The Hindu Business Line : Change in organisations and people: A holistic view

IN THE NAME OF SOFT-SKILLS AND EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE, much wisdom hitherto considered esoteric has found its way into the lexicon and training of managers. No longer is it outlandish to talk of leadership development or bring in contemplative methods so far thought of only in the context of ashrams and retreat centres.

Mention the words `a philosophy of self-awareness and management' in one breath and you might see a few people raising eyebrows.

The world of action and the world of contemplation have traditionally been divided by a chasm mutually agreed upon, it seems, to the satisfaction of both sides. This is now closing, certainly when it comes to the world of the management academics and consultants.

In the past 10 years, one has come across a number of works that deal with the hard realities of the world of organisations but from a transcendental perspective. In the name of soft-skills and emotional intelligence, much wisdom hitherto considered esoteric has found its way into the lexicon and training of managers.

No longer is it outlandish to talk of an experiential approach to management or leadership development or bring in awareness-raising practices or contemplative methods so far thought of only in the context of ashrams and retreat centres.

It would be somewhat inaccurate to say that in all cases the practitioner is turning to spirituality. True, the interest in the eastern meditative practices, in Zen, yoga, Buddhism, Sufi tales and parables and the emphasis on a holistic, integrated approach are all facets of this same phenomenon. Still, we are not quite there yet. We do not yet have a shared language or a commonly accepted set of assumptions on which to go ahead, and shed our intellectual baggage of the world according to the successors of Frederick Taylor.

One reason for this could be that the enlightened thinkers do not want to be seen carrying a torch for anything that smacks of a cult, or appears to promise too much. Exaggerated claims of change in human beings could easily trigger very sceptical responses particularly among pragmatic businessmen and leaders known to be wedded to the art of the possible.

Yet, as the authors of a recent book Presence say, the core capacity needed across many fields of action is the capacity of letting go, and `letting come' instead — that is to say, allowing the universe as it were, to send you its promptings towards a different way of seeing, participating in the process yourself.

This in turn would let you shed old ideas of control as well as the mental inhibitions - all of which are essential if we wish to live innovatively and fully, in a fast changing world and cope with its complex problems. Here are four authors who are actually willing to come out and declare that the time-honoured picture of the macho leader masterminding the fate of organisations in his charge is false.

Interestingly, they start from the premise that is totally `scientific' a word that is usually thought to be the polar opposite of the religious and the mystical: the capacity to suspend established ways of seeing is essential for all important scientific discoveries.

It is in this context that one sees Presence: Exploring profound change in people, organisations, and society (Nicholas Brealey Publishing, London, 2005) as an unusual book, to say the least. How change occurs when learning is continuous and profound, as opposed to superficial and stereotyped, is the core of the book. It is a record of intimate conversations held over a year and a half, looking at a new theory about social and organisational change and learning. One of its four authors is Peter Senge, better known to managers and management students as the author of The Fifth Discipline, where he introduced the notions of mental models, systems thinking applied to softer issues of life and spoke of personal mastery and group processes of learning.

He brought the term `learning organisation' to a larger audience though it is less well known that he learnt it from Arie de Geus, the path-breaking strategic planner of Royal Dutch Shell. C. Otto Scharmer, Joseph Jaworski (son of the Watergate prosecutor) and Betty Sue Flowers are the other three who have eclectic interests that encompass alternative ways of seeing, organisations and life itself.

They have formally explored the nature of fundamental change through exposure to native cultures, ancient religions and meditative approaches, including deep study of Zen.

Distinction between `whole' and `parts'

The authors begin by pointing out the dramatic distinction between studying the `whole' and looking at anything as `composed of parts'. We are accustomed to the mechanical world comprising entirely of things that start as components and are then assembled together. A nut, a wheel, a screw or a washer may perform different functions by themselves (if at all) and function together only when brought together and energy of some sort is applied to it.

Human and natural organisms, however, are very different in a number of ways. First of all, they do not start as disaggregated parts. They start as seeds, cell, embryos and perhaps just thoughts and perceptions, pure energy or a gleam in someone's eye. Secondly, the questions of where they start and how and why, are still an unfathomable mystery. Mystics, sages and others have passed on their explanations of the inexpressible in various forms, and some indeed only through their silence. Philosophers have speculated on this question. And poets have had their visions. Even if we leave the origin and its ultimate causation aside for the moment, we are faced with a number of fascinating differences that give all life forms a uniqueness that sets them apart from mechanical systems.

The book for example contains among other things the tale of an experiment that shows how crystalline structures of a bowl of water change when exposed to music. When the entire organism has ripened and grown, every element of its totality is connected to everything else. Every part and element carries within itself, for example in a tree, the nature and character of the whole. It is not different from the whole. And it is not made up of its parts but the parts and the whole are organically inter-related like the orange and its peel.

The U method

The authors coin a new model called "the U method" which is nothing but a graphic way of showing the progress of the fresh thinker plumbing the depth, going down one side of the U shape, of any subject reflecting not just on the subject and one's responses to it but seeing one's own conditioning as part of what one sees. And then one comes up on the other side towards action. It is easy to see how the ancient Indian insight of the seer being part of the seen comes naturally and logically out of this formulation.

The authors then progress towards the universally known prescription of all wise men that clarity demands slowing down the mind, allowing it to quieten itself and this in turn is nurtured by silence and retreat from the hurly burly of life. They have practised it and recorded their experiences scientifically and compared notes with many others, most of them highly advanced scientists and experts from many fields and the conclusions they come to reaffirm their faith in some of the great religions have said, the Perennial Philosophy, as Aldous Huxley called it. Typically we are used to the idea of going from stating an objective or goal towards action. And if there is a deviation in our linear progress, we call it a problem or difficulty. The authors demonstrate their own openness to experience and the benefit of experiential learning through moving descriptions of time spent on their own and alternating between reflecting and observing modes.

Drawing on the wisdom and experience of 150 scientists, social leaders, and entrepreneurs, including Brian Arthur, Rupert Sheldrake, Buckminster Fuller, Lao Tzu, and Carl Jung, Presence is both revolutionary in its exploration and hopeful in its message. Too often, the authors found, we remain stuck in old patterns of seeing and acting. By encouraging deeper levels of learning, we create an awareness of the larger whole, leading to actions that can help to shape its evolution and our future.

There have been a few other books too such as The Hidden Connections by Fritjof Capra the well known physicist (Doubleday, New York, 2002) which have helped us realise new possibilities — in ourselves, in our institutions and organizations, and in society itself - by making the connections between phenomena hitherto considered unconnected. Every thinking manager must keep his mind open to the immense creative possibilities of books such as these and learn - not to borrow opinions - but to observe afresh his own reality.

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