Marc Le Menestrel

Immersed in Balinese Spirits: INSEAD Social Entrepreneurship Conference 2012

Marc Le Menestrel — 2012-05-26T12:56:00Z

For the 2012 ISEP conference, Hans Wahl and Felipe Santos, from the Social Entrepreneurship Center at INSEAD, had the wonderful idea to locate the events in Indonesia.

We met social entrepreneurs in conferences and workshops, discovering a new generation of women and men who are setting up companies and organizations at the service of others, of Nature or towards some special cause. They are envisioning money as a means and not as an end and dream to re-invent business. I was invited to talk about values, ethics and transparency, bringing my expertise of the "dark side" of business to these already enlightened entrepreneurs. I structured my brief talk around three key messages, each one around the words proposed to me:

Values: "There is an infinite diversity of values. Each one has some specific value which is not fully measured by money taken as a common value".

Ethics: "We are not as ethical as we like to think, and even if we are a social entrepreneur aiming at some noble cause, we should spend some effort to have a critical look at our unethical side".

Transparency: "Transparency is a wonderful criterion between theory and practice to assess ethicality. Beyond being transparent about our ethics, being transparent about one's vulnerabilities allows us to create trust and receive help".

In Bali, I had a special dreaming workshop for ISEP alumni, where I invited the 16 participants to board a boat by bringing their chairs inside the U formed by our tables. We made 8 rows of two, side by side, towards east. I spotted a wooden dustbin and took it as a drum. I began to give rhythm to our journey.

Towards the Island of your Dreams with the Balinese Spirits

We left the island and paddled hard to cross the waves to pass the reef. We called for fishes, dolphins and seagulls to show us the way towards the island of our dreams. We experienced the void of an entirely flat horizon. We found our island unexpectedly, once we were sure to be lost, and nearly capped just before reaching the shore.

From this low place, I invited them to leave everything they knew behind and, with empty hands, start exploring their dreams. I was to stay by the boat, playing the drum to maintain the connection with their intention. They could meet the people of their dreams, if any, and observe whatever they could sense. They were watching their spirits busy at work, or not, witnessing animals or other forms of wildlife. They were looking for a treasure to bring back as a help to face the challenges they identified in a previous session. Some were exploring a forest or a mountain, others a town or a village, while some were just partying with friends and having their good time. Most of their discoveries remain mysteries to me, as I was alone with my boat. An old man did come to me and, placing his hands on my feet, he told me to nurture humility as a treasure.

Many came back to the boat at my call their smile so big it would rip their face apart. Others looked neutral or absorbed. It was anyway time to board and paddle hard to quit the island. It is indeed back on the boat that some received their appropriate message. One was told there was no other treasure than life and nothing to look for except existence. Others were cherishing their piece of nature, an animal, a thought or a feeling, on their way back home.

While opening our eyes in the room, we slowly moved towards a big board where we could share some of the words we had received from our very important persons. One realized he was the important person to be cared of. Another told us about the ugly island she discovered, to finally go around her nightmares and discover her dreams hidden behind. Many humbly shared the beauty of their dreams, the overwhelming energy they have inside and this uncontrollable connection with the source of our love. For a few, it was also an opportunity to have the courage to be gentle to themselves, and to realize that it may be time to do what we have always known to be good to us. I personally liked when an Indonesian brought back the forgiveness of her mother, by thus forgiving us all, in acceptation of all the vulnerabilities that make our richness.

I believe we were all ready to make our dreams come true in this world, wherever it lies.

About spirituality and social entrepreneurship, read the article "The Next Revolution is Spiritual" from Ben Bowler, one of the participants, in the Huffington Post.

What are Chinese MBA students dreaming about?

Marc Le Menestrel — 2011-10-24T13:07:00Z

While teaching a class on business ethics at Jiao Tong University in Shanghai in October 2011, students asked for a teaching about meditation techniques. Often, issues of ethics in business connect us with questions that can be overwhelming and for which mental control is of little help. It is thus important to learn how to keep a protected sense of self, a harmonious connection with our emotions, and a firm grounding of our body. I proposed them a dreaming session modeled upon the Dreaming & Visioning sessions that I give at INSEAD for executives and that include specific and directed meditation exercises.

In a first duo conversation exercise, students learned the practice of active listening while the other is unfolding at will his or her self-awareness of dreams, successes, failures, ascending influences and cultural constraints. There is always a moment of truth when confronted with “tiny but frightening requests” as David Whyte writes in his beautiful poem Sometimes. I could watch the flow of these intimate conversations, realizing how much Chinese could openly speak about themselves, with this gentle and playful attention that I had already observed among Chinese climbers. As they were speaking in their own language, I could stop by and listen without any risk of intruding, observing facial expressions which are so different than the occidental ones I am more used to.

After sharing our learning, which included both the pleasure of the art of conversation and the silent power of listening, we joined a sacred and secret place in ourselves where we could feel safe and comfortable. We dreamed and met ourselves in 15 years. Although I do guide these visualization exercises, mixing my early training in sophrology techniques when I was a professional athlete with psycho-spiritual techniques coming from Milton Erickson or Michael Harner that I have learned later on, I have no access to what participants have been dreaming about and this is exactly what I want. My ethics in these moments is to make sure each one has his or her own intimacy fully respected and shared only when appropriate.

However, we do have an opportunity to share some aspects of our dreams, in particular our encounters with Very Important Persons, those who accompany us in our life as loved ones, mentors, inspirational figures or spiritual guides. We share what these persons would told us if we manage to live our life at our full potential and anchor these experiences in a form of theatre that is inspired by the work of Sue Jennings on "Theatre, Ritual and Transformation" with the Malaysian Senoi Temiar, a tribe that I spent time with and had the priviledge to share some of their dreaming decision-making techniques.

This does not prevent us to have fun as much as being deeply moved, as I have gladly discovered that we do not need to take ourselves too seriously in these experiences. There can also be lightness proper to the atmosphere that I am trying to create around us, with trust in the group, trust in oneself and trust in the facilitator. I particularly love when we laugh at ourselves which hopefully happens often, as a proof that we are close to what makes us truly human.

Finally, we ended with a fresco of our most important values on the whiteboard, as a way to share the words that could guide us towards the life of our dreams.

I keep a vivid memory of that unique afternoon, and of the gift I receive afterwards: a diner at the Sichuan opera, discovering this stupefying magical mask changing art, Bian Lian, as an invitation to the discovery of the multiple selves that populate our own.

Teaching Ethics to Chinese Executives

Marc Le Menestrel — 2010-11-29T10:58:44Z

In September 2010, I was invited by Renmin University to teach 2 days in their new CMPM program, a 5-module training experience inspired by Mintzberg's IMPM but dedicated to Chinese senior executives.

I had a few surprises during my intervention, but I was specially impressed by the proportion of female executives (close to 50%), their assertive character, the deepness of their reflections and their high-status profile. Could China be at the forefront of gender equality in business?

Click here to watch a video for CMPM participants.