I have viewed your conversations and am impressed by the level of passion and
inquiry. I notice that many of you are widely read and make use of references
that I have not yet come across. My path did not lead me through the academic
world.
My first understanding and experience of living systems was through organic
farming in western Sweden where I was introduced to the reality of life's
inter-dependence. I then spent 14 years at the Findhorn Foundation (a spiritual
community in northern Scotland) where I worked as a gardener and also as the
Director of Education. This phase of my life gave me insight into the cycles
and developmental rhythms of group dynamics. Basically Findhorn was, and is,
a huge experiment in creating a spiritual learning organization that is viable
and able to endure for more than just one or two generations. I also wrote a
book in 1986 called, "The Dance of Change; an eco-spiritual approach to
transformation" (published ny Penguin).
My current passion and work at Boeing is in self-organizing systems and what it
takes to create the right conditions in which new possibilities can emerge. I
have used Open Space technology (Harrison Owen's approach) here on several
occasions in the past two years with some success. I hold the belief that
groups and systems can self-organize if three essential elements are present:
1) a higher common purpose - when there is a collective intentionality and
focus that serves the good of the whole system. This alignment to a greater
cause is the "vertcal cohesion". 2) A willingness to work together - when each
person can offer their passion and commitment to the success of the total
venture by agreeing to cooperate and by seeing differences not as something
divisive but as a diverse way of expressiong unity. This alignment of hearts
and minds is the "horizontal cohesion". 3) Alevel of personal maturity and
self-mastery - to the degree that I am relatively free of the gravitational
pull of my own biases, agendas and emotional turbulence, then I am able to
play more effectively in the team arena.
So that is who I am and where I am at and what I would love to explore with
others. Thank you for allowing me to join this network of discovery.
-- "Bid me run and I will strive for things impossible" (William Shakespeare) Michael Lindfield Internet I.D. mlindf@kbct.bems.boeing.com M/S 7A-25 206-865-2255 206-865-4851 (FAX)