ORANS is an all volunteer organizaiton founded in 2015 and it exists to promote relational leadership. Relational leadership is leadership guided by a relentless pursuit of quality interaction with others, even bitter enemies, and also leadership that insists on action to create lasting change, not momentary improvement, but lasting change built on an unshakable foundation. It is leadership applied on a micro and macro level – in every small personal interaction in the course of a day and in every major decision affecting the interaction between entities and groups of all types and sizes, from small mom-and-pop businesses to the most powerful nation states.
Relational leadership seeks to address a fundamental problem. The problem is what might be called a transactional approach to interaction – placing little value on the other person and their well-being. A transactional approach views interactions with others as transactions where the goal is to get the maximum value for oneself. A transactional approach, while effective short term, fails to create lasting and sustainable agreements and outcomes. A transactional approach on a group level becomes tribalism that demonizes the opposition, does not tolerate dissenting voices, and uses power over others to gain more power and influence for the benefit of in-group members. Tribalism divides and destroys societies. Relational leadership unifies and builds stronger societies.
The challenge for leaders, the ones with power and influence, and the hope for cultural evolution, is to change the paradigm of interaction – how we use our power, how we negotiate, how we relate – shifting from being transactional to being relational– from focusing on self and maximizing gain, to focusing on both self and other and maximizing well-being. There is a special calling for those with wealth and power to be relational with others. That is the reason for our support of the Billionaire Program.
We invite you to #JoinORANS and to find solutions to problems through collaboration and active nonviolence. Together, if we embrace relational leadership as a standard that we demand from those with wealth and power, we can create lasting positive change in our world, one interaction at a time. When there is a problem or conflict, it only takes one person to change the interaction and that person can be you. Be a relational leader, make more relational leaders, demand relational leadership from those in power, and you can stop the escalation of tribalism in America and the world.
Relational leadership seeks to address a fundamental problem. The problem is what might be called a transactional approach to interaction – placing little value on the other person and their well-being. A transactional approach views interactions with others as transactions where the goal is to get the maximum value for oneself. A transactional approach, while effective short term, fails to create lasting and sustainable agreements and outcomes. A transactional approach on a group level becomes tribalism that demonizes the opposition, does not tolerate dissenting voices, and uses power over others to gain more power and influence for the benefit of in-group members. Tribalism divides and destroys societies. Relational leadership unifies and builds stronger societies.
The challenge for leaders, the ones with power and influence, and the hope for cultural evolution, is to change the paradigm of interaction – how we use our power, how we negotiate, how we relate – shifting from being transactional to being relational– from focusing on self and maximizing gain, to focusing on both self and other and maximizing well-being. There is a special calling for those with wealth and power to be relational with others. That is the reason for our support of the Billionaire Program.
We invite you to #JoinORANS and to find solutions to problems through collaboration and active nonviolence. Together, if we embrace relational leadership as a standard that we demand from those with wealth and power, we can create lasting positive change in our world, one interaction at a time. When there is a problem or conflict, it only takes one person to change the interaction and that person can be you. Be a relational leader, make more relational leaders, demand relational leadership from those in power, and you can stop the escalation of tribalism in America and the world.