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 ManitobaIan_Wight@UManitoba.CA

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 ManitobaIan_Wight@UManitoba.CAAll 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)