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The Generative Practice

The Generative Practice is about a way to be in our lives that extends our awareness, engages our heart, and enables us to generate results. The practice brings us to a state of full engagement with our lives by reorienting us to the truth about our relationship to the world which is coming into being in every moment. We find that what we think of as control does not exists, and that, even so, we are never disenfranchised. We are always a part of the creative team that generates the future. And we discover the exciting truth---that our lives are an adventure just waiting for our full engagement. The goal of the practice is to give us an active, adventuresome approach to life and all of our "projects"---to put all creative efforts on the same level as planning our greatest adventure.

The Generative Practice is also a way to understand, teach, diagnose, and embody any creative process.

Why This Practice Is Valuable

There are many methods taught for moving through a creative or development process, and most of them help us to improve our odds. This practice is a little different since it derives from a very specific philosophical base. But it also is the same, in that it is attempting to guide us into a more effective and powerful relationship to our lives. Many components are consistent across various practices: strong visions, appropriate action, sensible planning.

Here are a few elements of this practice that are unique to its orientation. It has a strong focus on:

1. Awareness in the actor of the environment and the arising potential (possibilities),
2. Attention to all levels and sources of action,
3. Leveraging existing potential,
4. A practice to maintain the most powerful relationship to the process (stance),
5. A practice to consistently maneuver quickly and efficiently,
6. Enabling the emergence of natural organization and management structures.

There are other unique aspects of the value proposition for the model and the practice discussed in the section on the Arising World Model. (Model Key Differential Elements

A Few Basics

Actions Create

We are all creating all the time, though we do not often realize the effect we are having on the world in every action and thought. This creative practice details the various modes of the creative activity in which we are all engaged and is based on the The Arising World Model (a model of how the world arises into being and how actions generate the potential of the future world.) The practice is the same for all creative entities (individuals, groups, organizations, or countries) though the scope, dimensions, proportions, and timeframes may be different.

At every moment we are doing something which is action in the world. And at every moment the world is changing its state into the next version of itself. To cause the state of the world to change into something we desire, we must understand what is arising or happening, and we must act in accord with the potential of our desire. We must understand that all action is generating potential which will, at some point, come into being as the world. What we do in any present moment is an investment in a change of state in the future, and it is this evolutionary process which we must learn to leverage.

It Is a Visible Process or an Invisible Movement

Generative Creativity Practice represents an understanding of the process of human creativity, whether the result is a momentary impulse, a seamless artistic expression, or an organizational development lifecycle. It applies to successful creation whether it is implicitly or explicitly practiced, and where the result can be a picture, an organization, or a country. Depending on the practitioner/s it will be expressed as an invisible internal modulation, or an explicit step-by-step process. The practice is framed by defining specific ways of being in or relating to the creative activity itself. We call these Modes. The modes themselves are ways of viewing and understanding the world as it is, what it might become, and what states of being and actions are required to cause a new creation to arise in the future.

Modes will be enacted through certain adopted practices and tactics, things to be done or experienced. These practices and tactics will be used to elicit states of being, organization, knowledge, and generative actions. Depending on the size of the creative project and the number of participants, practices and tactics will address personal/group and internal/external dimensions.

A Key Understanding : The Indirect Effect of Action

A very important understanding that arises from this practice is simply this: while everything we think and do contributes to the possibilities and potentials of the future, it is also true that we are not in control the way we might have thought. The dance we do with life is a little more intriguing and indirect than a command-and-control scenario. It's not necessarily less potent, but it is different; and when we live as if we have control, but don't, we are not as effective as we could be. We also find ourselves frustrated because, in fact, we are then working in a world that we don't understand and cannot predict. (And, of course, we cannot control it, because we never had control in the first place.)

So the world arises from the potential generated by all creative actions across time, and our part is to act to generate potential for the future. The potential, as part of the state of the universe, is the structure that holds the energetic information that will or can arise in the future becoming the actual world. This structure is as complex and deep as the universe itself. What is arising in the future represents the potential from all of the creative acts that the universe has experienced. We have been using an oversimplified view of the rules of causality---which actions cause which effects. The world does not arise from our simplistic view of causation, but arises from the intricacy of the interaction of all the potential generated.

The ocean is a beautiful example. Billions of actions happen within the solar system that cause waves to be generated: earthquakes, wind, the moon, whales swimming, clams opening, sand shifting. All of these cause waves and ripples to flow into the moving structure we call the ocean. And each of these movements generates potential for a change in the state of the ocean which can have large or small effects. But the actuality emerging in any moment is the result of all of those movements as they arise together. Which wave hits the shore is a complex emerging behavior of the entire being of the ocean. Our relationship to the future world is similar to sending a wave out into the ocean along with a few billion other waves.

Human Potency

There is a great deal of variability in the effectiveness, or the potential generated, of any given action. We see that some actions have more power than others to affect the future---they generate more potential. We also recognize that some people have more power to affect their own futures and/or the future of others. We also see that in some types of endeavors we have more capability to be effective. Or we can see that within different scopes we will have more or less effect---I may find that I can effect something in my home or business, but not in every home or business. These are all areas of variability with respect to the power of any given action or actor. In addition, we must learn to be on target with respect to the direction of the potential we generate, for we know that our actions can work in our favor or not, depending on how well we choose which actions to engage in. All of these factors affect the power of our actions to actually change the world, our lives, and ourselves.

There is another source of power in our creative actions. That is our ability to sense or intuit the possibilities that are already in the pipeline, so to speak. What possibilities exist in the potentials of the future world that have already been created by past actions (our or others)? If we can find a creative current that has a strong potential to arise that also meets our creative desires we can leverage that already existing possibility into our lives by our engagement with that potential. Ideas and intuitions we have are often precisely these potentials coming into our awareness. Part of this creative practice is to develop our ability to fully engage with the existing potentials, learning to leverage this current as our own creative power.

So we see that our ability to effect a change of state in the future world is mediated by many factors:

• The ability of the actor to sense what is already arising in the potential of the future,
• The ability to catch the wave of that arising potential,
• The ability to generate appropriately directed action,
• And then, what everyone and everything else is enacting to generate potential for the future.

These become the total generative ability. Our ability to dramatically change our world is limited to our ability to generate potential through powerful individual and group action, knowing all the while that everyone is generative, but many are only diffusely effective.

It is key to remember that an action does not generate a result. An action generates potential that arises with the rest of the potential into an actuality. This indirection is key to understanding the magic of the arising universe and our internalization of this reality will dramatically enhance our ability to empower our visions.

Remember, action generates potential; potential arises into the future world.

Awareness Counts!

In this discussion we will be guided through the modes of the practice and we will address issues of awareness as they arise in each of the modes. (Alternately we could, and many teachings do, focus on the state of consciousness of the actor and the development of his awareness, allowing that to lead into new patterns of action.)

The state of the awareness of the actor as he acts is very important to the effectiveness of the action. We need to cultivate a broad, open state of awareness of what is truly happening in the world, the potentials that are ready for engagement, and how our internal ideas, intents, and thoughts are contributing to our actions. Engagement with this generative practice on an ongoing basis will develop an enhanced awareness that will mediate an engagement with the world that is richer and more dynamic. We will be able to pick up on things that we would have previously missed. It's all about an improved awareness of the contextual environment in which our actions take place. Everyone must be as aware as possible.

There are also factors in our awareness that have to do with our relationship to the world and our experience of the world. These are also critical to the creative process for in this model we include ideas, intentions, and thoughts in the category of generative actions. We will see that these internal constructs are often, if not usually, harmful actions in that we are often resistant, negative, and limiting in our thoughts and beliefs. These thought structures, which many call the ego, are often believed to be our actual selves and we use them to both limit who we think we can be, but also what we expect the world to be. We will come to view these thoughts as negative actions, or unskillful actions, and we will learn to reduce or eliminate them from our acting awareness. This is another step in expanding our awareness of what is possible in the world.

We will explore them in more detail as we move through the modes, but here is a brief explanation of the most important points:

• Neutrality. Neutrality defines a preferred relationship to the existing world that is unattached emotionally to what is. While we can enjoy (or not enjoy) what is currently happening we must not be attached to its continue existence in a way that inhibits our ability to create. We must understand that what arises is precisely what we have created and this will always be true. Attachment affects our ability to create in many ways.
  • Attachment can distort our ability to see what actually is.
  • It will distort our ability to choose appropriate action.
  • It reflects a ongoing concept that you need something, and thereby a belief that what you need does not exist or might not exist; in this practice we would classify this attachment or belief as a negative action---an action not in line or congruent with your goals.
  • Attachment to one thing represents resistance to its opposite. Resistance is a way for the ego to try to deny what has arisen and represents a belief that some reality couldn't or shouldn't have happened. This always puts you in conflict with the process of creating what you want, which is a very different action than resisting what you don't want.
  • Neutrality also pertains to ideas of what is possible, for many of our limitations arise from our belief in them. Being neutral or having no fixed ideas of what's possible leaves room in the universe for things to arise which may be grander than you could imagine. Having a fixed idea will almost always limit your possibilities to those things you think of as possible or likely.
  • The final point on neutrality is that we must not have a strong attachment to our results, which is another form of resistance in which we require the world to be a particular way. We have goals and targets that determine our actions, but the results must be surrendered to the intelligence of the world as it is arising. That is part of our adventure---to see what happens next.
• Coherence. Coherence is the practice of finding alignment with an arising possibility. Each of us comes into being along with potential events, objects, and people to engage with. Sometimes these possibilities are right in front of us---like a bus. But sometimes we find our engagement with them through synchronicities or intuitions, and in this practice we work to develop our skills in maintaining awareness of the potentials arising around us. Sometimes we resist these potentials (it's one of our ongoing habits) like a child resists going to bed. But sometimes we find perfect engagement with these opportunities---and that is what we call coherence. We become coherent with the arising possibility and therefore can use the existing momentum and potential to our best advantage.
• Congruence/Alignment. Being congruent or in alignment implies being consistent in our actions relative to a goal that we have determined. It is part of the practice to be completely aware of our actions and thoughts to the extent that we learn to maintain congruence at all times. This is counter to many of our behaviors in which we act to create a goal which we secretly believe is impossible; or we only work half heartedly at something because we don't believe we are worth it; or we do a task all the while believing it is stupid; or sometimes one part of an organization (or an individual) is working at cross purposes with another. Being congruent is how we maximize the potential of our actions to generate results in line with our goals.
• Surrender. To surrender is an ongoing process of suspending judgment and fixed ideas, and willingly and completely engaging with what happens. It can become the perfect stance for engaging creatively with the universe. You still choose; you still act; but you never resist. You see everything that flows into your space as part and parcel of your life and as part of the medium of creation that you are working in. It is all an expression of what the world has become and the working potential for what you can make of it in the future.
• Engaged Purpose. The engaged purpose is the ultimate stance. We are surrendered to everything that is arising as part of our world of creation. We are sensing the arising potential of possibilities and choosing to fully engage directly with that potential as our purpose in living. And we are practicing congruence and alignment in our actions to maximize the possibilities of our ongoing adventure.

 

The Stance

The ongoing awareness practice is described by these states of being. We work to maintain a stance that embodies:

• Ever present awareness and interest in what is,
• Ever present awareness and interest in the arising potentials and possibilities,
• Neutral acceptance of (or surrender to) what has become,,
• Passionate interest in what might be created,
• Joyful engagement with the task of creating the future.

The Practice Methodology

This description can be viewed as merely an explanation of what happens when one is creating, or as an explicit method through which an entity can work. It depends on the creative experience of the entity (individual or group), the complexity of the creation, and the dimensions of the creation space (number of individuals, size of the project, and time).

This practice consists of:

1. Modes. Modes are not actions or steps, but are ways of being in or relating to the creative process. They are used to evolve generative action and can be classified as cognitive (knowledge), being (awareness), and doing (action) modes.
2. Dimensions. Dimensions are the information "state space" of the of a creative project. This is information about the context in which the creative process will happen. It includes anything that is relevant to the process; things we must know, study, manage, create, or evolve.
3. Practices. Applicable practices are adopted or developed that define techniques for enacting the modes---how we actually do it. They are methods that happen over time that may have sequences and assignments.
4. Tactics. Tactics are adopted "reactions in the moment," engaged when a triggering event takes place. They can be used to keep a project on track or to maximize the reaction to a useful event. Sets of tactics can be combined to create emergent organizational behavior.

When we are in the midst of a creative project, we need certain things on hand. All of these attributes are required and this practice guides us in assuring we meet these requirements:

• An accurate and comprehensive understanding of what exists,
• A sense of the possibilities relative to the goals of the creative process,
• A strong and vibrant vision of what you wish to create,
• An understanding of the large context in which the goal is to actualize,
• An understanding of your mental constructs (concepts, beliefs, ideas) relative to the goal,
• The capability to act to generate potential toward the goal,
• A ever evolving short-term plan of action which is congruent with the creation of the goal,
• Adequate practices to keep you on track,
• Tactics to help you respond in the moment to situations that arise,
• The ability to constantly measure and improve congruency of action in support of the actualization of the goal,
• A practice of continual iteration and evaluation of vision, alignment, information, and plans.

So now we know what we need and we can move into the practice itself.

 

The Generative Practice

What is a Mode?

The practice is framed by a set of modes with which the creating entity interacts with the creative process. A mode is a way of viewing, understanding, and interacting with the creative universe (the ultimate creative project itself). They are not necessarily sequential. The modes are not always "balanced" in that different types of creative activity leverage some modes more than others.

At any moment, anyone on the team could assume any of the modes to examine or experience what is happening and provide a re-focus on the target creation. They are all part of a constant, iterative way of being in the flow of the project. Each mode uses information experienced from other modes to enable movement, modulation, and generative action.

Each mode uses a different mix of knowledge, action, and awareness and each represents different ways of experiencing the world.

It is important to understand that the most critical parts of the creative process have to do with knowledge and awareness. Traditionally management practices focus on planning and action which are merely the final expression of the rest of the process.

The Modes group into two important themes: Taking Aim and Taking Action.

• Taking Aim
  • Survey
  • Sense & Engage
  • Envision
  • Embody
  • Align
• Taking Action
  • Map
  • Maneuver

What is a Modulation?

Modulation is the term we use for the process of moving or shifting into and through the modes. (The way a musician modulates through a sequence of tonal keys.) There are many types of modulations, that is, patterns of moving through the modes, depending on the type of creative endeavor. The sequence, emphasis, and importance of a given mode will vary depending on the task at hand. For example, if I am working on a novel and inquiring into the possibilities of the story, I will use a different modulation than if I am creating a manufacturing line for a new model of bicycle. The modulation will again be different if I am considering the mark I am currently making on a painting, or developing how I will create and market an entire art show.

 

A Modulation for the Process of Inquiry

A Modulation for a Manufacturing Process

 

A Modulation for Making a Mark on a Painting

 

 

Modulations can be nested. That is, you may be in the midst of a larger modulation and also doing smaller complete modulations. If I am building a company (a large modulation), I may also be designing a product (another large modulation), and writing an article for the press (a smaller modulation.) These are all related to the larger project of building a company but also become creative projects in their own right. You may or may not want to be concerned with these relationships, but as we learn this practice we will find it useful to be more aware of the specifics of our relationship to the process as we are learning to maximize our effectiveness.

Modulations can be almost instantaneous: an experienced artist will modulate invisibly as she makes successive marks on the paper. The modulation is implicit in the artist's engagement.

Modulations can be very large and long projects with multiple teams and years of work. Here the modulation will be very explicit and visible.

Awareness counts in our execution of modulations as we will see as we begin to understand the deeper aspects of engaging with each of the modes.

Dimensions

Dimensions are the information state space of the project---any and all aspects of the world that are of interest and relevance to the project. They are generally characteristics of entities. The dimensions will be defined and targeted for each different project type. The information required for a project is whatever we need to understand, manage, or monitor. This is a normal part of the process.

When you begin a project with the survey mode, you will start to define the type of information that is relevant to your understanding of the world in which the project will proceed. As a project develops a broader scope, this information should be documented for ongoing attention. Some of the information will be part of knowing what exists; some of it will be the vision of the project, and some of it will include the necessary tracking of the embody, map, and maneuver modes.

Practices and Tactics

Modes are enacted through practices and tactics. They are used to elicit:

• States of being
• Knowledge
• Structure
• Generative actions (changes in the potential)

For each creative project the participants will want to choose useful practices to enact the modes. Many of these practices will look just like those you choose in any of our activities, but they will be used in an improved context and overall process. In evaluating a particular practice for use, it is important to insure that it supports and does not disable key aspects of the overall practice. Because the practice is focused on action AND awareness, there will be practices that address both the external actions (of individuals and the group), and the internal awareness states (of individuals and the group).

• Personal External Actions
• Personal Subjective Practices (internal)
• Group External Actions
• Group Subjective Practices (internal)

Subjective practices are focused on maintaining personal and group alignment to the illuminated vision and to the appropriate models of the future in which the new creation is to arise.

In this discussion we will not focus on specific practices and tactics. The specifics are very dependent on the type of project itself and we will not go into that level of differentiation here.

The following sections give a light overview of each of the modes. As we discuss each mode and its goals we will also touch on the aspects of our awareness that are most critical to that mode.

Taking Aim

The practice focuses on creating a powerful trajectory to the goal by taking careful and accurate aim. The trajectory is the flight path to the results we are trying to create. As we work through the modes and maintain our flight path our actions will naturally lead us on the path to our creation.

Taking Aim is the process of defining a trajectory, the course to our chosen goal. The principle is that a highly refined and well executed trajectory is the most important component because a well defined trajectory has the potential to pull us, our actions, and the universe into alignment with our goals. We often fail to realize our goals because a vague or inconsistently define target is very hard to aim at. In this practice, the trajectory is created from our vision, knowledge, beliefs, capabilities, and awareness. (Notice that so far there are no task lists involved; they come later.)

If the trajectory is always absolutely accurate (a big challenge) then effective action will be very straightforward. The key is managing the accuracy of the trajectory and our ability to fulfill it since all of our actions will happen along the trajectory we have in place.

Why might a trajectory be less than accurate?

1. We may not have optimized our vision.
2. We may not be in alignment with the vision or each other.
3. Since the world is always changing, any established trajectory will be degrading moment by moment. The more time between trajectory refreshes, the worse it gets.

Since the quality and accuracy of all our mapping and maneuvering will be guided (entrained) by the trajectory, it is the essential part of the process to constantly review and refresh the trajectory. Some people think that they acquire control by having a long-term established plan. But since the world is ever changing, one's fixed plan or unexamined trajectory is constantly diverging from the true goal. Action is diverging from the goal constantly because a long term plan is reinforcing the use of an ever degrading trajectory.

Many creators (managers and teams) are willing to ignore misalignment and degrading trajectories because they are stuck on their "idea" of their goal in the abstract. They are not willing or able to internalize that the universe in which they wish to create the goal is a changing affair. True control comes from a constant and pervasive attention to adjusting to the ever changing world. How often do you need to refresh your trajectory? It depends on the particular volatility of the environment in which the process is engaged. Some arenas are more volatile than others.

Learning to work with the trajectory as the primary guide, as opposed to a task list, will also enhance our awareness of the world as it is and as it is becoming.

There are five modes in setting up the trajectory.

1. Survey - Build knowledge of what is
2. Sense and Engage - Sense the potentials and possibilities
3. Envision - Develop a vision of the creative goal
4. Align - Align the team, practices, and tactics to the goal
5. Embody - Create the necessarily capabilities to do the work

Sequence Note

The presentation order is not meant to indicate that a sequence is required. Anyone on a team could embody any mode at any time; all modes could be represented at one time. Access to particular information is important for each mode, but it is an iterative and dynamic process. In some modulations, some of the modes become invisible though they do not go away.

While in practice you use them in whatever order is meaningful, to get started it is useful to start work with a survey. The project universe we survey is everything you can imagine that will be part of or interact with the creative process.

Innovation: How do you really get started?

In fact the real start of a creative process is a mini-modulation. It is a small spiral through three of the modes that spins up the idea for a new creative endeavor. It will make more sense after you have been through the modes at least once. It looks like this:

• Sense & Engage: The idea generator (individual or team) gets an intuition about what their next engagement should be. The motivation can come from anywhere: the next painting, the next book, the next business division, the next high tech new thing.
• Envision: Within known parameters, the individual or team engages with a vision. This may be ideas floating in someone's mind for awhile, or a brainstorming session (or many) with the team.
• Survey: The vision gets a mini-evaluation relative to what is known about the environment this new idea will arise in.
• Iterate: As an idea percolates into a creative engagement, it will spiral, in ever increasing depth, through this little modulation until it gains enough body and soul to spin itself into a full scale creative endeavor.

Process Diagnosis

The generative practice model turns out to be an excellent tool for diagnosing problems and challenges in ongoing creative and development efforts. This seems to be true no matter what the existing process structure is. This is because the Modes used in understanding process are not tied to sequences. The level of decomposition in both process, information dimensions, and deliverables provides an efficient and effective formal framework for analyzing functional problems and constructing powerful solutions.

Survey

The Instruction:

Survey the project universe.

Whatever you desire to create will arise in the world relative to what is already here. To get a sense of what can be accomplished, you need to understand the realities in the project universe. This will include resources (people, places, funds, things), capabilities (yours or those of the team), challenges to overcome, competitors---everything relevant in the environment in which this creation is to arise. The elements of interest depend on the project, but you need to know as much as possible about the world which you wish to modify so that it will include your new creation. In this mode you are studying and cataloging all the information that will help you define what you want to create relative to the world in which it will exist.

It is important to be as neutral as possible when surveying; you want to really see what’s what without a lot of opinion as to what is good or fair or friendly. You want to minimize any distortion of reality by your likes and dislikes, your attachments, or your fears. This neutrality is not easy to come by, but as you develop the knack it will provide a great deal of freedom to explore the possibilities and expand your creativity. As you modulate through the other modes, new ideas and information will cause you to revisit the survey mode to refine and extend the information available to you.

The Technical Description. This is an individual or group process to understand "what is happening"---define, study, and evaluate the contextual environment in which the goal is to become a reality. This will include internal, external, and time-based dimensions which are identified as relevant to the process and to the context in which the goal will arise and persist. The analysis must include facts, measures of movement of the facts, and the meaning or implications of the facts.

The Process. Use one of the analytic development practices and appropriate tactics to generate a documented description of the context in which the group will generate the potential for the illuminated vision. Alternately, in a implicit modulation, like that of putting a mark on a canvas, the survey is a momentary scan of what is currently on the canvas relative to our intentions.

The Deliverables. This process will develop a complete description of the relevant contextual environment including the dimensions of that context which can be measured and documented on an ongoing basis to monitor the state of the environment over time.

1. Understanding and description of what is manifest and what is arising in the environment
2. Description of the internal environment --- the group and the group's resources
3. Description of the external environment --- the context in which the group will act
4. Enumeration of the useful dimensions that should be understood for the duration of the project

The Awareness Component. In survey mode, it is important to be open minded about what you research and observe. This requires a neutral and interested stance. You are interested in learning what exists without having good/bad opinions about what you find. This enables you to develop a more accurate picture of the world, the challenges, and the opportunities. At this stage, you should even be quite neutral about what it is you are going to create, since you will not really have a proper view of the possibilities until after you survey the world and sense what the potentials are.

Sense & Engage

The Instruction:

Sense and engage with the possibilities.

This mode is the most unique. It’s one of those practices which, while used, is not usually called out as a formal mode. We usually hide it from ourselves and pretend that everything we do is “logical.” In this practice, one of the most important processes is to engage with your intuition, your underlying sense of what could be.

The reality is that the movement toward participation in the creative process is in itself a powerful reflection of something that is attempting to arise from its existence as a possibility into the world as an actuality. That mere inclination that you have to try something is that possibility coming into being. You are its messenger. We can more consciously work with this emerging potential by using intuition and a process called inquiry. To inquire is to sense what it is that we are being compelled to create, what is inspiring us to move forward. Then we inquire into that more deeply: What does this creation mean? What are its possibilities? What are its variations? Where does it want to go? As we carefully engage with the creation with these inquiries, new information will arise that will further define or enhance our ideas.

Engaged inquiry causes us to find another way of being present and aware, recalibrating a way of being in uncertainty and in a mode of discovery.

In your inquiry you envision how engaging with the process in different ways will change the potential of the arising creation, exploring different paths to the same goal. The creation will start to grow and live, at least in your heart and mind. It is very important to be free of judgment while you are inquiring. You want your conversation with the future to be uninhibited by old ideas. You want to be free to see, understand, study, and adopt any new creative expressions that come to you. As you deepen your understanding of this new idea, you may discover a need to return to the survey mode to explore newly uncovered territory in the environment.

Inquiry demands a deep interest in the subject for it requires a type and level of concentration that is not possible in you are not interested in the inquiry itself. Your interest is what draws you into the process deeply enough to reach fertile ground---the new and undiscovered country. Do not expect inquiry to be fruitful if you do have an abiding interest in the subject.

Some things disable the process of inquiry. An individual or member of a group will fail at inquiry if they:

1. Need to be told what to do for whatever reason (they are incapable or unwilling to be responsible for their contribution)
2. Will not commit to engagement
3. Are more concerned with their state, rights, condition, or feelings than the inquiry itself
4. Don't understand the subject or direction of the inquiry
5. Are not truly interested in the subject and direction of the inquiry (don't just bring people into the process to fill the room no matter how "good" or "valuable" the inquiry or the person is; they won't be able to contribute.)

The Technical Description. This is an individual or group process to see what is arising, sense the deeper patterns, discover what the deeper patterns mean, and engage with the chosen potential. We call it Engaged Inquiry. This is an deep discovery process enabling us to develop a clear understanding of the direction of the current of arising potential---what is prepared to actualize. This process requires a intuitive group practice of exploration and is a key differential in this practice.

Engaged Inquiry is a practice that is developed naturally by artists (of all types), researchers (in all fields), and creators in business and technology. It is a skill developed by those whose training and inclination lead them to be focused on discovering new possibilities. To inquire is to shift one's state of awareness into the field of potential and to mine that potential for information about what is possible or probable. It is an intuitive skill which only a few of us have cultivated but all of us execute at some level. Powerful creative people become expert at this mining operation, but many of them think of it as a mysterious process, even though they are able to use it at will to move forward with their creative work.

The Arising World Model sees the process of Engaged Inquiry as moving one's attention toward the moment of becoming in which the potential arises into the actual. This is felt in the mind and body as a flow state where one is in the midst of the arising potential and it is this state that accesses creative possibilities, which is information about the potential itself. All creative people are successfully "being" in that moment, engaged fully in the universe's creative process.

Engaged Inquiry is a skill that can be developed both individually and in groups. In group inquiry, there is a sense in the group that the process itself moves them beyond their sense as individuals and into a shared state in which the sense of separation between the individuals dissolves in the bright light of intense and directed inquiry.

The Process.

There are many entries into the practice of inquiry. Artists begin their inquiry by engaging with their materials and exploring. This works whether they are painters, dancers, writers, or musicians. Scientists begin their inquiry with their existing body of work, and through contemplation and mental exploration move into new areas of development. One can seed an inquiry by digesting information, patterns, and ideas surrounding the area of inquiry. One can also set a question into the field of knowledge and allow one's intuitive mind to search the potential for solutions.

So one may start the process by:

• Thinking (logically at first but then moving onto an intuitive process)
• Discussion (Groups searching through ideas and revelations into deeper possibilities)
• Brainstorming
• Intersubjective Inquiry (see link below)
• Engagement with the creative medium
• Disciplined meditations on a subject of inquiry
• Meditation in general to allow the mind to quiet itself of known answers
• Other techniques to access "flow" state

Once you've started the engagement you must be aware of things that arise (ideas, images, inclinations, associations) and then you "play" (reorder, recombine, recolor, challenge, explore, meander, assimilate) with those things and follow the most significant ideas. Then you notice the changes in the illumination of the potential as things shift into and out of focus.

To inquire you must not "know" the answer but must be be profoundly interested in what's possible and in what you can discover. You must remain in a state of interest, open to all possibilities. That interest must be more important than any personal ideas, position, status, or importance; the new ideas must take precedence over the self. This is what generates the freedom to discover and create something truly new.

Here are some of the concepts and guidelines for engaged inquiry: Engaged Inquiry

The Deliverables. The creative team must develop knowledge of what is arising in the potential and a clear sense of which of these currents are applicable and meaningful to the understood goals of the group.

1. Internal understanding of the arising potential
2. Group ability to experience and discuss this arising potential
3. Ability to bring enough of this knowing into an adequate cognitive state of expression (which may be different according to the talents and complexity of the creating entity).

The Awareness Component. This mode is all about awareness. This mode formalizes an intuitive engagement with our creative processes that we use but do not often acknowledge. The formal practice of inquiry will greatly enhance our general awareness as we take a new sense of connection to the world into our everyday lives. All our actions will be newly aware of the possibilities constantly surrounding us.

For a small personal essay on the experience of the awareness of the arising potential, read The Experience of the Arising World.

Envision

The Instruction:

Envision a result.

Here you blend what you know about the project universe and your intuited idea into a defined and illuminated vision. You want to define not only what it is (how it looks, tastes, feels, sounds), but what it means to you and to any partners you have in this venture. You want to explore how you will feel when the new creation comes into being. It is also important to explore what this creation means to the world in which it will live, because the meaning of the result to everyone who experiences it is the primary reason for its existence. So how will the people who experience this new creation feel about it? What will it mean to them?

For a vision to gather as much power as possible it should incite support and inspiration all along its path, including it’s existence as the end result. In this way, everyone who comes in contact with this creative effort will be enhancing the strength of the trajectory and the realization of the result. Unless it is a short-term project, you may want to document your vision. To envision your large commercial bakery as a viable business, you will want information, concepts, value propositions, and creative ideas wrapped up into your vision. Write it down. Create pictures, diagrams, charts. Make it as vivid and inspiring as possible. View it from every angle and from the viewpoint of all participants and users. Make it real.

The Technical Description. This is an individual or group process to define and describe the creative goal in great detail in such a way to illuminate value, quality, and meaning for the group and for the world in which the goal will live. This process must incorporate information from the Survey and Sense & Engage modes.

The Process. Use one of the vision development practices and appropriate tactics to generate the illuminated vision. Vision development is a well-documented process, and most practices will work as long as they include the broadest array of available information which arose in the Sense & Engage mode.

The Deliverables. The delivery for this mode is anything you feel enhances a bold and illuminated vision. The vision is a key part of the trajectory and must be strong enough to compel participation, guide action and decision making, inspire confidence and perfect alignment. It must also have enough depth and clarity to enable the team to envision what they need to embody, that is physically accomplish, the work. The vision is the guiding light that will keep everything moving along the trajectory. Value, quality, and meaning are critical; fine detail should be postponed unless it is necessary to the power of the vision.

Whatever the format, a vision should include the definition and description of the goal including:

1. A complete description of the goal (what it is, how it works, why we care, how it changes the world)
2. The meaning to the group
3. The meaning to the world (or the users)
4. The accruing value proposition to the group
5. The accruing value proposition to the users
6. The accruing value proposition to the world in general
7. An understanding of the feeling state generated by the belief that the goal is actualized---how will the team and the world feel about the realization of the goal.

The Awareness Component. It is important to keep an open awareness while building the vision. (Of course, it is always important to use whatever expanded awareness capability the team embodies.) During the envision mode the team will be engaging deeply in expanding the details and qualities of the vision. It is just this type of engagement that can also open access to new potentials and understandings. It is necessary to be open to new ideas and information that may arise and to allow it to expand and evolve. As always, it may be necessary to circle back into a Survey mode to explore new areas of research, and shift back into a more intuitive Sense & Engage mode. As you build facility with the practice, you begin to see that any activity you engage will use a type of modulation. Each of the modes is really just a way of engaging the process with a particular emphasis. They are not exclusionary nor do they have rigid borders.

Align

The Instruction:

Align yourself with the result.

 

Now you must examine your belief in yourself, in your team, the resulting creation, and the world in which you must create it. To be aligned with the result is to have a belief structure that implies that this new creation can and will come into being. You must examine your thoughts, your beliefs, and your understanding of the context that you believe to be true. You must concern yourself with any belief or idea that negates your efforts to create: ideas about your ability, the support you expect from the universe (or lack of it), your awareness of what is truly happening. Everyone involved in the project must be aligned in their beliefs and their goals. If you are not working toward the same goal, you will not be harmonious in your actions and not getting the traction you should. When you are working with others you must spend time aligning your efforts and your ultimate direction. In a group, you should find a way to check in with each other and review the alignment of everyone’s efforts, goals, and beliefs. And you should do this on a regular basis.

This conceptual context affects perception, choice of appropriate action, and is tantamount to action itself. A system of thought is something you live in. In fact, your system of belief is the world in which you create your life; if it is not a correct view, or if it does not align with the possibilities you are creating, then you will not be effective. Aligning your conceptual context to your goals brings total freedom to act, for the world you will now be engaging will support the possibility of your vision.

A Vision with Clarity

In order to properly align a project it is important to have a strong vision. It must clear and unambiguous enough that everyone is quite clear where the team is headed. This also does not mean that it is rigid; because we have the capability to re-align at any point, the trajectory can (and must) evolve. This does not mean that willy-nilly changes to the direction are meaningful; they usually indicate that the team or leadership is not aligning with a clear arising potential, but is randomly making stabs in the dark to find direction. This is not effective. In this situation, you would need to move back into both survey and Sense & Engage modes to find out where you should be headed.

Alignment Dimensions and Misalignment

There are many alignment dimensions and they will be somewhat dependent on the nature of the project at hand. Some or part of the team can have:

• Varying and/or incorrect ideas about what is
• Varying ideas about what is possible
• Varying ideas about what is important
• A misunderstanding about vision or goal
• Varying commitment which is unstated or unrealized (you can often work with team members with varying commitment levels if those facts are known, understood, and managed.)
• Self or group identities (images) that conflict with the project, each other, or with their appointed roles

Understanding and diagnosing misalignment is critical for managing congruent trajectories. It is not enough to have the teams agree. Everyone acts directly from their conceptual structures no matter what they agree to. They must truly find alignment.

 

The Technical Description. Evaluate and understand all conceptual structures (concepts, beliefs, ideas, attachments, organizational structures, orientations, world views, etc.) that will affect individual, group, and constituency alignment to the goal state.

The Process. An individual needs to examine their concepts and beliefs to try to uncover misalignments with the chosen vision. In groups, identify possible alignment challenges exploring ways to bring the team into alignment and ways to maintain it. Use one of the alignment development practices and appropriate tactics to generate alignment to the illuminated vision.

The Deliverables. An description of what alignment looks like including the dimensions along which one could measure alignment, and documentation of the set of practices and tactics adopted to maintain alignment to the illuminated definition and description of the goal including:

1. Description of alignment
2. Adopted alignment practices
3. Adopted alignment tactics
4. Dimensions of alignment that will be tracked as a monitoring practice

The Awareness Component. In this mode it is challenging to look at one's own conceptual structures. We often live as if these beliefs and ideas are reality as oppose to our idea about reality. We seldom challenge our belief structures. In a way, a creative project is a testing ground for what you believe to be true about the world. Your successful engagement is a measure of your true understanding of the world and how it works. It is a prime time to challenge beliefs, especially if they can hamper what you want to create. The level of effort necessary to uncover disabling concepts is well worthwhile. In addition, when working in groups it is important to bring a high level of neutrality into play in order to free the team to explore without having to worry about people's personal self-images.

Increasing your alignment to your goals, as you get more accurate, will also align you to reality---a new awareness of how the world actually works.

Embody

The Instruction:

Embody what it takes to do the work.

Now you must assure that you have what it takes to do the work. You must have the right tools, the right materials, the right space, the right people, the right level of strength, and physical and mental agility. You must acquire what you don’t already have in place. This will also include the right support structures: training, classes, partners, advisors, customers. Part of the development of your creative project is to build, develop, or acquire the necessary things for your creation to arise.

Depending on the scope of the project, you may not start out embodying the entire process. You need to embody a reasonable capability for the near and middle time frames, building out capabilities as you move forward. You do not want to build capabilities too far into the future (defined by the volatility of your environment) in order to allow for changes of trajectory.

It is a common development mistake to under invest in adequate capability development. We fail to acquire or train people who can or will fulfill the requirements for the project; we fail to develop the materials or support programs that our team members need to do their jobs; we fail to put practices in place that highlight our trajectory and errors in trajectory; we try to move forward with poor materials.

The Technical Description. This mode is much like our existing practices for building the capabilities of our teams, and they can work fine for developing what we need. We need processes to create the physical environment and structure needed to embody the potential for appropriate action. This includes actors (persons, organizations), structures, relationships, operating principles, tools, methods, and tactics.

The Process. Use general planning and organizational techniques to build out the structural requirements to support the next phase of the creative endeavor.

The Deliverables. The deliverable will include the right team, physical facilities, and organizational structure to move forward.

1. The appropriate actors (persons and organizations)
2. Appropriate structures (physical and relational)
3. The appropriate relationships between actors and structures
4. A set of operating principles
5. All appropriate tools
6. An array of methods and tactics to support the maintenance of the embodiment

The Awareness Component. The main awareness factor is to invest in what will make the next phase of the project perfectly effective and little else. If you optimize effectiveness in the near term, it makes everything possible in the future. If you fail to meet objectives in the near term, investments in future requirements may be miss targeted or unnecessary. In addition, the process needs to be aware of the volatility of the environment and not make investments that could be made obsolete by changes in the state of the project universe.

Taking Action

Now that we have a trajectory---an illuminated goal and the resources to go after that goal---we can plan a course of action and execute that course of action. We’re ready to get moving, though at key moments you will shift back into a renewal or redevelopment of the trajectory. For many projects you will be executing modulations at different levels. For example, if I am making a painting I will build a trajectory for the overall creation including what I am to paint and how, and then I will start to do the creative work; but for each stroke of a brush on the canvas, I will do a lighter modulation through the modes: survey what is there, sense what should happen next, envision what that will mean to the painting, align myself with the next stroke, embody it (you have to eventually pick up the paint), then you plan the stroke and do it. Of course, if you are experienced you will ripple through that modulation transparently. If you are not experienced, the modulation will help you understand what you need to do to prepare to make that very next mark on the canvas.

Taking action is comprised of two modes, Map and Maneuver. Then what is left for us to do is to Modulate!

Map

The Instruction:

Map the course of action.

We are all used to making lists of tasks to do and this is one way of mapping a course of action. How deep and detailed the course of action needs to be depends on the project, your experience with the work at hand, and how stable the environment is that you are working in. If my goal is a splendid chocolate birthday cake for a dinner party, I can probably just choose each task as I move through the day, for I know my kitchen and tools well, and the nature of the kitchen and the ingredients is relatively stable. (Or so we can hope.) I can work without a plan. If I am creating the All Chocolate, All the Time bakery facility, I am working in a lesser well-known area. The variables are many and broad: who will be involved, what will they bring to the effort, what location will provide the best leverage, how will we ship the product, what will the wholesale and retail environments be at every step? It is a volatile environment. While some short-term planning is in order, things are probably too variable for a lot of formal long-term planning. You might have long term goals, but only be able to plan the tasks within a short-term planning horizon allowing you the flexibility to roll with the changes in the mix of participants and the environment.

The Planning Horizon

We must plan as best we can into the future that we see, and we must leave ourselves flexible beyond that so that we can remember to re-target our trajectory to meet any new conditions and opportunities that arise. The depth of the planning horizon, how far you can see for planning purposes, is dependent on the project and the relative persistence of the broader environment in which you are working.

An important part of this practice is understanding that we are maneuvering in an ever changing world. Our ability to be flexible and react appropriately to changes is paramount to our ability to engage most powerfully. Any map we build should be progressively more ambiguous as it extends into the future, for that reflects the reality of what we can know about what will happen next. It is critical for us to internalize the truth of the dynamic and unfixed state of the world. While we see that some things persist, we should understand persistence as a variable factor that we must study and understand. The truth is that the future is an emergent property of our current action---ours and everyone else's.

So any map and maneuver style must be acknowledge this reality and not be too rigid about planning actions too far into the future. Goals and visions can be imagined, but actual maneuvers must evolve out of their own time.

The Technical Description. This is an individual or group process to develop the working map (plan) of next-step actions which will generate the appropriate potential for the goal to arise in the future. The map developed should reflect the management style of the maneuver phase. There are many management styles that can be used for creative and developmental projects (classic project planning but only in the short-term, chaordic organization, XP, Agile, Charette, emergent, etc.) and any of them can work if used from the viewpoint of the model. It is also true that any organization or process may use a mix of styles depending on the talents of a team and the nature of the task (or sub-task).

(Further work on emergent organizational structures is ongoing.)

The Process. Use one of the project development practices and appropriate tactics to generate the map of tasks that the team sees as evocative of the arising of the goal state. This will extend as far into the future actions as is meaningful within the context of what has been surveyed and sensed. Only truly visible next steps can be mapped.

The Deliverables. The deliverable is the enumeration of tasks over time in an appropriate sequence. The tasks enumerated will vary greatly depending on where you are in the lifecycle of the project.

1. A work schedule with time, assignments, priorities, and dependencies for the next phase of the work remembering that all modes are always engaged
1. Tasks that deal with any Survey, Sense & Engage, or Vision work
2. Tasks that deal with Align or Embody work
3. Tasks for Map work that needs to be done
4. Tasks for the actual project work
2. Including tasks to monitor and measure congruence and coherence
3. A iterative task to revisit the survey, sensing, envisioning, alignment, and mapping modes.

The Awareness Component. Critical to planning is an awareness of the true nature of persistence and the emergent quality of the world. We also need to develop our ability to see the true results emerging from our actions and continue to feed that information back into our mapping process.

Maneuver

The Instruction:

Maneuver through the actions required.

As you know what is to be done, you do it. The work is still the work. As you do each task you keep your attention on the trajectory assuring yourself that this task is still on that trajectory and that the trajectory you have constructed still aims at the target you envision. The power of this model of the creative process is that it causes us to be aware that the world we live and work in is itself a creative result and therefore it is always moving and changing. Our participation in the action of the creative life flow is the life we are meant to engage. When we fully recognize that the universe is a flowing, changing emergence with each of us as a partner, then we can find an ease and a joyful level of attention in our full engagement with the creation of our lives and the world.

The Technical Description. Day by day, the team acts in the present moment to generate new potential for the future using the map as a guideline.

The Process. Within the appropriate leadership or guidance structure, the team executes the tasks, maneuvering through the map continually re-evaluating the survey, sensing, alignment, vision, and the map itself.

The Deliverables. A change in state in the potentials of the world.

The Awareness Component. In action we find our greatest challenge to maintaining our awareness of the world as an emerging possibility. But as we accomplish this, we will find that acting in the world to create new possibilities is the most exciting, challenging, and fruitful adventure that we could imagine---for it is the original adventure of the universe itself.

Modulate!!

Use all the modes as appropriate to your project. So now you move through the modes, refining the trajectory, correcting misalignments, improving the embodiment, doing the work. Taking aim; taking action.

~ Mary Panttaja, www.panttaja.com, mary at panttaja.com