I must make it clear that the type of learning I am speaking of here has little to do with the memorization of information and accumulation of knowledge. While information and knowledge are important, they are only the means to support the learning process; they are not its outcomes. The outcomes are deep understanding, creativity and transformation. Indeed, learning cannot be passive; it involves active engagement and participation. When it is not rote, learning changes us by re-organizing our mental structures. This requires highly creative skills, which too many people lack. We need a new curriculum on ‘learning how to learn.’

To live is to learn; to learn is to create. (AM de Lange*)

No other living systems’ capacity is more important than the capacity to learn. Life depends on it. Our learning disability causes incoherence in our thought process: we are unable to see clearly, thus even less able to take actions that could improve our conditions. On an individual level, learning disability in people often translates into an inability to live a purposeful and meaningful life, while creating much anxiety, depression and unhappiness. At an organizational level as well, I would argue that the main reason for the failure and collapse of firms and social systems is due to their inability to learn. Too little focus is brought to the development of this deep learning capacity—hence the drama unfolding in front of our eyes that is jeopardizing our own survival and evolution. My intent, here, is to highlight only a few of the multi-faceted characteristics of the process of learning which leaders must embrace in order to navigate the present and co-create a better future.

Beyond analysis, learning is about synthesis and integration

There is nothing wrong with using the prevalent analytical approach to developing knowledge as long as one understands the limits of the reductionist method (analysis paralysis) both in terms of its scope and its applications. Integrative, holistic approaches to learning have the benefit of uncovering patterns in what seems contradictory and divergent. Integral learning takes place in an open system able to continuously and more fully sense the environment in order to capture emergent opportunities. It takes a complementary approach that embraces both/and thinking versus dialectical dualistic either/or thinking. Synthesis is an act of active connective creation, which finds wholeness in what had been previously fragmented.

Learning occurs in a state of “not knowing”

Nothing new enters in a mind full of certainties. New learning occurs in a state of “not-knowing” (Bohm, 1992), i.e., in an open, inquisitive and curious mind. Insights arise when living in the questions becomes more important than the answers provided and the willingness to explore a given topic from many different perspectives is present. The process of inquiry is about “making distinctions,” a concept developed by Fernando Flores; it aims at unconcealing or inventing nuances of interpretation from which breakthrough thinking emerges. Of course, one must impose a certain will and determination on the human mind for it to remain at the uncomfortable place of “not-knowing.” High levels of ambiguity always create anxiety in a mind that loves the reassurance of certainty. The process requires the courage to let go and the belief that our identity, i.e., our Self, will not dissolve in the process; identity is not what we know but who we are, in the never-ending process of “becoming.”

Embodied active learning

Learning takes place in the domain of action (i.e., in the doing) and through the experience the action creates. The act of perceiving is inherent to the learning process. Maturana and Varela (1987) assert, “[T]he phenomenon of knowing cannot be taken as though there were “facts” or objects out there that we grasp and store in our head. The experience of anything out there is validated in a special way by the human structure, which makes possible the “thing” that arises in the description…every act of knowing brings forth a world…All doing is knowing, and all knowing is doing.” Experiential learning can have a powerful impact on the reflective learner, who is awake and aware of what is happening inside and outside of him/herself, throughout the process of experiencing. As such, learning is active; it requires full participation of the individual in a live conversation (with oneself and with others), i.e., in a dynamic thinking process and set of interactions that are open, spontaneous, respectful, and inclusive of divergent perspectives.

Spontaneous emergent learning

Some learning is liminal or primary: it occurs below the level of consciousness and leaves reason aside, at least for a little while. This type of learning, which is very familiar to artists, taps into an undifferentiated level of order, i.e., a non-fragmented and seemingly chaotic world of Oneness—a world that collapses the boundaries between what is inside and what is outside. In the “Hidden Order of Art,” Anton Ehrenzweig states that “unconscious scanning makes use of undifferentiated modes of vision that to normal awareness would seem chaotic. Hence comes the impression that the primary process merely produces chaotic phantasy material that has to be ordered and shaped by the ego’s secondary process. On the contrary, the primary process is a precision instrument for creative scanning that is far superior to discursive reason and logic.” Ehrenzweig believes that creativity is highly related to the chaos of the primary process and that “[T]he creative thinker is capable of alternating between differentiated and undifferentiated modes of thinking, harnessing them together to give him service for solving definite tasks.” The learning dance and movement between differentiated and undifferentiated modes of thinking creates “flashes of understanding,” which emerge spontaneously. This direct and intuitive learning process requires a high level of awareness and openness (i.e., presence) in order to sense the Whole. It also requires the acceptance of high level of ambiguity. The resulting “primary knowing” is the source of breakthrough thinking and creativity.

Transformative generative learning

The spontaneous emergent learning described above is a ‘deep learning’ process which most often happens at the “edge of chaos,” a transitory phase created by entropy production (i.e., the generation of heat and chaos in a system that pushes the system away from dynamic equilibrium toward a paradoxical phase of simultaneous stability and unstability). As the system settles for a while at the edge of chaos, under specific conditions, the components of the system are able to adapt and self-organize and potentially create new structures and a newly realized and higher level of order—an emergent process. The result of this creative process is evolutionary in nature and increases the wholeness and complexity of the system (evolution, here, is a word to be understood as ‘increasing complexity’). For us, as humans, this process entails the letting go of old mental models and patterns of behavior; the ability to see with new eyes; and the capacity to live for a while in a deeper than normal transformative process, resulting in the development of new beliefs and worldviews. This process is irreversible (i.e., non mechanical), reflecting life itself; it provides a new and firm ground from which to develop new strategies and actions and achieve ever-higher levels of performance.

So what is authentic learning?

Authentic learning is a birthing process—a process of “becoming being.”** As such it often necessitates a midwife to facilitate its emergence. While we are all learners, we can also take the role of the midwife when the situation requires it, assuming we fully understand what it takes to give birth to a new “Self.” Unfortunately, what would seem to be so natural to human development has taken a strange turn throughout our evolution. Somehow, we have lost touch with the most fundamental and basic requirements of the process: openness, authenticity, respect for the diversity of ideas and opinions, trust, letting go, accepting ambiguity and the fact there are no right answers, and so on.

Authentic learning then is an act of deep creativity. Deep creativity is an act of authentic learning. Taken together, both capacities have the potential to elevate us to the next stage of our consciousness and evolution. Whether we are willing to learn to ‘become’ is yet to be seen. Yet, for the sake of all humanity it might be worth a try.

* Adriaan Michiel de Lange (1945-) is a South African chemist physicist and transdisciplinary scientist, who studies how thermodynamics, the base of modern complexity studies, applies to the humanities—more specifically, he suggests that entropy production must apply to the metaphysical world as well as to the process of physically knowing and learning. In the late 1990s, de Lange began sharing his theories at the learning-org.com forum.

** The expression “becoming being” is borrowed from AM de Lange.

Bohm, David (1992, 1994). Thought as a System. Routledge. London and New York.

De Geus, Arie (1997, 2002). The Living Company: Habits for Survival in a Turbulent Business Environment. Harvard Business School Press.

Ehrenzweig, Anton (1967). The Hidden Order of Art: A Study in the Psychology of Artistic Imagination. University Of California Press. Berkeley and Los Angeles.

Maturana H. R. and Varela F. J. (1987).  The Tree of Knowledge: The Biological Roots of Human Understanding.  Revised Edition.  Shambhala. Boston and London.

I love the World

that is breaking in tears

for the peace of mankind

My colleague Andrew J. Campbell and I just co-facilitated our new Leadership for Emergence course in South of France and we can still feel the energy.  We are excited at the future potential of this unique and in many ways unusual creative offering in the peaceful and inspiring commune of St Jean de Laur, located at the heart of the Quercy.

Imagine yourself going away from your busy professional life to a three-day course.  Instead of booking into a hotel or typical retreat ‘facility’ you find yourself in Beatrice’s own family country property.  Just renovated, it includes all the modern comforts while keeping its original style and charm and still carrying the rich history of her family over the years.

St Jean de Laur Property

Every day, you will share homemade breakfast, lunch and dinner made from fresh local food; you will enjoy walks and hikes on trails lined by centuries old stonewalls and punctuated by shepherds’ stone huts.  Now, see yourself at the end of a warm day, swinging gently in a hammock and gazing on the billion stars that are the Milky Way.  If you are lucky, you may even see a shooting star.

Stone huts, trails, trees and fields

This unique course deliberately keeps the size of the group to six people in order to provide personal attention and the appropriate level of coaching to each participant based on their specific leadership needs at every given moment.  Over three days, Andrew and Beatrice will attend you as you progress through your own creative journey.  One important goal we set ourselves is to create an environment that facilitates spontaneous insights as participants open their senses more wholly moving from double-loop learning to achieve triple-loop learning—that is, learning which comes from the heart and that integrates explicit knowledge (knowledge in the mind), tacit knowledge (experience) and transcendental knowledge (wisdom).  Central to our living design is the belief, based on our experience, that the inner state dynamically balanced with Nature is key to any transformative journey and that all change process must be grounded in our own authenticity.

With the assistance of Nature, Art and Dialogue, we choose to focus on helping individuals connect with ‘source’ that reawakens natural creativity.  Throughout the process we aim at co-generating with participants an unbroken field that reveals their own emergent destination.  The heuristic structure allows us to create a very fluid process, reflecting Nature’s creativity, from a set of activities that are adapted to the unfolding need of each of the participants.  Our intent is to facilitate participants’ reconnection to the very meaning and new purpose of their lives—as Andrew puts it, “with lightness of touch at the speed of light.”

Since a picture is worth a thousands words, here are a few glimpses and highlights in pictures with some commentaries.

Letting leaves, stones and lichen speak for themselves

“I am powerful, but I don’t know how.”

“I am coming from Nature, going to Nature, but I am outside of it”

“I am fragile, of different forms, yet adaptive.”

Stones, Leaves and Lichens

Painting session

One does not have to be a trained artist to fully engage one’s core creative self.  It is sufficient to pick up a brush, open the mind, open the inner eye and paint the vision.  Our sole purpose as creative facilitators is to co-create the space for authenticity to reveal itself.

Wisdom of the Hand

The Body Electric and Deep layers of Cosmic Knowledge

The many authentic lessons that may unfold from the connected body-mind in Nature are best captured in what poet William Blake referred to when he wrote “No bird soars too high if he soars with his own wings.” One lesson is that the quintessence of emergence is its irreversibility. It cannot be manufactured; like a dream and like a work of art, it contains past, present and future as one. We can choose to live life as in art, creatively, healed, whole, holy: three words, one reality.

Short Poems

Beatrice and Andrew

Poems and paintings by Augusto and Susana Tomas
Photographs by Andrew J. Campbell

Over the past three months I have deeply reconsidered my professional path and purpose and it has become clear that it is time for me to go on my own and start my business. (Yes!  I do believe it is the perfect time for me to do so, even in a time of economic recession.)  While the specific wording of my mission statement is still evolving, its direction is already apparent:

To help transform organizations into purposeful and conscious living systems and to facilitate the resolution of adaptive challenges while considering the impact of all organizational activities on the community, the environment and the broader ecosystem.

Keeping a foot into theory and a foot into practice has always been essential to my personal fulfillment.  I also believe that the sharing of knowledge with a broad audience has never been so critical at a time when it is urgent for our society to go through a paradigm shift and change our way of thinking.  It is imperative for our collective consciousness to arise now or we run the risk of not making it as a civilization.  (Note that I am seeing many positive and encouraging signs that a collective consciousness is in the process of emerging.  Perhaps I’ll make this the topic of another post.)

Consequently, I see my work revolving around three pillars: consulting, research, and knowledge sharing.  These three pillars are of course interdependent and mutually reinforcing: theories inform practice and practice provides the environment to test, validate, or update the theories which then can be shared and applied to resolve real world problems; and the loop keeps on going indefinitely.

While still in development and evolving, I am happy to share with you some of my preliminary business ideas around the three pillars.

Consulting

The essence of my consulting practice is Transformative Work.

Organization/Community Transformative Work

My goal is to work with businesses, non-profit organizations, local governments, and communities who face adaptive (value-based) challenges, chronic problems, and the need to change.  I see my clients as organizations and/or communities that seek:

• Greater clarity about—and alignment with—their purpose and identity.
• Higher level of mindfulness and consciousness driving all activities.
• Increased coherence and integration of all activities to achieve their purpose and greater good.
• New competencies, including adaptive learning capabilities and ability to address the root causes of problems.
• New strategic opportunities aligned with the organizational purpose.
• Increased resilience and ability to adapt to change.

Services for the Architectural, Engineering, and Urban Planning Professions

I intend to leverage my architectural training and my interests in collaborative integrated design process and in urban planning projects, combined with my systems thinking skills and knowledge about living systems theory, to serve the architectural and city planning community in two main capacities:

1- Sustainable and Regenerative Urban Design

I am currently investigating consulting opportunities with architects, city planners, and urban developers, and other stakeholders involved in the planning, design, and development of sustainable communities, eco-districts, and eco-cities.

2- Innovative Business Models in the Architectural/Engineering/Construction (AEC) Industry

I am also looking at providing my expertise to AEC firms with an interest in transforming their business models and developing innovative services that deliver higher values to their clients.

Theoretical Framework

I take a holistic approach to organizational transformation and change that is grounded in the application of the following theoretical frameworks: systems thinking; complexity sciences; living systems principles; evolutionary theories; adaptive leadership; consciousness; and collaborative/integrated design process.

Knowledge Sharing

I believe there is a need to accelerate learning and bring new theories into the mainstream.  So, beyond blogging, research papers, workshops and conferences I am currently exploring ways by which to amplify critical ideas and reach out to a larger audience.  Social media plays a key role in this area.

This year will be my fourth-year as instructor with Bainbridge Graduate Institute (BGI), a distance learning MBA and Certificate program in sustainable business where I team-teach a Strategy & Implementation course and a Systems Thinking in Action course.  BGI’s mission is to “Change Business for Good” and the entire community is actively engaged in co-creating a just and sustainable future.  The BGI experience has been very rewarding to me and I look forward to continuing being involved with the Institute.

Of course, I am committed to writing this blog.  It gives me the opportunity to stand back and reflect every week on diverse topics and ideas that are at the basis of my work.  With a few exceptions, it has so far been a one-way communication.  I hope that over the next few months you will engage in the conversation and share your comments and suggestions.

Personal Values

I will bring integrity, trust, excellence, openness, love and compassion in all that I do.

I believe that everything is connected and that solutions to our messiest problems can emerge out of our collective wisdom.  Collaboration and dialogue are critical.

I see my adaptive leader role to be one of service.

Collaborations

I have recently joined other “citizens” at Designs for Sustainable World Collective, LLC (DSWCollective), a consulting firm that “bring(s) together a wide range of experts with complementary backgrounds to focus on the development and implementation of practical yet aggressive sustainable design strategies.” I very much look forward to collaborating with DSWCollective’s founder Darcy Winslow and her team in the near future.  I am especially grateful to Darcy for having kindly accepted to put me under her wings and to mentor me over the next few months.

Over the holiday, I also reconnected with my friend Jeff Klein of Working for Good Collaborative.  Jeff and his team are helping companies become more socially and environmentally conscious.  I’ll be happy to offer my skills and expertise and be of service whenever and however it makes sense.

I have recently become a member of the Collective Wisdom Initiative, a website and network created in 2002 by the Fetzer Institute, whose purpose is to “help make visible an emerging field of collective wisdom, its study and practice.”  It is my deeper desire to be able to help organizations and communities connect to their field of collective consciousness through dialogue, deep listening, and the power of love as the energy that reconnects that which has been separated.

I look forward to 2010 and all that it holds for me and for all of us!

With gratitude,

Beatrice

As we brainstormed about the purpose and other aspects of the business, the word “love” came out, again and again, as one of the driving principles for the new venture.  The thing was, it wasn’t coming from me.  For unclear reasons, I started to feel somewhat uneasy and my rational mind started to ramble with a story line that went something like this: “Love! Love! This is all nicely said, guys!  But we are dealing with very complex business problems here.  We need tools such as systems thinking to see connections and embrace the complexity and we need to build the skills, capacity, and expertise to address tough issues.”

I went on like this, talking to myself, not daring to express my feelings, as I did not want to “spoil,” or to bring to an end, the amazing flow of energy that was in the room.  As the meeting proceeded, I became very confused.  I also grew very unhappy with myself.  Here I was, the only woman in the room, and I was the one who was not comfortable talking about love within a business context while these guys seemed to feel perfectly at ease with it.  My feelings stayed with me well after the end of the meeting throughout the following days, until, eventually, they slowly dissolved.

I won’t expand on the personal development change I went through since that meeting but I know now, with much certainty, that these men were right and I did not get it!  From a very deep place within myself I know that love is the absolute necessary ingredient at the basis of all transformative work.  Without love at the root of our work, we—change agents—will not be able to build a sustainable future.

Love, compassion, and deep empathy for our clients, business partners, teammates, communities, as well as our family and friends must be the sources and driving energies for our transformative work.  How could we bring consciousness in organizations without love?  How could we facilitate adaptive change without compassion?  How could we find solutions to our tough problems without empathy for the people involved in the process?  We need love as the new transformative power to develop higher level of consciousness.  We need love to create a generative field and awaken our collective wisdom.  We need love because these are times when the most accomplished rational mind is helpless to find solutions—not because the solutions are beyond human intelligence (they are not!) but because innovative solutions require us to change our long-held mental models and values and to take a leap of faith into the unknown.  We need love to believe in a world of possibilities, abundance, justice, equity, peace and harmony with the environment and with other living species.

In his most recent research and forthcoming book on “Getting Unstuck: Solving Tough Problems Through Power and Love,” Adam Kahane borrows from theologian and philosopher Paul Tillich to redefine power as “the drive of everything living to realize itself, with increasing intensity and extensity” and love as “the drive towards the unity of the separated.”  As Kahane explains, power is the drive to achieve one’s purpose, to get one’s job done, and to grow, while love is the drive to reconnect and make whole that which has become or appears fragmented.

The redefinitions of these two fundamental forces of power and love—beyond their traditional meanings of “oppressive power” and “romantic love”—are very empowering when dealing with adaptive work.  Every system, institution and living entity has a purpose (e.g., a school’s purpose is to educate and disseminate knowledge).  Even when the purpose is not made explicit, it can be deducted from the behavior of the system (e.g., a school’s unstated purpose might be to have as many students as possible graduate each year).  Adaptive work consists of making a system’s purpose explicit or, in some cases, redefining its purpose, and ensuring that the behavior of the system is congruent with the stated purpose.

Love relates to the principle of “Coherence”—that is, the idea that everything is already whole and that our task, as a collective, is to look for the ways that it is.  It means that the solutions we seek, in fact, already exist, and that if we open ourselves enough to the possibilities and listen to our collective wisdom, we can resolve all the problems we face.  This is why the process of “Dialogue” or “the art of thinking together” is so important when dealing with tough problems.  The technology of Dialogue* is based on deep listening, respect of the positions of others (especially when they are at odd with our own) and on inquiry, all the while suspending assumptions, judgment and certainty, with the intent to see the big picture, patterns and trends and the belief that a new understanding will emerge out of the process.  A dialogue is driven by the desire to see connections and to re-unite what has been separated.

As we bring our knowledge, skills, expertise, and all the gifts we were given to facilitating change, let’s also commit to bringing love, both in its traditional and new definitions, as the underlying force and energy driving our adaptive work.

I wish you all a very happy holiday season.

Beatrice

* To learn more about the origin and process of Dialogue, see Dialogue: A Proposal by David Bohm, Donald Factor, and Peter Garrett

The workshop explored the “application of the latest brain research to the qualities of exemplary leadership.”  Blake, who participated in the recent International Neuroleadership Summit that was held this past October, reported that neuroscientists are now coming to accept the until now controversial ideas that “the body is the brain” and that the mind is embodied. (It is important to mention that these ideas have been familiar to consciousness practitioners for a long time and, perhaps, are self-evident to most of us.)

The mind-body dichotomy idea originated from the French mathematician and philosopher Descartes in the seventeenth century with his well-known assertion “I think, therefore I am.”  Descartes argued for a disembodied mind having no influence on the body and vice versa.  This powerful idea allowed Descartes to reject the existence of any subjective reality.  From a Cartesian perspective, the essence of humanity is rationality, that is, our ability to think logically, to set goals for ourselves, to make decisions between different alternatives, and so on.

Following on Descartes steps, the conventional view in cognitive science holds that the mind is only the result of the activity of the brain.  In addition, the process of cognition is considered a process of manipulation of symbols and of representation of an external world.  However, recent experiments have shown that, by bringing our focus and attention to the mind, we can change the brain’s activities.  Also, findings in quantum physics have shown that separation between an observer and an observed phenomenon does not exist when dealing with atomic entities.

Consequently, there is an emergent and growing recognition among scientists that cognition is not “a representation of an independently existing world, but rather a continual bringing forth of a world through the process of living” (Capra, 2002).  From this new perspective, all cognitive activity is embodied and context-specific.  There isn’t a pure objective reality of the world.

What this means is that living systems – and human beings, in particular – select from the environment which information or disturbances to notice and consequently, create information and assign meaning to it.  This is done through a dynamic process called “structural coupling” – a term used to depict a living system that engages with another or with the environment.  Living systems learn through their ability to structurally-couple with their environment or with other systems in order to communicate (verbal and non-verbal communication), coordinate behavior, and adapt.  This learning is embodied learning because it uses the internal structure of the system and the body to learn in order to take action.  (Note that embodied learning is in contrast to the traditional definition of learning as gathering, processing and understanding information.)

When we remove the mind/body dichotomy, we realize there is a feedback loop between thinking and feeling: what we think influences our feelings and how we feel influences our thinking.  As Richard Strozzi-Heckler, President of Strozzi Institute, notes: “When our feeling-self and thinking-self are coherent we are at our most powerful.  When they’re at odds, we’re a train wreck.” [Read his article “A Return to Lovingness”].  Of course, how we feel and think influences our behavior and how we interact with others.   What the workshop’s experiential exercises demonstrated is that language is not necessary to communicate and to influence the feelings and behavior of people around us.  People perceive the energy fields that are generated by our bodies, gestures, facial expressions as well as our thoughts, and are influenced by them.   We all have had the experience of feeling sad or depressed, for no particular personal reasons, simply because we have been around a sad or depressed person.  Keep a frown on your face all day and you will start feeling sad.  Don’t we also say that happiness is contagious? Also, it is well know to call center representatives, that smiling while you speak to someone at a distance changes the tone of your voice.

So, how can leaders retrieve their generative power (by “power” here I mean their ability to act mindfully and in a way that empowers others) and become mindful leaders?

Since the mind is embodied, observing the body – our ultimate instrument of perception and action – is critical.  Mindful leaders are not only intellectually smart, they have developed the capacity to sense and be aware of their environment and of the state of their own being.  Mindful leadership can be regained by observing and monitoring the mind in order to modify its activities.

As Jeff Klein notes in his book Working for Good,

“Our bodies are incredibly intelligent.  While we believe we think with our minds, our bodies are great receptors, interpreters, and projectors of experience.  They continually read the terrain for us and inform our awareness.  They sense our physical orientation and relationship to other bodies.  They sense temperature and sustain our balance, and they can detect when our sense of balance is challenged.  They carry memories and experiences, and without our conscious intervention they respond to subtle signals to protect and guide us.  We can learn a lot if we pay attention to how our bodies feel and respond to our thoughts and actions, and to external circumstances and other people.  And we can apply this intelligence to how we move in our work.”

Learn how to tune in to your sensations and body and lead mindfully.

Resources:

Capra, Fritjof 2002, The Hidden Connections: Integrating the Biological, Cognitive, and Social Dimensions of Life into a Science of Sustainability, Doubleday, New York.

Klein, Jeff 2009, Working for Good: Making a Difference While Making a Living, Sounds True, Boulder, Colorado.  (See in particular Chapter 2: Awareness and the accompanying exercises.)