This past weekend I had the good (or ill) fortune to attend the memorial service for the father of one of my closest friends. As with the best celebrations and ceremonies, getting to participate in this moment was an honor and an inspiration. The person who we were remembering was likened to Nelson Mandela, Pete Seeger, and Sid Caesar, all of whom have recently shuffled off this mortal coil, leaving millions behind with appreciations for the joyful, significant, positive impact they had while here.

Just before the memorial, I’d made a stop at my favorite hometown destination, Zingerman’s, and had a chance to speak with one of the founders, Ari Weinzweig. Ari has written a series of books on organizational leadership, and just last summer when we were at the Zingerman’s Roadhouse I was struck to recognize him circling the tables, refilling patrons’ water glasses. That image— of the “big boss” serving at the entry level— seemed significant to me. I wasn’t surprised, then, to find that in leafing through the leadership series, one of the chapters is on “Managing by Pouring Water.”

The lurking, just-past-the-horizon feeling of synchronicity prickled as I read through the first pages of this “Lapsed Anarchist’s Approach to Being a Better Leader.” So many of the elements he highlights as signature of liberated leadership are like Mandela, like Seeger, like Caesar— unflagging positivity, the importance of cultivating a non-hierarchical relational space, and HUMOR!

I decided that I want to pay closer attention to this read, to be present with his perspective. I’ve been seeking a vision of leadership in which I feel at home— and moving cheese doesn’t do it for me. Maybe some of it is having grown up in Ann Arbor in the 70's and 80's; I wanted to make things better, to wear tie-dye, to question authority, to be intellectually playful, to bring joy.