Ecosystem leadership Principle 4: Surrender

7 min readAug 4, 2023

Two Forms of Surrender (image credits at the end)

This article is part of the series on Ecosystem Leadership principles. The fourth one on Surrender comes after the first three on Intention, Sensing and Naming.

What is the dictionary meaning of the word surrender?

The Merriam Webster Dictionary says: Surrendered; Surrendering sə-ˈren-d(ə-)riŋ

To yield to the power, control, or possession of another upon compulsion or demand.
To give up completely or agree to forgo especially in favour of another
To give (oneself) up into the power of another especially as a prisoner
To give (oneself) over to something (such as an influence)

What memories, images, feelings, and bodily sensations does the word surrender evoke in me?

The memories and images that are evoked when I hear the word surrender are related to wars in mythology and in history. The surrendered are humiliated, imprisoned, exiled, or killed. This is true in the two Indian epics Ramayana and Mahabharata. This is also true during every invasion or a war — be it by the Greeks, the Cholas, the Mauryas, the Mughals, or the British. I sense the loss of my identity, my dignity, my freedom, and my grounding as outcomes of surrendering.

Therefore, I associate surrender with the feelings of shame, cowardice, fear, resentment, anger, and hatred. My body also reacts swiftly to rise and protect oneself — my hands immediately clench into fists, my feet are pushed more firmly into the ground, to ensure I do not fall, my chest goes up and I am ready to fight.

The other context in which I associate surrendering is to God. Even though I may feel protected by the image of the benevolent God, some of the associations are the same as above.

What or who do we surrender to in life?

We surrender to people, or leaders — willingly or unwillingly. When we trust a person completely, the surrender is voluntary and can be complete. When we are forced, we surrender with a lot of resentment.

We surrender ourselves to a role or multiple roles. These roles can be organizational, institutional or in a family. Here surrender means sacrificing my needs and wants and living up to their expectations. Then I also surrender myself to the image of the role that I hold in my mind: ideal son, ideal daughter, ideal mother, ideal father, ideal citizen etc.

We also surrender to certain ideologies. These can be economic, social, or religious ones. In this form of surrender, our identities are merged with the dogmas. We become cynical of people who have different beliefs. This leads to us becoming prisoners of one’s own ideologies.

We surrender to what is emerging in the universe. We accept our helplessness in changing this reality. However, when we surrender to what is emerging, it frees us from being stuck to the past. It allows us to embrace what is emerging with open arms. This can be scary as well as freeing.

Now all these have flavours of volition or compulsion. However, in most cases, we can feel like victims or prisoners when we surrender.

What is the definition of Ecosystem Leadership Principle of surrender by Presencing Institute?

The definition is: “As you tune into these fields of possibility, surrender into what that field calls you to do: operate as an instrument for your highest future potential.”

The image that comes to me is of a tuning fork. A tuning fork oscillates or moves when it synchronises with a vibration of the same frequency. When I see fields of possibility in what is emerging, I can sense them because I am tuned into the right frequency. Then I surrender myself to what the field of possibilities calls me to do. I do not question, I do not resist, hence I flow in my surrender. This helps me to be in resonance with the universe in the moment.

Once I surrender, I act as an instrument of my highest future potential as well as in line with the highest future potential that the field offers.

How does one surrender into what the field calls one to do?

Based on my practice of Theory U, one is able to surrender when the field calls only by dropping the three inner voices: the Voice of Judgement, Voice of Cynicism and Voice of Fear. This helps us to move towards the cycle of Presencing and not Absencing. Surrendering to what is emerging leads to the birth of new possibilities and realities (Presencing). Resisting to surrender leads to wallowing in baggage of the past and thus leads to the blackhole of worthlessness and powerlessness.

What blocks us from Surrendering?

In my recent practice of Time To Think, I have learned about the Positive Philosophical Choice, which believes that, “Human beings by nature have choice, are intelligent, loving, powerful, multi-talented, emotional, assertive, imaginative, logical and are able to think through anything. Behaviour to the contrary is seen as the result of assumptions generated over a lifetime by events, conditionsand attitudes in a person’s life.” These assumptions that block us are called limiting assumptions. Peter Senge calls these limiting Mental Models and the three voices mentioned in Theory U are expressions of these.

Over the last one year, I have been on my exploratory journey with Bodynamics. This is an approach that helps us to work with shock and trauma that we may have experienced from a prenatal state. It talks about how certain types of codes are formed during childhood and these codes affect our perception, impulses, thought, choice, and actions as adults.

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Continuously working with our limiting assumptions and the codes that we have formed in our body helps us strengthen our surrendering muscle.

What would happen if we do not surrender to the possibilities?

Let us take two recent phenomena: COVID-19 pandemic and permacrisis.

We all talked about how a new normal will emerge after COVID-19. However, I wonder how much each of us have surrendered to the new normal.

I learned from a friend Bibin George about the concept of permacrisis. They predict that we would be in a state of permanent crisis for a reasonably long time due to wars, social polarization, economic crisis, technological trends, health crisis and ecological crisis; even though ‘crisis’ by definition is supposed to be a short-term phenomenon.

In both these situations, initially, I was gripped by the three voices and went through an Absencing trip. However, I was able to consciously pull myself out of this and start looking at what the field is calling me to do. If I was not able to do this, I would have been in a state of continuous victimhood, feelings of worthlessness, powerlessness and hopelessness about the future.

I believe embracing what is emerging and surrendering to the possibilities (that may not even be fully visible) is the only way for the human race towards a meaningful and sustainable future. When we are blinded by our own truths, we cannot see the emerging future. This may prevent us from seeing what the present moment and time may be calling us to do. We see this in individuals, families, organizations, countries and communities at varying levels and intensities. Those who are stuck in the past, either become irrelevant or insignificant in the emerging context.

What enables one to surrender?

Two words from Tamizh grammar come to my aid — கருவி (Karuvi) and கர்த்தா (Kartha). The first word means ‘a tool’. The meaning of the second word is ‘the being that operates the tool’. I believe that when one accepts that one is a tool and not the creator or operator, one is able to “…surrender into what that field calls you to do: operate as an instrument for your highest future potential.”

This is possible only when one moves from Ego System Awareness to Eco System Consciousness (This is about moving from ‘I & Mine’ orientation to ‘We & the universe’ perspective). It is the act of surrender that is the ultimate litmus test of holding Eco System Consciousness.

I am reminded of the beautiful lines from the book, The Five Regrets of the Dying: “… I remembered the importance of surrender, of letting go and allowing nature to weave its magic. The same force that balances the flow of the tides, the force that sees seasons come and go perfectly and creates life, was surely capable of bringing the opportunity to me I needed. But I had to let go first. Trying to control the timing and outcome was terrible waste of energy. …. Surrender is not giving up, far from it. Surrender takes enormous amount of courage. …. Being able to accept that there is absolutely nothing more you can do, other than hand it over to the greater force, is the catalyst that finally opens the flow.”

Some of the beliefs and stances that have helped me to surrender are the following:

The Universe is always benevolent.
The Universe has its own grand plan. Sometimes my small brain may not make sense of it.
Human beings are not the agents to protect the Universe. Conversely, Universe is the protector of human beings.
Human beings may not be the end of evolution.
I am a micro speck in the cosmic design.
I am a vessel with a purpose to serve the plan of the Universe.
What I have gone through and learned may not help me to live the future.
I embrace the capacity of seeing what may not be visible by dropping the baggage of my past.
I have the power to change things however small they may be. These may be what I perceive to be in my span of control.
I cannot do it alone. Any systemic change needs a critical mass.

Now I recognize why it is so difficult to surrender! However, I believe that each of us can strengthen our surrendering muscle if we work deeply with ourselves and establish a deep connection with the Universe.

“Machines wear down and die. Living systems, if they learn and adapt, do not.” Margaret Wheatly

With inputs from Deepa Ram Bhat