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July 17, 2008

9:46 pm | 0 recommendations | 2 comments

Evolving Capacity to Handle the New Complexity

| posted by Zach Smith

To give you a sense of what I do and where I'm coming from please read below:

I'm a consultant, researcher and practitioner committed to the evolution of human and human system capacity to engage the world. It is not just what we do that matters but how we are as well. This can be explaned as the relationship between “Be-Do-Get.” How we are-how we see, understand and make meaning-in the world determines what we do. The results of our worldview and our actions are the results we get.

There is a lot of energy being directed toward and focus on helping people do better. Skill development, competency improvement and technology all help us do better. There are times, though, when what we need is not a new way to do the same thing differently. At times, we need to evolve a new way of seeing that allows us to overcome the limitations of our current ways of doing. The development of this new way of seeing is a result of deepening our capacity to see. This is what I do and what I believe we need to do to face the new complexity unfolding before us. We need to help people and human systems deepen their sense of their selves and deepen the way they interact-are interconnected-with the world around them.

One valuable way we can be of service is to turn our practice and technologies to the development of sustainable ways of Be-ing and Do-ing. We-the greater human community-need to evolve the capacity to engage the world from a deep systemic understanding. This is not environmentalism, a focus of climate change, green business or LOHAS. It is the capacity to integrate the linear with the non-linear, to see the forest and the trees and come up with a way for the loggers, environmentalists, paper business, bird-watchers, bears, flowers, fish, toads and people living downstream to all benefit from their relationship to that forest. This requires a new way of seeing and thinking and doing. What enables this new way is our capacity to see, think and do. 

Are you ready to change?

This post was adapted from the Capacity Evolution blog which I also write.

Tags: Innovation, Leadership, Management, Social Responsibility, Capacity Building, sustainability, wellness
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Recent Comments | 2 Total

July 19, 2008 at 7:27pm

Manjit Syven Birk
Learning to see is an essential element of moving into a more visually orientated world but only when it one reaches a personal aha moment, that totally alters how one views what seems to be the same thing. Reaching that aha moment or crossover point in learning to see is not a given. One has to be relaxed enough to make this transition, and in our stress ladened, short-term objective world, that represents a critical blind spot. Seeing things as a total system and as a long term view isn't how the majority of people have been taught to approach life. So I appreciate where you are coming from here. This for me is about discovery not leading people into seeing what you or I see (otherwise it would be called brainwashing and that isn't learning to see). The ultimate question for me isn't "Are you ready to change?" but simply Why? and if ones connection is embedded deeply in an industrial age or traditional perspective, that Why? seems immaterial and rather pointless, but,it seems apparent to me that as you have found out, it certainly is not. The main issue isn't if people are ready to change but whether they can comprehend a philosophy based on value that is not about compartmentalizing and breaking things into bits and pieces in isolated pieces but breaking things up to a create a more valuable whole piece. I apologize that I am not going to be able to stick around to respond beyond today, I must make a commitment to continue allowing my own way to emerge, but it is way totally related to learning to see......M.
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July 20, 2008 at 5:40am

Zach Smith
Manjit, thank you for the thoughtful response. I agree completely with your observation on the blind spot. When there's little time to relax, step back reflect and there is little opportunity for anything but do-ing. In my work with organizations I find that a consistent dysfunction. "Downtime" is time to be filled more do-ing. This collective and individual lack of opportunity to reflect I see as one of the core reasons why sustainability is still very much a fringe activity in most organizations. Who's got time to think about the future or the impact (intended or otherwise) when there's so much to do now? I also concur with the thoughts on discovery. For "sustainability" to be sustainable it must have a compelling intrinsic element of motivation. What motivates you may or not motivate me. We need to discover what moves us to that "aha" or that which creates a shift in energy, excitement and vision. Innovation is much the same. We innovate from the inside out. Innovation is the realization of inspiration. I wish you well on your way and I hope, as it emerges, you are able to inspire others to take the lead, learn, innovate and sustain. z.
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