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Rethinking Complexity

Science and Spirituality in Organizational Practice

03/04/2013

One of the wonderful things about being part of Saybrook’s community is the opportunity to connect with and continue to learn from the faculty teaching in the different schools and programs. Ever since I was enrolled as a student in the late 1990s, I have been an admirer of the profound scholarship, intellectual brilliance, and refreshing humility of Stanley Krippner. Even though he was not my professor, except for a couple of seminars during residential conferences, I have always considered him my mentor. He has been an ongoing inspiration and supporter of my personal and professional...

Posted at 09:52 AM

New Existentialists

The Future of Existential Psychology: Understanding Experience From Present Intentions

02/28/2013

Even though the explanations about anxiety in the DSM-IV-TR (APA, 2000) detail concrete variables related to symptomatic characteristics, such as psychophysiological symptoms, aversive environmental determinants, problematic or dysfunctional behaviors, irrational reactions, all of those explanations omit the intentions/purposes, meaning, and specific needs of the person who lives those symptomatic characteristics. As a result, we can ascertain that those explanations from DSM do not address the crucial meanings and intentions of the human beings who experience these disorders. Halling and...

Posted at 11:00 AM

Rethinking Complexity

Ripples of Synchronicity

02/28/2013

Last month, during my sojourn through the amazing beauty of Sedona, Arizona, I decided to do something I have never done in my life nor have I ever really wanted to do: I visited a psychic to receive a spiritual “reading.” For most of my life, I have moved in the world of rigid organization and technology and that association has never encouraged me to seek the insight of someone who claims to have a finger on the pulse of spiritual ebb and flow of life. As I sat before this mystic, a Native American surprisingly down to earth and not at all who I would have expected, the...

Posted at 10:01 AM

New Existentialists

Sacrifice, Suffering, and Wet Hair

02/27/2013

A friend tells the story of a young man and woman who have fallen deeply in love. Several times a day they send each other emails and text messages, and in the evenings they spend hours on the phone sharing with one another their deep, abiding, and undying love for one another. Over and over again, they reassure each another they will always be there for one another, and that they would do anything for the other. The conversations are intense, and the writing poetic. One night the young man calls his girlfriend and shares with her how bad his day has been, how he is struggling his with...

Posted at 11:00 AM

Rethinking Complexity

Reconciling Stagnation and Generativity

02/27/2013

Consciousness is a term related to awareness. Awareness of what? Awareness of ourselves and others. Those things we can observe and those that we cannot. Those we can measure and those we intuit. Individually, our consciousness is a product of our capacities and capabilities in relation to our life conditions, those elements that impact how we comprehend ourselves, others, and the contexts that shape our understanding. Collectively, we help to shape each individual consciousness and bring that consciousness into a set of understandings, values, aspirations, and intentions that we call culture...

Posted at 06:52 AM

New Existentialists

Lunar New Year Traditions

02/26/2013

It is the Lunar New Year Holidays here and as with many holiday celebrations, alcohol plays a prominent role in its celebration. I’ve observed several families saving their best hard liquor, packaged in beautiful bottles, for this special occasion. This gave rise to numerous reflections and memories of Chinese New Year celebrations past. The New Year celebrations are truly a special occasion in the Chinese culture, filled with various meaningful traditions, many of which I do not fully understand. This is because I grew up in the West. My family stopped celebrating the Lunar New Year...

Posted at 11:00 AM

Rethinking Complexity

Talking Collaboration

02/25/2013

We talk together to collaborate (or co-labor) and we use language when we write, email, tweet, and hang out in social spaces. Our words build relationships and connect us so we can accomplish things, from nailing down project details or creating strategies to designing systems or resolving complex challenges. We meet together to make sure everyone is aligned and committed to the work and, in organizational life, it is always about the work. And, it is our relationships that accomplish the work. When we meet face-to-face, we have visual and auditory clues that help us understand each other. We...

Posted at 01:10 PM

New Existentialists

The Role of Morality in Trauma

02/25/2013

Trauma represents a life altering experience. It engenders a sense of helplessness, confusion, and disorganization for those directly involved in it and for those who bear witness to it. Part of this confusion is attempting to decipher what is real and what is fantasy, what is inside and what is outside, what happened in the past and what is happening now. These disorienting and discontinuous states of experience are hallmarks of trauma and often stir intense emotional reactions. The emotional responses to traumatic events are powerful and often feel as though either life or death is at...

Posted at 11:00 AM

New Existentialists

Golfing-Unto-Death

02/22/2013

The game of golf is an interesting competition between players in which every swing of the club is the player’s advancement toward losing the game. Unlike other sports, golf scores go in the opposite direction, meaning that the lower the score a player has at the end, the higher his or her ranking is in the results; the player with the least points wins. The reason for this is that each point corresponds to a swing of the club which is called a “stroke.” There are 18 holes on a full golf course, and each hole comes with a “par” or expected amount of strokes. When...

Posted at 11:00 AM

Rethinking Complexity

A Chicken in Every Pot and a Screen at Every Fingertip

02/21/2013

My wife Katherine, who teaches preschool, overheard the following question raised by a 4-year-old during lunch last week, “Does your mommy let you download apps?” During the rest of the conversation, the 4 and 5-year-olds compared technology access policies in their homes. On a separate occasion, Katherine told me about a student who was baffled by what was once a staple for early readers: the lift-the-flap book. The student could not fathom why simply touching the designated spot on the page didn’t reveal what was behind the flap. Note to collectors, you may want to start...

Posted at 10:55 AM