GOPlanet!

A call to the promise of our gl obal civilization

Adventures in social architecture
And the story of tomorrow
JIM CHANNON

1
 NETWORK STRATEGY
This is a publish on demand book that costs $18 to produce … and a small amount to pay
those who make this all happen. Got to <jimchannon.com> To order. You are encouraged
to place a clip of this information on the web so it may be enjoyed by your network. That
means specifically excerpt a small section that represents your groups interests and e-mail
it to your list of colleagues. Then site the website they can go to so they can order the book
and other relevant CD’s for themselves.

The content, the strategic designs, the sketch art, the layout, the photo’s, the typeface
selection, the web design were accomplished by Jim Channon. Distinguished exceptions
include the cover art and photo combination by SUNstar and the photo on this page by Jill
Fineberg. The webmastering on associated sites is by Frank Catanzaro of Arcturus
(frank@arcturus,org) and Anthony Colombo of (Kohalavillageproductions.Com) Websites
that amplify this work and specify other downloading materials are organized for you at
<jimchannon.com>. There are seven websites in total.

2
 PREFACE
●●●

The story of tomorrow …

begins with the story of today.

What if I told you that the sky opened up and the earth shook for a
full minute. And during that long moment a voice came clear through
the void. The voice said,

“well done my friends … everyone of you … You have brought a

human adventure of sixty thousand years to a successful and
auspicious moment in time. You have created a civilization of all races
upon this planet. You have connected yourselves in all the
fundamental ways needed to build a fully realized global humanity.
Welcome to your world … think of it as one community now… for in
all the important ways you are now awake to your planetary

3
connection and to your own sovereign place at this point in history
which will become known as the time of GLOBAL CIVILIZATION.”

Well … what would your first question be? Would you trust the
statement? Do you believe that we could actually qualify at this
point in time as an operationally functioning global civilization?
Really! What more will it take for that statement to be true for you?

Lets say II was reporting to you about another planet in the universe
and I said … On this planet all the known territories have been
explored and settled … six billion people everywhere are in daily
contact … they are connected at the rate of forty billion telephone
conversations and almost ten billion written e-mails daily … where
vehicles of all sorts speed about and carry people and goods on
roads, airways, and sealanes everywhere with a common set of rules
for operating … where a global internet library makes information
and services available to anyone in a split second at the touch of a
finger … where people are informed within a day if one of their
planetary champions is lost and then they collectively morn that
loss… where people in sixty-five global cities can react in an
organized way to the pre-emptive attack of one national group upon
the other … where the principle industry is travel followed closely
by self-improvement … where any kind music is available at concert
fidelity and onboard any human who wants to carry it around in their
pocket wherever they go … where the stars of film and sport are
watched and worshipped across all ethnic and political boundaries
… where a photo taken from their nearby moon becomes a beloved
portrait of their home in the universe ... where a United Nations
Assembly reveals an agreed upon set of goals to eliminate the
dangers and threats to the collective well-being of every part of the
world and way more than half of the people all over the earth believe
it should be acted upon even if it goes against their national best
interests … where armies now typically join together as teams to
settle and rebuild troubled cultures … where communities of

4
interest organize themselves every minute across the entire planet
…where prize winners for great contributions are globally
recognized … and where people can experience many layers of their
world everyday on radio and television ... with language choices
added … and … well … is that enough?

Can you see the extent of our real global interworking? Maybe you
want to read the list again? We are functioning at something like
thirty years ahead of our ability to process and report on the real
qualities of our success.

Now, … for another question. If you ask if all the accomplishments

above are the result of governments, what do you discover? What
you discover is that these powerful realities were created by all of
us. Governments were there too … but it is people like you and
your ancestors who have built this world into the global commu nity
that it now is. It has taken thousands of years. But, for the sake
of all their efforts can you take a moment and realize that for better
or worse we have succeeded! We have succeeded. Fundamentally
we have succeeded!

Now take a bow. And then thank your friends when you see them. I
know it will be a bit of a paradigm shift at first but this is a really
critical thing to do. Remember your ancestral line … thank them.
Further it is critical that you realize that it is still up to “everyone”
of us, to settle this world in the paradise that is possible. It should
take about a hundred years to bring the garden back and create the
global villages filled with the sacred play of the most vibrant kind …
that is if we all share a piece of the load and remember the privilege
of such a task.

What would you then say if the voice came back and said,

5
“ the answer to every serious challenge that faces you is already in
practice on earth albeit in a small way … now … today!”
Would you doubt that? Then you should read this book and be
reassured. For the author has been gathering this data for twenty-
five years and has documented many interesting approaches to pass
on to you. That doesn’t mean you can’t improve upon them, but it
does mean that you should pick several of your favorite ideas and
then get in the game. If we are all at it … well, maybe we could get
there in half the time. That would be nice for our children. If you
think

you need to wait for the news media to find out that what I am telling
you is true. You will be just another part of the problem.

Then, what if I said that the voice returned once more and offered ,

“all the major institutions that are needed to do the big works are
already functioning in compatible fields of endeavor.”
Would you be skeptical? Or would you take a gander at the
suggestions included in this book for just such a set of elegant
shifts that will propel us into a powerful surge for a fully vibrant
humanity living with a fully creative natural world that reaches into
our galaxy with both its physical and meta-physical abilities.
This realization of our current capacity and future potential is great
news and worth celebrating in any way you wish.

Sound like an idea you might sit with until you get the significance of
what the voice has said? Or you could see your part in this next
great surge of humanity? You undoubtedly have your own special
role to play. You may want to reach your senior years with a really
deep sense of contribution. But, If you are sure you don’t … well

6
give this book to someone else. Nothin dumber than a book on a
shelf.

But whether you decide to serve this planet in some way of your own
choosing or not. Be really sure that the greatest possible way for
you to contribute to its steady demise is to gather with your friends
and whine about those who have all the power but aren’t doing it the
way it should be done. The truth is that serving the future of our
planet is a collective effort and always has been. Everyone does
their part …. Right where they are.

And, I have the remarkable privilege of reminding you that we have

arrived at a point where we can move on to a higher plane. The very
grand struggle of settling the unknown frontiers is over. The world
is mostly connected and mostly working. Not perfectly … but the
hard work of discovering who we are, what we value, and how we
organize our cooperation is over. We have survived and are living
together on the most fundamental dimensions as one slightly fragile
but functioning human race. The level of common interest and
cooperation that exists now among people absolutely overwhelms
the much-touted smaller degrees of separation that remain. Those
are just the stories we hear about most. These are the songs of the
status woe! Which is a particularly regrettable but expected
tendency to have after climbing out of the survival mode for sixty
thousand years. Imagine if all the ancestors that ever existed were
watching now and were waiting to see if you had noticed what has
really been accomplished after all these millennia. Light a candle
for them … they were all part of the great work.

Is our current philosophy of living a philosophy of total agreement?

Absolutely not! But, isn’t that a healthy sign of a more mature
society? You think maybe an ordinary and always peaceful
existence would be more special? Life in even the closest of
families is a work in process. Every drama is a dry run for a better

7
world. Little growth occurs without struggles of sorts.

But enough stability has occured to stand up and take notice.

Every healthy psyche also needs a pat on the back occasionally so
this is a great opportunity to do that. It is now possible to leave the
domain of survival of the fittest and create a situation of thriving
selfless servers. People building a great new world together would
be loath to consume themselves with whining or fighting. One
hundred and sixty million people were killed last century because we
didn’t have enough global openness and exchange to overcome our
fears of unknown adversaries. The secret here is that it is also time
as sovereign citizens of the planet to repurpose more of the
institutions that keep getting us into trouble. They serve at our
collective and sovereign pleasure …. in case you forgot.

BUT DON’T MISS THE BIG IDEA HERE … WE QUALIFY AS A

GLOBAL CIVILIZATION AND WE OUGHT TO RECOGNIZE THAT
AS AN AUSPICIOUS LANDMARK IN THE HUMAN JOURNEY. IT
IS A BIG DEAL … AND IT PORTENDS MUCH FOR OUR FUTURE
POTENTIAL AS A SPECIES … DON’T GET LOST IN THE GOSSIP
OF THE DAY! FURTHER AS A PLANETARY PEOPLE WE ARE IN
CONTACT AND CAN NOW COLLECTIV ELY GROW OUR LARGER
INSTITUTIONS TO A NEW AND HIGHER PURPOSE … AT A
GLOBAL LEV EL WITH ONE SOVERIEGN HUMAN RACE.
FURTHER SINCE THE LEADERS OF MANY OF THE PLANETS
MOST INFLUENTIAL ORANIZATIONS AND OTHER GREAT
GLOBAL THINKERS HAVE ALREADY REGISTERED THEIR
IDEALS AND VISIONS ON THAT GRAND NEW ADVENTURE.
THESE POSITIVE VISION S OF THE FUTURE HAVE BEEN
ASSEMBLED IN THIS BOOKAND SHAPED INTO A ROUGH BUT
AND USEFULLY COMPREHENSIVE STRATEGY THAT IS NOW
AVAILABLE FOR YOUR REVIEW AND ACTION. THERE ARE
REALLY GOOD SOLUTIONS AND NEW SOCIAL INVENTIONS TO
RE PLACE MOST ALL OF THE PROBLEMS AND THE

8
CHALLENGES THAT FACE US … AND THERE ARE
ORGANIZATIONS WHO WITH A REASONABLE SHIFT IN THEIR
APPROACH COULD DO THE JOB WITH EASE. YOUR WORK IS
TO PASS THIS IDEA ON IN AS MANY EXCITING ART FORMS AS
YOU CAN CREATE. OUR FUTURE IS IN THE HANDS OF THE
MOST INFORMED GLOBAL HUMANITY EVER … AND THAT
INCLUDES YOU!

The areas of conflict that remain will be useful to make the creative
future we face full of creative fire and earnest art. The awful
weapons of our struggle to this point can be carefully laid aside and
will disappear when we be gin the next great work of settling
ourselves inside the miracle that is this planet … our inheritance of
twelve thousands years more or less. Our new gifts of creation can
walk upon on the terrible din of our past struggles and quietly turn
them into new soil.

The challenge for us all will be to show up in our fullest state of

possibility and restore our precious planet to its full and vibrant
potential. So the work is not over … it has just begun its more
soulful journey. When we feel our global sovereignty as a human
race we can then repurpose our institutions to the new work. That
is now within our grasp.

“How could this be”? you say! “This is not what I read in the
news!” Well, yes the people who normally tell us about the world do
say it is a dangerous place! Just remember that has been their job
for a long time. Their focus has been incidental not big picture.
And, yes, nations say we must arm and protect ourselves from
terrible possibilities. Yes, and that has been their job for centuries
as well. The hat maker will also tell you that your hat is terribly out
of style. He wants your attention and your money. See what I
mean?

9
The very exciting news is that when you step back and really look
around … things look like a great global civilization is present and
that it has been successfully gathering its capacity to work together
for centuries. Now it is wrapped in connection. What if you knew
for sure that all that work over time has actually produced results!
This book is filled with as many omens of our triumph as one man can
possible muster without dragging you into the mire of another
ponderous task. It is a story of our triumph and our promise for
the next hundred years.

10
 FORWARD

❆❆❆❆

View the new maps of our real day-to-day realities and get a flavor
of your new world. View the lists of our real potential and see the
exciting options that are ahead. You may have to fill in some of the
blanks with your own personal experience. Its just that you will be
relieved from the great blight of the hardening of the categories
and a ton of sacred cows that have been used for centuries to make
some people and institutions more important in your eyes. They are
power plays from the past and they are not our potential. Now for a
change you will have enough evidence, I hope, to see how
powerfully civilized we already are. The world is only as dangerous
as we have made it with our stories of the status woe. We can now
choose to believe in the promise of the miracle that we are as both a
creative planet and a creative civilization of beings. If we stay in the

11
vision we can not easily be tricked into the fear based reality that
has consumed us. When writing this work I noticed that there were
no real sources of support for this kind of proactive research.
Vision is the most central tool in any productive organization. But
who will invest in the world we want? There are however millions of
people and trillions of dollars spent on the world we are afraid may
come.

Furthermore the general paranoia that comes when a society makes

its way through the steps of survival leave us suspicious and on
guard. Our history as a people has been closer to a survival mode
than any other. But, at some point when the conquest and plunder
come face to face with an informed and connected civilization …
things are at a shift point. Can we now accept that we have
arrived, are connected, know what each other is up to, and we can
tell the many institutional watch dogs to stop barking, lie down, and
join the new game?

Strangely the old guard has been incredibly selfless in their

willingness to fortify our stumbling ideas with boundaries and armies
and often with their lives. Ironically so many instruments of war
have actually been the very tools that now will allow us to all remain
connected and make our moves on a thing we might call paradise.
How can we tell the old guard and their defense industries that the
basic dreams of all peoples modern and ancient are close enough
together now to begin the real work on the garden and the sacred
play that can occur there when we just remember the potential that
is before us all! The game we are born into is as precious a gift as
one could give a conscious group of beings. There is so much more
room to play that new game.

The actual state of affairs on planet earth is actually unbelievably

settled, connected, and full of the sharing of the necessities of life
on a global scale. People are investing in there own awakening at

12
record levels. New media has made millions of new insights available
on a moments notice. The details of our collective success are
mostly unreported but none-the-less awe inspiring. We now have
the intelligence to honor the creative capacity of nature and build
the world of our dreams. You just need to consult a perspective
that has been blurred by our techno-frenzy and a rapid global
awakening. We are so used to being in a survival mode that we have
only been attending to the scary parts of change and have not
accounted for what has been working. This age old historic
tendency to focus on problems first has left us troubled and fear-
based.

Never have we been so sure of what we don’t want anymore. We are

disgusted with blatant misuse of power by institutions that have
refused to reinvent themselves. That is always the first sign that a
major leap is afoot! And, with the power of positive visioning and
some strategic design shifts we can begin a collective process of
social architecture that will bring us home to a vibrant new planet
with a playful and content family of beings.

I am certain of it. I have been professionally recording the highest

ideals of leaders in our world for 25 years. These ;eaders were from
groups in organizations like ten of the world’s largest 100
corporations, leaders in world governments, and individual leaders
like Ted Turner of CNN. They have never refused to answer the
questions about their higher purpose and the visionary goals
needed to pursue those ideals. When you read their visionary ideas
for our world, our environment, our great service organizations, and
every human standing, you will recognize that the real world awaits.

I ask you to reflect at the beginning of the last century people

were fined for passing horses in their new electric buggies. They
thought manned flight was lunacy and going to the moon blasphemy.
We are light years beyond that place. It doesn’t mean we don’t have

13
some real work to do on the environment, but the ideas and agencies
are nearly in position to do the job.

It doesn’t really matter if you believe the final transformation is

nearly here or that the ice age has already started. The Earth and
its people have always had extreme warnings and prophetic ranting
especially after a new millennium starts.
These notions are usually presented in ways where we find that we
can’t really do much about them anyway. What we can do however
is all raise our sights on what is possible.

There are few exceptions in all of history to deny that those who
amounted to anything kept their eyes on the high ground and
intended that it become reality. When and if we can all learn to do
that then the collective power of our will and our work can bring
these intentions to life.

In this book you will see in the simplest form possible the best ideas
that have been collected from leaders of major enterprises and some
of the worlds best independent thinkers and visionaries. Further…
these ideas have been framed as positive outcomes. They have also
been sequenced to allow for the most generative ideas to pave the
way for the others. They have been notionally assigned to
organizations that can best accomplish them. They have been
labeled and imaged to take hold in the imagination. They have been
given a position on the spectrum of development to best work
synergistically with each other. They have been set in a world that
is not yet recognized by our media but already exists with great
potential power. The ideas are doable. The means to accomplish
them exists. The organization required is strategically simple and
clear. The only task now is to stimulate the public awareness so that
this grand game in our earth garden can begin in earnest.

Beneath all of our confusion with so much future shock we have not

14
noticed we are firmly standing on the threshold of an unqualified
global success as humans!
Now we can awake to the supreme joy of working together to harvest
the rewards of a life beyond strife and labor. Awaken to your
rewards as a long line of successful humanity and as a planet! We
are on our way!

Goplanet!
Jim Channon

GOPlanet!
Adventures in Social Architecture
And the promise for our new global civilization

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface
Our world is a new civilization with capacities that exceed
our current concept of how she should be developed.

Forward
The important features of this book are reviewed to aim the reader
at how to best do this book and the companion websites

WE ARE ONE PLANET NOW

15
 SOCIAL CARTOGRAPHY CONTEXT
Twelve maps of the world that awaken us to a reality of oneness that has not been
fully appreciated and sets the stage for the concepts that follow. These are the
footprints upon which we will build our new future.

SECTION I
THE STATUS WOE NEEDS A REALITY CH ECK

The case for a positive view of our new civilization

The heart of the matter
Global mind change
The ultimate end states
The status woe
Global consciousness or techno-frenzy
Global civilization is here
Its ten paradigm shifts past where you think (new lenses)

SECTION II
LISTENING TO THE PROMISE OF THE VISIONARIES

Campaigns for the Earth

What needs doing … the WBA benchmarks
Project Earthrise
The super-ordinate goal for the year 2100
Three paradigm shifts
Galactic reality

SECTION III

GLOBAL TEAMWORK AND THE ELEGANT SHIFTS

The elegant shifts

The key drivers
The Earth Battalion
The End of the Road
Tipping Points

SECTION IV

THE NEW TOOLKIT

Social Architecture in Action

16
Civilization as a fine art
Creation mythology
Social architecture and the keys to building community
The craft of culture
The practice
Modus operandi
The global Curriculum

SECTION IV

GLOBAL UPRISING
The story of tomorrow

Lets get on with it.

Specific work for business
The elegant shifts and the planetary commons
The global villages
The arts are leading us to a planet of wholeness
How to get organized for action
In this Century

ENDING REMARKS

Acknowledgements

WE ARE ONE PLANET NOW

The Social cartography context

The twelve maps that awaken us to the reality of now.

1. THE CONNECTION We talk to each other 50 billion times day

by phone and 10 billion times on-line. This Earth map shows one
seconds worth of that kind of global connectivity.

17
2. THE MOVEMENT We have all agreed on how to move about
on land, on sea, and in the air. The same as it is in a village.

3. THE KNOWLEDGE BASE We know what we all know. The are

800 million websites (books) in our world wide web library. We
can access them in split seconds anywhere we use a terminal.

4. THE SOCIAL FABRIC We have global champions and heroes.

When ever one excels or dies the global community knows within
hours.

5. THE ACTIVE RESPONSE TO DECISIONS We have global

reactions to ideas. When one nation thought to attack another in
a premeditated way … millions of people in 65 cities
demonstrated in a formal way.

6. TRAVEL AND SELF-IMPROVEMENT ARE THE BIG NEW

INDUSTRIES We want to seek and find new ways of being, a
new range of intelligence, and the best way to experience those
things.

7. THE GLOBAL FUSION We share and carry around our

highest art forms like music, fun, food, and fashion. There is a
large global culture that responds to this common fare.

8. THE CARE AND CONCERN We share a belief that all should

prosper. Sixty-five per cent of all things made are gifted to others.
Its a love economy. And sixty-five per cent of all global citizens
believe that we should follow the United Nations lead in
supporting the poorer peoples on our world.

9. THE SETTLEMENT Our armies now team up to settle

disturbed areas. Combat as we know is being replaced by quick
incursions and multi-national security teams designed to settle
disputes and redistribute the wealth fairly.

10. BORDERLESS COMMUNITIES OF INTEREST We

interpenetrate and overlap in many thousands of ways. Hundreds
of very specific alliances are created everyday. They overlap and
interconnect in a mind-boggling array of special interests.

18
11. GRAND STRATEGY The elegant shifts for the twenty-first
century. Slight shifts in approach by our largest organizations
can immediately resolve our most difficult big problems.

12. GOPLANET But the secret to our full potential lies, as it always
has, in the many actions of each of us to make each day work in a
more and more civilized way.

SECTION I
19
The status woe needs
a reality check
• WE ARE ONE PLANET RIGHT NOW
• THE CASE FOR A POSITIVE OF THINGS
• THE HEART OF THE MATTER
• SOME ULTIMATE END STATES
• GLOBAL MIND CHANGE
• THE STATUS WOE
• GLOBAL CONSCIOUSNESS OR TECHNO-
FRENZY
• GLOBAL CIVILIZATION IS HERE
• ITS TEN PARADIGMS PAST WHERE WE
THINK

20
 goplanet!
When we review the performance of our children the telling
comments have to do with their potential. When we hire
corporate executives we always speak about their
potential. When we buy a piece of land or some stock we
speak of its potential in the future. Why then is it that we
seldom see any reference to our potential as a planet?
Wonder no more. This is that book

21
THE HEART OF THE MATTER
Unfortunately we are no longer a practiced world of dreamers.
Science and technology have blessed us in some very powerful ways
but incremental thinking and too many things to attend to have both
robbed us of our daydreaming time. Our imagination has become
flaccid in comparison to our task-oriented worldview. So, there are
quite a few approaches that must be puzzled through and many lucid
day dreams to have if we are to create a future that we want as a
whole world. Since this is mostly an attitude adjustment, I want to
treat you to some attitude shifting ideas as we begin our journey.
To give you a sample of the most audacious and yet practical
visionary end-states I have collected please allow your soul to
digest the following:

Some ultimate end states

• People will be simply enchanted with the miracle of life itself.

• People will have a felt respect for and participate with the grand
variety and special intelligence of the other life forms here with us.

22
 • People will participate in an extended family concept that nourishes
all kinds of loving relationships without over-producing children.

• People will select, develop, and blend the excellence and awareness
needed to experience life and the fullest expression of it.

• People will craft their architectural settings to evoke their many

delicious states of being while forming practices that will regenerate
the entire natural environment around them.

• People will nourish whole being intelligence and the broadest useful
range of philosophy and creative freedom of action possible.

• People will create and live in the garden of their dreams.

• People will create a planetary infrastructure that peacefully evokes

the exchange of the most exquisite forms of life support.

• People will include the discovery model as a way to experience the

awareness needed at each new level of maturity.

• People will learn how to bridge to the other side.

In order to create enough room to move around in a really deep

future I find it critical to think in this elevated language. This is
most specifically phrasing our world as a higher purpose. What I
have observed is that … higher purpose … quietly… but persistently

23
pulls us forward. It is the centerpiece of any long-range vision
because it contains qualities that have an abiding nature. Notice
that there were also very concrete elements in the forgoing
statements. There were other references that suggested a wide
number of new choices. How many “other sides” can you imagine for
example in the last statement? In working with the largest most
aggressive organizations in the world …

I never had one group who wasn’t excited to

examine their higher purpose!

The higher purpose idea moves everyone to think we can become

something more. A higher purpose pulls while a mission pushes.

Also for another observation that you can take in as a given. I can
make this claim because I have witnessed enough of the world’s most
powerful organizational leaders in action. When you think about it I
believe you will agree. It is that …

We have all the resources and the know how to

create our world into the paradise of our wildest
dreams!

So .. there is both a will

and there is also a way

I simply couldn’t start this work without knowing that both of these
capacities are inside us all and we can choose to make the entire
world work at whatever level we decide. I have witnessed this will
power and this creativity so many times … that I know it is there.
Later in this work I will explain in more detail.

24
The other kicker is that we can even have fun getting there if we
decide that too is important! So, now I know this and you know this
… and what remains to puzzle through is just to get others to know
this as we rocket along on our planetary journey still a bit half-
witted about what is possible. The wake up call includes some of the
following real-world mindset shi fts:

GLOBAL MIND CHANGE

For those of you who want to get your teeth into the mechanics of
change I will also create a quick overview of what a strategic
designer thinks about at a time like this. It will preview for you the
challenges we face and give you a clearer sense of just how many of
these challenges are simply a function of changing our minds about
things. Fear not these are already part of the mindset of our more
adventurous young leaders:

The status woe: Can we find a way to get our key institutions to stop focusing on the
threats and just discuss a long-range preferred future as a global civilization?

Belief in the possible: Can we overcome our fear-based institutions and see the
potential of our world as it already is … connected … organized …and waiting for the
vision?

Range and reach: Can we catapult our rusty thinking practices far enough forward
into the realms of the ultimately possible one hundred years from now?

Strategic Focus: Can we shift most of the current development approaches from a
problem focus to a visionary, holistic, artistic, and more proactive approach?

Strategic Fixation: Can we get over the idea that the future is not going to be handled
by hard technology. It is primarily going to take the soft technology of enlightened
new social inventions?

Operational Elegance: Can we determine what things should get done first to help
cause other things to happen more smoothly?

Tactical Tasking: Can we find elegant shifts for the major institutions and
corporations on the globe that match the visionary new world?

25
Resourcefulness: Can we awaken the under-activated segments of our world like
elders and kids to help restore our global commons?

Operational courage and candor: Can we get over the fact that nations are just
social inventions and are not well designed to get us to the future we desire?

The Call: Can we find a mythology or a new story that will be in the right form to
call forth the intricate global response worthy of the life we have been given ?

The Benchmarks: Can we establish a reasonable and integral list of achievable

goals to give us measures of our progress and reason to celebrate once they are
achieved?

The Journey: Can we arrange it so that the journey to excellence and sacred play , is
itself, worth the effort?

Feedback: Can we create a global network and media system that gives us a regular
chance to see how the effort is going at the planetary level?

Notice that this list includes no great physical obstacles. It is

replete with notions that just require a change of mind or a little
thought. All we have to do is to get a sufficient number of leaders
to do this mind work. Now lets examine why we have a blind spot or
two that keep us on the defensive.

THE STATUS WOE

Can we create the interest necessary to
focus our global population on its own best
Future? Understanding the nature of global
news as serialized soap opera, stuck in
the present, and with a serious hardening of
the categories, I would say we have our minds in
a gaze of gloom. And, fortunately that could
change overnight. The future we hear of is
about technology and terror. Can’t we
understand that the dearth of good news and no specific ways for

26
people to contribute to a better future leaves people increasingly
disillusioned and paranoid? Oprah pumps out more useful
information in a day than the news media do in a week.

News is the meta-mind of our global culture and it has an extremely

narrowly focused brain and awareness. Thus our collective
planetary mind remains similarly dull-witted and uninspired. Inspired
and very successful people never focus on the muck. How could we
expect a collective body to be any different? This must change!

The “news” also seems to be programmed to say “ouch”! This

means the average daily conversation is moved to gossip and an
“ain’t it awful ” mindset. Just try and think of a great teacher or
leader who engaged in that focus! The fact that bad news gets the
most attention is like a planetary paranoia. But, what else might we
expect from a news “business” working with small under-educated
staffs looking for that ever-demanding profit margin? To do news,
weather, and sports doesn’t take much global intelligence, social
intelligence, or psychological intelligence. That’s what our news
teams need! This book was made with them in mind.

Short-term elections may seem democratic but the politicians that

are beholding to short term goals are killing the needed long-range
future focus of our planetary needs and visions. Where are our
statesmen, visionaries, and philosophers? Did our media
preoccupation with hitting the masses in the middle of their
consciousness destroy the higher end of our aspirations? Is there
no place for expanded states of being in our world? Is there no
place for our earth to speak of its needs? Is there no place for the
future of our dreams? In the end what else is there but these vital
statistics… just the libido of our great athletes?

A friend from Uganda said Americans know more about Cobe Bryant
than the United Nations goals for the new millennium. These are

27
goals that speak to the needs of the whole planet. And Cobe is
playing his heart out … are we?

What shut down all the great statesmen, visionaries, and

philosophers? Would their ideas make the news today? All this
should be a blinding flash of the obvious. But it is not.
Independent observation and thought are in demand like never
before. The planetary commons ... our atmosphere, our soil, our
sea-life, the water, the forests … have no voice! That’s the bigger
part of our world and definitely the biggest part of our future! We
simply must expand our awareness to include the stage we all stand
upon. Creating a comprehensive new global news format has to be
near the top of the list for our world today.

GLOBAL CONSCIOUSNESS
OR TECHNO FRENZY?

The global table is set. The quests have arrived. Deeper communion
is imminent. For the first time in history nearly the entire citizenship
of the globe can be in direct communication. Every thread of
tradition is present at the table. A grand new set of post industrial
choices is available. For the first time, we can now begin to co-
create the very first planetary-wide culture. How, then, shall we
begin ?

Some would say we have a second renaissance in the making? The

time is ripe. Can we move to a perspective that promotes conscious
evolution ? Can we not focus now on social inventions that build on
our technical inventions ? Can we say we are creating a new set of
realities ?

Houston ....we have contact ! In a century rampant with wonderful

technological inventions, with an especially wide range of
communications tools, we have recently managed to connect the

28
many cultures of our small planet. There are pervasive new tools like
the internet, cellular phones, networked computers, pervasive inter-
continental travel and the exchange of goods and services that bind
us in new common culture. There is an unreported uprising at hand!

National borders and nation states themselves are just another of

the very many ways we divide up the world and our responsibility for
it.. And despite the momentum of the larger technically advanced
countries, who have created the new mass connection we notice that
they may not be the ones most qualified to create the civilization
that can follow the contact. Technological excellence, per se, is not
the only desirable end state available to us as a planet.

In spite of the many advances in all forms of life... many planetary

citizens still wander about amidst the myriad changes around us,
slightly dazed, and without much thought of how to set a new
civilization into motion. We look around, and we see that the plagues
and wars that were with us in the last millennium are still with us,
albeit on a smaller scale. As a globe, we still need civilizing. Where's
the toolkit?

It is within our power to begin the world again.

~Thomas Paine

If you listen to the heads of industrialized nations they would lead

you to believe that the next great move is to build a global economy.
To be sure, the foundations of fair trade can leaven the chances for
peace at every level they are employed. For, as more responsible
agreements for goods and services are more thoroughly shared
among a greater distribution of the population, the chances for
conflict decreases. But, peace like money, technology, and
government does not a culture make, and that very same economic

29
latticework and the infrastructure it fosters are now in a position to
support a grander mix and first ever planetary civilization.

Something way richer than progress is potentially afoot. Why is it

that only a few nations actually have a minister of culture and that is
usually done to protect the culture of the past not assemble a
thoughtful new one for the future. Isn't creating a culture a way
more important outcome than creating an economic system. It is time
to notice what forces are actually choosing our future ?

When you think of it the Steven Spielbergs of the world are

constructing new social realities for us using a fantasy base.
Developers also use imaginary themes but they blend functions in as
well. Silicon valley will give us virtual communities where we can play
together in a computer landscape where we will be in contact
through avatar representations of ourselves on screen. You see this
is all part of an emerging reality constructed by social architects
who come from many fields.

So, how shall we begin ? If we want to purposefully construct a

global culture, where do we start ? One thing is obvious, we can't
just leave it to the larger institutions. Nations haven't proven up to
the task. World government is not equipped to lead a more
conscious, natural and spirited civilization. They could manage the
infrastructure for it but large political organizations have proven
themselves unable to generate a sufficiently dynamic vision for
managing social advances.

We need to distribute the task. I propose that leaders everywhere

practice social architecture. Yes, especially the captains of
industry. For surely the business cultures we have are the most
robust of our tribal entities. Once a reasonable set of perspectives
and principles is organized, of course, anyone can participate...the
more the better. Because of our wonderful communications
infrastructure we are in a position to allow everyone to take a turn

30
at being in charge. The key is in distributing a set of tools that
intelligently build upon the industrial infrastructure we have
managed to create.

But are we too late ? Is there enough pure culture left to work
with? For example, is it too late to capture the best features of
the past traditions...the ones fading from view? Interestingly
enough, the last of the tribal cultures may be more tangible to most
of us than ever before. They and their customs may actually be
disappearing very rapidly but the camera coverage of their purest
states is available to almost everyone on the planet and is incredibly
reflective of their special contributions. Can you imagine not
dancing around a real fire? Let's not degrade non-technical
cultures who have essensual gifts for us.

THE EARTH … IS … ALREADY

ONE GREAT
COOPERATING
AND CONNECTED
CIVILIZATION

Ready for some shocking news! The Earth

is a planetary civilization and has been for
decades … maybe longer than that
depending on what you consider. Have
we stopped fighting? No! Not entirely!
But … there is conflict in the best of
families, organizations, and other human groupings that wish to
strive for better ends and need to contest old debilitating patterns.
That has always been the case. Notice the map with its borders in
an interpenetrating maze. This is a map of conversations that occur

31
daily among communities of interest. See any borders? We are one
deeply layered global conversation. That is the map that counts.

I am going to continue to make this point because what it really

means if the planet is actually connected now … is that we don’t
need to wait to have governments lead us forward. They have some
very vested interests in keeping things separate. It is critical to
remember they are just social inventions like a county or a province
or a territory. They are reported to have killed 160 million people
last century because among other things they still, have too much
ideology, patriarchy, hierarchy and just plain bloat. When the
Soviet Union (USSR) split back up into smaller republics, there was
an acknowledge-ment that centralized control and cultural empires
don’t work. We do have a choice!

The planet at night reveals no borders and that we are very unified in our settlement strategies.

The real truth can be appreciated as we look at our planet at night

from outer space. We are definitely functioning as one species. The
lights coming from the surface of the planet show that we humans
have spread ourselves about the planet in very similar ways. We
have concentrated our cities on the coastlines. When you dive down
closer … the cities all look pretty much alike. There are over three
hundred thousand people in the air everyday. They fly over the
planet in aircraft that follow an extremely cooperative set of rules,

32
land in similar situations, and are globally coordinated. The
thousands of ships follow another globally recognized system.
Goods and services are globally organized and exchanged. This
means is that the stories of our separation are grossly overdone.

Listen carefully: you can hear music that has the rhythms and
instruments of every culture. This has been true for decades. Look
at the menus at fine restaurants and notice that every culture has a
dish or sauce in the mix. We adore the same great athletes, the
Olympics, and the world cup. We watch the academy awards, an d
watch the blockbuster movies in a variety of standard global
formats. Television and Internet radio blanket the planet. None of
this could happen without thousands of cooperative agreements
that have already been made. We can’t let the news demonize and
create separation us anymore.

Ten billion times every day people sit down and eat together. There
are 9.2 billion e-mails and perhaps 30 billion telephone calls
connecting our global civilization everyday. You can be gardening in
California and speak to your friends in a bathroom in Parisian café
on pocket-sized cel. phones. Communications about life are
screaming across borders everyday. If a planetary sweetheart like
princess Diana or JFK or a revered elder is killed, most people can
find out within hours, not days, that this has occurred.

When America was deliberating on the invasion of Iraq, people in

sixty-five major cities across the globe came out into the streets in
an organized way to express their distaste for such an adventure.
But still we do not have the global media we need to uniformly
blanket the planet with the kind of perspective we need about our
real situation. Our planet has been abused in so many ways and we
have precious little time to fix it! That is the real story.

33
We know that, but can still be distracted by a media that is still in
the pockets of the few. To them we are not citizens … we are their
marketplaces and they want us to hold our focus on their services.
America is the marketplace for the biggest business on the planet …
the American government! Much of the conflict we have today is
foisted on us by the greed of special interests that circle that money
pot that is controlled by several dozen special interests. They
would have us believe that we aren’t one planet. It works for them.
That combined with the new ministry of fear and the populace has
it’s eyes glazed over by trivia in a world too big and dangerous for
them to find a way to help.

Look at the evidence. We are not only a planet but have been for
most of the last century. We are a global village. But, the global
perspective we accept as news does not uniformly serve us. The
news and the academics are woefully behind the times when it comes
to the larger view of our presently humming global infrastructure.
The connective systems we have in place can insure global
cooperation today with or without the expense of dangerous
institutions with a short-term focus.

ITS TEN PARADIGM SHIFTS PAST WHERE

YOU THINK …
seeing the world as it
really is …requires new
lenses
See the way your earth is becoming! Notice there is more to maps
than information about national borders, cities, and topography.
Attend to the social cartography of earth as it is. Our real social
interests are co-mingling so that the real communities of interest are
globally mixed like multi-colored marble. They have the added

34
strength of a layered and laminated intelligence. Our century of
technical artisans has produced a standard of living and access
unparalleled in the thinking of the most visionary of thinkers just a
hundred years ago.

The real measure of our progress in the last century can be judged by the compressence of
thousands of inventions that bring the world to us where ever we travel … but has progress
such as this made us happier or lost in the grips of techno-frenzy?

Have we advanced? We fly thirty thousand feet off the ground at

five hundred miles an hour. We have within our immediate grasp
multiple television programs, a dozen music options, a selectable
breeze, a reading light, a bed pillow and blanket, a telephone to call
or connect to internet friends anywhere on the planet, a global
library at the end of a search phrase and a breakfast meal that has
elements from ten different countries on the tray. Excuse me! Is
that progress? Of course it is.

So, why don’t you feel that excellence everyday as a real blessin g?
Because you are interrupted by the soap opera of the greedy and
haven’t been taught to ever see the bigger picture. Awaken to the
new world! Lets see that her body does not collapse from the
weight of our endless neglect! Lets demonstrate the power of this

35
global intellect at work for the future of our children and their
possible blessed adventure.

SECTION II
Listening to the promise
of visionaries

36
 • CAMPAIGN FOR THE EARTH
• THE ULTIMATE END STATES
• THE GLOBAL BENCHMAR KS
• PROJECT EARTHRISE
• THE SUPER-ORDINATE GOALS FOR THE YEAR
2100
• THREE PARADIGM SHIFTS
• GALACTIC REALITY

Campaigns for the Earth

Operational initiatives
If we want to launch a planetary movement there are some
foundational elements we need to begin with in order to enable the
entire range of action that would be desirable. This will be true
whether we have to begin in an emergency or work in a thoughtful

37
long-range manner. First lets try to imagine some key new initiatives
. Recognize these are strategic thrusts that work best when
integrated as one:

A STRATEGIC NEWS NETWORK

News can and must be available to support the broadest

understanding of what is taking place. This will help co-ordinate
action and give a real sense of progress. Eventually all channels
available will be able to participate, but initially a single channel
could get things going. The state of our planet can be reported on
much like the weather is now. There would be conditions and
progress reported on maps that would be of daily interest. Then
there would be the forecast which would project conditions like
pollution threats and could also project remedial action again on a
map-based format very much like military operations.

Today the major military operations and situation rooms would be a

good place to start in the case of an emergency. That is because
the maps and protocols are established and the means to recreate
what is necessary are already at hand. The key would simply be to
roll the cable into the building and then hook up the camera’s.
Eventually funding for “natural security” could create such facilities
at NOAA and agencies of that order. We all must remember that
currently few if any nations have any real interest in the parts of the
planet that are outside their own borders. In other words most of
the world is not cared for as a resource by our governments. That
neglect needs to come to a stop now.

BIOREGIONAL ACTION AGENCIES.

38
The U. S. Army has for some twenty-five years been experimenting
with a prototype unit for such a natural security mission. The unit
is called an Earth Battalion, and would be able to plan and then
organize large strategic eco-operations for all the bioregions
awakened to this work. The unit could initially be formed from
reserve units assets and be operational within months. In turn each
of these units would operate from an eco-port that could project
the regional situation into the television stations working at that
level to report to and energize volunteer recovery operations on a
rather grand scale.

A GLOBAL CADRE

Ideally, we would have trained Earth Battalions everywhere on the

planet. But, to get going in an emergency, two representatives from
every bioregion could be trained in two weeks to establish a unified
plan of global action. Such a global response could forever
establish the bioregion as the new and proper management area for
a sustainable future.

A common vocabulary would allow smooth communications and

planning support for interaction between all players. In an
emergency the resources could come from many places and groups
that have little experience with larger scale operations so the
trained cadre would be essential. A website with downloadable
training and instructions would be a necessary parallel activity.
General knowledge of this global effort among the leadership of all
organizations would be key. A United Nations connection would be
established.

THE 100 YEAR VISION GOALS WOULD BE IN PLACE.

39
There is no need to enact any major efforts without aligning them to
the long range goals of the planet. In this way things won’t have to
be undone and redone because of lack of foresight. Those
proactive benchmarks are included later in this report.

THE GLOBAL RECOVERY STORY WOULD BE COMPLETE

Ideally a bioregional campaign would be enacted and animated for

release as soon as practicable. This would be the single most
important way to enable the public to see their respective roles in
such a planetary recovery project. That would enable tactical
success.

On a more strategic level the following ideas are ways to combine

the best new thinking into manageable campaigns we can all
participate in. The details that support these campaigns are
included later in this project report. Hopefully they will help to
fertilize your conversations in the near future:

Campaign one
THE GRAND SHIFT 2005-2009

The single most potent set of moves we could make as a planet is to

take our most capable large organizations and shift them from the
task at hand to the tasks that are most pressing. Imagine these
changing priorities! The Armies can restore the water gathering
forests we need to rebuild our atmosphere. The Navies can restock
the oceans. The Marines can restore the coral reefs. The Air
forces can provide total global monitoring. The oil companies can

40
move fresh water to those most in need. The pipeline companies can
move the oceans into the deserts to restore the water table and pull
more temperate moderating moistures back over the landscape. The
banks and mega rich start the new and more difficult-to-fund
alternative energy initiatives. The list goes on. This is the big work
and requires the large hands. There are elegant shifts that all large
organizations can tackle. These are just starter ideas to make the
point for the grand shift!
Campaign two
THE EARTHRISE 2012-2018

The global populace finally remembers that it has the ultimate

sovereign power to direct the institutions that they originally
created to serve their needs. When this globally constituted
network of service agencies is then repurposed to the new global
consensus then the very limited boundaries of nations will simply
indicate new bioregional management and maintenance regions and
those nations will simply join the cooperative holarchy from village
to globe. The village will likely be the locus of focus for
sustainable, generative, and life-force living with all larger service
organizations remaining to support those distinctions. The internet
and a new sensornet to monitor the atmospheric and eco-centered
resources will cross connect all constituencies so the planet is
wrapped in communities of interest that informed an enlightened
global civilization that functions just as intelligent families have
always functioned … based on daily shared intelligence, not the
traumatizing glut of serialized soap opera news.

Campaign three
THE AWAKENING 2015-2035

Here the most profound awareness that all life is sacred comes into
being as the planet’s new spiritual awareness. All other spiritual
paths remain as the great teachings but the new awareness invites

41
humanity to broaden its agenda to include the other living species
on this earth. All living beings finally begin to function in synergy.
We notice that all living entities, animals and plants alike, have a
contribution to make in the sanctuaries and habitats we build to live
in. We begin to live in those realities and there is a gentle
remigration from the cities to the countryside, as more people want
to live in the midst of fresh air, fresh food, clean water, and the rush
of a layered environment so viscerally pungent that our beings move
from a survival mode to a thrival style of living. Hate and fear as
motivators are naturally suppressed by a humanity that knows how
to care for itself and the planet it has finally joined as the supreme
partner in life.

And to know again

that the planet is our sacred inheritance
and not just a practice field for our momentary
fancies.

42
Sacred play is the increasing past time of those who see the high life as the most important
priority for the civilized cultures of the planet. Of course we add technology to boost the fun.

Campaign four
THE SHIRE 2005-2100

There will still be cities. But the best little pieces of the cities can
be transported to the new villages that will be the premiere choice
for most of the new planet. There is enough talent and desire to
create an entire new layer of artistry that will spread it self out
among the charming towns of flavor. There will be no limit to the
characters and trades we will grow up to play out. An average life
will look to seven separate episodes to bring the soul its greatest
array of satisfaction. We will be polymorphs.

Can we live in the country? Well, all the people I ever met who had
a choice, had a home in the country. Sealed buildings, cubicle views,
and the tyranny of living life through the very dubious world of
techno-frenzy, information glut, and endless repairs to gadgets we
never really needed anyway will finally be thought of as slave labor.
Bending over in a field of ones own seeding will, for a dozen obvious
reasons, be a new choice and privilege for most. Of course it won’t
be all day… just hours of healthy exercise outdoors. And of course
the selected other characters in each psyche will storm out to play
much of the rest of time. Costumes will be the dress of the day.
You will bring character to the world around you, not another story
about how hard you labored all day.

We were supposed to end hard labor in this last century and we did!
But, the “busyness” we replaced it with is not the premiere
alternative. For every town will have a stage where the most
dangerous sport of all will be played. Coming out! By this I mean
sharing the deeper soul’s intention. In full color … with a new story

43
… and a little dance and song. If you think about there is more
courage required here than in war.

The children will be taken from their penal colonies and given to
projects that exhort all the skills needed to grow up respecting all
that is around us. Content is also a no-brainer … its on line … and
search engine team games will become popular. We will insist on
ways to reveal how we can have our children strive for excellence
and not be bludgeoned with the struggles of bad days gone by.

Nature in all its glory is finally seen for the intelligence that it is and given a new place in the
human agenda. We become co-arising partners in the holarchy of the future.

The connectivity needed for global trade is already a slam-dunk.

The land of the coffee houses that serve tea and other healthy
surrogates is already in place. We can walk down a country lane
listening to any symphony and be talking to a friend on the other
side of the world on our handtel. Our newer senses will open to an
entirely new and very rich array of input. Our conscious breathing
will translate emotions and energy into glorious internal symphonies
of feeling. We will really observe and listen to the many layers o f
environment around us that were always there for the asking. The

44
skills to input the world around us will at some point equal the skills
we have always been taught to output to that world. Silence will
return as a serious and sacred way to be present.

The tribal peoples are still telling us that if we can talk we can sing,
and if we can walk we can dance. And if we are consciously aimed at
the world of possibility we can stop our whining gossip and begin to
tell the new stories of what is to come. There is energy in those
stories … the possible will not be the slave of the old story. We will
fascinate ourselves with all the new ways of being that can be
imagined and practiced into life.

The billions of connections finally produce a global populace that sees it’s right to repurpose all
of its institutions toward a thriving generative future where life itself is seen as sacred.

THE ULTIMATE END STATEs

Of all the tasks I have researched and enacted in my 25 years as a

strategic designer … the single most challenging is to stretch the

45
thinking and the imagination of people beyond the tasks at hand.
So, before we dive into the strategic goals as created by the work of
the Academy fellows, allow me to give you a another taste of what I
mean by super-ordinate goals or the preferred outcomes that we
could aim at. It is so easy to be consumed by the present. At the
moment we are so fascinated with the technologies and gadgets we
have created that we are sitting by and waiting for the next
generation of them to publish the next popular culture we can be
distracted by. Those trends then will drive fashion while the guts of
the very planetary stage we players depend upon are disintegrating.
We must break the consumer trance.The task here is to reach
beyond the present concepts for living and establish some higher
goals that are so noble and sacred that their mere mention will
inspire people to make each day a step along the path to the
possible:

What needs doing …

the GLOBAL benchmarks

The World Business Academy has been working on a ten-year
project to discover the most promising goals for our planet in the
next 100-year period. These benchmarks have been assembled and
then sorted from the manifestos and visions of home-makers,
corporate leaders, traditional peoples, fore-sight scientists,
environmentalists, services organizations, government agencies and
small business people from all over the globe.

Notice that as outcomes they are phrased as pro-active statements.

Notice as well that they are not marginalized … meaning nothing is
acceptable as a partial act. At this point the World Business
Academy fellows continue to sort and glean these prototype end
states for relevance and reach. Please notice that this is not the

46
mega-version of gadget world come true. These are primarily social
inventions that need attention not technical ones:

• Humanity will see it self as one global civilization and a unified

public of influence and choice.

• Earth gotten resources will be managed from cradle to cradle.

• Deep global mind change will drastically reduce the slow death
of peoples living on the margins.

• Home video ports will reduce transportation needs with full

wall 3D fidelity.

• Energy consumption shifts from fossil fuels to hydrogen and

other scaled down applications used at the local level.

• All manufacturing systems will create zero emissions by

recatalyzing waste and energy.

• Corporations will support the whole-being and strong and

ethical work cultures.

• The planet’s population will match the earth’s current carrying

capacity.

• Playfulness will become the most attractive and most sought

after human quality.

• The news media will elevate its perspective, report at the

global level, and seek news that empowers positive collective
action and personal growth.

47
• Nature will come to be seen as the premier intelligence to
catalyze new creations.

• Planetary citizens will adhere to a planetary code of ethics

based on a reverence for all life. Religions will become master
teachings and available without undue protocol to all
interested beings.

• Nation states will sub-divide into logical bioregional

manage ment agents.

• National armed forces will transition into global reconstruction

and recovery teams so that national security will be replaced
by natural security.

• Initial global recovery will begin with elders creating seedlings,

the children doing the planting, the military doing the irrigation
and transport. One trillion trees will be planted to recover the
atmospheric humidity needed to shield the land and moderate
the climate.

• Leisure, creativity, and the arts will be the goal of living …

work will be honored but not become the kind of endless labor
we know can come to an end.

• Soft technology out paces hard technology as the imagination

takes on the high frontier.

• Warfare will be dealt with by economic and social siege as

determined by individual industries. New mediation tools will
be applied instantly with global media coverage available.

• Animals and plants achieve a new status as living and co-

creative beings.

48
• A visionary mindset becomes the common inheritance of all
children.

• Childbirth is regulated by the regional carrying capacity to

support a new standard of living.

• Corporations manage their own global villages that model life-

force living

• Courtesy and honor will be rewarded over crime and

punishment.

• Public opinion and transparency will be included in risky

genetic exploration.

• Elections will become digital and transparent to all with

independent poll corroboration and back-up confirmation.

• Public works will be handled by self-managing bioregions with

elected maintenance team leaders.

49
• Social competence and vision will drive public office selection
rather than age, color, or gender.

• Interfaith organizations will subsume specific religious

practice.

• Wealth will be clearly understood in quality of life terms.

• Elders and children will assume a greater responsibility in the

creation of a healthy planet.

• Education will shift from an information base to an experiential

life skills base.

• Private interests will not control our common inheritance like

fresh water and seed stock.

• All kinds of healing will be included into a new family of

accepted health practices.

• Conscious birth and death and marriage practices will be

available to all citizens.

• Ethnic practices will be honored and preserved but not limit

any global citizens free choices.
• Institutional cultures will be limited by considerations of size
and power.

• The global focus will decentralize on sustainable and

generative cultures and will center their resource intensity at
the global village level.

50
• Global public opinion and information will be distributed by
multiple well-funded agencies that are not susceptible to
corruption.

• Catalytic thinking, generative technologies, and applied

synergy will preoccupy our scientific efforts.

• A comprehensive earth monitoring system will allow all to see

the real consequences of our actions.

• Our present focus on infrastructure will be balanced by a

focus on healthy cultures with advanced states of being as
drivers.

• Real collections of people at festivals and other cultural

events will match the distant connections provided by
television and other new remote participation tools so that
feeling takes its place again with information.

• The global information system will remain decentralized.

• The individual’s wholeness and self-esteem will be the prime

concern of all educators.

• A set of new global languages wi ll emerge that increase our

dimension of understanding at the multi-dimensional level.

• We will honor the diversity of all life.

• We will evolve this listing and make it part of our mythical

stories to lead the world to its best possible future.

The Academy has since determined an initial list of priorities from

this listing that are summarized next in PROJECT EARTHRISE:

51
 Project Earthrise – Fellows Meeting Summary
Editor’s Note: The Fellows of the World Business Academy convened for three days
prior to the Global MindChange Forum last month. Under the facilitation of Fellow Jim
Channon, this was the second of ten anticipated annual meetings around the theme of
creating a positive 100-year vision for the planet. Negative or shorter visions make for
quick and easy work. But both the time span and positive orientation of this project make
this undertaking unique in the world.

Along with Jim, Fellows in attendance included: Verna Allee, Karen Buckley, Gordon
Davidson, Hazel Henderson, Jean Houston, Barbara Marx Hubbard, Bernard Lietaer,
Marc Luyckx, Ronald Loeb, Corinne McLaughlin, Terry Mollner, Ron Nahser, Ruben
Nelson, Elisabet Sahtouris, Lance Secretan, and Diana Whitney.

The following super-ordinate goal and the major three goals for
each third of the next century were selected as the World Business
Academy fellows examined the list of fifty goals just presented.
Since this is only the second year of a ten year process we consider
them to be preliminary. We begin with the over-arching prize to be
gained.

52
The Super-ordinate goal:
FOR THE YEAR 2100:
TO BECOME A REALIZED HUMANITY … PLAYING AS ONE
CIVILIZATION ... ON A FULLY POTENTIALIZED LIVING PLANET
.... WITH A REAL INTER-DIMENSIONAL PRESENCE IN OUR
GALAXY.

Then we complete the picture with the more select goals. Notice
that the majority of the goals are still basically global mindset.

Goals for first t hird of the century:

1. We learn to see wealt h in ter ms of QOL indi cators;

2. We discover a new collective reverence for life itself;
3. We upgrade our insist ence on sustainability to
regener ative ecology.

Goals for second third of century:

1. Global public opi nion ends al l violent confli ct

permanently;
2. Energy as fuel has complet el y shifted to renewable
alternative r esour ces;
3. Plants and animals achieve a new stat us in global
priorities.

Goals for the final third of the centur y:

1. Military forces complete t hei r mission of global r ecovery

and reconstruction and shift to natural security
missions for the pl anet.
2. Synergisti c ecosystems generate real creative leisure
for all.

3. New gl obal languages boost whole-being int elligence.

53
 We may be connected electronically but the source of our wisdom comes from ancient
Council practices with exquisite listening comes round the warmth of a real fire.

Three Paradigm Shifts

I was recently invited to participate in the design of a future military
force with some respected military leaders at Oak Ridge National
Laboratories in Tennessee. I was struck again by the integrity of
these very highly purposed people. I conclude from this experience
that there are three paradigm shifts I need to offer the Members
and Fellows of the Academy to add to our awareness of “the Whole.”
First, the planet is only governed by nations if we assign nations
that authority. There is a far more egalitarian mix of organizations
of all kinds that really represents the civilization we have together.
Nations simply cannot speak and act for the whole of humanity and
the other living beings resident on this sphere. Two, national
interests exclude most of the oceans, the soil deeper than a foot or
so, and the air which rises seven miles above the surface of the
globe. These areas are the "planetary commons," and nations have
no right to govern that which they have taken no responsibility for.
The commons are our collective responsibility. Three, the military
forces of the planet are, for the most part, friends with each other.
Should there be some terrible mix of catastrophes like the recent 9-

54
11 incident, we don't need to let national egos get to the point of
allowing something ignorant to happen to our planetary commons--
something like launching nuclear missiles or biological agents to
achieve purely national objectives. Nations simply don't deserve the
right to unilateral behavior of this consequence. May I also offer
that the militaries of this planet are steeped in service. They know
each other from the common schooling and disaster rescue work
they do together and are motivated by a higher purpose. If we chose
to ask them to restore the planetary commons together, I firmly
believe they would do it and do it well. They have the educated
leadership, the organizational tools, the communications, the
planning and, most of all, the integrity to do this. We have never
taken a public position as an Academy that I know of other than
Willis Harman's creed that helped call in all Members of this
Academy and a mo st esteemed set of Fellows.

If we really believe in taking responsibility for THE WHOLE, then I

offer this as part of the effort. The sovereignty of the planetary
commons is beyond the purview of nations. It belongs to the world
and all the sentient beings who live here. There are no national
priorities that should stand above this sovereignty. Nations must
simply take their place in the governance of that which is theirs.
They should settle their disputes like all the rest of us, using
communications, not weapons. And when we are ready to put our
planetary habitat back in balance, I commend the military and the
other service organizations of the world to you. Know that this is a
real and sober option. Those kinds of men and women in service
are still out there, in place, waiting for a higher calling to serve the
planetary commons. I just don't believe that the politics of nations
should be allowed to unilaterally control our future as a planet. The
hundreds of millions of people who died in this last century as a
result of national objectives is testimony to a poor track record, and
we must not vote them such confidence merely because they capture
the news. Members and Fellows of the Academy: Consider this a

55
piece of our Global reconstruction work together. If we help get
these paradigms into the consciousness of the world, then they will
constitute a new set of options that we as citizens of the planet
never had before. I am afraid our global infrastructure is too fragile
to sit back and hope our national leaders will do the right thing.
They just don't have a big enough picture.

Galactic reality

We include in the Academy vision for the next century the

penetration of the galaxy in both physical and
metaphysical ways. This subject area is tainted with
rumor and old imagery. Getting it up on the menu in a real
way involves some serious paradigm busting and some
conversations with people who use more than their
analytical brains to process new input.

For the elders of today, it is likely that all of our imagery

about a galactic future and a grand neighborhood of star
friends is going to be badly cluttered with the limitatio ns
of the Hollywood make-up artists they were exposed to
this last century. The newer films at least increase th e
intelligence and humanity of “alien”, ET, UFO imagery, but
it is fraught with old imagery of evil doing monsters. The
word “alien” alone speaks for the very limited mindset we
carry along as baggage from before. It is way more likely
that if we hear of visitors from far away places … we could
rightly assume that their politics and basic humanity would

56
have progressed somewhat equally with their technical
advances. No?

One classic scatoma or blind spot is the notion that if our

ancestors passed on to a new reality at death they would
have frozen their knowledge base at that point. Isn’t it
more likely they would now be available to us as advisors
from a new and way more sophisticated realm? When
Polynesians speak of ancestors they assume just such a
transition has been made. So, the paradigm shift here is
… can you imagine that your parents are now allies
functioning on a far superior dimension to the one we are
on? This shift from aliens to allies is the one we need to
make. Its interesting to me that the very people who
downplay the galactic neighborhood, also want us to
believe that there is a thing called heaven after this
incarnation.

For me it is completely consistent that adv anced

civilizations would probably have a policy of not meddling
in developing planet’s evolutions until such time as it
effected their greater domain. At that point an overt
visitation might be expected. It also seems in the nine
million year history of homo-erectus (latest digs?) it
wouldn’t be useful to spring highly civilized ideas on the
hapless humans before they had the ability to profit from
it in an organized and thoughtful way. Sure, what I have
just offered is also just speculation, and this important
shift in paradigm I believe would better enable us to

57
discover and enjoy whatever other life exists beyond our
perceptual fields. Lets cut down on the profiling in case it
may blind us to a more obvious realty. I imagine that
based on the way we have trained ourselves with science
fiction horror films that we might shoot the first visitors
out of the sky before saying hello? We might be a long
way from ready. They are likely to have noticed … don’t
you think.

I am mindful of the crop circle phenomena that have been

around for four hundred years. Our science community
and governments have treated this potential
communication in the most outrageously childish and
superstitious way. Not a single agency has presumed that
the glyphs are linguistically based and pursued a funded
approach. If they have it hasn’t been widely circulated. I
pulled down sixty two crop circle images and could
instantly see that at least a third of the images were
obvious orbital dynamics diagrams. There were consistent
linguistic components in most of the holoforms and
grammar to boot. I would offer my observations but there
don’t seem to be a serious formal efforts to study these
things. My point is that our collective behavior about
such realities is juvenile. No wonder their waiting!

I have two indicators that the existence of other life is

more likely than not. One, is that people with the most
wide ranging intelligences I have encountered are quite
sure that such life exists and that our problem is one of

58
being in the right frequency to notice. Our global
communication with radio, p hones, and television for
example is suggestive of that. I don’t find that science
per se has encouraged such “wide-ranging “ Intelligenc e
and our philosophers have gone to sleep. When Bucky
Fuller died the only advertised comprehensivist may have
died as well.

Secondly, our current examinations of the universe leave

us with ideas about GOD and existence that are way too
small by contrast. The beauty and incredible complexity
of the world around us suggests to me that we can expect
way more than just the thought that there are others like
us out there somewhere. The presumption would be more
like just how many other forms might their be and on how
many other folds in the universe might they exist and what
kinds of new perceptual adaptations will we have to create
in order to make contact?

So, onward, inward, and outward!

59
Section iii
60
 Global teamwork and the
elegant shifts
• THE ELEGANT SHIFTS
• THE KEY DRIVERS
• GLOBAL CURRICULUM
• MYTHOLOGY
• PLAY WRITING
• GLOBAL VOICE
• GLOBAL GAMEPLAN
• TIPPING POINTS AND INCUBATION TIME

Not everything we need is new … so much has been lost if

we can’t dance, tell a story, sing, or sit in silence.

THE ELEGANT SHIFTS

THE MOST IMPORTANT SINGLE ACT IN THIS SERIES OF
CAMPAIGNS IS TO GET THE MOST POWERFUL AND
COMMITTED ORGANIZATIONS TO FIND A WAY TO PLAY VITAL

61
NEW ROLES IN A FULL-POTENTIAL WAY….WITH ONLY AN
ELEGANT SHIFT IN THEIR DIRECTION.

In my time at the game of organizational change, I can report that I

tried many many approaches so that powerful organizations could
open their eyes to their best possible contributions. Here are the
ones that hit pay dirt!

Out-of-the-box mind change or the big hairy paradigm shift is the

premiere work to be done. This usually involves by-passing the
active, rational, and judgmental mind. It also involves introducing
required sessions of creative thinking where the topic of the
discussion is the title of the mind change that is required. It’s new
subject matter! Three topics seemed to work for me to produce
such paradigm shifts. I included them with other strategic questions
of the day that were recognized as basic to the organizational
future. And they were:

• What is your higher purpose?

• What is it you really do?
• How can you bring your culture to full life?

The shifts that occurred as a result of these particular

conversational probes were the most profound. And here is the
promise of such work!

In every case the corporation or governmental

agency
agreed to spend as much time as needed
to determine their higher purpose
or mission of service .

62
No one ever shirked these questions. In the end the focus of their
services turned more in the direction of people, planet, and then
profits in that order. They recognized they were naturally values
oriented players. They just needed the question to bring that home.

Many companies were stunned to see that their actual work at its
most fundamental level was far more exciting than they had
envisioned. General Motors discovered when it was asked what
they were really building that they were really building sanctuaries
albeit “rolling ones”. Now that shifted their focus to the wonderful
automobile interiors we have today with many of the conveniences of
a lounge car on a train with communications to boot. People do
choose the car as a sanctuary. Think if you have a better place to
hide and get some psychic rest?

Shell Oil was somewhat shocked to realize that they were a liquid
transportation company and could move fresh water about. Turns
out that most of the equipment that had been designed to move oil
could move other liquids. Pipeline companies can move an unusual
array of gaseous, liquid, and granular materials. What a powerful
way to get the planet the fresh water and other grains and fertilizers
it needs. These companies can now shift from fossil fuel to other
work that will feed their employees and still make a major difference
on the planet.

The US Army was able to see that stability was the key to
preventing war and immediately brought in peace-making, peace-
building, and peace-keeping operations as part of the spectrum of
work that needed doing. It turns out that almost all of the
equipment and training an army has, less its weapons, prepares them
to go anywhere and do most anything! Recently when I asked a
group of highly selected army officers who were on the road to
general …”What is an army anyway?” Only one in third answered
with a mission that involved killing and destruction. Most of the rest

63
saw the American army as one of the planet’s leading social
experiments! Most people are not stuck in their work … they want
to be of service!

This is what we mean when we say elegant shifts!

Cultural questions caused leaders to shift their focus from the

workforce to teams with a cultural inheritance that deserved
attention. When Whirlpool Corporation decided to be a global
player, it invited the four new companies in the fold, first to
Montreux Switzerland. There in a flourish of cultural pageantry,
fine food, and artistic ceremony the new cultures from five different
nations became one.

Sealcorp an Australian Mutual fund giant likewise flew its corporate

teams, from the five different cities where they were working, in
Military assault aircraft and landed them into their great western
desert region. Hundreds of miles from the nearest town they
participated in tribal adventure games that produced enough culture
for the company to stay bonded and loyal for years.

Another example of creating a culture was again in the US Army

where I spent a good part of my life. This was the geo-mythology
called the First Earth Battalion.
Here the army invested substantially in this mythology I had
assembled and introduced as an initiation ceremony to showcase
human potential skills. Wisely, I believe, they accepted this purely
mythological unit as the thinking tool for leaders to re-imagine how
to re-empower soldiers and teams of soldiers. In this way all the
elements of culture could be re-imagined and therefore learned as
specific new tools by the army’s leadership. The key here is that it
allowed them to have ideas that were in contradistinction to its
present operating culture. This produced one of the most exciting

64
open-space think-tanks ever created. It also gave the army a place
to dream and to ”Dare to think the unthinkable”.

So, the three leading questions, mentioned previously, were the

keys to opening the kind of thinking that could change everything.
And they did!

THE SECOND MOST IMPORTANT KIND OF ELEGANT SHIFT IS

TO ENGAGE SOCIAL GROUPINGS THAT OTHERWISE ARE NOT
NORMALLY INVOLVED IN LARGER SCALE PROJECTS.

It is a rather obvious observation that most of the work done in the

world is done by people who are in their “working” years. These are
typically the years between twenty and sixty. This means that those
between ten and twenty and those over sixty are simply getting
ready to work or getting over work. These people are perfect
candidates for work on larger more global tasks.

Other professions like the arts are also candidates for public
service if properly motivated. The arts have actually traditionally
been the real players in the move from working economies to civilized
cultures. A new world of nontraditional healers has emerged and
are willing players. There are other sub-cultures like perma-
culturist style farmers. Each of these communities of interest can
be asked to choose a role in the recovery of their planet!

You could say that one of the reasons why people are not
motivated toward globalization of any kind today is because they
are afraid that bankers, corporations, politicians, and lawyers, will
simply build and structure the economies they want so that they can
retain an unfair advantage over the rest of us. Worse yet, we may
end up with just another economy and not a civilization. There are
too few discussions that zero in on the questions of civility and
culture in our world of techno-frenzy and political trivia.

65
Traditional peoples are also not often thought of as contributors to
any serious work. They have been doing the very things we need
more of for most of their lives. We seek their counsel and help at
every level.

If we were to add the militaries to this mix of less than utilized

groups … just think of the numbers of people we could organize
toward recovering our over-taxed landscape. A trillion trees in five
years! By all means. Lets get in the game in a big way! The
plantings can occur in cities, in back-yards, and in vast expanses of
the remaining land not properly skinned to hold the moisture barrier
we need in place. If you fly over cities like Chicago you will realize
that it is already an urban forest, so we need not believe that our
urban world cannot have another layer of gentle skin to sooth the
global warming.

Picture a convoy of army vehicles pulling up to a middle

school just after school. Notice that the kid’s favorite
music is being played by loudspeakers mounted to the
vehicles. See the kids swarm onto the vehicles with their
garden tool packs in hand. Follow the convoy to another
part of town where the elders have created flats of tree
seedling all ready for planting. They are taken aboard.
Some elders come along. The trucks soon arrive in the
new planting zone. While the kids are steady popping in
the small trees, the military folk are stringing the
temporary watering system needed to get the trees to a
stage of stable growth. Games follow and energy drinks

66
are served by the military kitchen crews. Before you
know it thousands of new trees are in place.
Taking care of our planet is the kind of work that gives everyone a
sense that they are doing what needs doing. Today we all are
soaked in the bad news of our planet’s withering future and are
helpless to do anything to help. That is a serious social disease!

THE KEY DRIVERS

What is at the center of our being? Better yet what is at the center
of our choosing? Even more precisely if we look at the fifty
beautiful new options for the planet, which one will best beget the
rest? The prevailing psychologies might agree that it is our self-
concept that drives us most clearly to seek a new reality. So, let’s
consider such an identity shift. We look at the world we want and
then prescribe the identity that would want such a world? In this
case how we see ourselves as belonging to something “much” bigger
may come close to the core of the world that gets created.

When we are traveling abroad we may begin by saying we are an

“American” or “Italian” what ever the case may be. Ancient
Polynesians would say their name and then describe the land they
lived upon using terrain features to distinguish themselves. If it’s a
local matter you might say you are from this town or that village. If
you are meeting someone of the same age you might identify
yourself by your business profession. … I am an executive or an
engineer or a soldier. Native Americans named themselves after
animals and then added an attribute like “running” (deer) to
increase the clarity of the identity. These names shaped the
prevailing mythology.

67
These core identity patterns or self-concepts could be the most
important drivers of our twenty-first century world. When
technology was forging a surprising new world on a regular basis it
was easier to wait and see how to play this card. We were caught in
the transitional world. Back when we were married completely to
nature and work wasn’t our identifying factor our identity could be
based on a more homogenous basis like being named after the
animals. But, now the stories of the world have been accumulated
from all these traditions and its more likely than not that our self-
concepts are decidedly mixed.

When you are very young … elders will ask what are you going to be
when you grow up … as if you would only be just one thing! Being
one thing isn’t a crime these days it’s just the way to achieve your
full potential. We do and are so many more things, that it is getting
more important than ever to clarify those distinctions of identity.
So, to what degree do you ever describe yourselves by more
personal qualities or human archetypes that are not place, or
ideological, or profession based?

We now see that people are slowly making that shift toward multiple
ways to identify themselves. Kids have always played pretend but
the selection of characters is increasing. Today kids read anime
stories of specific Samurai personalities and then get the complete
costume and “psychic” make up. For them this is a very specific if
alternative reality and identity. Then there are firedances where
discovering who you really are is a practice. Tribal societies review
their ancestral vocations to better understand themselves. I know
many western adults who do fantasy costuming and mood altering
games. So, where is all this going? More places than one is the
obvious answer.

68
 I think the trends are clearly toward … more distinctions,
more options, and all described in more personal ways.

Today you might hear someone say: “ I am intensely spiritual with a

focus of the sacredness of life itself. I am relatively complex
emotionally. I am not changing my mind I am just changing my state. I
have a combination of work skills that range from the obsessed
thinking person to the creative dancer. I prefer solitude more than
half the time and I enjoy a partner who can enjoy emotional growth
and release without thinking I’m a wacko!”

Notice that Television is now focusing people on just these kind of

more emotional qualities. Reality TV seeks to explode the emotional
vulnerabilities of all the players and because this does seem more
“real” to the viewing audience… the ratings have been there.
Oprah, who has more deep news on her program than all the hard
news stations combined again features the whole person … warts
and all. The human potential movement has now gone public! Even
the medical professions are finally realizing that we have to treat the
whole person.

In so many ways the old stereotypes were very much a part of the
simple trance most people lived in … say during the fifties! Just
listen carefully to the dialog from the older movies! You then can
better gauge how much the group identity trance has been slowly
eroding as we approach the full possibility of a life in a peaceful and
bountiful world.

Think of the effort and money expended to remind Americans at a

political convention that they are Americans first! That IS your
identity and your God given right! There are a series of values
attached to that American image: hard work, sacrifice, service, and,
by the way, lets bring the factories back home where they belong.
Notice anything slightly imprisoning about that model? Is this the

69
biggest corporation in the world recruiting laborers? When will we
see that there is a fuller promise of being human. Is it when we
occupy a more polymorphic or (many forms) identity?

I make something, I grow something, I art something, and I assume

three identities in the process????? Now, I am a grown-up and a
polymorphic being!

I offer that Nations per se have passed their most powerful and
logical points as the only real organizing framework for life. We now
have planetary values making a move into the polemic. The “ethical
marketplace” is aimed at the planet. The “cultural creatives” and
“green building” and “natural security” and “natural capitalism” and
“small is beautiful”are aimed in the broadest way at the global
family. Notice that most of these ideas have been invented by our
fellows.

There are still those who cling to the security of a simple “family
values” model like “Ozzie and Harriett”. But they are losing ground
to the vastly more intriguing qualities of the…

“self-actualized, self-directed, and constantly growing segment of

the population”.

Then to accommodate the best of the past and the best of the
future we have the “digital aboriginal” a techno-tribal hybrid. At
the most expansive level of the spectrum of identity is Jean
Houston’s “Possible Human”. For some, constantly trying on new
identities is what life is all about. If you look carefully at fashion
design … it seems the designers are providing the broadest possible
costuming for this polymorphic world to surface. Pop culture has a
“Madonna” who mo dels the shifting states of her own polymorphic
journey and reminds us to vogue as a way to reinvent ourselves in a

70
more multi-dimensional way. “Fast Company” made a point of
featuring CEO’s that looked more like cowboys than bankers.

At the Academy the fellows are agreed that the shape of the new
most desirable millennium must be “beheld” in mythology. This
short work has been offered as a way to suggest the new cast of
characters and their primary identities. Should the concept ripen
to a setting … I would propose a global village. Here these
characters would go about the business of the corporation but also
provide for themselves as bioregionally responsible players. The
functional and specialized world must give way to people who both
make things and cultivate land in the same place. A dying natural
stage is not an option for a growing cast of characters.

Strategic visions have multiple trajectories like the business side and the cultural side of any viable group.

GLOBAL CURRICULUM

71
Recently, the United Nations has seen fit to employ the work of
Jean Houston, another Academy fellow, to prepare the younger
leaders in 200 developing countries with a curriculum in Social
Artistry. Her curriculum, is now being refined by her team, and it’s
most impressive master teachers. I was asked to participate as such
a teacher and will include the contribution I made below as an
example of the tools I also found useful in the large corporate
settings of leaders. It is just such subject material that we need to
start moving into the planet’s cache for action. This will install a
visionary mindset:

If the ideas mentioned above as elegant shifts

could be considered strategy then the tools
that follow might be best described as tactics
or more ways in which to pull off the larger
strategies.

LEADING QUESTIONS

It is possible as an interested outsider to

guide the thinking of any grou p by asking a
series of very respectful questions … the
answers to which constitute a vision
statement , a mission statement, or a higher
purpose. I would never begin a large
strategic design session without first asking
for the group’s higher purpose. It sets the
context for all that follows and usually
defines the social and cultural mission of the
group. I have never found any organization
of any kind that refused to answer this
question and … usually cho se to take their

72
 time getting to a good answer. The best
phrase uncovered during this inquiry is a slug
line to go under the graphic logo in the
corporate identity package.

LISTENING FOR POSSIBILITY

In a group conversation, it is possible to

listen for that specific phrase or word that
signals the essence of the change required.
If you are listening for that phrase, and then
record the phrase when it occurs, you then
can refer to the group at large as the creative
team that authored the change. When you
get good at this you can pluck an entire
vision paragraph out of the mouths of the
participants and then with some oratory read
it back to them as a summary. Eventually you
will know what phrase is the ope ning sentence
and which phrase is the closing. The left ear
does this sound bite work while the right ear
listens for group energy levels. Tune your
consciousness to the positive sound bite and
wait.

VISUAL LANGUAGE

Having a visual framework on an easel during

the vision process or any proce ss you choose
to undertake becomes the most natural
facilitator in the room. The blanks spaces
open themselves to words thereby elicit the
responses you want like leading questions

73
 but further locate and organize the verbal
responses on a directional an d time based
graphic. The group is plugging action words
(do phrases) into a format that will become
their action plan. Sometimes the ideas will
change and then the graphic is modified on
the spot. The complexity of your design
template choices will vary with group skill
levels. At the very end of the meeting it is
ultimately empowering to summarize the
agreed upon plan using t he strategic
“storyboard” as the quide for your
storytelling. Play the most en nobling music
the group can handle during this summary.

MUSICAL ENERGY

The emotional thru-line of any gathering is

fundamentally driven by music. A meeting
with regular people telling the truth and
backed up by direct or periodic musical
energy is superior to a meeting with
expensive speakers and a dead sound
background. A meeting master will carry their
own musical song kit and befo re any other
task find the person who can p ick the music
and bring it in and out with grace and power.
Your opportunity will be to eventually learn
to speak (surf) a piece of music that matches
the emotional tone you want to attach to any
new undertaking. The movie makers have
already trained everyone to generate feelings
and images based on certain now classical
thematic musical flavors. Let the music you

74
 own convince you that there are predictable
images that will surface in the minds of your
audience when you begin with the right music.

FULL-SPECTRUM MEETINGS

At some point the culture you are serving will

be most moved by the events that bring them
together with their own freshly created
vision. The key to overall success here is
attending to and leading the group
imagination and energy field until it is built so
convincingly that the room feels like the
honeypot that no one wants to leave.
Whether you create some new vision or simply
remind people of how great it is to be
together, the many dimen sions of any
gathering must be attended to. The purely
cerebral meeting won’t awaken . The power
point meeting will die a sure de ath. And the
meeting that ends up with no useful point on
the end of the spear will simply be a waste of
time and money. The imaginal, emotional,
spiritual, and physical worlds must be co-
arising as a minimum in order to transcend
and transform in a convincing way. (see
meetingmastery.com )

ADVENTURE THEATER

When the rational mind needs a real rest and

the group needs some real adventure and
bonding, then a mystery st yle challenge
course can be created to awaken the

75
 organization to its tribal purity. In this way
new missions and operating strategies can be
reinvented after the deep discussions that
are generated by entering a new world. The
new world can be organized somewhat like a
golf course with challenges that take each
group down a lane (fairway) on a mission into
the unknown. Everyone’s leadership style or
lack of it becomes obvious under the
pressure of unknown tasks. The open
discussion that follows clarifies the next
steps. Other venues like firedance and
poetry slams are social inventions that are
reinventing the spontaneous whole-being
intelligence we need to be more real with the
new world we face. All relationships require
shaking off the build-up of petty animosity
and getting the system open en ough to allow
more intuitive and emotionally ripe
contributions to flow.

See <arcturus.org> click on (adventure

theater) See <peakexperience.cc>

WHOLE-BEING INTELLIGENCE

The “possible” organization can encourage

the “possible” hu man to surface . Some parts
of our world are stuck deeply in the concepts
department. There is a real need to release
our hold on intelligence being a head driven
manipulation of thoughts and ideas alone.
Physical, spiritual, emotional, spatial,

76
 rhythmic, imaginal, natural, and another half-
dozen intelligences are just begging to be
recognized. The academic model of
intelligence is to the library what whole being
intelligence is to the internet. It’s a matter
of scope and reach and more. We know
teachers are bound to paper tests and other
artificially small ways of measuring the full
dynamic presence of a human. So, let’s
just insist that our organizations don’t stop
there.

Multi-dimensional art assembles many layers of actions and

results.

Here is the perfect example to show how

stature (attitude/intention) and gestures
(physical dyn amics ) and tone
(emotions/feelings ) and pacing (
velocity/trance ) and imagery ( vivid
description) can combine to represent a
whole-being intelligence that can dramatically
by-pass the rational judging mind with a

77
 multi-channel presentation that invites the
audience into an experiential world. The
cream of this ancient art is now available to
the social artist to create rich and compelling
new combinations for our social worlds to
emerge. You will be astounded to recognize
the difference between just pushing words
out of your mouth in the general direction of
others … and the very rich proc ess of casting
imaginal gestahlts up in a way t o courteously
engage the full cinematic mi nds of your
listeners. Once mastered you will never go
one dimensional again.

See <jimchannon,com>

IMAGINEERING

When you turn talk into a con cept drawing

people move on it, you can break-out the
contracts and then budget in a way never
possible before the drawing. There is a 3D
drawing skill that reveals the look and rough
dimensions of constructed soc ial spaces so
they can be built by crafts people. The
materials may be construction materials o r
just a natural pallet of a pon d, some grass
seats, and tree cover. Imagine in your mind a
3D town square as seen from 200 m. above
the ground and at an an gle. Sketch out and
color code the various systems needed and
distinguish them so that a building team can
do their respective work. This is a spatial
reasoning skill and a necessary dramatic tool

78
 to awaken people to the possibility of a
physical creation and how it will serve the
many dimensions of use. (ie. social,
ecological, energy, color, support, amenities,
etc.) Ideally for big projects a vision gallery
is created and people can look at all aspects
of a new creation from organizational to
constructed.

CULTURECRAFT

There are at least fifty known artifacts of

culture. (eg. A slogan, a motto, a flag, an
initiation, a salute, a sign, a passwo rd, a
creed, a rites of passage, a cheer, an identity
color, a song, an anthem, a march, a uniform,
a bumper sticker, a patch, a fairy story, a
myth, a legend, a cap, a t-shirt, etc). If you
want to reinforce the ideas that have been
created by your social group, just select the
value or concept in question, and design it
into the most memorable and recognizable
artifact you can. This is what public relations
or advertising firms do only on a much
grander scale. They begin with the story that
needs public attention and then install that
into the mouths of popular characters,
cartoons, musical jingles and the like. Well,
these days, an yone can exec ute most of
these approaches since the media tools are
available to all on computer software.

SOCIAL ARCH ITECTURE

79
 Here the social artist asks the question
…”What kind of total experience would you
like?” The answer then must be sketched in
layers but the outcome will not just be a piece
of architecture. It will be everything
surrounding the people that makes them
come to life. Who let the engineers put the
fire in the basement anyway? And what
happened to fresh air in our bu ildings? How
did nature get run out of the picture? Well
great social architecture still has all of those
flavors. There is way more to building than
shelter! Life is a matter of design. You don’t
have to study calculus to have an impact with
social architecture. It is a practice more like
set design. It also includes soc ial inventions
like gathering technology and organizational
design.See <arcturus.org> click on (the
school of social architecture) 15 papers

PERMACULTURE

Basic permaculture gives you the mind-set to

organize parcels of land so that they work
dynamically and reinforce their own capacity
to succeed. Then with a variety of other
garden sensitive technologies and
aquaculture approaches everyone on the
temperate earth can live in a natural
paradise. We can grow ou r own food,
furniture, medicines, flowers, herbs,
fragrances, oils, cosmetics … and do these
things in an integrated intelligent and

80
 mutually supporting way. The study and
practice is extensive but so worth it!

CHRONICALLING / HERALDRY

People will be comforted and moved to action

by periodic reports that explain how things
are going. This is basic journalism with a
liberal dose of vivid description taken from
fiction writing. Often a future project can be
written about in the future as if its happening
now. I sometimes refer to this job as the job
of the herald. Hear ye hear ye!
“We said we wanted to do x and by golly x is
happening right now thanks to the hard work
of Bob, Sue, and the gang at dooley’s.”
Periodic reviews of projects that have been
going on for so me time are reinforcing
because they tend to accumulate
accomplishments and generate pride. This
increases momentum. A c ritical subset of
this game is naming things. Logos! The
earlier and the better named p rojects tend to
have a buy in that sometimes seems
impossible. There are hundred page reports
that will never have the power of bumper
stickers with the great name on them. And
then there are the endless array of banners,
badges, patches, pins, and the like. When
the developments get larger then there are
trophies, awards, and celebrations. Its
astonishing we don’t have a school of
heraldry an ymore.

81
MYTHOGENESIS

If you can’t speak of things in legendary ways

…well ..you just might not be able to create
things at that level. A myth worker hopefully
begins with a higher purpose and then builds
a cathedral of important art around it. In a
town to be rebuilt … we imagine an altar piece
or great defining tower. In an act of unity
and courage we call upon the archetypes. We
write slogan s. We do a creed and an anthem,
perhaps something symphonic. Even if its
done on a small computer with sampled
sounds. How sad it is when corporate
leaders write the vision statement in an office
memo! Isn’t anything sacred anymore? If
you make the most important things more
sacred … the y simply will be respected that
way. Sacred spaces can also be found or
made to enact ceremony and tell the tallest
tales needed to move the c lan forward!
Onward and upward! To the grail and
beyond!

SACRED PLAY

Sacred play creates an opening in the mind of

the group. Your skill is in knowing how to
generate totally permissive, comedic,
surprising, spontaneous, and lighthearted
spaces. This requires overloading the
rational analytic mind with at least four
channels of synchronous stimulation. That
means: eg, Talking, graphics, music, and

82
 movement all done together. Other channels
might be: Aroma, slow dance, color, mime,
heavy gestures like sign language, etc.
Ancient methods included dancing for days
till the effort required to maintain a rational
analytical mind were exhausted. The essence
of transformational communication is to open
the group to direct contact with the
imagination. You can use gravity to invite the
group to the party and levity then take them
to new ground.

Here is some heraldry from the First earth battalion mythology.

MYTHOLOGY
In 1978 the United States Army created one of the most interesting
think-tanks ever designed. There were a number of interesting
ways they chose the think about the future. One of the ways that

83
had the most lasting effects was THE FIRST EARTH BATTALION.
This was a mythical and hypothetical unit in the army that was
thought to be operating in the distant future. It was supporting the
world in a time where the planet had decided to be more than a
collection of nations. One reason the mythology has such a felt
sense and presence … was that it actually behaved like a unit that
was in the present. It had a flag and a crest and a banner and a
slogan and a field manual that was printed by the army and
dispatched to the most creative elements at work on the future
inside the army. Here is a synopsis of the mythology:

THE EARTH BATTALION

Bioregional activation force

In each bioregion there needs be an activating force. This band of merry men and women are
volunteers but also paid by the region as the deeds they undertake merit. They have a military
kind of culture but it is tempered by the festive quality of a troupe of players and minstrels.
They are cultivators of the land and the spirit. They move in many dimensions.

They have a mission that insists upon the life-force of the land.
To this end they water her young, braid her skin, and otherwise
harvest all that might be renewed. They trust and listen to her
needs and make no grand plans to smother her in any kind of
monoculture. The infinitely integrated alchemy of her fecund quilt
is their domain and grand pleasure.

This work is the most sought after work in any region. The size of
the greater family can be ten times the size of the Battalion for the
right moments of action. Every young heart at one time or
another aspires to be a member of this family of fun. They assume
nothing could be a higher privilege than working with the land and
it’s ultimate unfolding.

They coordinate large plantings of mixed forests. They create

waterworks that purify water that has been well used. They

84
operate a state of the art eco-port that monitors their biosphere in
minute detail. They educate the children in the ways of nature.
They host the grandest festivals to signal the seasons and shower
the people with the gifts of the land. They are skilled artisans,
musicians, dancers, and storytellers. This they add to their many
dozens of cultivation skills. They work toward whole-being
intelligence.

They are organized as a provisional force that morphs from one

kind of task force to another. Their organizational structure is a
chart of rings that also changes with the work. They plan in detail
but also change their focus on a dime if the collective intuition
calls for that. Their work is chaordic (alternating between
programmed and organic, visionary and mystical).

They have a variety of tools and transport depending on the

microclimates they attend. When possible they work hand in
hand with military units and specialize in showing those units a
way to convert their technology for earth-based usage.

There are ocean-based and space-based Battalions as well. There

is no national command structure. The intent is to keep the
direction of this service dependent on the special needs of each
land division. The specific boundaries are somewhat malleable
and therefore we can enact cross-border partner work among the
Battalions.

The culture is rife with heraldry. Deeds and states of being are
especially acknowledged along with a lot of good-natured teasing
and roasting when the player has really excelled over time. The
code of behavior is much aligned with the evolutionary tactics
manual created for the American army in the late 1970’s.

Occasionally the work undertaken is supported by very large earth

moving companies and the Earth Battalion is assigned the terra-

85
forming tasks. Land shaping turns out to be a skill that was
overlooked along with water cleansing and here again comes into
its own at a scale that is distinctly small and very charming.

Go planet!

Mythology, or the new story, was the means suggested by the World
Business Academy fellows as the best way to launch the new Global
Mind Change Campaign that is needed to refocus humanity on its
best possible future options. The goals, the thematic elements and
the self-concepts suggested above can help you seed your portion
of that mythology. Others will follow.

A really good candidate to accomplish what the FIRST EARTH

BATTALION accomplished for the army is THE GLOBAL VILLAGE.
We spoke earlier of the SHIRE. This mythological container can
allow people to play inside a known and felt sense of place …a
village comprised of all the costumes, traditions, and customs of the
planet. And who best to organize such a container? Well, let’s just
take business for example.

Business is the most prevalent kind of organization on the planet

that is already trying to house hundreds of people in the same place
for work. Business is however disconnected from the social
dilemmas we face today and as a result sometimes creates problems
that exacerbate those conditions and other related spheres such as
the environment. What if they became responsible for the living
footprint of a village and did their work from that position? Can you
say that we can’t improve on the subdivision and the shopping mall?
These two social inventions have served bankers and investors but
not culture. In order to get an integrated solution we need to tie
these forms to the cultures that need building … that work together
every day … like corporations.

86
 So, tell me a story!

It is about a village of the future that models the major goals and
themes we have discussed. So, the story is inside a container we all
know and understand … a village. It includes a marriage with nature,
culture, and a healthy life force. It encourages diversity but
compels unity. It has a visionary mindset as a common inheritance.
You can determine the rest.

Does it need an evil threat to be a really compelling story?

What if the threat is simply the sad demise of the earth’s resource
base, increasing pollution, more and more poisonous water … you
know the sad story. Do we then need to demonize the rich, fat,
whitecollar criminals to activate a genuine response in people
everywhere? Does there have to be a bad guy in order to have good
guys? Do the good guys all have to be the same? Is there such a
thing as a story that is all about the good solutions to a new world?
Obviously, there would be a lively discussion among storytellers on
these questions. Most would opt to open with the threat then go to
the solution.

But, since when do we go to a music concert and tolerate a bunch of

bad songs in order to love the good ones once they finally arrive?
Evil may just be a bad habit! It’s a thought.

The story can be in 3D and it can be experienced

The really important elements I have learned about a working

mythology is that they must be realized in an entertaining way. Walt
Disney isn’t often thought of as the greatest educator of the last

87
century .. but notice the way he took completely mythological ideas
and brought them into physical life in the form of Disneyland.
Disneyland is a model for a global village in many ways. If the end
goal of life on planet earth is sacred play, then we need a
playground. He took ideas that had never been witnessed and
illustrated them in fabulous stories that even brought them to life in
time and physical space.

I hear they tore down the shire in the trilogy “Lord of the Rings”.
But few will forget it. If you want to know how Dallas Texas became
the city built of green glass just look at the ages of the designers
and builders who built it. They all went to see “The Emerald city” in
the “Wizard of Oz” when they were kids! Vivid description and
physical prototypes are always powerful assists. Everyone
remembers things slightly differently … so the more dimensions that
can be rendered the better.

A PLAY
Here is an approach to a mythology that is taking on the form of a
play.

GOPLANET!
presents

End of the Road

The PlayPLAN

This is a story about a small town at the end of the road. It had long
believed it was part of a great nation and that most of its wealth was a
result of the grand work and great protection provided by that nation.
Then one day it is obvious that the great nation was really at the end of
the road. Oh My! Should we stop everything and protect her again!
And the small town family is in distress. Many of their oldest stories

88
have to be adjusted. Slowly, however, they come to realize that this
nation is no more a reality of co nsequence than the county or the state
who have been doing virtually nothing for years. Funny we didn’t miss
THEM when they stopped performing. They didn’t start wars with
nations half way round the world. They didn’t ask that we die for them.
They didn’t say it was a privilege to work until you died. They didn’t say
it was patriotic to fund the great war machine. The town then rediscovers
the genius it has within. People sing and dance again like in the
villages of old. They tell stories. They learn to be silent again and grow
themselves along side their beloved land.

The play has 8 scenes with overview narration and intermission in the
middle. The work consists of dan ces, songs, stories, dialog, reflections,
and silence. It will be funny when we hit a nerve, it will be sobering when
we land a truth, and it will be charming when everything comes togeth er as
a folk musical. The characters are all part of a village. There are
corpora te types, there are nature types, there are elders, …. there are
personalities of all sorts.

In the end we are de monstrating that people in villages everywhere

must begin the new world. We have heard all the bad news about the
gross corruption that has been allowed to collect in the seats of
power. But, its not our job to fix them. They can die a slow death
in the greed that infected them. We must build our planet again with
the most profound new respect for nature as the most creative
partner we could ever have … and create ourselves anew as awake,
creative, and whole human s on a natural quest to make the world
beautiful and experience life with all the aliveness we can muster.
This is the get real answer to all the recent wake up calls we have
seen like Farhrenheit 911, the corporation, what the bleep etc. This
is the grass roots level respon se to a real tomorro w. Out of the
cultural trance and into the game of life. We will make a video if
funds permit. Here is a vision statement for the play called “The
end of the road”.

The End of

89
 the Road
A folk musical
about the new uprising far from
the centers of po wer.

One of the most condensed and poignant plays about the healing
needed in our time of polarity. We follow the origins of the
characters that split our world. We find they don’t know much about
each other in the beginning, but because they now live at the end of
the road where the basics eat the profiles for lunch, we watch them
melt into taking on the real needs of a slowly dying earth. They each
rise to the best in their stereotypical strengths. Both groups are
honored.

They find that the slogans of old and the quiet arrogance of the new
have a very thin and shallow veneer. We discover why the Bush
babies think they are doing the right thing and we discover why the
young have just gone their own way. The old boys want to connect
the world and make it play by the rules. The young want to just have
that smolderingly satisfying time of being alive and very present on a
fecund planet Earth. We come to find out that their twin desires of
stabilizing the infrastructure and harmonizing the living earth can be a
stunning two-pronged strategy for the future if we all see our roles in
terms of a positive future.

It has original music, elegant dance and poignant mime. It has the
high-speed mind of the yuppie driven world matched with the wait and
see patience of the new roots culture. They come to know each
other but not before the excesses of each side are laid bare for what

90
they really are. In the end there is a synergy that will surprise and
amaze you!

The plot structure is there but bedazzled with pungent interruptions.

Dancers and pundits are the curtains between scenes as the
audience is milked into the game with instant play by play analysis.
We really can’t tell where the cast leaves off and the audience begins.
We never have the feeling there is a single spoken line of the
playwright at hand. The dialog feels authentic. And that is because
the play wasn’t written before hand. It was invented as the entire cast
immersed themselves in a work in process and a realty of our time.
The characters know who they are and where they came from. They
chose themselves. You will see yourself in them all.

The music is splendid and the singing is engaging. The audience again
has a chance to join in with great choruses that seem to open the
whole place to song. There is the most primal of offerings and the
sweetest of lyrics. This is a no mercy tribal uprising where the play
leads the action of the assembled. The audience has the lyrics as
part of the printed program. Do we have another form of public
yoga on our hands here? Let us hope so… and not just at the end of
the road … or it might be the end of the road for our world.

SCENE ONE
Just to understand how each part of the play is set up for the group to write in
the details.

We establish and connect with the anquish of discovering our Nation is more a
hypocracy than a real bastion of freedom and democracy. We wake up to the
truth.

The stage has three layers. A solo spot in the foreground for a soldier who is
writing home from Iraq. A middle ground where a meeting of village friends

91
occurs friends occurs. And, a background is seen as is a moving space between
for the dancers who bring us the flavors of war in slow mime. The scene is dark
and ominous.

A music track with impending doom comes on and fills the space first mostly dark
and then coming into gloom. The soldier begins with his spoken words on a
recording but his pen moving over the small writing pad in his hand in the scene.
As he begins to verbally unravel his dismay and confusion his mother BUTOH’s
into the scene soon followed by the other villagers. Then as the sounds of war
continue the graces (dancers) float thru in darkly veiled middle eastern garb.
They proceed carrying smoke of some sort. The lights flash with laser bursts. They
mime the anguish of the local people as a shear screen begins to flicker with the
images of war taken from photos of the wounded people and destroyed lands.

Soon the villagers all find themselves seated in a small conversation circle set in a
barn like space. They begin to punctuate the now sad but halting music with
their misgivings. This conversation builds to a point of anger and outrage. Then
the discourse takes the course of denial of responsibility and finally blame to
those in government who arrogantly played with their good name and may
have actually killed our own citizens to set up the revenge in a false way. There
may be a connection from the soldiers voice to the mothers mouth across
dimensions. The dancers occasionally glide thru and wail plaintively. The
scene ends when an elder speaks of his WWII experience where there was
nothing ever said about the horrors of war. That bridges to scene two.

The end of this play confirms for us all that the most benevolent and
visionary leaders would have us doing precisely what we already know we
need to do.

GLOBAL VOICE
The Planet Is Twinkling With Connections

That was an attempt to allow you to hear the promise yet one more
time with an episodic perspective. We have to practice our new
thinking in new forms. It seems that's how it is when we begin our
move from one paradigm to the next. For example, at the turn of the

92
last century, when they began to build steel bridges for the first
time, they molded the steel in the form of wooden planks and then
even accented the old nail heads to make all things seem normal. The
old view was still in mind although the new world was already
physically in being. We are there again now! So, forcasting a future
as a proclamation is an old form with the new content inside. This
time the mental shift required is much bigger in scale and
importance.

Here it is: We have a "whole" planet on our hands for the first time
in history ... and it’s not going away. It doesn't quite have its full
deep and resonant voice recognized as such just yet. But, if you
snoop around in the right places, you can hear it very clearly. It
has dimension, it has range, and it is in out of the way places. This
planet and its respective players everywhere are flashing ideas,
food, medicines, tools, transport, music, spiritual ideas and movie
stars about with gusto. I believe this exchange and interdependence
can be heard as a GLOBAL VOICE, seen as millions of strings of
light, and understood in the following ways:

1. Responsiveness. Millions have gathered in the name of peace.

People in major capitols everywhere created massed events with just
a week's notice. How did they organize so quickly? The connectivity
is clearly in place. The call went out from one point and the
response was relaye d mostly on - line, like sprinkler systems all over
the globe. People and organizations responded within days with a
precision sequence of parades and events that arguably take a
normal city a year to create. Can you feel the global synapses
firing? Zip Zap with billions of words per minute set loose. Also of
note, this kind of response for peace, not war, is the beginning of a
classic type of behavior we can recognize in our personal lives.
Isn't it true when we enter a new period of discovery in our lives we
must first express our displeasure with the old situation? During
this interim period we are really clear about what we don't want any

93
longer, but also quite unsure of what we do want. So, we focus on
stopping things. That is the prevalent conversation. Enough
already! We paint the signs with the word PEACE because it is the
opposite of what we dislike most ...WAR. We are actually really
displeased with dozens of other old world practices, but for the
moment PEACE is what we say. Stop this madness! What we do want
next has to be discovered with more deliberation. That takes more
time. It takes another period of thinking and visioning. For now,
concerns are expressed.
We are unquestionably stunned by the number of worldwide
conversations had by the citizens of the planet. We are waiting for
the dialogue to shift from the more distractive and oppressive
blathering about whether Saddam did this or did that and get to the
meat of our new worldgame toge ther. We have some thoughtful
homework to do. Otherwise we will go back to sleep until another
blatant and oppressive strategy is unleashed by old world thinking.
It can happen like that.

2. Global Dialogue. Notice that the twinkling global latticework

of communication is alive with concerned voices. These voices cross
boundaries instantly, almost without an in-breath. These voices
begin to organize creative global countermoves and call forth the
discussions of balance. Send the Pope to Baghdad! People have
never before meddled so quickly in the way large governments did
their business. These voices are organizing communities of interest
that cross every kind of borderline. Those communities of interest
are actually joining together in mid-stream. This dialogue is the
beginning of the real new world order, and it’s not another
institution somewhere. These borderless but lightning connections
are proof that something major has changed. The real news here
is that we are having a community discussion as a planet. Yes ... a
real, live, conscious, thoughtful, connected and opinionated body
of people matched with the round solid orb we live upon. It may be
the most important moment ever in ten thousand years of human

94
history, and we mostly don't know that it has happened. We are so
busy blabbering at the level of gossip that we don't know we have
demonstrated a fundamental act of being a "whole" planet for the
first time ever. A serious celebration is in order.

3. Global Short Term News Problaphobia. We also have tolerated a

news system that relentlessly VOICES the illusive problems facing us
daily. We have a paranoid global consciousness by design and
consent. What do you think of people you know who whine
constantly? Without noticing the progress of humanity with any
serious perspective, till a history book is written decades later, we
have all seriously handicapped our GLOBAL AWARENESS. In
neuro-linguistic programming, they call that "sorting for the
problem." I call it black spot disease. We need some new global
lenses. We could also stand up a little higher on the hill. The news
is also speaking for national interests and not global interests. The
planetary commons is untended. Nations are obsolete. Look at their
track record in the last century. They killed one hundred and sixty
million people while tending their borders and their ideology. They
may have been the logical next step-up in size after provinces and
states, but they are not an example of an institutional entity to be
repeated at the next level. They still are locked into personalities,
ideologies and history that are irrelevant and dangerous for the
next phase of our civilization. We need to connect our GLOBAL
VOICE to some wisdom not some polling data that is twenty-four
hours old. We need independent communities of interest and circles
of elders that span the globe to speak for needs and purposes
beyond borders and be yond the term of the elected leaders. We
need an entirely new look at how we report to ourselves about what
is really going on. It needs way more depth, more elevation, more
scope and more seasoning than is present now. We can have global
opinion created in dozens of new ways with the phenomenal
functionality of our new internet tools. Let’s also have a little
pronoia (going overboard for the positive) to balance the paranoia

95
please. And I am not talking about advertising because it just sells
things and dulls our capacity to believe anything.

4. Penetration. In the very smallest of villages the GLOBAL VOICE

is being heard by people walking down country roads with a
symphony ringing out in both ears. They listen to a walkman on
headphones with a fidelity as good as front row seats at the
theater. This is a musical transmission of intelligence that is not
confined to words alone. A hundred and twenty people in a
symphony orchestra with twenty-plus years of practice each are
available together anywhere now. Music designed on more than a
dozen tracks of sound can be way more intelligent than a similar time
block of data or a scientific proof. It wakes up a significantly larger
portion of the brain.
Too often we imagine that the only medium for transmitting
intelligence is words. Just look at the sale of games, movies with
special effects, internet 3D worlds, concept graphics, dance improv
and the new world of a million colors. This is also news, folks! But
people stuck in words don't think so. We can change that. The linear
verbal construct is a barely passable intelligence when compared to
many other more robust combinations. It also takes people out of
the flow-state intelligence that allows them to participate in the
world on many dimensions simult aneously.

5. Instant Global Contact. Have you had the experience of meeting

someone on-line and essentially hammering out real compatibility
before having a look at their face? Have you made a phone call
halfway around the world and had a stranger answer you on a cell
phone in a restaurant where they were having a business meeting
that coincided with your interest in the call. These are the synapses
of the GLOBAL VOICE and create a global brain in action.
Imagine in your mind a global map of all these inter-connections.
That is the real state of the planet now! Don't look at a map of the
world with nations pasted on it and imagine that is what is going on.

96
Not a chance. See the world decorated like a Christmas tree and
sense that we are that dazzling collective connectivity.

6. Global Reach. You can enter a living room capsule that flies
(transcontinental jet aircraft) and be on the absolute other side of
the planet in just a day's time. During that trip, you are connected
to food and music that originated in more than a dozen countries.
You are connected to an internet library that can give you data on
any documented idea in less than a second. You are connected to
a selection of bi-lingual movies. You can shop the world and have a
near intimate conversation with a stranger next to you from
somewhere you never heard of. The GLOBAL VOICE is with you
and then, shazaam! You are with that other someone special
fourteen thousand miles from home. Notice how close you both
really are! It's an intimate distance and non-threatening. Isn't it
time to think about how that connectivity can replace the
institutions we used to depend upon to consolidate information and
then make our decisions for us? We don't need consolidators at the
end of a buggy ride the way we did when our Constitution was
created in America. We can decide daily together and in the
appropriate communities of interest. Governments are slow and very
opinionated filters that could be useful as the maintenance
department and not much more. Thank you very much, we have a
"life" to attend to. And....we have GLOBAL VOICE now!

THE CALL TO ACTION

Now, a look at what happens if we add the key global players into
the act and imagine the key things that need doing while matching
them with the most powerful players who could expect to perform
the tasks needed.

97
 GLOBAL
GAMEPLAN
In the last two years the Academy fellows have spent some time
reviewing the grandest scope of opportunities on the planet. They
have agreed on a super-ordinate goal, nine long range goals, a
process orientation, and a need to finalize our best thinking in the
form of a mythology.

It is one thing to know what best needs to be done. It is ano ther

thing and even more difficult to decide who c an and will answer the
call to execute the solution to reach those most preferred end
states. It follows then that finally making the appeal that will start
the ball rolling becomes the final and most challenging act.

The nature of this quest at times seems impossibly large. And yet
just doing the simp lest matchi ng of the gran d task to the talent
needed produces an intelligent and very promising plan. By task to
talent I simply mean matching the big idea with a big institution or
two that could get the job done were they so inclined. Arrayed
below are nine grand tasks each matched with large institutions that
currently are busy at compatible work. This means we actually have
not only the knowledge to pull ourselves into the world we wan t but
potentially the most qualified players are standing by just awaiting
the new call to action. Is this t oo good to be true? So, what will it
take to get things rolling beside the obvious need for everyone to
understand it is possible and desirable?

Before revealing the match ups just mentioned let me also add, that
if we do the grand mytholo gy ne eded to wake the entire public up to
this new global gameplan … I might also add the archetypical
characters for the mytholo gy. Fair enough? See that included
below. Here goes:

98
WE WANT A VIBRANT BIOSPHERE … we ask the
militaries, the oil companies, and much of the current
industrial complex to shift to “natural” security missions
so we can preserve the resources that people fight over
so … there is no need for war. These forces are peopled
with a deep archetype called warrior monks for they fear
no obstacles, but sustain their complete allegiance to the
service of the planetary commons.

WE WANT THE CITIZENS OF EARTH LOADED WITH

LIFESKILLS, COMMON SENSE, AND DETAILED
KNOWLEDGE ABOUT HOW TO STAY WELL. … We call
upon our institutions of learning and ask support from the
chemists and healers so they can also focus on
preventing the situations that then call for desperate and
continuous repair. We mythologize them as the sa ges,
shaman, and alchemists. They will help us create a
global civilization that can care for itself.

WE WANT FRESH FOOD FOR ALL. We call upon our

cultivators. We also ask the elders and children to build
gardens everywhere so that fresh and healthy food is
always at hand. These people are mythically the people
of the shire. They love daily contact with the land and
understand nature as the other ultimately creative
partner in life.

WE WANT A BIOREGIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE.

Governance at all levels where the boundaries are not
well matched with nature is patently ignorant. We want
to collapse governing bodies at all levels and match them
to bioregions. They will concern themselves with
infrastructure services. They will have no war ma king

99
capacity. They will be called social architects not
politicians and be selected by merit.

WE WANT TO EXPERIENCE OUR WORLD WITHOUT

BRUISING IT WITH EXTENDED TRAVEL. Here we ask the
auto, the airline and the internet industries to bring the
world home to us wherever we are. We will be inside
the ultimate time machines that seem like someone
brought the movie theater into the family van (THE
VIRTEL). All distance business and access to education
can be handled in this way. These players will be
known as wizards for they have been the keys to
technology in the twentieth century.

WE WANT ACCESS TO THE ENERGY THAT IS NATURAL

TO OUR UNIVERSE. Here we call on the wide range of
manufacturing talent known before as the military
industrial complex. They were sustained before by our
tax dollars and could do so still with a different but
equally challenging mission of connecting us to the
inherent energy that comes from a deeper understanding
of the universe we live in.

WE WANT AN EQUAL AMOUNT OF TIME DEVOTED TO

CREATIVE PLAY AND LIESURE. We call upon those who
now insure us from accidents, theft. and death. We add
a liberal dose of landcrafting from agro-foresters. We
ask them to build the Disneylands of challenge and
adventure inside national parks and sanctuaries. T hese
agents become the landcrafters and terraformers who
build games like golf courses for the grandest of
excitement, challenge and plenty of exercise.

100
WE CREATE A NEW LIVING FOOTPRINT CALLED THE
GLOBAL VILLAGE. We call on corporations to house
their activities and people there to get started. These
footprints have a mix of cultivation, small industries,
urban fare, corporate action and elder housing all
contained within a one kilometer of land. These are the
merchants of vision. These are the prime market for the
academy.

TIPPING POINTS

Another way to assemble key ideas that could make a difference in

the future is a new approach to understanding pending change
called tipping points. Discover more of the theory in a book by the
same name. The basic notion is that ideas that are memorable
enough and capturued as slug lines or slogans are called “sticky”.
They percolate for awhile in the mass consciousness but then “pop”
…all at once. The details of how this actually works are best left to
academics at this point. The reality of it can be understood if we
just review the internet phenomenon.

I was on-line in the army in 1978. The machine I used was called a
silent 700. It looked like a portable typewriter with a coupling
device that took the two bulbous ends of a telephone in to make the
connection. It printed out the back on heat sensitive paper. We
were networking beyond time and space just as the world does now.
And yet, that basic technology percolated for twenty years until
1998 when Time Magazine popped it on the front cover. Within the
span of three years the concept went global and has become the

101
most vital public communication ever. There are now close to ten
billion e-mails a day screaming around the planet. An important side
is that the spread of an idea on the internet isn’t just serial. It can
go from one address list to another. Do the math.

So, now that we understand this new somewhat explosive tool of

conscious evolution, just what content would we offer to “tip” the
world into the kind of awareness we need to have a planetary
civilization come about? You have just viewed a list of book titles
written by our esteemed fellows and deva’s. I believe all of them
would qualify as ideas that are captured in a few short words. We
have also covered other ideal outcomes in the benchmarks section
of this work. So, what are your top ten tipping points and why?

I will offer a list compiled from a review of the forgoing materials

with a few wild cards thrown in. There is a logic to the order
presented and some thought to the stickyness of the phrases:

RADICAL HONESTY To bust the hypocracies of political discourse

and prolonged whining.

HIGHER PURPOSE A new constant in the strategic approach for

all institutions.

CHAORDIC To give way to the irregular process of creating the

best end state by building the bridge as we walk upon it.

THE LOVE ECONOMY Recognizing that we function on shear good

will most all of the time.

THE CULTURAL CREAT IVES The new mass culture that will see
that we end up with a civilization and not just another economic
infrastructure.

102
GLOBAL VOICE The rise of a popular global exchange that sets
the most basic rights in place and demands an end to national
dominance.

NATURAL SECURITY The new collective understanding of the real

way to insure the future of our civilization and begin with global
reconstruction.

SYNERGY We discovered the power of leverage during the machine

age now we must understand it at the collective level of social
invention to establish generative approaches that enoble work but
eliminate labor.

PARDIGM SHIFT As we retool and reorganize to create a global

civilization each institution should review its most basic gifts in terms
of the next best service it can provide while still honoring its deeper
gifts.

THE POSSIBLE HUMAN The ultimate contribution that we can

make to our lives and our world should be an on-going adventure of
conscious evolution where we continuously aim for next most
imaginable state of being for our species.

It is hard to stop at just ten ideas. But, then again the idea of a
tipping point is that it achieve notoriety. Maybe too many notions
would spoil the game? So, how do we kick start, infect, promulgate
such a list if we could generally agree on it? Is this a matter of
GOD’s time?

103
 SECTION
IV
SOCIAL
ARCHITECTURE
• THE PRACTICE OF SOCIAL
ARCHITECTURE
• MODUS OPERANDI
• CIVILIZATION AS A FINE ART

104
 • CREATION MYTHOLOGY
• ADVENTURES IN SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE
• THE SPECTRUM
• SACRED COWS AND SECRET LOVES

SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE
Now, what can we embrace that will create a culture of players who
can help shepherd these ideas all into being. We have some Omega
Points (desirable end states) established and what of the Omega
Paths (desirable processes) we could chose to get there? As an
example, allow me to offer a new practice called social architecture.
Imagine that it is a qualification as well as a profession.
Organizational leaders could have a working understanding of it.

105
 THE PRACTICE
Defining the work

In social architecture we imagine that elders, patrons, leaders and those

who function at the broader cultural level have a special opportunity
also to shape their cultures and the quality of their lives day to day.
Parts of this formative practice have been a subtle part of leadership for
centuries. Only now, when we can see that cultures can be dashed
about so mindlessly with the planet-wide explosion of multiple
influences, do we really need to understand and better effect how things
are shaped at a grander scale. Here are the bones of this practice:

THE PRACTICE

The social architect contributes tools and practices to the design of

civilization.

The social architect works with cultures as the primary strategic territory
of interest.

The social architect designs communities using the craft of culture.

The social architect uncovers the deeper ideals of a community and sees
that an appropriate culture is created to recognize that ideal publicly.

The social architect draws upon the practical work of traditions that
promote the ethical responsibility for the healthy dynamics of the culture.

106
The social architect works with desired states of being and full states of
potential as design specifications.

The social architect masters contextual reframing to see the holistic

solution, eliminate limiting mindsets and establish paradigms that inspire
noble work.

The social architect begins this reframing with meta level approaches like
paradigm shifts, language creation, and the expansion of conscious
awareness to effect cultural change.

The social architect respects a grand range of ancient and traditional

cultural influences like manners, heraldry, public
events, monuments, music, mythology and the integration of art.

The social architect may render design solutions in a traditional planning

and presentation mode or in a full-spectrum tribal rite.

The social architect recognizes the value of technical inventions to support

functions, but creates social inventions as a matter of practice to produce
selected advanced experiences of being.

The social architect uses primal communications to influence social

understanding at the detail level.

The social architect divines solutions from the culture served

by listening from possibility, surfacing intuition, and then illustrating new
options.

The social architect works with ideals, not issues, to lead toward
understanding of the greater possibilities.

The social architect reflects and confirms the genius of cultures in

artistically poignant forms like storytelling, theater and outdoor
adventures.

The social architect coaches the cultural leaders on the options to herald,
ennoble and extol the emerging solutions to the culture at large.

107
The social architect is schooled in the basic skills of purposing, visioning
and planning.

The social architect understands the infrastructure of economy,

technology, and governance and then goes beyond those basic supports to
structure the human adventure toward actualization.

The social architect aims at the flourishing of human experience whereas

traditional architecture more specifically aims at servicing the human
condition.

The social architect uses soul and essence level diagnostic tools to further
the selection of desired ideals.

The social architect seeks to emulate nature for its whole systems
solutions.

The social architect builds multi-spectral environments and zones that

draw forth the states of consciousness desired.

The social architect knows a well-designed celebration can foster more

change than a content style conference.

The social architect maps the new patterns of influence including music,
law, folklore, sport, movies, festivals, news, pop culture hero’s, fashion etc.
and builds a plan of action that recognizes them all.

The social architect designs self-organizing means to generate and then

shape passion toward intended ends.

The social architect alerts the culture to sacred cows, blindspots, and
unwarranted cynicism that block creative thinking.

The social architect bridges the worlds of the developers and the shamanic
artists to create situations that evoke states of grace.

The social architect produces both solutions that stimulate the imagination
and viscerally engage the senses.

108
The social architect is mindful that disassembling old culture paves the
way for reassembling new culture.

The social architect designs language, archetypes, memes and new words
to lead the imagination of the culture toward the desired outcome.

The social architect blends cultural footprints and cultural timestreams to

satisfy the larger scale needs of development.

The social architect structures energy fields at specific points and corridor
activities along the way so that people have the maximum chance to be in
an expanded state.

The social architect can recommend ways to assemble and then integrate
other practices into new whole systems.

The social architect alerts the culture to hardening of the categories and
mythologically deep limitations that inhibit their capacity to see and
embrace the full range of their new choices.

The social architect is a specialist in spiritual courage and high play.

The social architect applies the principles of sustainability and generative

natural options to all social inventions.

The social architect designs to allow the essensual qualities of nature to be

available and even exalted to touch our senses with our world.

I hope this hasn’t been too over the top. There is a detailed curriculum that breaks
out these more generalized ideas. I wanted to contribute to a more expanded view
of the perspective required when helping to shape cultures toward desirable and
agreed upon ends.

PERSONAL EVOLUTION

109
 MODUS OPERANDI
2100
Ideal lifeskills to thrive in our new civilization
Whether we like it or not we pass through many phases in life. They
come as thresholds. Often they are triggered by conflict or
emotional trauma. What ever it takes to make such “wake up
calls” these awarenesse s all co ntribute to a remarkable journ ey
of discovery. So, why would I dare to suggest what they are in
another laundry list style? Well, because too few people are
making it through the primary set of skills we need to carry us
into the next evolutionary period of life on planet Earth.

To have a civilization that can maintain its sacred opportunity to be

alive on this miracle of a planet we need an education system that
teaches the lifeskills that produce a vibrant civilization. We need to
create human beings first … then human havings ,,, or human

110
knowings … or human doings. We need skills for living with our
Earthly inheritance not just using it as a stage for our tiny ass little
soap opera! Consider the following lifeskill wisdoms taken from
many traditions. To some they may be principles, others values, and
others the curriculum for a new world.

The Modus Operandi 100

1. BREATHING First be aware of your breathing. Ventilate yourself well and
notice if when you are thinking whether you stop breathing or not.

2. MOVING Stay in touch with your body. Notice if you have sat too long in
one position without moving. Be kind to this miraculous vehicle that moves
you about. Move all of it about in a yogic way so that all of it is awakened
and open.

3. HYDRATION Just as the air needs to come in to separate the solid elements
the water can flush and drain the used and toxic waste. Stay clean with clean
water.

4. IMAGINE Use your own positive mental imagery to constantly aim your
being at its highest potential state and its most desirable environment.
Exercise your imagination until you can create and then transform the
pictures in your mind with ease and clarity.

5. SILENCE Learn to be silent. Also, silence your mind so that you can
really listen to your inner voice and the deeper meaning inside others voices.
Then change gears and choose options with a new and more choiceful state of
being for all.

6. DANCING Listen to music and rythmns until you can muster an honest
response in your body to the various patterns of sound. Exalt in your
expression. Extend your movement category. Let your movement take you
to a place of deep reverence.

7. SINGING Make sounds until you can create an honest connection between
your bodily instrument and your intended expression. Build a vocabulary of
expressive sounds coming through your voice. Work to hear all the colors in
sound. Let this expression open your heart.

111
8. STORYTELLING Understand that a story only exists when the
imagination of the listener begins to make imagery. Then know that the
emotional response is also not triggered unless you are that emotion and or
the music you speak with is that emotion. Be courteous and present the
setting before launching into the journey.

9. PACING Decide on a speed and tempo so you can move through life with
consciousness. Monitor your speed so that you do not lose the connection to
your energy field by going to fast. Chew your food slowly and smell
fragrances slowly. Pattern your work and rest so that it plays like music.

10. FOOTPRINTS Assemble an intelligent mix of nested land-based patterns,

shapes and designs from large tracks of land to individual rooms. See that
those surroundings encourage your favorite states of being.

11. VISION Practice seeing everything you want at its shining best in your
imagination. Place your dreams at the forefront of your quest. Relax and
trust that your mind will alert you when the components of those dreams
come into view. Periodically review what you really care about.

12. SACRED COWS See and reject the common conventions that blind us to
new choices. Don’t be afraid to avoid the most time-honored habits when
they no longer serve. Place them on the altar of history.

13. STATES OF GRACE Establish the most beautifully transcendent moments

as a your guide for passing through the world with joy, humor, and grace..

14. MYTHOLOGY Relish telling the story and the miracle you next imagine
becoming. Do it often.

15. THE SEASONS Join the wisdom of the grand cycle of life. Let the miracle
of nature in. Play with her she is equally creative.

16. SPIRTUAL COURAGE Take your faith on the road of action...everything

was once just a wild idea. Periodically review your works and bolster your
self-esteem with that review.

17. THE ECOLOGY OF CONSCIOUSNESS Accept the new territorial map

of the world which reveals interpenetrating influence groups...gracefully
disassemble dominating territorial institutions.

18. APPRECIATION Recognize you are only as wonder-full as your filters on

life will permit. Rose-colored glasses are a much under-rated tool. You can
have your cake and eat it too. Lavish specific appreciation on all those
around you … a rising tide lifts all ships.

112
19. SANCTUARY Choose the quiet richness of nature as a refuge and create
your own safe space inside her. Take refuge from noise and distractions.
Choose music that does not rob you of your presence of mind.

20. GENERATIVE SCIENCE Little acorns grow great oak trees. Choose to
go beyond sustainable living. Work with forces that grow themselves.

21. THE NUMINOUS Entertain the entire world of spirit life and its energy
fields as a special resource. Review the original works of the great avatars
not their institutional wanna-a-be’s.

22. THE HOLY GHOST Have gratitude for the moments of unexplained gifts,
timing, and unspeakable magic.

23. CREATIVE PASSION Have the courage to contribute your gifts and
talents. Step up. Dig in. Do your best … and have no remorse.

24. MANNERS Practice new and old social courtesies that harmonize human
relations and make the way for peaceful living. Be direct and brutally
honest when it will change things to a more conscious state.

25. CHIVALRY Go way beyond just generous support whenever possible.

Stage the genius of others as a practice beyond the golden rule.

26. DEVOTION Enter into relationships that don’t keep score but begin with a
devotion to others. Include a cause that is itself a higher purpose.

27. RITES OF PASSAGE Help give meaning to the more obvious growth
points in our evolutionary journey. Celebrate the passage of awareness
through its thresholds.
28. HERALDRY Ennoble the precious acts we want to see more of in all our
world work. See work and art as the same thing.

29. SOCIAL INVENTIONS Design ways for everyone to prosper and flourish.
Technical inventions and hard technology have their place. Social inventions
and soft technologies will bring us a civilization.

30. HARMONY Synergize the tangible qualities of less visible energetic forces
with the forces and elements we use to create our art and our world with.

31. DISCOVERY Combine adventure and learning. Schools today are penal
colonies dispensing old world tools … some of which are worth integrating
with the modus operandi list here present.

113
32. SACRED PLAY Engage in the physical and emotional equivalent of real
knowing and creative infusion that comes from unexplained sources.

33. QUALITY Return to the focus that can turn all your labors into art.

34. ANIMAL INTIMACY Be sensitive to the conscious inclusion of the other

marvelous intelligences here with us.

35. PLANT INTIMACY Feel the full range of subtle states of natural health
and well being by tuning in to plant intelligences as the real building blocks
of our new world.

36. THE GENESIS STORY Make a place for the retelling of your heritage and
journey as a group. See your ancestors as a repository of skills you may not
have to relearn.

37. SUPRASEX Embrace one another on the high ground of service and
creation. See the sexual exchange as one of many seriously effective forms of
intimacy.

38. EMOTIONAL LITERACY Give into the deeper feelings just under the
conversation. Presence yourself empathically to nurture the full presence
possible in any exchange.

39. SIMULSENSING Be open to processing on many channels at once

.....soften your eyes. Real intelligence is the ability to blend a dozen channels
of experience simultaneously. Strive to be fully alive.

40. SOMAZONES Endeavor to build physical environments with ambient and

supportive feeling tones, integrating sound, evocative color, cuddly textures,
and other tools that evoke the best states of being for your activities.

41. POLYAMORY Increase the circle of love beyond normal limited

conventions. Intimacy is not limited to sexual acts. Engage your community
in a loving way.

42. APPROPRIATE SCALE Notice when the scale of physical development

exceeds nature’s capacity to respond in a healthy way. Start again with a
better plan.

43. SPECTRAL LANGUAGE Go beyond words...accept all forms of

communications as language. Blend smells, music, color, fire, and the spoken
word. Bring new life to older spoken languages that are flat emotionally
even though they may be generous in content.

114
44. RADIANCE Remember that your being state and it’s energy field precedes
you and could be your greatest gift to others. You will likely be remembered
by your energetic state of being long after your words are forgotten.

45. RADICAL INTIMACY Be fiercely honest and empathically loving with

your companions. Practice the truth rather than the political language of
acceptance.

46. CHARACTER Choose to be unique and play the part with distinction.
There is no ego in being a real and original human being. Become an
original and unqualified success in your own eyes.

47. HARMONY Create peace by constructing patterns of graceful repose.

48. ASSEMBLY MIND Continue to mentally aggregate and compose great

creations in dynamic and functioning wholes. Visual language helps. Genius
arrives when you trust your own creations.

49. PROCESS MIND Plan for and trust the flow of group activity that has a
higher purpose alone. Be chaordic and go from the plan to the new
inspiration and then to the new better plan and then the new inspiration. Be
mindful not to let deadlines become reasons to create bad solutions.

50. SELF-ORGANIZING SYSTEMS Some activities just naturally structure

themselves and then energize their next move without any coaching.

51. SPECTRAL CONSCIOUSNESS Tune to many dimensions simultaneously.

52. ATTITUDE Posture yourself to expect the best from life and share your
enthusiasm with others.

53. STRATEGY Learn to plan and lead multi-task adventures and to repeat
successful approaches with flexibility to adjust to surprises.

54. FASHION Trigger the response you want by suggesting it with your own
style. Model the solution or attitude you imagine and it will evoke a positive
approach in others. Lead with the outcome clearly visible by your person
and your story.

55. MEANING Take time to review the things that have been working and
assign them value. Create a toolkit of these ways and means.

56. BEAUTY An artful and delightful creation will encourage more of the
same in others. Some cultures have had beauty be their highest collective
ideal.

115
57. SUSTAINABILITY Build, restore, and preserve supporting solutions that
last.

58. PROXIMITY Keep waste and reuse or convert it to another useful

solution or service as close to where it was created as possible.

59. CASCADING Continue to empower and reuse every by-product generated

in a production effort. Cradle to cradle.

60. PRODUCTION Manufacture appropriate products for beautiful,

sustainable, efficient living.

61. WHOLE-SYSTEMS DESIGN Plan for the full use of all effects of any
development, design, or production effort. Aim the total effect at the most
desirable life force solution.

62. FAIR TRADE Decentralize trade to the smallest possible local

transactions. Encourage an open and honest fair exchange by any means that
is recognized as fair. Free enterprise will have its place but not at the
expense of rampant and mindless production and its burdensome polluting
transportation.

63. CONNECTIVITY Be aware of the awesome changes in planetary

connectivity. We now have a global voice and recognizable ethics that can be
monitored to serve peoples desires on a global basis. Small groups of people
need not to pretend they speak for all the rest of us when our collective
choices are patently obvious.

64. SUFFICIENCY Make, carry and consume only what is necessary until we
can sustain the planet with natural power and a restored resource base.

65. REVERIE Return in your memory to a place where a positive event

occurred and then relive that experience with the fullest possible feelings in
the present. You are the repository of your own best movies.

66. WATER POWER Direct water to the most powerful applications and use it
wisely. Convert oil carrying means to transport fresh water from distant
resource points. Create fresh water where it can be recreated again.

67. SOLAR POWER Make maximum use of this free energy and comforting
resource.

68. WIND POWER Play with one of the most under-rated and magical
resources on the planet.

116
69. SOIL POWER Cultivated living soil can be vastly more powerful
according to how it is brought to full life with care and design.

70. FOREST POWER Create a designer forest near you for a high mix
solution that satisfies the many uses possible like food, medicines, and
construction.

71. MICRO ALLIES Employ the many nearly invisible armies of micro-
organisms.

72. ARTISTRY An artist lives just under the surface in all of us...uncover your
many gifts one at a time. It is now possible to masters dozens of arts in a
lifetime.

73. LANDCRAFTING Steward the entire surface of the earth with a

bioregional focus and have this bioregional governance replace nation states.
Think of your contributions as a person to the support of our natural
inheritance and do something about it.

74. THE HEALING ARTS Fix what’s broken with a wide range of both
natural and orthodox medical solutions. Engage in the kind of wellness
activities that pre-empt repair.

75. THE WHOLING ARTS Add what’s missing with a new frontier of
emerging solutions to keep evolution and capacity growing in every single
being. Become aware of your wholeness and find ways to create more of it.

76. JOY Develop your pallet for pure joy and pass it along to others. When
confused enter a childlike state and nourish your joy from there.

77. TRUST Eliminate huge portions of control-based living with simple trust
in providence and an advanced perspective. Fear will kill you from the
inside out. Allows for mistakes and mindless activities with a knowing that in
many cases people must hit the wall in order to wake up. Maintain your own
calm in the storm.

78. SOUL Everything can have depth and essence with a little deep
authenticity.

79. AUSPICIOUS TIME Strike when the time is right even though it may not
be the scheduled time. Learn to notice how well intuition really works.

80. THE ZONE Look to find the sweet spots where the champions surface
without effort. There is a transcendent state of perfection available in every
endeavor. Let it guide you to an effortless poise on your journey.

117
81. GEMUTLICHKEIT Find the uncommon harmony in deep kinship and the
cozy comforting environments that foster it.

82. DRALA Take the stimulation from each of the senses and bring them
together in a threshold experience in your home or workplace.

83. VIBRANCE Let the full breath and life of nature stream through your
body. Exalt in the actions that bring the fullest life force through your being.

84. FUSION Taste the grand mix of essential elements from any adventure. As
you increase your vocabulary of observation, listening, and sensing all that is
around you … then you will be increasing your intelligence at its maximum
rate.

85. COHERENCE Feel the fine grain of an energy field that has been
integrated and settled. Seek to refine the collective field of stimulation
around you when you can. Seek equanimity as a measure of integration.

86. FLOW Glide along as if your ride were ordained by a miracle. Let the
energy guide you and the coincidences that arise be digested with relish.

87. EPIPHANY Enjoy the grand surge and rush of being received on a higher
plane. Credential your choices by attending to little signals from the
numinous.

88. ENGAWA STYLE Live again with nature as a partner. Construct rooms
that are half inside and half outside. Modulate the interaction with
different membranes like windows, screens, and translucent materials.

89. L’CAROUSEL Let go of absolute destiny since things seem to come around
again and again.

90. HIDDEN HANDS Participate in the accomplishment of a community

project or a person without being recognized by anyone but yourself.

91. OHANA Join the extended family concept where there is always a village
available to raise the children.

92. COMPRESSENCE Endeavor to blend many forms of excellence into one

available experience. Simplify the ways your toolkit works to avoid constant
distractions.

93. RESPONSIBILITY Don’t whine about the state of the world at large if you
have not done what is needed for the people around you. Take care of your
own.

118
 94. PARADIGM SHIFTING With some investigation, you will find that what
you really can do can be applied to a new opportunity or challenge. Just
notice the basic qualities of your gifts and then assemble them in a new way
and for fun give them a new name.

95. CHAORDIC SHIFTING Decide what you need to accomplish and make a
plan. As you proceed new information will come along. If it suggests a
better outcome … drop your plan and make a new one. Begin again. Never
imagine your progress is necessarily more important than more compelling
new ideas.

96. THE LOVE ECONOMY When the world wakes up to the natural power of
generosity most all work will be willingly expended to assist others without
the need for a currency exchange. In the mean time there are many other
ways to recognize effort besides money.

97. WASTE NOTHING Strive to find a useful purpose for all the waste that
you create.

98. INFORMATION DIET Seek to expand your awareness of all choices

available and accept those that engender, peace, joy, love, and when
absolutely necessary reason.

99. CONSCIOUSNESS Honor the knowing that rests at the center of your
being. Develop patterns of existence that give this knowing a real place in
your decision making and choice.

100. Please consider adding to this list for your own purposes.

There have been ideals created before in lists like this.

The vedic traditions created a 67 item list of ideals called
tantra. Only one of the items had do with the sexual
practices we think of today when we think of tantra. One
of them was about creating floors made with pieces of
glass. So, every century needs its refined list of ideals to
work with.

119
When Gandhi was asked what he thought of western civilization
… he replied, “I think it would be a great idea!”

CIVILIZATIONS
How consciously can we design them ?

Up to this point in history some experts have suggested

that each moment when a civilization appeared it was a
discontinuous result of the circumstances that happened
to be present in a given area of this Planet. In other
words, these more advanced cultures just bubbled up. Of
course, there were synergies that helped ... like a cultural
belief that matched a type of work that suited a type of
harvesting that produced a type of leisure that ... and so
forth. But, up until now there was no global library like
the internet. There was not the access to so many other
forms of culture to choose from, and there was no systems
science that suggested we could in an alchemical way build
our civilizations like an intelligent toolset with an
abundance of desirable features. It doesn't mean we
would necessarily be able to jettison our flawed thinking
about war or conquest or domination. But, for the first

120
time, our chance to isolate these features and modify them
specifically is upon us.

Human civ ilization, as a concept, has been described in so

many different ways. Its value to the universe has been
derided by some, as another parasitic pestilence that w ill
soon burn out and by others, as the enlightened seed bed
that will go forth and populate the stars. I would say
either option is within reach and always has been. It seems
God has a fondness for soap opera's. Somehow every
generation needs to be kept on its toes. Never-the-less
the chance to isolate and evaluate the elements of a
succesful civilization are within our grasp at this cusp of
the third Millenium. My work is to design and test the
toolkit. And to this end the School of Social Architecture
is dedicated. May we proceed by experiencing the ideals
of a great civilization as we attempt to create one in the
process.

CREATION
MYTHOLOGY
choosing the ultimate

121
Social architecture aims at doing something consciously
and pro-actively with our civilization. It has tools for
building a framework for culture and doing it all together.
It is because we are doing something together and
something that will have a lasting impact that we should
begin the journey together with the same or at least
complementary mindsets.

This step which is called creation mythology is an exercise

in context building. It is a chance to examine the
character of the road we are about to take together and
see if we imagine the journey will have substantial results
and meaning for us all.

Creation mythology examines our underlying beliefs about

why we are alive and why we are here on this planet. And
to examine the deeper reasons we exist in no way imagines
that doing something...is more important than doing
nothing. When we as social architects have produced a
fully whole culture then there should be plenty of room to
do nothing and do it in fine style. Or if the group you
represent has a creation mythology that believes GOD will
do everything independent of our efforts, then you can
stop reading this drivel and just be the social architecture
you believe in.

What is the purpose of our civilization ?

122
Imagine you and your group of social architects are
standing in a field somewhere. A spaceship appears and
lands beside the group. A very wise looking elder steps
out of the craft and asks you:

“What is the name of your planet and what is the purpose

of your civilization?

Maybe you can now sense what a fundamental question we

are asking here. Its a terribly basic idea and its shocking
to notice how seldom it is discussed. For the answer to
this question shapes the context of all the other
questions.

You see, if we know what the purpose of planetary life

is.....and what role the group we belong to plays in that
purpose....then we can expect to be able to choose any
number of cultural tools

with a relatively greater chance at alignment and fulfillment

. For example, at a planetary level we could choose to
accept a course of action like :

Pursue an evolutionary and symbiotic relationship in

concert with our host, the planet earth.

Now if our creation mythology was deeply ingrained and

went somewhat like: humans are the superior species on
this planet and therefor have dominion over all other

123
lesser forms, then it would be genuinely impossible to
pursue the above course of action without eliminating the
word symbiotic. For there would be a built in bias against
learning much from lesser developed sources, like animals
or plants or the earth itself. You see, we can better
advance our work together by creating an agreed upon
contextual alignment up fro nt.

A very proactive way to get at our collective purpose is to

simply ask:

What is our higher purpose ?

This can be useful . It also does not necessarily root out

the more deeply ingrained mythologies we have grown up
with and carry somewhat unconsciously around with us.
So, for that reason, the question is worth a patient and
thorough discussion.

It is very stimulating to disc over the underlying

assumptions we already have concerning the meaning,
nature, and purpose of life. Today, we experience a
collective worldview shaped after a century where the
tool-makers and engineers thought they could craft a
solution to nearly any functional problem that could be
clarified. As a consequence we have important thinkers
like Buckminster Fuller saying things like:

“we could make the world work for 100% of humanity”.

124
We accept such a practical view quite easily. Though
many of us want a world way beyond functional
effectiveness . In the famous hierarchy created by
Maslow, basic needs promote the achievement of higher
order or more advanced needs such as self-actualization.
It seems plausible that we would always be attending to
basic needs, just as we would always cleaning the
house....in support of higher outcomes like a great party.

At the same time it is also true that some people really

believe that we are in Gods school and really are not
responsible for

doing anything to reshape the nature of experience and

we should just be grateful to be a part of it in every
moment. The nice thing about these two ideas whether
provable or not.... is that they can improve our overall
condition and our apprecia-tion for it, if we all believe in
them. What you think is what you get.

Lets examine, for a moment, another ingrained mindset.

Hard work is just part of life. Work is held by most as
being good! Money comes from work, therefore money
must be good also. We certainly seem to need plenty of
money. If you are rich then would it follow that you could
be a better father ? I don’t think so.

125
What may be at question here is ...how much work. There
is honest labor which builds soul. If everyone shared that
experience then there wouldn’t be just work. So maybe
the mix of activities and no activity at all would be a higher
road.

When America was settled by the white Eurocultures the

available technology at hand meant that 97 % of those
present had to grow or somehow produce food. That
kind of work was essential. Now only 4% of that culture
must work to produce the required food. Does this mean
we have eliminated labor from the American way ?
Remember that was the promise of the industrial age and
the technological revolution.

So, we now may have eliminated work but not the work
ethic or the underlying mythology about work. Its worth a
review don’t you think ? Its not as if people haven’t
already shifted their work schedules. A pole taken in
early 1997 revealed that as many as 37 % of Americans were
working their own schedules as entrepreneurs.

Also, that means that 96% per cent of what we do now

could be classified as make-work. So is work good
because we need to do it or because we are addicted to it.
Or is work a hangover of the system called money. We
could work our way back out of money as the key form of
exchange by just recognizing what it is we really believe to
be important. So we could reexamine the ideal work

126
ethic. There are also many other unexamined
conventions.

For example, if dirt is so dirty and full of germs why do we

grow our food in it ? How can saliva be clean enough to
carry around in you mouth one minute and turn into th at
awful entity spit the minute it is propelled from its
hallowed origin.

Become aware of sacred cows

These examples come from unexamined folklore...or

mythology.
Of course as social architects we want to look at slightly
larger beliefs than germs or spit, but it’s interesting to see
the power that unquestioned mythology has. It is valuable
to zoom out from time to time and ask some fundamental
questions.

Science is very close to unveiling the most essential

particles in the universe. These particles hold the
possibility of unlimited energy. It could be that chi, ki and
prana are in fact those very essences and they can be
harnessed by our intention and bring a future life where
we spend our time “ in the zone “. We can see athletes,
shaman, martial artists, jazz musicians and others that
enter zones of performance that defy their own ability to
explain.

127
As social architects we can direct our attention to
advanced states of being. In this way we can catalyze a
culture that continues to evolve relevant purposes and
exceed the best human performances rational behav ior can
determine.

History books paint such a glorious history of the good

old days. Yet, if we attend the news broadcasts today we
often feel as if there is no hope. The truth is that if we
were able to go back in time we would likely find that a
portion of life was unreportably difficult and always has
been. Imagine spending most of the day bent over in a
field harvesting produce or pulling weeds ?

So, spend some time unearthing the mindsets at hand and

then, with that alignment, structure a higher purpose for
the culture you serve. A higher purpose does seem to
work best when it pulls the body forward on the highest
plane possible and never quite seems to be reachable.
Like a beacon it faithfully calls forth the best in us.

So, let us begin our adventure to find a better civilization

by clarifying what we really want.

explore these in your council

The path with deepest soul and most expansive spirit.
The connections to all that is and the meaning for you.
Include the biosphere and all its sentient beings.
Write and symbolize your discoveries.

128
Adventures in Social Architecture

We live in extraordinary times. The greatest tool-makers

in history have just delivered us a fertile planetary
infrastructure that nourishes our world with
communications, energy, to ols, and food of all kinds. It’s
now time to build another layer of evolution upon that
rich and connected foundation.

It’s time to ask ....why did we put that gorgeous warm

dancing fire in a box in the basement? Why don’t we sing
together anymore? Where are the story-tellers? What
happened to dancing in groups? Where did the rocking
chairs and hammocks go? Where are our town centers
with park benches? How come all the older folks just fade
into obliv ion? Where are the rituals to p ass into
manhood? Is marriage the only way to formally couple?
The infrastructure we built around the planet is
great....but its not the solution to quality living.

We don’t need to limit our future world by just growing up

to be a global economy, or a new web of technology, or

129
worse, another bigger more pervasive government. Th ese
are really important foundations to build on. But, we
should aim higher.

What we really need is to build a new civilization . That

won’t mean we will stop being at the business of building a
functioning world that “works”. That will continue. N ow,
however, we can aim together at a world that ennobles
the grand state of life that’s possible on planet earth.

In this next phase of planet earth’s evolution we can focus

on the social inventions that rest upon the technical
break-throughs occurring around us daily. A garden
flowers when the root structure is strong. But, damn,
let’s not forget to flourish. Let’s not forget to fully
experience the earth and all of her sensual treats. Let’s
go for the most expansive states of being and with that
release our genius and our sacred play.

Happily enough it seems likely that our many technical

breakthru’s will also continue at a pace stronger than ever
to complete this root structure for the developing world.
In reciprocal fashion, our tribal worlds of great cultural
variety can help articulate the redesign of this more
technically driven world. We can and should create
meaning and experience in our lives while we are making
things that make life easier .

130
For this important new work, we need a class of leaders
who are interested in creating social inventions like new
communities. Corporate leaders are especially good
candidates for such culture-building practices since they
themselves are responsible for some of the most
important new communities on the planet.

They can glean the richest of the social traditions that

remain and take them sev eral steps forward to support
higher states of being for their groups. So cial
architecture aims at these more enriching circumstanc es.
We can have soul as a goal.

Sometimes the corporate world will describe this

phenomenon as creating the right supportive corporate
climate . But, the tools to create such an environment are
seriously obscure.

The purpose of social architecture is to make known the

tools and practices for the conscious construction of a
planetary civilization.

Prevailing approaches say to use management control

techniques to take care of most organizational details and
hope the culture can take care of itself. Ancient wisdo m
says build a strong culture with empowered teams and
indiv iduals and they will automatically take care of the
details.

131
In times of great change the empowered group naturally
steps up into the new changes...they don’t wait for the
next program to move. They don’t have to disassemble a
rule to reassemble an appropriate response. The new
responses become the new traditions. That’s because the
solutions are made by the group.

Leaders as social architects will need a new set of tools

and principles to work toward this new more self-
actualized dimension of evolution. Whereas, traditionally,
engineers and architects to date, have principally focused
on functional specifications for buildings and a sense o f
place, the social architect is a culture-crafter . Yes, we
want a world that “works” for everyone... and ...there are
rapturous dimensions beyond that.

The new work is designing powerful social conventions,

loving communities and advanced environmental settings
so that the desired states of being can be evoked in us
all . States of grace, states of joy, states of feeling
nature and other extraordinary “in-the-zone” team
experiences can be increased with this practice. We
strive towards a flourishing of life, not merely a
satisfactory existence. Why ? ....because it’s possible.

Life that used to be available only to kings and queens is

already available to a significant number of people. Just
for a moment imagine the plates of food you yourself
have consumed in the last year. Picture them all resting

132
on a football field. Many Kings and Queens never ate
that well. Then add the entire philharmonic orchestra
you carry in your pocket...1404 years of musical
experience available instantly on a plastic disc. How
about the telephone connection to friends halfway
around the world who may be in a restaurant when you
call? You get the picture! And, we haven’t mentio ned
the art of combining these modern tools together in a
thoughtful cultural way.

These practices can be carried to leaders of

organizations, leaders of cultural corridors like towns,
and leaders of global networks of all sizes. Everyone can
benefit from the skills presented here because even the
family is a social grouping that can be consciously
improved. The social arch itect can also play a role in
actual physical constructions, like buildings, when the
space is needed to support a special set of being levels or
important cultural bonding . Notice the similarity here to
shamanistic practice. The shaman was the social system
doctor.

We will measure the structure’s realized effects as we

measure the success of a g ood party....on the “euphoric”
scale. We will experience the new interactions in v oice
qualities, gestures, and th e participation of the group.
We will come to recognize and feel expanded states.
Meters, dials and profit margins can’t be expected to
measure the rich multi-dimensional experience of culture.

133
Corporations today are the key tribal groups in our new
global mix. Culture will be spread not by borders but in
interpenetrating fields of influence. Interestingly,
corporate cultures, unlike production systems, are
replicated today in a rando m and relatively mindless way.

Corporate culture itself is a “cookie-cutter” model being

adopted on the planet at a shocking rate by older
cultures who should know better. They each deserv e a
more tailored and lively solution.

The social architects primary work is to map the social

system in place. He or she then listens carefully and
assembles the most empowering solutions drawn from the
culture itself, finally seeing that they are heralded to the
whole group.

This may sound like a mouthful but it can be compared in

a general w ay to the work of a physician. It involves
diagnosis with an x-ray. It involves bedside manner with a
fine ear. It involves a prescription albeit it in a larger
context with a bit more of a broadcasting mentality.

At this moment the expansion of culture is rampant. We

need mindful adaptation. Western rock videos are seen in
tribal communities and the youth there believe the

134
destructive behavior on the screen is real and expected.
The results are disgusting.

Does Asia need to become another concrete culture in

the name of business! Asia, now caught in the prevailing
business model, seems to be overlooking the powerful
ancient ways that can allo w them to adapt to their own
rich and unique cultures without catching the dreaded
disease of techno-frenzy.

While the Easterners are busy building the western

metropolis, the westerners are buying up books on feng
shui and moving to the country. Westerners have
discovered the separation and hectic pace of the modern
business model and are g oing the other way! Who will
intervene or is everyone destined to live out each others
folly ?

To help understand the crafts of culture it is helpful to

be reminded of some of th e tools that construct culture.
Cultural designs can now be consciously furthered by
leaders trained in social architecture who focus on ideals
not issues and create:

energizing parties, sacred play, archetypal

folklore , purposeful heraldry, ennobling chivalry,
essensual contact, empowering manners, rewarding
ceremonies, meaningful rites of passage, aligning
grand mythology, and the rooting stories of the

135
genesis of the organization presented at high
council or in legendary corporate cathedrals.

These tools may seem strange to you at first reading.

What has been previously handed down to us as traditions
are actually just older social inventions and tools. And,
through the marriage of these ancient processes with
modern ideals, perhaps culture can have its day again.

With this design approach, our path to a richly diverse

world of global cultures is improved. With leaders at all
echelons consciously building cultural practices, the
world will not be subject to the purposeless but
compelling movie and television stories of the countries
that have a monopoly on media products. Practical to ols
of social architecture have been especially created in this
journey so that leaders can shape cultures everywhere.
Social leaders need to know more than how to just manage
to the bottom line.

Such a toolkit can create a sufficient diversity to produce

a meaningful renaissance in planetary affairs. We can
build a garden of rich cultural alternatives . Through the
application o f social architecture principles and tools, we
can evolve as a civilization toward a continuously
designed dynamic idealism, a delicious social ecology and
a new expanded concept of living. Go Planet !

136
 THE SPECTRUM
A twenty-first Century set of intelligence skills
I went on a thirty five day trek with some Maasai warriors. By the
third day I felt so ignorant. I was carrying everything a person
could possibly need to survive in the wild. The list I had made was
thoughtful in every kind of way. The only problem was the reality I
was required to function in had another whole set of demands. And
in the end I had to carry it. My western mind said better safe than
sorry. I suffered as a result.

The Maasai carried a wrap with a belt. It was both their clothing and
their blanket at night. They had a spear with two ends. One to
pierce a lions chest and the other to dig with. They had a knife in a
sheath that was 15 inches long and could be used as an axe or a
cutting tool. They also had a herding stick. That’s it! As they
proceeded along the trial they found everything they needed as
they went. Food, shade, soft ground, even tooth picks. What they
carried were just the tools they needed to exploit what they found.

I was so bogge d down that in no time I was bent over and barely able
to see beyond my toes. In the evening it took me an hour to set up
my gear and the same time in the morning to pack it up again.
Needless to say they were amused. Once during a break I saw one
of them breathe in, start his collapse, hit the sand in a sleeping
position, and by the time he had breathed out again he was asleep.

These guys were brilliant at all that they did. But, what kind of
intelligence did they have? Is native intelligence a real thing?

Look at this totem. At the bottom is an intelligence that grows the

world around us. It expands, responds, changes, and evolves. It is
GOD in earthly form. It is pantheistic. It is the biosphere. It is
potent and manifests some of the same behavior that we see in

137
successful people. It is certainly intelligent. Smart people work
cooperatively with this intelligence. It is stunningly intuitive.

As we climb the totem, and I don’t believe here so much that higher
is better, rather that what is below holds what is above. It “under-
stands”what is above. Tribal man is next. He is awake to the
possibilities around him. He has what we might call native
intelligence. He doesn’t work in the hot sun, he doesn’t carry what
he can forage, and he has stories that mend the fabric of his life.
He can’t read, write, or add and subtract and he is more fit to live in
harmony with this planet than many of the peoples who came after
him. He lives with the intelligence inside his body. He isn’t stuck in
the world from the neck up!

Now we see the self-conscious people. Yes, they are able to

witness themselves and make observations that could change their
world, but seldom act. They have mastered technology. They have
connected the planet. But, they still choose fear to make things
happen. They have to really hit the wall to make thoughtful
changes. They have over-organized their world so that it’s difficult
for any one person to do all the things that tribal man did. They
have specialized and functionalized them selves into small
compartments like the subdivision homes that sort them like ice
cubes in an ice tray world. Now, they can all read, write, and do
their taxes, but have forgotten how to tell stories, have a
relationship with nature, or live in their bodies. What kind of
intelligence would you call that?

Now, some of these people have begun the process of living on more
than one channel. These people have what I call spectrum. This is
a kind of intelligence that mixes up to twelve channels at a time. It
includes the best of nature, the best of instinct, and the best of the
expressing and receiving skills. They have an interpersonal
intelligence and a intrapersonal intelligence. They have spectrum.

138
Above them we have self-actualizing man or woman. They spend
time in the box seats having mastered the flow state and the best of
manifestation.
They vision and pray clearly for what they want and then they wait
for GOD to deliver it in magic ways. They can percieve subtle
signals. They breathe through their fears. They are in the game
not in the race. They have spectrum intelligence and the good
sense to apply it to their own situation.

Now what about mister Raven at the top? The Native Alaskans said
that Raven opened the box and the world came out. This kind of
intelligence has the synthetic skills to combine and then herald new
possibilities. It senses the best elements and then designs powerful
combinations. This is the place of genius. This is where the
virtuoso lives. This is the grand intelligence that includes design
science, social architecture, and strategic shamanism.

How do you tell if somebody’s intelligent? Do you give a Damn if

they got a million on their IQ test? Probably means they are a
social freak. Why is it that the people we most admire don’t usually
have a high IQ?

If you ask me it means the test just doesn’t measure the right stuff.
It means the test measures what the people who teach school think
they are teaching.

The modern school system, thanks to Howard Gardner of Harvard,

has finally acknowledged that there are skills that build intelligence
in areas other than reading, writing, and arithmetic. Nothing wrong
with those by the way unless we think that intelligence stops there.
The list has grown to include spatial reasoning, musical intelligence,
physical intelligence and then recognizes that there is a clear
difference between the intelligence we use for our own innerworking
and the intelligence we use to cooperate with other people. These

139
are referred to as interpersonal or co-intelligence and intra-
personal or the witness state.

Guy Murchie in his book the Seven Mysteries of life makes

a case for not five senses but thirty-two. So, whereas we
study ways in school to act upon the world we also have a
way to go to respond to it in very versatile ways as well.
Current thinking measures output skills. Hello it’s a test!
But, there are inputting skills of observation, feeling,
listening, smelling and the like that effect the quality of
our response too.

I want to say that the Western mind has also avoided

dealing with the intelligences of the tribal mind, the
feminine, and some of the essences of Eastern thinking .
Therefore lets add somatic, intuitive, native, and emotional
intelligence. In the spectrum … shown here… we have
both expressive and receptive intelligences.

I don’t think for a minute th at these are all the

intelligences that exist. They just represent a way more
balanced set of processing skills than the current school
model. With these skills a person can have a balanced life
and be effective in many avenues of living in a near
simultaneous way. They can live the spectrum.

sacred cows and secret loves

140
 cultural blindspots and conditioned mediocrity

We know what we know. We know what we don’t know.

And most of all we don’t know what we don’t know. Some
things just seem like they were part of scenery when we
came and so we don’t mess. There are things in life we
believe we may not challenge. They are sometimes called
sacred cows . There are also some things in life we seem
blind to. When these two phenomena are both present in
a given situation, we can be paralyzed to intelligent change
and not even know why. There are also secret loves .
These are special moments we reserve for times we believe
are organized by serendipity or even higher powers. As
a consequence, we may not consider them to be attainable
by design. The social architect must consider both.

sacred cows

First, sacred cows are everywhere. We believe them to be

the nature of reality. For example, lets look at how we
organize the communities we long for. They don’t seem
to exist anywhere....because the sub-divisions we now
have were designed for cars and not as gathering places .
The real problem is that, as a culture, we haven’t noticed .
The basic design is flawed and yet developers keep on
cranking out sub-divisions. You may have noticed, the

141
grid-like maze of streets mask out what used to be the
central green and there is little common area.

The doors to the homes are garage fronts.. There are no

porches to notice neighbors. Therefor, the common sub-
division resident knows none or few of his neighbors. An
uncharacteristically large amount of violent crime occurs in
residences and no one living nearby feels comfortable
enough to step in to help. We don’t have community, but
worse we haven’t really noticed the alternatives or the
controlling principle that keeps us in trance. why? The
sacred cow lives as a large pattern. The pattern is
pervasive, so we imagine it also must be the best of all
possible world’s ....not so.

In the modern organization many key ideas and principles

are similarly controlled by the pervasive organization c hart
handed down through the years by management practic e.
Few people understand this chart was a rather arbitrary
design constructed by two social scientists in order to limit
“span of control”. The scientists were responding to a
need to shape the focus of world war // army officers,
who it was feared were not well enough prepared to
manage more than three subordinate elements each. No
wonder we woke up one day and realized our organizations
were hopelessly vertical and control heavy. We eventually
began to ruthlessly flatten them.

142
Its interesting to ask the question...what would have
happened if the original shape had been designed as a
round form to include more input like a tribal council ?
As modern organizations fo rmed they just accepted the
lines and boxes without thought to what they were
creating.

The real shocker is that no one has seriously violated this

sacred cow by realizing it was just graphic language and
could be redrawn to produce some other equally
plausible diagrammatic relationship. It’s the unconscious
acceptance of ideas that often cripples us. It’s a sort of
a hardening of the categories.

There are also other powerful but rarely challenged ideas

like the forty-hour work week, breakfast-lunch-and
dinner, news weather and sports, functional job
descriptions, and no bashing the boss in public. It takes a
trained eye to see a sacred cow.

OK, let’s look at how we spend time. In a professional

position we work five days a week. Who remembers when
that started? In Bali, Indo nesia, for example, they each
spend time outdoors doing a little growing, then time doing
a little crafting and then time doing some social service.
Their word for work is “art”. They don’ t wait until
Saturday to try and balanc e out their lives.

143
We could change our orientation to work altogether by
seeking out the hidden controlling premise for how time is
spent. It’s a matter of noticing the bigger pattern and
asking the tough questions until the culprit is rooted out.

Some Africans think we are insane to grow grass and then

expend time and energy cutting it. When they find out we
don’t feed the excess to the cattle...they are sure we have
lost it altogether. Is a lawn a sacred
cow? And are we blind to it’s marginal value and cost in
pollution ? Probably.

The army in Vietnam was so enamored with their new

toy,,the helicopter, that they didn’t want to believe it was
actually compromising the security of 90% of their
operations. Breakfast , lunch, and dinner was created for
farmers and laborers who needed physical nourishment
every four hours. Today, it’s a formula for obesity.
Corporate types think that a power point briefing actually
creates communication, when mostly it isolates the
presenter from the intended audience. Its a formula for
communications disaster. See what I’m driving at ?

The modern organization h asn’t noticed that it has slowly

drifted into a mode of finding an administrative solutio n
for all it’s problems. The most profound organizational
problems are often attacked by simply responding with a
memo or a checklist. The most sacred behaviors together
with an endless list of problems ( issues ) are hashed out

144
and end up posted on the wall as if they were all equally
important. The problems have been identified and class is
dismissed.

If really new solutions had been created many of the

problems identified wouldn’t even exist! Modern
management training says everything can be handled in a
training room. It ain’t so ! Kill the management cow or at
least put it out to pasture!

Many of you may have thought that the english language

was a completed work. It has been proclaimed that that
we don’t need to add any words or conventions to work
with. Some believe the language itself to be pure if not
added to. Of course, its also true that you can’t really
have a totally new idea without a totally new word.
Nevermind, lets just stop where we are......freeze our
evolution in place...yuuk.

There are thousands of words in other languages that

reveal ideas we don’t have in english. Shall we just allo w
english to rule without recovering those other ideas and
including them ? Ancient Hawaiian has concepts about our
sensual relationship to nature that english has never
approached. Well, if we want a more sensual relationship
to nature we should mine those ideas and give them
presence. Blind acceptanc e is just that.

Secret loves

145
We all harbor secret loves. But, too often they stay
locked in the category of dreams. We would be well off
not only to focus on them as goals and as a reminder o f
what’s possible, but consider adding them to the list of
cultural design options. We can’t evolve without raising
the bar.

Once you have imagined a desired state ...well the pieces

of that state begin appearing everywhere. It’s a principle
of visioning that once you “cognize” something then you
can instantly “re-cognize” it in the world. The challenge
for us is to imagine the most precious experiences
realizable and go after them consciously.

How about states of rapture ? Epiphanies ? Total

surrender ? Perfect solitude ? Being in the zone ? Of
course we could imagine that these states are auspicious
and only occur with divine intervention. That could be
true...but the conditions that foster their manifestatio n
can be designed. Lets just reach as high as we possibly
can with our social designs.

For example, what if the design principles for a temple

sanctuary were employed to create a magic restaurant
space ? In this case we might want to elevate the
vibrational state of all the guests to the broadest band of
sensory awareness possible. The Tibetans have a formula
for this that is guaranteed to bring the spectrum of

146
stimulation to its fullest capacity. People seem to cook
just like food in a hot pan.

The idea is that the environment is loaded with a band of

stimulus for each of the senses. But for each sense the
impact is designed to activate the sense without
overloading it. So, the music is turned up just to
threshold and then backed off a tad. Then the lights are
turned up to level and then dimmed back a quarter turn.
So it is with the color, the texture, the temperature, the
smells, the movement and the entertainment. Full
activation...no overload.

The current engineering approach to physical spaces is

focused on functional performance not the activation of
the entire range of sensory channels. Its fine that we
design so that everything works. That’s basic. The
social architect wants to evoke the very best essence of
the beings who occupy the space. The end state is
expanded consciousness. Why ? Simply, because its
within our potential. Work the spectrum.

Who knows what heaven is really like ? In this case, the

idea is simply not to be reticent to design for the very
most empowered human response possible. When thinking
of social inventions, consider a building , for example, in
terms of the experience it will evoke. Work the spectrum.

147
Despite the rampant increase of modern life with its
accompanying techno-frenzy, we have also experienced
the increase of privacy. So, there is the possibility of
optimizing serenity as well. Sanctuary will be a valued
part of any living situation. Its important to note that it is
the experience that’s of interest.

In the future it will be possible to import the most bizarre

kinds of experience through the virtual communications
network that will prevail.
Then to amplify for the spectrum we may consider pulling
the glowing fire and logs back out of the basement where
it has been banished for too long. People are suffering
from fire deprivation syndrome.

It is important to note the powerful impact the Bauhaus

and modernism has had on our public environment. Add to
that the innate capabilities of the computer design tools
we have evolved in the nineties. Together they can
inadvertently create a very sterile and low texture set of
surfaces. We could well use an infusion of texture in much
of our public art and architecture.

In summary, there are so many unquestioned cultural

habits that tie us down without us recognizing them. The
social architect must flesh these out for the outmoded
lifestyle they imprison and then build a social invention to
reinstall that life again.

148
 Hardening of the Categories
The blindspots in global news

One common phrase in the modern business world is that

nothing fails like success . In a fast changing world,
companies that lock on to strategies that work today are
likely to be out of the action tomorrow. They focus on
events that succeed in business terms and as a
consequence they become oblivious to other opportunities
that are outside that focus. Those “other things” become
blindspots. There are some fascinating things afoot on
planet earth that go largely unreported as a result.

Journalism is a profession but it’s also very much a

business. As such it also suffers from developing a fixed
focus as all businesses to increase efficiency and fix
responsibility. It has built a lens called news, weather,
and sports. Newspapers and television news, like other
businesses, have locked on to a series of categories that
represent reportable ideas and over the years have
created categories and assigned reporters and editors to
cover those categories. But, just like breakfast, lunc h
and dinner, that were fine solutions when nearly everyone
performed some kind of physical behavior, in the modern
office-working society if everyone ate that much food
everyday they would be obese. It’s time to zoom that lens
out.

149
To make matters slightly worse, when businesses decide
who and what the categories of consequence are they then
set up a budget to match. If there’s a budget for “x” and
no budget for “y” then after a fashion “y” just doesn’t get
handled. You have a vice-president for “x” and none for
“y” and ......you get the idea. The categories become
hardened by money and staff positions.

It’s time to suggest to our journalistic professionals that

they expand their categories of reportage because we
can’t drive our planet into a new world with an old map.

Many believe that as we approach the millennium there will

be an increased interest in the state of the planet and the
civilization
as a whole. It just a natural thing to expand one’s horizons
during times of reflection and anticipated growth. As
such, I will put forward my recommendations on categories
for expanded reportage.

The planetary commons. Because we humans function on

land it is easy to get caught in a trap of reporting only on
land based events. Most of the environment on this
planet however is water and air. The oceans around us
and the biosphere above us are our planetary commons.
Unfortunately since no one organization owns them there

150
is little in the way of budget for their maintenance and
repair. To say that we don’t depend on them is obviously
ludicrous. Most of the living beings on our planet are
found in the sea. And because we haven’t noticed in detail
what is not directly present in our physical reality, we have
seriously abused this part of our world. Our biosphere,
that precious seven mile high bubble that surrounds our
living systems with invisible properties of great
importance, may become the most interesting topic of the
21st century.

We value a fiberoptic cable because it magically carries a

set of signals at light speed wherever we direct it. Our
biosphere is similarly a communications medium that
transmits signals, smells, birds, thoughts and moisture with
an uncompromising array. When it’s properties are fully
discovered the biosphere may become our resource of
choice.

Connectivity. I believe the most significant event in

modern history is the rate at which each individual on this
planet is being connected to each of the others and to the
world and it’s information base at large. Finding out that
the world is connected will eventually be considered a
more important discovery that finding out that the world
was round. The value of this discovery is that more people
can personally take advantage of this new information
superstructure than any other since civilization began.
Planetary democracy is afoot.

151
So many people are barely conscious of the significanc e
of the many communications tools that have been added to
our world in the last few years. We can send a 33 volume
set of encyclopedia as data across the American continent
in less than a second. That transmission time includes
switches, routers and amplifiers along the way. The
consequences of this connectivity are enormous. Our
stability, governance, educational growth rate and well
being as a planet and a species are directly tied to this set
of expanding resources. If the right idea hits the airwaves
the entire planet could change it’s mind about something
in a matter of hours. That’s news......or as Gragory
Bateson was want to say..” the difference that makes a
difference”.

Consciousness . This is a word that includes states of

awareness, expanded ways of knowing, mindfullness and
basic self-realization. There are interesting times in
history that have encouraged people to be self-directed
and to accept responsibility for themselves and life
around them. There were other times when self-directed
people may not have existed at all. Needless to say
civilization as an idea can be elevated when everyone has a
greater capacity to contribute to it. This need not be
esoteric. Conquering ones anxiety, notic ing ones thinking
patterns, accepting a wider range of beliefs are all very
practical ways of becoming a contributing member of
society instead of another member of the mindless grazing

152
flock. The prison warehouses would be a lot less crowded
with more of it.

At a slightly grander scale, being conversant in the

mythologies that spawned our age, paradigms that contain
our thinking and language that controls our vision could
become a tool kit to more consciously build our collective,
as well as, our individual being. This is a robust topic and
the secret to a more democratic civilization.

The spectrum . I hesitated to rename what might be called

aesthetics. But, the elegant new combinations I want
suggest are much more a function of their mix than any
indiv idual selection. There is new life at many of the
crossroads on Planet Earth. Our transnational corridors
have exploded with a fusion of new luxuries, foods and
color. We have increased the number of colors that are
practically available to people.... three times over.... in the
last twenty years and it has barely been a topic of
discussion. Foods have been synthesized from all over
the planet in a crescendo of feverish activity all in such a
short time. Decor has likewise become more sumptuous
and full of new signs of civilization like sauna’s and spa’s.

The amalgam of these advances are worth making a mo re

conscious part of a civilization that is bound to have more
time on it’s hands. Once the fare of kings and nobles
these amenities are available to a fourth of our planetary
population.

153
 How is it that we can eliminate jobs with every efficiency
program we install at work.... while simultaneously
screaming for more jobs. Do we really need to create more
jobs or more life?

Likewise our states of behavior are elevated by pleasant

surroundings and there is more interesting technology
involved here than meets the eye. The quality of life
overall may benefit from a renewed interest in these
matters but they must reach general awareness for that to
occur at a larger scale.

The timeprint. People on the planet have radically

different
ways of spending their time. Only western civilization
spends
five days a week at work and tries to pack the rest of life
into the remaining two. This is a somewhat blind
adherence to survival agriculture and the assembly line.
Actually recent surveys show more than a third of
American workers now operate as entrepreneurs. But the
discussion about how we spend our lives is still waiting.

Some Balinese spend a third of their time growing

something outdoors, a third of their life making something
of value, and a third of their life pursuing community-
based social and spiritual activities, often in nature.
Sound a little more intelligent ? The timeprint is a map ping

154
of how life is lived. It can be used to recommend healthier
and more productive ways of being, doing and learning and
especially to focus on the mix ..

Some cultures spend most of their life behind a computer

terminal while others bend over harvesting plants. If we
could become fluent with timeprints then each of those
respective cultures could have a bit of both kinds of work,
making each desirable and leading toward a much
healthier combination. Reporting on the pieces must give
ground to reporting on the wholes. So, lets report on how
we spend our time.

Footprints. Another way we have seen the train but

missed the track is in looking at our patterns of
development on the land. We look at buildings and houses
as events, but rarely discuss the patterns they are
creating. Did we really need to build a hundred thousand
subdivisions with garages for frontdoors, no porches and
no common places for the community to meet or the kids to
play ? Why didn’t we see what was happening ? It’s partly
because we weren’t looking at the right framework. Why
didn’t we create town centers we could walk to ? What
happened to the commons with places to sit in nature ?
Why isn’t there any room for gardens next to our houses ?

155
Who needs ten thousand square feet of house to live in ?
Think of all the trees it took to make a house that
obscenely large ?

Zoom out, pressfolk...see the big picture...then go back

for the juicy details. Combine the most interesting
footprint features on the planet and you will have
informed your readership of their options and at a scale
that we can afford. Get a digital camera and get airborne
the view is very informative.

Solutions . Yes, it’s cheaper and takes less intelligence to

follow the firetrucks to the fire. The pictures are juicy
and the it doesn’t take seasoned reporters to get the
story. The problem is that we are filling our daily
consciousness with tiny episodic disasters. Like it or not
the news is the most present source that serves our
collective awareness about our future. Unfortunately, we
have “canned” our elders as a viable source of
perspective. They too are a subject where more interest
could be aimed.

If we see our options as a series of small time disasters

that then becomes the future we will anticipate and select.

If, on the other hand, we also see stories of success

created by regular people who produce that success,
then we can expect to have a more empowering set of

156
examples of how to make a useful difference. We need to
highlight institutions that p roduce a real service,
indiv iduals that create real solutions and elders who have
a real perspective. Soon more than half the planets
population will be under tw enty-five. Its not that
occasional alerts about what’s not working isn’t also
useful but “listen to the music”. Are we playing our own
funeral song ?

Bodywork . A veritable revolution in human contact has

occurred under our noses and it goes unreported. More
than half of our culture to some degree and many to a
large degree are having their bodies touched regularly.
Yes, it used to be that the wealthy could experience
massage. Now as a healing modality and as an expression
of how a culture is redefining intimacy...people are being
touched by others. Bodywork is the generic category.
The styles of touching have gone from Swedish massage to
the widest possible range of treatments. This is part of
the preventative medicine approach that has completely
changed the way people are dealing with their health
today. The surveys show that more than 60% of
Americans consulted an alternative practitioner last year.
So, where’s the coverage ?

157
Self-help. Why is it that we have to pay $20 for an entire
book on the simplest self-help subject ? There is so much
information available in the world...and the primary
subjects on relationships, love, parenting, hygiene, travel
tips are still so obscure. I can find out why an obscure
company lost market share but how to make love must be
had... somewhere else. Yes, I appreciate that there have
been some attempts to include “life” into the older news
formats...but it seems to be had only as a function of
finding out how a movie star did it !

Spirit . O.K. now we’re entering territory reserved for

those with real courage. When we speak of spiritual
matters in the modern world it’s important to separate
religion from spiritual practice. People planet-wide are
exploring a wide variety of spiritual practices that may
have been originally associated with specific religious
orders. But, prayer and visualizations and affirmations
are all very much the same kind of practice. They work
whether in or out of a specific religious order. Meditation
and other stress reduction tools are both specific to some
religious practices and also a part of just coping with life.
We need the information about how to “do life” in a
fundamentally more effectiv e and pervasive way.

It could be said with the pace of life being what it is these

days that we have never more desperately needed these
common sense practices. I believe that most people now
employ many “universalistic ” practices. Those who attend

158
a some more experimental c hurches find these new
combinations taken from other religions.. Lets get these
widely based phenomena on the map. We need the tools
for conscious living.

summary

There are other slightly smaller categories we could cover

but these are the most obvious of the blindspots that I
recognize. There could be a “desk” at a large paper or
news network for each of these. Then there is the matter
of how the material is treated. In this case it would be nice
if major relationships could be included using systems
graphics like those that have been created to treat the
weather.

Presently, the news is almost completely episodic and

microscopic. We are stuck in a incident reporting style. In
the final analysis we get mostly bad news we can’t do
anything about and it comes in unrelated bits. The
crowning blow is damning since we have no other pervasive
tool to use as a navigation device for our civilization.

If we are not getting the whole story, and further, not

getting it in ways we can structure a quality response, then
the resulting civilization is going to reflect the kind of
aimless, stumbling trends we find in today’s public fare.

159
The media is one of the only institutions extant today that
has not publicly announced it was reinventing itself. As
Einstein and others have intimated...we can only reinvent
our public life when we have reinvented our public view of
it!

COMMUNITIES AS THE BACKBONE

Building blocks for a new civilization

There are many social inventions that we can create. None is as

seminal to the planet as the community. Communities are any fair
sized grouping of people who have a story together and cooperate
to pursue a purposeful lifestyle.

Today communities span a grand range of interests. We find them

in small towns, we find them in large corporations, we find them on
the world-wide web, and we find them among hobbyists, sports
enthusiasts and non-governmental organizations. Collectively they
may be physically close or strung out across the planet. The
factors that bind them, however, are knowable and often similar.

The social architect designs communities

We normally think of a community as a small township like the ones

our grandparents grew up in. We imagine they have a mayor. We

160
also imagine most everyone knows everyone else and always has.
Ah, the good old days.

Those groupings are difficult to find these days. It is more

common, at the turn of the millennium, to find a large chat group on
the internet that spends weeks of time having an extended
conversation about the purpose of this or that.

Corporations today, when polled using a social science instrument

describing various cultural models, consistently choose the “clan” as
a model to aspire to. Winning corporations tend to have very strong
cultures. This is to say, they have many reinforcing elements that
remind everyone in the game that they are more a part of the
collective force than anything else. They have and want team spirit.

In some senses the strongest of them emulate “cults”. Of course,

cults have a bad name today because of the fact that in the worst of
cases the strongest cultures may attempt to hold on to their
members against their will. The good side of a cult is that the
togetherness and strongly enforced participation actually produce
or can produce a lot of whatever their focused upon. A national
football league dynasty is a cult and so are elite military units.

The actual detailed description of these reinforcing elements is the

subject of this journey together. Thoughtful application of social
architecture can produce a strong group effect. The effect can be
powerfully good. It just depends upon the focus designed into the
culture. Knowing what the reinforcing elements are and how they
are applied seems to be a lost art. With just some basics you can
make a real difference.

But, can we afford to hold up examples of strong cultures gone

wrong and deny purposeful groupings of people the chance to feel
the genuine joy of being congruent and deeply linked with others in

161
a common adventure of consequence? No. People everywhere are
deeply disturbed by the lonely existence of the masses huddled
beside their television sets in neighborhoods where they know
absolutely no one around them. Yes, it is nice to have discovered
privacy in the latter part of the twentieth century, but lack of
community is a sore point. We can have both.....but it does require
thoughtful design.

Just imagine if your community had a heraldry department? Yes, so

that your most precious beliefs would be waved on high on a flag,
printed in relief on a crest, emblazoned on a sash that all would
wear, be trumpeted clearly at the festive gathering, and so it goes.
Had you ever thought that these basic tools that were available to
the tiniest dukedom in the middle ages could be used to bring
meaning to those ideals you care about. Isn’t it time to go beyond
T-shirts and baseball caps ? Isn’t there any ideal out there that
deserves treatment more noble than a bumper sticker ?

And what about ceremony ? You may have nothing in common with
the religious cultures that have grown around you and at the same
time wouldn’t it be nice to meet in a place as beautiful as a church ?
Think if all the values you cared about were remembered in song ?
Think of how nice it would be if the major modern day
accomplishments of your children were honored by ceremony ?
What ever happened to the fireside gathering with all of it’s
grounding stories. Who are we? Where did we come from? Where are
we going? What does it matter? What does it mean? We can give more
presence to those things that we value....its a matter of design.

It is so obvious that we have mistaken the forms of honor with the

original values they carried. For example, can you wave a red flag
and not have people think you are espousing a communist ideology?
Does that mean we have to bury the forms of celebration with the
ideas they carried that are now out of date ? Because Hitler had

162
rallies with fire and drums does that mean they are evil in
themselves? The Tibetan Buddhists use similar tools but that does
not make them bad. Do you have any idea how many absolutely
exquisite forms that have been created throughout the centuries are
now dying with the last ideas they carried ? We can ritualize what
we care about again.

In many cases the oldest tribes have the best rituals. Because the
Zuwangi tribe didn’t have toasters does that mean they also didn’t
have exquisite rites of passage ceremonies for their children ?
Mindless associations have made people leery of dramatic
ceremonies. Unfortunately that concern is denying passion to
communities who need the juice to rebuild their togetherness and all
the conventions that reinforce togetherness.

The average military unit in the western tradition has forty to fifty
thoughtful conventions to celebrate the ideals determined to be
important. Yes, and new conventions must be created and some of
them must be revised from time to time. That is why even the
American army forged in modern times has a heraldry departmen t
that tends to match the right symbol to the right ideal. It is also
why the military bands are budgeted in the millions. The
manifestation of spirit in music is powerful and necessary to
empassion courage.

The uniform of the career soldier can carry as many as thirty

specific heraldic elements to honor as many ideals. Sometimes they
are recognized in terms of service time, sometimes they are
recognized in terms of superlative performance, sometimes they are
just to establish the affiliation with traditional skills, but they are
RECOGNIZ ED !

163
 The social architect uncovers deep ideals and then sees that they
are recognized with appropriate cultural artifacts.

Hopefully, after these examples you may be able to associate the

importance of knowing what you care about as a group and then
properly recognizing each element with a culturally crafted solution.
You may further notice that just because a cultural form like a
church ceremony has been used to honor one set of ideals it is not
off-limits later on for another set.

In the end, there will be no community that lasts if it doesn’t

recognize itself as such. In the end, if there is no cultural
reinforcement for common beliefs there will be no commonality. It is
likely that the richest possible form of civilization on planet earth
will come from a grand infrastructure of communication and
resources that itself supports the most original and fully celebrated
communities .

We can have underlying unity with maximum diversity .

That is high culture and a civilization worth having!

We can think of community as clans of several hundred people or

more. We also imagine that they can be collocated together in a
village of some sort. Notions of how we group ourselves are based
on tribal and farming village notions. In the future, we may see
smaller an d more virtual groupings. People will belong to more than
one community. Some physically co-located and some virtual.

The spiritual family comes to mind as an example of a 21st century

community. It could be an extended family of people who want to
commune in order to grow themselves spiritually. They also may
want to work together at a business that takes them to interesting
locations. They may have individual sources of income as well as the

164
one they get from working together. They may be intimate and that
could take a variety of forms.

Choices come from having more freedom to communicate, travel and

not be bound by the small town traditions of former times.

The social architect structures communities to support the values

decided upon by the group. Here are a few of the lenses that fit
the job at the community level.

Social inventions We made up the conventions of life and

eventually they became patterns and sacred cows. We can reinvent
them just as easily once we realize they were social inventions not
laws of the universe.

Footprints We organized our life in combinations and eventually

they became patterns on the landscape. We can now redesign them
with synergy as whole systems and give them greater impact.

Timeprints We created schedules for working, eating, playing and

prayer that no longer deliver the high life. We can change them like
the Balinese who divide time equally between work, growing and
community.

Tempo Nothing changes the quality of life like the speed that one
goes.
Go fast-think better…go slow-feel more. We can control techno-
frenzy.

165
Spectrum In any situation the richness and fullness of life can be
increased by working the full spectrum of channels. Life at it's best
is a lamination of sound, color, smell, texture, touch, taste and
more.

Meetings Nothing is as frustrating as time poorly spent together.

The vocabulary needed is way past agendas and time manage me nt.
Design your meetings for meaning, fun, substance and action with
new tools.

Story-telling People feel progress with a sense continuity. The

ancient art of story-telling is rediscovered here with music in a form
that spiritually entrances the community and reminds everyone of
the history they are making.

Visual language People respond well to compound events when they

are presented in maps and story-boards. Just as the past is well
represented by stories with sentiment , the future is best
understood with pictures and recognizable elements needed for
success..

Culture-craft Strong cultures are reinforced with many dozens of

artifacts like flags, songs, ceremonies and the like. Learn the art of
translating values into cultural heraldry that reinforces principled
behavior. We begin with values and end with deep culture.

LIVING DESERT INLAND SEAS

The science of the century

166
Now for a quick jump in scale back to the larger endeavors we look
at strategic landcrafting. For those of you who have experienced
living in a desert climate well fed by fresh water, you know the
experience to be extraordinarily verdant with a delicious climate that
will allow outdoor play most every day of the year. That’s why
everyone is moving to the sunbelts. Much of our planet is desert.
But most of it does not have the water needed to create the
promised living just suggested. Enter air pollution. It kills the
ozone layer and the sun comes shining through to melt the polar
caps. Horrible thought? The seas are rising! Small nations in the
Pacific are losing ground fast. Soon we will have to shore up all the
coastal habitats on the planet. What a chore. Is there enough
concrete?

Hold on. Didn’t we say we wanted water? And if we got

some to the deserts then… well … couldn’t we reclaim
much of the earth’s surface with the most verdant habitats
possible? Now what if I told you that there are places
where the inland desert is below sea level. They are even
more places inland that serve as natural basins. That
means we could just get a smart pipe and let it roll downhill
into the depressions and pump it some to fill the basins.
And if we did that soon enough we wouldn’t have to build
dikes around our coastal cities. And what if I mentioned
that there are depressions even in the Antarctic that are
thousands of feet below sea level. Now that’s a safety
valve if I ever heard one.

Have you ever flown from Los Angeles to Denver? Did you
notice that most of that great western desert of America
was once a seabed? You can see exactly where the water

167
line of the once full basins came. You can see the last
deposits of salt decorating the center of the basins. We
know that finding seashells there is old news. The water
wasn’t salt water but it won’t grow all the types of salt
water fish we might want to grow. So where did the water
go when it left? Could we bring it back? Along the same
pathways. I am told that the new technology of piping is
vastly more flexible. We could set it up and fill the zones
that were ready one at a time.

Imagine if we could just connect a growing source of water

with the most needed desert land and avert a coastline
catastrophe in the process … wouldn’t that be a triump h!
And imagine the land values and new growing power of the
inland sea coastlines. How would the ozone hole respond
to the increased area of evaporating land surface?

This is a long range project where science and engineering

can shine. We have already seen the power of plastic
pipes that distribute water to gardens and not waste a
drop. All we need to do is increase that scale and find a
way to get the water moving efficiently. We are willing to
do that for oil. So what about water? Ask the people in
the sunbelts whose aquifers are drying up if they would
like another fill in the basins that feed their aquifers. Ask
the people in the Sahara if they would like some of their
oasis’s back.

168
If we know we can bring water to the desert, can we also
prepare the desert floor before hand with smart ocean
bottoms that serve us and the sea-life we could grow
there?

We know the body has smart pipes. Yes, we have tubes

that squeeze our food through in the subtlest ways. We
have new energy sources on the frontier and water
treatment solutions are close at hand. This is a science
project that could and frankly should last a century. And
in the end, we could reclaim a major portion of the earth
and use a water source that otherwise will be trouble for
many of the places we now call home.

THE CRAFT OF CULTURE

High performance can be a tradition

In recent times, if a corporation wanted to power out the

bottom line, it was logical to reach into the craft of
management and apply one or more of the “flavor of the
month” technologies to get results. Maybe it would be
strategic planning, project management, or systems
engineering, even time management....you recognize these
tools. You know they sometimes produced results and
sometimes failed. For the most part they were devoid of
heart, emotion, and soul.

169
So, in many instances people in those companies live only
half-a -life. Like it or not, the question is, what other
craft can the modern organization use to fill all the non-
cerebral dimensions that are missing ? Do we have another
choice ?

One other choice that may surprise you is the .. .craft of

culture ... one of the primary dimensions of social
architecture. Most people don’t recognize cultural
phenomena, as such, as having a set of systematic tools to
improve organizational performance. That’s the surprise!

A tribal elder recently advised that if we westerners would

stop trying to manage performance with details and simply
create strong cultures...then the details would be taken
care of by themselves.

Traditions, ceremonies, cultural attributes and the like

have long been considered consequences of organizational
behavior... not the drivers of same. If passion, energy,
soul, and authentic performance is your goal the
management science tools we know are inadequate. They
mostly were created to control behavior and when they are
overlayed one upon another ....yikes.....the effect can be
stiffling.

I am asserting that corporate behavior can be as deftly

managed with cultural acts as it can with management
tools.

170
In fact, the range of choices available with cultural actions
may exceed those of modern management technology.
The sad consequence of our singular focus on
management technology, is that many of today’s modern
corporations ....... are culturally flat, hairless, uninspired
and dreadfully alike.

The distinctions I am suggesting will be more obvious once

you review the seemingly ancient territory I will describe in
some detail.

That is the aim of this writing, to reconstruct the ancient

arts of leadership and clarify the territory they
circumscribe.

Rediscovering culture as a craft has been fun and has

revealed one blinding flash of the obvious after another.
The conceptual shift that was required to see the
somewhat veiled value in cultural acts simply entailed
looking at cultural phenomena with an eye to how they
could be proactively used rather than passively
experienced. In this way, the cultural elements are viewed
as tools and not just artifac ts.

Some principles of culture-crafting

171
Primarily we are trying to positively influence the behavior
when people are gathered together. It is the collective
being we hope to shape. We want to shape that
experience by understanding what positive performance
we are looking for and then including a cultural approach
to help shape that performance. The arena for the
corporate world is captured by the phrase high-
performance culture. Yes, this usually means good energy
and alot of authenticity...but the objectives for leadership
are more focused. Here are some situations where the
craft comes into play.
The principles are general but you can see how they would
completely refocus leadership and how leaders view their
jobs:

1. Believe that a well-crafted social event can move

people to action as well or better than a management
formula.

2. Design behavioral performance into all group

celebrations, activities, and events.

3. Work the environment by appointing available spac es

with art that evokes specific behavioral motivation.

4. Stimulate the full range of senses whenever the group

assembles.

172
5. Create and reinforce manners that encourage the
performance values you desire.

6. Stage events for your most cherished ideals and

create the richness of venue befitting those ideals.

7. Learn to track and then ruthlessly adjust the “energy”

at gatherings.

8. Understand how music can work the energy dimension

while ideas can work the information dimension.

9. Be cautious of too many one-way communications

tools like “power-point” presentations and encourage
group council, games and simulations to get ideas in place .

10. Be constantly aware of your chances to credential a

positive behavior whether during an introduction, a
conversation or a public event.

This list of principles should give you an idea of what

culturally specific actions we are suggesting. They come
naturally to some people. But, all too, often the best
“project manager” gets appointed as leader....and for
them the shift can be dramatic. Moreover, the concepts
discussed are fairly obscure and unreported ideas in
todays literature.

173
 Dimensions of action

Ancient kings and chieftains had more tools available than

we recognize today. And powerful tools they are. Yes,
culture happens ....but more importantly.....you can make
it happen. The following dimensions will be revealing.
Mostly because we have forgotten to include them in a
conscious way in our modern world. Consider them as a
new set of tools:

HERE IS THE TERRITORY:

* THE GENESIS STORY...How to cement faithfulness with the history of the clan.
* HERALDRY.....The way we can reinforce other values with symbols.
* FOLKLORE....The way we can reinforce desired behavior with stories/parables.
* CHIVALRY....How we can program behavior with titles, ceremony, and insignia.
* MANNERS....How to establish an internal tone and style of communications.
* AMBIANCE / FENG SHUI... For good moods, less stress & feelings of belonging..
* TRIBAL COUNCIL....For continuous performance reviews and course corrections.
* CHI.......To generate the level of energy (juice) to be boosted in any performance.
* RITES OF PASSAGE...How to program specific loyalty with common bonding.
* POMP AND CIRCUMSTANCE... To distinguish key behaviors from routine ones.
* GRAND MYTHOLOGY...How to establish future expectations and performance.
* FACE....How to structure customer expectations with outward appearances.

THE GENESIS STORY...

The number one job of the chief in tribes with oral traditions was to
tell the story of the tribe from the beginning up to the present
moment. “It all began with......”

174
Imagine, if you haven’t thought of it, how with some tone of
reverence, the very story of your organization could be told in
detail:

“It was June 1956.....there were just three of us then.....we were in

Charlie Johnson’s basement over on forty-ninth. The evening
started with a friendly card game. Then Max Peterson Says ...take
a look at this! And he pulls out a strange looking contraption that
he calls a clothes machine . How absolutely creative! We thought
...he’s taken two simple ideas and created a third...! ...Thats where
our story begins...!”.....etc. etc.

Imagine how many new employee s join the modern day corporation
without the slightest notion of how things began! Imagine further
how much more powerful it would be if the description of Charlie
and Max included their primary behaviors....like creativity.

Yes, I mean that the company values don’t have to be written sterily
on a wall poster. No, they can be embodied in the emotionally told
history about the seminal characters that built the company.
Behavior is clarified by history...real history...told as any good
story should be told...with the feelings and reverence that are
naturally attached to the events that occurred.

If you retell the important moments of your company’s history......

you can clarify the behavioral expectations for your workforce, with
genuine impact.

HERALDRY

175
...It is said that Napoleon moved an entire army deep into the heart
of Russia with little bits of ribbon. (Medals!) Think for a moment
how important it is to motivate soldiers in situations that often seem
impossible. Remember, if you will, that instead of a performance
review which is only seen when you open a paper file....these
soldiers wear their performance reviews on their sleeves, and chests
and hats. Every action deemed noteworthy by the command is
memorialized in a badge, patch, pin, ribbon or chevron. The modern
soldiers uniform is a billboard file with dozens of opportunities to
recognize, on a moment’s notice, the alignment between what the
command trusts as important and the degree to which the soldier
has matched that expectation.

Could corporations model a recognition system based on the

military model ? Well, to some degree they do. However, the
sophistication and depth is not there. That’s why the army has a
department of heraldry to specifically design the many awards t o
recognize behavioral objectives. If you want to reinforce several
dozen behaviors, it’s important to have categories and thoughtful
arrangements to fit them into. We can only expect baseball caps and
t-shirt trophies to do so much.....and as for certificates...well. Ho
hum.

Maybe it’s time to take that list of values and behaviors and build a
specific heraldic item around each one.

FOLKLORE....

Jesus of Nazareth was powerfully effective with short and poignant

stories about behavior. They were called parables. In each case
they placed the listener in a situation where they could easily
conclude that a certain behavior was honorable. Imagine the

176
corporate leader who could spin a parable here and another there
with clear and beneficial examples from the general craft in
question.

Was it John Henry who could load sixteen tons of coal ? Did that
parable become a folksong ? What would be the real value of having
a group of company troubadors doing mythic folksongs as
compared with a whole section of administrators doing graded
performance tests. When you can add energy like music to
examples like parables...then ....you are empowering performance by
suggesting not only the preferred action to be taken but the
preferred tempo and zeal of engagement. Are you beginning to see
just how lame a list of values and behaviors are when they are simply
printed out and pasted on the wall ?

Are you beginning to see how purposeful it can be to find and shape
stories that program desirable outcomes ?

CHIVALRY....

Lets now add the archetype or ideal to the mix. When King Arthur
wanted performance above and beyond the call of sanity, he would
simply arran ge a grand banquet and then auspiciously doft his
sword on the shoulders of an aspiring lad and make him a knight.
Just a title you say ? Nay... twas far more, because a knight you see
was not expected to perform against a rational job description, a
knight was expected to slay dragons and do so while on a quest of
major spiritual proportions. The category of knight itself is one of
the
important clues here. If we can create a mythology around a
category or archetype, and then find a ceremonial way to enoble
and imbue the category with power for aspiring workforce members,

177
we can then expect performance that includes all of the behaviors
associated with the mythic proportions of the title.

After acquiring a group of global partners, Whirlpool corporation,

invited its brand new international leaders to the Montreaux Palace
in Switzerland. There they were exposed to ceremonial elegance as
would befit none less than genuine heroes. The performance of
these leaders was historic and record-breaking for the ensuing six
years. The results could not be explained by organizational
processes for they hadn’t time to install but a few.
Nonetheless, they performed as champions. Could that be
explained by the treatment they recieved ? Indeed there was no
other explanation available. Treat them as knights and they will go
forth and behave as such.

Management titles have become mundane, mechanically descriptive

and are usually very puny descriptors of potential. ASSITANT VICE
MANAGER FOR LOGISTICS ??? ??? See what I mean ? Now
“corporate samurai” or in this case “all-star linebacker”.....might get
more response. Teams can also have special names. If they are
powerful in concept and powerful in context, then they will be
powerful in fact.

Are you beginning to see how the precise application of cultural

contexts can directly drive specific behaviors ?

MANNERS.....

There are all sorts of ways to introduce a meeting, a conference or a

workshop. These typical corporate events are the occasions where
leaders have to be prominent and at the same time informal. The

178
tone is their choice, the context is their choice and the frame of
reference is also their choice. These are all elements that are keyed
by the content. But, with culture, we are talking about reinforcing
the quality of the relationships in the tribe. In this case, there are
some really distinct opportunities. The welcome can include
physical gestures of invitation. Sure some background is in order
but it can include thanking the people who helped prepare the event
or simply recognizing people in the company. Now, with manners
this can be a five star event or something less. Ever noticed the
master who introduces people with the titles or descriptions of what
they might do next ?

“This is Jane Wamsuta, she helps us discover who it is that needs

thanks around here. Her capacity to connect with those who serve
us all in the communications side of the game is extraordinary”.

Notice what a unique chance this is to program behaviors into not

only the person recognized but all those who are listening. So, this
is what the boss values ?
....recognition....thanks....connection...OK, got it.

This kind of opportunity to recognize or herald individuals and the

performance you expect from them, also comes easily with the
managing-by-walking-around phenomenon. It’s especially powerful
to take a visitor around with you so that you can really brag about
your people. This means you can really up the ante on what you
expect.

Furthermore this opportunity to be mannerly brings the with it the

chance to credential behaviors that aren’t found in job descriptions
per se. So often people just gravitate to the
specific actions prescribed on their performance review. Again
what a subtle but powerful way to influence performance.
Introductions, announcements, thank you’s and even apologies are

179
ideal opportunities to reinforce with manners the kind of
performance expected.

Now this regular task of providing a comfortable interface between

people can be a super rich opportunity to affirm specific kinds of
performance.

AMBIANCE / FENG SHUI...

We all are familiar with the power of having our working area straight
before beginning a series of exacting tasks. We get a lift walking
into a sparkling clean space. We are effected by so many of the
elements in our environment. It can be very fatiguing to deal with
ambiant noise that causes the brain to work overtime sorting out the
signals from the noise. When the light isn’t bright enough we strain
further. Smells can distract us. Clutter can induce stress and
uncomfortable furniture or workstations can further promote
fatigue. In short the qualities of the working area can rob several
hours from the workers day depending on the care and attention to
these details.

In the eastern traditions ...energy...can also reside in the

atmosphere surrounding us. That means that it can beneficially
shaped by the arrangement of things in space. The relationships of
furniture, plants and openings are considered in order to contain
and not disipate beneficial energy zones. Other ancient arts dowse
for noxious zones and insure that people arn’t trying to work in
them.

As a leader some personal attention to these matters will impress

your people and at the very minimum reduce the unecessary wast e of
energy produced by thoughtlessly appointed spaces. It is a matter
of producing performance by eliminating fatigue.

180
Can you imagine organizing events using an energy plan along with
an agenda ?

TRIBAL COUNCIL....

There is a very special meeting style ...pioneered by native

Americans. Various forms of this protocol were part of most tribal
traditions. It’s important to highlight since most contemporary
meeting styles have been driven by efficiency experts who basically
have been trying to see that the meetings simply didn’t go to long.
Again if it’s the quality of the relationsips you value more than time
mnagement then the council style will serve you well.

The primary notion is that no one presets an agenda that decides

what is imortant and in what order subjects are to be discussed.
Everyone who is a party to the enterprise does that..together in real
time. Yes, it takes quite awhile, but major contentions are settled
before the circle is broken. In the modern world of chaos/order and
constant change the entire organization strategy may take a major
turn before the council meeting is over.

The protocol is simple but deep. A talking stick is introduced and

the one who has the stick may speak uninturrupted until finished.
The rest practice deep listening . They listen for the possibilities in
the speakers words. They listen for integrity. They listen for
meanings that may apply to them. The players pass the stick and
talk in turn until it makes one pass around the circle. At that point
the ideas that have made the most impact can be elaborated upon
simply by reaching to the center of the circle, picking up the talking
stick, and continuing in any order. In this way the sense of cultural
ritual has been honored and key business items get an audience.

181
Deep and fundamental convictions are heard, disagreements are
tendered, and breaches of integrity are called. It is highly settling.
Here is an opportunity for values and behavior to reach the high
court of tribal consensus. Leaders can get help in this situation in
adjusting the ethics of the team because other members contribute
to the trueing of values-based ideas with their heartful and direct
commentary

Can you see the long term bonding that occurs with this periodic
dive into soulful territory ?

CHI.

Energy...juice...”the zone”...are manifestations of consciousness

that produce a powerful field of CHI. The effect is one of
rejuvination and drive that exceeds normal levels of effort. A work
force can lose its collective energy due to lack of stimulation and
lack of training in chi -like ways. Often a group can continue to
empower each other by staying enthusiastic and working in a very
small space. The “energy” come s from close interaction in close
proximity. It also comes with a quality attention and focus.

Think for a moment all that football players do to keep the energy
of chi going ! Pats on the back, head-knocking, sharp huddle-
breaks, cheerleaders, marching bands. Now think of a single
manage ment skill you have been exposed to that produces that kind
of juice. What do you suppose a work-force would do with that kind
of physical reinforcement ? Why wouldn”t we be as interested in
effort as well as effectiveness ? Who would be qualified to lead
such an effort and would they be allowed to roam the halls and bust
in on dazed workers slumped behind the wheel in their cubicles ?
Troubadors, balladeers, or jugglers,....maybe jesters, story-tellers
or improv comedy masters ? Notice how much better staffed the

182
court of a medievil king was when compared to a modern management
staff. Make your move ! Strike up the band ! Pass out the juice !
Everyone’s waiting.

Imagine the look on the personal directors face when you order a
team of troubadors ?

RITES OF PASSAGE

It used to be common practice among all professions to test the

aspirants for passage into the domain of the profession proper.
Paratroopers have to make five jumps to get their

wings, boy scouts have to secure a certain number of merit badges

to become eagle scouts, and fraternity pledges go through hell week
to be a fully recognized brother. Young men in the Maasai tribe
must live alone until they have succesfully bagged a dozen very hard
to hit birds and secured their bodies to their headress.

There is difficulty, mystery and often harrassment associated with

rites of passage. The important thing is that it incurs a whale of a
lot of loyalty and fierceness if done well. Usually some token or
badge of acceptance and belonging are presented after the
tribulation ends. Loyalty in today”s wo rkforce is perhaps the
supreme differentiator between good and great companies. This
rites of passage induces loyalty beyond the normal tit for tat
exchange.

Recently adventure training companies have introduced the

corporate equivilent to the live-fire infiltration course in basic
training. There are dozens of challenging outdoor events that
could collectively be assembled to properly present the classic
passage throught the proverbial hoop. Hire-wire events, team

183
building tests, obstacle courses and much more can be crafted to
challenge the respective knight errants.

Again, once one of these events is properly concieved it can

become legendary by reputation. It can then be blended with other
cultural tools to provide a really comprehensive reinforcement of all
identified behaviors. Or we can once again be satisfied with the
generic droid-like corporate culture that vacillates with every story
written about it.

Why not create a spell-binding event to bond the new-comers to the

company ?

POMP AND CIRCUMSTANCE

The classic underlying flaw in the world of modern management is

that any problem can be solved by writing something down the
solution on a piece of paper. In the end, the effect on the
workforce, is one whereby all ideas eventually have somewhat the
same impact....more words on paper ! Literally the company
president could pen a major strategy piece and it would have the
same value as the revised lunch hours in the cafeteria...maybe less.
Just more words on paper ! Now that most managers have portable
computers with great typefaces and layout programs the big boys
with the big ideas suffer yet a greater anonymity. Anybody can
flash out a great memo !

The opportuniy exists here to simply give the big important ideas a
logical separation from the routine ones. Here is the chance to
replace words with an event. Yes, some pomp laced with heraldry is
key. But, the big break-through is just recognizing that a

184
distinction in delivery is required for any distinction in the mind to
occur. I’m not suggesting that you can’t thoughtfully present
important ideas in words. But, just remember, a wedding invitation
looks a hell of a lot different than a policy paper and a formal
presentation at a grand ball is a quantum leap past that. Honor the
idea with the presentation it deserves and don’t be surprised when
written concepts get treated like paper towels.

Consider taking the three most precious concepts in your enterprise

and conducting a corporate cathedral to honor them.

GRAND MYTHOLOGY

It has been popular for a decade or so to purpose an enterprise with

a vision. More recently a purpose statement and a list of values has
been included. Seldom does the combination get past the written
stage albeit occassionally done on posters or cards kept ostensibly
close at hand in the wallet of the tribal affiliate. Again this
“management solution” to semi-holy ideas usually is swallowed up in
the news of the day.

Recently, and with more impact, these ideas have occassionally

found themselves in large vision paintings, or screen savers with
meaningful drill-down explanations, and once in a great while a three
dimensional model. These new more distinct and inclusive
renditions can also include strategy elements, continuous processes
and a piece or two of history.

Now, the real test occurs. Can the tribal leader stand on both feet
and convincingly deliver the grand mythology in a persuasive oratory
? All these pieces can really come alive with this more contextual
Big Picture setting. Should the leader also be at home with tonal,

185
tempo and anecdotal skills .......then the cultural solution can really
take hold!

If you master nothing else...the genesis story..leading into the grand

mythology can give your tribe the fibre and weave it craves.

FACE

Usually, face is considered to be something that one can lose. In

the case of culture it can also be the outward representation of the
company and how it aims to be viewed in the world. Banks deal in
very intangible things like money. So, they beef up their exterior
face with marble and grand facades. So, that is their.... face to the
world.

Most companies represent themselves with the television and

magazine commercials they run in the public media. The advantage
here is that the public.... and the workforce can both be informed
at the same time. The broadcasted version of the company face is
efficient that way. To wit: “At FORD quality is job one.” This is a
convenient example of an idea that simultaneously touches both
audiences. UPS does it with super clean vehicles. Airlines are now
doing it with new body paint and more classic color trim.

More and more, advertising agencies are recommending that

companies whose products are diverse or obscure simply associate
themselves with noble ideas. This is called affinity marketing.

The military services in America have had great success identifying

themselves with these kind of ideals : Be all that you can be, Aim
high, and Its not a job its an adventure are household words an d
strike a chord of association to the higher purposes of each of
these organizations.

186
What is the higher perpose of your organization and how has it been
framed in terms of your external face?

Summary

Just in case by this time you are fearful that I am suggesting we

create perfect little robots in your organization, fear not. I am
trying to help clarify the tool making qualities of an ancient art,
which pervades our work anyway, and therefor should be used
mindfully since every corporate act suggests some kind of behavior
or the lack of it. If you systematically load these ancient arts with
an eye to creating a clear and consistent behavioral expectation for
your workforce, I believe you will have satisfied one of the
classically important roles of the leader.

THE HUMAN BEING …

I recently discovered that mo st of the world is pro grammed to be

human havings or hu man doings … not human beings. If you read
most resume’s that people prepare they are, of course, designed to
get work. So, the content is about what one has done or what one
has accumulated. So me of this also mean s people who haven’t done
many things or accumulated various kinds of physical wealth then
rely on what it is they have invested in the knowing of things. We

187
could call them human kno wings. Little else finds itself o n the
resume’. The deeper programming that results from this resume’
writing exercise seems to smother out the more consequential
attributes of the human being.
So what?

Most people know that in the end it is the permanent relationships

one acquires that determine how much business really gets thrown
our way. Those relationships I will claim have a lot more to do with
our human qualities and our seasoned capacity as a human being
than any of the rest of the qualities mentioned above. The rub is
simple. We don’t have enough time before hiring someone to get to
know about their deeper capacities to perform as a human being.
That’s why we ask for references and usually talk personally with
those references to find out who these resumed people “really” are.
Of course it goes without saying that people who have accompli shed
a lot must have had some human skills otherwise we know the work
would have all been uphill. As for what they have studied … who
hires a PhD … book learning can actually to the exclusion of
projects can be a real tell tale sign of someone who may have very
poor human skills. What’s the point?

The point is that we may have perilously few ways to g et in

touch with our human beingness! That may mean we pass
through life without any idea about our soul for example.
Is that important enough for you!

I think therefore I am. I think I am … what? My being is?

What? Talk to me about your being? Go ahead just rip
into it! ……… well?

I am guessing you have no clue how to start because we

don’t do that in the modern world. To be or not to be! Do

188
you be? How do you be? What do your friends say?
Stop! Enough context.

Take some journal time with this. Write and think and w rite
and read to find out what you think and then fix what you
think if you don’t think your idea was to your liking.
Writing helps you decide better about your thinking. It’s a
conversation with yourself in this case about your real
self. It’s a realsume’. When you are happy with the
results you should be able to introduce yourself with five
sentences that mean something about the real you. What
are those five sentences?

What would you say here?

I am strong in character because I have engaged the

world fully and produced tangible results that are useful;
for the state of the world. I am prepared to die with grace
because I have developed a depth of faith that assures me
there will be something interesting and challenging ahead
no matter the form. I am thoughtful because that is my
constant companion and connection to my being. I am
loving because I have felt the pure energy of love running
through my entire being. I can be funny because I can
see the magic of the universe at work and realize that time
in heaven is always up to me. It won’t come later unless I
presence myself into it at that time … I am to be.

189
SECTION V
190
Global uprising
LETS GET ON WITH IT… ARTISTS UNITE … DEEP
CHANGE OR SLOW DEATH …THE ZONE …STATES OF
GRACE … VISION
RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE WHOLE …THE PLANETARY
CLASS OF PEOPLE … THE PLANETARY COMMONS
…THE GLO BAL UPRISING … SPECIFIC WORK FOR
BUSINESS … HOW TO GET ORGANIZED FOR ACTION
…THE GLO BAL VILLAGES
IN THIS CENTURY

LETS GET ON WITH IT!

CIVILIZATION AS A FINE ART

191
We live in extraordinary times. The greatest tool-makers in hi story
have just delivered us a fertile planetary infrastructure that
nourishes our world with communications, energy, tools, and food of
all kinds. It's now time to build another layer of evolution upon that
rich and connected foundation.

It's time to ask ....why did we put that gorgeous warm dancing fire in
a box in the basement? Why do n't we sing together anymore? Where
are the story-tellers? What happened to dancing in groups? Where
did the rocking chairs and hammocks go? Where are our town centers
with park benches? How come all the older folks fade into oblivion?
Where are the rituals to pass into manhood? Is marriage the only way
to formally couple? The infrastructure we built around the planet is
great....but its not the solution to quality living.

We don't need to limit our future world by just growing up to be a

global economy, or a new we b of technology, or worse, an other
bigger more pervasive government. These are really important
foundations to build on. But, we should aim higher.

What we really need is to build a new civilization. That won't mean we

will stop being at the business of building a functioning world that
"works". That will continue. Now, however, we can aim together at a
world that ennobles the grand state of life that's possible on planet
earth.

In this next phase of planet earth's evolution we can focus on the

social inventions that rest upon the technical break-throughs
occurring around us daily. A garden flowers when the root structure
is strong. But, damn, let's not forget to flourish. Let's not forget to
fully experience the earth and all of her sensual treats. Let's go for
the most expansive states of being and with that release our genius.

192
Happily enough it seems likely that our many technical breakt hru's
will also continue at a pace stronger than ever to complete this root
structure for the developing world. In reciprocal fashion, our tribal
worlds of great cultural variety can help articulate the redesign of
the more technically driven world. We can create meaning an d
experience in our lives while we are making things to make life easier.
Progress is a compounded adventure.

For this important new work, we need a class of leaders who are
interested in creating social inventions like new communities.
Corporate leaders are e specially good candidates for such culture-
building practices since they themselves are responsible for some of
the most important new communities on the planet.

They can glean the richest of the social traditions that remain and at
the same time take them several steps forward to support higher
states of being for their groups. Social architecture aims at these
more enriching circumstances. We can have soul as a goal.

Sometimes the corporate world will describe this phenomenon as

creating the right supportive corporate climate. But, the tools to
create such an environment are obscure.

The purpose of social architecture is to make known the tools and

practices for the conscious construction of a planetary Civilization.

Prevailing approaches say to use manage ment control techniques to

take care of most organizational details and hope the culture can
take care of itself. Ancient wisdom says build a strong culture with
empowered teams an d individuals and they will automatically take
care of the details. In times of great change the empowered group
naturally steps up into the new changes...they don't wait for the next
program to move. They don't have to disassemble a rule to

193
reassemble an appropriate response. The new responses become the
new traditions.

Great cultures take great strides naturally.

Leaders as social architects will need a new set of tools and

principles to work toward this n ew more self-actualized dimension of
evolution. Whereas, traditional engineers and architects to date,
have principally focused on functional specifications for buildings
and a sense of place,the social architect is a culture-crafter. Yes, we
want a world that "works" for everyone...and...there are dimensions
beyond that.

The new work is designing powerful social conventions, loving

communities and advanced environmental settings so that the de sired
states of being can be evoked. States of grace, states of joy, states
of feeling nature and other extraordinary "in-the-zone" team
experiences can be increased with this practice. We strive towards a
flourishing of life, not merely a satisfactory existence. Why?
Because it's possible.

Life that used to be available only to kings an d queens is already

available to a significant number of people. Just for a moment
imagine the plates of food you yourself have consumed in the last
year. Picture them all resting on a football field. Many Kings an d
Queens never ate that well. Then add the entire philharmonic
orchestra you carry in your pocket...1404 years of musical
experience available instantly on a plastic disc. How about the
telephone connection to friends halfway around the world who may
be in a restaurant when you call? You get the picture! And we
haven't mentioned the art of combining these modern tools together
in a thoughtful cultural way.

These practices can be carried to leaders of organizations, leaders

of cultural corridors like towns, and leaders of global networks of all
sizes. Everyone can benefit from the skills presented here because

194
even the family is a social grouping that can be consciously improved.
The social architect can also play a role in actual physical
constructions, like buildings, when the space is needed to support a
special set of being levels or special cultural bonding. Notice the
similarity here to shamanistic practice.

experie Great shaman worked the whole tribe's state of being.

We can measure the physical structure's realized effects as we

measure the success of a good party....on the euphoria scale. We
will experience the new interactions in voice qualities, gestures, and
the participation of the group. We will come to recognize and feel
expanded states. Meters, dials and profit margins can't be e xpected
to measure the rich multi-dimensional nce of culture.

Corporations today are the key tribal groups in our new global mix.
Culture will be spread not by borders but in interpenetrating fields
of influence. Interestingly, corporate cultures, unlike production
systems, are replicated today in a rando m and relatively mindless
way. Corporate culture itself is a "cookie-cutter" model being
adopted on the planet at a shocking rate by older cultures who
should know better. They each deserve a more tailored and lively
solution.

The social architect's primary work is to map the social syst em in

place. He or she then listens carefully and assembles the most
empowering new solutions drawn from the culture itself, finally seeing
that they are powerfully heralded tothe whole group.

This may sound like a mouthful but it can be compared in a general

way to the work of a physician. It involves diagnosis with an x-ray. It
involves bedside manner with a fine ear. It involves a prescription

195
 albeit it in a larger context with a bit more of a broadc asting
mentality. The social architect doesn't extract disease, he or she
exposes genius.

At this moment the expansion of culture is rampant. We need mindful

adaptation. Western rock videos are seen in tribal communities an d
the youth there believe the destructive behavior on the screen is real
and expected. The results are disgusting. Does Asia need to
become another concrete culture in the name of business! Asia, now
caught in the prevailing business model, seems to be overlooking the
powerful ancient ways that can allow them to adapt to their own rich
and unique cultures without catcing the dreade d de sease of te chno-
frenzy.

While the Chinese are busy building the western metropolis,

westerners are buying up books on feng shui and moving to the
country. Westerners have discovered the separation and hectic pace
of the modern business mo del and are going the other way! Who will
intervene? Or is everyone destined to live out each other's folly?

To help understand the crafts of culture it is helpful to be reminded

of some of the tools that construct culture. Cultural designs can
now be consciously furthered by leaders trained in social
architecture who focus on ideals not issues and create:
• energizing parties
• archetypal folklore
• purposeful heraldry
• ennobling chivalry
• essensual contact
• empowering manners
• rewarding ceremonies
• meaningful rites of passage

196
• aligning grand mytholo gy
• the rooting stories of the genesis of the organization
presented at high council or in legendary corporate cathedrals.
These skill ~based outcomes will be clarified on this journey.

These tools may seem strange t o you at first reading. What has been
previously described as traditions are actually tools. And, through
the marriage of these ancient processes with modern ideals, perhaps
culture can have its day again.

With this design approach, our path to a richly diverse world of

global cultures is improved. With leaders at all echelons consciously
building cultural practices, the world will not be subject to the
purposeless but compelling movie and television stories of the
countries that have a monopoly on media products. Practical tools of
social architecture have been especially created in this journey so
that leaders can shape cultures everywhere. Social leaders ne ed to
know more than how to just manage to the bottom line.

Such a toolkit can create a sufficient diversity to produce a

meaningful renaissance in planetary affairs. We can build a garden of
rich cultural alternatives. Through the application of social
architecture principles and tools, we can evolve as a civilization
toward a continuously designed dynamic idealism, a delicious social
ecology and a new expanded concept of living.

GO PLANET!

197
CIVILIZATION AS A FINE ART

We can still choose to stand up in our bodies with the quiet dignity of
a Maasai warrior. We can breathe through our hearts like the
mountain tribesfolk in the Himalayas. We can learn to roll laughter
like Polynesians. We can extend our being out into the land like
Australian aborigines. We can mix six very different but magical
tastes in the same bowl like the Thais. We can rub noses like the
Eskimos. These are just some states of being worth preserving. Our
present day states of doing and having need not smother the nature
bound treasure of experiencing life more directly.

Social architects focus on states of being as design specifications.

Imagine a basic state of being like presence. The mind is clear of

chatter. The breath goes deep into the belly. The center of
awareness is four fingers below the navel. The world is available in

198
every way. So, what do we create to allow such a basic state to be
nourished in our everyday world? Then imagine a state of potential.
There is spring in the thighs, wi th a brightness is in the countenance
and a snorting good sense of the possible. These are just some of
the states of being that could more completely fill our lives.

There is also a really interesting set of e merging cultural building-

blocks in addition to states of being and ancient tribal practices.
Modern inventions like full spectrum music and entertainment
systems will allow a profound set of new sensory combinations that
could constitute an improved incubator for the new culture. So we
can have essence and excitement in choiceful settings. That is not to
say that pop culture cannot play with ideas and textures in a less
purposeful way.

The newly created social fabric could also celebrate unity with
diversity ...consciously. A native American woman from the Tewa
pueblo recently reminded us that the only reason to have a co mmo n
language was to be able to share our differences and really
appreciate them collectively. So, language will be a principle tool for
social architects. Building new language allows us consciously to
acquire new thinking.

Social architects will build new thinking with improved language

forms.

This is not to say that culture cannot also be created from more
spontaneously generated challenges. In fact, most probably the
majority of cultural traditions we have today were generated in times
of challenge and just stuck because of their timely poignancy.

Some say that culture "begins" when the organization "hits the wall".
It is at these moments that raw truth surfaces. This is a time when the

199
normal "political" bureauspeak must give way to so mething more
bonedeep. We live in times when the culture in place does not meet
the needs of the culture in transition.

And, yet this begs the question....what should we consciously aim to

become in order to balance t he present chaos with a little more
harmony? Do we need to get o ut of the reactionary loop where we
change just because the system we have...fails? Lets change because
we know what we want to become.

For example, we could aim straight for collective states of grace. Yes,
if we gathered the most magical events that have occurred and set
them down together to constitute a pallet for the next millennium
then we would begin by kno wing we had aimed for the top...perhaps
sought out our highest purpose.

Social architects focus on the higher purpose of living.

Then there were the days when medieval leadership employe d t eams
of artisans who tumbled, danced, acted the fool and told stories that
very often suggested solutions to the problems at hand. Royalty also
had heraldry departments at their disposal to color, crest, emblazon,
and trumpet key ideas that needed propping up. Today's senior
managers, the leaders of the planet's mo st potent tribes, have
forgotten that these cultural tools are still available to them. So,
culture can be also be shaped by an ancient set of cultural
craftsworks.

Culture can occur naturally. Culture can also occur mindlessly like
the cultures we find in modern corporations that are replete with
standard corporate trappings copied from the industry at large and
largely without deeper behavioral purpose. I am referring to suits,
ties, office partitions, the latest pop hardware, power- point

200
presentations, voicemail and flavor of the month customs that are
dangerously close to being traditions.

This is not to say they are useless events. But, they are usually not
selected because the leadership has thought through what kind of
behavior they actually evoke. And now they are being unconsciously
exported to other countries who think they are integral parts of
business practice and not arbitrary cultural habits. Dragons beware!

In a purposeful culture the desired long term being level is imagined

and the social architect designs cultural events and artifacts to
reinforce that being.

It seems as if we're sort of stumbling our way into a p lan etary

civilization. The same is true of our leading corporate tribes. It's as if
the management science business with its control bias, has usurped
our capacity to expand our thinking about life.

A trance of productivity over culture began, I believe, in a very

seductive way with the organizational charts created for the army
just before WWII. Yes, the army had not fielded more than a di vision
or two since WWI. All of a sudden, almost one hundred divisions
needed fielding. The war department called upon two social
scientists to handle the dilemma of introducing so man y untrained
officers into a situation more complex than they were trained for.
The solution was to build a span of control diagram that would
discipline the structure so that each officer was responsible for no
more than three other officers in the chain of command. It was a pure
control issue.

Social architects are specialists at alerting us to the conventions and

sacred cows that bind our thinking. Building new culture is more
effective when we disassemble old dysfunctional culture.

201
Interestingly enough that little military line and box convention ... the
org chart... became the corporate building block for the
organizations created after the war. Can you imagine the difference
it would have made if they had chosen the circle as a diagram ? It had
been used for centuries by tribal groupings deciding upon matters of
war and other concerns ?

What's so shocking is that nobody has seriously reinvented that

basic tool embodied in a diagram. That's because current civilization
is visually semi-literate. Maybe better said...they don't realize that
symbo ls are as easily change d as are words. Bo dy posture is a
complete language and images especially with primary re lationships
suggested are a complete language system. The thought that words
are the only language on the earth worth reckoning with is a perfect
example of sacred cows in action. What of mythology? Art?

It would be a shame if the conventions suggested on this jo urney

became tyrannies instead of pri nciples. It is possible for customs and
traditions to become obligations. Some say the French, for example,
are over-civilized. So, beware the new social invention that becomes
a status symbol and then an obligation.

We have actually eliminated work as the industrial age promised and

now we complain because there aren't enough jobs in the workplace.
Is this a mindless loop ? Social architecture is here to help reinvent
more life...not more work.

So, as an introduction to the need to have a social architecture for

the creation of a meaningful planetary civilization, this may have
bruised your tissues bit. But, hopefully we are going to move to a
stage where we take responsibility for our creative gifts and not just
relinquish the magic to another completely arbitrary set of previously
appropriate conventions. We can wake up to our responsibility as
creators of culture. Where the hell is our spiritual courage ?

202
So, here we go! As many have intimated, like Einstein ....we can't get
out of the situation we created with the same mindset we used to
create our present state. So prepare yourself for the tools of
disassembly as well as the tools of reassembly. Social architecture
has arrived. Please add to this toolchest. Our civilization awaits.

EARTH The prescription for earth is art

There is so much our world needs today and the institutions we have are not stepping up to
the tasks.

There is a tight institutional hold on the major organizations on our

earth. They all have their own self-interests and very few of them
acknowledge the major work we need to do at the global level.
There are so many worthy but large projects that need doing. If one
simply looks at the major reports from the UN and other global think
tanks the work that needs tending to is intimidating. Yes, it is true
that if each of our major institutions and corporations would bend
themselves to the tasks at hand the problems would simply take care
of themselves. BUT, and this is the big BUT. How to get the ball
rolling? They aren’t really stepping forward!

Well, a little recognized but powerful force exists among us that is

not presently mired in any big parochial interests. It is further, a
force that has through the centuries driven economies into cultures.
It is the global art community. We can discover we are actually a
global civilization in the making largely because of the art
community. It is presently leading the world with its music and
cuisine. The musicians and the chefs have taken all the most

203
enticing ingredients from the far corners of the earth and blended
them together into world music and global cuisine. Both have
produced evidence that the world functions as one culture.

What would happen if the artists of the world would unite and we
could watch this force define and flavor our new global civilization.
People the globe over have already expresse d deep concern about
globalization as conceived by bankers and large corporations. And
yet it is unlikely they will be willing to give up their version of the
world if they are allowed to do this themselves.

Art can effect the most important ingredients of any culture namely:
The pace and joy of life (music) the degree of beauty we live inside
(art/sculpture) the gathering places where we can celebrate our
contributions (architecture) the satisfaction of enjoying the earth’s
bounty (cuisine) the drama and flair of life (theater) the fantasies
and creativity of the unknown (film) the conversations about culture
and its artifacts and progress.

We don’t just want another economy we want a civilization

Dammit!

ARTISTS UNITE AND LEAD US TO THE NEW WORLD!

EDUCATIONAL
STRATEGY
How we think about serving your mind.

204
 PRINCIPLES

• WE WANT TO HAVE YOU HAVE FUN DISCOVERING

WHAT WE KNOW AND WILL FURTHER KNOW FROM
YOUR INPUT.

• WE KNOW YOUR MIND WILL HAVE DIFFICULTY

THINKING ABOUT ANY NEW IDEA THAT IS NOT SHAPED
BY NEW LANGUAGE.

• WE BELIEVE THAT THE QUALITY OF THE

DISTINCTIONS WE MAKE WILL DIRECTLY SERVE THE
QUALITY OF AWARENESS YOU CAN BRING TO THIS
FIELD.

• WE BELIEVE THAT IF AN INDIVIDUAL OR GROUP

EXPERIENCES AN EXPANDED STATE OF BEING THAT
THEY WILL THEN BE MOTIVATED TO REACH THAT
STATE AGAIN.

• CIVILIZATION WILL OCCUR AT GRANDER AND

GRANDER LEVELS IF THE STATES OF BEING PROPOSED
AND MANIFESTED ARE APPLIED CONSCIOUSLY ON A
PLANETARY SCALE.

• WE THINK THAT ONCE THE STATES OF BEING DESIRED

ARE IDENTIFIED THEN CULTURES CAN BE
CONSTRUCTED TO REINFORCE THOSE STATES OF
BEING WITH REGULARITY.

205
 • WE NEED A CRAFT AND A PRACTICE TO SUPPORT
THESE PROPOSITIONS FOR SUCH A SOCIAL
ARCHITECTURE TO EXIST.

DEEP CHANGE OR SLOW DEATH

The people the planet … the gap in governance!
Democracies for all their strengths … have been fairly blind to the
fact that there is no longer a majority of anything overwhelming
going on out there in the world. The pool of humanity is stretched
out in a long line. The very curious people in the front of the line
are adapting at a rate that pulls them more forward on a daily basis.
They now can view all the choices available in the connected world
of the internet and adapt to new ways and mean s at an astonishing
rate. The number of groups in the middle of the line are now called
communities of interest and are increasing by the day. They have
global affiliations, by the way, and are not defined by national
borders.

The less adaptive and more fear bound group is way down the line
and fading faster and faster into a reactive and somewhat angry
posture. They have chosen to group together to hold their world in
check. One thing this means is that our collective interests have
become too complex to manage in the same old way. If there is no
major grouping of players then “voting” for two rather
indistinguishable choices is only a very small way of adapting a
government to its citizenry. In short, governments of any kind at a
national level may be irrelevant, dysfunctional, and therefore
dangerously obso lete.

206
In a similar way the very fact that we have national boundaries keeps
us focused on what is inside the boundaries and not what is outside.
Like the planetary commons … namely mo st of the world we live on
and in. The commons contains the resource base that humanity will
need to further itself no matter what the style of play… ample
forests, healthy soil, clean water, fresh fish, clean air, … name your
pleasure.

So, for starters I am observing that national governments of any

kind are no longer relevant to our more distributed communities and
worse they are systematically di stracting us from our necessary
focus on living global resources. It does not mean that nations per
se were not useful during the phase of planetary development
where we were solidifying communities with more simple and unified
thinking. I could say some unkind things about religion and plunder
in the name of GOD, but those days are past … well with some
embarrassing but necessary exceptions. Just to make the point
more obvious for us all. Governments are signaling their

I am not surprised that the gap, between the more inquisitive and
adaptive people on this planet and many man y layers of less cre ative
types, is as large as it is. It is larger than it has ever been and
perhaps that is not such a bad situation. What is interesting to me
is that the spread is increasing and the importance of seeing and
understanding this gap or should I say diverse spread is gaining in
importance.

True those who are “in the know” and stay that way are constantly
shocked at the
prevailing center of intelligence of the rest. Television and
television news is a perfect indicator of the gap that exists between
the “curious” and the “accepting” segments of our species. The
rules are then made largely for the intolerant and afraid. The

207
squeaky wheel gets the most attention. Business also wants to keep
its markets homogenized so the sales will be more controllable.

It really doesn’t keep the adaptive group from moving forward, they
never have waited for the mass to decide what to do, Its just that as
a planet … we may have organized ourselves to fail at a grand level.

The balance however, may be about to tip toward the more creative
and inquisitive group. One pollster has identified this group as the
cultural creatives. Their indications were that this group was at 40%
of the voting mix near the end of the last century. If that happens
they will demand a more broadly based collective decision-making
system that may include governments but not be limited by them.

I live in a twin town community of six thousand people. There is not

a single governing body anywhere in sight. People come forward
when collective work is called for and handle it. With the real time
collective library we call the internet they need not make their
choices in isolation. The planets collective intelligence is just
minutes away on-line.

I think the titles liberal and conservative are also just not giving us
the distinctions we need to serve the new very broad range of
constituents in a more egalitarian way. This split means we tend to
be forced to serve the segment that is the least courageous or
curious. Those who want to just hold on to the ship to avoid the
ever rocking boat.

The internet is a tool that, in the face of the dearth of distinctions

made by television, is giving the creative wave a new ability to find
and select their options from a broad range of thoughtful choices.
If everyone had access to this kind of resource then can an
enlightened planetary citizenry exist beyond governing controls? I

208
believe the answer is yes … and its just fine if it happens smoothly
over time.

We need to transition from national boundaries to bioregional

boundaries that include all the natural resources we must attend to.
Then, we need to consult with all the communities of interest that
can muster a roster and have a desired point of view. Its time the big
boys were weaned off the national treasuries of the world. We need
to be very keen about what fear-based drama’s are used to sack the
treasury and perpetuate the consolidation of the fear- based
minority.

So, the next time someone asks you about who you are voting for …
let them know we need a systems change that will embrace our global
resources, our global communities of interest, and slowly fade out
the corruptible over-control of national governments.

THE ZONE
EVOKING NATURAL GENIUS
From all corners of the globe and many different
professions there are stories about a state of being
called the
ZONE

Transcendent reality. An occasion, a creative space, or special

circumstances wherein a person or group is engaged in a state of
being we might call natural genius. For basketball players the hoop
enlarges and everything slows down. For jazz musicians they cast
themselves way off the musical thrust and then free-form with their
instrument allowing the natural genius to emerge and carry them
back home musically. For gymnasts they become one with the
apparatus. For thinkers their new ideas suddenly gel into a never

209
before considered solution. These examples suggest a
transcendent, creative and trusting state of being wherein
excellence comes to the fore.

If we were all interested in performing better across the board it

would be good to arrange a constructive focus on the zone for the
benefit of our emerging global civilization. This class of being is
referred to in science as the "Flowstate." It is a place where the
intrinsic intelligence pours past the calculating brain producing a
range of genius not explained by training or practice. We intend that
it can be chosen and designed .....selectively.

Social architects consciously construct energy fields wherein

individual and group genius is naturally evoked.

Lets talk results. The point here is to accept that our collective
creations as a people are a direct consequence of the quality of our
creative work together. So, the service offered by the social
architect is the one that focuses the future on states of being as
distinct from the functions of doing or of having. In this case the
energy fields are supported by a set of field building tools.

It should be noted that there are some other very desirable and
interesting states of being besides the high performance zone. Just
to give some presence to this frontier here are some examples.
There is rapture. There is epiphany. There is all pervading
presence. There is soma-sanctuary. There is synchronicity. There
is synergy. Defining these would take more than the appropriate
space for this visit to the zone. Just be aware...that there are other
very interesting states for the social architect to work in.

The conditions that stimulate genius are assembled to program a

ZONE. The zone may be located in one place or be created in the
corridors between spaces where people move. Most often we are

210
talking about rooms and hallways. Occasionally gardens and
pathways are the outdoor field opportunities. Some recent work
has been done in transportation hubs like airports. Commercial
zones like malls also have many corridor opportunities.

It is likely that in the future there will be a whole new range of

specifically engineered social centers wherein the being states will
be served with a wide variety of stimulating tools. Fine restaurants
are examples of carefully supported fields. Temples are another.
The practices now used to appoint these spaces are, however, not
grounded with the discipline they could be.

The stimulation can come from traditional sources such as art,

music, herbs, breath, smell, movement, and sounding. More modern
devices, usually electrically driven, are aimed at brainwaves, brain
functioning, balance, specific halucinations, color harmonies, and
the like. The suggestive arts like hypnosis and NLP can put these
other types of conditioners into a specific perspective and shape
the context of the experience as needed. The story-teller will still
be in demand.

So, the environment is appointed to bring consciousness into a

healthy and receptive state and then the specific context and
meaning can be shaped by the more mythological components.

Think about the very impactful states that Walt Disney has
engineered into Disneyland. Every corridor is treated with visuals.
Music pours out from hidden speakers. Characters of various
persuasions wander about. The lighting is mystical. Food smells fill
the air. Its warm enough to get wet and people do. Crowds and
chatter create a playful and safe feeling. Laughter and surprise is a
recurring theme. Color is used purposefully and lavishly. A
childlike and playful invitation is suggested. Walt knew that the
more the whole being was stimulated the more expanded their state

211
 would become. He called the general application of fantasy to
constructed realities...imagineering.

Social architects imagineer selected realities into zones and

corridors in order to evoke more expanded states of being.

A haunted house is definitely a purposefully designed space full of

stimulation of a directed nature. This is an example of using the
zone to achieve contracted states as well as expanded ones. The
goal of social architecture zonework is to reach for creativity,
illumination and grace. When these states are achieved in sufficient
numbers our civilization will be able to change its preoccupation with
work as labor and transition to work as fun.

Imagine a modern hospital recontructed as a Disneyland with all the

attendant stimulation.

How can we generate a field energy that propels people into the
zone? Here is a preliminary list of qualities that we have collected:

• Levity works better than gravity.

• All senses should be activated and none overloaded.
• Designed spaces should appear as if they could lead to other
places in almost any direction. They should not feel like containers.
• The ability to effect light, sound and other stimulations should
be lively, continuous and deft so that the momentary self-
consciousness of the players can be overdriven.
• Most times the best results come from suggested mythical
introductions.

212
• The zone should feel like a "safe" space and the expected
behavior should be given full permission.
• Shills, demonstrators, or modelli ng can be used to further
exagerate the expected behaviour.
• Consider the elements used in the opening of the Olympic
games, or half-time at the superbowl or world cup. Recall the warm-
ups for great musicals and begin to imagine how those events were
created.

STATES OF GRACE
Closing the gap on heaven

Luminous clarity...deep knowing...intrinsic

awareness...flow-state performance...primordial
presence...gemutlichkeit ...spontaneous self-
perfection...no judgement...pure innocence...natural
genius...and being "in the zone."

These are some candidates for states of grace. We

acknowledge that they occasionally happen, but up till
now haven't really decided to deliberately support their
reoccurance on a regular basis. Except for some
spiritual orders and very highly paid athletes, we have
focused on more primary states of comfort that seemed
fundamental to survival needs.
Organized society must have basic services in place.
Things must work. Maslows hierarchy of needs is very
useful way to understand that in order to aim for self-

213
actualization we must have those basics in place.
Architects and engineers must still deliver on function as
well as form.

Some of the very best architects imagined they were

creating an environment that would engage the
consciouness of the inhabitants, but in most cases they
were concerned with protecting them from rain, wind, and
sun. They predominately build homes with generic
rooms to support functions like dining, bathing and
sleeping.

Civic structures have permanence but rarely deliver on

expanded states of being. Occasionally, with enough
resources temples and theaters can achieve some
success. But, if we are to create a new civilization it
seems time to place our focus on more profound results
even in our everyday living and working situations.

In the east, the masters of feng shui made an attempt to

balance the chi vitality and energy in any space in order
to provide harmony and eliminate distractions. They
were advocates of peace and harmony. They chose an
objective with social consequence . That art is making an
impact again and it now seems possible to focus what we
know to reach and even exceed the criteria of peace and
harmony. We must build up using the hierarchy.

Social architecture begins the design process by asking

what the optimal and most expanded state of being could
be in any thoughtful arrangement of space and time.

We arrange the quality of our lives by organizing our time

and our spaces. We also have the chance to establish
some effect in the corridors that connect our spaces.

214
Virtually our entire metropolitan, urban, and rural worlds
could be subtly transformed by this focus on optimal
states of being. Currently we are deadened by many
influences like concrete, steel, drywall and flourescents.

Let us now examine some of the classes of being

available to us as social designers:

SANCTUARY STATES

Meditation, contemplation and "quiet time" are becoming

more and more apart of the private regimen being
adopted by people around the world. The states of
grace associated with these practices are achieved
without contact with others. The space itself does much
of the work. Real privacy can require more design than
imagined. Many of the more advanced states of being
can be groomed in these more isolated settings. Original
contact with the self and the interior feeling referents
are built in these situations. Therefore having access to
a sanctuary space wherever people go is ideal.

HIGH PERFORMANCE STATES

Athletes, public performers, jazz musicians, and those

caught in severe conditions muster a surprising natural
genius on occasion. These are creative juices that flow
on the physical level. In some cases the audience makes
a difference. Levity works better than gravity. The
senses are fooded without being over-loaded. The
circumstances often leave the performers absolutely no
time to "think". So the intrinsic awareness and natural
competence is within.. The circumstances bring these

215
states to life.

TRANSCENDENT STATES

Here we seem to enter cosmic territory. The location of

the genius is hard to determine or so it seems to the
participant. Like the dreams that give you a set of
instructions for your future...like the strange entity that
occasionally pops up to leave haunting but primary
trailmarking clues...like the moments of rapture that
often come when contemplating spiritual matters. Ken
Wilber, one of the most prolific writers in this century,
says he had a lucid dream of the universe marching
visually through time and space and now he has written
twelve books describing that possibility from all the
viewpoints he can assemble.

LUCID STATES

Writers, composers, poets, evangelists and patriots have

all been in lucid states. The material comes to them in a
burst that is clear, well organized and appropriate to the
audience. Often this pure down-loading occurs in the
morning hours for writers and composers. Those who
speak from the pulpit often marvel at videotapes of
themselves and claim that they never intended to say
such things nor do they remember doing so. Channels
and mediums express similar observations about
remembering nothing of their transmissions to others.
Practically speaking these lucid states can save hours

216
and hours of thinking, writing, and editing.

STATES OF EROS

The view is somewhat more difficult to research here but

there are many accounts wherein lovers achieve rarified
states of grace. These may or may not be while
copulating. The essence of the connection in these
situations seems to be one whereby each player merges
into a common energy field with the other. From there
the ride may include cosmic scenery, full-bodied energy
rushes, and a cascade of faces appearing on your
partners head. The sense of time disappearing and
having landed in the center of time and space have also
been reported. The after effects can be very integrating
and calming.

Yes, there would be an entirely different take on these

states by a Buddhist scholar and a farmer from Iowa.
Yes, we could argue about whether a state of grace can
be induced by earthly hands or by definition must come
totally from a place beyond our knowing. And it is
highly likely that our situation and how it is arranged
and our state of mind and how it is predisposed and our
physical comfort and how it is established are highly
instrumental in how available we could be for any of the
more expanded states. So don't dote on the
terminology. The need here is to get as many states of
grace as we can lodged in our consciousness so that we
can arrange to enjoy them as often as desired.

217
 VISION
VISION COMES OF AGE

Remember the early attempts, in the eighties, to make vision a

corporate tool? We had some sparse but powerful history lessons
of leaders who had used vision and succeeded. So, the American
manage ment literati recently attempted to describe how to create a
vision...in some detail and a variety of protocols..

In the early eighties a corporate vision was simply a

lofty statement of intent. Then, later, in order to
provide more specific impact, a mission statement was
added. Later yet when it was obvious we needed to
empower the culture, as well as our systems, the guru's
added the purpose statement. Then strategists wanted
a piece of the action and a strategic intention was
added. Now vivid description is heralded as a way to
include the visions for each of the teams in the
enterprise. Depending on what manage ment book you
read you could obviously select any combination of
ingredients that suited you.

So, in nineteen ninety-eight we are poised with a real mix

of ideas about what a vision really is and how it's to be
used. We in the Arcturus-Balian strategic design
business have been working with this evolutionary
phenomenon since the beginning. The idea has grown
immensely in scope, form, and, frankly speaking,
usefulness. Allow us to clarify some of our currently
held impressions.

Just what is a vision ?

218
A vision is any combination of compelling ideas that
purposes a group to move together to accomplish major
new achievements. Yes, it can be one sentence, if you
are a one niche business. It can also be a page full of
proactive statements if you want to activate all of your
business units and even support units in a large
organization. It can be an illustrated version of the
desired future state. It can be a legend extolled by great
oratory in a corporate cathedral. It can be a screen
saving image with spots to drill down on the graphic to
pop up descriptive detailed descriptions. It can be a
large 3-D hallway exhibit with built up platforms for all
the visionary outcomes to be placed in their own fully
modeled state........yes, like Disney would do it, and
there might be music playing on the side.

In 1996, a really hip organization would use a healthy

dose of all of the tools above to create the emotional
and directional impact desired. Information in the
corporate setting tends to look pretty drab and much
the same. If something is to be valued as more
important...then it should be presented that way. If the
organization is large enough, then a purpose, mission
and other descriptions of ideal behavior are definitely
needed. It can all be assembled under the framework of
whole systems vision.

How does a vision work?

Whenever we congas something in our minds then we can

RE-cognize that something in the world. Language is
one way to understand this idea and a perfect example.
Try to think of something you don't have a word for!
......pause......Or just think of a color you haven't
already been taught! .....pause........ If you're on safari

219
and you haven't seen the profiles of the animals your
supposed to recognize then chances are the brain will be
unable to match-up the images your eyes are recording
as they scan the countryside. The bells simply won't go
off! A match is required between the brain's information
and that same reality in the world. So, if you are trying
to get someone to act upon a future idea then you must
create enough of an image for them to recognize the
elements of the desired end state when they are zipping
through life. It's a matching game and clarity is critical..

Imagine you have a created a post-it note on the inside

of the windshield of your car as you drive along. On the
note is a description or picture of a desired destination
......perhaps a landmark. Imagine how easy it will now be
to recognize the elements of that destination as they
appear along the roadside. It's the same with vision.
Your brain can handle a rather large number of
recognition tasks if they are clearly preregistered on as
mental post-its. Really effective people know what they
looking for and that's why they always seem to be taking
advantage of the situation no matter where they are.
People with vision stay mindful this way not as they
proceed through life, plucking the fruit from the most
unlikely places.

How much detail is necessary?

The amount of detail is optional. It's the clarity and vivid

description that counts! Most corporations make the
mistake of having a group of senior folks edit the ideas.
Occasionally it works, but most often, they destroy the
vivid description with vaporous corporate jargon.

220
Yes, it is possible to have a vision element for every type
of operation inside a large enterprise. And, they must
be vivid. In fact, just as we have discovered with various
continuous improvement programs, it is powerful having
every working team regularly create short term targets
for themselves. So why not encourage them to also
create longer range choices for themselves? In this way
every element in the organization can be pulled
compellingly into the future.

How do you focus long range during uncertain times?

Despite the daily news, most leaders have felt that, the
time they were living in, was very uncertain. So, they
simply chose to focus on the most ideal outcome and
become passionate about getting there.
They took a stand. They chose a desirable future state
and they communicated it clearly and with passion.

It's possible for every working team in a large

organization to have a vision. There is ample evidence
that this concept really works. It is also important for
the larger organization to have a purpose which is
slightly out of reach so that as shorter range missions
are achieved there is still something to pull the group
forward.

There is also another ingredient that can be added. If

the exact destination is not discernible, then create a
process vision about the focus and agility needed by the
organization itself to move confidentially through the
unclear present.. Here you focus on the organizational
process. ....the style of the teamwork itself. It's most
desirable, at the corporate level, to have both a clear
future destination and a desirable internal process. We

221
believe, in addition, that each working team can have at a
visionary horizon and a visionary process....then
everyone is challenged.

What does it take to empower a workforce with vision?

It used to be that one impassioned leader with great

public presence was considered sufficient. Now, with an
infinitely greater number of details to master, in order to
excel, a variety of things need to be considered and a
shared responsibility should exist to get the vision inside
the skins of the company workforces.

Firstly, involve as many people as possible in the

process of vision creation. Even though, vision as a
tool, has traditionally rested with senior leadership, wise
leaders have always solicited the council of others in
order to spread the fire as completely as possible. Next,
place the vision in as many compelling formats as
possible. We are only too aware that one more list of
words on a card or another set of values stated in
corporate speak is so much vaporware to the
workforce. If the vision is worth having then it's worth
ennobling. It should be delivered passionately in the
same media mix you would choose to contact your
customer base and then even more personally inside the
tribal domain itself. Imagery, poetry, music, sculpture
and theater are ideally suited formats to project an
important and lasting idea. Ideally the message that
goes to the marketplace in expensive advertising can be
loaded with the same visionary elements so that you can
communicate inside and out simultaneously.

How often do we do it?

222
When times are dynamic like the present, it is wise to
vision and revision often. It is not a weakness to adjust
course and do it often if the situation warrants. Imagine
you are all navigating in uncharted territory. Don't you
think it wise to climb to high ground regularly and get
your bearings ? Likewise it is important when you come
back trailside, to repurpose the group vigorously.
People deserve to be excited about what they are doing!

The railroads watched while airplanes took their

business ! Typewriter manufacturers thought computers
were calculators and overlooked word processing ! Yes,
you can wait to make a move. We would recommend
however that you aim for the high ground now !

Vision can align your direction, purpose your teams, and

bring inspired performance to those you lead.

What about purpose, mission, beliefs and behaviors?

Just imagine they are all part of a whole systems vision.

Each of them further refines the quality of the effort.
Purpose speaks to the cultural future of the
organization. Mission creates a shorter term and more
specific direction. Beliefs and behaviors help everyone
to understand how we want to work together in
harmony. We should attempt to weave these things all
together into a whole systems vision. This is especially
possible with a graphic and symbolic vision. There is
room for many purposeful vision elements in such an
approach.

Prepare to open yourself to a larger idea of what a

vision is and what it can be! Vision, like other major ideas
in the corporate adventure has been growing up. We can

223
 grow with it.

The Strategic Vision It’s More Than Meets the

Eye
We use strategic visioning as a way to collect our ideas about the
future and aim at a more desirable state together. Visioning became
popular as a primary tool in the organizational world during the
1980s. This clear knowing as a group of players about what they
agree to achieve together may be the single most important and
necessary organizational skill-set ever created.

There is a lot more to it, I have found, than one normally

experiences in the fast moving corporate stream of events. It is the
single piece of work that is absolutely tied to the leadership team.
After twenty-five years of experience in this world of strategic
vision work, I have been able to better understand the essential
dynamics of the kind of robust vision that serves to guide the long-
range development process in a deliberate way.

Here are some principles described so that the process can be seen
more as a craft and not an off-site weekend opportunity. The
Dynamics First, there is a vast difference between willing something
to happen and allowing it to happen. We usually blur the distinction
between what we want to have happen and what wants to happen
anyway. On the ocean, as we sail forward there is the choice to
select a port to sail toward. Arriving there is what we want to have
occur. But, in the process of sailing there we can also experience a
current that pushes us off course. That is a force that wants to
happen. The wise captain uses the current and the preset course
together or in alternating phases to achieve the established vision.
Dee Hock, the founder of Visa, describes this play between the goal

224
and the circumstances as chaordic, or working with chaos and order
together.

Second, there are operational goals in any culture that demand

attention in order to achieve excellence. Simultaneously, there are
cultural realities in any organization that demand attention in order
to keep the inspirational peak of performance at a high level. One
is like the road map and the other like the fuel. Good visions include
a real solid combination of both elements. The wise captain never
lets the bottom line scorecard obscure the spirit of the marching
band.

A third distinction I would offer in a mature vision is the degree to

which the vision pulls the group toward the future and the degree to
which the vision pushes a group toward the future. Without a
higher purpose there will be little pull. Without a lofty goal there will
be little pull. Without a transformational focus there will be little
pull. Likewise, without precise objectives, clear images of the
preferred state and periodic reviews, there will be little push.
Again, some of each works best.

The Practice: These three dynamic pairs just mentioned set the
parameters for a robust strategic-visioning process. With these in
hand an interesting set of more precise tactical elements can be
clustered in the envelope just made possible. The degree to which
the leadership engages the workforce with a robust vision then
becomes the difference between those who just plan the work and
those who also work the plan. It is said that in tribal organizations
the chief had only one real job. That job was to tell the story of the
tribe at every single tribal gathering. The story usually explained
the genesis of the tribe: where it came from; and the direction of the
tribe: where it is going. This informed combination puts a real
backbone in the body of the organization and sustains a drive to
achieve the new destination.

225
Remembering that this directional orientation is the primary job for
leaders, it is far better to bore people with the destination of the
organization with such reminders than to let the ship slide off
course. Vision Is a Muscle We tend as a matter of practice to vision
during the season of invention and then lapse into the management
of the thousand details until the next visioning season or the arrival
of a new leader.

A clear view of the future requires a special kind of thinking. Vision

is a muscle. It gets much better with exercise. Occasionally it comes
to us as individuals from places "unknown" in the form of pure
inspiration. That is to be respected. More often with a group we
must pound out the dough together before the bread is ready for
the oven. The more we do it the better we get. If you think what
your kids are doing is strange, then you are not going to school on
the future.

Experience tells me that this pounding out the possibilities is

something the leadership should do together, and they should allow
three full work-sessions to get there. Typically, in session one, all
the things we are sure we don't want to become surface for
discussion and agreement. In session two, the beginnings of the new
creative pieces emerge. By session three, an idea of the most
synergistic mix will begin to surface. Progressively the vision
elements have a chance to play as a great piece of music. Soon a
map with key landmarks begins to surface. Now the vision has
become a real operational tool to manage the creation of the
optimum new reality while nurturing the workforce along the way.

Recognizing the elements of a new vision cannot occur if the ideas

about that vision are not clearly established. To recognize
something we must cognize it first. Without a sense of the kind of
dinner you intend to prepare, then grocery shopping is an over-

226
whelming chore. But once even the most unusual preferred state is
imagined, then the shopping list is firmly set in place. The brain just
naturally triggers the recognition of elements already imagined or
accurately labeled as a category.

That is why a vision done in generic and homogenized business

language usually leaves the players without the imagery they need to
find the new vision. The Strategic Vision Occasionally, we can lead
an organization with a lofty set of phrases. If there are some clear
outcomes in the phrases, we can aim with more precision. If there is a
step by step visual map to our preferred future state, we can not
only see the entire idea and be pulled by it, but we can ask our
workforce to attend to the imagined steps to get there in an
organized way.

If the organization must build or manufacture something, then the

expected performance placed on a visual map is critical. What is
nice with a strategic vision is that leadership can hand off the vision
with a map that sets the stage for management to act out the dream.
The clear imagery takes you from vision to action without a loss of
clarity.

This is why this skill-set is more than a pretty speech. This is why
there is a chance after the off-site weekend that there will be a
Monday morning connection to the work and a real change of
behavior. That is why people like using maps to get where they are
going. This is also a balanced way to lead people to a place where
they make their own very detailed action plans. In this way they
retain the initiative on the "how" we do it, and the leadership knows
that the "where" and the "when" have been established.

When I speak of a map in addition to the lofty and inspired words of

the leader, I include several possibilities. There can be a very
tactical map in a military style that details the objectives for a dozen

227
or more teams. There can other more strategic views, for example,
with three large scenarios depicted as thrusts. The map can be a
simple hand-drawn graphic or it can be emotionally charged with
poignant symbols.

In the case of a very large organ ization, it can be a 3-D model done
in boards or even constructed in concrete like a monument. It can
be a screen saver. It can be animated if the details and flows are
important. It is a simple courtesy to make the steps along the way
as tangible as they can possibly be made. When a full-spectrum
strategic vision map is complete, it holds a place for all that will
follow. It compels action. It informs the most distant member of the
workforce. It gives the leadership a storyboard that guides their
speaking. It places the most important work of the organization on
an altar that separates it from the thousand other PowerPoint
programs presented during the year. Some things are just more
important than others and have to be given the presence they
deserve. I believe that the strategic vision is the most sacred act an
organization can aspire to. It can be informed by a higher purpose.

But one thing is sure, it must stand out from other organizational
communications. It must be an altarpiece. It should be presented in
the most auspicious surroundings. It should be available in many
forms and all of them should be beautiful and important.
Otherwise, a vision can become no more than another routine set of
instructions to be stepped upon during a busy day.

Responsibility for the Whole

As some of you know it has been my honor to help lead the Fellows
of the World Business Academy on a ten-year journey to discover a
vision for the planet for the next one hundred years. The Fellows

228
of this Academy are as qualified a group of minds as could be
assembled anywhere to do this work. Our Academy mandate from
Willis Harman is to be responsible for the whole and to be
responsible at a level of consequence has inspired us all.

In the face of the current and pervasive global conversation about

the unilateral, pre-emptive, full scale war one nation has decided to
launch upon another, I have found no part of that conversation
being related in any useful way to "the whole" we so often speak
about.. It seems that the principal ideas associated with a concept
like "the whole" are at this point in history a somewhat foggy notion
in the minds of the public and the current statesmen who lead them.
So, this writing is an attempt to give some flesh to that very idea so
that we can expand our Academy position and stand more firmly.
Then when the time comes to speak with some potency, we shall
better know what to say. To appreciate the task of describing the
"whole" I offer an analogy to the self. If you were asked the
question, "What constitutes your whole as a person?", how would
you answer?

Is it the stuff on your résumé that you would begin with? But, hold
on, that's all about doing and not much about being. And what
about your personal vision, potential and aspirations? Would you
add that? What about the pharmaceutical value of your
constitutional ingredients? The transfer value of your spare parts?
And then the raw capacity of your collective experience to tackle
things in the future? And then your spiritual ideas of transcending
this life?

And do you genuinely participate in your fantasy world? Notice the

dimensions that can be considered. This is a preview of the scope
and content to consider when speaking about a "whole." The whole
of you, I suggest, is just way bigger than a résumé. And, I offer that
our living planet with a ten thousand-year-old civilization on it ... is

229
way bigger than any present day institution's concept of reality even
if they think they speak for the "whole." Excuse my typeface here,
but WAAAAAAAAAAAY bigger.

No short description is likely to encompass the "whole" in any

adequate way. But, indulge me first with some brief verbal cartoons
of the "whole." After that, I will return to the question of our global
voice.

So, what's really at stake here? For those out there who want to ask
the institutional players in our present world crisis what they should
consider when they begin a possibly escalating conflict in one part
of the world without the broadest consideration of the "whole,"
well, this paltry written accounting is only a partial and very tiny
compendium of what's really at stake. We should not be quiet and
continue to allow obsolete ideologies with outdated worldviews to
determine what is good for our new global civilization. We have
already crossed the bridge! Our present national leaders are not
bad people. They are doing what they learned to do before things
changed. They are simply overcome by the rush of evolution, as are
we all. We have simply become more of a global civilization than a
collection of nations. It has happened overnight. Nations are now
just a smaller layer of the real "whole." Unfortunately, they think
they are still in charge and have the capacity to determine more of
our total reality than they deserve. We have to patiently ask them to
take a new and more respectful place in the world dynamic.

Our point of view or viewpoint as an Academy must expand to better

encompass the "whole" and speak for it. We need to help kick-start
(or click-start) the GLOBAL VOICE of a new civilization that
doesn't yet appreciate that it exists. We need to encourage the
present leaders to empower the exchange that is now civilizing us at
a new level because of our new global info-structure and
connectivity. We need to encourage them, as Hazel Henderson

230
suggests, to have a bigger scorecard. We could well encourage the
world to take a moratorium on war for ten years to pause

OUR CONSCIOUS HUMANITY.

As a civilization of ideas we are years ahead of our institutions in

our knowing about what is needed. We are already functioning as a
planetary civilization. It just isn't obvious because our reporting
institutions are still reporting on the "nations" who organized their
focus. We are already functioning beyond nations even as
hemispheres and regional interest groups like the European Union.
And further, when people in sixty-five nations take to the streets on
a given day to make their voices heard ... we are functioning real
time at the level of planetary civilization. National governments are
at the moment at least two paradigms behind the forward edge of
our current world dynamic.

OUR SOCIAL FABRIC.

We are our history. The thousand tribal rituals and costumes. We

are also the many new styles, modes, venues and colors that have
grown so quickly with our creatively wide-open interpretations of
life. The reach and range of imagination, play and participation in
the wonder for the average young person today dwarfs the options
available in the first half of this century. We can now enter the
Internet virtual reality world and play "live" with people from around
the world in an environment that is totally original and where those
who are playing make up the world as they go. In your mind, fly over
the earth and see the constructed landscape of thousands of spires
and steeples and new city buildings that are looking more and more
like the flowers in our best gardens. See this layer of life at the
level of social architecture.

OUR GLOBAL MINDSET.

231
Notice the planet is laced with connectivity. There is such a thing
as global presence and world o pinion. We can have a tragedy like
Princess Diana's death or 9/11, and within an hour almost half the
globe knows what has happened. Our most admired athletes and
dramatic players are known and loved worldwide. A rally can be
organized on the Internet one day and be executed the next. You
can ask a search engine for news on a given subject and get the
report from a dozen planetary news sources. You can find anybody
of note on the web and any subject that has ever been documented
within a second of your request. This is tantamount to having a
collective cultural library on a planetary scale. Every click in is like
the synapse of a global brain. This further demonstrates how
institutional leaders, by definition, are several steps behind reality,
and that problem is getting worse by the day.

OUR GLOBAL INFRASTRUCT URE.

We have built a grand system of exchange. The numbers of people

normally found in a city of over two hundred thousand people are
now in the air and bound to other zones at any given time. This
global exchange of people is a function of aircraft and landing cities
that make boundaries less and less relevant. Land travel and
mobility of people and goods via truck and ship again have few real
limits at this stage of development. Our technical inventions to
harvest natural energy are real and ready to go to work now. The
capacity to replant the entire earth's surface within a decade exists
and can be delivered by the nations’ military forces as soon as we
announce that we are a planet and release them from their fear-
based security duties. OUR LIVING POTENTIAL. We are a
collection of waiting ideas. The collective efforts that took us to
the moon. The global array of places to relax and play. The blinding
array of stories at the tip of an Internet click that shape our
understanding and grow our capacity to participate in life. The

232
chance to live in the garden again. The chance to muse in a
thousand ways about our continuing life in the grand universe.

OUR PHYSICAL WORLD.

We live upon a geological wonderland. First, let’s just acknowledge

that, for as far as we can see with our astronomical eyes, there is no
other celestial body within range that has the particular
composition of our earth. It is a precious combination of
interpenetrating elements that assures the life of billions of
sentient beings. In the crudest of terms it can be summarized for
our more political discussion, as the planetary commons. It is our
atmosphere, our
oceans, our reefs, our forests, our soil, our fresh water, and the
seeds that insure our bio-diversity and the continued growth of our
food. You get the idea. This is the real bank. This is the real
savings account for our continuation as a planet. This is stage
upon which our future stands.

OUR BIOLOGICAL RESOURCES.

The biosphere is host to many billions of life forms. The composite

of the life forms on this planet. The exquisitely deeper nature of
their contributions to all that we experience. The way they inter-
relate. The orchestra they play at dusk. The incredible way they
have chosen to exchange with each other to continue the existence
of the greater mix. The way they continue to improve themselves
and their capacity to survive. At the level of whale or at the level of
microbe, they all have intention and they all contribute to the daily
drama that makes life interesting in their own unique way.

OUR HUMAN CAPITAL.

233
We are the fabulous diversity that is humankind. We are the
unfathomable number of individual ways we know the universe of life
that surrounds us. We are the fragile unity that builds our common
institutions and support systems. We are the knowledge base that
allows each generation to build upon the last with more confidence
and versatility. We are the minds that can grow at lightning speed,
especially when the ideas for the future are packaged in increasingly
more holistic ways. There is a breadth of understanding and action
that comes with the human archetype just as it is. The chance to
create a global metabolism that sources all the life that is
supportable. The opportunity to launch ourselves into space to
inhabit new worlds.

OUR POSSIBLE FUTURES.

In the track of time on this planet we have never had anywhere near
the potential we now have at this moment. It is more potent by a
thousand times than ever before. Collective intelligence as a
resource may not exist in a physically measurable form;
nevertheless, it is a very real thing. And it is precious and here
now. It may have more reality to you if you think of it as being taken
away. Our genuine capacity to engage in a New World where the
connectivity and resources are optimized thoughtfully is pregnant
with life. To better examine our vision and reconstruct the
planetary commons. We dearly n eed the time to get our global feet
under us before we reconstruct an old paradigm over a new reality
that has in its very essence the means to govern more naturally.
Free information exchange is to conflict resolution what the free
market is to progress. Future shock is here, and we need to stop
and reflect on how to proceed in a new global way. So, don't ask
Washington or Baghdad how much the next war will cost. Ask them
to sit down and think about things at a larger level of consequence.
Ask them to be as big as the Soviet Union when they decided under
Glasnost to look deeply at the consequences of their past actions

234
and get out of the way. This is not Washington's or Baghdad's
world to stomp about in. Bigger things are going on than national
governments. We have a new "whole" on our hands.

The global dynamic has accelerated several paradigms beyond o ur

national strategy. Who will speak up about that? Who will say, let’s
give our relentless push into the future a break; let’s pause as a
world and catch up with reality. Who will say, sit down and notice
the consequences of doing things the same old way? Who will say,
repair the planetary commons using the best Global Reconstruction
team available--the military. Who will say, don't use a national
budget to rent strips of sand in Turkey for $28 billion to launch a
war and spend $1.8 billion on hydrogen development that is meted
out for four years when it is ready to launch now? Well, I say, we,
the Academy, can say those kinds of things and should say them as
loudly as we can. We have a small and very thoughtful flag planted
firmly on the side of the planet. It says we are "responsible for the
whole." What say we add a small marching band to go along with that
flag, blow our horns a bit louder, and see who comes to the parade?
Let’s be a global voice with a global vision in tow. It is false modesty
to be worried about being competent enough to do something if you
are among the few who are doing it all. We may have all gone to
sleep as citizens of nations but we will all soon wake up as citizens of
the planet! Let’s start thinking that way. Go, planet!

THE PLANETARY CLASS OF PEOPLE

beyond boundaries

Nations are obsolete......... useful in their time...but

now..mostly obsolete. Good for infrastructure

235
management, but not much more. We see the rise now of
economic power blocks that will, eventually, give way to
hemispheres..... and then, sooner than we might imagine,
coalesce into a new planetary cultural mosaic.

......... That global culture of people is emerging now.

In this age of rapid transit,..... people from many

countries, have extensively traveled the globe and, as a
consequence, they have become as comfortable with
planetary ways as they formerly were with the ways of
their own country. It also may be true, that, because of
the telephone, we have created a global reach that
substitutes for many local affiliations. We certainly do n’t
seem to mingle much with folks in our own neighborhoods.

Its more and more a world of local privacy and global

intimacy.

It may not be obvious, at a glance, who these “global”

people are, but they are more planetary than national
and.... virtually constitute a new social class. They are a
commonly eclectic segment to say the very least.

Do you wonder if you qualify? You may not have ever

thought of it, but should you be interested, here are a
growing set of tell-tale indicators for the new planetary
culture. Some of the categories may both surprise and
interest you.

236
 THE TRAVELER TEST

There are certain things planetary people know about

travelling, simply because they do so much of it. You can
bet they are frequent fliers...maybe with more than one
airline. Some have a quarter of a million miles to their
credit, and that has come from three or four long trips a
year for ten or more years. Most are rent-a-car club
members. This means the car may be waiting, motor
running and all details of th e contract handled. Here, no
matter the country or the car, the planetary traveler
knows how to operate that unique vehicle...... within a
minute.

Others have a metro-car account so that a modest

limosine service can get them to meetings with a minimum of
distress to the costume, hairdo, or psyche. Their baggage
array also tells a story. They have the work bags that go
on the plane with them. Then, there is that interesting
combo of wheelies with long handles and attachment
straps so that as many as four bags can be handled with
one hand. They have telephone charge card numbers and
often a cellular phone or beeper. They are virtual beings.
They live in cyberspace...inside the communication itself
....their location specific ally.... is often irrelevant.

THE FORIEGN FLAVOR TEST

237
On a basic level, these folks are fluent in all kinds of
specialty foods and regional sauces. Yes, food and
eating it, are still among the most important habits found
across the spectrum of life. Planetary folks can instantly
discriminate, with menu in h and, many of the flavors that
have raced at light-speed around the culinary world in
the last ten years. Food ideas move nearly as fast as
music or movies. The speed and range is awesome and
indic ative of the power of the modern communication
system.

If you are able to identify the key culinary ingredients in

Italian, French, Japanese, Thai, Chinese, Mexican,
Southwest American or even creole food you know the
territory. Take a minute....cilantro?...sun dried
tomatoes?...sweet chili sauc e?...shitake
mushrooms?...sweet sour sauce? See what I mean? You
are more planetary than you thought...right? Hotdog
stands near the Washington monument have pizza and egg
roles prominently displayed together with the hotdogs.

SPIRITUAL SPIN-OFF’S

Now lets jump from basics to esoterics. Planetary folks

think in a variety of spiritual disciplines. Oh boy, you’re
thinking, we’re over the line here! Well, my guess is that
your... faith in life.... has been bolstered, for example, by
the christian tradition. I bet your ability to.... let go.... is

238
way more buddhist than it would have been ten years ago.
My guess is the hindu tradition has influenced our ability
to accept the ....dark side... of life and then work with it
appropriately. Planetary folk use the.... visioning
process... which is endemic to aikido and even voodoo.
The Taoists have encouraged us to... flow with.....
circumstances, while the sufi’s have refocused us on the
practical self-directing nature of...... presence and
breathing.

See what I mean...these influences are now common to our

planetary culture. Obviously there are others. Some
cultural cross-over has also come from folklore. Santa
claus and most of the major fairy stories abide. Folklore
has crossed borders from the very beginning of trade.

Trade itself, has also produced a common set of

planetary tools. Consider how many people have an
English umbrella, a Mexican blanket, a Japanese kimono, a
Swiss watch, Italian leather shoes, a French perfume....you
can see what I mean. Examine your artifacts for a moment.
Surprised by the mix ? Soon other common features like
McDonalds, the Hard Rock Cafe and Blockbusters will
give all the shopping areas on the planet a common set of
landmarks...like it or not.

ROADSIDE ATTRACTIONS

239
If you are a technician or a project manager you can rack
up an unbelievable number of air miles on a global milk run.
United 1k flyers ( over 100,000 miles in a year ) have road
warrior lounges. Less than a hundred years ago it would
take a family perhaps 16 hours to make the run to town for
supplies....now we can be halfway around the world in that
time...... resting and eating and working away on a laptop
while the aircraft almost imperceptibly cruises along.

Conversations, there in the air , are also available with a

kind of instant intimacy. People will talk about commonly
expressed and deeply held beliefs it would take a year to
discover if you lived in the same home town. Although all
the physical body’s are facing to the front, the distance
between two faces in adjacent chairs is less than a
foot...that’s intimate ! Then with a few buttons pressed
the chairs recline and we sleep close enough together to
be family.

COMMERCE OUTPERFORMS CONQUEST

To fly a quarter of a millio n travel miles in ten years is

fairly standard for the planetary person. And, of course
travelers are somewhat obligated to bring something home
to the kids. So, whereas in centuries gone by it was
military conquest that actually created the transfer of
cultural ideas, it is now the global commuters who do much
the same kind of work. Some seasoned travelers can hit

240
as many as three cities on a loop and navigate without a
map in a dozen more. The world is not only getting smaller
but we are becoming as familiar with it as we formerly were
with our happy hunting grounds or perhaps the county we
grew up in.

There are also stories from the market place which

accent the virtual nature of this kind of global intimacy.
Recently a company in northern Michigan contacted an
artist in Hawaii to create art for their news letter being
printed in Chicago. The request and subsequent
communications traveled 47,000 miles in 47 minutes, using
3 full loops, with the new art laid out in the newsletter and
ready for printing. It was possible with the a phone, fax,
and e-mail communications equipment. Think about your
planetary connections and how available they are to you.
I recently saw a man in an outdoor shower on one
continent call his wife in a restaurant in another. Talk
about national boundaries becoming irrelevant !

THEY RECOGNIZE EACH OTHER

Remember when it was interesting how many friends you

had in other towns, then states and now.... is it countries?
We may well live in one physical location but could easily
be a part of as many as four or five other communities.
When you attend the annual conference of your favorite
association, isn’t that one of your communities? How
about the sports club and the friends you have there?

241
Aren’t they another community ? And the two chat groups
on line ? Some people are members of several virtual
villages at the same time. Well, understand that it is true
for more and more people to be connected by association
and not proximity. Our children may live in five different
communities simultaneously .

It also seems that really tuned-in planetary class people

can make that close connection in a matter of minutes. No
formal introductions......just a few words about what you
do, whether business or pleasure ...and the discussion is
off and running. Often they can intuitively rescue one
another in strange airports where the hometown guy helps
the... out of town guy.... with a few quick but obvious tips.
Ah, another plane caught with just minutes to spare. Who
was that masked man ? Just another planetary citizen
whose been in the same jam before. And it used to be
that people could be distinguished clearly by their
clothes. Now the guy in the yankees baseball cap could
be from Lithuania.

A TIP-OFF IN THE TOOLS

Increasingly the hip players will carry a laptop with modem

on-board. Two years ago it was the organizer...still
popular. It all contributes to packing the physical office
on-board to sustain the virtual presence of a planetary
person. The cellular phone and beeper creates another
kind of ubiquitous efficienc y.

242
Fashions can be a give-a-way too. They have variability
also but the planetary traveler treats the ride on a plane
as a bedroom opportunity or perhaps a bookkeeping
marathon. For the moment it’s the most consistently
private and uninterrupted workspace available.

They can be seen with warm slipper-socks on their feet, a

blow -up neck ring around the head and often sprawled in
three or more seats across completely out. Often before
landing a comfortable sweatsuit will be completed with silk
scarf and jacket and the lady exec is ready for here
meeting.

If in a new version of the transoceanic aircraft, the seats

are electrically adjusted for a foot rest, lumbar lift, swing
back as far as an old barber chair and you can plug into 18
channels of sound while watching any one of two dozen
movies on a portable TV.

It was quite common in our recent history for cultures to

be exchanged either as a function of trade or conquest.
Today more and more the international traveler is the
means of pollenation. Now those travelers are themselves
becoming a culture. The first planetary culture and the
beginnings of a new civilization for the earth.

THE PLANETARY COMMONS

243
 And do we include the sea, land, and atmosphere?

We tend to think of our world as totally occupied. No

matter where one travels there is a border to cross and
some nation at hand. And, yet, twelve miles off of any
coastline we are in international waters. Remember the
earth is two-thirds water! If we leave the surface of any
land and travel skyward we then enter an atmosphere that
seems to belong to earth for about twelve miles or so.
And if we go down into the soil there is a surface of living
things that extends a foot or two in most fertile zones.

The political entities that g overn the countries on this

planet are directly concerned with the land divisions o n
the surface of the planet. That is how we set this world
up. Not that any of the borders we created have any real
correlation to nature or how it thrives. Most nations were
established by conquest and used terrain features like
rivers to help mark territory. Those rivers have been
neglected because of these arbitrary divisions.

The conclusion of this observation is now perilously

obvious. Most of our planet is not under the care of any
nation state. The leaders of our nation states are elec ted
for short terms and perform under those conditions. So,
they cannot be expected or trusted to care for the whole.
And, yet our future as a species is directly dependent on
such care. The real stewardship of planet earth and the
great planetary commons awaits! A force qualified to

244
bring it back to its full potency must occupy this new
territory.

GLOBAL UPRISING
The change engine is ready

We so often create a list of what needs to be done to have a perfect

world and then become discouraged because the list seems so long.
The press grabs on to dramatized evidence of what’s not working
and thrashes it about like a pitbull. Our engineering based
technological culture forever sees the world in terms of problems
yet to be overcome. Overtime, the process is numbing.

But, what if the conditions for change now, are not only way mo re
promising than ever, but more promising at a level never before
imagined. It could be that these promising conditions of our
evolutionary capability to manifest a new society worldwide are way
more significant than all the fuss we have created keeping up with
the massive change that occurs all around us. Again there is more
noise about the changing than the change itself.

Some believe we have actually begun a second renaissance and

we’re so awed by the opportunity that it is easier to focus on the

245
size of the task that relish the work already accomplished. Most
don’t notice ,the myriad tools we have constructed to move there
even faster. The tools are mental, conceptual, technological, and
spiritual. They all have new dimension because the globe is
connected at an unprecedented level.

If you look at the situation as if we were natures largest

helpers....would you notice that the infrastructure of roads and
waterways is a lot like the root structure of a great garden. Would
you notice that the cars and trucks streaming in and out of our
cities are just like the food that streams up the roots of giants
trees. Would you suspect that the tall buildings themselves are
giant plants and they are now beginning to show buds at the top.

Have you noticed the tops of buildings lately...especially at night?.

If you can imagine that the tall buildings are flower stalks, can you
imagine that the electrical signals carrying music and news from the
building tops are the same as fragrance that issues from plants
coming into bloom. You realize, of course, that from another planet
our cities look as if there simply the larger part of natures
plan....they look like giant plants or stands of trees being fed by
highways of big enzymes. Of course at night they create yet
another magic pattern and would appear from space as the real
evidence of life never mind the little ant like people who made them.

Because of the recent collective connection of almost all of the

planets most
significant human and technical resources a new world intelligence is
now available to us. If you ask are we using it...the answer is yes. If
you ask why don’t we know about it..the answer is that the press by
and large doesn’t have big enough lenses to notice.

246
Here is a short list the dimensions where we are functioning with our
global brain:

FOOD, FASHION, and FINERY

If you really want to know what people care about its wise to be
reminded that the very first items to zoom about the planet were by
most accounts purely cultural. It was true ten years ago that if a
western town had an asian restaurant well, that was unusual. Now, if
every entree’ on the menu doesn’t represent at least four countries,
a restaurant just isn’t considered “with it.” This represents a
lightning assemblage of data passing mostly between the city of
people that are off the planet in airplanes at any moment. Coffee
has become the drug of choice overnight, to say nothing of the cafe’
cultures that have spawned with it. Some say the pace of change
has provoked the talking and the talking has demanded the social
graces like sipping and puffing. .

Style, color and real estate fashions also are a matter of planetary
record. People aspire good living as a priority. This cultural
intelligence network is at work as we speak...seeking...selecting and
assembling new fare. That process is intelligent by any account.
Prudent...well not always.

MUSIC, MOVIES, AND IDOLS

Hard on the trail of pure culture is pop-culture. A song by the

right popular culture idol can zoom the planet in a matter of weeks.
The right rock concert could be a matter of note to teenagers on
every continent at any time. When Princess Diana died, the news
was available to every planetary citizen the next day. The block-
buster movies are known planet-wide within the season. Disneyland
is a planetary resort. Sports figures, whether announced at the

247
Olympics or not, command the box office when recognition is a
question. Interestingly enough, it’s the physically adept
intelligences that seem to be recognized most often...singer-dancers
or athletes.

COMMERCE, MARKETS, AND TECHNOLOGY

Planetary goods stream about in great variety. People in Hawaii

drink water bottled in France. A new camcorder from Japan
released in the fall is on Christmas lists everywhere. Christmas itself
is no longer just a nordic tradition. Stock markets fall in Korea and
wall street shivers. The news claims this is bad but, the international
interdependence must be seen as vital to world peace. We want our
music and we want it clear, so a new invention in portable pocket
sized sound with hours of replay time, is an almost seasonal rite of
purchase.

GLOBAL PEACEKEEP ING

Never has there been so much international teamwork in policing the

unrest that pops up in distressed countries. Yes, some of the
exported force is used for national interests, but more and more it’s
common or regional interest that is the motivation. Armies have
retooled distinctly for peace-keeping duties. The American army
has engaged in six overseas conflicts in the last decade. Four have
been purely peace-keeping and peace-building efforts. This is a
reflection of a global perspective on stability.

CYBERSPACE, CD’S AND INTERACTIVE GAMES

248
A powerful and still fuzzy new world is growing on the internet and
its related communications cousins. Twenty-five million people
world-wide are hooking in to an entirely new way to learn and meet
others while doing so. Once, you’ve played an interactive video
game or walked around in a 3D virtual community using an avatar
body while speaking to others you choose, then you will realize that
only testosterone will keep colleges alive in the future.

Cyberspace with all of its websites is already the largest and

warme st library on the planet. Cruise the net...find out whatever
you need and talk to interesting people along the way. There are
one hundred thousand people that are part of a virtual community in
Alpha world. They have actually constructed homes, centers and
amusements that you can wander about in. The rules are the same
as in real life ....walk and talk...don’t run into things...access what is
available. Borders are blurred; here we see people working together
across the planet.

Our real capacity to evolve intelligently

If we strategically bundle our latest capacities to reinvent the world

the bundle might contain:

• Our degree of mobility and interconnectedness.

• Our new familiarity with the change process.
• A dramatically more peaceful environment.
• Twenty-five million people on-line.
• An emerging systems intelligence and universal spirituality.
• An emerging class of co-creative planetary citizens.

249
Mobility and interconnectedness

It is easy to say that the tool-makers have gotten us into the mess
we’re in to day. We could say that the industrial process and the
transportation systems like the automobile have rearranged our
planetary home in dysfunctional

ways. We could lament the death of nature and the village and the
hearth and all of that would have some validity.

But, the very same people that may have contributed to the modern
urban glut have also allowed nearly every human very real contact
with nearly every other human because of their ability to
manufacture a family of communications tools that fills the
biosphere with billions of signal streams everyday. We can send a
thirty-three volume set of encyclopedia from one side of the United
States to the other in .2 seconds. During the trip it passes through
routers, amplifiers and switches. Its not a straight shot.

Yes you could say that the passenger aircraft that relentlessly spew
out of terminals these days are polluting the atmosphere. The
upside of that is that there is a phenomenon occurring whereby the
frequent flyers are becoming a planetary citizenry that no longer
considers themselves as purely national entities. Perhaps a quarter
of a million people are physically off-the-planet in jet airliners at
any moment in our world. They are meeting each other and
assimilating the planetary culture at a fantastic rate. These are the
leaders of the next wave. Their involved in the transnational
construction of a planetary civilization. The garden is hard to see
when the soil is still being tilled.

250
If a concept of major importance breaks, the worldwide news system,
as marginal as we may believe it to be, can herald the event and
within hours the planet has a new idea about itself and it’s history.
The brain connections for this entire world are in place. Granted, at
this phase, action is triggered better if triggered by catastrophe.
As a planet collectively we are still in survival mode. But, the
leadership is functioning closer to self-actualization.

So, collectively we have been changed by the scientific and technical

revolution in the last century. Yes, it has some troubling by-
products, but on the whole it leaves us a planetary culture that is
mobile and connected beyond the wildest imaginings of a century
ago . Mobile and connected are essential elements for making
change. These qualities describe the agility and speed of the new
culture to act. The motivation to act would be greater if we could
actually recognize the renaissance that we’re in and take pleasure in
the emerging frontier.

Our familiarity with the process of change

Recently, especially in the corporate circles of the world there has

been a trend of “reinvention”. The phenomenon began in the
eighties and probably peaked in the mid-nineties. It took popular
forms like re-visioning the companies “purpose” in the workplace
and less popular forms like restructuring the workforce itself. The
phenomenon introduced by business spurred similar efforts in
governments and non-governmental agencies. Fundamentally, what
occurred was a scrimmage with the future . People were asking
questions about the most sacred elements of their work and being
willing to reinvent the new processes to reach a moving target...the
consumer...with better products and services.

251
The commercial world and the corporate tribes that constitute it are
considered by most experts to be the moving force that will now
have the primary role in the redefinition of our new civilization.
They are the cultural buildings blocks of a new mobile society that
has its roots in commerce but it’s manners in transnational
connectivity.

The military has simulated the battlefield, the scientists have

simulated travel, and the world of home games have simulated cities
and made it possible for people to operate in virtual worlds of the
future. There are
over a hundred thousand people who have wandered around on their
computer screens in 3D worlds created by little sentences of code.
The entertainment business has trained us to “play” in imaginary
worlds at amuse ment parks and visit them thousands of times in the
movies. We even have little robot pets to care for. There is a very
blurred viel between the simulation of reality and reality itself.
Even reality itself gets a marginal nod from eastern religion.

We are practicing change everywhere ....the move to a new

civilization with more conscious outcomes will not be a traumatic
shift for most of the planet. However, the number of avenues it is
moving along will produce a changed world night after night. We will
get used to the ride. Our children already have. So, the task is not
awesome and were accustomed to and active in the game now.

A dramatically more peaceful environment

With the advent of peace between the super-powers the major

threats facing governments world-wide have nearly disappeared. It
is no longer possible to strike terror into a governments defenses

252
and cause them to redirect the entire industrial base with threats of
monolithic proportion. Yes, there are threats but they fall into
specialized categories and are best dealt with specialized forces of
a limited size.

One exciting new possibility is that rather than demobilize the

military forces of the planet, we can use their capabilities intact and
merely direct their energies to the planetary commons. Much of
what we fear is not working in the world can be described as the
depleted condition of the biosphere, the oceans, and the soil. When
you think of these areas they do not come under the direct
jurisdiction of governments or the corporate world, They are the
planetary commons.

It is a delightful coincidence that the armed forces have chosen to

organize themselves in clear divisions of land, sea and air. The air
forces can take responsibility for the biosphere. The ground
forces can take responsibility for the land assets like the soil and
fresh water reserves. And the navies of the world can begin
monitoring and preserving our most unknown resource the oceans.
The technology possessed by these armed forces is ninety percent
organizational and only ten percent pure weaponry. Their tradition
and organizational capabilities to handle change and a large volume
of

simultaneous chores is unparalleled. Their values of service would

allow a smooth shift in responsibilities in most global services. You
might be happy to know they have even spoken about this possibility
and feel predisposed to the work.

So, not only can we stop being sidetracked by military expenditures

that rob us of the resources to work on our planetary host...but we

253
can actually redirect their efforts in an elegant way and get the work
done without having to invent new bureaucracies to do it. One move
captures the key territory.

Nine billion plus e-mails a day

It has been known for centuries that a highly purposed though small
group of people can change everything. Now we have them on-line.
The distinctions exaggerated by national entities and traditions like
religions are blurred beyond recognition. The tools on-line are
collaborative. Partnerships and even marriage have occurred. The
connectivity is ubiquitous and the cooperation is casual,
unpretentious and unprecedented.

Just on the horizon are a flurry of think-tanks and database

resources just waiting to assemble cooperative designs at a more
global level. Since we have become accustomed to working
cooperatively on-line at the global level, we can consider the
transformation seriously underway.

An emerging systems intelligence

We have only recently and partially rejected the linear scientific and
industrial models in favor of whole systems thinking. Without this
shift anything we might consider doing at an evolutionary level might
just be more of the same. We now are vaccinated as a community of
evolutionary designers with the notions that all production must be
rationalized with the by-products it generates. We know that
restoration is more solvent than new construction. We look at waste
as the catalyst for yet another use. We now see the loops of
consequence and understand our limits to growth for growths sake.

254
Evidence is available from early more systematized approaches that
verifies the magic that is already afoot with the new social inventions
generated by holistic modeling. Yes; we have the tool kit and the
language to proceed with a new level of social invention.

The new class of co-creative citizens

We know there is a huge class of planetary citizens already in the

mix. Of that group a large portion are what are called “cultural
creatives” by polsters. There are 40 million plus of them.

So, what can you imagine is presently underway when you combine
these archetypes with a planetary communications web, no fear of
change, the tools of reinvention on hand and a garden of global
proportions to plant in? Ladies and Gentlemen...welcome to the
second renaissance !

...and may I hasten to add ...those who are already deeply inside the
uprising are living in a great deal of joy ! That’s the clincher.

SPECIFIC APPLICATIONS FOR BUSINESS

You must have noticed that we had many paradigm shifts for the
larger defense industries, automobile giants, and aircraft industries
noted in the above Gameplan.
Also we had a specific mission for the more generic corporation.
An important new work for the planet is establishing a new footprint
on the ground that consolidates the country and city needs people
have with a new masterplan for real community to occur. I speak
here of the global village prototype. Corporations must be
connected to the body of society and not encouraged to run loose
prospecting for resources and budgets without creating a
responsible footprint and a healthy workforce.

255
The World Business Academy fellows who have helped create but
have not officially sanctioned this paper have the right mix of
intelligence to further this great new of the World We Want. Their
names are available at <worldbusiness.org>. There interests are
spelled out next. I thank them for their work in the world.

THE VISIONARY MEME'S OF OUR FELLOWS

Socially responsible business ...the path of the heart ... the consciousness
of sustainability ... organizational intelligence ... vision and values driven
businesses ... leadership development ... the wise use of the land ... positive
social and environmental change ... new paradigms ... the global commons
... cooperative partnerships ... global reconstruction ... natural security ...
integrated well-being ... organizational development ... principal centered
leadership ... spiritual politics ... the enlightened executive ... the global
quality of life ... noetic science ... sustainable business practices ...
emotional intelligence ... conscious creation ... living in clusters
...sustainable enterprise ... a win-win world ... evolutionary economics ...
the mind-body connection ... the possible human ... conscious evolution ...
cultural change ... generative leadership ... deep conversations ... economic
transformation ... soft technology ... socioeconomic development ... social
architecture ... social artistry ... evolutionary leadership ... earth centered
leadership ... innovative strategy ... the new human wealth ... advanced
resource productivity ... the future of soul ... ecoarchitecture and
sustainable design ... the eco-village ... visionary leadership ... human
motivation and language ... economic and social development ...children
with food and beds ... business ethics ...profound change ...
transformation and spirit ... relationship psychology ... interfaith life
...economics/ethics/ecology as one ... visionary change ... conscious loving
... the labor market ... constitutional medicine ...business creativity ...
the cultural creatives ... the natural step ... the global brain awakens
...organizational learning ... servant leadership ... creative potential ...
the digital aboriginal ...cultural change ...international monetary affairs
... self-esteem through sports ... coaching leadership ... nature and
humanity ... social constructionism ... authentic power and soul alignment.

As of 15 Jan 04.....with 90% participation

256
HOW TO GET STARTED and organize for action
It seems to me, after organizing the strategies of around two
hundred organizations from a Chevron gas station to ten of the
world’s largest 100 corporations that there are some rather sound
principles involved in getting organized to do this work. I choose
to, first, approach the principles for activating such an endeavor.
How to do this work is as important as what it is we have selected to
do. Here are some game plan ideas:

1. SEE THAT THE OPTIMUM LONG RANGE SOLUTION IS

CLEAR ENOUGH TO LAUNCH THIS PLAN AS A GLOBAL
INITIATIV E OF THE PEOPLE.

2. ASK THE ALREADY COMMITTED PLAYERS TO DISCOVER

THE ELEGEANT SHIFTS THAT WILL ALLOW THEM TO
CONTRIBUTE TO AT LEAST ONE OF THE MAJOR
CAMPAIGNS.

3. INVITE AND ENCOURAGE THE LEAST ENGAGED PLAYERS

LIKE CHILDEN AND ELDERS TO TAKE IMPORTANT INITIAL
ROLES.

4. SUGGEST PARTNERSHIPS AND WORK TEAMS THAT WILL

EMPLOY THE MOST NATURAL AND SYNERGISTIC
LEVERAGE.

5. FOCUS ON GLOBAL UNIFIED ACTION FROM THE START.

THESE CAMPAIGNS FOR THE EARTH SHOULD BE FELT
AS TASKS THAT EVERY GLOBAL CITIZEN COULD BE A
PART OF IN SOME WAY.

257
 6. HAVE AN IDEALIZED SEQUENCE OF MAJOR SUCCESSES
SO THAT WE CAN FEEL THE PROGRESS AS A STEADY
AND MEASURED SERIES OF VICTORIES.

7. HAVE A GLOBAL SCORECARD ON-LINE WITH SEVERAL

GLOBAL POLLS TO CONFIRM ACTIONS AND PROGRESS
TOWARD ACTIONS COMPLETED.

IN THIS CENTURY
So, now let’s rough out a story for the next century in a similar way
with many of the most promising ideas taken from all sources. Ask
yourself is this another play? Is it better as the backstory for a
movie? Is it a spoken word piece with music? Can it be more mythic?

A strategy using the power of three is entertained. This is a

courtesy to the mind. Remembering things that may be new to us is a
task in and of itself. So, I have chosen here to begin a story that is
just about a page long for each of three periods of time in this vision
for the next 100 years. Imagine this being read by a powerful voice.
You pick the music!

In this century…

There will be three distinct periods. Each will culminate in an Omega

Point. The first will stabilize the planet as a unified civilization and
restore its full natural resource potential. The second period will
place the garden in the hands of each person by focusing on
advanced cultivation and soft technologies. And, the third will
refocus humanity and all sentient beings on the rewards of sacred
play. Period one:

258
Natural Security
2012-2045

There will be the period roughly beginning with 2012 called the age
of Natural Security. This will begin with a unified global awakening
and recognition that we are most properly one civilization and aim at
that OMEGA POINT as a planet and that nations must play their
role as co-operative organs of such a whole. Our OMEGA PATH will
be to balance and harmonize humanities needs and recover the
natural resource base to its full potential. We will redefine wealth,
the economy, and technology to accomodate all sectors of
endeavor. Boundaries as political entities will largely disappear in
favor of interpenetrating fields of influence. People realize that the
planetary commons have never been cared for by nations who have
been political entities operating inside boundaries with a short-term
focus.

The armed forces of each nation will join together as one global
reconstruction team designed to bring the planet back to full
potential. Major elements like fresh water, light, energy, seed stock,
and food will be managed as our natural common inheritance
independent of idealistic doctrines . They will be come a basic right
and we will hail the day when that resource base is distributed
equally to all peoples. Governments as a team will become the
distributors of this natural inheritance and build a smart global
engine to deliver it to all people. This cultivation society will be our
emerging paradigm.

Development will shift from exploitive horizontal conquest to this

vertical cultivation approach. We will farm ecosystems not crops.
Agro-forests will produce a half dozen crops simultaneously with
intricate layers of tiered plantings. Individual homesteads and urban
forests will resurface the earth in a gentle blanket of green and the

259
Individuals everywhere will return to growing part of their daily
intake. Cultivation and reintegration with nature and the animal
kingdom will be raised to a high art. Cultures with synergy will be the
focus of art and science working as a team. Schools will accept that
the internet and nature is the school library and that global
knowledge base must become the servant of thoughtful creation and
restoration.

A new class of global statesmen, philosophers, visionaries, and

social architects will appear. Things per se will become the tool to
support rich collective social inventions and new traditions. The
cultural creatives as a group of progressives will join the green
movement to move forward with hard and soft technologies, hard
and soft economies, and a new definition of wealth as the way.

A rich and layered system of exchange will be reopened from barter

at the local level to progressive free market commerce at the global
level. The last of the rogue nations, rogue leaders, and their
attendant global policemen will disappear. Law breakers will be
assigned to global restoration projects in contained zones.

Philosophy will return to its oversight position, as wisdom councils

surface, at all levels. New parables, archetypes, and mythologies will
inspire people to progressive action and sober resource
management. Old ideologies will rejoin history where they function
as a another knowledge-based resource and not an excuse to
dominate others.

The Garden
2030-2090

The OMEGA POINT for the second period will be the moment when
the surface of the planet has been restored to its full potential as a
generative ecology. The OMEGA PATH will progressively shift and

260
nourish the living resources of the earth until they restore the
surface of the earth to a fully habitable surface for all living and
sentient beings. We will see that village life re-appears as a
cultivated and rich experience that is properly the place for life to
be shared. National governments will remain in the more benign
resource management role.

The seas both fresh and salt based will be relocated into the
deserts and other basins to assist with a grand new level of
generative cultivation. This path of strategic landcrafting on the
larger scale will complement the cultivation society that emerged in
period one.

Humanity will come to realize that all living creatures have a role to
play in the flourishing of a great global civilization. Notions of
wealth will shift dramatically toward life in the resplendent and fully
cultivated garden environments that surface everywhere.
Technological tools will become transparent into the lush reality
that embraces a highly cultured aesthetic. They will serve and
function at the level of silent synergy, but not be gathered as
trophies in every home. The entire planet will now be able to focus
on the most practical and needed work of self-actualization and
evolutionary consciousness. Schools will be distributed in various
botanical wonderlands cultivated by the students and be
resplendent with wildlife. Self-love and self-esteem will be the core
work for education at all ages. Learning will be integrated into active
life pursuits.

Functional isolation and specialized controls will largely disappear.

All needed actions will be accomplished by self-organizing teams
that participate and costume as imaginary cultures. The visionary
soul will be activated as a co-creative force within all beings. Energy
field intelligence will be common and telepathy a more normal skill.
Engineering will be directed by imagineering.

261
Contact with other species will be highly developed. Garden
projects will weave all living entities into a conscious and responding
whole. Life in the garden will be pure magic by today's standards.
Tasks will be completed by more irregular and intuitive hunches. The
end results of these efforts will far exceed the original plans.
Second mind, paranoia, and mental babbling will be overcome by the
common focus on presence. Beauty will return to its rightful place
with efficiency.

There will be a variety of free zones where no rules are

predetermined. Some specially designed play zones will include
ultimately challenging circumstances where individuals may risk their
lives playing games of chance. These free zones will also focus on
radically new prototypes for living and sustaining the world around
us. Social inventions will rival technical inventions for support.

Grand theatre will engulf the participants for days at a time in

imaginary settings with full spectrum environments. Static concepts
of work, hierarchy, privilege, and status will be up for grabs.
Ultimate human qualities of compassion, character, creativity, and
service will be seasoned in the fires of experimental worlds.
Religions will be recognized as places to shop for spiritual practices.
Satisfaction will be a more sought after goal than enlightenment.

Sacred Play
2055-2100

We enter the final period pregnant with possibility. Our world has
stabilized. The water is clean again, the soil is fecund with life, the
oceans are resting in deserts as oasis points, the power of the sun
and natural energy has been harnessed, no one needs food they
cannot have. The villages have returned everywhere. They are
delightfully different and welcome visitors into their garden-like

262
sanctuaries. The creative play begins. Mystery theater, adventure,
and pilgrmage return. Music and dance occurs spontaneously
throughout the land.

The OMEGA POINT for this period is the sacred playground. The
OMEGA PATH is the mystic voyage. We have learned to pretend
again and everyday is a magical happening. Love will not be over-
organized, rule-based, or limited. We will be the stories and
fantasies we used to read and watch and more. Chance meetings
occur each day and gifts of love are exchanged at will. The plodding
ways of the work day are over.

Each person accumulates hundreds of skills and teams of people

accept each new task as a matter of group play. Few people do the
same things twice. The industrial hangovers of , specialization,
functionalization, and central control are gone. Spontaneity reigns.
Intuition and telepathy take their rightful place with reason and
planning. We feel more and we design our world to touch us in as
many ways as possible. There is genius in each moment and we stop
to notice. Time is arranged to match awareness and we slave
technology to conscious and playful pursuits.

All the world is really a stage. It is also a village. It is also a family. It

is also in love. It is also spiritually endowed with a knowing of divine

intention destiny is as destiny does. THE NEW ENDING

Strangely the old guard has been incredibly selfless in their
willingness to fortify more paranoid ideas with boundaries and
armies and often with their lives. Ironically so many instruments
created for war have actually been the very tools that now will allow
us to all remain connected as a global civilization and make our
moves on a thing we might call paradise. How can we tell the old
guard and their defense industries that the basic dreams of all
peoples modern and ancient are close enough together now to begin

263
the real work on the garden and the sacred play that can occur
there when we just remember the potential that is before us all! The
game we are born into is as precious a gift as one could give a
conscious group of beings. There is so much more room to play
that new game.

The actual state of affairs on planet earth is actually unbelievably

settled, connected, and full of the sharing of the necessities of life
on a global scale. People are investing in there own awakening at
record levels. New media has made millions of new insights available
on a moments notice. The details of our collective success are
mostly unreported but none-the-less awe inspiring. We now have
the intelligence to honor the creative capacity of nature and build
the world of our dreams. You just need to consult a perspective
that has been blurred by our techno-frenzy and a rapid global
awakening. We are so used to being in a survival mode that we have
only been attending to the scary parts of change and have not
accounted for what has been working. This age old historic
tendency to focus on problems first has left us troubled and fear-
based.

Never have we been so sure of what we don’t want anymore. We are

disgusted with blatant misuse of power by institutions that have
refused to reinvent themselves. That is always the first sign that a
major leap is afoot! And, with the power of positive visioning and
some strategic design shifts we can begin a collective process of
social architecture that will bring us home to a vibrant new planet
with a playful and content family of beings.

I am certain of it. I have been professionally recording the highest

ideals of leaders in our world for 25 years. These ;eaders were from
groups in organizations like ten of the world’s largest 100
corporations, leaders in world governments, and individual leaders
like Ted Turner of CNN. They have never refused to answer the

264
questions about their higher purpose and the visionary goals
needed to pursue those ideals. When you read their visionary ideas
for our world, our environment, our great service organizations, and
every human standing, you will recognize that the real world awaits.

I ask you to reflect at the beginning of the last century people

were fined for passing horses in their new electric buggies. They
thought manned flight was lunacy and going to the moon blasphemy.
We are light years beyond that place. It doesn’t mean we don’t have
some real work to do on the environment, but the ideas and agencies
are nearly in position to do the job.

It doesn’t really matter if you believe the final transformation is

nearly here or that the ice age has already started. The Earth and
its people have always had extreme warnings and prophetic ranting
especially after a new millennium starts.
These notions are usually presented in ways where we find that we
can’t really do much about them anyway. What we can do however
is all raise our sights on what is possible.

There are few exceptions in all of history to deny that those who
amounted to anything kept their eyes on the high ground and
intended that it become reality. When and if we can all learn to do
that then the collective power of our will and our work can bring
these intentions to life.

In this book you will see in the simplest form possible the best ideas
that have been collected from leaders and some of the worlds best
thinkers and visionaries. Further… these ideas have been framed
as positive outcomes. They have also been sequenced to allow for
the most generative ideas to pave the way for the others. They have
been notionally assigned to organizations that can best accomplish
them. They have been labeled and imaged to take hold in the
imagination. They have been given a position on the spectrum of

265
development to best work synergistically with each other. They
have been set in a world that is not yet recognized by our media but
already exists with great potential power. The ideas are doable.
The means to accomplish them exists. The organization required is
strategically simple and clear. The only task now is to stimulate the
public awareness so that this grand game in our earth garden can
begin in earnest.

Beneath all of our confusion with so much future shock we have not
noticed we are firmly standing on the threshold of an unqualified
global success as humans!
Now we can awake to the supreme joy of working together to harvest
the rewards of a life beyond strife and labor. Awaken to your
rewards as a long line of successful humanity and as a planet! We
are on our way!

Goplanet!
Jim Channon

266
Conclusions

267
We live in a time when the speed of our development and our
distraction with technology has estranged us from our own potential
and that of the living earth around us.

We are confused about the power of our traditional thinking and

institutions and don’t recognize them simply as an older set of social
inventions that must give way to more comprehensive and robust
ways of knowing and being.

The world will always be developing at a faster rate than humans can
capture as a set of conscious ideas and deliver to themselves in a
way that can effect their choiceful navigation. That is why we often
choose a future by avoiding an unpleasant present instead of taking
the time to choose the future we most cherish. We invest so much in
protecting us from the world we are afraid may come and invest
nothing in the world we best imagine could be created,

Nations and states have had their time in the sun so now it is simply
time to focus on the world and the village to help sort out what we
think and especially what we shall each do to more directly
participate in our world and it’s full potential.

Specific morality will gravitate more selectively to smaller cultural

settings and be chosen by the individual who will either decide to live
there or somewhere else that more suits their adventure and growth.

Nature will return as our most dependable and creative partner.

Human spiritually will gravitate to wards the awesome magic of life

itself.

The global village and our internet world will decide on a near real
time basis what it wants and that current truth will then best guide
human behavior.

268
Everyone must participate in the growth of our physical planet.

People will have some of their deepest personal friends living

thousands of miles away. They will exchange love and grow together
without ever physically touching. This will bind our world together.

The quantum field will arise as the most surprising companion we

have and extend our real being potential exponentially. That level
of being will exceed our level of knowing, having, and doing. Our
state of being will finally come to be our most cherished creation
and the way others will ultimately know us.

Spiritual practice will bury spiritual ideology. Being a human being

is something you are…not something you merely proclaim.

Accumulating wealth and power will truly become the poor man’s way
to living in the life force.

269
 THE CAPSTONE
I am a man who is absolutely sure this planet has a future.
We have the means and the know how to build a paradise
on this earth. Our knowledge as a civilization is now
available to all citizens in seconds. We are connected
globally in such an uncompromisingly complete way that we

270
can all change our minds about what is possible and how
we can achieve that new reality almost overnight. The
question is … are we going to wait for a global disaster to
wake up to our potential as a global civilization or can we
wean ourselves from the status woe and the deep trance
of survival thinking and get on with the job like grown ups.

I am sure of these things because I have asked leaders

everywhere the questions of higher purpose and vision.
Their answers are remarkably similar and they are thrilled
to be asked. We live in a society where we wake up every
morning and like a teenager and go to the mirror to
confirm that our pimples are still in place.

We need ask ourselves only three questions on a fairly

regular basis:

1. What is our highest purpose or potential?

2. What are our visions for what it is like when we
achieve that potential?
3. How will we co-operate to get there?

Look I am not trying to replace all the fun you have with
struggle and the permission it gives you to continue to be
mediocre. I am encouraging us all to take the game to the
next level and whine about things of consequence… like
bringing our Earth into the state of a botanical garden, or
seeing to it that our children have the real means to feel

271
good inside their own skins, or seriously entertaining all
the interesting new signals from the rest of the Galaxy
about life on other dimensions and what we can learn from
that.

I believe it is simple arrogance to think that this is the only

source of life in the Universe. I also believe that the
benevolent nature of this creative game we are a part of
may actually intend to hit the reset button and start back
at caveman. I mean what do you really do to entertain
billions of beings that are awake to their world whether
they want to be or not. GOD has to keep the serialized
soap opera alive not to disappoint or leave consciousness
hanging. I think all religions and philosophies have
elements of the game in them. Fighting about which one is
supreme is obscene. Finding the clue in each one is a real
treasure hunt.

The study of quantum physics for all its wandering in the

particles has determined faithfully that we all have the
capacity to effect the world around us in way more
dramatic ways than we have been told to believe. When we
really take in all the dimensions of Universe that we swim in
… I notice that all of our ideas about GOD are way too
small. But our most pernicious habit of looking at
everything as if it were a problem to be solved rather than
a opportunity to be chosen keeps us strapped into
survival and the belief that we are not each and everyone
powerful beings of choice and manifestation.

272
My hope is that I can convince you that our capacity to
shift this world into a dramatically more satisfying reality
is upon us.

GOPlanet!

273
 THE CALL
It is possible to life out your dreams in a seamless flow of
life activity that allows you to weave your innate
wisdom/skills with your aspirations. The secrets to
enabling the real you to burst onto the scene is a process
of deep investigation into your inherited powers and their
most leveraged integration. Real living is not scheduled
and driven appointments with your desk inside a cubicle.
You know that!
It is a very dramatic and interesting adventure to claim the
high ground in your life. It is the ultimate life game and
challenge. It cannot happen without you having some deep
thought about who you are and what you really believe will
constitute the perfect life. The victory of seeking out
your ultimate life path is unquestionably better than any
kind of perfect job opportunity you might seek. It is
territory beyond the job. It is living smack in the middle of
your genius … both the inherited genius and the perfected
one.

Just like with any adventure, even a bad map will keep you
in the game. A really good map that you continue to
update is infinitely better than the bad one and will still
produce profound results. But, what about now …do you
have any long-range direction at all? Is it in the direction
of your deepest held destiny? Have you ever even
thought you had the right to study that deeper set of
dreams? Can you imagine (see in your mind) the ideal life

274
and how it reveals itself in a flowing daily experience? Get
in the game … its yours for the choosing!

Until you can get a clear idea of what is specifically

important and valuable to you … you won’t have a chance
to even see the elements that can build that experience
into a reality! Imagine putting together an exquisite dinner
party and not having a shopping list for the finest
ingredients! S0, where’s your list?

The imaginal life is waiting for you to turn on the lights in

your mind..

Jim Channon
Dream weaver

275
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would first like to acknowledge my imagination and all the beings
who generate her … wherever they may exist. This imaginal source
has filled my days with an extraordinary amount of energy and
vision. I work consciously to bring this source into being so that I
might truly honor the many strands of genius that inspire me from
GOD only knows where. My thanks to:

My ancestral blood line is filled with social blabbermouths like me …

dare I say social architects and they should take a bow in whatever
dimension they exist now. And … a special tip of the hat to me
druidic roots.

Now, to mortal comrades and from just another time zone … my

gratitude to these social architects … Leonardo Da Vinci, Thomas
Jefferson, Robert E. Lee (grand daddy), Margaret Meade,
Buckminster Fuller, and Walt Disney.

From this time zone … Bill Moyers, Madonna, Steven Spielberg, Bill
Mc Donough, Jean Houston, Robin Williams, and Jose Arguelles
(Uncle Joe). These are the deeply inquisitive, emotionally sensitive,
and fully expressive genius’s of our time. That is what I value.

To the “Be all you can be” army that set me off on an adventure that
still has me pushing the edge on life.

276
And to my family …Dad the writer, Mom the feeler, Sis the
homemaker, the Cousins, and those who helped raise me with all the
nudging it took … Brooke, Parker, Rita, Joan, and my loving
companion Zosia who is the exacting writer mind that constantly
keeps me in the clarity zone. And to my Planet that has been the
model for what life can be.

277
 BACK COVER

Our planetary civilization is light years ahead of the reports we get from
the vested interests and the gossip driven news we get. We are
connected and cooperating globally on levels that call for a new order of
business to take hold. Invest yourself in the truth of this statement.
View the new global maps of our success as a worldwide society.
Review the thoughts of some of our champion thinkers and get a real
sense that we already know as a sovereign civilization how to deal with
the problems we face. Then notice how very few elegant shifts it would
take to bring our world to its full vibrancy. Wake up to your individual
role in all this. Witness the new skills for living created by the best
thinkers of our time. Invest in the positive promise and potential of our
new world. People everywhere are making the real changes that count
and always have. Sovereign people that create dynamic visions are the
reason why anything works well. Then review a new practice called
social architecture that will give our young leaders the real tools they
need to build our new civilization into the 21st Century promise she can
be .... from now on! GOPlanet!

Flyleaf

Jim Channon has circled the planet over fifty times in his search for the visions that will bind us.
He has illustrated the strategic visions of ten of the largest institutions on the planet. He has
worked with his bioregion and helped create one of the first global villages anywhere. He has led
soldiers in combat. He established project EARTHRISE to collect the positive ideas of the
World business Academy’s fellows for the next 100 year vision for planet earth. He has a real
grasp of the multiple layers of connection and dynamic action that spell out how our planet
actually works. He actively cultivates three acres of permaculture with a community gathering
place on site. He is a renaissance man and a family man. He invites you to see your world anew.

How could we expect to believe the reports of our new world from the people who brought you
the last one? Their view is too small … there story is too patronistic … their understanding of
the gift of life is insulting. Welcome to a creative miracle planet and it’s on-board creative

278
beings. A new people that defy our real comprehension given the story of the world we have
inherited. This is the story of tomorrow and we will begin creating it today and … from now on.

279