Last week I had the opportunity to spend quality time with some amazing people and networks whose passion and reason for being inspires my soul. I’ve also been chewing on ideas with colleagues on the health of organizations, movements, and networks.

To listen to the heart takes intentionality, especially in seeking truth. It also requires the courage to ask questions, hard ones that tend to expose personal and collective biases.

As I think on these things, I am reminded not to be too quick to jump to conclusions or be judgmental, but rather to take a step inward and reflect on the ontological bases for epistemological pathways (the basis of reality governing why we choose to do things a certain way) as it might apply to organizations, networks, the health a movement, and the heartbeat of our cities.

Here are some initial thoughts for meditation.

From a bodily health standpoint we look to inconsistencies in heart beats to indicate something’s off. Likewise, when it comes to the heart of humanity—humanity’s moral, intellectual, and emotional engagement with the world and everything—ignoring arrhythmic variations could be fatal. 

Listen to the heart, because therein is the window to the soul. It is through the heart that we observe and encounter the living of being, the becoming of self, the moulding of personhood, the dance of desire, the motivation of appetite, the mooring of emotion, and the predisposition of passion. 

Question to ponder:

In what ways might a simple gap analysis or more detailed forcefield and route analysis serve as an invitation to our teams to go beyond the tip of the iceberg in order to inspect the frozen mass below?

A key part of listening to the heart might involve a shift in metaphors, from studying an iceberg to being caught up in the wonder of an enchanted forest to praying over the lights (and lives) in our cities.