Learning insights
When I heard the word “systemic” for the first time 25 years ago, I politely asked the seminar leader whether the “at” had been forgotten: "systematic"? - No joke!
Today, for me, "systemic" is more than just a name for a specific counseling qualification. Thanks to wonderful mentors who have opened up a world of connections and interconnectedness, mutual learning processes and much more, I am gradually becoming more systemic (German: "systemischer")[1] in my thinking, feeling and acting.
This path is fascinating and influences the way I work with my clients; how we ask questions, aim in chosen directions, seek solutions and design the next steps.
[1] The term "systemischer" was coined by Insa Sparrer and Matthias Varga von Kibéd,
see SyStemischer - 1/2012, 6-15.
If you are interested in this apporach I find so valuable I invite you to explore my short posts below.
In recent years, I have written and published several detailed articles in the context of coaching and organisational consulting.
Facing complexity - Part 1 “Forming categories”
Facing complexity - Part 2 “Sorting things”
Team coaching - a guided start
How coaching supports change, acceptance and differentiation
Understanding progress differently
More syntactic counselling - a practical example written together with Mag. Brigitta Hager
Understanding life
Fritjof Capra and Daniel Christian Wahl are having a fascinating conversation in 2023. I am tempted to refresh my knowledge of cell biology beforehand: The function of the cell membrane is usually described as “demarcation of the cell from the environment”. At the same time, you can read about at least seven different protein types (types!). These proteins open the cell to ions, molecules etc., which move in and out of the cell or connect it to other cells. Anyone who sees a schematic picture of a cell membrane with all these “tubules” would hardly call it “demarcation”.
Back to the interview with Fritjof Capra and Daniel Christian Wahl
Fritjof Capra: Regeneration is the essential process of life. When you just look at the single cell to take the simplest example of a living organism then you observe that the cell is a network of processes - right technically known as autopoiesis. [...] When you ask what do this processes do, what is it all about? It is all about the cell regenerating itself, regenerating, replacing, renewing every component. The cellular network does that itself. So it is self-organizing. That is the essential activity of life. If you want to be more philosophical you can also say: that is the meaning of life or it is the purpose of life. But whatever terms you use you realize that when regeneration stops life stops. It is really the very essence of life.
Daniel C. Wahl: You get it at the level of organs as well where the cells within a given organ also replace themselves [...] We are not really the same person that we were six years ago and we have regenerated ourselves multiple times since then.
Fritjof Capra: Yes and no. We are not really the same person but in another sense we are because the identity does not depend on the actual material structures which are renewed and regenerated all the time. The identity really is the pattern of relationships that defines a living being. It is the relationships within ourselves and the relationships to our environment. [...] If you had asked me at the beginning to introduce myself I could have said you know, I am a scientist and an author, I could have said I am a philosopher but I could have also said I am a father or I am a tennis player or I am a Jazz fan. All of that describes me and it is all a description in terms of relationships to other living beings, relationships to the environment and also of course historical relationships and genetic relationships to our ancestry. That really is what the identity of al living being is. [...] And this was also a central message of Gregory Bateson, [...] that the language of nature is a language of relationships and that understanding life means understanding relationships.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=MiUGKfJV5E0 17.03.2023 -
What learning is actually about
I had been travelling again, this time by myself on remote islands in my beloved Scotland. Not everything went as I would have hoped and yet I returned home so incredibly rewarded, rich in:
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generous, mostly unplanned encounters and conversations with people, with mutual trust, openness and acceptance,
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views over lonely, stormy cliffs out to the powerful sea, in changing winds and moody weather
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insights into individual and cultural peculiarities that showed me what I assume to be "the way things are" is not the same everywhere and for everyone,
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experiences of being at home with myself, with my potential, my needs and my limits
My astonishing insight from all of this was “I am 54 years old and have no idea what life is!” What I have experienced is amazing; incredibly beautiful, incredibly different and sometimes incredibly challenging. How can someone learn so much in two weeks? How is it possible that so much has “shifted” in my thinking and perception in two weeks, all of which has to find a new place inside me and my life?
At home, I came across this perfect and relevant quote from Nora Bateson in the foreword to the 2023 edition of Gregory Bateson's book "A Sacred Unity - Further Steps To An Ecology Of Mind";
"There's a necessary muddle. What I read is that it's important to try a description, change a description, perceive something from one direction, move, perceive it from another - we describe it. So that what you get is not necessarily clarity, but you get the possibility of a perception that can shift. And that perception, which is able to shift, is not necessarily going to see the world more clearly, but it will be able to dance with a world-in-motion." xvi
Many instead of one
Trees are often described as wonderful teachers. I recently discovered a smallish tree with hundreds of cones underneath it. Why is the tree doing this? Surely no more than two or three offspring could thrive in this place. Is this strategy driven by the fear that too many food-loving creatures could destroy the seeds? Or is it a matter of an exaggerated sense of prestige, that thanks to large-scale distribution via “middlemen” such as birds, squirrels etc., its gene pool could spread to as many places as possible?
It took me some time to realize how one-dimensional this thinking was. Who says that cones and their seeds are only good for reproduction? Mice, ants, fungi, bacteria and a multitude of insects also feed on the cones and seeds, and decompose them ... until they become part of the living soil from which the tree and everything around it obtain nutrients. In a healthy ecosystem there is continuous give and take on many levels. Life is always about recognizing our dependency and simultaneously contributing in a multitude of ways. A dense network of interactions implies new life stages and circumstances and enables unexpected vitality.
For me and my coachees, the question often arises: "What is mine: my contribution, my special ability, what exactly is on the agenda for my next professional step, what makes sense, what suits me ...?" This is accompanied by the concern that there is “the” opportunity to seize, “the” vocation to recognize, “the” right track, training, application, strategy ... to choose.
I am still pondering the tree and its many cones. Some things have already emerged for me:
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At first glance, observations usually only “reveal” what I already suspect and lead to short-sighted conclusions. By patiently observing specific, often unspectacular, processes and involving as many participants as possible, it is possible to recognize more of the whole. The essential "things" happen in-between.
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Depending on the stage of my life and the challenges into which I am woven with other people and the world around me, there are always new opportunities for me to contribute and to be supported. It's worth being curious and keeping my eyes open. How I may contribute or be supported will change over time and in different contexts.
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I am not sure whether we have understood the biblical parable of the sower (Mt 13:3-8) so far. Perhaps it is not that only a fraction of the grain sown bears fruit, but about trust in life, which sows generously because it knows many ways to serve life.
No winning "against" ...
In 2015, I spent a few days in Iceland - a dream I had cherished since childhood came true! Like a preface to my explorations, a book with magnificent aerial photographs and texts by Gudmundir Andrei Thorsson awaited me on the living room table of my host in Reykjavik. It opened my eyes to a country in which the incredible power of nature - characterized by geological fault lines, volcanoes, the stormy Arctic Ocean, the midnight sun, wind, weather and wild creatures large and small - assigns man his place. Man is allowed to be here if he fits into the larger system. In this seemingly secluded land; interactions are easier to recognize, even when man turns against his fellow nature. I was incredibly impressed by this country and the people I met there. I left with a quiet regret that I am probably not strong enough to live there long-term.
Yesterday some people had an online conversation about what it might mean to live in a way that has a future. I talked about my impressions of Iceland. Julia Macintosh listened attentively and finally made a strikingly spot-on observation: possibly “becoming stronger” could mean being able to live in more co-existence.
In the evening, I followed the talks at the Bateson Anniversaries event on Ecology & Multiple Description and once again I was given a piece of the puzzle - something I have often heard and yet only now understood. Rex Weyler, following the footsteps of Gregory Bateson: “There are no sharp boundaries, not between the smallest units of matter, not between people, not in co-nature, not between people and co-nature. We are deeply and indissolubly intertwined. And even if we draw boundaries, every boundary is arbitrary and does not represent anything. It is therefore an illusion to believe that we can 'win against' anyone or anything, be it against forces of nature or climate change, be it political or warring parties, be it in the battle for opinion leadership or the right path between those who vehemently advocate capitalist exploitation or decidedly ecological course-setting ... There is no 'winning against'." A first step towards acknowledging our interdependence would be using appropriate language.
Those who take the burning questions of our time to heart usually ask themselves, shaking their heads: “Where do I start?”. Yesterday, more than ever, I learned the importance of practising life skills and introducing a language of co-existence that does not draw false boundaries around anything or anyone. It is a radical commitment to the world and opens up a new understanding of strength - on both a small and large scale.
Teams need care
Do you have a potted plant in your home or office? How do you water it: once when you pot it up and then never again? Hardly.
The nature of living systems is such that, in addition to helping them get off to a good start they need to be constantly nourished, tended, supported, danced-with. Even seemingly unnecessary repetitions are part of this and are by no means an expression of a lack of goal orientation and professionalism. Matthias Varga von Kibéd points out: “Most of us brush our teeth every day, but have never doubted that this makes sense, even though it requires daily repetition."
The Greek Heraclitus would probably even doubt that we brush the same teeth twice. He is right when we consider how much is changing, not only among those involved but also around them, which challenges us to move constantly and readjust to the new situation. As a result, teams do not “function” according to the building block principle: place one on top of the other and achieve a stable height and width with calculable progression.
When there is going too much , leaders may ask themselves whether their efforts make sense: What and who can be built on? What stays the same and who remains in my team? The answer does not lie in increased control reactions. Rather, the decisive factor is the culture of interaction between those involved in alignment with the shared mission, which can be formative and strengthening in the long term if properly nurtured.
Navigating unknown waters
In a phase of great self-confidence, I signed up for sailing training. As an absolute sea novice, I am currently studying theory for the "International Coastal Certificate 1", the licence to be allowed to sail within 3 nautical miles (5,5 km) of the coast. I am reviewing the documents and marvelling at the chapter "Navigation": The geographic North Pole does not coincide with the magnetic North Pole: ok, I have heard that before, but it's never been relevant to me. I've now learned that not only is this difference responsible for several degrees of variation in the course to be set, but it also moves from year to year as our iron-bearing earth centre "sloshes around".
Then all kinds of navaids play with colours and shapes during the day and at night flash, blink and sparkle at certain intervals and colours, each with a specific meaning - because orientation is precious, especially when it is dark or there is no land in sight. I must not forget the winds that may be blowing from the Sahara and forming long, high-wave systems. Then there are clouds of various shapes, and wind directions that make my life as a sailor easier, harder or even dangerous.
I'm amazed at this complexity in a field of knowledge that is many thousands of years old. People all over the world have learned and passed on their experiences in dealing with wind, waves and much more over generations. At sea, the forces of nature are revealed in all their dynamism. Everything is in motion, everything affecting everything else, and the person with his/her* boat and his/her* technology sits somewhere in the middle as a guest, playing along, trying to get closer to his/her* goal.
What provides support and orientation amid this interaction of so many different significant systems and modes of action?
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Mindful, deeper perception of those involved in this interaction: How do they interact? What amplifies, what reduces, and what provokes something completely new? What rhythm does it show?
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Humility about one's role: We are just one player among many - and yet it makes a difference. Maybe not for the great interaction, but for ourselves. What is categorically beyond our capacity? What can and do we want to contribute, and with what do we put our boat aground?
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Assurance of own proven resources: How can we meaningfully integrate them into this interaction? How might we use our resources differently in this new context we are currently encountering?
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Courage to take the next step, because despite all the planning and preparation, everything can play out very differently than we expected.
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Faicing the wind, because not all steps have to be taken by us, and the right wind can give us wings.
"Participation is not a choice"
Margaret Wheatley
“Participation is not a choice,” says Margaret Wheatley, American writer and management consultant.* Before any discussion about who should be involved in what, there is already a fundamental connection. Of course, viewed from above, these are individuals, who at first seem to be distinguishable from one another, detachable and perhaps even interchangeable. If you look deeper - a little deeper still - you can hardly distinguish who/what begins and ends where and who enables or receives what.
If I am asked why I do what I do as a process facilitator - opening up spaces for communication in which the participants can contribute their perceptions and perspectives, their experiences and their skills, with a shared orientation - I can give several answers:
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for efficiency-oriented people: It is a question of focusing on resources, obtaining and integrating the existing skills of those involved in a focused manner. As a organisation, you lose out if you ignore them.
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for motivation-oriented: The sooner you invite your employees to participate, the greater the likelihood that they will work with energy and passion to achieve the shared goal.
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for value-oriented people: Organisations create added value for society, especially when people find meaning and the opportunity to develop their skills and ideas.
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for knowledge-oriented people: the diversity of perspectives and many years of experience that your employees have exceed far that of the small panel of experts who think they already know everything.
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for me: only if we share what we experience in this world in terms of mutually dependent complexity will we be able to embark on learning paths and develop solutions that have a future for life on Earth.
My stone
How can we understand what makes something exactly that something? Let's take this stone, that was lying on my shelf for ten years. What makes this stone special?
One way to find out is to measure and weigh the stone: According to DIN 4022, we are dealing with a stone because it is over 63 mm in size. We can cut the stone and divide it into smaller and smaller pieces. Minerals can be determined in their different proportions. We can process it into cement and use it to make bricks. Do we now have a better understanding of what makes this stone? Hans-Peter Dürr would say that we can “grasp” it because we can manipulate it, i.e. modify it with our hands according to our will. However, we only have parts in front of us that hardly have anything in common with the stone.
Another way to understand is to look at the stone and find out how it is connected to others. I chose it - or it chose me - on an evening walk along the shores of Scapa Flow. The Orcadian wind whistled around my ears, as I wandered along the low-tide stony shoreline. Some distance away, I heard seals calling. Perhaps this is where James Cook just a few hundred meters away in Stromness Bay stretched his legs in 1780 before setting off with his crew to sail around the world. How many generations of microorganisms, larger creatures and sediments, how many tectonic shifts and overlays must it have taken for the rock to lie compacted like this, layer by layer? How many centuries might it have taken for the stone to be detached from a rock in the twice-daily change of the tides under the influence of the gravity of the sun and moon and lie before me as round as it is today?
What difference does it make to understand in the first or second way? “Oh, you mean: Everything is relative!” summarizes Mr Geiger during the seminar. And I can only agree with him. Yes, that's exactly what I wanted to pass on, following in the footsteps of Albert Einstein, Franz Rosenzweig, Martin Buber, David Bohm, Gregory and Nora Bateson, Hans-Peter Dürr ...: Everything is relative, everything is in relation. And it has consequences for the way we perceive, think and act.
Instability means maximum sensitivity
“Have you ever thought about why we walk on two legs and not three? Yes, if I had three legs, I would be pretty stable. But then all this thing we call life would be over. [...] If you want to be alive, you have to have instability and therefore also insecurity. This feeling is not always good, but it is very fruitful.” [1]
To develop such a passion for instability, as expressed by the German physicist and essayist Hans-Peter Dürr (*1929 † 2014), requires a lifetime of experimentation - or sufficient knowledge of quantum physics. What is meant is a form of balancing, a continuous, dynamic adjustment of the extremes, that considers the variety of environmental factors - without ever claiming to have this process completely under control. In contrast, an everyday concept of balance is geared towards stability, coupled with the idea that the ideal point should be found as often as possible or in the long term, in which everything comes to a centre and static equilibrium.
It is up to each individual to decide whether their orientation is more geared towards sensitive instability or a persistent striving for the immovable absolute. Accordingly, changes, limitations and leeway are classified as an impulse for learning or as a threat to what is already familiar, and the assessment of risk factors, the formulation of success criteria and the steps geared towards them are shaped accordingly.
Ultimately, it is a decision as to how I want to view the world and my contribution to it:
“Well, I stand on two legs ... [saying alternately to each other] 'if you fall, I go forward' and 'if you fall, I go forward' - and now I can walk. Two unstable, highly sensitive systems, if they cooperate [...] then there is a dynamic process, a dynamic stabilization that allows me not to fall and to run hundreds of kilometres. Now we have the foundations of the living."[1]
[1] Hans-Peter Dürr, "Das Pendel", Umwelttage Basel Juni 2009. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xQwigIn05Q