What is an underlying question that gives form
to your work or interest in this field?
How best to evolve the nature of our organizational forms
and leadership to approach the design elegance found throughout the
rest of nature?
What is your personal experience of collective
wisdom in groups?
Marilyn and I are in our fourth year of working with
what we call Pathfinder Circles. Some distinguishing features of these
circles:
We identify and attract imaginal leaders, players
committed to contribute to transformational movement at all levels
of system — the core levels (inner, relational and circle work)
as well as organizational and global levels. We attract mature, conscious,
committed players to these circles.
We believe that metamorphosis requires a chrysalis
elegantly tailored to support the process. Sacred space and spaciousness
seem essential to that kind of transformation. We choose to limit
circle size to eight, including ourselves. We begin each series with
a 2-day gathering and then meet for a full day each month. Our space
supports connecting with nature.
Our work together is built on the stories of our life
journeys and woven out of our ever-evolving inner and outer "10X
commitments."
When I think of collective wisdom, I imagine the shared
knowledge, beliefs, and practices that exist as an enlivening morphic
field. I can detect the presence of a magnetic field by using iron filings.
I can sense the presence of a field of collective wisdom by the how
people are evolving their state of being, their life patterns, their
work, their play and their relationships as a consequence of their on-going
involvement with the field.
I experience this small community as a learning/growth
vortex resulting in a rich and exciting variety of alliances and co-creative
coaching relationships springing up in natural ways. It feels like the
pathfinder field is an entity that has taken on a life of its own and
is continually finding new ways to express itself.
What is it about the work in this field that excites
you and connects you to your own deepest self?
I have this deep sense that the time is ripe to choose
consciously to co-evolve from today's devastatingly finite game of business
to an infinite game. As James Carse puts it:
The finite game is played for the purpose of winning,
An infinite game for the purpose of continuing the play.
The rules of a finite game may not change;
The rules of an infinite game must change.
Finite players play with boundaries;
Infinite players play with boundaries.
I find the Imaginal Cell Story to be a most exciting
metaphor for our times and for my work — inner and outer. I find
myself resonating with other pioneering imaginal leaders who share my
deep and total commitment to awakening and working together in synergistic
ways I'm committed to somehow achieving a seamless integrity that undergirds
all these aspects and bridges among them.
I have become convinced that my ability to escalate my
contribution to organizational and leadership in the outer world is
integrally related to my rate of progress in my inner work.
Please provide a brief storyline or snapshot of
what brought you to this work.
I've been blessed with over 25 years of innovative design
and large-scale implementation experience with organizations in the
US, Canada, Europe and the Far East, both as an internal and as an external
consultant. These adventures have grounded me in the challenges and
opportunities in the world of complex business organizations.
I've taken three extended R&D "sabbaticals"
over the past 16 years. These sabbaticals have led me to some compelling
new ways of looking at and playing within the world of organizations
and organizational leadership. My first sabbatical was outer-focused,
providing me a broad and deep appreciation of the existing field of
organizational change and transportation. My second sabbatical was inner-focused.
This third sabbatical is grounded in deepening inner work and committed
to integral approaches that bring wholeness into all aspects of organizational
and leadership development.
Some of the pioneering thought leaders who have influenced
my work include Herb Stokes, Bucky Fuller, Fritjof Capra, Rupert Sheldrake,
Ken Carey, Ian Mitroff, Stan Davis, Willis Harman, Barbara Marx Hubbard,
Thich Nhat Hanh, Duane Elgin, RainbowHawk
and WindEagle, Ken Wilber, Paul Hawken, Amory and Hunter Lovins, Janine
Benyus, Sally Goerner, Paramahansa Yogananda, Sri Aurobindo, Ervin Lazlo,
Brian Swimme, Chris Bache, Arnie Mindell
and Richard Moss.
How would you like to be available to others in
this field?
I am committed to serve imaginal leaders through direct
co-creative coaching, as an architect/consultant on generative initiatives
and as a guide to on-going action-learning expeditions/labs. These imaginal
leaders may be organizational leaders and developmental professionals,
thought and movement leaders, or providers of generative change services.
I am very open to exploratory conversations. Give me
a call. From that connection we can mutually decide whether there are
further opportunities for contributing to each other.
