The threefold awareness in transformation

What does a year of living out of suitcases, a year without furniture or a home address teach you? How do you see the world when you have no tripod or fixed point of view. This is not the post I set out to write, but somehow it is the one that emerged as words started flowing. In a way it is only fitting as this year was not a journey that was planned, strategic or intentional.

I am you

The year has been filled with friendship. Old friends whom I hadn't seen for 26 years, new friends with whom a deep spiritual connection must have existed before we even met. The year has included (in chronological order) Costa Rica, London, Cologne, Frankfurt am Main, Stockholm, Berlin, Tegernsee, Munich, Derby, Bali, Singapore, New Zealand, Nuremberg, Mallorca, Berliiiiiiin, New York, Denver, Medford, Portland OR, Middletown CA, Palo Alto, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Mt Hood, Open tent somewhere in Utah desert, Helsinki, Cape Town, Kalk bay, Johannesburg, Pretoria, Magaliesburg, Pilanesburg, Lodz, Buxton, Leeds. (Duplications and miles and miles of mountain walks not noted).

In connecting to so many people in so many places the most persistent thought is the sense of genuine connection we all share through our humanity. The journey I am undertaking is the journey everyone undertakes on a day to day basis. The distorted lens of flights and passport controls has only served to bring this basic human quest in focus. No matter where or who you are, we are all on a journey to add meaning and substance to the life we have been given.

Once in a meeting with Stefano Marzano I thanked him for taking the time out of his schedule. His answer: "we all have the same number of hours in the day." A profound insight about the choices we make in filling each hour with substance. In this instance it made me acutely aware of my responsibility towards him; to fill the hour with 60 minutes worth of value. In this regard every one of use faces every day with the challenge of filling it with our unique biography, a contribution that transcends the escape velocity of the hours lent to it by creating a substantial shift in the people around us. The value of the journey is not measured by the places you have seen, it is measured by the lives you have touched.

So, you are me. The travel catalogue of daily adventures mapping kindness, generosity and the conversations people will have, when you are not there.

I am not you
Having roots, a home and the network of support that grows organically from seeing the same sights every morning, provides a sense of stability. Time and again I have seen peace in the eyes of those who have lived in the same place, dwelled along the same paths, all their lives. Is it an innate sense of calm that leads one to feel content with your home environment, eschewing adventure, like Bilbo Baggins? Or does having a home create the calm that fills these environments with a content happiness? I don't know which way the causality runs but a foundation gives you more than the obvious stability, it gives you a calm energy.

This calm energy is well suited for constructive arts. The patience of building a house, watching a community develop. The patience of waiting for the seasons to carry a crop to bare.

Over the past year my energies have been channeled into facilitation, connection and contradiction. By not being embedded in a fulcrum of production, the "touch and go" contributions I have been able to make feel like the platinum plate of a catalytic convertor; consumed in and by its use, leaving nothing behind but an altered quality of experience. The delivery of the experience, the real value has to be realized by someone who takes anchor and works with the now, the space and the physical possibilities of the "sit-you-ation."

You are not you

A long time ago I had a vision of an individual life's trajectory. I imagined a thin glowing white silken line stretched between someone's parents, and their counterpoint. Looking at this thin line I saw how people were running back and forth on this thin white line, to either manifest what their parents represented (in the words of the Cowboy Junkies: "become their mothers and fathers without a sound") or to try hell for leather to be the opposite. How strange I thought that no one dared to step outside the silken thread of two dimensional connection. How many alternate versions of you could there be if neither one of these two poles was an actual definition of your destiny.

By being on the shiny certainty of confirmation/contradiction we are mostly blinded by the binary nature of our "yes/no" choices. But there lies a universe beyond what we see in front of use. The choice you face today is not: "shall I go to work or stay at home." The choice is rather, how many different places are there out there where my true potential could illuminate a more meaningful contribution.

We underestimate who we are and the true power of our thoughts and actions because for the most part, the measure of success and meaning is flawed. If there is one thing the past year has taught me, it is that staying in Plato's cave turns you into a caveman. Once you let go of what you hold to be manifest truth, a new version of you emerges that has not been defined by the "accepted" interplay of light and darkness. The image of you reflected in your job, your family or your immediate set of friends are not the whole truth of who you are. When you let go of the silken strand of identity, you immediately embrace something much bigger.

The grim repairer

Last week I took an old and well travelled bag in for repair. I purchased the bag in 2004 for about $250. Since then it has literally been around the world 4 times and in this journey has become a standard part of my on boarding routines. The perfect shape and size for laptop, in flight reading and a pair of overnights. But then in February this year, the zipper broke and it was not safe to carry its little load. In Denver I found a luggage repair store and they now have it in their care for $40 and a shot at reuniting us.

But is this now a lost or even redundant art? Is the art of growth inside the experience being supplanted by the skill of search and discovery? Milan's iPod had a similar issue. The volume buttons got stuck and the repair would cost more than $200. The friendly Apple people would gladly take the old one as a trade in contribution towards the purchase of a new one, as long as it resulted in shifting something from their shelves. Apple is not alone in their pursuit of new sales as apposed to share of experiences. New sales and production determine market share and trajectory in the eyes of analysts. This reality all but removes the incentive to build things that can be repaired. Planned obsolescence is now a de facto requirement for company valuation.

Is my nagging discomfort with this state of things simply a fading remnant of misplaced morality? Recently I read a quote form a couple who had been married for 80 years. When asked how they had made it so long, the husband said: "We grew up in a time where when something was broken, you fixed it."

When I look at the reality for my kids though, there is almost nothing that either prompts them to, or reminds them of the waning art of repair. Awareness is shaped and rewarded by the constant streams on screens. Where friendship clicks only serve to fill your news feed and everyone needs followers only to believe in themselves. No one has time to retrace their steps, revisit decisions and reconnect with lost ones. And through this lack of exercise, the repair muscles become atrophied in favor of search and discovery skills.

The hidden cost of this though, is that there are certain dimensions of our personality that we can only discover through the process of rebuilding relationships. We never see or even know this growth exists if we only have speed dated, limited shelf live, match.coms with single soccer moms/Johns. The seratonin kicks of "new and exciting" can now sustain itself through the all you can eat smorgasbord of new connections available on the web. In this world it is frankly illogical to take on the heartache and opportunity cost of repair, when selective search can instantly bring a new beginning. And it is easier to mould a two month persona where every conversation is being held for the first time. You are in control of your limited exposure id-entity. Neither repair nor recovery, which are only learnt though moving beyond failure, are needed or developed. Failure now prompts a new search outside, instead of resourcefulness inside.

But how can people learn this if their context shouts against sticking to something? Are they trapped in a catch 22 where a failure to develop repair and recovery skills leads to an inability to know or develop these skills?

I took my kids to the tiny luggage store, dusty and hidden away in a corner of the industrial outskirts of Denver. We also spent the day visiting pawn shops, to reflect on the cast away lives and hopes that had no more value than a few dollars, and the trade in value towards a shiny new thing. I am sure there will soon be an app for that.

Beyond Bali

I was told that the Balinese dialect does not have a word for art. As I slowly became more and more immersed in the rituals and cadence of daily village life I could begin to see why not.

The Hindu framework through which so many people access the world around them provides meaning and space for everything around you. Every room in the house has role to play, every tree has a purpose in its construction. The innate quality of something transposes into its purpose. Extended to people and their identity, one discovers a real place and purpose through contribution. A selflessness imbues everything you touch and tasks are conducted in a clear devotion. "I give myself completely into this task."

Making breakfast, sweeping the yard, entertaining guests; every task becomes outpouring/selflessness. By being thus emptied, you transcend self to live an artful life. The word becomes redundant when it abounds and pervades the typography of your biography.

Balinese musicians, artists and dancers live very plain lives. The belief is that the beauty of the performance is only channeled through them, not of them. Their art only lives in so much as they are able to let go of themselves. This self therefore has no celebrity outside of the act of consecration in art. In fact, the greater the individual ego, the smaller the chance of being artful.

The result is that one finds happiness, even in small tasks. The degree to which you can pour your whole self into the task provides a huge sense of value and connection. The presence process of happiness.

What a contrast to the Western view of management and work. One is hardly ever encouraged to engage yourself in a task that can be all consuming. Instead we are made acutely aware of the transactional value of labour. One is not encouraged to be true to yourself, but rather to find your true value and hold on to it. What if the true value and beauty of a life could only be achieved by letting go of the self?

The fear of being exploited or manipulated brings on the protection mechanisms, creating opportunities for cynical dismissiveness. "Oh, I didn't think they were going to buy that in any case..." Holding back, holding out, feeding anxiety.

How would the way we engage with daily tasks change if we viewed every one of them as an act of outpouring? Do you live in the document/the strategy/the design you created? Is your 'art' so self evident that it doesn't need a word?

Day 40: Proximity blindness

Kobus’ mom arranges an interesting charity for the local kids in Paternoster. This remote little village on the South African west coast still functions as an active fishing community. Over the summer school holidays the local kids are left pretty much to their own devices on the dusty streets and sandy outcrops of the bay. What serves as a lovely retreat for the B&B crowd in search of isolation and the quiet coastal tug of the southwester, is a stimulus desert for the young minds. With no parents or planned activities, drug use and teenage pregnancy is rife.

Sanna van der Merwe started the West Coast Kids charity which is set up to provide a framework for the kids during their summer holiday. The majority of the salaries and projects are funded by sales from her shop. Tonight we had a long conversation about the difficulties she had in engaging the local community in the program. Paternoster has a lot of successful tourist and travel based businesses. The bed & breakfasts, hotel, shops and various restaurants all earn a living by trading off the unfettered charm of the local fishing community. When it came to funding the kids program they all turned a blind eye. The tourists who come to Sanna's shop were the ones to buy vouchers and tokens to fund kids meals and christmas presents. It seems that charity does not begin at home, or perhaps familiarity is the source of this contempt.

Sanna's daughter tells me that when you give the little kids a small gift of a sweet or drink there will often be a fight. When one of the kids however comes in with a little bit of money to buy a sweet they will go to great lengths to share, demonstrating their largesse. I wonder if we shouldn't think of the local businesses as gifts, a setting and sense of belonging given by the less fortunate fishermen to the property entrepreneurs. And like the kids they now jealously guard this precious thing. How could one change the paradigm so that they understand that the essence of what they provide is an earned privilege. Crime free nights with streets free from beggars is an interest earned. It takes a community to make ends meet.

Day 39: Rose tinted revelations

On this trip I have been wearing sunglasses with rose colored lenses. The landscapes, sunsets and nuances of desert sands have taken on a new beauty as the contrasts and colors spring to unnatural life. Clouds that look flat and white through the naked eye take on a drama and new emotion when viewed through these rose tinted spectacles.

Today Colin accused me of seeing South Africa's current economic climate through rose tinted lenses too. This is in spite of The Economist's interesting focus on Africa Rising in the latest edition. With consistent growth, and not all of it from oil, there are legitimate reasons to have hope about Africa's emergence. On this trip I have been constantly amazed by the strength of vision in the creative arts and business. Perhaps I have been offered a rose tinted tour and to see the best version of events. I keep being reminded by 'in the know' tourists and locals alike that corruption will spoil the party. Somehow I think they forget that corruption is endemic in all societies. Isn't that what OWS is all about?

The rose tinted sunglasses have however shown me just how useful it can be to use an unusual lens when viewing the landscape. By increasing the contrast between green and brown I am able to see all kinds of little plants and fresh growth, ordinarily obscured by the glare of the desert sun. The Kalahari literally comes alive. My memories and experiences of the landscape are just as valid as the ones I would have had without this filter, just far more emotional, rich and colorful.

We often think of people with rose tinted lenses as naive or not in touch with reality. Perhaps we should pay more attention to their ability to spot opportunity that others can't see. In nature different animals use different parts of the light spectrum to identify exactly when their favorite food is just ripe. Applied at the right moment, corporate optical shift can show new routes through the undergrowth. A photoshop filter for excel, to reveal buds and blossoms hiding in plain sight. A redirection of the management might spectrum could create just enough refraction to reveal otherwise invisible ideas.

Day 38: The space of things

As Julene, the owner of Namies Namakwa Retreat informed me today, Northern Cape has the biggest land mass of all South Africa's provinces, but the smallest population. This places bigger distances between things. According to her this has two benefits; lower crime and and a greater appreciation for friendships. When you live in such remote isolation a friendly cup of coffee with a neighbor, who lives 50km away, takes on a whole new meaning.

The distance between people is not the only thing that is vast. This arid moon landscape can go years without rain too. Today I had the privilege of driving through a rainstorm. With such a gift I could not sit isolated in my little steel and glass cocoon, so I drove about 100km with the windows open. The smell of the African desert drinking up the rain is intoxicating. The excitement as life instantaneously springs up from the desert floor to greedily capture every little drop for growth, pores through your senses on every dimension.

There is an old chinese parable of a great leader asking his generals how one makes the strongest cart wheel. Some insisted that their blacksmiths made the strongest steel, which surely made the tough rims needed for strength. Others boasted of their ancient forests with hard wood, needed for the tough, flexible core. The general who got to lead all others answered: "the strength of the wheel comes from the empty spaces, between the spokes. The master craftsman knows how to space them just right."

The space between things is one of the most powerful elements of a team and company's design. In this age of digital connection and instant access, how much time do we spend on deliberately creating space? Space to reflect and appreciate each other. Space to bring about a new form of listening that invigorates all the senses. The joy of reconnection and surprising friendships evaporates like lost raindrops on baking stones when we spend our time in the burning light of our screen-terface.

Day 37: The self help solocide

Driving through the Kalahari today the car got stuck in thick red sand. It took me two hours to dig the car out again, which gave me a lot of time to reflect on the self help movement.

California is seen as the birth place for the human potential movement. This mindset has progressively attached itself to more and more aspects of people's lives. The objective being a self reliant soul that is at peace with its needs and can achieve anything it sets its sights on. Everything from parenting to politics can now be viewed through the Aquarian enlightenment. I wonder if all this focus on the self is not somehow leading to a kind of organizational solocide - death of potential due to excessive focus on self confidence. With a generation of managers fed on a diet of "believe in yourself" I wonder how much room they leave for others.

Even though one often hears noises about "we are all one" in these circles, it strikes me that the net effect is a self indulgent one. After all, you mostly just hear about people working on themselves.
On this journey the one thought that has returned to me again and again is how we might find ways to change the focus from self perception to collaborative envisioning. Most of the executive function in business revolves around how a group of leaders convinces itself and its shareholders of the new strategy. Like self help groups there seems to be the pervasive belief that if we believe in ourselves enough, this plan will come to pass.

But how about a different lens? What would happen if instead of asking: "what is the size of the potential market?" we ask instead "how many people want to see us succeed?" What is the reflective image of our ambition?

By shifting the focus to an external perspective we completely change not only our potential risk and revenue model, we also open new ways to co-pete. By shifting the discussion from our 'narrowsistic' set of interests we set the basis for more robust discussions about a business constituency.

Just imagine the difference between: "how many people want to see us succeed with new widget x" (the answer: only us and that is why we spend so much money convincing everyone else)
and "how many people want to see us succeed in eradicating childhood obesity through sport/food/community programs." This is similar to the old marketing myopia discussion, about focussing on benefits versus features, however the twitter nation makes it possible to scope the debate in new ways. Who you engage and how you engage with them makes all the difference in focussing on the right problem to fix.

Companies should be engaging with the people who want to see them succeed to avoid the slow inward spiral of over confidence that gets you stuck in the sand.