Chapter 3: Transforming Relationship
“Narratives are about confronting something that looks immoveable and all mighty, but with the right questions generating tiny holes in that thinking. Through those tiny holes, little bits of light shine through. In those are opportunities for freedom, transformation, doubt and free thinking.” – Alejandra Alayza
As you read the following story, practice self-remembering with two-way attention as outlined in the previous chapter. In other words, try to pay attention to both the text and how you are processing it at the same time. In what ways does this influence how you take in the story?
Developmental Work at Proctor & Gamble
The year is 1962. On the ground floor of a manufacturing plant in the Midwest United States, a woman climbs a ladder to adjust some dials on a large machine. A man holding a clipboard and a stopwatch watches her closely. As she descends, he looks at the stopwatch, shaking his head in disappointment. He makes a note before walking away. The woman sighs and rushes off to her next task.
In a back office, a quiet conversation is taking place. “Maintaining this level of oversight is exhausting resources,” someone says. People are unhappy, unengaged, and frustrated. Something is missing.
Fast forward several years. A group of individuals from across the organization is gathered around a table at a new plant. Charles Krone, standing a towering 6 foot 6, is presenting a framework in his quiet but kind and attentive way. The framework is designed to help the team think about their work and their roles on multiple levels.
The team is engaged in dialogue around the framework, working to develop their shared understanding of the plant and the larger systems the plant is nested within. The energy in the room is uplifting. Everyone is awake and inspired to contribute in new ways that more fully align their own uniqueness to the uniqueness of the systems they are serving. Their work is becoming increasingly meaningful.
Back on the factory floor, there is the smooth and consistent hum of highly engaged and productive activity. No one is standing around with a stopwatch. On all levels, individuals are working and learning with a sense of purpose and significance. With an ever-deepening understanding of how the plant functions as a whole, they are self-determined and self-organizing in their work.
Here, learning and development is continuous and embedded in a rich systemic context. Individuals are tuned into how they aspire to express their own uniqueness more fully in service to their stakeholders. They see themselves co-evolving with their teams, the organization, their customers, and their communities as wholes.
Of course, this transformation didn’t happen by chance. It emerged from a conscious redesign of how people saw and engaged with their work. How did they get here?
Krone started as a plant engineer, assigned to lead a new Downy fabric softener plant in Lima, Ohio. The plant is described by Art Klein in his book The Age of Heretics: Heroes, Outlaws, and the Forerunners of Corporate Change:
“[Lima] was a wonderful place to work, and not just because wages were high (so high that P&G managers from corporate grumbled about ‘giving away the store’). Yet production costs were said to be half the costs of a conventional plant, and the true ratio was even lower; the Lima managers assumed that nobody would believe the real figures.”
Carol Sanford was highly influenced by her work with Krone, writing:
“According to my mentor, Charles Krone, developmental organizations use systems to engage in value-adding processes. For Krone, a value-adding process works simultaneously on improving product offerings, improving the methods of production, and improving the capabilities of everyone involved.”
Krone’s approach was highly influenced by his in-depth study of Gurdjieff and Bennett, along with other systems thinkers. One purpose of sharing this story is to illuminate the lineage of developmental work we are exploring here. Another is to illustrate the proven potential of working with these frameworks in the process of developing higher human capabilities. I’ll continue to share examples from this lineage, including in my own work developing teams and organizations using these frameworks.
A critical element within the system at Proctor & Gamble, highly relevant to our purposes here, is that roles were dynamic and largely self-organized. This self-organization was enabled by a shared understanding of the system as a whole. In turn, the capacity to self-organize enabled the system to effectively manage the complexity inherent in a large manufacturing plant, nested within a large organization, in turn nested within a larger industry and changing marketplace.
The same principles that allowed a factory floor to become self-organizing also apply to our current challenge: how to develop ourselves as human beings in an age of intelligent machines. How does this relate to evolving our own value-adding roles as AI technology advances?
Escaping from flatland
“‘Either this is madness or it is Hell.’ ‘It is neither,’ calmly replied the voice of the Sphere, ‘it is Knowledge; it is Three Dimensions: open your eye once again and try to look steadily.’ – Edwin Abbott, Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions
In the previous chapter, we explored our experience with the tension of the dyad as a call to evolutionary potential, often unsettling and uncomfortable, causing us to distract ourselves or avoid facing the music in clever ways.
The state of “madness or Hell” illustrated by Abbott could be recognized as one of failing to heed the call to potential. It does not disappear with our attempts to avoid it. It haunts us. We remain stuck in a flat world, a perpetual plateau, unable to address our challenges at their roots, exhausted by fighting against the relentless symptoms of deeper causes.
As Einstein reminded us, we can’t solve problems from the same level of thinking that created them. The third dimension—what Gurdjieff called the third force—is what opens new possibilities.
As Gurdjieff writes of this law in In Search of Being:
“It is possible to learn to observe the action of the three forces within us by studying ourselves—the manifestation of our thought, our consciousness, our habits and desires. Let us suppose, for instance, that we decide to work on ourselves in order to attain a higher level of being. In this case, our desire, our initiative, is the [activating] force, whereas the inertia of all our habitual psychological life, which opposes the initiative, will be the [restraining] force. In the end, either these two forces will balance each other out, or one will completely conquer the other, although, at the same time, becoming too weak for any further action. Thus the two forces will, as it were, revolve one around the other, with one eventually absorbing the other and producing no result whatever. This stalemate may endure over the course of our entire lives. We may feel desire and initiative, but it all may be absorbed in the struggle to overcome the habitual inertia of life, leaving nothing in the end to pursue the worthy goal of our original decision. And so the process may go on until the third force makes its appearance, perhaps, in the form of new knowledge that shows the advantage, or rather the necessity, of work on ourselves and, in this way, reinforces the initiative. Then, thanks to the support of this third force, the initiative may be able to overcome the inertia and we can become active in the desired direction.”
For our purposes in this chapter, we will take a close look at a specific triad which Bennett associates with the concept of freedom. With this triad, we begin with the reconciling force and work backwards to the uncover the new potential activating us. He writes, “In the triad of freedom, the reconciling impulse as initiating term can be associated with an opening through which possibilities happen that otherwise could not. A creative impulse is liberated in the world because something new seeks to be born.”
In this way, following our embrace of the creative tension produced between existence and potential, we look to introduce a third force which works to reconcile this tension in a creative process. The metaphor of birth is a powerful one here—Carol Sanford described a role of midwifing this creative birthing process. Another way of thinking about it, returning to our previous musical analogy, is lifting dissonance up to its harmonic resolution. In the Work, the third force is also called the harmonizing force.
Yet, to reiterate, we can’t move forward in this process when our thinking is flat. We have to learn to think on multiple levels in order to see this “opening through which possibilities happen.” To help us explore this multi-level way of thinking, we’ll introduce a framework called Levels of Core Roles, derived from the work of Bennett, Krone, and Sanford. We’ll return to this framework often as we move forward, helping us to reflect on how our own roles are being called on to evolve.
A fundamental premise here is that as we move up the levels of core roles, our capacity to effectively manage complexity, uncertainty and change grows. With this, so does our indispensability in an emerging AI-integrated world. In other words, roles on the lower levels are the first to be automated as they are focused on simple or complicated work (as opposed to complex work). We are arguably facing an evolutionary imperative to ‘level-up’ our roles or be replaced by machines that are more effective than we are on the level of our current roles.
An important principle to keep in mind is that higher levels of core roles are built upon effectiveness at lower levels. In other words, developmental work is not about skipping ahead to working exclusively on higher levels. As with all frameworks we will use, the aim is to see the whole. With Levels of Core Roles, we are learning to hold these multiple levels as a whole and explore the relationships between them as we work upward. Part of this, especially on the lower levels, may include how we are using technology to work effectively and enable us to keep developing upwards.
An critical part of this work, to reiterate, is shining the light of consciousness onto our patterns and processes of thinking and action as we develop a deeper level of understanding of how it all works. As understanding grows, so does the degree of freedom to think and act in new ways.
It’s also critical that we don’t let this work become dry and tedious. As Bennett writes in The Dramatic Universe Vol. 2, “The Law of Freedom is predominately the triad of the mysterious and miraculous.” In other words, realizing new potential in this way involves an opening up to greater forces that we do not understand. What does this require of us? What must we let go of? What new energy do we let in when we do so?
Carrying this sense of energizing openness forward, let’s take a brief look at each of these levels of core roles. As you read each, reflect on how they relate to your own work and roles. Where do you tend to spend most of your time and energy? What patterns can you observe? Keep in mind that this is merely a lens to catalyze reflection: in reality, we don’t fit neatly into categories—but the framework can help to illuminate patterns that generate insight.
Efficient Operator
The Efficient Operator core role is about performing based on well-defined criteria. Its work is guided by a clear set of responsibilities, tasks, best practices and standards for performance. Effectiveness on this level requires that we possess the skills and knowledge required to follow given procedures and processes within a value-adding process to meet the expectations of our stakeholders. We can associate this core role with simple work, as previously discussed: there is an established set of clear best practices or “recipes for success” to follow.
Adaptive Problem-Solver
The Adaptive Problem-Solver core role is about maintaining effectiveness in a changing environment. We can associate this level with greater agility—responding to shifting stakeholder needs and conditions and making decisions on the fly to solve new problems. This requires continuous learning and “upskilling,” with the aim of keeping up with change. For example, we may work to keep our fingers on the pulse of the latest trends by reading books and articles, taking courses or earning new certifications. We may also implement more agile ways of working, adapting our solutions through a process of engaging stakeholders and generating continuous feedback. We can associate this level with complicated work: it is like solving a complicated puzzle that requires careful analysis and domain expertise. In place of “best practice,” we have good practices that fit with a particular category of problem. We are moving beyond the one-size-fits-all solutions of simple, generic work. But we are still not working from unique potential.
System Evolver
The System Evolver role represents a fundamental shift from working on existence to working on potential. This shift is at the core of the premise we are exploring here: that human beings have a unique capacity for realizing and actualizing the evolutionary potential of living systems, which requires an understanding of unique place. On this level, we are able to perceive a core pattern behind a particular system’s evolution—some understanding of its essence and what it is aspiring to contribute within a larger whole. Our role becomes one of aligning with this essence aspiration and strategically developing the working of the system to serve its aspirational aims. Here we are also making an important shift from simple/complicated work to complex work: where both efficiency and reactive, analysis-driven problem solving are ineffective in the face of the inherent uncertainty and emergent nature of living systems.
One note, based on my own experience: it is easy to jump to the conclusion that we are already working on this level, when we are largely working down in existence. For example, we may be working to change a system for the better, believing we are focus on potential, but we are still focused on reactively solving problems: changing a process to increase efficiency, filling a skill gap, or intervening to optimize one part of the system. While these can be considered developments, they are still only fragmented solutions—whereas working from potential requires whole-systems essence thinking.
You can decide for yourself to what degree this applies to your thinking and work. Consider framing these higher levels as relatively rare in our world. In this way, we open to new potential and give ourselves plenty of room for development within this framework. I know for myself, despite being introduced to this work many years ago and investing a lot of time and energy here, I still spend much of my time and energy down on the lower levels, wrestling with existence, working to solve problems from a place of fragmented thinking. The shift we’re exploring is as difficult and rare as it is necessary.
Capacity Regenerator
The Capacity Regenerator core role is about creating a field that enables the unique value-adding capacity of a system to continuously co-evolve with that of its stakeholder systems. In other words, the primary aim of work on this level is to develop co-evolutionary capacity. This includes, of course, evolving this capacity within ourselves as individuals through a participatory, value-adding process.
This core role is associated with Krone’s “regenerate” level of work and the regenerative work as framed by Sanford and others within this lineage. In their book Regenerative Development and Design, Pamela Mang and Ben Haggard (of Regenesis Institute) write:
“Work that regenerates addresses the unrealized potential inherent in the relationship between a given system and the larger systems within which it is nested. That is, it enables living systems to evolve by expressing their latent potential in the form of new value in the world. In this way, what exists now can move toward what could be in the future. Regeneration produces a field within which the improvement of living systems can take place and provides a coalescing direction for the other levels of work.”
Carol Sanford described creating such a “field” as indirect work. She contrasted this with direct work, for which she used the analogy of playing billiards: pushing things (or people) toward pre-defined targets like hitting billiard balls toward a corner pocket.
“[Indirect work} is never about forcing things to happen, controlling outcomes, telling people what to do, or supplying the answers to their questions. Rather, indirect work is building the capacity in people to consistently think at higher levels in order to create innovations for advancing specific contexts and streams of activity.” – Carol Sanford, Indirect Work
As illustrated in the framework, another aspect of this shift from existence to potential is one from a focus on the explicate order to the implicate order, as described by physicist David Bohm. The explicate order is what exists, while the implicate order is an indivisible substrate from which existence continually emerges and to which all things return. We can think of the implicate order as the ground of potential. How do we engage with this ground? How might this relate to our unique roles as human beings?
We’ll continue to build on this as we move forward, exploring what it means to work developmentally and how we can evolve our roles in the upward direction as we become more indispensable in the face of AI-driven automation.
Getting to Work
We’ll begin an exercise by exploring the connections between a specific version of the Law of Three and Levels of Core Roles:
Hold the Levels of Core Roles together as a whole, exploring thinking about roles on multiple levels as the reconciling force: how does this begin to reconcile the creative tension between potential and existence, which we focused on embracing in the previous chapter? How does it help to clarify the call to evolutionary potential?
Spend a little time holding these questions and observing what comes up for you.
Next, we’ll work to clarify the path forward toward actualizing this potential by working backwards using this specific Law of Three framework as the triad of freedom:
Thinking about roles on multiple levels > Existence > Potential
Expand your focus from the reconciling force of thinking about roles on multiple levels to include the restraining force, or the existence of the nested systems you are focused on. How does the core roles framework begin to reshape how you perceive and relate to these systems as they currently are?
How are you making sense of the existing conditions within these systems? What knowledge do you possess of how they operate? Of their processes of adapting to changing conditions? What gaps in this knowledge exist? To what degree are you aware of these gaps?
Note that part of existence (the restraining force) includes current obstacles. We have so far highlighted the primary obstacles of fragmentation (as a barrier to seeing wholes) and fear (as a barrier to embracing creative tension). For this discipline of transforming relationship, we will add another: attachment.
In the context of core roles, we can see that on each level we have certain attachments which prevent us from seeing new possibilities and thinking about our roles on new levels. These could be attachments to certain beliefs, ways of doing things, or assumptions that we are making. Freeing ourselves from these attachments enables us to realize new potential, but this requires that we learn first to see them clearly.
Take a moment to reflect on this for you personally. What obstacles can you identify? Where do you observe fragmentation, fear or attachment?
Once you feel you have a clearer picture of the existing restraining forces, consider the activating force. In the way we’ve framed it here, think about this in terms of one or more developmental aims based on new potential you are realizing for your own evolving value-adding roles. As you continue to engage in this work, what do you aspire to contribute within your specific context?
Bring back to mind the nested systems framework you developed previously (as always, refreshing your thinking about how you are framing this context).
How does your evolving developmental aim relate to the creative tension between potential (activating forces) and existence (restraining forces) within the nested systems you are focused on? What new potential are you seeing that is calling on you to help actualize?
Consider sketching out a version of the triad framework for each level of system, keeping in mind that your clarity around these forces will continue to develop as we move forward. We can think about them as placeholders for now.
With these forces coming to light in your own unique context, return to thinking about roles on multiple levels as part of the reconciling force. How does this begin to reconcile the tension, or harmonize the dissonance, between your developmental aims and the current existing conditions? What new possibilities are revealing themselves as you consider the multiple levels of core roles? How do these possibilities translate into potential within your specific context?
Bennett highlights an important distinction between possibility and potential which will help us here. Possibility relates to what can happen within the immutable laws of the universe. Our view of possibility evolves with our understanding of these laws (which is certainly now very limited). Potential, on the other hand, is specific to a particular place or system. We can think of potential as a state of potential energy, where the conditions are such that it is calling to be actualized.
This points to a two-fold aim: one, to continue to develop our understanding of the Law, which Bennet associates with “Greater Will.” Second, to apply this evolving understanding of the way things work in our specific places, in a process of realizing and actualizing the potential that is here now.
The discipline of transforming relationship can also be frame in this two-fold manner. On one hand, it is ultimately about working to transform our relationship with Reality itself: with the Universal Law and the way things work. At the same time, we are transforming our relationship with the unique places and conditions we find ourselves in. With the creative tension, arising between existence and potential, that we experience here. With the call to evolve into a next-level, unique value-adding role, in service to actualizing this potential.
For us as human beings, a primary vehicle for transforming relationship is Story. We can think of each of these core roles as being centered around a particular story of how the world works and who we are within it. In stepping back and reflecting on these different narratives as a whole, we are not only transforming our relationship with the stories we hold, but with the instrument of Story itself. As we continue to work on this, this emerging relationship with Story enables a new level of freedom: from being unconsciously guided by our inherited narratives to being conscious participants in generating and regenerating them.
In the next section we’ll explore a transition from realizing potential to actualizing potential. Keep in mind, however, that this is not a linear process—it is more fractal in nature. In other words, as we’ll continue to discover, these disciplines are closely intertwined and become ever-more so as our practice evolves. As we move through the process, we return to them and upgrade our thinking on each level as a whole.
With this in mind, let’s take a look at the three disciplines for realizing potential we have explored so far:
Take a little time to hold these together as a whole. What new connections are forming? What insights are coming to light? What new energy is emerging?
The question of energy is an important one here. A primary aim in this process is to generate new levels of meaning and motivation. If this still seems to be lacking, consider playing around with your framing until you begin to experience this. Focus on the systems and roles that are most meaningful to you—those that are calling most clearly on you to contribute on a higher level, from a place of greater authenticity and care.
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