Page 32 - How Great Leaders Build Abundant Organizations That Win

THE CASE FOR MEANING

an agenda of self-protection, deficit thinking itself becomes
the burglar. Deficit thinking can lock us into a prison of our
own making, a prison dominated by fear, isolation, disori-
entation, and competition for scarce resources. Even if we
get back what we lost—even if the economy improves, the
takeover is averted, or we end up with a better job than
before—our deficit thinking can continue to cast a discom-
fiting spell over our lives.
The world of deficit thinking pervades both personal and
organizational life. The thieves and robbers of crisis under-
mine the ability of leaders to foster abundance. Of course,
economic hardships, political uncertainties, family disrup-
tions, illness, death, and even horrific suffering are hardly
new kids on humanity’s block. Grim realities have always
inhabited our collective neighborhoods. It is still quite
another matter when they move into our basement, our
spare room, even our master suite. Once we realize the pre-
cariousness of the things we have come to depend on for
security, security cannot be restored fully until our depen-
dencies change. This is where great leaders come in.
At about age three, children in every culture begin bad-
gering their parents with the question “Why?” The search
for meaning begins early, but youthful philosophies that
comfortably accommodated the distant existence of Trouble
may require reevaluation when Trouble becomes our bed
partner. Trouble may be as simple as a changed corporate
policy or as complicated as a bankruptcy, as removed as an
unhappy customer 3,000 miles away or as personal as losing
a child. Leaders must refine and redefine their own answers
to “Why?” and must help others do so as well. They must
tackle not only the meaning of suffering but also the mean-
ing of prosperity, opportunity, or just another day knocking

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