Here is the Breakthrough

Anish Kapoor successfully challenges our notions of time and space within the realm of our own experience, not as abstraction. Those of us who work in the field of organizational development can significantly heighten our impact by following his example and honing our own ability to invite people into alternative experiences of time and space.

What Kapoor refers to as “mythological time” can also be understood as the archetypal realm – human history reveals itself through this realm. The epic nature of a historical moment in which expansive evolutionary possibility is coupled with the threat of mass extinction demands that we step into mythological time. Kapoor achieves this imperative by stepping into the pioneer-artist archetype, successfully expanding the realm of the possible, bringing it to the surface and making it visible.

Those of us concerned with social transformation do well by engaging this artistic quest and concerning ourselves with what it means to create alternative space and reinvent notions of time. A radical shift in perspective – an alternative time/space experience – has become an increasingly important aspect of a sociopolitical project that is again concerning itself with what is spiritual.

Kapoor demonstrates his understanding of an inner world that we are able to intuit but not always communicate and much less make manifest. His success bodes well for those of us who are intentionally aiming to manifest a breakthrough. Those of us who bring people together and host spaces that are meant to expand the generative freedom of a collective have a lot to celebrate in Anish Kapoor – he has proven that it is possible.

Decentralizing Systems

Many of us exploring the relationship between network theory and emergence are still finding ourselves baffled by questions of planning and implementation. The command and control model, solidly grounded in Newtonian physics and the industrial age, also tends to feed our more personal fantasies of power, agency and order at a grand scale. The laws of emergence seem to point toward smaller spaces where crtical connections are made and relationships of trust are fostered in more intimate settings. The process calls for a letting-go that still feels anathema to a movement that exists in perpetual crisis mode.

But there is such a being as the agent of change. Powerful decentralized networks move in the world having been launched or inspired by someone’s passion – someones sense of purpose and intention – someone’s ability to articulate a resonant vision. So while I continue to trust the laws of emergence, and commit to investing myself in the quality of micro-interactions that bring any given system to life, I am also intrigued by the possibility of intentionally fostering decentralized systems of purpose as a way to build movement for social transformation.

In The Starfish and the Spider, Brafman and Beckstrom refer to the five legs of a decentralized organization, they list:

1. Circles

2. The Catalyst

3. Ideology

4. The Preexisting Network

5. The Champion

Looking at these five legs, it seems possible to me that given:

a. the right rallying call

b. the right convener and

c. a facilitated process that places the right level of emphasis on building relationships of trust

A dedicated group of people could set out to catalyze a decentralized movement for social change. Grounded in actual experience, one can start to imagine a set of group processes and concrete “desired outcomes” to foment the sort of collaborative effort that would sustain these conditions. This is the work that I’m doing.

More to follow!