Horse Sense & Reality of Academic Incrementalism: Encounters with Stanford Graduate School of Business — VII
[Continued from SuccessFactors Sings For Stanford University Medical Center — VI…]
I had worked with Dan Henkle, SVP at The GAP on a couple of projects through the years. He really liked the team development software I had piloted while at Stanford and called me to the Old Navy offices to meet his senior team to discuss how this could be leveraged to get teams at Old Navy to become more aware of the true dynamics that were animating them.
In the course of our conversations I interestingly got directed to my “backyard”, so as to speak, by one of the senior directors at Old Navy who introduced me to a director at the Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) to explore also offering some of my programs as part of the Executive Education program at GSB.
At our first meeting I presented the director, Fin O’Hara, with a couple of my recent books on fractals, including Redesigning the Stock Market: A Fractal Approach, and a number of other newspaper reports and articles about my work. We met a few times and there were a couple of things that stood out in those dialogs.
First, I learned from Fin how horses were a real test of how embodied an idea was, and therefore of how worthwhile a program offered to an executive audience might be. If the ideas live in the head only but have not been assimilated into the heart, a horse will sense the restlessness of the protagonist, in this case me, and move away from them. On the other hand if the ideas have been embodied so that they emanate from the heart the horse will feel at ease with the protagonist.
While the team development software, even though it was part of a fractal framework, was pretty simple and a horse would no doubt feel comfortable with me, the books that I presented to Fin, were surely where the horse-test would be more important. There is a fractal-based world-view presented in those books that proposes a new framework for organizational causality and development applicable at varying levels of organizational complexity.
The following is a segmented summary of these core principles of causality and development:
Fundamental Orientations
There are fundamental orientations that animate organizations. These orientations are the physical-orientation, the vital-orientation, and the mental-orientation
Physical-orientation is dictated by wanting to maintain the status quo as dictated by the past
Vital-orientation is dictated by assertiveness and the exercise of energy even if random in direction
Mental-orientation is dictated by ideas and a sense of curiosity, progressive questioning, and even purpose
Each of the orientations can be negative or positive in nature
Positive physical-orientation manifests as stability
Negative physical-orientation manifests as stagnation
Positive vital-orientation manifests as energy
Negative vital-orientation manifests as entropy
Positive mental-orientation manifests as sustainability
Negative mental-orientation manifests as fragmentation
DNA Sequencing & Sustainable Progress
Like DNA, these orientations can be strung together in different sequences to determine the active dynamics of an organization
There is one sequence of stringing together these orientations that allows an organization to progress sustainably
This sequence is characterized by the positive mental-orientation leading such that the positive vital-orientation and the positive physical-orientation are integrated into the sequence
This particular sequence exists in all progressive organizations, regardless of the level of complexity, and is foundational in creating boundary-breaking intra- and inter-organizational collaboration
This particular sequence aligns an organization with the intrinsic and progressive System-urge
Progressive-sequence and non-progressive sequences will inevitably encounter other non-progressive sequences. Such encounters create a rite of passage whereby each respective sequence has the opportunity to progress further in its own journey
There is a fractal reality to sequences such that a particular sequence at one level of organizational complexity will tend to replicate or create the conditions for a similar sequence at other levels of organizational complexity
The reality of progress that every system-element is subject to suggests an implicit order in Time
Fundamental System Properties
Because the pattern of progress happens regardless of area of consideration it suggests that this possibility is ever-present across the system
Because the pattern of progress happens inspite of the huge number of resistances and obstacles it suggests that the system is abundantly-powerful
Because the right instrument and / or circumstance is leveraged in bringing about the pattern of progress it suggests that our system is intrinsically-knowledgeable
Because every element of the system is subject to progress it suggests that our system is all-nurturing
The prevalence of the pattern of sustainable progress, hence, points to pervasive system properties of Knowledge/Intelligence, Service, Nurturing, Power/Adventure
Archetypes & Causality
These system properties form fundamental archetypes that can be expressed as sets of a vast number of related qualities
Combinations of the qualities from the archetypal-sets become seed-patterns for organizations
Every instance of an organization has a unique seed-pattern that becomes clearer as the negative physical, vital, and mental orientations are successfully addressed
The pervasiveness of fundamental system qualities suggests an implicit order in Space
Such implicit order in Time and order in Space suggests a new framework for Causality
The principles suggested here inform this framework of Causality
System stability is a result of infinite diversity or unique seed-patterns
Lack of diversity will result in organizational stagnation
Abundant diversity will result in organizational flowering
The Bases of Organization
The physical-orientation is a fractal-reflection of Service
The vital–orientation is a fractal-reflection of Power/Adventure
The mental-orientation is a fractal-reflection of Knowledge/Intelligence
Every element, whether an idea, a sensation, a feeling, an emotion, a theory, a habit, an event, a circumstance, a person, a team, a corporation, a collectivity, a market, a system, an economy, a country, is an instance of an organization
An organization can be thought of as an entity having a physical, a vital, and a mental component
The physical, the vital, and the mental are energetic possibilities on a continuum from material to subtle, where the subtle determines the material, and yet all is contained in the material
Emotion as an Organization
Emotion can be thought of as a triple-bonded vital-mental-physical structure. Through the vital component one becomes aware of a deeper structure that exists within oneself. Through the mental component one becomes aware of the reason that the structure exists. The structure will get associated with a part of our body, suggesting its physical component
Emotion can be thought of as a compass to lead us to greater system-alignment
Emotional structures are instances of a vital-mental-physical sequence (vital-leading) that influence how we experience and perceive ourselves and the world
Observation of emotion can stop the automatic structural spin to thereby reduce the field of likes and dislikes automatically created by the spin
Market Opportunity
A market can be made when a unique seed-pattern manifests and persists
Every organization is given the opportunity to be unique”
Clearing work at the individual and team levels needs to be done for uniqueness to manifest
Well, needless to this set of ideas was big, and Fin let me know that they were too big for the incrementalism that is the norm at academic institutions — even Stanford. Theoretical structures are built brick by brick, and here I was, proposing a whole alternative to the established way of thinking about organizations.
Translated, my programs would only be accepted with great difficulty in the academic world. If I wished to pursue this course, Fin suggested that I prepare myself for a very tough path ahead.
[To be continued…]
