A Brief Introduction to the Theory of Human Ecology 5humanecology.webeden.co.uk/download/i/mark_dl/u... · A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO THE THEORY OF HUMAN ECOLOGY 6 About the Author Simon

A Brief Introduction

to the Theory of

Human Ecology

a monograph

Simon P. Walker

A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO THE THEORY OF HUMAN ECOLOGY

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A Brief Introduction to the Theory of Human Ecology

A Monograph

First published in Great Britain in 2009

Text and graphics by Simon P. Walker

Copyright (c) Simon P. Walker

The moral right of the author has been asserted

Published by

Simon P Walker

www.simonpwalker.com


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For all curious people in the world


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Contents

The Provenance of Human Ecology theory 9

Ideas behind Human Ecology theory 13

The Development of our personality: The Formation cycle 17

Four Functions and Seven Tasks

The Coordination of the Seven Tasks: Personal Ecology 29

Mirroring in Personal Ecology

Cocreation: the reinforcing of our Personal Ecology

The Language of Personal Ecology

The Measurement of Personal Ecology

The Doorway to Personal Ecology: Visual Landscaping

The Capacity of Individuals to Change their Personal Ecology

Space and Time: The Language of Now

Levels of Granularity

The Models of Human Ecology 37

Personality 39

Roles, Groups and Social Systems 51

Group/team roles

School Classes

Organisations

Social Demography

Change and Development 61

Leadership 75

Coaching, Learning and Education 79

Evidence Supporting Human Ecology theory 83

Processes and Tools 91

Applications 95

Undefended Life: The Spirituality of Human Ecology 97

Appendix: Clipper Yacht Race study 101

Selected Bibliography 111


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About the Author

Simon Walker is a Biology graduate from Oxford. Studying the science in

the early nineties under teachers such as Richard Dawkins, he developed

strong convictions about the holistic causes of biological diversity and

animal behaviour. Moving away from biological sciences after graduation,

Simon began to explore ordination in the Anglican Church. Having been

selected for training, he returned to Oxford in 1994 to study theology.

During those three years, he began to develop an insight into some of the

philosophical questions around how we come to know things, and the nature

of being. In 1997 he published two academic papers on the linguistics and

hermeneutics in which he argued that the relational posture and participation

of the reader was critical for understanding and transformation.

These early theses became the intellectual bedrock for further

theological and psychological reflection during the late nineties, when, as an

ordained Anglican clergyman, Simon studied for an MTh in Applied

Theology at Regents’ Park College, Oxford. His thesis, recommended for

DPhil extension, articulated for the first time the language of ‘personal

ecology’ as a vocabulary for understanding the interaction between person

and environment in identity formation.

In 2000 Simon, with his wife Jo and two small children, chose to work

full time developing the ideas of personal ecology. They moved up to the

North of England, where Jo taught to fund the project and Simon developed

the ideas whilst looking after the children. In 2001, they founded Human

Ecology Ltd, the company that has become the vehicle for commercialising

the models, processes and tools that the theory of Human Ecology has

birthed.

Simon and Jo worked together for two years, developing their skills as

coaches and facilitators, to get the company off the ground. Success in both

winning grant funding and securing corporate client work, enabled the firm

to root, and over the next three years develop a range of tools, models and

processes all sitting under the umbrella of Human Ecology.

In 2003, Simon and Jo moved back down to Oxford to take up a

partnership at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford University, where Simon was to teach,

part time, for six years. The Undefended Leader course developed first at


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Wycliffe and quickly became a deeply influential programme for leadership

development in both the UK and abroad across a number of sectors-

education, corporate and faith communities. Simon wrote a trilogy of books

under the title The Undefended Leader which were published between 2007-

2009.

Simon and Jo continue to live in Oxford, with their three children

Barney, Jonah and Olivia. The three other major influences in Simon’s life

have been art (he has painted semi professionally for short periods of time);

sport (a junior international long jumper which gives him an appreciation of

the disciplines and efficiencies required for successful performance); and

depression. Simon’s twenties were dogged by increasingly deep depressions

which lead to a breakdown in 1999. The origins of Human Ecology lie in

part, in the darkness of that experience and the subsequent journey toward a

flourishing life.


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Author’s Note

Over the last nine years, many people have asked me to write a book on the

theory of Human Ecology. The task is surprisingly daunting! The main

obstacle is the sheer scale of the theory which demands that, in order to do it

justice, the tome would be extensive indeed.

However, mindful that some introductory commentary has been

required for some time, I have chosen to write this brief introduction.

It stands as just that; not a full explanation, nor a final word, but an

interim comment which I trust will prove useful. Much of the rhetoric is

compressed, dense and warrants far greater unpacking. The reader I trust

will be willing to allow their own thoughts to ruminate whilst the more

mature statement is composed.


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The Provenance of Human Ecology theory

The ideas of Human Ecology as a theory have their footings in several

different disciplines. It is often not easy for people to understand the origins

of the theory because it is founded on multiple levels of thought- theological,

philosophical, biological, psychological, social, organisational and cultural.

In brief, and deploying the regrettable but necessary academic short hand,

the following paragraphs depict the major footings of the theory in those

areas.

Theological

Not all theories of human behaviour have explicit theological foundations,

but most have some underlying notion of the spiritual, even if only to deny

its existence. For example, Carl Jung’s psychology has a strong notion of

metaphysical archetypes as well as connections with Eastern monism.

Personality models such as the Eneagram are thought to be influenced

by Sufi thought. Firo Elements (Firo B etc) was developed by Will Shutz

who had strong links to the Human Potential community at Esalen. Even the

Greeks four fold segmentation of humours (Choleric, Sanguine, Phlegmatic

and Melancholic) has a metaphysical basis to it.

Human Ecology theory is strongly influenced by Christian thought on

what it means to be a person and be in community. Strictly speaking, it sits

within a neo-orthodox Trinitarian tradition, which is more influenced by the

Eastern rather than the Latin notions of God. Simon Walker’s early work

was strongly influenced by theologians such as John Zizoulas, Catherine

LaCugna, Alistair MacFadyen, Colin Gunton, Martin Buber, Sandra

Schneider, Leslie Newbiggin and Alan Torrance.

Philosophical

A specific theory of being (ontology) and of knowledge (epistemology)

underpins Human Ecology theory. The notion of time and being as emergent

and open comes strongly from the work of Hans Georg Gadamer, and

insights from Carver Yu about the nature of history in Jewish thought. The

function of metaphor as a form of ontological language is shaped by thinkers

such as Paul Ricouer, Colin Gunton and Sandra Schneiders, as well as


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theorists Lackoff and Johnson. Knowledge as an act of participation stands

on the shoulders of the work of Michael Polanyi whose important book

Personal Knowledge opened up a doorway for the author from which he has

never retreated.

In a way, Jacques Derrida’s writing on deconstruction of texts also

provided a hermeneutical key on which the theory is based; specifically the

notion that there may be another text behind the text which must not be

taken at face value. This idea stimulated the train of thought which led to the

mirroring idea in Human Ecology theory of front and back stage.

Finally, Thomas Kuhn’s seminal book, The Structure of Scientific

Revolutions, demonstrated that science is often blind and even suppressive

of knowledge. The nature of human systems to constrain and even suppress

truth through the paradigms they inhabit is a key conviction of the theory of

Human Ecology.

Biological

A great debt is owed by the author to the acute, human and ground breaking

work of the late Steven Jay Gould. Gould offered a counter narrative to the

neo-Darwinian reduction of some faculty members at Oxford, and on the

basis of paleontological evidence, has informed the world that biological

diversity is as much an act of chance as it is driven by genetic selection. This

epistatic perspective is deeply humbling, and allows for us to acknowledge

downward causation and wider environmental movements as influencing the

nature of life.

Gould moved the author away from genetic reductionism to look out

at ecological conditions as the primary cause of behaviour. Moreover,

Gould’s assertion that biological change occurs not gradually but through

periods of stasis punctuated by rapid, or even catastrophic revolution,

mirrors the dynamics of social change which Human Ecology theory

predicts at a cultural or even economic level (see wave theory).

Recent thinking around creativity and the neural function of the

imagination proved helpful in supporting the primarily visual and

metaphorical vocabulary of Human Ecology. At the same time, insight into

the neurobiology of the brain, specifically the processing of emotion, as

articulated by Joseph Le Doux, has helped refine and sharpen the role of fear

in the shaping of human behaviour in the theory. The relationship between

the amygdale and the neo cortex, as two discreet processing systems, also


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underpins the neural role of Visual landscaping as a means of symbolically

modelling the emotional memory.

Psychological

The emergence of Social Constructionism, from the initial conceptuality of

Kelly, is thought by the author to be the most promising intellectual shift

over the past half century. Human Ecology is essentially a form of realist

Constructionism, in which being is constituted by the telling of an open story

in relation to other co-actors. Specifically, the insights of Erving Goffman

around self-presentation lay the foundation for the model of front and back

stage, and the dynamics of symbolic interactions.

Personal Ecology is also a richly developmental theory, incorporating

insight from the attachment theories of John Bowlby. It makes use of the

insights of self-expansion is a psychological concept, which was proposed

by Aron and Aron. It sits within the emerging tradition of the use of

metaphors in therapy to express inner psychological concerns- Grove

(1989), Seigelman (1990), Lawley and Tomkins (2001).


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13

The Ideas Behind

Human Ecology theory


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Human Ecology is a theory about human behaviour. It is based upon the

premise that, just like other species, human populations have to negotiate

how to share space with others. The task of managing these boundaries,

gaps, encounters and relationships between individuals, groups and

populations is what determines the ostensible behaviour of those same

organisms.

Human Ecology acknowledges the influence of genes on the overall

capacity of human beings to behave in certain ways. However, it does not

itself look to isolate the differential contributions of genes or environment

(which are often impossible to tease out). Instead, it looks at the influences

of how space has been, and is inhabited by that individual or group, and

what effect that space has had on the individuals concerned.

Human Ecology is a theory that claims to be based on simple common

sense. It takes the normal, everyday routines and tasks that we as human

beings have to engage in and suggest that at a psychological level, the same

tasks are required to be fulfilled.

For example, in your own garden at home (if you have one), you have

to negotiate how that space is defined: How to do you mark out its

boundary? How do you define that it is yours? How do you resolve disputes

with your neighbour? How is it designed to create privacy but also allow

relationship etc.

A human self has much the same set of tasks to fulfil on a daily basis.

The space that the self inhabits is more than simple physical space; it is

psychological space. Imagine for a moment that the self is a ‘landscape’.

Each of us inhabits a landscape- with its own features, scale, dimensions etc.

My landscape is different from yours and I meet you by coming into your

landscape, and you coming into mine. This landscape is both physical (you

might come to my house) but it is also non-physical (you come into my

landscape when I meet you on the bus, by the photocopier, riding a bike). I

carry my landscape around with me; or perhaps better, my landscape is my

‘place in the world.’

The theory of Human Ecology suggest that there are seven basic tasks

that all of us, everyone, has to engage in to manage their landscape. These

seven tasks are self evident:


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Task 1. I must define my limits- where I end and where you begin? (Self

Definition)

Task 2. I must negotiate confrontation- what happens when I transgress

your space or you mine? (Responsiveness)

Task 3. I must develop the way my landscape reveals me- how am I

going to be seen by passers by or intimate friends? (Self-Presentation)

Task 4. I must choose whether I am happy with my landscape or if I

want to enlarge it, or contract it. (Self-Expansion)

Task 5. I must work out how I am going to get tasks done in my

landscape. (Logic)

Task 6. I must decide how much proximity, or intimacy I want with

people who enter my landscape. (Empathy)

Task 7. I must exert a degree of control over my landscape. (Control)

One needs to fulfil these seven tasks in relation to any physical space- a

garden, office, house, school etc. They are basic to how space, any space,

must be stewarded. Our psycho-social space as human beings is no different.


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The Development of Our Personality

The Formation Cycle

The theory of Human Ecology organises these seven basic (though not

exhaustive) tasks that have to be fulfilled in order to manage one’s landscape

into four different functions. These can be represented as a cycle, which is

called the Formation Cycle. Once again, these cyclical functions have a

degree of self evidence about them.

Diagram 1. The Formation Cycle

Task 5: Logic

Task 6: Empathy

Task 7: Control

Function

1. Identifying

Function

2.

Resourcing

Function 3.

Processing

Function

4.

Influencing

Task 3: Self Presentation

Task 4: Self Expansion

Task 1: Self Definition

Task 2: Responsiveness


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Function One: Identifying (Defining who you are)

Task 1 and Task 2 relate to Function 1- IDENTIFYING:

• Task 1. I must define my limits- where I end and where you begin?

(Self Definition)

• Task 2. I must negotiate confrontation- what happens when I

transgress your space or you mine (Responsiveness)

The first and perhaps most basic task for us as we grow from tiny babies is

to develop a sense of self identity. At birth, babies do not distinguish

between themselves, as a discreet entity, and their surroundings. They see

themselves as coterminous with the reality- they are boundary-less. We

come to know who we are by the establishing of that psychological

boundary and by the cultivation of our space, or landscape within it.

Human Ecology theory depicts this process of individuation rather

like the cultivation of a fresh patch of land into a garden, or landscape.

Initially the land needs to be sectioned off, then cultivated; its natural

fertility enhanced, the already planted seeds fostered, new ones planted,

watered, fed etc. In this way, the landscape, develops and takes shape and

form.

The major gardeners in this process are the significant others caring

for the child. If you like, they have both power and opportunity to cultivate

Function

1. Identifying

Function

2.

Resourcing

Function 3.

Processing

Function

4.

Influencing




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the landscape for good or ill. Their ‘footprints’ will leave a legacy either

way.

Human Ecology theory suggests that these early interventions of care

and cultivation (especially up to the age of seven and then as teenagers)

leave a long lasting legacy on the topography of the landscape. If you like,

the basic ‘shape’ of the landscape is laid down. We spend much of our lives

coming to terms with the basic shape of our landscape- learning where its

lumps and bumps are, how to flourish in it safely and well.

This psychological formation is connected with the neurological

development of the brain in those childhood years. In particular emotional

memories are retained in the implicit (or hidden) memory, and form a kind

of emotional topography to our lives.

In particular, two experiences stay with us and form an imprint. The

first is our sense of being able to trust ourselves, the second is being able to

trust others. Trust is most important, so the theory goes, because that is what

gives a small child a sense of being safe- being attached to a safe, reliable

significant other, who is for you. This theory, connecting with attachment

ideas, suggest that the emotional experience of being afraid is what leaves

the most significant implicit memories in our brains. Fear, as an emotion, is

known to be highly conditioning to our brains. Human Ecology theory

suggests that, at a basic level, ensuring we are safe is the essential and

central need we have as human beings, and therefore, experiences of being

afraid remain with us in our emotional memory, conditioning us to future

experiences (the emotional topography of our landscape again).

Self- Definition

Trust of self is indicated in the way that a person defines their psychological

landscape; a strongly defined landscape indicates a high trust of oneself. A

weakly defined landscape (one which is little different from the surrounding

terrain) indicates a low trust of self.

Responsiveness

Trust of others is indicated in the degree to which someone is responsive to

others. A high degree of responsiveness indicates a high trust of others- a

willingness to think well of them and believe that they are basically for you.

A low degree of responsiveness indicates a low trust of others- a tendency to

be suspicious toward others and feel that they may not be for you.


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Function 2. Resourcing (Nourishing ourselves)

Function 2- Resourcing- relates to Tasks 3 and 4:

• Task 3. I must develop the way my landscape reveals me- how am I

going to be seen by passers by or intimate friends? (Self-Presentation)

• Task 4. I must choose whether I am happy with my landscape or if I

want to enlarge it, or contract it? (Self-Expansion)

Front and backstage

Abraham Maslow suggested that the most basic of human needs is to be

safe. All others are supported by this. Maslow was ahead of his time,

because we now know that the experience of being unsafe, or afraid, leaves a

long standing emotional memory in us- what is known as fear conditioning.

The theory of Human Ecology suggests that being safe, or perhaps,

managing risk, is the most basic task we have as human beings. One of the

ways we do this, is by developing a ‘front stage’ and a ‘back stage’.

Our ‘front stage’ is the version of ourselves we show to the world. We

develop it to retain the audience’s interest and good response (no one wants

Function

1 Identifying

Function

2. Resourcing

Function 3.

Processing

Function

4.

Influencing






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boos or rotten tomatoes thrown at them!). Most of us, most of the time,

manage to get some polite claps, or even cheers from time to time.

Our ‘back stage’ is the bit of us we keep hidden away, concealed. Like

a theatre, the backstage has a vital role- for script writing, rehearsals, props,

costume departments etc. It helps to fund the front stage. We don’t tend to

let the general audience see the back stage- only those we really trust.

By developing a front stage and a back stage, we give ourselves a way

of remaining safe in a world that is basically unsafe. It allows us to keep

what we need protected, hidden away from harm, and show what we need to

be accepted, affirmed, welcomed in etc.

Front stage and backstage connects to the theory of Self-Presentation

developed by Erving Goffman in his book The Presentation of Self in

Everyday Life. Goffman’s work has spawned the disciple of social

psychology referred to as symbolic interactionism, and Human Ecology

exploits this idea in its basic theory.

Front and back stage is one of the most memorable ideas of Human

Ecology theory. It is distinct from Jung’s notion of introvert and extrovert in

a number of important ways- not least in that it is dynamic (we all have both

a front and back stage, and move constantly between them).

Our front and back stage is a key strategy we develop over time that

allows us to be (largely) safe in the world. In this way, we can flourish in our

lives.

Self-Expansion

One of the other tasks we have to perform is to manage the dynamic between

expanding our landscape and consolidating it. Think of your garden again: I

expect there have been times when you have mused about having a bigger

garden. Life is like that too- perhaps you have had seasons in your life of

expansion- moving to a bigger house, taking on more responsibilities at

work, getting promotions, starting new courses etc. That is what Human

Ecology theory calls ‘self expansion’.

Self expansion involves the risk of trying something new- and

potentially failing. Yet it holds potential rewards for us.

In contrast, consolidation is about reducing risk and change. I wonder

if you have had times in your life where you have wanted to pull back?

Perhaps cut back your commitments, reduce your work load, downsize even.

Most of us have a part of ourselves we need to feel is carefully managed and


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under control- we feel anxious when it get’s too unsettled. This drive to

consolidate allows us to maintain, preserve and protect. Most of us have a

need to both expand and consolidate aspects of our lives, but many of us

have a tendency to do one more than the other.


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Function 3: Processing (How we see the world)

Function 3- Processing- relates to Tasks 3 and 4:

• Task 5. I must decide how much proximity, or intimacy I want with

people who enter my landscape. (Empathy)

• Task 6. I must work out how I am going to get tasks done in my

landscape. (Logic)

We’ve made an assumption! We’ve suggested that, as human beings, we

manage risk and make ourselves safe by selecting ways of presenting

ourselves to the watching audience. But we can only achieve that if we know

how the audience are reacting! In other words, in order for our safety

strategy to work, we have to have an ability to ‘read the audience’.

This ability to know how others are reacting to us, what they are

thinking, feeling etc, is given to us by our cognitive brain. Our brains

Task 5: Logic

Task 6: Empathy

Function

1. Identifying

Function

2.

Resourcing

Function 3.

Processing

Function

4.

Influencing






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constantly receive data from the world (sight, sound, smell, touch, taste) and

process it, interpreting it and making sense out of it.

Logic

Task 5 in the Formation cycle is that of handling all this data, without being

overwhelmed by the scale of it, and yet be able to draw some conclusions

from what we perceive. This is a function of ordering the data we pick up,

so that we don’t miss important items. For instance, when we are driving, we

need to recognise and process information from our eyes about other cars,

their movements, indication, speed etc, about pedestrians and cyclists, about

the road layout, about the road signs etc. In addition we are processing data

from our ears and our hands and feet, as we touch and feel the controls. It is

important the brain has to notice all this data otherwise we might find

ourselves winding up in a verge. This capacity to notice details is called

‘ordering’ in the theory of Human Ecology.

But at the same time, the brain also has to ‘form’ this data into

conclusions that can be acted upon. This usually involves relating the

specific experience to other, previous experiences from which we have

learned in the past. So, for example, we may have learned from past

experience, that elderly people drive more cautiously and slowly. When we

find ourselves behind a driver we recognise as elderly, we relate this data to

our past experience, generalising from it that this individual in front of us

now is also likely to drive more slowly. They fall into the category of

‘elderly driver’. In this way, we connect our new data with past knowledge,

by relating it to the patterns that exist in our minds. In the theory of Human

Ecology, we call this task ‘forming’ (forming conclusions about situations).

Once again, we all have to perform ‘ordering’ and ‘forming’ to

function as a human being, but we may have developed our capacity to do

one or the other more acutely, which would give us a tendency to process the

world that way.

Empathy

Task 6 of the Formation Cycle also relates to Processing- this is to do with

the kind of data we pay attention to. We experience the world in two

different ways. On the one hand, we experience it as a kind of system.

Science, maths, economics etc. attempt to understand the structure of this

system, and the knowledge we gain from these enquiries gives us the


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technologies we often take for granted; medicines, transport, food

production, our computers, drugs etc. The key posture, when we approach

the world as an empirical system, is that of objectivity; the ability to

investigate the world without letting our own, prior prejudices, opinions or

beliefs cloud the discovery. Neutrality, detachedness are what are required.

In the theory of Human Ecology, such detachedness is called ‘evaluating’.

On the other hand, we also experience the world as a kind of

community. As a community, we find ourselves members of the family,

group, team, organisation, country etc, with other members. We are

involved, participant members of the human community. We see things from

within it, from a certain committed perspective. This posture involves us

knowing things, such as whether our partner loves us, not by putting them in

test tubes and analysing them as a scientist might do. Instead, we know

through experience, through conversation, through listening, through feeling,

through sharing. This kind of knowing is very different from the ‘evaluative’

kind of knowing which scientists and accountants rely on to analyse their

data. In Human Ecology theory, we call it ‘empathy’, where empathy is a

kind of proximity and attachment.

It would be easy to think that empathy and evaluation have values

attached; people who are deeply empathic are somehow kinder than those

who are evaluative. But there is no moral judgement; many of the medical

advances and discoveries have been found by highly evaluative people yet

driven by compassion to bring good into the world.


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Function 4: Influencing- How we act

Function 4- Processing- relates to Task 7

• Task 7. I must exert a degree of control over my landscape. (Control)

The Formation Cycle moves round from who we are, to what we need, to

how we see- to the fourth and final function: how we act (influencing).

We are not simply passive recipients of the world as it comes to us.

We have bodies and can act to influence what happens around us. Of course,

how we act will be coordinated according to the first three functions: who

we are (identifying), what we need (resourcing) and how we see

(processing). We will act in such a way to create a world around us which

reinforces our sense of self, which meets our needs and which fits with our

way of seeing the world. In other words, our actions reinforce the route we

go around our Formation Cycle.

Task 5: Logic

Task 6: Empathy

Task 7: Control

Function

1. Identifying

Function

2.

Resourcing

Function 3.

Processing

Function

4.

Influencing






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Control

Task 7 therefore, in the Formation Cycle, is the degree of Control I seek to

exert over my world around me. Do I allow this world to emerge and

develop, or do I have a strict plan and means of operating such that I am in

clear control of what takes place?


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The Coordination of the Seven Tasks: Personal Ecology

These seven tasks then, under the four functions, represent the seven tasks

each of us, as living, functioning human beings, have to fulfil on a daily

basis. Of course, we are not normally conscious of doing so; we fulfil these

things instinctively, unconsciously, or tacitly (Polanyi) and uniquely.

How we fulfil these tasks will be different for each of us. Human

Ecology theory suggests that, over time, we come to develop a familiar

strategy for managing our space. This strategy gets routined, embedded, like

the ruts in a road that the wheels of carts might make. The ruts were not

always there on the road- they come to be there as the wheels continuously

run along the road. Over time, it becomes easier for the wheels to run in the

ruts than out of them. In other words, the way we come to manage our space,

our landscape in the world, becomes more and more familiar, repeated and

habitual over time. We call this strategy our Personal Ecology.

Our Personal Ecology is therefore not something we were born with.

It is not written into our genes, though it is influenced by them. Instead, it

becomes the way we do things.

In Human Ecology theory, our Personal Ecology is the nearest thing

to the notion of our ‘personality’.

Human Ecology offers a model of sixteen different kinds of

personality strategies (or ecologies). These, whilst obviously being

simplifications, provide an overview of the range of personality strategies

that may be developed by human beings in managing their psychological

landscape.

Personality, as understood by Human Ecology, has the following

characteristics:

1. It is a strategy for managing our space in the world

2. We develop our strategy over time; it becomes habitual but is not

genetically determined. It is embedded through reinforcement but not

fixed.

3. We can become aware of our strategy and therefore learn to make

choices about whether we continue to iterate it.


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Another way to think about our strategy is to see it in terms of the story we

are telling of ourselves. Imagine that your life is a drama, with various acts,

characters, events etc. As you enact this drama, in concert with other actors,

so your ‘way of acting’ (scripts, costumes, gestures, accents, stories etc)

develops, such that if I were to come to your show, I would recognise you

through your performance. That way of acting is your personality.

Mirroring in Personal Ecology

One of the key ideas in the theory of Human Ecology is that of mirroring.

Most of us recognise aspects of ourselves which are paradoxical, or even

contradictory. I, for example, would generally say I embrace change and

risk. I am up for a challenge. However, some aspects of me (my sense of

dress, taste, where I live and want to travel) are highly conservative, even

conformist.

I expect most of us are like this. The theory of Human Ecology has an

explanation for this and it is related to our front and back stages. In a theatre,

the show that is performed on the front stage is different, entirely different

from the activity which goes on in the back stage. For example, the front

stage might be polished, the back stage may have all the clutter and mess

shoved in it. Or, if the performance is a Brechtian improvisation, in which

the acting is unscripted and spontaneous, this can only take place because, in

the back stage, there has been months of talking, planning, discussing and

shaping the play amongst the actors.

It is as if the one stage reacts to, or balances, the other. In Human

Ecology theory, we call this mirroring. What happens on one stage is almost

certainly very different, even the opposite of the other.

Cocreation: the reinforcing of our Personal Ecology

Human Ecology theory is a version of Social Constructionism. It asserts that

a person’s identity is the story that they are telling of themselves; it is

emergent, open and unfinished. It is also a story, or landscape, which is

related to other’s and co-constructed by the environment it is in. So, I recruit

co-actors to perform in my story with me, to reinforce my self identity.

These co-actors reflect back to me who I know myself to be.

In 2002 we undertook some important research into this co-creative

nature of individual’s Personal Ecology. The results of that research into a

crew sailing a yacht around the world over a one year period, which can be


31

found in Appendix 1, indicate how strongly the environment we create

around ourselves reinforces our own embedded behaviours. In other words,

our ‘personality’ is the interaction of our own embedded strategies with a

world we foster around us, which we work hard to maintain and which

reinforces the embedded strategy we deploy. Our Personal Ecology is the

coordination of our own inner choices, with our own outer environment, to

create and sustain a stable, cohesive whole.

The Language of Personal Ecology

Human Ecology theory is based on a specific notion of language. Much of

the language is highly metaphorical; front and back stage, landscapes, spaces

etc. Usually, in psychological theory, the core language is conceptual

(concepts like self esteem, ego, individuation, projection, transference etc...).

These concepts are generalised principles which provide structure, rigour

and doctrinal certainty to the theories. The concepts may be illustrated by

examples, stories and metaphors, but these are merely colourings which

illuminate the core conceptualities.

Human Ecology theory is built upon a radically different language

basis. Human Ecology asserts that knowledge is not organised, or described

centrally, around concepts but around pictures and stories. The way that we,

as human beings, experience the world is through participating in its drama.

The way we naturally explore and talk about the world is through metaphors,

tales, pictures and similes. We may, at points, be able to and choose to

systematise these experiences and images into wider generalised concepts or

principles which seem to have some wider application. However, this

conceptualising is a second order activity, from the first order activity of

participation.

Participation is the key posture from which we come to know things.

We have to get involved, to feel, touch, sense, taste the world. Human

Ecology attempts to offer a language of participation. The metaphor of

‘landscape’ invites entry and exploration; it is open ended, emergent,

organic, fluid, alive. It funds our imagination and allows us freedom to

explore. Equally, the metaphor of ‘front and back stage’ is not equivalent to

‘introversion and extroversion’. The latter is a concept with precise meaning

fixed categories or states which describe the fundamental way a person is-

extrovert or introvert. The former is a stage, a drama; it is happening, it

moves, it changes. My understanding of front and back stage is different


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from yours. The metaphor opens up uniquely and personally for each of us,

allowing its own validity.

In this way, the language refuses to dominate. It supports and enables

understanding, but does not impose on it. To understand our front and back

stage is not to be boxed but to be freed; to be enabled to move more freely,

more fluently; to be more self conscious and alive. It is about a kind of

language which empowers rather than disables and controls.

The Doorway to Personal Ecology: Visual Landscaping

The only doorway into the real world of Human Ecology is through a

process called Visual Landscaping. Visual Landscaping is an imagination

game, a kind of guided imagery in which individuals are enabled to first

create and then explore their own personal landscape. The process is often

experienced as surprising, disarming, unusual because it is different from

most of the processes used to get at psychological knowledge. Visual

Landscaping allows an individual to project their own landscape onto their

imagination, and then inhabit it. This virtual world becomes the arena for

learning and exploration, the recapturing of the imagination from the waste

paper baskets of our doodles and the sand pit at pre-school.

The Visual Landscape is the central space in which a person comes to

know them self. It is rich, textured, unique and can only be fully explored

with a guide (a trained coach or director) who can enable you to notice

aspects of your landscape.

Neurologically, the Visual Landscape is a vehicle that allows the

implicit, sensory or emotional memory we have (which is laid down in our

Amygdala) which is usually hidden to us, to become visible and known. It is

a symbolic projection of our unconscious self. It is unguarded and unfiltered

by our cognitive mind (as organised around our hippocampus and neo-

cortex) and , as such reveals deeper needs and aspects to our self.

One of the convictions of Human Ecology theory is that problems

arise when individuals are discouraged from developing their imagination

beyond their early childhood. Imagination is the capacity of the mind to

integrate the conceptual, verbal and analytical with the emotional, implicit

and unconscious. This capacity allows us to be whole- knowing the world as

both a mind and a heart. If we lack imaginative literacy, our cognitive and


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emotional brains remain dis-integrated. This can lead to all kinds of

dysfunctions and contradictions.

Much of Western education encourages children to separate out their

two brains, rewarding them for highly conceptual abilities and relegating the

creative imagination to the performing and visual arts. Industry continues to

reinforce this hierarchy by rewarding those with highly analytical abilities

usual for finance, consulting, accounting and law at levels way above those

with imaginative and emotional abilities, who may work in the arts,

education or caring professions.

The Measurement of Personal Ecology

The Visual Landscape can be sensitively and reliably explored and mapped

through a process called the Personal Ecology Profile (PEP). PEP was

developed over a number of years to offer a reliable means of measuring the

seven different tasks that we perform in our Visual Landscape. The PEP

produces a set of scores related to the seven tasks; as such it can carefully

objectify some emergent themes from our landscape. The PEP is the key to

moving from the first order language world of metaphor to the second order

language world of concepts.

Because the Visual Landscaping process emerges from such deep,

personal and tacit self-being, the scores of the PEP tend to represent the

deeply embedded and long held strategies that we have used to manage our

landscape. In other words, the PEP scores do not simply represent the

current strategies that we are deploying, but rather the ancient strategies that

have their origins way back in our childhood. It teases out the deeply

embedded strategies that underpin our lives.

The PEP’s psychometric credentials and outputs will be highlighted

later.

The Capacity of Individuals to Change their Personal Ecology

The question over the ability of personality to change after adulthood is

contested. Psychological studies tend to suggest that it (and other

conceptualities such as self-concept) remain consistent after the age of 22-5.

However, some recent claims from those in the life-coaching industry would

assert that people can choose to become different people. They would resist

the determinism be it genetic or conditioned.


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Human Ecology theory does not attempt to tease out the genetic or

environmental factors in our behaviour. It acknowledges that both are

present (landscapes both have incipient strata, flora etc but also develop over

time through intervention, evolution and erosion etc). Human Ecology

theory chooses to look at the influences that can be isolated; specifically

those which have left ‘footprints’ on the landscape of an individual. It

suggests that those influences, in particular those in early life, shape the

overall topography of an individual. This topography is difficult to

fundamentally alter- just as it requires huge earthworks to shift thousands of

tons of earth and rock in a landscape if one wanted to infill a canyon or blast

a path through a hill. Such topographical reconfigurations, whilst not

impossible, would nearly always come about through some major event,

possibly trauma.

In the main, we work within the laid-down topography of our

landscapes, learning to accommodate it and inhabit it safely. This landscape

provides our limits. Growth therefore comes through becoming more self-

aware of its shape, form and scale.

At the same time, Human Ecology theory emphasises that our coping

strategies (the way we navigate our landscape) can be revised. This process

requires us to become aware of them, perhaps of their causes, and also of the

alternatives that are available to us. One of the key limiters to our freedom to

embrace new strategies is the emotion of fear. Fear, at an unconscious level

has a strong hold on our behaviours as we fundamentally seek to make

ourselves safe. Unpicking the source of our fears, and learning to choose to

trust is a key choice that can enable change.

As we choose to trust both ourselves and others, so we may be able to

discover that the world is not as unsafe as we feared it to be. This can then

begin to reinforce a new co-created strategy, in which a more open cycle of

behaviour is reflected and reinforced by the co-actors in our drama. The way

we inhabit our landscape can open up and become more ‘undefended’.

One of the goals of Human Ecology as a therapeutic methodology is

to enable individuals to become more undefended; to choose to inhabit their

worlds with a more trusting, open, attentive and receptive posture.

Space and Time: The Language of Now

It’s been said that the central question facing us as a human population at the

start of the millennium is how we occupy space rather than time. Not as in


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outer space, but physical space, on the face of this overcrowded planet. By

contrast, our industrialising forebears inhabited a spacious globe in which

the limits and boundaries of its natural resources were so wide, so beyond

them, that their central preoccupation was how to compress the time it took

to exploit them. For them the central question was time; for us, it is now

space.

The language of Human Ecology looks to offer a vocabulary that is

resonant with this broader philosophical, economic and political agenda. The

task today is not simply to empower individuals to become more efficient

but to enable us collectively to become more cooperative. Whilst the human

development industry for the past three decades has focused on performance

and fulfilment, the focus for the next decades is likely to be collaboration

and hospitality. The language of Human Ecology encourages us to pay

attention not only to the individual but ‘to the spaces between individuals’. It

is in this space that real transformational change can occur.

Human Ecology resists the Western concept of individual freedom

and autonomy (from Descartes) and asserts that you cannot consider the

individual without considering their relationships. The individual cannot be

seen as isolated but as a nexus of relationships in constant dynamic

equilibrium.

Levels of Granularity

The rules that determine how space is defined are consistent whatever the

size and scale of that space. A small garden has the same basic parameters of

operation as a city park; each has a boundary, must distinguish between

itself and the outside world, must manage change, negotiate conflict etc. The

seven tasks that are relevant to a person’s ecological space should therefore

also be true for other levels of space- a team’s space for example, or an

organisation’s space.

In fact, Human Ecology theory asserts that you can apply the same

parameters to any kind of human space and that the dimensions remain true

and firm. Take any single dimension or task, and apply it to any social or

political entity and it has validity. Think, for example, of how an

organisation has a front stage and a back stage- one self it presents to the

world and one that it keeps reserved. Or how a country must negotiate its

borders with its neighbours, or a company must decide the extent to which it

wants to expand its boundaries or to consolidate them.


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This reality gives the dimensions of Human Ecology as a universal

application. They can be used to analyse any situation and context- a family

in Dubai, an individual in Doha, a global firm from Detroit. In this way, the

language that one uses to open up the landscape of an individual can be

consistent with the language used to describe a society. The language of

space holds true across all contexts. The meaning of how space is inhabited

may well change from context to context- for example, having an open

boundary as a family in Ghana may be culturally important, whilst in Europe

it may be frowned upon. Different cultures place different values on the way

that their citizens inhabit space. This requires knowledge of the specific local

values in order to place the appropriate interpretation on the way an

individual, team or organisation’s landscape is inhabited.


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The Models of Human Ecology

The theory of Human Ecology provides the framework for a set of models to

be extrapolated which have relevance to various spheres of life and work.

All of these models are rooted in the basic theory of Human Ecology and

simply apply aspects of it to specific contexts. The models themselves are

simplifications, second order conceptualisations which must be understood

and held behind the nuanced texture of the Visual Landscape.


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39

Personality

Of the seven tasks required in the Formation Cycle, four have proved to be

especially influential in the overall shape of the personality strategy that

individuals come to embed.

Those four tasks (or dimensions) are:

1. Front and back stage (Presented or Reserved)

2. Self Definition (Strong or Weak)

3. Empathy (Empathy or Evaluation)

4. Self- Expansion (Expansion or Consolidation).

These tasks represent scales between two polarities. The model of Personal

Ecology suggests that individuals will have a specific, habituated location on

each of these scales. The location on each scale will represent the strategic

posture that the individual has come to embed, that works for them in their

overall strategy.

Identifying the location of their strategy on the scale of each will give

insight into the personality of that individual. These scales can be analysed

not only in isolation, but also in combination (which is the way they work in

our holistic lives). Personal Ecology offers a means of combining the scores

on these four scales into a single model of personality. This model of

personality gives a map of sixteen different ways these scales can be

combined. The sixteen combinations each represent a particular strategy that

an individual might come to embed over time. There is detailed and rich

psychometric feedback for each strategy, running to a number of pages,

depicting both the front and back stage experience, perception and attitudes

of that individual. The overall summary map is shown below.


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Legend:

P = Presented (front stage) S = Strong self definition

R = Reserved (back stage) W = Weak self definition

M= eMpathising X = eXpanding

V = eValuating C = Consolidating

Diagram 3 PEP 16 patterns

STABLE ENTHUSIASTIC

DYNAMIC COMMITTED

RESERVE

D

PRESENTED

PWVX Positive, helpful, hardworking people. Instinctive

problem solvers, need change and challenge. Attracted to emerging

situations that require firmer control and organisation. Follow strong leadership. De-motivated by negative, self critical environment. Need affirmation for their effort and skills. Softer underneath than they may appear.

PWMX

Positive, affectionate, supportive people. Seek to find roles in which they

can care for others; instinctively respond to need around them.

Enjoy upbeat groups, and need to be given responsibility and much praise. Motivated by appreciation. Hardworking, but very sensitive to criticism and rejection.

RWMX

Positive, generous, encouraging seeking to support strong initiatives and leaders. Less confident than they may appear, needing affirmation and close 1:1 relationships. Seek change and new opportunities. Can appear restless. Apparently more

committed to an idea or plan than they may

prove in practice.

RWVX

Intense, inwardly focused forceful people. Able to bring energy and evaluation to a situation. Seek out changing, exciting situations. Enjoy playing with ideas. Express themselves more forcefully than they may realise, Enjoy strong relationships and sense of belonging. Sometimes provocative. Less confident than they may appear.

RSMX

Passionate, deep, strong Willed people, who tend to be strongly committed to causes and concerns. Appear more evaluating and open than they are underneath. Driven by inner self belief. Tend t o work by encouraging and motivating others. Well organised but at times overstretched.

RSVX Modest and reserved but strong

and influential underneath. Appearing more adaptable and accommodating than they actually are. Determined and able to exert considerable influence. Strong thinking style, but use their empathy to manage their relationships and external world. Tend to bite off more than they can chew.

PRESENTED

PSMX Positive, optimistic, strong people. Always action orientated, tend to attract followers because of their warmth and the encouragement they offer. Naturally assume leadership. Strong motivators, encourage people to grow. Relish challenge and change; rarely take

no for an answer. Can be superficial and over confident.

RWVC

Gentle, self-effacing

people. Reliable, organised, supportive

in a team. Reluctant to draw attention to themselves.

Flourish in roles they are familiar with. Have more to offer than they

realise. Good at handling data, organising and measuring resources. Tend to have modest self aspirations

and live within their limitations.

RWVC

Gentle, self-effacing people. Reliable, organised, supportive in a team. Reluctant to draw attention to themselves. Flourish in roles

they are familiar with. Have more to offer than they realise. Good at handling

data, organising and measuring resources. Tend to have modest self aspirations and live within their limitations.

PWVC Positive, upbeat and helpful people. Look for affirmation and support of those around them. Instinctive organisers, good at simplifying tasks and structures effectively. Are more personally involved in their work than it appears. Maybe hurt without support and lose confidence in their ability

as a result.

PWMC Accommodating, affable, supportive people. Good team players, keen to fit in and seek to create a positive, upbeat harmonious atmosphere. Dislike confrontation and introspection. Can internalise blame that belongs to others. Stronger underneath

Than they appear; tend to surprise others with inner

strength in crises.

PSMC Good-natured, positive,

practical people. Seek to bring stability, harmony and

good relationships into a group. Consolidate

strengths and mediate conflict. Prefer to look forward rather than back or in. Stronger

than they might at first appear; may be conformist and habit forming. Interested in ideas but less committed to acting on them. PSVC

Strong, well organised, in control of both themselves and their life. Rarely show inner feelings or spend time looking inwards.

Focused on controlling and organising their outer

world. Energetic, hardworking and pragmatic. Risk burn

out. Emotional side less well developed to cope if structure and

control of world collapses.

RSVC Warm, quiet, Adaptable, secure and content. Rarely competitive, they seek to release gifts in others, playing a supportive and enabling role. Rarely assert their own will, but underneath stronger and more resistant to change than may appear. Seek stable structures but freedom to play with ideas and approaches. Less committed to ideas than they may appear.

RSMC Strong, secure, caring

people who tend to be reserved and private. High sense of personal

responsibility for others. Enjoy enabling others to flourish by creating safe, secure environment. Appear more

adaptable than they are. Doers rather than thinkers

or sayers. Dislike change, create

stability.

PSVX Strong, assertive, focused, high energy people. Confident of their own ability, relish change and challenge,. Bored by stability. Use their thinking to make choices and direct behaviour. Introvert any lack of confidence. Can be insensitive to the feelings and fragilities of those around them.


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By way of offering an example of expanded commentary on one of these

strategies, the lines below refer to the PSVC strategy.

PSVC

Expanded Title Presented Strong Evaluating consolidating with reserved weak empathising

Landscape PSVC's have clear, distinct landscapes to their public world. They focus more

outside their landscape than inside. They focus more on evaluative data but

within their boundary, privately, may be more empathetic. They have a drive for

consolidating their world, though they are more open to change in their private

world.

Experience PSVC's have a well defined, clear sense of themselves, an assurance about their

identity in life and the confidence to express it when they feel it is necessary. Their

persona speaks of someone who is in control of themselves and in control of their

world. They do not appear to seek affirmation from others and prefer to be

independent minded, pursuing strategies and actions in their own way rather than

someone else's. They rarely ask for help or advice, rarely seem flustered or out of

balance either within themselves or thrown by a situation they are in. They are

efficient, well organised and establish a life that is controlled and stable. They

will resist rapid change and can be strong willed and stubborn, unwilling to move

and accept new things until they feel ready.

They see themselves bringing stability, sense, pragmatism to any team or

situation. They may be surprised at and unable to handle times of emotional

crises when they are faced with a situation that they cannot logically deal with.

Present PSVC's are known as those who exert influence in any situation they are in. They

are able to see ways to improve the structures and strategies of a team or

environment and will be frustrated by inefficiency or poor management. They will

tend to focus on external issues rather than internal and emotional ones, seeking

to clarify communication, make common understanding clearer, more robust and

more workable. Essentially they 'project' their character onto a situation, creating

order, control and stability. They are seen as effective, cool, evaluating and able

to manage messy, complex situations and simplify solutions. They may come

across as detached and emotionally remote, preferring to keep people at arm's

length rather than get intimately involved. They will rarely reveal a weak,

vulnerable aspect, or display emotion, which some will find enabling, others

disabling.

Some people will relish the control and sense of security they bring. Others may

find them more superficial in their lack of sensitivity to the depth, complexity and

emotion of a situation; they may lack confidence in the PSVC's judgments or

motives. PSVC's will never make a decision that does not make complete practical

and objective sense, and will be low risk takers. This lack of adventurous spirit

can seem pedantic, stifling and over- controlling to others. There may be some

moments in their lives when their capacity to cope logically is overwhelmed. Such

crises will leave them confronting their back stage, unresolved emotion, to which


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they have paid little attention and losing their ability to make decisions and assert

themselves. They will try to reassert their control in their external world as

rapidly as possible to solve the problem and time will allow them to 're-interpret'

these experiences as situations they have now mastered. Reserve Because they have invested little of themselves in developing their back stage

world, they can be emotionally illiterate, unable to articulate or understand

emotional feelings. Because it is important for them to be well controlled

emotionally, they will try to contain and control their own and other's inner

feelings that are volatile and may be poor at managing complex, sensitive

emotional relationships. Their own unacknowledged emotion may 'leak out' in a

variety of psychological and physiological manifestations. Soul searching will be

a painful and difficult exercise.

Effect PSVC's may...

• Inspire admiration in some

• Intimidate some by their sense of confidence, control and capability

• Frustrate some in their stubbornness and unwillingness to change

• Bring stability, order and effectiveness

• Surprise some by the sensitivity and weakness they may on occasion allow to be

seen

• Unconsciously encourage reliance upon their strength of self belief and control

• Disable some by appearing super-confident and capable

Stress Under stress PSVC's will tend to...

• Become stubborn, pedantic and overly controlling

• Express anger and hurt as a way of regaining control

• Lose perspective and become absorbed in insignificant issues

• Experience anxiety-related problems, such as panic attacks, phobias or

physiological concerns

• Be attracted to warm, sometimes inappropriate, relationships that affirm them

Best PSVC's are able to handle volumes of work and complex structural challenges

that others would be defeated by. They have much personal energy to direct at

creating a better run, more effective, more productive world and thrive on

challenge and opportunity as long as they are allowed to be in control. They have

considerable self belief, and an effective pragmatism to simplify complex tasks

and succeed. They are often effective organisers and managers of tough,

challenging situations. They can put together a sustainable, structured life under

considerable pressures, handling most things they are faced with.

Comment PSVC's have much to give to others. In order to do so, they may benefit from the

following comments:

• PSVC's need to become aware of the potential gap between their need to control

and others' need for freedom. Because they find unpredictability and emotion

threatening, they can sometimes not allow others to express it.

• Their need for rapid, effective, pragmatic solutions to problems can lead them to

miss the growth to be found within the difficulty of a situation. They can be over-

controlling and anxious about risk and danger.

• If they do not develop their expanding trait their life can be dominated by


43

reducing risk and controlling uncertainty.

• If they do not learn to present their empathising trait they may appear cold and

clinical.

• Being able to learn the discipline of reflecting inwardly will enable the PSVC to

connect with their own fragilities, those of their close relationships and also of the

world around them. They will be more able to enjoy life as it comes to them rather

than putting it into organised boxes.

Choice Your profile is not a type that you were born with; nor is it a trap that you cannot

develop from. It represents the current strategy that you are using to ensure that

you feel secure and as positive about yourself as you can. It represents the

unconscious choice that you have made to both protect and promote yourself as a

person in the world. The profile has highlighted some on the characteristics of

your strategy and some of its implications - both positive and negative.

This is not the only strategy that you can use. You can choose to develop others.

• It is a choice that you are making to operate more on your front stage than on

your back stage. To become more back stage will involve taking the risk of

allowing others to influence what goes on around you which you may find a

challenge.

• It is a choice that you are making to present your strong sense of yourself on

your front stage. To allow others to see your weaker self on your front stage will

risk appearing less influential and in control which you may find hard to accept.

However, it may help you be more balanced and integrated as a person.

• It is a choice that you are making to use your more evaluating trait to process

your experiences. This gives you clarity and detachment; to become more

empathetic will involve you committing more of yourself to other people.

• It is a choice that you are making to maintain and stabilise your world as you do

and to avoid risk. This enables you to feel safe and secure. To push your own

personal boundaries and accept new opportunities and ways of doing things will

be a challenge but one you have the power to accept if you choose.

Growth and maturity come with the ability to choose different psychological

strategies depending on the needs of the situation and other people around you.

Self-awareness, self management and responsiveness are the hallmarks of a

secure but open person. They lie at the heart of what is understood to be

emotional intelligence. The PEP has given you a mirror to see yourself as you

currently are and to choose who you are to be in the future.


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Some Key Distinctives of Personal Ecology

Strategies not types

Whilst the 16 patterns have some apparent numerical resonance with the 16

types described in MBTI®, they should not be understood similarly.

Jungian typology asserts the inherent and fundamental character within a

person (sometimes described as a basic preference). Personal Ecology,

however, represents the emergent strategy that an individual has come to

develop and then iterate through their life. As such it is open to change and

development like an unfinished story.

Co-creative

An individual’s PEP strategy is not generated simply by factors or drives

within themselves. It is the co-creative responses they have made and

continue to make within their environment. As such, it is dynamic and

always in a state of flux. That said, our research suggests that individuals

remain committed to recreating similar environments around themselves,

even in very different circumstances, such that their embedded strategy can

remain intact.

See Appendix 1. For a paper written following a one year research project

with the Bristol Clipper, a yacht sailing in the 2002 Global Clipper race.

Dynamic Change and development- stasis and revolution

This action of co-creation leads us to understand human individuals as

agents of environmental constraint. We act to hold and maintain our worlds

in familiar patterns, exerting energetic control even in times of change to

reorganise our surrounding environments into psychologically familiar

spaces. As such, therefore, it appears that change or development in

individuals does not occur in a straight, linear fashion. Instead, it appears

we tend to resist change and growth. The pattern of development is less one

of gradual evolution over time, and more one of periods of stasis, indeed

resistance to change, followed by rapid periods of revolution, or

overthrowing of one’s strategy.

This does not mean to say that, during times of stasis, an individual is

not learning. Rather, during those times, information is being internalised


45

and integrated into both the implicit emotional memory and the explicit

verbal memory. Over time, the dissonance between our internalised world

and the actual, ongoing, perceived world may become too great; large

discrepancies within our cognition creates stress which become the

conditions under which we are prepared for change. When that change

actually arrives, it may not in fact be triggered by a decisively new piece of

evidence and information- rather, the straw that breaks the camels back may

simply be our way of acknowledging the underlying burden for change that

has been building up.

The longer an individual has resisted change, the more dramatic it

may be when it occurs. Similarly, individuals who become more knowing,

conscious and literate of the internal and external discrepancies as they go

along are more likely to instigate iterative change along the way. We would

tend to call this high emotional literacy or perhaps intelligence, or simply the

capacity to be an ongoing reflective learner.

Enabling individuals to change therefore, according to the theory and

empirical evidence of Human Ecology, is as much a question of timing and

creating the right conditions as it is the actual development process itself.

Diagram 4


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Dramatic Interplay

The PEP conceives of the self as an ongoing drama, a playing out of both

front and back stages in concert. As such, the 16 PEP patterns offer insight

into the continual dialogue between the front and back stage of an

individual. There is a sense of both movement and equilibrium at play here.

The PEP report can often help an individual articulate aspects of themselves

they have inchoately been aware of but unable to pin down.

So, for example, in the RSC (Reserved, Strong, Consolidating) pattern

(with either eMpathising or eValuating), in which an individual dominantly

feels most safe on their back stages (R- Reserved), the according front stage

depiction will be very different. See this extract from the extended narrative:

RSC

Back stage, strong and consolidating

This is a person who has a strong sense of themselves and is

orientated toward remaining in control of their landscape- their

expectations, their standards, their relationships, their believes.

These they seek to consolidate and reserve from threat. However

they seek to maintain this control on their backstage rather than

their front. They have learned over their life that it is safer to keep a

place within them self which they are in control of rather than risk

controlling all that is around them. They look at the PSC

(Presented, Strong, Consolidating) and feel that this is a little too

exposed- having to win all your battles up front. Instead they

choose to lose some of the front stage battles, but to win all of the

backstage.

The front stage for this person is by contrast PWX (Presented,

Weak, eXpanding)- they present an open, adaptable and

accommodating self to the world. They can seem eager to embrace

change and allow adventure around them; they enjoy a warm

upbeat atmosphere which is free of confrontation. Indeed, they tend

to create this freedom around them to prevent people becoming

inquisitive and snooping around behind the curtain. People often

fail to realise the depth of strength, stubbornness and resistance to

change within this person, seeing them as accommodating and

open. They may fail to realise this themselves. They will tend to


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avoid risk and shut down any kind of encounter which might go

behind the curtain and question the foundations that exist behind;

behind the curtain is a safe contained place; they may have learned

to contain their own emotions because they feel it is unsafe and

risky so they struggle to be able to express themselves honestly on

their front stage.

At times of stress or boredom, the shape of our ‘drama’ may well change as

an adaptive response. One such response is for an individual to ‘switch’, in

which they bring their more dominant strategy to bear on their other stage.

So, for example, on my own back stage my embedded strategy is SX- Strong

and eXpanding. This tends to mean in general terms that I am comfortable

and confident to explore and develop new ‘worlds’ within me- ideas,

theories, stories etc.

This inner, back stage world sustains me and I will let it inform my

front stage sensitively. However, in times of boredom, where their seem to

be few opportunities to innovate any new ideas, I may ‘switch’ this normally

Reserved set of traits onto my front stage as an act of agency or power to

seek to generate change. At such times I may become unexpectedly and

unpredictably focussed on changing all kinds of aspects of my normally

settled and consolidated front stage.


48

Fear and Safety

Because each of the 16 strategies represents a way of being ‘safe’ in a

basically unsafe world, they are all, in one sense, defensive strategies. The

mode of defence may be different, and some may appear more obviously

defensive than others (e.g. the best form of defence is offense!), but

nonetheless, Human Ecology theory maintains that, at their essence, we have

a basic orientation to defend ourselves.

Many personality theorie, models or tools seek to emphasise the

positive aspects of personality- the gifts or talents they bring to a team or

environment. The PEP offers a more mixed and perhaps difficult discourse

on such gifts. It acknowledges that as individuals we develop skills and

competencies- some of these have genetic origin, but all are honed by

repetition, rehearsal and reiteration as part of our emergent strategy to be

safe in the world. As such, they work for us, and indeed, the reason we

cultivate them is as assets to ensure ongoing safety in the world. Our skills,

however powerful and useful and indeed beneficial to others they may be,

are always double edged. There is a degree of self-interest in all our

behaviour.

PEP theory, and the wider Human Ecology theory that it sits within,

therefore, offers a complex view of human motivation. There seems to me,

as the author, dark realities we have to come to terms with as human beings

about both the capacity of human beings to fall short of our ideals, but also

our inability to eliminate suffering from our planet. Narratives which offer

an account of benign human evolution toward a golden age seem to me to

overlook the facts which are more complex and disturbing; of our continued

ability and willingness, despite knowledge and technological advancement,

to misuse and abuse our world and one another. Any narrative of individual

behaviour must take account of this capacity we have, and the PEP attempts

that by starting from the presupposition that safety is our basic human need.

Maturing

That is not to say that the PEP lacks a notion of human maturing. The

maturing of the individual however, is not conceived in terms of self-

fulfilment or self-actualisation. Rather, it is seen as a willingness of an

individual to inhabit the planet in an undefended rather than defended

posture. (See undefended life pp97)


49

Positive or Negative?

Some may want to accuse the PEP, and the theory of Human Ecology in

general, as overly negative in its view of humanity. However, the theory

both allows for, and indeed suggests an explanation of some of the most

human, enlightened and extraordinary lives we see lived out. In general,

whilst we may admire, or envy, those who are highly successful in their

professional lives and gain the trophies that accompany them, it is the

philanthropists, the generous, the compassionate, the self-sacrificing, the

courageous who attract our collective gratitude. Each of these qualities, and

many others we could name, involve the individual looking beyond their

own fulfilment toward the goods of others around them- often the less well

off, less fortunate, less educated, less empowered. It is those social qualities,

and their underlying psychological antecedents (empathy, love,

commitment, joy, patience etc) that we regard as qualities of the mature.

The PEP therefore is even handed about talents and skills, regarding

them as agencies which can bring good to others, but which also serve us. It

regards the higher journey of maturing as not the continued acquisition of

new skills or as self-fulfilment, but rather the offering of oneself toward the

other as a gift.


50


51

Roles, Groups and Social Systems

One of the most potentially important realisations of the theory of Human

Ecology is that patterns of behaviour that are observable in individual

persons are also observable in wider human systems. In other words, the

same dynamics of interaction that may be used to describe personality might

also be used to describe the behaviour of groups- teams, families, even

organisations.

What makes this extension possible is the fundamental kind of

language used to describe individual behaviour; spatial rather than merely

psychological. Personal Ecology describes individual behaviour in terms of

how space is occupied; it is a description of the architecture of personal

space. A group also inhabits space; perhaps therefore the same dimensions

that describe personal space can also be deployed to describe corporate

space?

For example, could we say that an organisation has a front stage and a

back stage? Does it have an aspect which is visible to the watching

audience? A company for example, has its image, its brand; on its front stage

here, it puts its products, it services, its mission statements and PR. It also

has an aspect that it conceals from the watching audience; a back stage upon

which it works out its internal operations- its HR, finance, R&D and so on.

On the front stage of the British army, for example, you see uniforms, war

planes, military regalia, and of course the arena of combat itself. However,

this front stage is supported and enabled by a sophisticated back stage- of

training, preparation, support lines, logistics core, tacticians, the officers

mess, hospitals and rehabilitative operations.

Group/team roles

This extension can be first applied to the roles that exist within small social

group. There are many theories of group or team roles, most notably the

seminal work of Meredith Belbin. Such theories recognise that potentially

different individuals, regardless of their internal psychology, may choose,

within the context of that team situation, to adopt a specific kind of role, in


52

order for that team to function. The roles that are adopted are relevant to that

group context and an individual may be able to choose other roles in other

team contexts, even if they have a basic orientation toward one or more of

the various roles available.

In Human Ecology theory, we would extend this principle to suggest

that groups occupy collective social space and that within that space,

different niches exist. Those niches are available to be filled by different

characters. So, for example, on the front stage of the group, there is a niche

which is characterised by weak self-definition and by a consolidating

posture. Weak self-definition means that this is a space which allows itself to

be defined by others rather than its occupant; it concedes, defers, or

positively engenders the expression of other people’s interests. A

consolidating posture means that those diverse interests are sought to be held

together, in unity, to create a sense of team and belonging, rather than that to

engender change. The coordination of those three aspects (front stage, weak,

consolidating) create a unique niche space which, when filled, has a

cohesive function within the collective group. It engenders belonging,

participation and inclusion.

By using just these three dimensions of front/back stage, strong/weak

self definition and expansion/consolidation we can map out an eight

category model of niche spaces within a social group.


53

Diagram 5 Group or Team Roles

RWX

Resource Providing Responsive, and reactive to team needs. Low profile, consultancy style, mobile and independent. Supports executive strategy. Provides resources.

RSX

Creating Expands core processes and horizons. Focused upon engineering future value into proposition. Creates new possibilities. Breaks rules.

RWC

Supporting Detached and independent role. Low profile, providing compliance and regulation

of process/system. Background support

of team objective.

PWC

Team working Works collaboratively toward team goals, compliant, supportive, loyal. Democratic or affiliative. Helps coordinate concerted effort. Acts like team glue.

PSC

Enforcing Controls execution, delivery and

standards. Shapes agenda, focuses on output. Provides directional leadership.

Holds team to account. Dominates space.

RSC

Regulating Provides control and

checking. Focuses on stabilising inputs and internal

mechanisms. Risk averse, resists change, questions

everything.

TERRITORIAL

NICHE RESPONSIVE

DYNAMIC

PWX

Problem

Solving Delivers service, provides go-forward

energy. Overcomes challenges. Client

focused Implements agenda of client. Readily motivated but reactive.

PSX

Driving Drives outputs and performance. Sets tempo and possibilities.

Proactive and assertive. Overcomes challenges, seeks out new

opportunities; competes against opposition.


54

Many of these eight niches have a character that is familiar to other models

of team roles. So, for example, the RSX niche has similarity with Belbin’s

Plant; the PWC with the Teamworker; the RSC/PSC with the Completer

Finisher. This suggests that the theory of Human Ecology is offering another

language to describe what has already been understood, applied and found

descriptively valid in terms of team roles. The additional insight that Human

Ecology theory brings is that that team roles which are known to exist are

generated by the emergent properties of social space within a group. In other

words, they are, like a biological environment, a fact of the social

environment before they are a fact of the individuals within them.

To this extent, the theory suggests that such niche spaces would be

found in different contexts and settings as emergent properties of all niche

spaces. In this regard, one might make comparison with the observations of

biological niches. One might take an oceanic ecosystem from the Southern

Pacific, and also an ecosystem from the plains of the Serengeti; in both,

there is a niche space for a primary producer (grass/phytoplankton),

herbivores (Impala/krill or small fish), secondary carnivores (if the

ecosystem is abundant enough- seal), a primary carnivore (lion/killer

whales) and detritivores (ants, maggots/nematodes).

Ecosystems vary depending on the abundance of their resources and

the harshness of conditions, but the niches within them tend to be similar;

they are emergent properties of the biological environment. Whether the

primary carnivore is a lion or a killer whale, the point is , there is a primary

carnivore. Indeed, if, for some reason some niche is not taken, then it will

over time, tend to become taken. So for example, New Zealand, a land mass

which geologically became separated without predators, developed a number

of flightless birds, such as a Moa, Weka, Wren and Kiwi. These flourished

until the introduction of two dominant predators- dogs and human beings.

The dominant predator niche was available to be filled within that ecosystem

when it was void; the filling of it caused the rapid elimination of some

species in other niches.

Group and team roles, within the theory of Human Ecology therefore,

are considered, like niches, as emergent properties of the social system.

These spaces may be filled by different individuals who may either have a

tendency to adopt those roles (fill those spaces) because of the strategy of

Personal Ecology they have embedded, or because that is what is required in

that social system for it to flourish healthily.


55

It can confidently be said, therefore, that social systems work best

when all such emergent niches are healthily filled, allowing the social

ecology to self-sustain and self-renew. We will come onto the way that

social ecologies renew themselves over time later, but at this point, we will

simply note that, just as biological ecologies can be damaged and rendered

unsustainable, so human social ecologies can also become pathological,

toxic and unsustainable.

This suggests that social systems such as teams, which may be

understood as groups with a clear collective functional purpose, work best

when there is firstly (implicit or explicit) understanding of the social roles

being fulfilled. Secondly, a willingness to contribute one’s part, and thirdly,

a flexibility to adopt other social roles when the inhabitants of the social

ecology change, or indeed the wider environmental conditions change.

The understanding of teams as social ecologies offers rich insight into

the dynamics of social groups. Whilst the notion of social ecology is

widespread, the specific modelling of it in the form of group theory as

articulated by Human Ecology theory, offers a more specific and coherent

understanding for the internal and external dynamics of social groups.

Wider Collective Groups

Human society organises itself into social groups, be they domestic,

governmental, industrial or professional. The extension of Human Ecology

theory to these wider social groups offers some fascinating and important

insights into the structure and dynamics of social groups. This brief

introductory text affords us only a glimpse at the emergent patterns which

the theory predicts will be present in wider social groups. See the following

examples.


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Diagram 6 School Class roles

RWX

Gofer More reticent but very eager to volunteer and help whenever invited. Lacking confidence and seeking affirmation. Can seem remote and awkward. May be picked on as weak. May struggle to express opinions.

PWX

Fixer Enthusiastic; always

needs a role. Looks for

problems to sort out.

Attention seeking.

` Motivated by

affirmation and

opportunity to

help. Can irritate other

children (and teachers!)

and seem immature.

PSX

Leader Confident, dominant, secures attention of others. Drives group agenda, stimulated by change and challenge. Needs to be at front. Finds losing or being Left out hard. Needs to

develop collaboration and ability to enjoy

seeing others flourish.

RSX

Creator Individualist, decisive, confident of own ideas. Enjoys autonomy. Easily bored and dissatisfied. Motivated by own standards. Can seem self absorbed and can get isolated. Needs to

develop collaboration.

RWC

Lone Worker

Reserved, avoids attention. Lacking confidence. Enjoys a

quiet, self-contained role. May seem diffident and closed; needs encouragement to

take risks and try new things. Responds to

being shown trust and belief.

PWC

Team worker Enjoys working with others in group. Compliant, supportive, goes with consensus, avoids standing out or rocking boat. May be peacemaker. Needs encouragement to lead and develop independent thought.

PSC

Enforcer Conformist and assertive. Insists

on others behaving as they do. Likes to control an activity. Unsettled

by change, uncertainty or threats to their power.

Eager to please. Bossy and tale telling.

.

RSC

Regulator Quieter and more

reserved. Precise and careful. Dislikes competitive

activity and upfront performance; enjoys stability

and course work. Finds change difficult; can be stubborn, or

defensive. Verging on pedantic. Needs more praise than

appears.

TERRITORIAL

NICHE

RESPONSIVE

DYNAMIC


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Diagram 7 Organisational Structure

RWX Mobile, flexible, reactive, expert in situation. Support solutions provider. Resourceful. Low profile. Fire-fighters, consultancy. Technical and IT or people support, consultancy.

PWX

Responsive,

solutions

focused, forward

looking, delivery

and service orientated.

Led by organisation.

Customer

management,

service, projects, PR

RSX

Content generators, shaping company for tomorrow. Investing in adding value to current structures. Proactive, independent minded.

R&D, training

RWC

Compliant, supportive, maintenance focused, low key, backroom, support services

Project based maintenance, compliance

PWC Compliant, bulk labour force for simple operational supply and delivery. Output focused

Operational delivery, maintenance, admin

PSC

Defined, dominating territory, controlling, in

authority over organisation. Proactive, sets direction.

Holds organisation to account.

Executive management

RSC

Backroom foundation to business. Sets parameters and boundaries for delivery.

Provides supports for operations. Risk averse.

Finance, HR regulatory.

TERRITORIAL

NICHE

RESPONSIVE

DYNAMIC

Support Delivery Delivery

PSX

Growth generators, expanding commercial size, especially related to tangible products and performance.

Sales, marketing,

advertising


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Diagram 8 Social Demography

PSX

Iconic Successful, visible, powerful class. Created by commerce

or media mainly. Instinctively ambitious, self promoting. Celebrity, wealthy

and super wealthy.

RWC

Underclass Withdrawn, vulnerable,

compliant, trapped in time and place by socioeconomic conditions and personal

abilities. Little future hope or possibilities.

PWC

Mass Social capital that exists between people; trust, sense of belonging, cohesion, attachment to informal social ties such as locality, trade, family ambition or

scope.

PSC

Dominant Norm

Territorial, wealthy Self preserving. Looks to secure

quality lifestyle goods that reinforce meritocracy

and individual status.

RSC

Conservative Established norms and rules by which society

agrees to abide. Shared consensus and established

moral and ideological framework

TERRITORIAL

PASSIVE

RESPONSIVE

DYNAMIC

PWX

Aspirant

Typically looking

to acquire expansive

lifestyle for future via

token symbols now.

Influenced by Iconic.

Mobile and malleable.

RSX

Radical Defining own agenda and preferences. Interested in personal freedom and individuality. Not conforming. Origins of social revolution.

RWX

Migrant

Transient, vulnerable and mobile. Uncertain future and income. Looking for roots and home to settle.


59

This series of social maps can each be seen as an overlay on top of the

previous layer. One has a picture emerging of levels of granularity: within a

society one can observe macro patterns of social ecology, which represent

populations of people characterised by shared social and cultural aspirations

and values. Within those macro patterns, we can re-train the microscope as it

were, to focus on the next layer of granularity down; here, within the macro

demographic structure we find patterns emerging at a smaller community

level. Train the lens again, and we observe, within those layers, smaller

detail patterns in families and then individuals.

Of course, any single individual participates in numerous social

ecologies simultaneously; at home, at work, in their community etc. We

move from one system to another seamlessly (often), and social ecologies

overlap creating complexities and dynamics that are too rich to model.

However, the theory of Human Ecology is not imposing a rigid taxonomy on

social space; rather it points to the emergent properties that are present in all

social space which tend to produce patterns of relationships, a structure of

social space. These patterns are constantly moving and dynamic,

coordinating and reorganising themselves, and yet continuing to emerge

once again into these familiar eight niches. Such niches may exist only

fleetingly- for the half hour of a business meeting around a board room

table, or the stands of a football match, or around the road accident incident

on the motorway, and then dissolve again. Like an endlessly turning

kaleidoscope, the patterns are shifting; and yet familiar patterns continue to

emerge, briefly or sometimes, sustained over longer periods of time.

Social institutions, such as companies or families, represent

commitments upon the part of society to recognise and scaffold robust,

stable social ecologies. Human society is a history of stabilising social

configurations which, through legislation, explicit and implicit values,

traditions and often religious codification, provide the fluid social entity with

fixed points; shapes, patterns and communities which offer continuity and

consistency. Human individuals rely upon a degree of stability in order to

cope with the vagaries of this planet and as such has always coordinated

their existence into such groups. What the theory of Human Ecology adds to

this insight is the realisation that there are consistent and perhaps universal

self-organising patterns which tend to emerge within all social groups.


60


61

Change and Development

Social exegesis- unpicking the social narrative

As social ecologies change, so social history changes. Social history

represents the shifts in the ecology of a population or populations over time

and can be revealing as to the general trends or forces at work on a

population.

For example, I depict in the third of my books in the Undefended

Leader trilogy, Leading with Everything to Give, the social shifts that have

been emerging over the past century within primarily Western developed

economies and, specifically, the UK. The book observes the shrinking of the

PWC social space as informal, non-governmental social relationships and

ties (communities, marriages, families) have been dismantled or eroded. As

this social force within our social ecology has diminished, so in

coordination, the social space of PWX has swollen. Indeed, there has been a

shift or perhaps better drift away from PWC toward a way of social

organisation that has many more of the characteristics of PWX; so stability

has been traded for mobility; commitment for choice; tradition for

aspiration; belonging for novel experience. As a population then, we are now

far less defined by PWC than we are by PWX. See the summary diagram 9.


62

Diagram 9. Contemporary UK Social Ecology (from Leading with

Everything to Give, Simon P. Walker, 2007)

The theory of Human Ecology will suggest that such a shift from PWC-

PWX is not an isolated change but an emergent property of a social system

PSX Iconic

Formerly the aristocracy and intelligentsia, replaced

in the 20th century by a

meritocracy but now a celebrity class, cynically

manufactured to exploit aspirants’ dreams, driving

a relentless, vacuous consumer culture.

RSC

Conservative

The crumbling social foundations , eroded by loss

of shared values, stories, ethics and legislation. Should create stability, and space for

front stage enterprise and growth. Without it

expectations of social responsibility decay.

PASSIVE

RESPONSIVE

DYNAMIC

PWX

Aspirant

Mobile, forming loose

fragile attachments,

attracted to the new,

often resistant to

traditional boundaries.

Defined by trends set

by media/celebrities.

Insatiable desire to

acquire goods to define

identity as well as to

give intimacy.

Fragile and

unstable.

RWX

Migrant

Displaced global population, providing supply of labour and resource for dominant norm. Mass global immigration on unprecedented level, as well as population growth. Creates unstable roots which lack resilience.

PSC

Dominant Norm

Defines the norms and controls of the social system. Creates the

criteria of success and so determines the flow of power. Currently imposes corporatocratic standards and values on others, demanding conformity. Does not tolerate diversity.

TERRITORIAL

RWC

Underclass

Growing underprivileged global population, degraded by poverty,

ill health and lack of education, opportunity and choice.

Growing as both mass and migrant populations lose

their economic and social footing. Exploited and

criminalised.

PWC Mass

The basis of social

capital, reflecting

levels of trust within

and between

communities. Pursuing

an aspirant lifestyle,

West has largely

spent its social capital

and is now in social debt

as it struggles to integrate

immigrants.

.

RSX

Radical The source of a new vision, to fund any social renewal. The West must rediscover its own moral and spiritual footings, and develop an undefended vision of society.


63

which is always in flux. Therefore, to understand both the causes and indeed

the consequences of this social change on the wider social system one needs

to examine the other spaces within the social ecology. So, for example, the

changes in the RSC foundations (loss of shared moral, religious and ethical

consensus), or the changing social function of the PSX space (growth of

celebrity class) or the rise of a migrant class (RWX); all are interlinked. A

change in one space of the social ecology, like a filled balloon squeezed at

one end, distorts the shape of the overall social ecology; everything else

within the system is redistributed, as it is part of a greater whole.

Patterns of space- action and reaction

At the level of Personal Ecology we observed the way that what occurs on

an individual’s front stage will tend to be the reverse or mirror of what

occurs on their back stage. These two spaces relate to each other, caused by

the fact that one cannot deploy one’s resources everywhere at the same time.

If one deploys resources on the front stage, for example, they cannot also,

simultaneously, be deployed on the back stage. If one, for example, presents

one’s strong self- defined, forceful, confident on the front stage, one cannot

simultaneously deploy that self on the back stage- it is literally a rule or

limitation of the space-time continuum. So, in this example, with the strong

self deployed on the front stage, the back stage becomes the location of all

that cannot be revealed and presented- doubts, anxieties, questions

uncertainties, vulnerabilities. The back stage becomes the resident home of

the weak sense of self.

Necessarily, therefore, what tends to occur is that one self becomes

more habituated and familiar with one stage, and another self with the other

stage. These two selves represent the differential distribution of our

psychological resources.

This idea of relative distribution is necessary to understand the way

social space also manifests coordinated opposites. In summary, the theory of

Human Ecology suggests that each social space will coordinate with another,

the opposite social space, in a relationship of cause or effect.

For example, the front stage space of PSC- Presented, Strong and

Consolidated- will relate to and have a direct bearing on the opposite space

RWX- Reserved, weak and eXpanding. In this instance, the relationship

would look like this: a dominant force on the front stage, which fills the

space confidently, defining what may and may not occur, demanding


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uniformity and conformity (PSC) will result in an inevitable response of

subordination by those imposed on; in other words the master will dominate

the servants. This domination, caused by the PSC occupation of space,

means that the only space left available for the wider social system is RWX-

in the back stage, with a weak self-definition and to expand. These

characteristics of RWX social space bear the hallmarks of a population

under autocratic rule- subordination, submission, acting to serve the agenda

of the ruling authority.

This PSC-RWX pattern of social space exists in numerous political

systems- an autocracy, a dominating monarchy, a dictatorship. In such

examples, a dominant authority is the ‘action’ which causes a ‘reaction’ of

submission. It does not imply a moral evaluation about the state of the social

ecology; in itself it is simply a description of the equilibrium of power

within the social ecology. There are situations when such a distribution is

valid, even vital; for example, the arrival of the emergency services at an

accident or crime scene, who have the legislative mandate and training to fill

the PSC space, is vital to bring order to the situation. In this situation,

bystanders and victims are usually willing to stay within the ‘reactive’ RWX

space and to be rescued, protected, told what to do etc. They will submit

themselves to that authority in order to be safe in an essentially unsafe social

system. PSC is a niche that dominates the social ecology and is generally

recognised to be socially valid and necessary when there is fear, abuse or

disorder present in the social ecology.

However, this same coordinated pattern of PSC-RWX can also be

manifest illegitimately. For example, a political dictatorship. The dictator

imposes PSC control over the social ecology, reducing the freedom and

autonomy, choice and opportunity of the population. The population is

forced into the RWX niche space reluctantly and against their will. In such a

situation, the abusive nature of PSC will provoke resentment and create

potentially the preconditions for both subversive acts of defiance or outright

rebellion. For a more detailed description of the political manifestations of

PSC-RWX power Books Two and Three of The Undefended Leader should

be read.


65

Each of the eight social ecology niches relate to their opposite in some

specific way:

CAUSE EFFECT

PSC Dominates social space and

imposes order

RWX Subordinates and demands

submission leading over time

to resentment or rebellion

PWC Allows space for diversity

and inclusion within the

society within collective

whole

RSX Allows and needs

underpinning ideology and

vision to sustain and renew

itself

PWX Fosters optimism and

opportunity for individual

growth

RSC Is prevented from descending

into chaos and anarchy by

shared back stage

foundations

PSX Insists upon and inspires

growth, expansion and

progress toward some

iconic goal

RWC Results in a neglect of basic

backstage cultivation often

leading to exhaustion and

collapse.

The book, Leading with Everything to Give; Lessons from the Success and

Failure of Western Capitalism, exegetes both the consequences socially,

psychologically and financially for current society in some depth. This

present text does not set out to rehearse those observations again, merely to

observe that they are present.

Cycles of social change

There are numerous models of social evolution- how societies tend to

develop over time. Whilst the theory of Human Ecology depicts the social

niches as kinds of space within a social system, it also offers a commentary

on how an organisation might basically move from one niche to the next

over time. This chronological movement can be observed in numerous

organisations, societies or even civilisations over time.

By way of illustration, we might use the story of Microsoft, the

software giant. Back in the late 1970’s the dominant PSC force in the IT

industry was computer mainframes. This technology, huge and bulky and

slow as it was, was perceived as the dominant, even only way for IT to

function. As always, however, any dominant PSC, whilst imposing its


66

orthodoxy on the population, also fosters pockets of subversion and

resistance to its rule. In this case it was Bill Gates and his small group of

fellow Harvard students who believed that there was another way for IT to

develop. At this stage, Gates inter al. were firmly locked into the RWX

niche- dominated by the PSC of mainframes, they had no resources, power

or influence of their own to change the social ecology. Instead, they had to

work back stage, behind the scenes, stealing time on the mainframes at

night, to develop their own programming codes. Classic RWX subversive

behaviour.

The moment they created their first code, they made a transition- from

RWX to RSX. By definition, this new code, this new primitive operating

system was a radical innovation, something which had not existed before,

something with its own identity set against the prevailing PSC norm. As yet

though, whilst this code had the power within it to overthrow and render

obsolete the prevailing PSC norm, it was at this stage utterly hidden,

suppressed. Before it could gain any visibility, let alone traction, it had to be

proved to be reliable, stable, robust. This was the move from idea to

industry; the establishing of code that could reliably and consistently bear

the weight of operation in whatever conditions it might be placed. This was

the formation of MSDOS; and in terms of Human Ecology, it was the move

from RSX to RSC. MSDOS represented the technological foundations that

were robust enough to bear the weight of application, extension and

commercialisation.

Up to this point, the Macintosh operating system directly paralled the

development of MSDOS, even advancing it in terms of technology.

However, the two narratives diverge at this stage and lead to two entirely

different social ecologies. Microsoft make a deal to locate their operating

system on every IBM computer, whilst Mac host their operating system on

their own hardware. The partnership for Microsoft represented a shift from

RSC social niche to PWC; it was a partnership, of mutual benefit, in which

Microsoft hitched a lift on the already giant train of an existing industry

player. Suddenly, Windows gained presence across not just a niche but an

entire industry through collaboration. By anchoring themselves to IBM they

benefitted from the credibility of that brand, whilst Mac increasingly became

the preserve of niche specialists in design and academia.

From PWC partnership with IBM, Microsoft recognised the

opportunity to expand by locating their software on any and every PC. This


67

aspiration toward growth involved an acceleration of their marketing

campaign to attract new consumer interest. It was probably at this stage, in

the early 1990’s that most of us obtained our first Windows based PC- and it

wowed us. The ease of use, pictorial iconography, user friendly interface,

colourful graphics and outputs quickly won the hearts and pockets of

millions of new users. PC’s became very rapidly the must-have item; the

product was riding a wave, a tide of flow, carrying whole populations and

economies with it; there was natural growth energy here and there was little

work required to generate accelerating sales year after year. This was PWX

growth.

However, PWX acceleration was a precursor to the more aggressive

dominating ambition that was to emerge in the late nineties. Having captured

the bulk of the market, Microsoft sought to totally dominate it by expanding

the range of software applications to demolish all competition. In the mid-

nineties, software such as WordPerfect and Lotus were genuine competitors

to Word and Excel. But where are they now? Eliminated by ruthless

development and aggressive selling, by the turn of the century Microsoft

Office, as a total package, had become the almost universally used software .

PWX had moved to become PSX- dominating and eliminating all

opposition.

It was at this time that anti-competition suites began to rear their

heads. The goodwill toward Microsoft was turning sour as other companies

and individuals began to resent the sheer weight and dominance of a single

body. It seemed increasingly that Microsoft was engaged in rear guard

actions to defend its existing territory rather than take new territory. As the

internet grew overnight, so Microsoft attempted to buy up competitors in

order to preserve its brand and remain the predominant provider of all IT

supplies. PSX had turned to PSC and in turn PSC was provoking its own,

inevitable fresh reaction- a new RWX, parallel to Gate’s own, some thirty

years later. And the new RWX was called Google, and the internet was the

RSX. The cycle was and is beginning again.


68

Diagram 9. The Microsoft Story

This story provides illustration of how commercial products and firms can

develop over time. It is a well-known story, making Gates the richest man on

the planet. Gates became so wealthy because the development of Microsoft

moved through the appropriate phases of Social Ecology at the right times.

In this regard it is a model of successful productisation.

PSX Global domination

6. Elimination of all competition-

Lotus, Word Perfect etc. Enormous marketing power and consumer/corporate appetite foster fastest rate of growth

RWC Collapse

8. Ultimately, the prevailing

regime exhausts itself of any moral and intellectual integrity;

a dying phase which often involves significant loss

and associated pain.

PSC

Resistance to domination

7. Phase of increasing

resistance, law suites, resentment. Growing

subversion of domination through new uncontrollable fields- such as internet... Google as new RSX).

RSC

MSDOS Foundations

3. The radical innovation

becomes a stable and robust operating system-

MSDOS- which has the stability to be industrialised.

PASSIVE

RESPONSIVE

DYNAMIC

PWX

Windows &

Consumer

appetite

5. Early 1990’s- rapid

acceleration as market

reaches tipping point

and Windows is installed

on all PC’s.

RSX

Inspiration Code creation

2. Development of first

primitive operating system code. A radical innovation for IT but at this stage largely invisible and

unnoticed.

RWX Frustration Late 1970’s

1. Gates inter al. Frustrated by prevailing PSC main frames. Work at night to try and create an alternative

.

PWC IBM Partnership

4. Partnering with

IBM gives Microsoft the market platform to grow beyond rival Mac.

Piggy backs on IBM credibility and

infrastructure

STABLE


69

Many companies fail in their attempts to commercialise some

innovation because they fail to move sequentially through the necessary

phases of social ecology. In so doing, the success or duration of their

products is compromised. For example, the DOT.com boom represented an

attempt to move directly from RSX out to PSX, bypassing all of the stages in

between. The RSX of DOT.com was the internet, the potential ability to

trade online, virtually, rather than in real stores. This idea was invested in

speculatively without it having gone through the necessary RSC groundings-

to establish whether the technology really was robust enough to be

industrialised; without it having developed credibility or acceptance in the

marketplace (PWC). As such, it was an idea ahead of its time, which

attempted to move directly to PSX greedily, hungrily.

Inevitably, without the RSC technological and legislative foundations

in places, the operational delivery failed. Moreover, the rate at which the

wider population was ready to change and adopt the new buying practices

was much slower than anticipated; the market was just not that big- PWC

credibility and penetration had not already been established. Investors

investing for the predicted PSX returns overnight, over-bought on inflated

optimism without foundations and the baseless wave inevitably collapsed.

This book, however, is not intended as a commentary on the phases of

successful commercialisation. Rather I would like to return to how social

systems change in general terms to observe some important dynamics.

Spirals, cycles and Waves

Theorists of social history divide into two camps: there are those (such as

Spengler and Sorokin) who see history as cyclical and those (such as Hegel

and Marx) who see it as trend-based and evolutionary. The model of Social

Ecology suggests that human history follows neither an evolutionary nor a

cyclical path, but instead describes a spiral. History never repeats itself

exactly, never returns to quite the same point: the parameters change and

different civilizations, cultures and populations become involved as the

spiral turns. The spiral dynamic is shown in general principle in the Diagram

10 below.


70

Diagram 10: The social ecology model showing the general spiral

dynamic of social change (from Leading with Everything to Give, Simon

P. Walker, 2007)

If one imagines that spiral as a single line, a thread of which one can take

and lay it out, then the shape of that line is revealing. The first half of the

phases are back stage, or hidden phases, followed by four front stage or

PSX Iconic

6. The drive for adoption of the idea

is energised by media drive, which creates iconic status,

sustaining the aspiration of wider society to adopt the

orthodoxy.

RWC Collapse

8. Ultimately, the prevailing

regime exhausts itself of any moral and intellectual integrity; a

dying phase which often involves significant loss

and associated pain.

PSC

Dominant norm group

7. The orthodoxy becomes

an ideology, imposing its domination and control,

suppressing alternative voices, breeding a new frustration (see 1).

RSC

Conservative

3. The radical vision

becomes articulated as a workable set of processes, structures and approaches which provide the basis for

adoption by a wider Community.

PASSIVE

RESPONSIVE

DYNAMIC

PWX

Aspirant

5. The new idea

becomes commercialised and commoditised, allowing it to be scalable and adopted as the new mainstream in society.

RSX Radical

2. A new radicalism

emerges giving shape and voice to the revolution, which, for a time is suppressed by the prevailing orthodoxy.

RWX Exploited

1. Social change is born out of frustration with the PSC orthodoxy (7). Marginalisation, injustice and exploitation are strong catalysts.

PWC Social Community

4. A Community of

believers adopt the new idea and give it social expression. Often a great sense of optimism about a new kind of society accompanies this.

STABLE


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visible phases; showing a wave formation pattern: first under the surface of

the water and then emerging and gathering height.

WAVE 1

PWX PSX PSC PWC PWX PSX PSC

Surface

WAVE 2 WAVE 3

RWC RWX RSX RSC RWC RWX RSX

Diagram 11. Wave Form of Social Ecology

The wave form emerges from the phases of Social Ecology; it is not imposed

or manufactured. The form of the wave is determined by four phases of R

and then four of P; two of X and then two of C and so on, which interchange

with two of S and two of W. The pattern exists within the data sequence

from the spiral.

That this form appears to be a wave corresponds with other models of

systems change which suggest wave forms are significant. It suggests that

the existence of waves in all kinds of economic, social and cultural trends is

a property of basic and simple social interactions: R/P, X/C and S/W. These

three elements, which can be identified in individuals, as well as in all larger

social units, appear to be highly influential in determining the pattern of

human behaviour and interaction.

The alignment of one wave oscillation appears to be precisely related

to the formation of a new, subsequent wave by our predicted relationships of

opposites. So, when the first wave is at the PSX phase, the subsequent wave

is being suppressed, and is at the RWC phase; PSC maps against RWX and

so on....


72

The theory predicts that the shape, periodicity and amplitude of the

waves will be determined by the character of the phases that each wave goes

through. So, for example, some waves fail to crest the ‘surface’ of the water

because they fail to lay down adequate RSC foundational bases, as described

in the example above. In this instance, the wave lacks the ‘base’ to support

the amplitude above the surface so the attempt to create a PSX crest fails and

the wave collapses very quickly (DOT.com). Other waves may extend the

PSC phase for a greater or lesser period of time. The US banking system, for

example, extended the period of PSC through ever more leveraged and over

securitised lending, attempting to squeeze more out of the already saturated

and exhausted market. On the other hand some businesses choose to exit the

product waves ‘early’, capitalising on the gains made from being rapid

innovators. For them, the gains are made in the RSX/RSC/PWX/PSX

phases. They may choose to trade the gains that can be retained by sitting

longer on the wave phase PSC that follows, in favour of exiting that wave

before it collapses. This enables them to start generating the next wave ahead

of the competition.

As a general rule, the greater the amplitude of the PSX acceleration

phase and the duration of the PSC domination phase, the greater the collapse

into RWC will be at the end of the wave cycle- hence the scale of the 2008-9

global recession.

The wave pattern of human systems, or social ecologies, has

important applications potentially for all kinds of contexts and sectors;

social, political, industrial, economic as well as personal and psychological.

It has potential explanatory power as to why systems collapse; what causes

the ‘technology gap’ before the new wave emerges; and whether there is a

system which behaves not according to a wave form at all but something

more sustainable.

Summary of Social Ecology Group Theory

Social Ecology offers some important suggestions for the understanding of

the way that human systems behave. We have observed some of these

briefly. In summary one can make the following remarks:

1. The theory of Social Ecology (as a subset of Human Ecology) can

account for the diversity of systemic behaviours in a wide range of

cultural and demographic contexts


73

2. It indicates that common, even universal properties can be found

across social systems

3. Different social systems develop and evolve according to similar

patterns and dynamics.


74

Leadership

I have previously used the theory of Human Ecology to offer a commentary

on the dimensions and tasks of leadership. This work, articulated in the

Undefended Leader trilogy, begins with an account of the formation of the

leader (Book One, Leading Out of Who You Are). In this book, I reflect on

the psychological formation of the ego using the model of Personal Ecology,

to depict four different ego patterns which emerge; Defending, Adapting,

Defining and Shaping (see diagram below). These four ego patterns are

themselves a coordination of two of the dimensions of the Personal Ecology

model: Self-Definition (trust of self) and Responsiveness (trust of others).

X is perceived as unreliable

Low trust of others

Low trust of self

Defending = weak + inflexible

Relationship with X is perceived as fragile

High trust of others

Low trust of self

Adapting = weak + flexible

Prevailing view of self: Vulnerable, threatened

+ ve characteristics: loyal, inclusive, fair

- ve characteristics: Fear, distrust, hostility

Prevailing view of self: Unworthy, untrustworthy

+ ve characteristics: conscientious, sensitive

- ve characteristics: Anxiety, self harm, too responsible

X is perceived as conditional

Low trust of others

High trust of self

Defining = strong + inflexible

X perceived as unconditional and positive

High trust of others

High trust of self

Shaping = strong + flexible

Prevailing view of self: I am worthy

+ ve characteristics: Focused, determined, own mind

- ve characteristics: Self reliance, territorial, low trust

Prevailing view of self: Loved, worthy

+ ve characteristics: Supportive, rescuing, protective, - ve

characteristics: Paternalism, narcissism, naive

Diagram 12 Ego Patterns derived from Personal Ecology


75

Observing these fundamental ego patterns can be helpful for a person

who carries authority in order to help them understand the kinds of needs,

aspirations and blind spots they may bring to bear on those they lead. The

addition of the dimension of front and back stage enriches the insights the

model offers leaders.

Book Two, Leading With Nothing to Lose, moves outwards from the

formation of the leader’s character, to examine the praxis of power. Here, a

direct use of the Human Ecology model of social systems is deployed.

Diagram 13 below illustrates how this model allows us to understand the

range of available strategies of power a leader may deploy in order to be

effective.

One of the significant differences between this model and other

leadership models, is that it avoids the term ‘leadership style’ in favour of

the notion of ‘leadership strategy’. A leadership strategy better captures the

idea that leadership is about behaviours in order to effect outcomes. Good

leadership involves an understanding of the strategies that are available for

one to use in any social situation as well as the ability to predict the impact

of those strategies on that system. Once again, the insights of ‘action and

reaction’ in Social Ecology prove highly instructive in enabling one to

anticipate how one change in the social system may cause coordinated

changes elsewhere.

Skilled and mobile leaders may develop the ability to deploy a range

of strategies rather than be committed to a single strategy of leadership. One

may talk of a person’s ‘leadership signature’ as the repertoire of strategies

that they typically deploy.

A second, equally important distinctive of this model, and one which

chimes with the notion of being ‘undefended’ is the use of the notion of

‘weak force’. This term is deliberately used to refer to the presence of

agency of a leader who allows others to set the agenda- it is essentially

responsive, a listening posture which works with the needs that are already

present rather than imposing or introducing new and alien ones. Most

commentary on leadership assumes that ‘strong force’ is the normative

agency to achieve control and influence. The model of undefended

leadership, as derived from the model of Human Ecology, suggests that there

are four ‘strong force strategies’ and equally four ‘weak force strategies’.

These are all appropriate, valid and indeed, powerful in effecting good


76

leadership. Moreover, it suggests that some of the most powerful and

certainly lasting impacts of leadership have been offered by those who chose

to eschew strong force.

Finally, a third distinction involves the idea of stillness or ‘Self-

Emptying’ as the core asset required for exceptional leadership. Self-

Emptying, as a posture, involves adopting the RWC social space. It requires

the individual person to be willing and able to lay down power, to set aside

movement, and to establish a posture of stillness. From this place of

receptive and attentive poise, the individual is able to notice and respond to

the needs of those around. It is the place of clarity, and the source of

freedom and action. The practice of leadership becomes united at this point

with the personal life and quality of the leader.


77

Diagram 12 Leadership Signature model (from Leading with Nothing to

Lose, Simon P. Walker, 2007)

RWX

Serving Low profile; attention to situations needs. Responsive and reactive; supports the needs, issues and concerns of those around them. Flexible and accommodating. May ‘be lead’ rather than ‘lead’’.

PSX

Pacesetting Drives outputs and performance. Sets tempo and possibilities. Proactive and assertive. Overcomes challenges. Pushes performance around them. Intolerant of slow pace or inefficiency.

RSX

Visionary

Sees underneath or beyond current situation. Recasts horizons and inspires others to belief and possibility. Dissatisfied with the status quo or accepted norms or practice. Idealistic and passionate. May be remote and unrealistic.

RWC

Self-Emptying

Intentionally choosing to avoid up front authority, influence

or attention. Passive and uninvolved in shaping the

agenda. Apparently allows the initiatives of others.

Appears to lack confidence and

strength.

PWC

Consensual Works collaboratively towards group goals, Democratic or Affiliative style. Values loyalty and creates stability. Avoids confrontation. May abdicate responsibility and avoid difficult decisions.

PSC

Commanding High profile; Operates through

direct authority. Controls direction and standards. Influences agenda . Focuses on output. Reduces risk. Dominates space;

tends to be confrontational.

RSC

Foundational Low key, background style; setting up foundations and structures for operations. Allows space for others to shine. Non-confrontational and non-directive. May abdicate authority at times.

Stable and reliable.

TERRITORIAL

ATTENTIVE

DYNAMIC

RESPONSIVE

PWX

Affiliative Open, responsive,

affirming of others.

Draws others into

shared agenda and

sense of partnership.

Creates mutuality and

Common purpose.

Avoids confrontation;

coaching style.

FRONT

STAGE

FRONT

STAGE

BACK STAGE

BACK STAGE


78

PSC COMMAND AND CONTROL

Presented, Strong, Consolidating

The relational space

The combination of strong power and consolidating drive means that the leader exerts

their authority over their followers. Followers know that the ‘space’ is inhabited and that

there are very clear expectations of standards, practice and behaviour when in the space.

These will be defended against challenge. Discussion is always seen in territorial terms

and therefore often confrontational.

Leadership focus

Leadership influence is about creating territorial control through strong authority and clear

channels of command.

• Effectiveness, reliability, delivery and consistency are key outcomes.

• Risk, diversity and ambiguity are reduced in favour of clarity and control.

• Situations that are suited to this style are those that require immediate firm control,

clear direction and pose a threat if a certain goal is not achieved.

The impact of the Front stage orientation- PSC

The impact of the Front stage orientation means that the leader chooses

• To maintain a visible presence, reinforced through status symbols and structure

• To prevent debate, diversity and disagreement through directive means.

The mirror pattern

The mirror pattern of RWX

• Indicates that the habitual response of followers is either one of subservience or

avoidance

• Indicates that if this style is to prove productive, it must combine with a willingness

within the leader to be responsive, supportive and available.

• The leader will be best served by learning to serve, doing menial tasks to support his

followers and build trust, loyalty and respect.

Problems may arise if

• The leader does not learn to use others styles as this will lead to frustration and

possibly rebellion over time.

• The leader does not listen to the feelings amongst his followers

• The leader uses this style when a more collaborative style is required.

An example of the extended narrative for one of the eight Leadership

Signature strategies.


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Coaching, learning and education

The theory of Personal Ecology describes seven dimensions to any

individual’s personal strategy. For the purposes of observing wider

collective groups and social ecologies, we stripped down these seven

dimensions to just three: front/back stage, strong/weak self definition and

self-expansion/consolidation. By doing this we created a versatile and

manageable model which has opened up useful insight into social systems.

However, those other, remaining four dimensions themselves contain rich

insight for other applications. One of those is the arena of learning, and

specifically, 1:1 coaching.

Empathy, logic and control are three dimensions of a person’s

strategy that will determine the degree to which they are able to attend to and

enable another’s understanding and learning. This is true in all learning

professions, but perhaps most acutely true in 1:1 coaching, where the

relationship between the coach and coachee is precise and unsullied by the

noise of a wider group environment. Successful coaching can be said to

require the ability to manage the learning space to enable the coachee to gain

understanding and momentum towards their goals as a result.

These three dimensions of social space can be seen as subtle textures

in the coaching relationship that must be sensitively picked out and

modulated in the right way to enable learning. So, for example, empathy and

evaluation represent two opposing musical lines in the duet played by the

coach and coachee. Like treble and bass lines, at their best, empathy and

evaluation harmonise with each other. Empathy, that light, higher range,

picks out the human tone of any relationship, enabling the coachee to feel

understood, heard, encouraged and enlivened. Meanwhile, the bass tones of

evaluation, add a deeper line of truth, objectivity and clarity, ensuring that

the learning is grounded in sound sense and meaning. Together empathy and

evaluation depict the richness of human experience- a world of both human

emotion and impersonal reality.

Then there is the dimension of logic- of Ordering and Forming. The

first, Ordering, provides a tight, precise structure to the emerging harmony;

it ensures that the harmony retains its shape, its form, that it is not casual and


80

loose, but rather sharp, precise and firm. Forming, on the other hand, adds

that dimension of exploration and possibility; it explores new chord

structures, reaches for links between pieces of music played now and here,

and those of another place. It finds resonances and dissonances in the

overarching narrative and tradition. It refuses to allow the music to become

overly safe and familiar, just rehearsing the same old tunes once again.

Finally, there is the dimension of control. Here we come to the

freedom and ability to improvise- for a duet to be played spontaneously or to

be carefully managed and led. High control is apt, even essential, when the

confidence or expertise of the coachee is low; here hands need to be held,

tunes led; care and observation is required. There will always be times when

each of us value a strong hand to guide us. And yet, the journey of growth

leads us toward a more trusting and emergent duet. Low control trusts the

harmony to emerge; it is responsive, flexible, sensitive, agile and

unpredictable. It is difficult to say at the start of the piece, how the music

will emerge, for the music only occurs in the performing of it. In this the

genuine possibility to joy, novelty, delight and accord are found; that and

also the learning of discovery- the taking of responsibility first by one player

and then the other. This learning to play together, is perhaps the deepest

discovery of all; not the creation of music primarily but of a musician.

So, coaching is managing of the melody of the social space, in

dialogue, using Empathy, Logic and Control, in which the posture of the

coach must be agile, mobile, sensitive, reflective and reflexive, able to adjust

and change, to lead and follow, to innovate and to resolve. In this way, the

theory of Human Ecology offers a promising language for the task of

coaching which moves away from the coach’s skills and techniques per se,

and instead, attends to the character of the space that exists between the

coach and coachee.


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V = eValuating O = Ordering T = ouTcome orientated

M = eMpathising F = Forming Pr = Process orientated

Diagram 14 Coaching Signature model (from The Ecology of Coaching,

Simon P. Walker, 2009)

MFT

Emotions coach

Positive, insightful

and intuitive. Forward

looking and solutions

orientated. Creates

emotional bond,

enjoys influence. Finds

unresolved ambiguity

difficult and likes

stimulating ideas.

Emotionally needy people

drawn to them.

VFPr Thought coach

Ideas orientated, divergent, problem solving, original in approach. Enjoys exploring innovative

possibilities; may be too divergent and unfocused. Weaker on solutions and delivery.

VOPr Analytical consultant

Procedural, thorough, logical, pragmatic and objective. Problem-solving orientation. Sees things as systems to be looked after, refined and maintained. Drawn to consultancy or organisational design.

MOPr Carer / counsellor Emotionally understanding, patient, attentive, good listening ability. Focuses on person not task and focuses on current situation more than future goals;

Drawn to painful situations. Happy to live with ambiguity and not draw conclusions.

MFPr Therapist Drawn to emotional complex situations, enjoys exploring inner issues. Focuses on texture of problem

more than outcome. Critical of simplistic solutions but enjoys models and therapies.

VFT

Performance coach Problem solving, systems orientated, solutions focused.

Goal orientated. Enjoys improving and changing existing structures or developing new ones.

Drawn to performance coaching/ consultancy.

VOT Systems consultant

Practical, solutions focused.

Usually task centred, seeks to improve level of control and

delivery in system. Performance focus. Drawn to situations that need tighter

solutions.

Evaluating

combined with

Outcome focus

Empathising

combined with

Outcome focus

Evaluating

combined with

Process focus

Empathising

combined with

Process focus

MOT Practical Coach

Careful, pastoral and practical

approach. Works from actual needs of individuals to concrete

solutions. Seeks to create consistent, predictable,

emotionally managed coaching environment. Finds

detached or theoretical learning less

convincing.

Supportive Strategic Strategic


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VOT

eValuating with Ordering and ouTcome

The relational space

In seeking to establish an eValuating and Ordering space in a relationship, the

coach seeks to be detached from both the client and task, in order to preserve

objectivity and control. The coach focuses on non-personal issues such as the

task, explicit literal content and system. The coach aims to use their own ability

to resolve inconsistencies in this rational framework without involving their

own, or the client’s, subjective perception or emotion. In doing so the coach

trusts only what makes pure logical sense and distrusts other feelings, which

may threaten control.

Coaching Focus

The combination of evaluating and ordering means that the coaching focus is

on the literal, linear logic and rationale of the client’s system.

• Details, inconsistencies, errors are noticed; chains of argument exposed

• Subjective views, emotional attachments are subjugated to precise, clinical

clarity.

The impact of the ouTcome orientation- VOT

The impact of ouTcome orientation means that

• The coach understands in order to sort and clarify; linear thinking replaces

divergent or lateral thinking. Clarity is valued over creativity.

• They seek the most parsimonious and efficient solution even if it is not the

most elegant, creative or best. Control is valued over sophistication.

The mirror pattern

The mirror of MFPr means that the coach

• Finds emotional data rather alien, but seeks to respect and give it space.

• When forced to engage at a more personal and emotional level, will often

trust in a much less tangible, unconscious ‘guess work’ and intuition that

contradicts usual logic.

Problems may arise if the coach

• Is unable to facilitate more open exploration of more conceptual, divergent

approaches

• Is insufficiently self-aware to know what personal reactions they are bringing

• Is unable to stay with emotional ambiguity rather than avoiding it.

Example of extended narrative for one of the eight Coaching

Signature postures


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Evidence supporting Human Ecology theory

Human Ecology is a theory. As with any social science theory, it is proposed

as an explanatory model of the data available to us. How do you test such

models to ascertain their rigour and robustness? The field of scientific

epistemology is complex and I offer only the briefest of comments here, in

order to locate the approach that I, as author, have used to develop this

theory.

The pure inductivism of early twentieth century British positivists has

been found inadequate by most researchers today. It is simply untenable to

suggest that one can ever approach data with a clean, unbiased set of glasses

upon one’s nose. We come to all data with our presuppositions; without

existing models, theories and frameworks in place. We can be aware of

them, or some of them, but we cannot stand outside them in some neutral

ground. Therefore, validation must take place in different terms. Karl

Popper suggested that one starts with a proposed theory and then seek to

falsify it; to find examples of where it fails. To the extent that one looks in

one, or two, or three, or fifty, or hundred different places for falsifying

evidence to falsify it- to that extent the theory is robust. No theory can be

proved; it can only be falsified. Confidence is a matter of failing to falsify

which increases the probability of the theory.

Certainly the theory of Human Ecology is available to be falsified.

However, it is not always easy to determine the conditions on which a theory

of social science can be definitively falsified. Social scientific theories tend

to work with too much data, such that single elements cannot be discreetly

changed at any one time. They tend, therefore, to lend themselves to broader

epistemological verification.

The framework I have worked with in relation to the theory of Human

Ecology is that proposed by David Wolfe, around four categories- all

beginning with the letter C: Comprehensiveness, coherence, congruence and

correspondence. First of all, how comprehensive is a theory? Does it account

for all of the data, or is there data which simply doesn’t ‘fit’ the theory?

I am encouraged by the remarkable degree to which Human Ecology

seems to encompass and offer useful description of social and psychological


84

data- from all kinds of different realms and spheres. This seems to me to

strengthen it’s case as a theoretical framework.

Secondly, coherence. This is to do with the internal coherence of a

model or theory. Does it contradict itself? Does it have an explicit,

knowable, traceable line of sense through it, upon which the whole is hung?

Perhaps this also relates to the principle of parsimony in scientific

explanation; theories with the fewest number of elements are generally

considered stronger than those with a greater number of elements. Once

again, I am encouraged by the simplicity, and even symmetry of Human

Ecology. Seven elements, of which three can be isolated especially, which

offer significant internal coherence but also explanatory power over a wide

range of terrain. Once again, this strengthens the case.

Thirdly, congruence. Is the theory congruent with other explanatory

models and theories that have already proved useful? To the degree that a

new theory contradicts existing knowledge, one must judge it cautiously.

That is not to dismiss heuristic leaps- any new theory must achieve that. I

have attempted to highlight some of the theoretical footings upon which

Human Ecology theory is located. These range from developmental

psychology, to social psychology, to linguistics, to social theory, to biology,

to theology. In its broadest terms, Human Ecology appears to be profoundly

congruent with the most widely accepted and valued models and traditions

in these fields. It tends to be supported by, and then to extend, those theories.

Rarely does it offer direct contradiction. In terms of congruence, Human

Ecology theory may be said to be encouraging, even compelling.

Fourthly, correspondence. All of the above may leave a theory intact

but potentially untrue; in the sense that, unless a theory actually corresponds

to the reality as we know and experience it, then it cannot be said to be true

or valid at all. Once again, I am deeply encouraged by the degree of apparent

correspondence the theory has when related to different human experiences:

the PEP as a model of human behaviour creates a very high statistical degree

of resonance for individuals who use it. More than 90% of people find the

reports accurate and helpful- corresponding with their sense of self. Equally,

at the other end of the scale, the macro observations that have been made

about the economic crisis of 2008-9, had a high degree of correspondence

with the reality being experienced.

Correspondence is perhaps most powerfully shown when a model

actually makes predictions which prove to be correct. There is good


85

evidence that the model of Human Ecology not only predicted the economic

crisis but anticipated its fall out and the likely scenarios to be played out

following.

Statistical evidence regarding the PEP

As a small but significant part of Human Ecology theory, the PEP- or

Personal Ecology Profile- is a specific instrument that measures and reports

on an individual’s strategy. This, as a species of psychometric, must submit

itself to the disciplines of other psychometric tools in order to be assessed

for its validity and reliability. Because the PEP is such a newly developed

test, there is a relatively small body of evidence on which to base our

research thus far. Several preliminary sample groups were used to assess

early versions of the test. In all, 12 different versions of the questionnaire

have been produced and trialled before the final version used in these

experiments was produced.

Reliability

The overall Alpha coefficient of reliability for the PEP is 0.647 (2001). The

standardised item Alpha is 0.687. This figure is an acceptable level. The

British Psychological Society suggest that 0.7 is acceptable (Lowenthal,

p48). A larger sample size would be needed to confirm such a level of

reliability. Since the test is designed with items alternating between the

polarities of the trait pairs, a negative alternating item correlation would be

expected and would demonstrate a degree of reliability of items. The

correlation matrices reveal that there is, on the whole, some degree of

negative correlation in many alternate items within the 7 subscales. The

degree to which it is in general present is encouraging, though there are

some subscales (e.g. items 19-16 and 49-56) in which the pattern is less

obvious.

Factor Analysis

There are very clear subscales built into the test and a factor analysis of each

of the subscales has been performed and the statistical reports provided.

More than 50 % of the variance can be accounted for by the seven factors.


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Validity

The validity of a test can be examined in different ways, the most potent of

which is criterion validity. Criterion validity is the degree to which there is a

correlation between the results of the tests and other criteria that might

support or corroborate those results. So, for example, if a physical test upon

a population of high performing athletes indicated that their fitness levels

were lower than a group of arm-chair TV sports pundits, then the criterion

validity would be very low! This obvious and absurd case illustrates what

criterion validity is about; we have expectations about the kinds of

characteristics that are likely to be found in different populations; if the test

supports those expectations, then we would tend to say that its criterion

validity is high.

What follows below are the results from data collected in 2001 with a

sample of individuals from six different professional streams. The sample

groups provide some interesting evidence of criterion validity. In general the

graphs show that what one expects for different professional groups is born

out.

Graph 1

Showing Drive, in which Sales professionals have a much higher eXpansion

score, whereas Carers have the highest Consolidation score.

3

3.5

4

4.5

5

5.5

6

6.5

Sale

s

Man

ager

s

Lead

ers

Trai

ner

sAdm

inistr

a...

Care

rs

X Factor

C Factor


87

Graph 2

Showing Strong and Weak Self Definition, in which Sales and professional

Leaders have the highest Strong Self-Definition, whilst Carers and Managers

have the highest Weak Self-Definition.

3

3.5

4

4.5

5

5.5

6

6.5

Sale

s

Lead

ers

Adm

inis

tra.

..

Trai

ner

s

Car

ers

Man

ager

s

S Factor

W Factor

Graph 3

Showing Control scores, in which Line managers have the lowest Control

(highest Process) scores and Project Managers, Administrators/Finance and

Leaders show the highest Control (highest outcome) scores.

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Line

Man

ager

s

Car

ers

Traine

rs

Sales

Adm

in/fina

Lead

ers

Pro

ject

man

ager

s

Pr Factor

T Factor


88

Graph 4

Showing Logic scores, in which Line Managers, Project Managers and Sales

professionals show the highest degree of Connective (Forming) logic, and

Administrators/Finance and Carers show the highest degree of Linear

(Ordering) logic.

3

3.5

4

4.5

5

5.5

6

Line

Man

ager

s

Pro

ject

man

agers

Sales

Trainer

s

Lead

ers

Adm

in/fina

Care

rs

F Factor

O Factor

Graph 5

Showing Empathy scores, in which Carers and Leaders show the highest

scores for eMpathy and Administrators/Finance show the highest scores for

eValuation.

3

3.5

4

4.5

5

5.5

6

6.5

Adm

in/fina

Pro

ject

man

agers

Line

Man

ager

s

Sales

Trainer

s

Lead

ers

Care

rs

M Factor

V Factor


89

In terms of validity more research will no doubt be forthcoming to support

these observations. I would suggest from the evidence that there are good

signs to be confident that the PEP will continue to deliver valid assessments

of personality as it already appears to be doing.

Overall conclusions

The veracity of Human Ecology as a theory is predicated upon four main

categories, in all of which it scores highly: comprehensiveness, coherence,

congruence and correspondence. Within the theory as a whole, specific

elements of it can be assessed more quantitatively, such as the psychometric

tool PEP. Against normal criteria for valid and reliable tests, the PEP shows

positive and encouraging scores.


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Processes and Tools

The theory of Human Ecology offers a rich vocabulary to approach and

understand the human condition. As a theory, however, it is one step

removed from the practice of therapy, personal development, organisational

development, government etc. This gap between intellectual theory and

model and actual praxis is bridged by a series of processes and tools which

are being developed to bring the insights of Human Ecology to bear on

various different sectors of industry and work.

In briefest form, the following are currently existing processes and

tools:

Visual Landscaping

is used as a process of therapeutic 1:1 and group development. A coherent

methodology has been developed to enable a trained facilitator to use the

Visual Landscaping process to enable other individuals to understand,

develop and remodel their landscapes. It is also used by some spiritual

directors as part of a practice of prayer and self-reflection.

www.heinside.com

Personal Ecology Profile (PEP)

is a rigorous online personality psychometric that generates a 20 page report

on an individual’s behaviours, attitudes and perceptions. It looks at all seven

of the dimensions of Personal Ecology, both in isolation and then in

coordination together. The PEP is used in the context of 1:1 work during

leadership development retreats and courses and is regarded as a deeply

acute and efficient analysis of a person’s embedded psychological patterns.

It offers acute insight into the patterns of behaviour, their implications for

others and for the person themselves, as well as suggestions as to their

origins. The PEP is a kind of projective test, and therefore has the capacity

in its self reporting mechanism to access deeper insights than the more usual

non-projective psychometric tests.

www.heinside.com


92

PEP Lite

As the name suggests, this is a scaled down version of the PEP which

considers just four of the most significant dimensions of the PEP, and

generates a briefer, less complex report. PEP lite is useful for broader scale

interventions where less insight and greater simplicity is required.

www.redrocks.co.uk

PEP monitor

takes account of the conviction that an individual’s PEP is an embedded

strategy which is not fixed genetically or environmentally but is open to

change. It therefore allows an individual to re-measure their PEP over time

and to plot the developments of their strategies, graphically, to show

development and change. It therefore is a suitable tool to accompany an

ongoing 1:1 coaching regime.

www.heinside.com

PEP Arena

is a flexible online, situational- behaviour assessment tool, which allows an

individual to explore how they respond to different challenges,

circumstances and encounters within the context of their personal landscape.

In other words, it offers insight into how a person’s strategy changes when

faced with different circumstances. In this way, PEP Arena has the capacity

to highlight situational behaviour very efficiently and cleanly for the

purposes of recruitment.

PEP Arena is also used to generate 360 feedback on a candidate.

www.heinside.com

Construct

is a tool used to generate a profile not of an individual but of a collective

group; a team, organisation, department etc. The Construct gathers feedback

from a population sample, of the perceptions of the collective group, and

creates a model of the psychology of the social space; the Social Ecology.

This ‘map’ can then be used to manage interventions within that


93

organisation or group to enable the organisation to foster the most

appropriate Social Ecology (culture) for its activities.

www.heinside.com

Undefended Leader

A short, insightful profile designed to accompany Leading Out of Who You

Are, Book One of The Undefended Leader trilogy. Offers online feedback

into a leader’s ego formation and front and back stage.

www.theleadershipcommunity.org

Leadership Signatures

A powerful and flexible online profiling instrument which offers insight into

a leader’s situational leadership strategies. Based upon the Human Ecology

Leadership Signature model, it generates a report on how the leader responds

to four different situations: calm, conflict, competition and crisis.

It can be used in conjunction with a powerful interactive, physical group

learning activity.


Coaching Signatures

A rich online profile used in coaching supervision and coach development to

inform the coaching practice. Generates insight into a coachee’s basic

coaching posture, as well as ongoing feedback as to how the coach is

adjusting their posture to the needs of the coachee. Uses the Coaching

Signatures model as a map of the repertoire of coaching postures that can be

adopted. Used to develop reflective understanding and evaluation of the

narrative of the coaching journey, in supervision and coach training.

www.coachingsupervisionconsultancy

www.heinside.com

Sculpturing

A physical activity which enables individuals, in the context of a group, to

create or sculpt their personal ecology. Bearing some relationship to

Constellation work, Sculpturing exploits the opportunity of kinaesthetic

learning to open out and make physical the shape of an individual’s Personal

Ecology. This can be highly powerful in group learning and coaching.



94


95

Applications

Human Ecology theory has application in almost any sphere of human

society: self-development, coaching, therapy, management consultancy,

team development, organisational development, education, leadership,

politics and prayer. It is currently being used in all of those spheres in the

corporate, not for profit, public and educational sectors in both the UK and

internationally. For more information on applications, and how to access

them, please refer to the web sites:

www.heinside.com


Instrument/Model Application Access

PEP Deep 1:1 coaching and

development

License and through TLC

PEP Lite Management training and

coaching

Red Rocks Consulting

PEP Arena Recruitment assessment

and 360 feedback

Human Ecology and under

license

Coaching Signatures Coach training and

supervision

CSC Ltd

www.csc.gb.com

Learning Signatures Coachee profiling and

education

Under license and through

Human Ecology

Teaching Signatures Teacher training TLC

Leadership Signatures Leadership development

and training

TLC and under license

Undefended Leader profile Leadership coaching TLC

Construct Organisational profiling Human Ecology

Visual Landscaping Coach supervision,

spiritual direction, prayer

Under license and through

TLC

Sculpturing Group and 1:1 coaching TLC


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97

Undefended Life: The Spirituality of Human Ecology

As I come to the end of this brief introduction to Human Ecology, I must

return to the opening suggestion that all theories sit upon philosophical,

theological often, therefore, spiritual presuppositions. At its most bald,

Human Ecology is a theory of how human beings inhabit this planet. At its

most political, it is a proposal as to how human beings could inhabit this

planet.

It has been said that the quest occupying humankind since the

industrial revolution has been how to occupy time: industrialisation,

innovation, technological advancement have all served to compress time and

enable us to perform tasks and actions faster than ever before. We are an

accelerated species. Now, however, the fundamental and vital political

question facing us as a global population is how we inhabit space.

The space available to us on this planet is rapidly becoming crowded-

over crowded. The resources that we consume to sustain this growing

population are being exploited and in some cases expended. There are those

that presume that technology will solve this under capacity issue and that we

can continue to consume the planet at the rate we currently do so. I am not

one of them.

For me there are profound humanistic reasons to reject this notion of

endless consumption, even if it were technologically feasible. Without

question, the appetites of the Western world have now become grotesquely

inflated; never before in the history of our species have so many consumed

so much. However this degree of consumption, which for many has created

unparalleled opportunities, freedoms, privileges, luxuries and safeties, has

not by and large led us to become more humane and compassionate, more

generous, more courageous, more hospitable. Neither has it made us in fact

happier. On the contrary, we have lost many of those goods which were

known by previous generations of our forebears.

Human Ecology is more than merely a description of human systems;

it is, by its very language, a proposal for a way of living sensitively and

sustainably on the face of this shared globe. Ecology is the study of the

relationships between things- it considers the spaces that exist between

people. It provokes us to reflect on the legacy we leave on others by our


98

actions. It invites us to notice our footprint and to take responsibility for it. It

insists that all actions are connected, that we are part of one singular whole,

and that we cannot use, exploit or consume without using, exploiting and

consuming that which also belongs to another.

Human Ecology, at its most basic, challenges us to review our notion

of ownership. It suggests that whilst ownership of our personal territory is

something good, indeed a ‘good’ given to human persons as a gift, this gift

is never to become an instrument which we wield in power to take away the

‘gift’ of others. There are limits to personal territory; if we expand beyond

those limits, we are in danger of theft. If we expand beyond those limits, we

increasingly lose our sense of scale, becoming insensitive to our own

mortality and dependency on the wider community around us.

Much of the expansion of developed economies has resulted in a

growth beyond its own limits and has resulted in a myth of power and

autonomy; the belief that we can manage and control the vagaries of this

world- climate, resources, the seasons, the earth and its fruit. The more we

have been able to consume strawberries all year round, and drive air

conditioned cars smoothly over mountain ranges without expending the

merest breath of effort, the more we forget what it means, ultimately to be

human. In fact, the curse of our development, is regression. Our sensitivity

to colour and form diminishes; our pleasure in simple experiences declines;

our compassion toward others in need deteriorates; our endurance of

suffering and personal pain reduces; our ability to cope with reality, death,

loss, grief as well as joy is undermined. We are not more but less

sophisticated as human beings.

Fundamentally, what lies behind this trend towards occupation,

relentless consumption, unstoppable expansion is a mistaken rejection of

stewardship in favour of ownership. The former politically accepts that we

do not own in an absolute sense we own for the period of time for which our

lives, our breath, our goods, our talents are lent to us. And then we give them

back. Stewardship commits us to returning them in better shape than we

found them. Ownership, as we have come to understand it, is now seen as

possession, in perpetuity, in which we hoard, guard and extend our wealth,

fearing what may be taken away from us. We see others as either

commodities to be exploited, or threats to be managed or overcome. Such

emotions are toxic and have created a pathology which is destroying our

happiness and life.


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Now, this of course is not to say that all of us are living such

possessive lives. Many of us have some awareness, even commitment, to

living in a more sustainable way. However, the theory of Human Ecology, if

it has anything to say, tells us that systems can take on patterns and

dynamics that are beyond the control of any single agency or individual. It is

the system now which perpetuates such territorial behaviour and as such will

prevent us choosing other alternatives.

It has been said that maturity is the freedom to live an undefended life.

By this, the author implies that our aim, our end, is to move from a posture

of defendedness to one of undefendness over the course of our lifetime. The

defended life is the one which is defined territorially; it sees others as either

commodities or threats; it is shaped by the emotions of fear and inevitably is

committed to a course of self-preservation. The undefended life increasingly

chooses to perceive the other not as a threat or an opportunity; but as a

friend. It seeks to allow trust to be the dominant psychological commitment,

rather than fear.

Human Ecology as a theory does not demand any moral response. It

is, in itself, morally neutral, a set of observations. What it does do, however,

is highlight the destructive results of living in certain ways. In this sense, my

hope is that it offers truth. I continue to find myself challenged to live up to

the best alternatives which are shaped by its conclusions. My hope is that

this theory may move us more deeply toward a posture that is benign,

generous and hospitable, and in so doing, that Human Ecology may enable

us to become more fully human.


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101

Appendix

Human Ecology Clipper Yacht Research 2002-3

Simon Walker

Synopsis: In 2002-3 we followed the progress of the crew of the Bristol

Clipper in the Round the World Clipper Race. After 11 months we used the

PEP system to analyse how strong the crew culture had become. We did this

by adapting the PEP process to ask individuals to create a landscape that

was suitable, not for themselves, but for the crew as a whole. We also, at the

same time, asked them to create a second landscape that was suitable for

themselves as individuals. To our surprise, when we analysed both sets of

landscapes using the PEP system, we found that all nine members of the

crew projected the same landscape for the crew as they did for themselves

(against the four main factors analysed). The probability of this happening

by chance is about 1/120. There are important implications from these

results for group formation and leadership amongst other things.

Aims:

There was an initial aim (Aim 1) and then a later aim (Aim 2) to the work

that we undertook with you. The Aim 1 was to use the PEP system to assess

personal development in core behavioural characteristics and attitudes over

the race for each member of the core crew. The purpose of this was to

explore the degree of change in each person’s ‘self-concept’ (one

fundamental view of ourselves, which is measured by the PEP) through the

experience. There was no prior hypothesis about what kind of changes could

be expected.

A second aim (Aim 2) emerged during the course of the race. This was to

measure the strength of crew-culture that had developed in the boat over the

race. This was to be done by comparing the self-concepts of each individual

in the core crew with their concept of what the crew of the boat, as a group

needed. If each individual described a concept similar to the others, then it

could be said that the ‘crew culture’ was strong and coherent. If, however,

each individual represented the crew culture in widely differing ways, the we


102

would conclude that the crew culture was weak and mainly made up of

individuals seeing things their own way.

This data would be useful in assessing how difficult a task it is to create a

shared ‘group culture’ and what some of the obstacles are.

Research methodology:

Our work with you over the 11 month period between October 2002 and

September 2003 involved, primarily, the repeated use of the PEP

questionnaire, on an individual basis, approximately at each major stop- six

times in all. The data from this was used to build up an emerging picture of

the personal development of each individual in the core crew over the course

of the race. The data was converted into a graphical form using the PEP

system and delivered back to you by hand at the next available opportunity-

usually the next stop. Over the course of the race commitment to the process

gradually dropped off, so only some of you built up a profile over the entire

race. Everyone completed the PEP profile at least three times over the course

of the eleven months.

At the last major stop in new York, we also asked you to create a second

landscape. This second landscape was a ‘crew landscape’. The PEP

questionnaire had been amended so that, whilst the questions were the same

in form, the object of the landscape was not yourselves as individuals, but

the crew as a collective group. This enabled you to create a mental space that

you saw ‘fit’ for the crew. In the same way as the PEP enables you to create

a space that meets your own personal psychological needs, the ‘crew PEP’

enabled you to create a space that you believed would meet the crew’s

needs. Each member of the core crew completed this exercise and, as a

result, nine different ‘crew landscapes’ and their correlated PEP scores were

collected.

Results:

The PEP analysis of an individual can be plotted against a profile map of 16

different possible patterns. The 16 patterns represent the possible

combinations of four bi-polar traits. The bi-polar traits and their

psychological meanings are shown in the table below. An individual will

score somewhere along the scale between the two poles. Extreme scores to


103

one end or other are termed ‘polar scores’ and indicate a very marked trend

this way; moderate scores are termed ‘pivotal’ and indicate a clear trend;

equal scores are termed ‘equal’ and indicate a balance between both ends of

the scale.

Bi-polar trait Letter notation Psychological meaning

Presented-

Reserved

P and R Presented means primarily operating on one’s

front stage- being more socially orientated.

Reserved means primarily operating on one’s

back stage- being more privately orientated.

Strong- Weak S and W Strong refers to a self-definition, or ego,

which seeks to influence and, perhaps, even

dominate others.

Weak refers to a self-definition, or ego, which

allows the evaluation of other people to shape

them.

Empathy and

Evaluation

M and V Empathy means the degree of intimacy and

feeling one has for other people as a whole.

Evaluation means the degree of detachment

and objectivity one seeks from others.

Expand and

Consolidate

X and C Expand means the degree of change and

challenge one seeks to embrace in one’s life.

Consolidate means the degree of stability one

seek to maintain in one’s life.

There are then 16 different combinations of the four letters:

PSVX RSVX

PSVC RSVC

PWVX RWVX

PWVC RWVC

PWMX RWMX

PWMC RWMC

PSMX RSMX

PSMC RSMC


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Interpretation of results from Aim 1: the development of individual

personality profiles

The table below shows the PEP 4 letter profiles at the start and the end of the

race for each member of the core crew (any change in between are also

noted)

Crew Member Start of Race (10.02) Mid Race End of race (8.03)

RB PSVX PSVX PSVX

CD PWMC PWMC PWMC

PO RWVX RWVX RWVX

PC PWMC/RWMC PWMX PWMX

JD RWMX/RWVX - RWMX

PP PWMX/PWMC/PWVC PSMX PSMC/PSVC

VH PSMX PWMX PWMX

ML PWMX PSMX PSMX

JW RWMX RWMX RWMX

Overall, no individual changed significantly in more than one trait, from one

polarity to the other. Four individuals (PC, PP, VH and ML) all changed in

one of their traits and PP also settled for a marginal tendency in a second.

Five individuals scored consistently throughout without any changes.

We analysed these results using a X-squared Test to measure correlation

between two sets of data.

We gave each personality pattern a score between 1 and 16 (so for instance,

PWMX was given the score 11, RSMC 8 and so on…). If there was a

change in a single variable, for instance C changed to X, then this gave a

score of two points difference from the original. If two variables changed,

this gave a score of 4 points difference. If three variables changed, this gave

a score of 8 points difference, and if all four variables changed, the

difference between the two scores was 16.


105

Using this methodology, the results are shown below:

Overall degree of correlation between the original scores and the

mid-race scores

0.81

Overall degree of correlation between the mid-race scores and the end

of race scores

0.98

Overall degree of correlation between the original scores and the end

of race scores is

0.88

Interpretation Results from Aim 1 results:

Overall degree of change:

The results indicate that overall, little change was measured by the PEP

system between the start and the end of the race. A correlation of 0.88

between the start and the end of a race is significant and suggests that there

is a strong connection between the causes of the first set of data and the last

set of data. In other words, that underlying both sets of data is a reality

which has not changed a great deal through the experience. This reality is the

‘population personality’. As an overall population, there is evidence of

stability through the experience.

These findings are reinforced by a more detailed analysis of the raw data

which indicate a higher correlation (of approximately 0.93) between the start

and the end of the race.

These results may seem a little surprising when one considers that all nine

crew members went through the most intense, life-defining eleven month

experience. Our expectation was that more change would be observed as a

consequence. These results reinforce the notion that personality is a strongly

embedded set of attitudes which is robust in the face of even intense and

unusually sustained experiences. Indeed, we might speculate that

experiencing difficult conditions on the boat for such a long length of time

resulted in the crew members ‘resorting to type’ in order to cope. In the face

of challenging conditions they relied upon well-worn and familiar patterns

of behaving, rather than developing new ones. If this is case, it suggests that

intense, difficult experiences may themselves not be the most effective

environments in which to simulate behavioural change.


106

When the changes occurred:

More change occurred in the early part of the race than the latter part of the

race- there is a lower correlation between the start and mid-race data sets

(0.81) and the mid-race and end of race data (0.98) sets. The drop off in

change that occurred over the latter part of the race may also suggest that,

after initially being more open to embrace new ways of ‘being’, there was a

tendency to close down and embed a working pattern of behaviour. What

this may indicate is that, after the initial experience of getting to grips with

the new ‘crew culture’ in the early weeks, the group established a more

stable and familiar culture which ceased to create the degree of personal

challenge there had been initially. In a sense, this is to be expected, as

groups tend to work to find a modus vivendi in which the collective whole

can survive. Arguably, these results reinforce this picture of working groups.

What traits were susceptible to change:

The results indicate that the most receptive traits to be change and

development were the Strong- Weak traits and the Expand- Consolidate

traits. The least receptive to change were the Present-reserve traits and the

Empathy- Evaluate trait. This suggests that ego definition is quite a

malleable factor which can be influenced by circumstances and experiences.

In the same way, the degree of change and challenge one wants can also

change; people’s thresholds toward risk can go up and down.

Not included in these results are the measures of Flexibility which also

showed less malleability to change, and Control, which did vary to some

degree. Flexibility, when it did change was negatively correlated with

changes in self-definition. So, for example, if sense of self became stronger

this tended to be correlated with flexibility getting lower, and vice versa.

This result supports the basic theory of the PEP that for some ego patterns,

there is a negative correlation to be expected between flexibility ad sense of

self. The patterns basically represent ways in which affirmation is secured.


107

Results of Aim 2: Strength of Crew Culture

The PEP analysis of the comparison between the individual landscapes at the

end of the race and the individual’s perception of the Crew Landscape at the end

of the race indicated a high level of correlation between the two. Overall, there

was a 0.97 correlation between the individual landscapes and the crew

landscapes that were projected.

This figure indicates that there was very little difference between the landscapes

that the individuals created for themselves and the landscapes they created for

the crew. There was also a wide variety of crew landscapes created- as wide a

variety of crew landscapes as there were individual landscapes at the end of the

race.

Crew

Member

Mid Race End of race

(8.03)

Crew

Landscape

RB PSVX PSVX PSVX

CD PWMC PWMC PWMX

PO RWVX RWVX RWVX

PC PWMX PWMX PWMX

JD - RWMX RWMX

PP PSMX PSMC/PSVC PSMC/PSVC

VH PWMX PWMX PSMX

ML PSMX PSMX PSMX

JW RWMX RWMX RWMX

The only differences were between CD’s individual and crew landscape, which

shifted from PWMC to PWMX, and VH’s individual and crew landscape,

which shifted from PWMX to PSMX (though VH had previously scored PSMX

in her own individual landscape).

This result indicates that each individual was strongly coloured in their sense of

what the whole crew needed and was like, by their own personal needs and

wants. There was a psychological match between the individual’s needs and

their sense of what the crew as a whole needed.


108

Interpretation of Results of Aim 2:

This result is very startling and was not expected. Our expectation was that

overall, there would be some common themes or scores in the Crew Landscapes

that were projected. We expected this on the assumption that, over the course of

the eleven month race, a common culture would have developed that each

individual would have perceived and understood. Thus, when asked to create a

landscape for the Crew, individuals would have created landscapes with

considerable similarities between them. However, they created widely varying

landscapes, the variations correlating very strongly with their own personal

landscapes and PEP scores.

This result suggests that the degree to which the individual crew members on

the boat perceived a common crew culture was low. We do not have anecdotal

or case study evidence about the degree to which crew members were

consciously aware of a common crew culture; if we did we could contrast the

conscious awareness with the unconscious awareness that the PEP measures.

The results indicate that, however strong or weak the conscious crew culture

was, in fact, individuals still perceived the whole in their own terms. Individuals

it seems ‘projected onto’ the wider crew their own interpretation of events; in

other words, each person thought that the other people saw things as they did.

They seemed to make an unconscious psychological assumption that the crew

as whole needed what they needed. If they felt ‘up for a challenge’, they

assumed the crew as a whole did; if they felt a bit vulnerable and insecure, they

assumed the crew as a whole did. If they evaluated data in a detached and cool

way they assumed that others were also detached and cool rather than more

emotional and involved.

There may be a number of reasons for this. The first is that individual crew

members continued to ‘see the crew’ through their own set of lenses. This may

have been that there was a failure to create a collective lens through which to

see. This perhaps seems less likely since the collective effort of the crew, in

terms of sailing performance was very high. Alternatively, it may be that

individual people per se actually find it very difficult to see things in any other

way than through their own set of spectacles. Despite our best efforts we cannot


109

effectively take off our lenses or put on another person’s. Our ability to

genuinely stand in another person’s shoes is low.

One reason for this may be that individuals on the boat quite quickly created

‘micro-cultures’ around them which reinforced their own personal sense of what

the boat needed. In other words, people gathered reinforcing evidence to

support their sense that the crew really needed the things they needed. They

may have done this by selecting friends, forming bonds with particular people;

focusing on certain bits of data but filtering out others. There is wider evidence

that human cognition is highly selective- we filter how we hear and see things to

reduce what is called ‘cognitive dissonance’- dissonance or discrepancy

between reality and what we want to believe reality is like. This evidence

supports that notion, suggesting that we seek to create cognitive ‘consonance’

very quickly. Presumably we do this by both filtering what we see, feel and hear

and also acting to influence the situation around us to make it meet our own

needs more. Perhaps on the boat, individuals created micro-cultures within

which their own personal view of things could remain supported and

unchallenged?

Conclusion:

This research has provided challenging evidence suggesting two things. First,

that personality, as an embedded pattern of self-concept and subsequent

behaviour, is quite robust, though it can develop over time. Second, that

individuals have strong mechanisms that resist them adopting a view of reality

that is shaped by collective needs rather than their own. Overall this research

suggests that individuals are strongly committed to their embedded ways of

seeing both themselves and the world around them and that, even in extreme

circumstances, such as a round-the-world yacht race they will, on the whole,

resist challenge to it.


110

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