VII. The Power of Wholeness: Shifting Frames
Article 7 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.
If you missed it, here is Article 1, Article 2, Article 3, Article 4, Article 5 & Article 6 of the 7 part “The Power of Wholeness” series
Necessary Competencies
Co-Attending (Thinking)
Helps us recognize that energy follows attention. Wherever you place your attention, that is where the energy of the system will go. “Energy follows attention” means that we need to shift our attention from what we are trying to avoid to what we want to bring into reality. We Co-attend when we “Attend to the crack”; Where do we meet the future first? This means, attend to the openings, the challenges, and the disruptions where you feel the past ending, and the future wanting to begin. (Scharmer, 2015)
4.0 Holistic: thinking in wholes rather than just about parts. All elements seem to be both parts and wholes at the same time, fostering unity of Interiority and Oneness (Atlee, 2013).
In order to achieve this, we must learn to embody Solidarity through developing deep Communication. The holistic approach starts by looking at the nature and behaviour of the whole you are concerned with, and if this doesn’t yield results, the next step will be to look at the bigger whole of which it forms a part. In other words, the Holistic approach goes in the reverse direction of Reductionism. Just like any level of thinking, Holistic thinking is bound to simplify (human nature) wholes; what is interesting is how it does it. It takes multiple partial views of any given circumstance; the most effective method of this is through considering perspectives or points of view of the people involved. There are three crucial methods that broaden our awareness by adopting different perspectives.
- The first is to be clear and explicit about your own point of view. This may seem obvious, but it is something we rarely do.
- The second way of getting a different perspective is to make a serious effort to see the system through the eyes of others.
- The third way in which we can gain new and different perspectives of a system is to look for the unintended consequences of its operation.
An important difference: differences of perspective and worldview can both give rise to differences of opinion. Both concepts can be useful in understanding and working with differences of opinion, so it is valuable to understand the distinction between them. The following is a useful guide to their difference in meaning. (The Open University, 2013)
- Perspective refers to how things look from your current position.
- Worldview refers to how you see the world, regardless of your current position.
See also Living Systems Thinking
Co-Presencing (Awareness)
Helps us connect to our deepest sources of inspiration and stillness — and to the place from which future possibility begins to arise. This movement merges three different types of presence: Of the future, the past; and the authentic self. It shifts the place from which the self emerges to the highest future possible — to our Self. (Scharmer, 2015)
4.0 Eco-system: awareness operating from the source of the future that is seeking to emerge; the boundary between observer and observed is fully inverted or transcended, inviting full contribution (Atlee, 2013), introducing and enabling Agency; We see the world from a surrounding sphere, that is, from a holding place that allows the emerging future to come into being. It is the capacity of the seer to redirect the beam of attention and intention across all levels and fields; the capacity of a system to shift the place from which its attention, intention, and action originate.
In order to achieve this, we must learn to exercise our capacity to let go of our fear through developing Courage, pass through the Eye of the Needle, and letting the unknown come by engaging an open will. To let go of our old self (identities and intentions) and tune into the future that is seeking to emerge through our authentic Self; It requires us to develop and access our sources of SQ (spiritual intelligence). (Scharmer, 2015)
See also Spiritual Intelligence (SQ)
This is the Final part in this “The Power of Wholeness” Series, we hope it has been of benefit and that you have gained something out of it.
Resources
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
- How can I open myself more fully to the magnificence of my True Nature
- What are my most important sources of success and change?
Examples
Recommended
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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/
