[Oe List ...] the ICA, the Order, and the Movement

[James Wiegel]

Jim Wiegel here.  We should award David the "clumsy fingers sparking a conversation award for December"
   
  I appreciated the response, a week ago for the article on "Towards a New Otherworldliness"  had a great time reading, and am now so old I did not cough or choke on all the "he's" and "him's".  It got me thinking on what is going on -- was in the midst of designing and facilitating a strategic planning session for the staff of an arts college -- they had recommeneded a book, Daniel Pink, A Whole New Mind, which suggests that the reality of MBA's, and law degrees in the last several decades will be replaced in the next few by the dominance of the masters of fine arts as we move towards a creative economy and the MFA works at the capacity for design.
   
  Then, they sent me an article from a recent Chronicle for Higher Education by Daniel Yankelovich on trends in higher education and one of the trends he mentioned had to do with the need of validating other modes of knowing than scientific rationality and how that is what is behind the struggle with "fundamentalism" more than religion per se -- almost like saying how do we say, in our culture, it is ok for there to be an "other world". . . 
   
  Where I struggle, is, like there is a 20 year gap in consciousness in a way . . . there is the way long ago when JWM was alive, Pat Scott called it the "camelot" period, there was the less long ago time of ICA and there has been a long time of experience running on separate tracks that gets skipped over -- 
   
  I kind of ride 2 horses, I have that memory, I still work for ICA (which has been variously characterized as "not having the initiative to go out like so many others and start my own business" and "carrying on a 40 year legacy. . ."  So, in the context of "the ICA, the Order, and the Movement"  I wonder, what is the meaning of the past 20 years?

David Dunn <ddunn at ica-usa.org> wrote:
  Hello colleagues,

The exchange that began with Betsy's email to me--mistakenly sent to the
listserv--that was picked up by Marilyn, Janice and Bill, needs
clarification. Betsy and I really were writing in a privileged business
context and her note was a gentle collegial reminder sent mistakenly to the
list.

A couple of reflections about having a new executive leader.

Betsy came to ICA from two decades working in the Russian-speaking
world--all cultures that have multiple levels of familiarity. More than most
people, Betsy is willing and able to be related to at more than one level.
As we get acquainted, we're trying out the various levels of familiarity
that are most comfortable and appropriate in the several contexts where we
meet.

We do bring to Betsy, as Marilyn notes, an almost too complex culture. Our
heritage is like Starbuck's Chantico 'drinking chocolate'--it's so thick and
rich I can only stand one cup a year, and I've got to buy an additional
decaf latte as a 'chaser.' I won't try following that metaphor anywhere.

A couple of reflections about executive leadership in a symbol-oriented
culture.

During our 30+ year history, ICA has been long on story and symbol--personal
transformation, community and organizational change--and short on executive
leadership. Wouldn't you say that it's the arrival of an executive that
signals the a founding generation's decision to ensure the future viability
of their creation. 

Notice, by the way, where executive authority shows up on the corporate
process triangle. It's the meaning-giving dynamic of the ordering dynamic
(corporate operations), of the ordering dynamic (corporate organization), of
the corporate process. It would be interesting to plot where JWM's various
roles show up on this triangle and where the imbalances reside that Betsy
needs our encouragement in addressing. I'll send a link to a corporate
process triangle later in the day.

Do you remember the 'Bene Gesserit,' the order of women religious in Frank
Herbert's DUNE novels? They are a complex, mixed bag of good and evil, but
at its heart, this sisterhood is portrayed as a strategy for carrying memory
from one generation to another.

Here's a question that has to do with the ICA, the Order, and the future
leadership of both: Is the role of the Order Ecumenical to preserve the
memory of the spirit movement in a form pertinent and useful to the ICA in
perpetuity? From the other direction: Will the unique imaginal heritage of
the ICA be lost without some continuing relationship with people who are
self-conscious guardians of the particular legacy that we call 'the
movement'? How will this memory be carried to a third and fourth generation?

Thank you Betsy, Marilyn, Janice, Bill and others for an excuse to reflect.

David

---
David Dunn
Director of Publishing
Institute of Cultural Affairs
ddunn at ica-usa.org






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Ol' Jim Wiegel
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Every language is an old-growth forest of the mind, a watershed of thought, an ecosystem of spiritual possibilities.  Wade Davis
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