The Power of Wholeness
Article 1 of a 7 Part Series Authored by Mieke Byerley: Full work originally published on Biomimetic Clockworx.
This Labour of Love emerged as a consequence of the seeds planted in the original primary deliverable of a Teal for Startups’ White Paper initiative. It was formed by a Collaborative Community Question Harvesting exercise back in 2015. It was then carefully incubated by dedicated community members across Seven Work Streams, and is incrementally emerging in the form of Blog Series for the benefit of the Teal for Startup Community Members with the acknowledgment of the time and effort many have invested.
What is Wholeness?
Within the context of a Level 4.0 Collective System, Wholeness is the simple but radical conviction that Collective Enterprises (Organisations) are Complex Living Organic Organisms/Ecosystems; formed through networks of fluid, evolving relationships and will best prosper when they are more deeply aligned with Human Beings’ strongest motives, which are a desire to grow, learn, serve a greater shared purpose, and do meaningful work.
Wholeness is leveraged to build community, respond quickly to opportunities, harness resources and talent both inside and outside the organization, and also to inspire, motivate, and enable people at all levels to act with freedom, agency, responsibility and accountability.
According to James Scouller, wholeness is the root of Presence; the opposite of inner division. You see, many of us are unaware of the subtle divisions, conflicts and limiting beliefs in our psyche that lead to anxiety and defensive behaviors when we are around others. However, the man or woman with well-developed presence experiences an inner togetherness, a wholeness. Wholeness stems from — and indeed is — a positive inner alignment of one’s sense of identity, purpose and feelings about life and oneself. It frees us from limiting beliefs, releases us from fear and expresses itself as a rare combination of inner peace and vitality.
In order to evolve organisations where wholeness is expressed; where people are fully present, feel fully engaged and continually rewarded, where both individually and collectively they flourish and exceed expectations.
- It means facilitating the emergence of an organizational culture in which support of people’s development is woven into the daily fabric of working life and the organisations regular operations, daily routines, and conversations.
- It means enabling people to gain a sense of purpose, engage in authentic conversations, see new possibilities, and sacrifice for the common good by adopting and embedding open principles of co-working — based on transparency, participation, and community.
- It means supporting people in discovering themselves and showing up with their whole, true selves, including their creativity, fears and vulnerabilities. It is about allowing Humanity back into being Human.
“Ubuntu is a concept that we have in our Bantu languages at home. Ubuntu is the essence of being a person. It means that we are people through other people. We cannot be fully human alone. We are made for interdependence, we are made for family. When you have ubuntu, you embrace others. You are generous, compassionate.” — Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Next: Article 2 of the 7 part “The Power of Wholeness” series: Voices of Wisdom.
Each Article is accompanied with a curated selection of resources, provided to further stimulate conversation, formation, research and real life practical application for you and the community.
Inquiry Exercise
- What would a better system look like?
- If we could change just a few elements of the system, what would we change?
Examples
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Thank You
Special thanks to Malek who is the co-initiator and founder of T4S and founder of FLOW, and Steph who is the founder of Ikigai and co-creator for T4S for taking the time to review the Full Series of articles. Also to all fellow collaborators of the Culture & Values Stream Team for all the support, feedback and reviews during the bulk of the writing.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
I would like to recognize that this work would never have materialized if it was not for the amazing contributions of the following communities doing amazing work in their own right. So it is with a very humble heart and a great sense of appreciation that I introduce them here below:
Teal for Startups Community: https://medium.com/teal-for-startups
Frederic Laloux, and the Reinventing Organizations Community: http://www.reinventingorganizations.com/
Otto Scharmer, and the U.Lab Community: https://www.presencing.com/
Marjolein and Lani, and the Map of Meaning CoP: http://www.holisticdevelopment.org.nz/
Tom Atlee and the Co-Intelligence Institute: http://www.co-intelligence.org/index.html
Parker J. Palmer and the Center for Courage & Renewal: http://www.couragerenewal.org/
