Location: St. George Petroglyphs | Anazasi Ridge | Tempi'po'op Trail | Santa Clara River Reserve [Map here]
Tempi’po’op (pronounced tumpee poo oop) means “rock writing” in Southern Paiute. These beautiful examples of rock art were once outdoor classrooms from as far back as 9.000 years ago used to explain to younger members about birth, life, death, marriage, and key principles of living. Today we're fortunate enough to see the collage of symbolism layered on generation after generation, surprisingly still visible after thousands of years.
Photo © by Joanne Markow
As old as they are, some basic history and translations suggest this rock art could teach us a lesson or two about management and leadership in business today. I went with guide Boma Johnson, an anthropologist, to hear what he's acquired in his 30 years of living and researching among natives today. But you can research guides through St. George Utah or certainly hike the trail on your own to photograph during the day or at sunset. [Walking trail map here]
Photo © by Joanne Markow
Six ways to leadership
(1) Expose Ladders
The cross hatch patterns are symbols of ladders. The Hopi, Pueblo, and Southern Paiute believe in stepped stages of consciousness. Only trusted individuals who demonstrated experience, open-mindedness, and wisdom were exposed to ways of strengthening connections with elder leaders and overall spirits. The beauty of each step was revealed in time when individuals were ready to receive the information and take responsibility for their awareness.
Message for us: Stay connected. Reveal layers of new missions for growth and development as people gain knowledge of the bigger organizational purpose. Aligning change is best done through helping staff understand purpose, identity, values, beliefs, capabilities, behaviors, and the work environment.
2) Identify Sources
The spiral embodies life, death, and possibility of rebirth. Each loop progresses us to a higher level, yet returns us to the same place. Some believe the meaning of the spiral reflects transformation and rebirth while others believe it symbolizes water. Whether clockwise or counterclockwise, the center matters. The image speaks to life renewal by returning to the source.
Message for us: Join all company experiences into a meaningful pattern. Circle back to the source of your company success and weave it back into your strategy. Seek truth and understanding. But most importantly, understand the roots of founders and what is unique about a business.
3) Build Harmony
From the hunt to plentiful sustenance, the integration of animals, lightening, water, plants, and the self in petroglyphs allowed people to situate meaning of symbols in context. The direction the animals faced and whether or not they were on a migrating path also provided messaging related to danger, enlightenment, co-creation or co-existence.
Message for us: When people are learning, contributing, and growing to their environment and understand themselves in context of the greater plan, they feel in control and their lives make sense to them. There is nothing left to desire. Loyalty, creativity, passion and momentum will surge from within your team naturally. When everything is harmoniously ordered around you, you start to realize that everyone is working work or life goals for their own sake. Not for money, power, fame.
4) Overcome Chaos
The powerful Kachina is symbolized with one arm curved up and the other arm curved down in the midst of other human forms, including a hand. The Kachina embraces chaos and "whips" the surrounding people into shape with blades from the yucca plant. Present Hopi suggest that this symbol represents mastery over consciousness and chaos in the world.
Message for us: "When information disrupts consciousness by threatening its goals, we have a condition of inner disorder." [Flow p. 37 ] Disorder in an organization, its people, and its mission are completely opposite the optimal experience. Uncover fear and toxic behaviors. Unearth underground rumors and maintain positive, loyal peers who can move the organization forward. Act swiftly to regain harmony and restore disorder in mindsets. Seek alignment across your teams.
5) Drive Self-Awareness
People most often associate the self with their body. Petroglyphs show appearances of hands or full body views of the ancient Puebloans in context of scenes. The ability to tell a story is dependent upon being able to situate the self and its goals, threats, aspirations or feelings within the story. Through self-awareness, attention is focused on how to move forward.
Message for us: Focus and attention mean everything. What we pay attention to grows. "Experience depends on the way in which we invest in our energy and on the structure of attention" [Flow p. 35] to our individual, company, and team goals. All missions, intentions, goals, and processes are connected by one thing—the self. Knowing "your self" is important for everyone in a team.
6) Focus on Differentiation & Integration
Clans were named and identified by their symbols from bats to badgers to bears to birds to name a few. When shown in context of a petroglyph scene, modern-day Hopi describe the story of decision-making between clans and where they ultimately migrated. A single rock may show a dozen clan petroglyphs. The ability to identify, brand, and document how people differed even on large-scale rocks meant that ancient people were able to deal with a level of complexity—differentiation and integration of people at the same time.
Message for us: "Complexity is the result of two broad psychological processes: differentiation and integration. Differentiation implies a movement toward uniqueness, toward separating oneself from others. Integration refers to the opposite: a union with other people, with ideas and entities beyond the self. A complex self is one that succeeds in combining these opposite tendencies." [Flow p. 41 ]. Your success as a leader will stem from your ability to provide unique value as a business, make sense of autonomous parts, and bring individuals together toward a common mission.
Enjoy your trip. And the impact it has back home.
All photographs © Joanne Markow taken at Tempi’po’op in the red mountains of Utah under the guidance of archaeologist Boma Johnson who spent the last 30 years of his life living and learning from the local tribes.
