Snippets from a conversation in the EE Community on Facebook
George Pór
Frederic Laloux wrote in Reinventing Organizations:
“It’s conceivable that in the future the evolutionary purpose, rather than the organization, will become the entity around which people gather. A specific purpose will attract people and organizations in fluid and changing constellations, according to the need of the moment.”
Who and how will discover THAT purpose?
Ria Baeck
will be part of chapter 7 of my book…
Pablo Reyes
Thinking “evolutionary purpose” as an “entity” is highly metaphysical.
Life is enactive. We are trapped in metaphysical thinking since purple.
I see big remains of blue/amber in this statement.
George Pór
Pablo, I think you worked on the translation of the RO book that has many pages on evolutionary purpose. Did they seem to you metaphysical or only the quote from the book, which is the in the opener of this conversation?
Pablo Reyes
In some places in the book it looks like “evolutionary purpose” is a kind of entity.
But my opinion is specially for this statement. I really think that this is not Fred’s approach, but in a highly blue/amber/orange world, it’s a risk about who is hearing this and in what level is their center of gravity.
I saw a lot in the teal movement a blue/amber approach to this, like the “new truth”.
Also some start “spreading the word”. To me this is a high risk, because looks like building new churches with other bible.
Chris Clark
I notice it’s useful for me to build churches, sometimes, if I’m willing to make them out of newspaper… or anything else that will disintegrate in the rain, blow away in the wind, or disappear with a candle flame.
Marie Örnesved
When we are true to ourselves… when we let our soul fully be embraced by our body and live it’s pure energy as our expression into the world then we are magnetized with an energy that can be translated to a purpose….it is inside….and others that are in coherence to this energy will respond naturally….clusters will crystalise….and an “organisation” with an inherent intention/purpose will be the result….not because we wanted to build one but because it was created by a clustering of people that resonated to the energy of a soul’s intention…
Dear Marie,
I cherish your description of “purpose” as something that is not “out there” to achieve, but inside, and emerging from the expression of our essence into the world!
The process that you describe reminds me of the beautiful feminine wisdom that shines through one of our recent articles: Mothering Evolutionary Purpose – a Feminine Perspective
Your description seems to refer to individuals, but that way to discover our purpose may apply to groups, too. See for example the 3-part description of Enlivening Edge’s purpose:
our essence: Nourishing the conscious evolution of people, organizations, and social systems
our blessing: Weaving people, knowledge, and inspiration to strengthen the ecosystem of next-stage movements
our mission: Boosting the emergent collective intelligence, consciousness, and impact of the ecosystem of next-stage organizations and initiatives, until they become the new mainstream of organizing work
Marie, I also appreciate your thoughts on how people, who are in resonance with the energy expressed through an inside-out purpose will respond naturally….clusters will crystalise….and an “organisation”. In fact, that’s how Enlivening Edge evolved to its current stage of development.
I understand that one of your objectives in the global business environment has been to guide people to grow and therefore create a successful business. Could you say something about your observation/experience of the dynamics, from which people aligned with their soul’s purpose turn into soulful organizations?
Marie Örnesved
Dear George,
Thank you for your response and interest to explore further. This is a question that is really dear and close to my heart. I have been exploring it from inside out for the last 8 years. The article you shared is a beautiful explanation of what “is required” and also the possibility for us all when we dare go beyond the traditional way of searching for purpose. It is there already. All we need to do is listen. To be in contact with our souls.
As I have not been so engaged in the outer world, but more searching my own inner and learning how I can live my purpose into the world in co-creation with others, I can only share my experiences that I have learned on my way. I do not really have any examples where businesses have been built from the Soul’s perspective, although I am very sure that they exist. What I do know is that much of what we have set out today in terms of how we “do business” has to be reset in our system. If we run with an old operating system, then the result will not be in the frequency that we would like to create in. This is also what happened to me – a complete de-programming. Over time, of course. It has been painful at times. Lonely for quite some time.
I engaged with Teal for Startups 1,5 years ago in the area of personal development. It was very interesting, but also there I realized that at that time we were mostly talking about a purpose/business as an outside product, something that had to be found. I know that this is changing and I am very happy that the dialogue is about sensing into it. And for my part – I really would like to contribute to the field of sensing – not into it, but into yourself, because it is already there. It is like the child growing in the womb. Sometimes it takes a midwife to help it into the world. That is what people have said about me. You are like a midwife. Releasing the soul into the world of matter. That is what I think will make the difference. When people are ready to release all the old programmings and give birth to their soul into the world of matter, then magic happens. When you create from this space, synchronicity is there. When I am in this space then I am joyous all the time. Laughing. I am playful. I do not really care for the outcome, but am more interested in the play and in the interplay with other co-creators. The result will be there, or it will not. The result is not the point. The play is the game and the whole point. Nothing more.
I have always been a very rational person (and sensitive). My sensitivity has been a burden to me in a rational world. To learn to be your sensitive self and at the same not get lost in your feelings. That takes practice. I believe that I just this week was going through a big “test”; someone might even say it was an initiation.
I gave myself the right to step out of the game when there was no joy. Which is not so strange. The initiation was about that I could say – YES I am willing to engage full-heartedly – even if at a point in the future I have to step back, because the creation is no longer me or my creation (my joy). To always listen to what is joyous rather than what is expected has for me been a big step to take.
Thank you for inviting me to explore this further in me and in others. This is very dear to me and I welcome all initiative and action to release more people into their joyous, soulful expression! If there is anything I can do to contribute in this field further, just let me know….
Chris Clark
Music to my ears. 🙂
Peter Oliver-Krueger
A working theory of mine comes from the source Spiral Dynamics of Claire Graves. I summarize it as “You can’t be Green unless you’re Orange. Green without Orange is just another type of Blue.”
That is to say that groups must first understand the use of data, i.e. analysis of trends that are larger than the collective brain power of any Blue group. You must let the science tell you if you are or are not on the right path.
For example, your mission may be to save the environment, but if you buy a car that markets to environmentalists but statistically isn’t at the top of emissions standards, you only think you’re living mission. Or, is your vote going to the politician who says they support environmental change but votes “no” because the bill is not “environmentally conscious enough,” thereby preventing any change, or the one whose voting record says that they’ve had the greatest impact on environmental standards?
Sometimes the data tells a different picture from our “intuition”. Individuals must be able to trust the data, and unite around the science of improving the data, to ever hope to unite around an evolutionary purpose.
Non-profits following Lean Startup techniques are a great example of this way of thinking.
Dick Baker
I like the question, which I read as implying that purpose is discovered, inherent as Marie says, and articulated, rather than created (and articulated). Discovering this personally is challenging if now a well-trodden path. Truly discovering a collective purpose is, I think, more challenging. Is the “Who” the system, looking at itself? If so, does the question of “who” still remain? Who is the system? And is it not in movement all the time? And yet there is a future calling…
Featured Image/graphic link added by Enlivening Edge Magazine.
This is a really interesting discussion. Something to perhaps add into this is a reflection on the writing of Harrison Owen (originator of Open Space Technology). Harrison talks about the natural principles of self-organisation and how this will emerge out of disorder via the gravitational pull of a shared “nexus of caring” – a shared common purpose where people find a shared sense of passion and responsibility. (I paraphrase now) This nexus of caring is analogous to the strange attractor of chaos and complexity theory – these strange attractors draw together disparate elements of the “chaotic stew” into new and coherent alignment. This is the beginning of a new order which is better able to cope with the environment. This is the reality of nature, and appears intrinsically linked to scientific/theoretical understanding of evolution.