“When the human being experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest, a kind of optical illusion of our consciousness takes place. This illusion is like a prison that restricts our personal desires and affection to a few people close to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion, to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. " Albert Einstein.
The feeling of connectivity characteristic of people with high levels of personal mastery leads to a broader vision. The experience of increasing connectivity is one of the most interesting contributions derived from the systemic perspective to coaching, self-coaching, personal mastery and team coaching.
One of the key contributions of the systemic perspective is the integration of reason and intuition. Intuition is increasingly popular and prestigious in creative and business media. Contemporary experience shows that more and more artists, creators and managers value and use intuition.
Direct experience is the most powerful tool to learn and train us to create any vision. We can only learn by doing when the feedback of our actions is fast and direct. Nanoexperiences allow us to compress time and space. We can learn and train even if the consequences of our decisions are in the future and in places far from our current reality.
Connection with the whole
Inamoni speaks of the action of our heart when it generates a sincere desire to serve the world.
I also believe that this action has great power, because:
The sensation of connectivity characteristic of people with a high level of personal mastery leads to a broader vision.
Without that vision the unconscious is much more egocentric. His narrowest vision is to get only what he wants. Instead, with a vision that transcends selfish interest you discover that you do not have the energy for narrow objectives.
When we are born we initiate a process of connection that consists of continually discovering certain external forces that are interrelated with our own actions. Instead, for most adults this process stops. As age increases, our discoveries may decrease. We see less and less relationship between our actions and external forces.
If you look at any learning process for a child from birth to adolescence, you will discover a beautiful and effective metaphor for the challenge you face: your connection to the whole.
Surely you will never be able to grasp all the possibilities of this connection. But your being open to that possibility is enough to free your thinking.
The experience of increasing connectivity that Einstein describes, in the opening sentence of this article, is one of the most interesting contributions derived from the systemic perspective to self-coaching and personal mastery.
Commitment to the truth
The process of becoming aware of current reality must begin with a simple and profound strategy: commitment to the truth. Commitment to truth is not a philosophical search for absolute truth. It consists of the effort to avoid ways of limiting ourselves or manipulating it to deceive us, preventing us from seeing what really exists. This poses a challenge to our theories and mental models that things are the way they are. It means continually widening our perception, as the best player does, trying to cover all areas of the game.
The critical task in identifying structural conflicts is to recognize them, when they are acting. Once you recognize an operating structure it will become part of your current reality. Commitment to truth is transformed into a creative tension generating force.
Generative integration of intuition and rationality
Intuition is increasingly popular and prestigious in creative and business media. It has overcome centuries of cultural indifference. Contemporary experience shows that more and more artists, creators and managers value and use intuition. They no longer carry out projects or solve complex problems in a rational way only. They identify feelings, patterns, and draw analogies in apparently disparate situations. In many Universities, Institutes and Business Schools courses and workshops on intuition and creative problem solving are held or prepared.
Although we are still a long way from evaluating the possibilities of integrating intuition and rationality.
With the application of the systemic perspective to self-coaching, we do not propose that you integrate intuition with reason but that you achieve it in a natural, generative way.
In the same way that you will not choose between the head and the heart or walk with one leg if you can have both. Bilaterality is a design and operating principle that underlies the evolution of advanced organisms. And, therefore, in self- coaching and in the organization that learns.
One of the key contributions of the systemic perspective is the integration of reason and intuition.
Intuition avoids emphasizing causes and proximal effects in time and space of linear thinking. The meaning of most intuitions cannot be explained according to linear logic.
Instead, as managers, professionals, intellectuals, and artists dominate the systemic perspective, they discover that many of their intuitions have very reasonable explanations.
Reflection and inquiry
Another key strategy for raising awareness of current reality is the application of skills or aptitudes, which are called action science specialists like Chris Argyris and divided into two broad classes: reflection skills and skills for inquiry.
Reflection is essential to slow down our thought processes and make them become more consistent when forming our mental models and how these influence our behavior.
Inquiry is very important in our direct interactions with others especially when it comes to complex and conflicting issues. It is very effective to become aware of your perspective based on the data on which it is based.
Inquiry and reflection will become very important in coaching with a systemic perspective and learning. Although many stop learning once they graduate, the people who truly learn are the ones who cultivate inquiry and reflection in action, the ability to reflect our thinking as we act.
Nano experiences: start learning by doing
Direct experience is the most powerful tool to learn and train us to create any vision.
But what happens when this vision transcends time and space within which we are capable of experiencing?
Nanoexperiences allow us to compress time and space. They allow us to learn and train by doing.
We can only learn by doing when the feedback of our actions is fast and direct.
If we operate in a complex system, which is more frequent than we think, the consequences are neither immediate nor close. They are almost always distant in time and space.
How, then, can we learn from this experience?
How can we learn to make important decisions if we cannot foresee its consequences
Nanoexperiences allow us to compress time and space. We can learn and train even if the consequences of our decisions are in the future and in places far from our current reality. They allow us to learn by doing while addressing systemic approaches.
This is important in coaching with yourself.
And it is, especially in corporate coaching, in the learning of organizations and teams.
Coaching with nano-experiences is learning for the creation and development of generic or transversal competences, feedback processes and prototypical organizations.
Just as today in business, political, sports and organization decision-making meetings in general, the emphasis is placed on the current reality, nano-experiences put it in the creation of future realities.
