The Integral Leadership in Action Conference, March 23-25, 2007

Joanne (my partner-in-time) and I just spent three days with a diverse group of over eighty people in Westminster, Colorado, just outside Denver. While I can’t do justice to all those amazing individuals, I want to reflect on some of the people and sessions that stood out.

 

Like any gathering, you never really know what the group energy is going to be like until you get there and dive in. But after the first day, we knew we were experiencing something very special and unique. The conference was a mix “church” and “state,” Spiritual and secular, pleasure and business all wrapped into one.

 

The conference was MC’ed by Cindy Wigglesworth whom we had met at the Spiral Dynamics Dallas Confab in 2004. Cindy runs her own integral spiritual business practice and is part of the Integral Leadership in Action User’s Group to plan the conference in partnership with Integral Institute (I-I).

 

During group introductions we each took sixty seconds to introduce ourselves and what we are passionate about. I had the chance to meet Natalie Zeituny who is a member of the Fielding Graduate School integral certificate program. When I asked if other Fielding students were present, I was disappointed to see that it was just Natalie and I (since several others had indicated they’d be going). But Natalie, Joanne, and I hit it off quite well, and after a day we felt as though we had known each other for lifetimes.

 

I also got to meet Randy Martin and Sean Hargens, two of our instructors. All I can say is that spending “face time” really helps to connect with their energy. They were energetic and incredibly present. Several years ago Randy almost succeeded in getting AQAL approved in the University of Indiana, Pennsylvania. But the university wasn’t ready for it. Doh! And Sean has been involved with JFK University and runs the only AQAL-powered integral psychology department in the world. Both are extremely dedicated and passionate about all things integral.

 

Next, Susann Cook-Greuter and Beena Sharma, a protégé, presented an adult development framework derived from Jane Loevinger’s work on ego development, but tailored to a business and management/leadership framework. Susann’s model goes all the way into transpersonal stages, but for practical purposes she and Beena focused on the five main stages that apply to 95% of the adult population.

 

I had a chance to briefly talk to Susann later about her view on channeling, which I approached from a multiple personality angle. Ever the scientist, she acknowledged that this was not her area of expertise, as I asked if she knew the work of Jon Klimo (she said, “No.”), one of the leading academic researchers of channeling. Essentially, her work has focused on a model of single body, single primary personality (proximate self), and just about anything else is considered pathology.

 

However, Susann acknowledged a middle way in that as long as the secondary personality doesn’t begin to dominate, overly confuse, and fragment the primary personality, it can’t be considered pathology. We both understood that when the primary self splinters into fragments, serious pathology occurs. But I told her that I knew of three cases (Jane Roberts, Mary Ennis, Serge Grandbois) in which that was not the case, and they could access at will, any time, any place their secondary self (or what Klimo calls a source). Unfortunately, time ran out, and we agreed to continue the conversation another time. Still, I hope to follow up and my own work in this area continues.

 

I took away the sense that Susann’s working paradigm, a state of the art stucturalist approach, did not yet include channeling because the kinds of dissociative states and fully formed secondary personalities not often encountered and likely to appear as trace elements. For instance, Jane, Mary, or Serge would not have their secondary sources take Susann’s test in the first place! They would answer her sentence completion tests based on their primary selves.

 

Susann is an incredible woman, funny, intense, loves her work, and includes the transcendental stages in human development. I recognized a bit of Scottish and German in her accent, and she said she had grown up in the German speaking section of Switzerland and attended the same high that Albert Einstein did!

 

The next morning highlight was the Big Mind practice led by Diane Hamilton, the Dharma successor of Genpo Roshi’s white plum Buddhist lineage here in the USA. Dianne has a raptor-like intensity to her gaze when leading the group through this sophisticated practice that is a unique blend of Western gestalt and Eastern meditative insights. Essentially Big Mind helps to objectify different aspects (in Jane Roberts’s terms) of self, so we can begin to understand the many subpersonalities we hold, and how they interact.

 

Once we can begin to identify Big Heart (feminine) and Big Mind (masculine) and blend them into Big Heart/Mind, we begin to understand and identify that aspect of self in which all experience arises, constructs, creates, and manifests. It’s also called The Witness or Atman in the Vedic traditions.

 

Big Mind is a nondual teaching intended to point out “what is” always already “just this.” Put another way, it’s that aspect of awareness that never changes in any state, waking, dreaming, or deep formless sleep – that essential Witness of all experience, the simple feeling of being. Learn to identify as just that, and rest as just that, and we begin to understand that which is immortal, eternal, and indestructible within us.

 

This is a good example of what I meant earlier by the mixture of church and state. The fact that we were doing a spiritual practice in the context of business leadership was a unique and enduring experience for us. This is what gives Integral Institute and related integral partners such an amazing advantage, because it’s practical and promotes a more holistic approach to any pursuit. As Sean recently mentioned, the integral operating system (IOS) provides a common linguistic and conceptual framework that allows engineers, politician, musicians, soldiers, really anyone to build bridges between any discipline. Amazing stuff!

 

After lunch Natalie, Jo and I had the good fortune of being invited to spend 2.5 hours with Ken Wilber at his new Denver loft along with Randy Martin, Sean Hargens, and twenty or so JFK students. We all piled in, and Ken took five or six main questions and follow ups. The first question was about Excerpt G on subtle energy research as it might relate to reincarnation. Ken presented a detailed twenty-five minute answer in which he articulated three or four main areas of concern, but acknowledged that while there wasn’t enough or conclusive evidence to date, reincarnation was a very real possibility. It’s just that we don’t yet have a postmodern scientific method in which to better explore it, though this is what Wilber’s AQAL-5 science has the potential for down the road.

 

(Click here for a group picture.) 

 

Ken also mentioned that was why he has written so little on occult or parapsychology topics because it’s a quick way to have scholars reject all his work. And it’s hard enough to get materialist scientists to understand that everything, every thing, has interiority and awareness at any level.

 

Ken also detailed his near-death experience in December where he had twelve Grand Mal seizures, three heart restarts (with those wired paddles), and an experience with Big Mind and small Ken and horrible pink and blue curtains. He’s detailed this on his blog, but when the audio is made available (the whole session was taped), it will make a poignant reflection on what he went through.

 

Given all that, Ken was continuing to recover (he looked thinner than when we had last seen him in April 2005). His energy perked up as he talked about his work, and he could have gone on for a while longer, but there were other people there to see him (including Tony Robbins). He also introduced Rob Smith, the new CEO wunderkind of Integral Institute to the group.

 

The session ended with a group photo and a surprise birthday card signed by all for Sean. It was clear how much the JFK cohort loves Sean, and how much he has contributed to the integral endeavor at JFK University and Fielding. There was a lot of love and deep appreciation as we acknowledged Sean’s ongoing effort to get AQAL on the academic map (Sean is also the chief editor for the new AQAL Journal).

 

We returned to the conference hotel and caught the end of Michael McElhenie’s presentation on using AQAL in third world countries to introduce condoms to help with the HIV pandemic.

 

Rob Smith then spent an hour reviewing his strategic plan for I-I. Rob comes from a venture capital background, so it was clear that he wasn’t doing this to make more money than he already has, but to help bring integral to a world that sorely needs it. His vision is to make I-I a “second tier Disney,” which means a high quality set of products and services that use all available technologies and distribution channels to get integral ideas out there.  There is no working model of a fully integral business yet, though there are many emerging examples (see: Brian Robertson of Ternary Software and holocracy).

 

Rob is recruiting an executive team and noted the problems of matching experience with altitude, or an understanding of the AQAL map and robust spiritual practice, with experience in the business, marketing, education, techhology, and fund-raising fields.

 

I-I is a 501(c)3 non-profit, but he also holds out opportunities to work with partners to spin off for-profit ventures. I found this very encouraging, though I-I has been through a difficult Fall with the departure of its temporary CEO, a leading donor, and support staff. So our overall impression was “this sounds great, but we’ll wait and see.”

 

Rob said one immediate goal was to get a portal going that is easy to use like the NY Times site, instead of the hodge-podge of websites that currently are next to impossible to navigate or grasp as a whole by 95% of the population. He hoped this would be available in first quarter 2008, and would feature content “channels” (Jo and later joked about providing content for the channeling channel).

 

Rob also said that Ken’s role going forward would be to serve on the Board and as the senior editor to insure AQAL compliance and focus moving forward. An integral business seeks to understand the strengths and weaknesses of all individuals in order to tailor job functions that promote greatest growth. This will in turn to more effective growth for the company, so I was glad to hear that Ken wouldn’t need to manage areas of the business that are not his forte.

 

The final thing that I saw as a key, was Rob understands that Integral Spiritual Center is a crucial area to support since its core to fulfilling their vision of “promoting moral growth.” So promoting the Dharma (wisdom teachings) in its many splendid forms is a high priority moving forward.

 

After dinner Willow Pearson led a second generation Integral Life Practice (ILP) on the shadow. I realized yet again how crucial ongoing, diligent shadow work is to all growth toward enlightenment. Willow had this mellow goddess intensity that led the group through what she called a work in progress (as I-I is developing next generation ILP modules).

 

Sunday morning we had breakfast with Skip Shuda, the fellow who had asked Ken about reincarnation and subtle energies. I was able to outline a Sethian view on reincarnation that included simultaneous time, probable selves, counterparts, I-I-I create my own reality. His eyes lit up at the possibilities, though we agreed these were metaphysical assumptions mapped by Seth that can serve as a basis for additional research down the road.

 

Then we joined Natalie at her Conscious Business Open Space, essentially a jam session on a subject. People can come and go (vote with their feet) and choose from three concurrent sessions/themes. Natalie outlined her present business interests and how she’s working on a center to help businesses become more conscious through “five P’s”: people, profit, planet, purpose, and pets (she added the last two based on group input). Natalie showed herself to be bright, present, caring, business savvy, articulate, and passionate about making a difference while making a profit. Jo helped to take notes that Natalie presented to the main group later, and will be distributed to all attendees.

 

I was pleased to see that “integral feminine” was radiantly abundant in all the women mentioned thus far! I-I has been criticized in the past for focusing too much on the masculine side of this typology.

 

I should also mention Victoria Wilson who led morning yoga, and several excellent spiritual practices and contemplations throughout the weekend. I was able to sit next to her at a group lunch on Sunday and it turns out she had recently been getting impulses to reread the Seth books by Jane Roberts. Turns out she knew a lot about the Seth Material. So I got to tell her about NewWorldView, our integral conscious creation portal based on the Seth/Jane Roberts “lineage.”

 

We finished the afternoon with summaries of all the Open Space sessions, a group shadow practice, and the reading of a poem by Reggie (whom we had met in Dallas) that was spectacular. We said our good-byes, and made our way home to two appreciative kitties and a warm bed.

 

Looking back a day after the event, I realized that we had spent the three days in a TEAL We-space. (1) It feels like GREEN on steroids, but was a new group synergy I had not experienced before.

 

(What do these colors mean? They represent worldview stages that are very fluid, wavelike probability zones of finding certain behaviors, values, systems, etc. Research has shown that if 50% is focused in TEAL, then 25% is still in GREEN, and 25% in TURQUOISE. So when we say TEAL we really mean a spectrum centered in TEAL with GREEN and TURQUOISE wrappers. So it’s not cut and dry, but very fluid.)

 

Another characteristic of TEAL is that business and Spirit exist side by side, there are no longer the constraints of ORANGE rationality, whose intuition of Spirit is bounded by logic (e.g., Logical Deism). The room was dripping with awareness and appreciation of Source throughout, this is what I meant in my intro about a “mix of church and state.” At TEAL we can no longer separate them into different value spheres because they are re-integrated. It literally becomes a moral imperative to take all actions from an awareness of our multidimensional nature, connection to each other, and Source.

 

It gives Jo and I hope of what a second tier organization might look like down the road. I had a question that I didn’t get to ask Rob Smith, but wanted to include here. As I-I moves forward and designs a second tier business model, TEAL at least, it will strive to include a radical transparency at all levels of the organization. Well, as much as possible. For instance, current non-profits have to make the top 4-5 salaries publicly available. So there’s a legal process where you can contact any 501(c)3 and obtain the top salaries of its President and top execs. That’s the traditional ORANGE version.

 

However, a TEAL organization could also make the psychographs of its entire executive team and board part of the public record. They could be updated every 3-5 years and would show general trends in growth, arrest, or regression. My point is that if we’re calling on all second tier researchers to include psychographs as part of their research (using some form of AQAL integral methodological pluralism), then we must call on all second tier executive and board members to include their psychographs as well.

 

Ironically, the psychograph is still vaporware in this now. There is some work being done, but nothing has crystallized in any standard form yet. I asked Ken Wilber about this back in November on a telcon with other Fielding students, and his answer is here (How Close is Your Consciousness to Being One with Everything?).

 

If you have a problem with the notion of measuring or ranking people in stages of widening awareness, that’s your GREEN at work, and a healthy GREEN to boot! The only problem is that GREEN does not yet understand the difference between actualization hierarchies and dominator hierarchies. Actualization hierarchies are the natural hierarchies all around us. They are easy to spot. For example, the stages of acorn, sapling, and tree are normal stages in any healthy tree realizing its full, physical nature.

 

Dominator hierarchies do the opposite, and are often found in human groups. They serve to limit, repress, marginalize, and stunt growth. Stalinist Russia and Maoist China are two extreme forms at the societal level. Many businesses are still run by dominator hierarchies, which is a characteristic of first tier worldviews (see endnote 1). Healthy TEAL organizations strive to use natural designs that promote growth by matching people to their ideal jobs. They make a profit, but are aware of their impact on the ecosystem, local community, and member’s personal and professional growth.

 

If you’re still bothered by the idea of ranking, try this: take a couple deep breaths and relax your awareness. Say the following three sentences out loud and observe what happens to your self-sense. Do you stay contracted or do you expand?

 

The world is getting worse all the time.

 

The world is getting better all the time.

 

The world is always already perfect in every way.

 

Now, try it again but hold all three perspectives in awareness. You should begin to feel an expansion, a relaxing of your egoic contraction and sense of separation. It is from that I and We-space that any TEAL worldview seeks to act, privately and publicly. It’s a beautiful thing.

 

Finally, I highly recommend anyone interested in integral business and leadership to attend the next conference. It’s a great place to meet birds of a feather, network, share, embrace Spirit, and make new friends. Thanks and deep appreciation to Cindy Wigglesworth (is that a great name or what!?), the planning committee, and support folks from I-I that pulled this off!

 

Endnotes:

 

(1) For more information on the general use of colors to represent worldview stages, see: Emerging New Worldviews.