Emerging New Professional Horizons: Meshworking Well-being and
Placemaking
Exploring Inter-Being and Inter-Becoming as Ethos-MakingThe
Integrally-Informed Pursuit of Professional Community Wellbeing ITC
2013 Connecting the Integral KosmopolitanApplication of Integral
Theory : Community Wellbeing
Ian Wight PhD MCIPAssociate Professor, City PlanningFaculty of
Architecture, University of [email protected]
Exploring Inter-Being and Inter-Becoming as Ethos-MakingIt is so
critical to move forward with all of our being at this time. It
seems that over the years we have lost the inner connection both
personally and professional and have been unable to move forward in
a 'whole' manner.(ML, Workshop Participant)
I'll take your offering into my presentation, and explore its
resonance with attendees... moving forward with all our being...
restoring the inner connection... going for 'whole' (rather than
for 'broke').Exploring Inter-Being and Inter-Becoming as
Ethos-Making: Learning EdgesIntegral Theory and Professional
Community Wellbeing (with a focus on.)Ethos-Making (from Ethics to
Ethos) andthe Interface between Integral and ProfessionalA place
for inter-beings, and well-becoming?
Exploring Inter-Being and Inter-Becoming as Ethos-MakingAn
Integral Ethos?
Doing well by my SelfBeing well TogetherFor the wellbeing of
AllIn our Well-becomingExploring Inter-Being and Inter-Becoming as
Ethos-MakingIntroduction: The Integral/Professional Interface 2.
Integral Professional Practice: From Ethics to Ethos
An Emergent Inter-Professional Ethos: Agency in Communion?
Extending Ethos-Makings: Be-Comings?
Ethos: A Place for Inter-Beings, for Well-Becoming?
Integral Theory and Professional Community Wellbeing: Learning
Edges
Exploring Inter-Being and Inter-Becoming as Ethos-Making:
Learning Edges1. The Integration Implicit in Ethos
It appears that integral ethics may be further developed by a
more explicit regard for ethos, and for the associated
ethos-making. Ethos represents a congenial locus for integration,
engaging all the quadrants, while constituting a critical central
level of development in the realm of integral ethical practice
(between praxis and poiesis). It invokes a sweet spot, in the
overlap, beyond codes, implicating certain behaviour or enaction,
while also going inside individually and collectively.
Exploring Inter-Being and Inter-Becoming as Ethos-Making:
Learning Edges2. The critical audience aspect
The classical Greek rendition of ethos underlines the critical
audience aspect; the orientation widens and heightens beyond
clients or employers, to reference something greater perhaps
kosmocentric in effect. The significance of such an audience might
be grasped in Marcel Prousts observation: "The only real voyage of
discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new
eyes; in seeing the universe through the eyes of another, one
hundred others - in seeing the hundred universes that each of them
sees." an audience of a hundred others, each seeing a hundred
universes.
Exploring Inter-Being and Inter-Becoming as Ethos-Making:
Learning Edges3. The associated collective intention and communal
enaction
There is a distinct quality of intention associated with ethos:
We are all in It together; We all embody It together. Ethos entails
collective intention, communally enacted. The intention is always
on; it is intrinsic. It makes ethics seem more individualized, more
occasional, more optional. It might also be suggested that with
ethos more than intention is involved rather, it implicates the
intention in intervention a form of action with vision vision-logic
at work.Exploring Inter-Being and Inter-Becoming as Ethos-Making:
Learning Edges4. The generative potential ethos as en route to
poiesis (possibly the ultimate venue for integral practice)
With ethos in play there is immediately enhanced generative
potential. There is momentum at work, a dynamic heading beyond
personal praxis, en route to something grander poiesis. There is
something more to aim for poetry in action, on a grand scale. New
territory another inter-world looms enticingly; the interface
between integral and apithological a future mission if ever there
was one.
Agency in Communion: Our Emerging Inter-Professional EthosAn
offering of an outcome of the May 20, 2011EthosMaking WorkshopThe
Quiet Room, St. Johns College,University of ManitobaWorkshop
Participants:A Mix of Members of the Built Environment
ProfessionsPracticing in Winnipeg, Manitoba, CanadaBased on
observations generated by the workshop participants, including
closing we-statements
Agency in Communion: Our Emerging Inter-Professional EthosWe are
professionals, in development, from solo to synchro, generating
synergy,inter-professing together, integrated and integrating,in
service, to our wider worlds, beyond us,transcending while
including, all we hold dear
We are personals, in relationship,whole beings, making
meaning,discerning - truth and goodness and beauty,agents of
wholeness, enacting our truth, exuding goodness, privileging
beautyin a loving embrace
Agency in Communion: Our Emerging Inter-Professional EthosWhat
is calling us? What is our calling? What are we being called to
profess?What do we want to make of ourselves, personally,
professionally, and inter-professionally? What does the world want
of us to use us for?What is our unique gift or gifts that we cannot
not give? How do we plan to be of service in the world, to the
world?
Agency in Communion: Our Emerging Inter-Professional
EthosCallingMakingCommuningGiftingServingEvolvingWholing
Agency in Communion: Our Emerging Inter-Professional
EthosCallingWe are called to create - to co-create places that
matter, wells of wellbeing, filled full to over-flowing with
communing, with spirit, by enacting from within. This is our gift
to give together, to be of service, in the evolution of
ever-extending wholeness.
Agency in Communion: Our Emerging Inter-Professional
EthosMakingWe are makers sense-makers, meaning-makers,
place-makers. We also make our selves, personally and
professionally. Our makings are more than a relationship of theory
and practice; our values and beliefs anchor our makings. What we
make of ourselves personally is our praxis reflecting our deepest
accountability. What we make of ourselves collectively is our ethos
reflecting our greatest aspirations for our inter-being, our being
together.
Agency in Communion: Our Emerging Inter-Professional Ethos
Communing (1 of 2)We are in communion - agents in communion, agents
of communion, agents by our communion. Our pro-vocation is
collaboration; we are agents-collaborateurs. Our professional
home-base underpins a higher inter-professional bridge-place; where
we privilege connection, as beams and struts - beaming light on
dark recesses, bolstering shaky framings; .
Agency in Communion: Our Emerging Inter-Professional
EthosCommuning (continued)where we privilege conversation, to
unearth common intentions and to respectfully pursue uncommon
contentions; furnishing claims that are ethically warranted,
providing guarantees that are backed by this ethos. Pillars of
community, mirroring the pillars of our bridging
inter-professionalism, we seek to function as a keystone in the
over-arching imperative.
Agency in Communion: Our Emerging Inter-Professional
EthosGifting (1 of 3)We have gifts that we cannot not give novel
perspectives, leading-edge capacities, special sensibilities;
generative power allied with generative love. We apply science; we
deploy technology; we value art, and craft; we represent
humanity.
Agency in Communion: Our Emerging Inter-Professional
EthosGifting (2 of 3)
Ours is the gift of integration, as integrated individuals,
embodying and ensouling integratedness, making sense of
differentiation, and counter-balancing tendencies to reduction and
fragmentation.
Agency in Communion: Our Emerging Inter-Professional
EthosGifting (3 of 3)
We are not attached to specific outcomes; we do not crave
attention. We seek to be a contribution, to be true to our
intention, to leave the world more whole than we first found
it.
Agency in Communion: Our Emerging Inter-Professional
EthosServing (1 of 2)
We seek to be of service to a greater whole, beyond us in time
and space. We are sources of hope, organizers of the hope in
others, and in ourselves. We make an object, rather than a subject,
of our service in reference to worthy others, beyond client and
employer.
Agency in Communion: Our Emerging Inter-Professional
EthosServing (2 of 2)As privileged inter-professionals, we
acknowledge not only our great debt to the past that has got us
here, but especially our crucial obligations to future generations,
to other species, and to the ecosystem that services us. We serve
the here, now so that those who come after us, have a here and now
worth having.
Agency in Communion: Our Emerging Inter-Professional
EthosEvolving (1 of 2)We are developing, evolving; we are not done
growing. Ranging beyond our foundational professional home-base
(effectively, our first language context), this inter-professional
terrain is becoming more familiar - a second-home of sorts, where
we are more than a tourist, where we are becoming multi-lingual,
where we can grow and develop beyond our egoic selves.
Agency in Communion: Our Emerging Inter-Professional
EthosEvolving (2 of 2) Our ego is now complexifying to incorporate
our eco; our practice is evolving into our praxis; our ethics are
evolving into our ethos. We anticipate ongoing evolution, such as
in our propensity to make even more magnificent poetry together,
representing a poiesis to complement our praxis and ethos.
Agency in Communion: Our Emerging Inter-Professional
EthosWholing (1 of 2)
We bring our whole selves to our work body, mind, soul and
spirit. We are in alignment: self and service; soul and role;
spirit and purpose; profession and inter-profession. We are finely
attuned with the living system we inhabit.
Agency in Communion: Our Emerging Inter-Professional
EthosWholing (2 of 2)
We are not simply human doings, we are human beings and
spiritual beings at our core. We have the capacity to inspire, to
enact an inside-out movement, potentially transformative: from me
to I; from I to We; from We to All-of-Us.
Agency in Communion: Our Emerging Inter-Professional
EthosWell-beings, making meaning-filled places together, with
discernment; inter-beings, inter-facing, inter-professing:
We are all inter-professionals in the nowEthical Agents in
Ethical Communion
Exploring Inter-Being and Inter-Becoming as Ethos-Making (1 of
4)One participant (DH) did offer some in-depth, seemingly
well-processed reflections, that convey a good deal about what they
made of the workshop experience: This workshop was very timely for
me, in particular a very strong outcome is that though I may work
and live in various institutions, that I can maintain unity in my
person and that I have the power to persist in wholeness and
integrity.
Exploring Inter-Being and Inter-Becoming as Ethos-Making (2 of
4)There is power in openness and I sensed that those present were
surprisingly willing, sometimes cautiously, to change our posture
towards one another to trust each other with our passions and
uncertainties. We seemed to recognize that we cannot profess with
integrity if we guard and protect our expertise and that we really
are not whole without the collaboration and inter-professing of the
others. We also seemed to recognize that our gifts and calling are
not necessarily defined by the particular roles and institutions we
work in.
Exploring Inter-Being and Inter-Becoming as Ethos-Making (3 of
4)I was very surprised by the depth of the workshop and the
personal nature of the reflections. I wouldnt change any of it now
that Ive been through it a safe and trusting environment to mine
ourselves as we did. I was very surprised that this particular
group responded as we did. I was more surprised at how, in the
short 25-30 minutes of personal reflection, I was able to
articulate a source of angst and tension in my own soul.
Exploring Inter-Being and Inter-Becoming as Ethos-Making (4 of
4)This seemed to be a first for many people in that group who are
generally used to workshops being taught and less so requiring the
introspection, the listening to our selves, in order to discover
the means to inter-profess I felt that this was a beginning and
hope that we can continue this conversation towards transforming
our institutions to serve us rather than confine us. Please dont
change the delivery. Perhaps more time would help.
Exploring Inter-Being and Inter-Becoming as Ethos-MakingThe well
in well-being goes back to the original notion of whole, when whole
very much referenced body, mind, soul and spirit. The coupling with
place-making, and an integral perspective, helps to render
well-being as a form of whole-making, and it is in this combination
that we might all find our post-post-modern calling, our
co-mission-ing. Paraphrasing Martin Luther King:
Exploring Inter-Being and Inter-Becoming as Ethos-MakingI have a
dream, of professionals as servant-leaders, as a community of
well-beings, striving above all for the well-being of all, in
well-loved places: whole beings, in whole places, tending not just
to inanimate matter, but to all that matters in body, mind, soul
and spirit.
Leadership as Service: For Good, In Love, With a SmileEnabling
an Infinity of Personal Evolutions and AwakeningsIan Wight PhD
MCIPAssociate Professor, City PlanningFaculty of Architecture,
University of [email protected] is but a woven web
of guesses (Xenophanes)
Evolving Professionalism Beyond the Status QuoQuestions,
Questions, Questions.What are we? Agents of order and/or agents of
change?What business-es are we in, system-wise: System Maintenance,
System Change or System Transformation?What is our agency? Sole
agency (a limited personal corporation), or agency in communion
(with fellow professionals)? Is our agency actually
multi-facetted?How do we profess? Are we mainly passive, or active,
or reactive or proactive? Are we competitive or collaborative?Are
we professional activists, or is this simply a contradiction in
terms? When are we called to be agent-provocateurs, or
agent-collaborateurs?Can we contemplate a more than singular
professional identity, that shifts us from I-dentity to We-dentity?
What is our We-dentity?
Such inquiries can contribute to ethos-making
Telling a WE-story to the futureEthos-making is a community
project (not for sole agents) its about agency in communionA moral
tale beyond codes and ordinances and beyond standard
practices/protocols/toolsA we-design project, in a we-zone, where
we try to see with new eyesAbout big-picture, big-caring
professing. telling stories to the future, breaking new paths
together, at our leading edgeWorkshop OutlineExploring Elements of
Our Ethos: The Pillars of Our Professionalism; Bridging
Perspectives; Overarching ConstructsConnecting with Our Heart and
Soul and Spirit: - Bringing Our Whole Self to Our WorkMaking an
Ethos that Serves, and Serves Us: - (with Parker Palmers
help!)Exploring, and authoring, our collective professional self -
(elements of our we-dentity)Emerging New Professing Horizons
Aligned with Ethos: - Building Capacity Serving Perspectives
The Pillars, Bridging Perspectives, and Overarching
Constructs
Valuing our subjective and inter-subjective knowing: mining self
as source and source as usExploring common meaning: from I-believe
to We-believeSharing our beliefs: authentically, from the
heartNoticing what were noticing: the light beyond the pale, behind
the veil; beyond us whats enlightening; the spirit that fuels us;
when we are reflecting deeply, contemplatively?
[From our experience this is an experiential workshop]The
Pillars of Our Professionalism[Sentence Completion Circles of Three
or Four or Five]
Thinking of my professional work-setting what I most care about,
deep down, that underpins all I do is: . [in a few words or a short
sentence or two]
Take turns offering what comes up for you.Look for common themes
or surprises. Dialogue with your circle-mates. Integrate/document
main outcome/s.The Bridges with Other Professions [Sentence
Completion Circles of Three or Four or Five]
2. Thinking especially of my interactions with members of other
professions, the themes that come up as big for me, that exercise
me the most, are: .. [in a few words or a short sentence or
two]
Take turns offering what comes up for you.Look for common themes
or surprises. Dialogue with your circle-mates. Integrate/document
main outcome/s.Over-Arching/Ultimate Concerns[Sentence Completion
Circles of Three or Four or Five]
3. Thinking into the future, from well outside my professional
box - i.e. from family and community to country and planet - the
most abiding concerns that live in me, and that keep coming up,
are: [in a few words or a short sentence or two]
Take turns offering what comes up for you.Look for common themes
or surprises. Dialogue with your circle-mates. Integrate/document
main outcome/s.Changing Gears Going InsideStill body, quiet mind,
warm heart, open spiritCommuning with your breathing letting go to
let comeLet your mind focus on the present moment, on right
nowAttune your awareness to what really mattersGive yourself
permission to go deep for a few minutes at least: What comes up for
you?Connecting with Our Heart and Soul Bringing Our Whole Self to
Our Work
[Individual Reflection + Silent Recording + Personal Values
Analysis]
Mine your recent professional experience for insights on the
following. : Has your heart been broken, or assaulted, to an
unusual extent?Have you sold your soul, or been tempted, or
consciously resisted?Has your spirit been dented (to the extent of
being much more troubling than a body blow)?
What does all this tell you about your underlying values?Making
an Ethos that Serves, and Serves Us (with Parker Palmers help!)
Emerging the New Professional Knowing is not enough; we need to
recognise what we know and take responsibility for it.Returning to
Our Origins when being a professional meant making a profession of
faith in the midst of a disheartening world.The notion of a new
professional revives the root meaning of the word that we might
identify ourselves by ( in the form of a public declaration, and
swearing an oath)
Parker Palmers 5 Immodest Proposals1. Us Versus Institutions:
Privileging our whole self2. Trusting Our Emotions: As much as our
intellects3. The Intelligence in Emotional Intelligence: Taking it
seriously4. Cultivating Communities of Discernment and Support
knowingly, skillfully, with sensibility5. An Undivided Life Living
and working with the question. (What is of ultimate concern?)
[Refer to Handout for More Details on Each]
An Ethos-Making Invitation[small-group discussion around one of
the five proposals]Meshing the professional ethics out there, and
the personal ethics in hereProcessing Parker Palmers proposal:I
sense that my profession needs to contribute more support in the
following waysI sense I need to contribute more actively in the
following ways.We sense an emerging professional ethos along the
following lines.
What I Profess: Ethos-Making OpeningsGetting Going/Letting Go On
my own[Closing Circle Round 1 my professional I-dentity; some
silent reflection on an inquiry that matters (from prompts below);
and then voicing what I profess]What is calling me? What is my
calling? What am I being called to profess?What do I want to make
of myself, personally and professionally? What does the world want
of me want to use me for?What is my unique gift, or gifts that I
cannot not give? How do I plan to be of service in the world, to
the world?
What We Profess: Ethos-Making StretchesGoing On/Letting Come
Together[Closing Circle Round 2 Our professional We-dentity; after
some silent reflection on an inquiry that matters (from prompts
below); and then voicing what we might profess]What is calling us?
What is our calling? What are we being called to profess?What do we
want to make of ourselves, personally and professionally? What does
the world want of us want to use us for?What is our unique gift, or
gifts that we cannot not give? How do we plan to be of service in
the world, to the world?
Ethos-Draftings/Offerings[closing out the circle parting
thoughts, on paper, offerings for integration as a draft emerging
ethos]Calling/sMaking/sRequests Sensed (from our audience)Gifting
IntentionsServing/Co-Missionings
New Professing HorizonsAligned with Ethos
Some Hunches - CapacitiesInterweaving(Bill Torbert et al)
Presencing(Peter Senge, Otto Scharmer et al)
Meshworking(Marilyn Hamilton, Peter Merry et al)
New Professing HorizonsAligned with Ethos
More Hunches - PerspectivesPlacemakingWell-beingWhole-making
[planning as placemaking, as well-being by design, as
whole-making; evolving as ever-more-whole-making]
New Professing HorizonsAligned with Ethos
More Hunches HOW?(possible pairings that matter)Self +
ServiceSoul + RoleSpirit + Purpose
[Inner Dimension + Outer Expression]
New Professing HorizonsAligned with Ethos
More Hunches WHY?(Ultimate Concern)Being+Meaning+Discerning
New Professing HorizonsAn Ethos in the MakingBeing
professional+The meaning in being professional+Being discerning
being professional
New Professing Horizons Aligned with EthosInterweaving of
single-, double- and triple-loop learning (developmental action
inquiry)Presencing to help us, literally, get to the heart and soul
of our workMeshworking much more than networking, but including
interweaving and overstandingWell-being which includes, but
transcends, happiness (the product of whole-making)Placemaking
involving the integration of physicality, functionality,
conviviality and spirituality a form of truly integral practice
(the process of whole-making)