| Attitudes
of the Worldworker
A central aspect of the post-newtonian
paradigm is the focus on the relationship between the
observer, the method of observation and the observed
event. Newtonian physics postulated a fixed framework
within which the universe exists. Reality was seen as
some sort of play that was happening on an immovable
stage, observed (measured) through the neutral lenses
of the observer’s lorgnette. When Michelson-Morley
devised an experiment at the end of the 19th century
to find the fixed frame, or the stage so to speak, everyone
was shocked to learn that there was none. To make matters
worse, they were even able to prove that there was no
stage to be found ever. If anything the “stage”
was a concept that resulted from the projection or attitude
of the observer. Quantum Mechanics, with Heisenberg’s
uncertainty principle and conclusions that have been
drawn from the double slit experiment, etc., is a system
that explains reality as a relationship between the
observer, the observed event and the method of observation.
Paradoxically, the point at which we draw the lines
to delineate these three entities is arbitrary. Watch
an accomplished couple dancing the tango: at which point
do you draw the line between the influence of dancer
one on dancer two? And how do you differentiate that
influence from the influence of the music onto the two
dancers? This delineation is arbitrary, yet the Tango
describes the relationship between the three. Within
this new paradigm, not even the concept of “the
observer” follows a common sense definition. “Observation”
is rather a quality that belongs non-locally to the
universe. When we say “observation”, we
also say “attitudes”. Many physicists smile
at the naïve new age interpretation of the Heisenberg
principle - that the attitude of the observer influences
the final emergence of the observed event - yet there
is some truth to that idea. More complicated is the
notion that the event itself is “looking at”
or “observing” the spectator, and creating
the final result of the attitude that is emerging in
the “observer”.
If we believe that a person with a green
thumb has a special attitude and aptitude for growing
plants, we omit a possible quantum effect, which might
suggests that it may be the plants that are attracted
to that person for one reason or another, and therefore
instill in that person an interest and aptitude towards
plant life. We will discuss more of these weird quantum
effects when we discuss strategies at some point further
down the line.
I have described below some attitudes
that are helpful for working with organizations and
communities. There are many more that are not listed
here, which you will find mentioned in other places
on this site. Please look at them in view of what I
write above. These attitudes don’t have an isolated
existence within the observer; they are part of the
entire group. The Worldworker is merely trained to notice
these qualities and temporarily “own” them,
to lead others to pick them up and manifest them in
their own ways.
Openness of the shaman
The above reflections create the background
of an important attitude of the Worldworker, which can
also be found in shamanism.
If we remain open and focused on everything that we
experience, we can use the awareness of our own experiences
to understand better what happens in an organization
at large. The concept of the “neutral facilitator”
is replaced with the concept of the “open facilitator”,
which includes openness to one’s own experience.
Worldwork theory suggests that in a field in which roles
switch constantly and quickly, we are facilitators/participants,
leaders/followers, speakers/listeners, authorities/rebels,
etc. As open facilitators, we can allow ourselves to
notice these various roles as they emerge in our personal
experience, and use them to understand the organization
better. For example, if you look at the teller behind
the counter, you can guess what kind of person the CEO
is. If you are not happy with the teller, exchanging
the CEO won’t help, because the two represent
roles that belong to the myth of the organization. However,
your reaction towards the teller is an important “measurement”
of the organizational field. Your own experience is
not yours alone, but belongs to the community as a whole
and allows you to measure or test the organizational
stream.
Detachment and Attachment
In order to remain open to one’s
own and others experiences, we need detachment. If I
experience myself as being closed to the communication
style of the leader of an organization, I must have
the ability to have and track several experiences at
the same time. First, I must allow myself to notice
how I close up. Second, I must remain open to my experience
of closed-ness, and open to studying what the person
does that closes me up. Third, I must form a hypothesis
or start a dialogue that unfolds the behavior that closes
me up. Detachment is not, not caring – in fact
it’s just the opposite. Detachment requires love
and care for the whole and for the process between all
parts, as well as the ability to notice it, understand
it, and facilitate it. The paradox of detachment is
that you actually have to detach from the concept of
detachment itself, so to speak, in order to allow yourself
true attachment and involvement, while at the same time
remaining detached in the midst of it all.
Loving Love and Hate
In my youth I struggled a lot with natural
sciences. I still do, but now this struggle has become
a fun, adventurous and enriching pastime. Arnold Mindell
has been a great inspiration on this path, and has encouraged
me to follow my interests in studying math and physics,
and to go back to the studies of my original field,
biology and medicine. One of my early struggles in physics
was that I didn’t understand gravity. The physics
teacher at the high-school that I went to presented
the formulas associated with it, but I was frustrated
- I couldn’t see how these formulas explained
gravity. I considered myself completely stupid, and
like many of us, hid my frustration, gave up, and hated
natural science instead. At the university, during my
first year of pre-medicine, physics was a required topic,
and I was lucky to finally find a teacher that I loved.
Prof. Brun was a passionate mountain climber and often
talked in his lectures about his climbs. Having grown
up myself in the Swiss mountains, climbing, and feeling
then isolated in the city, I thought I had found someone
that I could trust. I went to him and explained my dilemma.
He understood at once and said: “You know that
no one understands gravity, or anything in physics really.
We observe and can find rules around how gravity affects
certain things that we know, but we have no clue what
it is, why it actually works, or where it comes from.”
I felt incredibly relieved, and became open to learning
and studying about those rules, now free to continue
thinking what I had always believed, that gravity was
a scientific term for what we call love - that mass
is attracted to mass, but so are people, attracted to
one another in the same way. But then how about hate
and repellence? In my view, love has two aspects –
there is “little love” and there is “big
love”. Little love is important. It includes the
positive feelings we have for team members, for our
friends, etc. Big love, conversely, is not personal.
It is a sense of joy and celebration of the Universe,
which includes little love, but also hate and repellence,
for example. Hate has created as many intimate connections
as has love, and plays an important role in community
building. You got to love it, both in yourself and in
others, or else you can not really understand it and
make it useful to the collective that you are working
with.
Curiosity of the Mystic
Working with organizations is maybe one
of the most exciting adventures there is. Facilitating
the process of an individual is fabulous. Think of an
individual as an instrument, and the universal mind
as using that instrument to play a tune. Facilitating
the process of an individual is both helping the person
to become aware of the tune so that he or she can actively
play along, and assisting the individual in honing the
instrument so that the tune can come out clearer. Now
think of an organization as an orchestra, through which
the quantum mind is playing a concerto written by the
mysterious master of the universe, and directed by the
organization’s present leadership. As a facilitator,
you must assist each individual in becoming aware of
the tune that is being played, and the instrument that
he or she finds herself playing with. As you know, the
conductor does not write the piece, and can’t
be expected to. She is hired to understand the repertoire
and to work out its interpretation with the orchestra.
The facilitator of organizational processes must be
a music lover. She or he must understand that only the
orchestra and the conductor will be able to play the
piece, and that her/his job is to assist in their process
of becoming aware of what they are doing. By the same
token, the leader must understand that she is a conductor,
and that leading is not really leading in the old fashion
sense of the word, but more like conducting. It is an
effort to assist the band in a collaborative endeavor
that allows them to follow the tune precisely, make
space for solos, and focus on the timing of the flow.
This requires humility, love, strength, the ability
to push and also to yield, and above all devotion to
the composer and to the music – finally and in
short, it asks for the romantic deep curiosity of the
mystic.
Love for Consensus Reality
Consensus Reality - as all students of
mysticism, couples in love, jihad suicide bombers, nighttime
dreamers, or actually anyone who ever had any kind of
mind-altering drug experience and remembers it, would
agree - is vastly overrated. We have heard countless
testimonies of individuals who believed that consensus
reality was the alpha and omega of existence per se,
only to find when they were forcefully thrown out of
it that in one way it is actually a shabby three dimensional
illustration of the multidimensional miracle called
life! Many of us struggle through consensus reality
and long for the day that we can afford to leave it.
This complicated relationship to consensus reality shows
itself in many quick fantasies and feelings. We might
have quick suicidal thoughts that come in a variety
of forms- the impulse to drive the car straight at the
curve, not wanting to get up in the morning, hoping
for or looking forward to retirement or a vacation,
hoping to win the lottery, etc. – these are all
fantasies to escape from material life. Worldwork values
equally the immeasurable aspects of our existence and
the measurable, but not more!! Measurable life, consensus
reality, and all that goes with it is a central, fun,
and exciting aspect of who we are. Having a body, using
it, enjoying the earth, touching a tree, making, spending,
losing, keeping or giving money, all belong to this
realm. If we focus only on the bottom line of an organization,
we are like a director who spends all of his energy
inspecting instruments, without ever getting the band
to pick them up and play the tune. The audience will
sit there disappointed. However, if we don’t think
that the bottom line is the indispensable key to community
health, we are like the director who has accomplished
great teamwork, perfect understanding, and deep experiences
within the band, but has not noticed that the players
don’t have their instruments with them, and the
audience is sitting there, just as disappointed. No
concert tonight!! The ability to study and analyze organizational
structures, appreciate the importance of administration,
financial analyses and competitive advantage, understand
visions and translate them into strategies, and create
action plans, is as vital as one’s relationship
to the emerging spirit. The two categorizations are
in fact expressions of the same, and only separated
through the observer’s preference for one.
Humor and Crises
"Good," said Don Juan Matus.
"When confronted by the unfathomable, a warrior
either makes a joke about it or he takes it seriously,
and it destroys him."
Optimism and Warriorship
“You can make yourself either miserable
or strong”, said Don Juan Matus, “both involve
the same amount of work.”
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