What is an underlying question that gives form
to your work or interest in this field?
How can we structure the environment in which collective
wisdom emerges, in order to facilitate the expression of that wisdom?
What is your personal experience of collective
wisdom in groups?
A number of us inadvertently learned first-hand about
the phenomenon of collective wisdom in 1994, during work restructuring
an introductory science course. I had gotten a National Science Foundation
grant to pay consulting fees to a total of 22 faculty members from 11
different departments at 3 different universities so that they could
physically come together to collaborate on the project. Because I wanted
the course to be student-centered, and because I didn't see how a "PI-centered"
group could produce anything but a teacher-centered course, I thought
it was important for the team to be group-centered. Also, group collaboration
is an important process in Native culture (I am Choctaw), so I tend
to like working that way even when it means we all have to feel our
way through something together. Fortunately, I had chosen group members
based on their established ability to work with each other, their familiarity
with and dedication to student-centered learning, and their willingness
to take personal and professional risks. So, despite a lot of trial
and error blundering on my part, collective wisdom formed like an ethereal
cloud within and between us, and none of us was ever quite the same
again. Since then, I have tried to use similar teams in all my work
-- planning major projects, during a national meeting session, and so
on. Usually the effort is successful, although sometimes more than others.
I pay close attention to what happens and try to understand what factors'
presences correlate to "effective" sessions so that I can
include them intentionally in future efforts.
What is it about the work in this field that excites
you and connects you to your own deepest self?
To me, relationship is a dynamic concept with lots of
tension in it, and I am coming to think that collective wisdom is ultimately
about relationship. I have learned that the important relationships
involved in a collaborative meeting are more than merely those between
the human participants. There is a multi-layered network of key relationships
between human participants, Spirit, the group itself (as a separate,
organic thing), and the "meeting space". The meeting space
includes the buildings, the land where the group meets and the spirits
that live there (including those of Ancestors), the plants and animals,
and so on. One of the most important components of collaboration is
the different ways of knowing and learning that participants bring to
the matter at hand. Understanding these different ways of knowing is
particularly important to Tapestry, in part because we are coming to
realize that "ways of knowing" are also
about relationships -- between the knower and the known, for instance
-- at many different kinds of levels.
The more power there is in the elements collected for
truly collaborative learning, the more potential power there is to the
wisdom that emerges -- or in the conflicts that can erupt. And so the
temptation as we try to enhance the effectiveness of these collaborations
is to focus on those elements, on the physical "things" such
as which humans from what disciplines participate. Yet it seems more
and more to me that relational wisdom is a truly emergent phenomenon,
meaning that it's not reducible to its individual elements. In other
words, the really important stuff happens "out in the dark spaces"
between the “things.” The importance of the "things"
in facilitating the formation or emergence of this relational wisdom
involves their arrangements in some sort of not-just-Euclidean "space"
-- who is where, with respect to who, in what context -- because those
arrangements create the shapes of the "interstitial dark places"
where the magic, as it were, happens. Those arrangements are issues
of structuring the environment, and I want to learn what structures
facilitate the function of the "collective wisdom" phenomenon
. . . and why they do that. To me, this is at the heart of understanding
-- and serving -- the Greater Wisdom and Mystery of all that is.
Please provide a brief storyline or snapshot of
what brought you to this work.
Spirit brought me to this work. It's unexpected because
I have never been a person who does well in social situations. Instead,
I have always been a person in deep relationship to the land and to
things many people consider “inanimate". Creatures interact
with and teach me, as do falling leaves and moving clouds and a wind
that changes direction around me in a dance. This is not metaphor, but
true. I initially pursued a career in paleontology (my doctorate is
in that field) in part because I wanted to be able to spend great spans
of time alone in remote areas, and in part because I can "hear"
(not with ears) the creatures whose preserved bones I touch. So I have
often had a hard time knowing how to relate to humans. For one thing,
humans have an "extra” self-describing voice that is very
loud, and this voice often conflicts with the "silent" voice
humans have that is like the "silent" voice of everything
else that exists. I get confused about which one to listen to, and overwhelmed
by the busy-ness and activity people are engaged in, and sometimes swept
up in it to the point of what feels like madness. And I don't really
function well in Western worldview space, since to me everything is
alive and indwelt with Spirit, so that makes it even harder to relate
to human people. But I have come to believe (through being convinced
by the world around me) that the future life of this world depends upon
the formation of Collective or Relational Wisdom, to its highest degree,
within groups working upon means and ways of re-establishing connections
among all the pieces of everything, past and present and future. And
this phenomenon requires the intimate and meaningful participation of
humans. So I am trying to learn how to do my part to advance this understanding
and help things move along as they should, as is intended by whatever
force moves our hearts as well as the stars. I'm not real graceful at
it, but I try hard.
How would you like to be available to others in
this field?
Tapestry is looking for a large tract of land to partner
with us, to participate as a willing collaborator in the groups that
meet upon its lap, and we will make its use available to selected groups
for certain kinds of meetings that require that sort of power. I think
many of the groups in this discussion (on these web pages) would fall
into that field of eligibility. So that's one thing I hope to be able
to contribute in the future. I have written guidelines for some of what
we've learned about effective group parameters, but I'm not sure those
say anything that "Centered on the Edge" doesn't already say
much better. I'm willing to share, though.
