From Cog in the Wheel to Co-Creator of Our World
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
Albert Einstein
“If you always do what you’ve always done you will always get what you always got.”
Henry Ford
“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
Buckminster Fuller
A New Orientation
It is with the above in mind, that we invite you to join us in exploring a “new” or “different” way of relating to the domain of human beings collaboratively co-creating.
So as to not keep you in suspense for the next several pages, we would like to start with the punchline; then proceed to the what, how, and why this shift in orientation is truly non-discretionary, if we are to avert a sixth global extinction.
At 2BElemental, we perceive the reality of people co-creating together (AKA “working”) as a living, flowing, expanding, contracting, dynamic flow of energies by and between the human beings involved. The actual act of co-creating and manifesting new, in whatever tangible, intangible, or contributive form is ultimately motivated by and in service to generating and contributing value; and, that happens in the present moment, moment-to-moment. As a constantly changing dynamic, this ultimately results in the co-created reality within which we find ourselves.
We are all in this shared space, at this moment in time, co-creating the shared experience of your receiving our thoughts here and now while reading this. The experience you are having, right here, right now, is unique, felt, sensed, perceived, as a living continuum; and, each moment, once past, is replaced with a new current moment born of its present moment as your lived creation; which when added to all others present in this space, produces a shared present moment manifested collective reality.
So what does this have to do with organizational development or transformation you might ask?
The Current State
All organizations today are confronted with a world and array of emergent challenges occurring with a frequency and speed unprecedented in human history. Whether environmental, economic, social, spiritual, governmental, educational, or existential, every dimension of human society is reflecting challenges, breakdowns, failures, and stresses, all exacerbated by unmediated technological and industrial exploitative or extractive escalation.
Operational models evolved from the Industrial Revolution designed for an 1800’s world are wholly ill-equipped to meet the challenges and speed of a 21st-century world. Central to this Industrial orientation is the belief that learnings from the past, imposition of power, control, and authority over the present, and projection of an intended future outcome, can in fact define and determine the future reality, with predictability, replicability, and success.
Empirically, we all know this is a belief system and worldview that has proven, again and again, to fail to meet the expectations promised. Beyond failure of expectation, they often can be destructive, dehumanizing, exploitative, extractive, and ultimately responsible for the collective global challenges with which we are confronted.
To approach healing or transforming this state of affairs with purportedly new frameworks, systems, practices, trainings, tools, and workshops is to fail to recognize the old paradigm embedded within them. They all serve to play the old paradigm forward, to the extent they all require a degree of imposition by those in charge of the organization upon the human beings who comprise the organization.
To unpack the ingredients common to all of the above:
Intrinsic to all is the representation or assertion of a post-intervention outcome, vision, or goal; the achievement of which has not been contributed to, nor informed by the voices of those they purport to serve or help; and, which in most cases fails to improve, but rather exacerbates the challenges experienced.
How does this relate to shifting to emergent co-creation, within the present moment, and the reality that is ultimately manifested?
The Present Moment
The present generative moment, as the opportunity within which to create, is a function of the individual’s focus of attention at that moment. Our attention as living beings is not an unbounded resource. Realization of the greatest generative potential, for each one of us, is directly related to the nature and quality of attention we bring to that moment.
In this, as a species, we are endowed with a unique creative ability to think abstractly, to construct worldviews, belief systems, rationalizations, fears, and projections like no other. All originate from some past present moment experience or beliefs.
However, their persistence in the rearview mirror is often carried forward into the present. The more past brought into the present, the greater the diversion of attentional resources from the present to accommodate integration of the past into this present moment. Effectively, we play the past forward.
Now, let’s talk about projection into the future, while in the present moment. If I arrive bearing gifts, my program, practice, protocol, tool-- that only if seen, will clearly save us all; how much of my attentional resource and focus is diverted to carrying that vision and future projection into the room? Doing so is at the expense of present moment awareness, sensing, feeling into the space and others present, and the expressions and signaling by and between those in attendance? To what degree do others who are fully present, attentionally speaking, feel or experience my degree of diversion or disconnection based on my projecting-of-my-offering agenda onto them and the present moment?
So let us posit while I am reading this piece, I am preoccupied with the to-dos I have on my calendar that I checked just before opening this article (10% of my attention), and I am also thinking about the meeting I have right after I finish reading it (another 10%), and whether I can grab something to eat before that meeting starts (another 10%), and, I am carrying my offering to the world of organizational development, in my next presentation, in my head (another 20%), and while I am reading this I am thinking about opportunities to network and connect to prospective clients or referral sources (another 40%), leaving me with approximately 10% of attentional resource in the present moment, to receive what is being shared in this writing, with maybe 5% of attentional resource to actually process what is being sharing with you right now.
From a generative, co-creative, present moment orientation, the actual accessible generative potential of you, at this moment, while reading this article, is directly correlative to that 5%. Multiply that attentional resource constraint by 200,000 employees in a multinational global corporation; and the true cost of the prevailing attentional paradigm, bringing past practices and wisdom and projected aspirations, goals, and targets to the present-moment, is self-evident.
This is the most fundamental "attentional resource” dimension of present moment generative potential. We believe there are five additional energetic dimensions to co-creation on an emergent basis within the present moment, which are omitted entirely from the Industrial frame. These dimensions of human generativity energetically represent the unlimited untapped potential present and available within every involved human being, to contribute to manifesting their organization’s greatest grandest potential.
The key question is, how do you orient yourself in co-creation with others, if all of the old references- things from the past and projections into the future are removed from the equation?
Emergence from Present Moment
The concept of emergent co-creation is of a living, dynamic, ever-evolving, and never repeating flow. This flow, which is experiential and energetic, has properties and qualities that can be felt, sensed, and perceived. Things in flow exhibit cycles and patterns that are reflected throughout the natural world, and the reality that surrounds us. Harmony, disharmony, slowing down, speeding up, attracting, repelling, aligning, misaligning, disrupting, harmonizing, warming, chilling (just to name a few)-- these effects on the energetic flows by and between human beings co-creating, directly affects both the quality of the collaborative experience of those involved, and the realizable generative potential and manifestation that is possible.
The stronger the alignment of, by, and between those collaborating-- with a mutually agreed set of values and a shared commonly held purpose-- to serve and bring value to the world, the greater the coherence and orientation of all co-creators as to how and the way in which what is being created is to be brought into manifestation. This shared orientation of “being in service to” creating, contributing, and bringing added value to the world, via individual contributors collectively aligned, is foundational to the realization of the maximum generative potential by the whole.
The power and magic of this re-orientation within the collaborative context lies in its emphasis on the lived, shared experience that integrates the human “being-ness” of the co-creators with the acts of co-creation as a singularity; rather than the focus on decision making, mechanical processes, and outcomes of those serving within traditional organizations; with the felt, sensed state of the humans involved being irrelevant to the process or outcome.
Tuning in to the natural cycles, the contraction- exhaling out of what is no-longer-needed, and the expansion- inhaling of what is needed and invited now, within the process of co-creation by and between collaborators, reflects a vital dimension of collaborative process and experience.
From this living present moment, the inquiry central to all is, what is needed in service to the defined present moment of creation. This, in turn, in service to bringing into manifestation whatever is living at the center of collective engagement. Intrinsic to this frame is the inclusion of any and all needs that emerge from, by, and between all of the participants involved.
From Projection to Presence
Everyone is familiar with the traditional approach to defining budgets and resource projections associated with the project management process. From this one-dimensional perspective, all of the creative and generative potentials that lie outside of the past-practice/future-planning box within which a project has been defined is shut out. For the participants in the project, the explicit direction is to paint by numbers, stay within the lines; and do not say or do anything that might challenge, disrupt, or threaten the prescribed course or one's personal position and security.
By shifting to an open, living, dynamic, co-creative, emergent, collaborative frame that is unconstrained by projection or definition imposed on the co-creative process; every participant is invited and enabled to contribute in and to all needs that emerge. And to do so emergently from within the actual generative process, on a fully embodied basis.
Individual emotional reactions or challenging interactions with others offer as equally valuable a contribution to the collaborative frame, as some experts brought in to solve a challenge in a mechanical engineering context. A unique individual cognitive or energetic reaction, bias, or pull-- felt, sensed, and shared with others, represents an opportunity for collective expansion, to accommodate and include this human living reactive dimension, as bringing an additional generative value contribution to the collective puzzle, in service to what is being manifested.
Intrinsic to working emergently is defining the present need, while holding full consciousness and awareness, as to whether the needs identified and solutions decided upon, are in alignment with the collectively subscribed values and collectively defined purpose. This is a critical dimension of human co-creation.
This decision-or-action-in-alignment-with consciousness provides the orientational center post that enables those involved to receive, engage, and respond to incoming ever-shifting and changing realities, with alacrity, on a real-time basis.
So, to summarize the essential ingredients required to shift into an emergent paradigm, transcendent of the industrial frame, fixed structures, systems, and old paradigms are:
It is with the above in mind, that we invite you to join us in exploring a “new” or “different” way of relating to the domain of human beings collaboratively co-creating.
So as to not keep you in suspense for the next several pages, we would like to start with the punchline; then proceed to the what, how, and why this shift in orientation is truly non-discretionary, if we are to avert a sixth global extinction.
At 2BElemental, we perceive the reality of people co-creating together (AKA “working”) as a living, flowing, expanding, contracting, dynamic flow of energies by and between the human beings involved. The actual act of co-creating and manifesting new, in whatever tangible, intangible, or contributive form is ultimately motivated by and in service to generating and contributing value; and, that happens in the present moment, moment-to-moment. As a constantly changing dynamic, this ultimately results in the co-created reality within which we find ourselves.
We are all in this shared space, at this moment in time, co-creating the shared experience of your receiving our thoughts here and now while reading this. The experience you are having, right here, right now, is unique, felt, sensed, perceived, as a living continuum; and, each moment, once past, is replaced with a new current moment born of its present moment as your lived creation; which when added to all others present in this space, produces a shared present moment manifested collective reality.
So what does this have to do with organizational development or transformation you might ask?
The Current State
All organizations today are confronted with a world and array of emergent challenges occurring with a frequency and speed unprecedented in human history. Whether environmental, economic, social, spiritual, governmental, educational, or existential, every dimension of human society is reflecting challenges, breakdowns, failures, and stresses, all exacerbated by unmediated technological and industrial exploitative or extractive escalation.
Operational models evolved from the Industrial Revolution designed for an 1800’s world are wholly ill-equipped to meet the challenges and speed of a 21st-century world. Central to this Industrial orientation is the belief that learnings from the past, imposition of power, control, and authority over the present, and projection of an intended future outcome, can in fact define and determine the future reality, with predictability, replicability, and success.
Empirically, we all know this is a belief system and worldview that has proven, again and again, to fail to meet the expectations promised. Beyond failure of expectation, they often can be destructive, dehumanizing, exploitative, extractive, and ultimately responsible for the collective global challenges with which we are confronted.
To approach healing or transforming this state of affairs with purportedly new frameworks, systems, practices, trainings, tools, and workshops is to fail to recognize the old paradigm embedded within them. They all serve to play the old paradigm forward, to the extent they all require a degree of imposition by those in charge of the organization upon the human beings who comprise the organization.
To unpack the ingredients common to all of the above:
- All are intellectually abstract constructs;
- With varying degrees of prescription, training, specialized language, hierarchies of achievement, required literacies or competencies required to employ;
- A trainer, provider, or certified authority figure who defines the terms of engagement; and,
- With metrics or protocols for evaluation of outcomes and/or success disembodied from the people being judged.
Intrinsic to all is the representation or assertion of a post-intervention outcome, vision, or goal; the achievement of which has not been contributed to, nor informed by the voices of those they purport to serve or help; and, which in most cases fails to improve, but rather exacerbates the challenges experienced.
How does this relate to shifting to emergent co-creation, within the present moment, and the reality that is ultimately manifested?
The Present Moment
The present generative moment, as the opportunity within which to create, is a function of the individual’s focus of attention at that moment. Our attention as living beings is not an unbounded resource. Realization of the greatest generative potential, for each one of us, is directly related to the nature and quality of attention we bring to that moment.
In this, as a species, we are endowed with a unique creative ability to think abstractly, to construct worldviews, belief systems, rationalizations, fears, and projections like no other. All originate from some past present moment experience or beliefs.
However, their persistence in the rearview mirror is often carried forward into the present. The more past brought into the present, the greater the diversion of attentional resources from the present to accommodate integration of the past into this present moment. Effectively, we play the past forward.
Now, let’s talk about projection into the future, while in the present moment. If I arrive bearing gifts, my program, practice, protocol, tool-- that only if seen, will clearly save us all; how much of my attentional resource and focus is diverted to carrying that vision and future projection into the room? Doing so is at the expense of present moment awareness, sensing, feeling into the space and others present, and the expressions and signaling by and between those in attendance? To what degree do others who are fully present, attentionally speaking, feel or experience my degree of diversion or disconnection based on my projecting-of-my-offering agenda onto them and the present moment?
So let us posit while I am reading this piece, I am preoccupied with the to-dos I have on my calendar that I checked just before opening this article (10% of my attention), and I am also thinking about the meeting I have right after I finish reading it (another 10%), and whether I can grab something to eat before that meeting starts (another 10%), and, I am carrying my offering to the world of organizational development, in my next presentation, in my head (another 20%), and while I am reading this I am thinking about opportunities to network and connect to prospective clients or referral sources (another 40%), leaving me with approximately 10% of attentional resource in the present moment, to receive what is being shared in this writing, with maybe 5% of attentional resource to actually process what is being sharing with you right now.
From a generative, co-creative, present moment orientation, the actual accessible generative potential of you, at this moment, while reading this article, is directly correlative to that 5%. Multiply that attentional resource constraint by 200,000 employees in a multinational global corporation; and the true cost of the prevailing attentional paradigm, bringing past practices and wisdom and projected aspirations, goals, and targets to the present-moment, is self-evident.
This is the most fundamental "attentional resource” dimension of present moment generative potential. We believe there are five additional energetic dimensions to co-creation on an emergent basis within the present moment, which are omitted entirely from the Industrial frame. These dimensions of human generativity energetically represent the unlimited untapped potential present and available within every involved human being, to contribute to manifesting their organization’s greatest grandest potential.
The key question is, how do you orient yourself in co-creation with others, if all of the old references- things from the past and projections into the future are removed from the equation?
Emergence from Present Moment
The concept of emergent co-creation is of a living, dynamic, ever-evolving, and never repeating flow. This flow, which is experiential and energetic, has properties and qualities that can be felt, sensed, and perceived. Things in flow exhibit cycles and patterns that are reflected throughout the natural world, and the reality that surrounds us. Harmony, disharmony, slowing down, speeding up, attracting, repelling, aligning, misaligning, disrupting, harmonizing, warming, chilling (just to name a few)-- these effects on the energetic flows by and between human beings co-creating, directly affects both the quality of the collaborative experience of those involved, and the realizable generative potential and manifestation that is possible.
The stronger the alignment of, by, and between those collaborating-- with a mutually agreed set of values and a shared commonly held purpose-- to serve and bring value to the world, the greater the coherence and orientation of all co-creators as to how and the way in which what is being created is to be brought into manifestation. This shared orientation of “being in service to” creating, contributing, and bringing added value to the world, via individual contributors collectively aligned, is foundational to the realization of the maximum generative potential by the whole.
The power and magic of this re-orientation within the collaborative context lies in its emphasis on the lived, shared experience that integrates the human “being-ness” of the co-creators with the acts of co-creation as a singularity; rather than the focus on decision making, mechanical processes, and outcomes of those serving within traditional organizations; with the felt, sensed state of the humans involved being irrelevant to the process or outcome.
Tuning in to the natural cycles, the contraction- exhaling out of what is no-longer-needed, and the expansion- inhaling of what is needed and invited now, within the process of co-creation by and between collaborators, reflects a vital dimension of collaborative process and experience.
From this living present moment, the inquiry central to all is, what is needed in service to the defined present moment of creation. This, in turn, in service to bringing into manifestation whatever is living at the center of collective engagement. Intrinsic to this frame is the inclusion of any and all needs that emerge from, by, and between all of the participants involved.
From Projection to Presence
Everyone is familiar with the traditional approach to defining budgets and resource projections associated with the project management process. From this one-dimensional perspective, all of the creative and generative potentials that lie outside of the past-practice/future-planning box within which a project has been defined is shut out. For the participants in the project, the explicit direction is to paint by numbers, stay within the lines; and do not say or do anything that might challenge, disrupt, or threaten the prescribed course or one's personal position and security.
By shifting to an open, living, dynamic, co-creative, emergent, collaborative frame that is unconstrained by projection or definition imposed on the co-creative process; every participant is invited and enabled to contribute in and to all needs that emerge. And to do so emergently from within the actual generative process, on a fully embodied basis.
Individual emotional reactions or challenging interactions with others offer as equally valuable a contribution to the collaborative frame, as some experts brought in to solve a challenge in a mechanical engineering context. A unique individual cognitive or energetic reaction, bias, or pull-- felt, sensed, and shared with others, represents an opportunity for collective expansion, to accommodate and include this human living reactive dimension, as bringing an additional generative value contribution to the collective puzzle, in service to what is being manifested.
Intrinsic to working emergently is defining the present need, while holding full consciousness and awareness, as to whether the needs identified and solutions decided upon, are in alignment with the collectively subscribed values and collectively defined purpose. This is a critical dimension of human co-creation.
This decision-or-action-in-alignment-with consciousness provides the orientational center post that enables those involved to receive, engage, and respond to incoming ever-shifting and changing realities, with alacrity, on a real-time basis.
So, to summarize the essential ingredients required to shift into an emergent paradigm, transcendent of the industrial frame, fixed structures, systems, and old paradigms are:
- To release those engaged in co-creative collaboration from the imposition of past practices; and, demands, expectations, and projections into the future, as an outcome, goal, or performance benchmark.
- To recognize that the speed of innovation, rate of change, and the emergence of global challenges can no longer be met with a quaint 19th-century industrial hierarchical orientation, rooted in power, control, and authority over the many by the few.
- To invite and awaken the human beings who comprise the organization to step up, step in, and contribute to transforming and evolving a new paradigm that takes its cue from nature, and relates to organizations as organisms, constantly changing, adapting, and responding to the environment within which it resides, and the living internal environmental needs of its people, with immediacy, living values, and purpose.
- To create the space- psychologically, emotionally, spiritually, intellectually, and physically to allow and enable the co-creators as human beings to sense, feel, think, and energetically align with each other, in the act of responding to what is needed; such that it is values-aligned, in service to shared purpose, and ultimately contributing to better serve our world.
- To transform and repurpose the existing leadership and management structures to supporting the flows by and between the individuals, teams, departments, divisions, and distributed presences of the organization, as a nervous system without the power, control and authority traditionally imposed.