Adaptability has been an essential ingredient for surviving and thriving for every species of life, from life's beginning on earth.
This has surely been true for human systems trying to meet difficult challenges and flourish in the face of uncertainty and change, for whatever forms that system takes: global networks, a nation, a tribe, a town, a company, a family, or a person.
So if your community, at whatever scale you define it, needs to focus on enhancing one skill set, one capacity, one competency to help ensure going forward successfully, choose adaptability.
Preface to Leadership on the Line, Heifetz & Linsky
§ Rabbi Yoḥanan said: Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel and the Rabbis disagreed with regard to this matter. One said: Sinai, i.e., one who is extremely knowledgeable, is preferable; and one said: One who oker harim (uproots mountains), i.e., one who is extremely incisive, is preferable.
Guiding Questions
- Sketch out fuller pictures of those who are "Sinais" and those who are "mountain uproots." What are the characteristics of these types of people?
- Can you think of modern examples of someone like Rav Yosef who is a Sinai?
Can you think of someone like Rabba who is a Oker Harim (mountain uprooter)?
The Gemara relates that this is not merely a theoretical dispute; rather, at one point it had practical ramifications. Rav Yosef was Sinai; Rabba was one who oker harim (uproots mountains) They sent a message from Babylonia to there, Eretz Yisrael: Which takes precedence? They sent in response: Sinai is preferable, as the Master said: Everyone requires the owner of the wheat, i.e., one who is expert in the sources. And even so, Rav Yosef did not accept upon himself the appointment of head of the yeshiva. Rabba reigned for twenty-two years, and then Rav Yosef reigned. The Gemara relates that in all those years that Rabba presided, Rav Yosef did not even call a bloodletter to his home. Rav Yosef did not assume even the slightest air of authority, in deference to Rabba, and would go to seek out the bloodletter rather than expecting that the bloodletter would accommodate him.
Guiding Questions
- Do you agree that Sinai is preferable?
- What do we learn from Rav Yosef in regards to leadership and adaptability in this vignette?
Guiding Questions
- Do you agree with this standard for leadership?
- What can we learn from the Talmud leaving this conversation unresolved?
You appear dangerous to people when you question their values, beliefs, or habits of a lifetime. You place yourself on the line when you tell people what they need to hear rather than what they want to hear. Although you may see with clarity and passion a promising future of progress and gain, people will see with equal passion the losses you are asking them to sustain.
Leadership on the Line, Heifetz & Linsky, p. 12