the grounds where Lewis Carroll once spoke aloud and then wrote Alice's Adventure in Wonderland, I had the honor of joining thought leaders from around the world in a dialogue addressing the "The Call of Our Times." Co-hosted by the Brahma Kumaris and Peter Senge, I am almost without words (almost) but not without treasured images from my time there. Please join me in a meditation of sound and images taken on the grounds of Nuneham Park, near Oxford, England, and the Brahma Kumaris Global Retreat Center.
"————— To create visibility, I walk around aimlessly and staple pictures of myself on vacant lots.
