Open Integration

From What — To What?

When I begin from that place of walking to where I am… this is not an existential experience. It is a finding place for scope, scale and context. It is the rooting place of who, what, where, when, how and why. There is a place that invites a beginning moment.

If all emotion is based in projection, assessment of projection, engaging projection error and then recalibrating the projection so that it more closely responds to experience… and, in that set of practices, a connected and fostering attitude is manifested; a from what is assembled.

Context To
Context and from what … to what.

Gremlins and a journey…

Muray Bowen is responsible for the next image. That dance of triangle that invites the gremilins of guilt and shame… that of not good enough, bad playing… I did something bad… I am bad… Learning to engage in the gremlin dance and once dancing… beginning to be clear about where I live… and in that rooting in place, knowing self the better and the more.

Triangles
Thank you Murray Bowen

Open and learning — Closed and defending

In hearing a conversation… is it based in yes/and or yes/but? Do the conversants cut off or give a lead for the next round? In participating in policy design, a room design, a song, a creative activity, a walk… in engaging a process; what is my attitude of participation. Are the who, the what, the where… dancing in a shared form? Is the when, the how and the why… in sync, in congruence, in… ?

Does the connective collaboration align and integrate both up and down a power structure? If yes/and, open… if yes/but… a system in defense. A system in decline. It is not black and white… for there are too many varibles of inside/outside, scope/scale, input – process – output…

This multi-variable sense and framing allows a fostering, sustainable system of integrating different levels of competence and structure to flex and dance in the storm. It is where we live in this moment. Well, it is where I find myself living in this moment.

A Spiral Dynamics Flow
A riff on the work of Clare Graves, Chris Cowan, Don Beck, Ken Wilber, and Said Elias Dawlabani

Passing the torch…

It is easy to hold on to a place. Even as the place leaves me. That desparate desire to have a home and a place to belong. To reflect on this sentiment. To own it as a desire.

In recognition, “There are many days that I wish desparately to fit in; to feel as if I belong. And yet, I do not. For to fit in, is too painful to my soul.”

What was a story or narrative of yesterday, a foundation of memories in stone… That castle has crumbled. In the strewn ruble… a wisdom comes from the foundation stones. The anchored ships in resentment bay begin to pull up, to come to harbor, to refit, to renew… to integrate the lessons learning in projection error. In that stripping away, collapse, renewal… there is something else happening. The dance. The pulse of all creation is beating in slow harmony. It never stops. It always pulses… it always invites. Just … for a while, perhaps, a situational deafness has been about. In the renewal in a new dawn… the wisdom and walking through the dark time now breaks as a seed breaks open.

There is a great wisdom in this cycle… a gread and wonderful wisdom.

An image…

Reductions
Pulling up anchors and refitting… from anchored in, in Resentment Bay to sailing away.

The more I learn… The less I know…

Is - Was
Engaging all of us… where we are… finding interesting moment. In gratitude.

The work … each day. With thanks, humored moment and great appreciation.

The Questions … Frame and Order

The Questions and Their Order

Being clear…

Listening deeply. When I hear something through a projected filter… and the projection is in error… the ass hole box gets checked. Sitting with a set of projection error awareness.

The questions were in the wrong order. The hearing filter was set in the wrong place. The kind offer was heard as accusation. So… in this sudden awareness, the steps to make amends can form.

Just a short muse on the day.

Renewing

Renewing a system…

The process of renewing. We speak of progressive maintaining. We speak of lifecycle cost. We speak of differed Maintenance.  Each has a point of emphasis. Each has a series of underlying narrative that sets the foundation for the analysis that creates a cost benefit.

Description…

The elements of linked system are described. The assumptions of each system… described. In that description; the links, foundations, stresses, all of the connected tissue, come to awareness. A series of observations and tests are conducted to assess the connected nature … In planning it would be called nexsus.

Now phases…

Perhaps an element is discovered to have multiple layers of links to a greater and lesser element. Even, in a surprise discovery or enlightened awareness, a connection, thought in one way… emerges in another… This phase of description and discovery give so much granularity and context to the scope and scale of the queries to this complex connection of elements.

There is the from what…

Removing the ‘should of’ –  ‘could of’ – ‘would of’… And the result… the What.

Planning a to what…

Now comes the so what to get in the way or disrupt the jouney or deployment planning… Laughter ensues.

So for the moment… there we leave it… festering in a dance of redux. Gaining energy to burst into next steps…

Bursting into renewing… or finishing the degrade to make room for the renew.

IMG_7676

Learning … and curiosity

Digging into a couple of sets of notes from long time clients. Seeing a couple of complete misses with our conversation. Deployment of ‘solutions’ that were so out of sync with their projects…

The beauty of this digging is that I get to try again. We remain in engagement. They remain clients. They remain invested in growing their business. They remain interested in finding, focusing, practicing, and growing in the craft, consultation, and service that is the core of both their business and practice. Me too!

The map that popped out this morning is yet another iteration of deployment. The more I learn the less I know. And … the deeper is my curiosity about the whole of systems that are driving both the engagement and the client’s willingness to continue to do the work.

It is not about a finish line. It is about the practice of pivot, flex and shift that drive better work, better engagement, even, better outcome. The wonder of this work is the willingness to explore a different way. To allow the pivot and abandonment of a thing that no longer works. The solution is not my deployment. The solving is the work of description, identification, questioning and then … crafting answers that fit with congruence the presenting challenge.

In deep gratitude to the adventurous partners in this consulting practice.

Appreciating — a reflection on the writing that challenges each day.

Chris Alexander
Brene’ Brown
Viktor E. Frankl
Murray Bowen
Lisa Feldman Barrett
Richard Feynman
T.H. White
Atul Gawande
William F. Buckley
Elizabeth Schussler Fiorenza
Gabor Mate’
Barbara Brown Taylor
Ernest Becker
Daniel Botkin
Temple Grandin
Steven Pinker
John Sarno
Peter Wholleben
Richard Rohr
Parker Palmer
Anne Lamott
Christopher Cowan and Don Beck
Clare W. Graves
Seth Godin
Michael Gungor
Peter Block
Daniel Tammet
Edwin H. Friedman
Donald Miller
Harry G. Frankfurt
Jay Harman
Janine M. Benyus
Adam Kahane
Jackson Katz
Rebecca Solnit
David Graeber

It is a partial list of authors who have demanded attention this past year. Even as I tap this sentence, asking forgiveness for those forgotten, more raise pages to be included. Ah, such a rich place of learning to tap. In that demand is also a grand invitation to look at the foundations of much of my thinking. An invitation to evaluation, discarding, even wholesale remodeling. Along with this list of amazing thinkers, a larger context of the universe in which we all dance has also emerged. The simple question of, “Around what do you organize?” This simple question turns much of the narrative of the past several years on its head. The deeply shaken set of held belief, life narrative, story arc… all dumped upside down. The grand humor of seeing some of the foundation stones… turned over to reveal so much richer a vision. …

In song, in writing, in listening to the hopes and dreams of many clients… in the growing that happens each day in the fields around the house. In the deep seeds of thinking, observation and listening that the fun and challenging partnerships around and surrounding demand…

All of this, a tradition of taking stock. A tradition of pausing to give thanks for so many teachers. A gift of this huge classroom. And so many partners in that learning.

It all started with a review of the current list. The list that shifts and grows each year. For, there is so much to learn. In each new learning, the reminder of … the more I learn, the less I know.