Career Creative Curriculum 1.0

A Career Creative Curriculum Scott Downs & Gerald Doyle

Print Jul 2017 Beta version 1.0 A CAREER CREATIVE CURRICULUM A curriculum in personal creativity, innovation and leadership 00 1 2 3 4 5 17 18 19 20 Copyright 2017 W Scott Downs III and Gerald P. DoyleLayout and format designed by Akram Maradni, Illinois Institute of Technology, College of Architecture

Visual Codes Mode PageIntroductory material Feel Free to use Margins for note-taking Normal TextMental models Highlight textExercisesSkills Important HighlightDialogue points Notes & Captions

1 Introduction This curriculum is an offering. It seeks to share material that has come into our hands concerning a few intimately related topics: • discovering a sense of personal purpose and inspiration • bringing that purpose and inspiration to life • releasing creative and innovative potential • gaining access to a range of personal and organisational leadership frameworks. This material is based on publicly available sources, but we find these sources often appear dispersed. The material we have gathered is sometimes presented to senior executives or to business leaders who are usually in middle or late middle age, long after they have undertaken the bulk of their education and shaped their professional careers. That this material is not more widely shared seems to us a great shame, because, with early access, we believe this material can call us all forward - when we are young or when we reflect at different points in life - to live much more inspired, creative and abundant lives - for our own benefit and for the benefit of our communities, societies and ecosystems.

Introduction 2We find that the elements of this material are bothsimple and deep. We believe many people can benefitvery quickly from exposure to the curriculum elementsand can then deepen their practice with them to greaterand greater effect over a lifetime.This curriculum is also a co-creative experiment. Far fromwishing to dictate a narrow path, we as hosts seek tooffer our best understandings today as clearly andauthentically as we can - and to continually learn anddevelop the curriculum in partnership with all itsparticipants. As you participate, we earnestly hope youwill share your insights and your breakthroughs with allof us. As authors and stewards we commit to be listening,and to do our best to weave the community’s learningand insights into the curriculum as a living thing.

3 Why this curriculum? We offer this curriculum because we want to help ourselves, and others young at heart, to discover what inspires us and to bring that inspiration creatively to life. We hope to invite and support our participants in leading abundant, rewarding and generous lives - according to their own personal understanding of those inspirations.

4We welcome you to thecreative adventure.

5 TThheecumrriecu1lum’s themes The curriculum has nine major themes - each framed as a question. The curriculum’s learning objectives are to help participants understand and be able to use mental models and skills in each of the themed areas, and to weave the themes together. The overall learning objec- tive of the curriculum is to allow participants to: • discover or refine a sense of personal inspiration • bring that inspiration to life in concrete ways in an abundant and rewarding life and career • release their creative and innovative potential Woven elegantly together, our experience is that these elements create a powerful foundation for living and working. Each of the themes plays a key part, and each is in relationship with the others. The curriculum is not in any way intended to replace personal journeys of learning, caring for others, creativity or service - but rather to act as a contributory foundation for such jour- neys: for personal growth, for creative and fulfilling work, and for building relationships and communities - all in service of each participant’s understanding of his or her deepest truth.

Nine questions 6The curriculum’s nine questions are:1 How can we discover a sense of inspiration - individual and/orcollective - and bring it to life?2 How can we call forward and hold spaces for relationship anddialogue - for connection -  one to one, in teams, in organisationsand in ecosystems?3 How can we hold and help others to hold journeys of inquiry?4 How can we learn to step into a range of healthy and usefulleadership stances, states and qualities of mind?5 How can we make sense of journeys to greater maturity andawareness?6 How can we learn to understand and work with a view of theworld of complex, adaptive human systems?7 How can we learn to understand and work with the full rangeof human, embodied capabilities?8 How can we help to take in and share a design ethos, an invita-tion to be a maker?9 How can we hold and encourage journeys of personal andsystemic transformation?

7 The pattern of work Each of the questions will be explored in turn - the order listed above has a certain resonance for us as catalysts and initiators, so we have chosen to follow it as a prototype for pursuing the work. Each thematic section, though, is intended to stand on its own; we encourage you to find your own rhythms and patterns in doing this work. Within each question’s section, you will find: • Some written content to share key ideas that have touched and inspired us • Video and/or audio content (in time) that may overlap with and/or extend written content • Suggested readings from core original sources that amplify and expand thematic elements - for individual questions and the curriculum as a whole • Suggestions for dialogue with catalysts, coaches, mentors, fellow participants, and significant others around the themes • Exercises that may deepen experience within the theme We hope and intend that this material be the foundation of active personal discussion and dialogue, one-to-one, in small groups, and among a wider community or communities inspired by this work.

Ground rules 8The curriculum intends• To choose dialogue and collective exploration of the material as a principle for the use of our face-to-face time together, rather than various forms of monologue. Input material will as a principle be provided either as text or recorded as video and/or audio.• All content to be available online• Online discussion groups will be available and encouraged for use between sessions• Participants are invited to engage actively in the curriculum, including scheduled meeting sessions, coaching and group dialogues, while respecting the rhythms and priorities of their own lives• The curriculum leaders and catalysts to see themselves as MEFTs - more experienced fellow travellers - and not as experts. Course leaders hold space and do their best not to “take up” space



Question 1:How can we discover a sense ofinspiration - individual and/orcollective - and bring it to life?

111 ITnhtIrnoetdrmoudceutico1tnion Bringing inspiration to life We all make decisions and choices all the time. How do we make therm? What are the foundations? Probably there are as many answers to this question as there are people … and … in our experience with a wide range of traditions and disciplines, and in many conversations and dialogues with individuals and groups, we experience again and again a transcendent hunger among people to ground our decisions in some fundamental foundations, both unique to the person and connecting to their sense of a transcendent deepest truth. We find that these foundations are often expressed in the idea of a sense of personal or collective inspiration, or personal or collective purpose. This first question of the curriculum will expose us to mental models and skills for discovering our sense of inspiration or purpose. The explorations will include delving into, revealing and exploring the interrelationships among • Our own personal history • The way we are and what we stand for today • Inspiration itself • Our personal vision of the future • Our strategies and plans for bringing our visions to life

Introduction 122 Bringing inspiration to lifeAll these elements, in different ways, help us to create ordiscover our sense of inspiration and/or purpose. The aregrounded in it, grow from it, feed and develop it.If any of this sounds daunting, or you sense you havelittle insight into these elements today, don’t worry. Theapproaches we will share allow us to start anywhere, andare designed to put us under no pressure. They can beused and played with over any period of time. There areno time limits and no requirements. You may discoverone or two clear pathways you want to follow, or manydifferent unrelated threads you want to pursue, threadsthat may weave together for you in time, or maintain theirdistinctions for years.The approaches we will share allow us tostart anywhere, and are designed to put usunder no pressure.We do hope that you will find new perspectives in thepathways we offer you. We encourage you to think, feel,reflect and experience in ways that will be rewarding foryou, and that will ultimately give you material for furthercreative exploration and satisfying study and work. As amatter of intention, for each of the mental models weoffer, inspiration flows naturally out of history and pointsthe way elegantly to future states among which we canchoose.Let’s begin exploring the mental models, and see whatlearning and insights arise from the experience.

13 Journaling can be an important reflective exercise, when you give yourself time and permission.

Journaling 1244 Bringing inspiration to lifeWe invite you to create a space for capturing andretaining your learnings and reflections on the journey ofthis curriculum. A time-tested way to do this is to make oracquire a physical notebook or journal in which to writeyour reflections. We’d emphasise that other media thatwork for you - electronic or physical - are also entirelywelcome. As you will see, we will invite you to drawpictures or create images, and also to find or collect fromoutside sources images, audio, video, and/or objects -whatever evokes your learning and your journey for you.We encourage you to keep these inspirational “records”safe and to treasure them … and ... at appropriate times,respecting your own privacy and when it seems rightto you, to share parts of them with others of your choiceto enrich your own journey and those of yourcollaborators.Journaling can be an important reflective exercise. Whenyou give yourself time and permission to let thoughts,feelings, intuitions, and felt sense flow out of you, andcaoture them, you will find over time that you are creat-ing a deep resources of insight for yourself. Insight intoyour history, your current reality, the choices you havemade, the choices you could make now. About who youare and what you want. About your deepest truth,your highest goal. About the world you want to create,and the choreography and the pathways by which youcould bring it to life. About the resources you have orcould discover to create the world you envision.

1155 TTehmeemnoes 1 Bringing inspiration to lifeTemenos is a very powerful mental At its core, Temenos invites participantsmodel for understanding who we are to work in three spaces, often sequen-and what we want, for sharing and tially:co-creating those insights with others,and for building communities to foster • their past history, includinggrowth and change.The name Temenos is from the Greek: it the people, organisationsmeans sacred container. Working in a and other forces that haveTemenos, we explore deeply and shaped and influenced themdevelop clarity about our ownhistory, our current reality, our • one or more currentintentions, the choices we face and thechoices we make. And we share that situations or relationships,journey with others, so that we both considered as “containers”,benefit from collective intelligence and such as relationship to self,insight, and support each other on our relationships to partners andindividual journeys. family, relationships at work, in community and so on • visions of the future.Note: In each case, participants are invited to:WSireaajurdedinindefobrtecrdetaotinSigra, j • Reflect on the subject that attracts their interestand to Olaf Lewitz and • Visualise the subject by drawing a large map - drawingChristine Neidhardt fbTToehrrimendgmeeinvneoegnslottmaoplieEmnnugotraodalpnemldei,ostdheel. a picture or an illustration or illumination of the subjectdescribed in detail in using shapes, colours, whatever occurs. This workthe book, Showing Up, creates representation using both “left brain” andby Olaf and Christine “right brain” resources(https://leanpub.com/ • Share the insights with others, ideally in a circle ofshowingup) others convened as part of a shared journey of Temenos exploration.

Temenos 1266 Bringing inspiration to life The Temenos Effect of reflecting, visualising and sharing has shown itself to be extremely powerful incrystallising our own experiences, and in benefiting from the co-creative engagement with others. This work isespecially potent when a trusted group convenes to sharethese reflections: indeed creating this group and sharing the reflections is itself a powerful way to create trust.As a first exercise, on the next page we invite you to lookat your history, make and share a map. We will continuethe Temenos journey later in the curriculum. In the mean-time, please be encouraged to read more about Temenos in: Showing Up, by Olaf Lewitz and Christine Neidhardt (https://leanpub.com/showingup)

11577 TTehTmeeemmneonseoms1aMpa-phistory Bringing inspiration to life Please be invited to reflect on your personal history. Give yourself some time, as you reflect, to journal (and/or collect meaningful objects and images) about where you have come from. What have been the main crucial events and main influences in your life? What did you learn at key moments? How were you then? How did you change? How are your now? We suggest giving yourself at least 30 minutes to journal about these questions. You may choose to leave that section of your journal for a time, leave some space, continue reflecting and come back to it. This exercise can be done at one sitting or over a period of time. Next, consider how might you present your life history to yourself or to a small group of trusted other people on a large map - perhaps on a sheet of A1 paper, like flip chart paper. You can use pictures, diagrams, shapes, colours, anything you want, to create a visual map. Please give yourself permission to be creative and expressive! You may want to consider your history generally, or focus particularly on your history viewed from a particular lens or vantage point, e.g. looking back as you start university or a training course, as you prepare to seek or start work, as you prepare to begin a new relationship or end an old one, as you face a particular decision, and so on.

YoAurfiTresmt keenyosskminllaf:lpjuoe-unhrcniseatomlirnaygp. 12688 Bringing inspiration to life Don’t worry if you don’t often draw pictures or if you don’t consider yourself good at drawing. This image need only be shown to yourself - and only if you actively choose this, to people you specifically invite or deeply trust to see it. It is impossible to do this wrong. The process of doing the image-creation is consistently and remarkably valuable, even for, indeed especially for, those who rarely do similar exercises. Give yourself time to create the map, perhaps 15 to 30 minutes. Present your map, at the very least to yourself. If there is a coach, catalyst or significant other who you deeply trust, we invite you to present it to them as well. In the ideal case, convene a group of trusted friends or colleagues to share maps together. It is wonderfully powerful, and strongly recommended, to invite everyone in the circle (even a circle of two) to present. Include any facilitators or coaches in the invitation, so that you can exchange maps and share them together. Give each person a good period, perhaps 20-40 minutes each, to present their map. If working with others, and also if working with yourself (as if you were an objective observer), listen deeply to what is said and pictured and the feelings, intuitions and embodied experiences behind the words. Share your insights and experience with other presenters, but resist trying to judge, evaluate, fix or advise what others are sharing. Hold each other gently, lovingly, appreciatively. What does this journey tell you about who you have been, and who you are now?

19 TTehTmeeemmneonesoms1aMpa-phistory Bringing inspiration to life The question “Who am I?” is a powerful one in Temenos work, as well as in many other wisdom traditions and personal development disciplines. After having done the exercise of reflecting, visualising, and presenting, and having listened and received feedback from yourself and others, and further reflected on all this, take some time to journal for yourself around the question “Who am I?” You will also likely see in the map the influences, the people, ideas, forces that have influenced or shaped you. And you will also very likely get important insights into what you have wanted at different times of your life, and whether and how you got what you wanted or needed. Capture key insights for yourself in your journal, in words or symbols or images. Save your map to go back to and reflect on later - at least save it as an image if it is not possible to preserve the physical map.

Temenos - Clean Slate 122680 Bringing inspiration to lifePlease be invited to reflect on a container or“Temenos” that is important to you right now. It could bea personal or a work relationship or situation or context. Acontext that involves at least you and one or more otherpeople. Create a map on a large sheet of paper in a man-ner similar to the one you may have used for your person-al history.Give yourself some time, as you reflect, to journal (and orcollect meaningful objects and images) about thissituation. We suggest giving yourself at least 30 minutesto journal about these questions. You may choose to leavethat section of your journal for a time, leave some space,continue reflecting and come back to it. This exercise canbe done at one sitting or over a period of time.How would you draw out graphically or pictorially whereyou are in the particular context or situation you want tofocus on. Who or what are the other forces or influencesin the picture? How do they relate to each other? Whatchanges or movements are called for, are emerging foryou as you consider the context?What do you need from the context?What does it need from you?How might you be failing the system?How might it be failing you?

21

22Helpful questionsfor clean slate:How are you currentlyshowing up here?What is the current reality? Asyou focus and reflect, try to behonest with yourself about allthe relevant influences, yourown relevant behaviours andpatterns - and those of others.How does the way you areshowing up attune with yourunderlying intention?What choices are you currentlymaking in this context?Are there choices you wouldlike to make differently?Are there things you wouldlike to communicate to othersin the picture? Conversationsor dialogues you feel called tohave?

219573 TDhiaGleroomguupeeD-1iTaelmogeuneos Bringing inspiration to life Working with a catalyst, coach and a trusted team of people: • Each person reflects on one of the following using the exercise patterns described above (perhaps 30 min) • Their personal history • A current context or situation (Clean Slate) • Their vision of the future

Dialogue - Temenos 1226804 Bringing inspiration to life• Each person presents their Note map to the others • Practice listening (20-40 min each) deeply, heightening your• Others listen carefully and awareness of yourself, of share the insights and others, and of the group as a questions that come up for collective system. them. This is not a time • If it seems useful, you for “fixing” the other may refer to the section of person or for making the curriculum on dialogue judgements or giving (to come) for more extensive advice, but rather for comments and suggestions sharing impressions, about working in a dialogic sharing learning, circle supporting and appreciating the journey of the person presenting, and helping them crystallixe their own insights.• What do you notice?• What did you learn? About yourself? About others? About the group as a whole? About the Temenos process? About dialogue?

25 Purpose Quest Bringing inspiration to lifeNote Traditional societies have well-practiced patterns for helping members of their communities tap into a senseAlthoBurginhgsikniglleindspirationkotefoyvlitisrfiaeonns,itiinosnpsi,rafotiroenxaomr ppulerpfroosme -- especially at times of adolescence tofacilitation is highly adulthood or from adulthood to elderhood. These rites ofvaluable, an outlinefor a one-day Quest passage are often experienced as quests, and they tend to involve a period of extended reflection andappears below for connection with nature.those who would liketo work with itindependently. As a result of engaging in such a quest, participants regularly emerge with breakthrough clarity about what inspires them in life. This could be expressed overtly as a sense of purpose, or as themes and threads of inspiration, like images or metaphors or animal guides, or a sense of their “highest goal.” Within this Curriculum, we would seek to offer and support participants to engage in quests on several levels: • Multi-day facilitated quests out in the natural world, generally involving substantial reflective time alone in the wilderness • Weekend quests, using a similar format but over a shorter time scale • Single-day quests

Purpose Quest 26 Bringing inspiration to life The depth of insight experienced is likely to be correlated to the time and energy invested, and especially to the quality of the “container” we create, but we realise that both time and resource availability will vary for participants. All levels of quests will be valuable. All quests will benefit from being “held” by experienced and skilled catalysts, and by participants working in small groups to facilitate dialogue, mutual learning and the tapping of collective intelligence. According to ancient tradition, quests include three phases • Recapitulation: in which participants reflect on their experience in their lives up to the time of the quests • Questing: a period of reflection on the current moment of passage, in connection with nature. This may be only an hour or a few days • Illumination: being open and receptive to the new insight, vision, inspiration or sense of purpose that arises.For more information about longer quests, please see, as examples:http://sacredpassage.com/http://northerndrum.com/pages/shamanic-workshops/northern-drum-vision-quest/85https://www.now-here.com/foundation“Helping young people find their purpose - the Inspiration programme”

27 EOxneeIrn-csdipsaeiyr:aAintoinsoep-ndiarQyaItnuiseopisrnattiqonuQeusestt: Bringing inspiration to life If at all possible, share your quest with another person or a few others, perhaps including a coach or mentor. Encourage the others fully to participate in the quest with you. In preparation for the quest, over a period of a few days or a few weeks, reflect on the nature of the challenges you are facing: are you now or would you like to be at a point of some transition, say from living in your family home to living on your own, moving to a new level of education, moving from education into work, moving from being single to entering a partnership (or vice versa), becoming a parent, facing a child’s maturing and leaving home, changing jobs or careers, moving into eldership, moving into semi-retirement or retirement. Be invited to journal about your reflections. Consider if there is an insightful question (Nick Udall of the nowhere group calls these Breakthrough Questions) that you wish to hold during the quest. What question, if you knew the answer, would “make all the difference”? The question, if you choose to hold one, should be one to which you do not know the answer, that calls you to exploration of the unknown, one that daunts you at least a little. The question may relate to “Who am I?”“Why am I here?” or “What do I want?” Or it may be of the form “How can I ….” or “How can we ….(for exam- ple, how can we make a major change, create transformation, achieve an important goal?)” As recapitulation, you may wish to capture the history of your life up to the date of our your quest in a structured way, perhaps by writing a short structured autobiography (see exercise to come), or by com- pleting a Temenos influence map as described above, or by making a personal shield (see exercise to come).

One-day inspriation quest 28 Bringing inspiration to lifeSet aside a full day for the quest. Find a natural setting that appealsto you, where you will be able to spend some extended time in nature-- safely, but in as much isolation and in as beautiful a location as youcan find. Find a place where you will also be able to take shelter forpart of the time if needed for safety, and have access to food and san-itary facilities. You may wish to plan your day around the suggestedschedule below, inserting breaks for meals, hydration, and toilet visitsin a respectful and rhythmic way considering the time available, thespace and facilities, and the requirements of travel.Arrive early in the morning for your day, and find a place to sit in acircle with all participants. Check in (see exercise to come) to sharehow you are, what you are bringing to the quest: your point oftransition if relevant, and a brief introduction of how you haveprepared. Leave time for everyone to do this check-in gracefully.After the check-in, invite each person to present their history to theothers, in the form he or she has selected (Temenos map, biography,shield). If possible, if people can all use the same form, this may beideal. If you are choosing to do Temenos maps, actually drawing themon the day together can be a powerful practice. The biographies mayor may not be shared in complete form, you may choose only todiscuss the important points. Give time for each person to share andfor the group to respond, sharing their insights. This is not a time forcritique or judgment or advice, but rather for sharing insights,encouraging others and drawing learning out through collectiveintelligence.Allow some silent time in the circle after all have shared theirrecapitulations.

29 EOxneeIrn-csdipsaeiyr:aAptouinore-pndaoQysInuesepqisrauttieonsQtuest: Bringing inspiration to life When you are ready, go out individually into nature, ideally for at least a few hours. Find a place the speaks to you and attracts you, where you can be undisturbed, having prepared yourself with appropriate clothing, shelter, safety equipment, bathroom breaks, water, etc. During your questing time, hold your question reverently and lightly, but consciously. Be intensely aware of what you experience. Be as present as you can to the moment, and to the direct experience of your presence in nature. Avoid rehashing old issues or worrying about the future cognitively. Notice what you notice. Use all your senses, your felt sense in your body, your intuition -- feel your feelings. Allow what wants to come up to come up for you. Most traditional guidance suggests that it helps to stay largely in one physical place. Make sure your colleagues or any group leaders are aware of where you are for safety reasons, and that you are sure of your location and can find your way back. Be prepared to accept and welcome some challenging weather and other natural conditions, but maintain safety. Take your journal to record your observations, but do not let extensive journaling distract you from being present and ob- servant, of your natural surroundings and of your inner journey, during your quest. At the conclusion of the appointed time, return to the circle quietly and reverently. Take some time together to sit in silence. Then share your experience and any insights that arise with others. In a similar way to the opening circle, allow good time for each person to share individually, perhaps 15-20 minutes. Then let the group share its own reflections and responses collectively, perhaps guided by a skilled catalyst if one is available. Again, this is not a time for critiques or advice, but for shared insight.

One-day purpose quest 30 Bringing inspiration to lifeYou may want to take some silent time for everyone tojournal about your learnings. This work is more aboutdeep learnings than about “next actions”, but if anycommitments or future movements become obvious toyou, record them.When all have shared, check out (see exercise). Do aclosing round of final observations and learnings.Celebrate and honour each other and return respectfullyand gently to the everyday world.In the days after the event, be aware of the learningsand insights that arise for you. Learnings and insightsmay take some time to mature and show themselves.Record them in your journal. You may also want to givethem form in images or icons. Physical objects may takeon special meaning. Share these inspirations in dialoguewith a trusted friend coach, and catalyst.What answers have arisen for the crucial question youbegan the quest by holding? If this represents a form ofbreakthrough for you, be sure to capture it, treasure itand nourish it. What more do you know about who youare? Why you are here? What you want? What inspiresyou? Do you have new-found sense of purpose? Perhapssome new threads of inspiration? How you want to be orwhat you want to do in the world?

31

Notes and examples 32

33 ExCehreCccihske-ci:nkC-hineck-in BSrienngsiengofinInspspiriaratitoionnto life In many forms of dialogue, participants do something called a “check-in”. Depending on the context, doing this formally may or may not seem appropriate. But as a context it is worth remembering and you may be able to use the structure informally. In a check-in, people sit in a circle, and each is in turn invited to say how they are in themselves and to say what they are looking for or anticipating in the meeting, dialogue or process you are entering. Sometimes there is a specific check-in question. Each person speaks in turn, often moving around clockwise. Everyone has an equal chance to speak. Participants agree to listen appreciatively and deeply to each other, without interruption. The practice has the core virtue of honouring all participants equally, allowing all participants to be authentic about their state of mind coming in to the meeting, and to be clear and open about intentions and expectations. It also permits a range of perspectives to be shared, fostering collaboration and a respect for diverse viewpoints. If checking in is new to you, choose a “safe” context or meeting and invite all participants to sit in a circle and check-in in turn, saying briefly how they are and what they want and expect from the meeting. Notice the effect on you, on other participants, and on the quality of the dialogue and collaboration that ensues.

Check-out 34 BringSinegnsinesopfirInatsipoinrattoiolinfeA check-out is a relative of a check-in. The process ismuch the same: participants sit in a circle and speak inturn, everyone speaking on an equal basis. Participantsreport on how they are in themselves after the meeting,what they are taking away, and what they intend to dodo now as a result of the meeting. As with a check-in, allvoices are heard and valued equally. And all participantsare able to benefit and understand the learnings andpersonal reactions of the others.In an appropriate setting, invite all participants to sit ina circle and check-out in turn, saying briefly how theyare at the close of the meeting, event or process, whatthey have learned and what they will do as a result of themeeting. Notice the effect on you, on other participants,and on the quality of the collaboration and cooperationthat ensues following the meeting. You may also wish toobserve how these practices affect people’s enthusiasmfor meetings, for attendance, for participation, and forputting common decisions into practice.

35 Five points of inspiration Bringing inspiration to life A person’s deepest truth(s) Close personalRelationship relationshipswith Self Work - Creativity, Service, Practice Communities and ecosystems

Five points of inspiration 36 Bringing inspiration to lifeIn our work with young people, one useful and simplemental model that emerged for exploring for anddiscovering inspiration is a five-pointed star, where thepoints of the star are as follows:• A person’s deepest truth(s)• Close personal relationships• Communities and ecosystems• Work - Creativity, Service, Practice• Relationship with SelfReflecting in creative ways on each of the five points canbe a rich source of inspiration. Each of the points will bemore important for some people than for others. Somepeople find inspiration in all five points, some only in oneor two. The boundaries of the five directionsillustrated by the star are not at all hard or rigid, butrather flowing and interconnected. Typically, differentpoints of the star are connected to other points. For eachperson the whole picture will have coherence, even iftensions appear between the attractions of the differentpoints.

37 Deepest truth Bringing inspiration to life Most people we have encountered have some sense of what is deeply true for them. Your deepest truth includes what you understand to be the fundamental principles of how the world works and what are the guiding principles for nature, for the universe, for life, for people individually and in groups, and for yourself. If you have a sense of faith or spirituality, your faith or your spiritual values are likely to be a major part of your deepest truth. If you have a personal philosophy, this is likely to be part of your deepest truth. If you see yourself as a rationalist, then your own rationality and your structured methods of inquiry could be the foundation of your deepest truth. If you are a humanist, your sense of what is needed for the future of humanity is probably part of your deepest truth. People’s deepest truth often illuminates for them how they should act in their lives. Their deepest truth might call them to deeper exploration, practice or study. Or it could call them to action in the world.

Exploring deepest truth 38Bringing inspiration to lifeWhat do you believe is deeply true about the universe?About nature? About the ecology of the earth? Aboutthe human community? About an individual humanbeing? About relationships? About yourself?Give yourself time to reflect on this. Take a walk, perhapsin a beautiful and peaceful natural or evocative setting.Write about what comes up for you in your journal asyou go, from time to time, without unduly interruptingthe flow of your reflection.What about this reflection inspires you? What partmotivates you to act? What part motivates you to be in acertain way? Do you feel energy and strong motivationaround this? Your inspirational motivation may arisefrom a positive energy - something you want to create,embrace or move towards, or it may originate in thingsyou want to avoid, eliminate or reform (for example waror political or social injustice). In any case, we invite youto crystallise the inspiration, if one arises, in a positiveform (“I want to create or call forward ….. inwardly oroutwardly”). Consider holding the question, “How do Iderive inspiration from my sense of my deepest truth?”Give yourself time for the question to mature and for theanswer to unfold. Don’t be concerned if this point of thestar does not ignite much energy for you. Each person isdifferent, there are four other points of the star toconsider, and the star is in itself only one possible mentalmodel. Record your insights in your journal if this fits foryou, or consider making a Temenos map to express it(see discussion of the Temenos Effect above) or findingevocative images or objects to capture your inspiration.

39 ExCelrocEissxep:PlEoexrprislnoogrnindageldReepeelepasettsitottrnruusthhhips Bringing inspiration to life Do you feel inspired by close personal relationships? By this we mean partner relationships, family ties, and close friendships. These are relationships that are most powerfully understood in the context of one-to-one connections, or possibly one-to-a-few, as opposed to larger groups (see the discussion of Communities and Ecosystems below). Are you inspired by the idea of being in a loving and creative partnership? Either because you are in such a relationship now or because you want to be in one? Are you inspired by close family ties, as a parent, or as a child, as a brother or sister, aunt, uncle, niece, nephew, cousin. Are you inspired by close friendships, whether discovered in personal life, socially, in the com- munity, or in work? Ask yourself what gets your energy or excitement flowing: rejoicing in (or reforming) the present state, or imagining and seeking to create an in- spired future around the kind of relationships you want to create with the people closest to you. Once again, this realme may or may not be your most energised point of the star. Others may be more important. Allow your own truth to emerge.

Close Personal Relationships 40 Bringing inspiration to life Reflect on your close personal relationships as they exist for you: with your parents, your siblings, your children if you have them, your spouse, partner or significant other in romantic relationship (if this is true for you). Your close friends and colleagues, people where you have a direct sense of connection, of knowing and being known, of caring for the other and being cared for. Perhaps in certain areas of your life such relationships are missing: possibly someone close to you has died or broken away. Perhaps you are seeking a kind of connection you have not yet found, romantically or in friendship. What inspires you about how such close relationships are now or could be in the future? Do your relationships, or your hopes for them, give meaning, quality or rich- ness to your life or the lives of others in your circle of connection? Are there relationships you are still seeking to form? Are there parts of your relationship-life that are missing or that you would like to improve? Make notes about these reflections in your journal. Consider holding the question, “How can I find inspiration in my close personal relationships?” Allow yourself time and space to let the questions mature. Be on the lookout for breakthrough insights, possibly when you least expect them. As with other points of the star, record your insights in words in your journal, in maps, in objects or in images, in ways that are most meaningful to you.

41 CECxloersmceismPe:euCrnlsoiosteinePaesrlsaRonnedallaReteciloaotnsioysnhssthipeipmss s Bringing inspiration to life Are you energised by being a member of or belonging to a group of some kind, a group that has a defined identi- ty? Communities could be defined by your place or or- ganisation of work, your school or university community, your ethnicity, your nationality, your gender, your sexual orientation, your neighborhood or sense of belonging to a place, your political, social, professional or avocational affiliations. Your sense of community could be defined around connection to nature and to the environment, on a large or narrower field. Companies, entrepreneurial ventures, non-profits and other work environments are an important and natural form of community. What sorts of communities have you loved and felt at home in? What sorts do you long for but have not yet found or created? What sorts have repelled you and called you to initiate change? What sorts of communities can you imagine that you want to found, lead, or call forward? You may also be focused on your participation - and that of others - in natural or social ecosystems. If you are inspired by protecting or celebrating the earth, thenatural environment, you may be seeing your mem- bership in natural ecosystem as inspiring. Equally, you may be energised by the chance to be part of a larger so- cial ecosystem, conceived of as being much larger than any social or organisational group, and perhaps includ- ing the interrelationships of many such groups.

Communities and ecosystems 42 Bringing inspiration to life Reflect on the kinds of communities and ecosystems that inspire you - positively or negatively. What kinds do you want to found or contribute to? Call forward? Transform? Protect or foster? In what ways will these communities nurture you and call forward your creativity, your innovative spirit, your ability to serve others. How will they affect others? What kinds of relationships will they foster? Make notes about this in your journal. Consider holding the question, “How can I find inspiration in my communities or ecosystems?” Allow yourself time and space to let the question mature. Be on the lookout for breakthrough insights, possibly when you least expect them. Make notes about these reflections in your journal. Consider holding the question, “How can I find inspiration in the communities and ecosystems I can create, develop or join?” Allow yourself time and space to let the questions mature. Be on the lookout for breakthrough insights, possibly when you least expect them. As with other points of the star, record your insights in words in your journal, in maps, in objects or in images, in ways that are most meaningful to you.

43 WExoerrckise: Finding inspiration in Work. Bringing inspiration to life How does the potential of Work (we write it here with a capital W) inspire you. When we think of Work, we mean at its best a context in which your full creativity and your capacity for service and self-expression are called forward. Where you can serve others in a truly inspired way. Where you can practice and hone your “craft,” your “art” and your skills in a truly inspired way. What would be the ideal “job” for you to do - it might be more of an avocation than a way of earning a living, or it might be both? What skills do you have - or roles do you play - for which you are or might be paid and those you do or would do for love. Don’t limit yourself to just one path. What are the varied themes of Work in the world that inspire you. In what ways will these themes nurture you and call for- ward your true identity, your creativity, your innovative spirit, your ability to serve others. Make notes about this in your journal. Consider holding the question, “How can I find inspiration in my Work - broadly and creatively defined?” How can I tune my existing skills and the productive opportunities and skill-building oppor- tunities I actually face to refining and bringing to life my inspiration around Work. Allow yourself time and space to let the questions mature. Be on the lookout for break- through insights, possibly when you least expect them. Make notes about these reflections in your journal. Allow yourself time and space to let the questions mature. Be on the lookout for breakthrough insights, possibly when you least expect them. As with other points of the star, record your insights in any ways that are most meaningful to you.

Finding inspiration in self 44 Bringing inspiration to lifeWhere and how do you see yourself now? Who are you?What do you want to learn? How do you want to grow?It could be through education, personal development,goal setting, spiritual development, physicaldevelopment, health, wealth … Does growing or learn-ing or developing as a person inspire you?Reflect on the kinds of personal evolution that inspireyou - mental, spiritual, physical, material. Make notesabout this in your journal. Consider holding thequestion, “How can I find inspiration in my relationshipwith myself, in my personal growth and development -broadly and creatively defined?” Allow yourself time andspace to let the question mature. Be on the lookout forbreakthrough insights, possibly when you least expectthem.As with other points of the star, record your insights inwords in your journal, in maps, in objects or in images, inways that are most meaningful to you.

45 Backbone Bringing inspiration to life We’ve been exploring ways to discover our personal sense of inspiration, and how these things can emerge from our history and current experience. We’ve also looked at some ways to crystallise our vision of the future. A natural question is how all these things can fit together. The leadership catalysts at the nowhere group have come up with a mental model we like a lot to connect these explorations together. They call it “The Backbone”: it is described on page 121 of both the “My” and the “Our” sections of their book, the Way of nowhere. Essentially, the approach calls for linking the elements we’ve been describing in a relationship that builds up from history, to what we stand for now, to our senses of purpose, values and inspiration. There is then a leap for- ward to a sense of vision, and then stepping backward to fill in the details of a strategy: how to get there. The diagram on the facing page is a simplified version of the way nowhere draws this framework. Respecting their copyright, we won’t reproduce their beautiful and elegant diagram here but we do hghly recommend checking it out in The Way of nowhere book.

Vision 46Strategy Linking history, present reality, purpose, values, inspiration to vision and strategyPurpose, values, Note inspiration The various elements support each un- derpin one another, like the vertebraeWhat do I stand in a backbone, hence the name. for now? The beauty of this conception is that it can allow us to work from fundamental History foundations to a sense of where we are going and to practical action steps to get there, all in a connected way, one we can visualise and occupy spatially.

47 ExWerWcoisroekr:ikWnigonrgkwinwigthiwthitthhtehthebeabbcaackckbkboobnnoeene Bringing inspiration to life If you have done some work on some or all of your past, present, inspiration, and future vision, you may want to explore how these insights tie together - and how they can help you create an action plan to call forward the future you envision. If you have some of the building blocks but not all, don’t worry, this process can build on what you already have, and also steer you in filling in the gaps. You might want to create some floor cards or write on pieces of A4 paper the words on the next page. You can do this exercise on your own, or in partnership with a coach, mentor, catalyst or trusted friend or colleague. If you have done a Temenos process in a group, you might want to invite one or more of your Temenos collaborators to join you in this work. We’d invite you to adapt the “Purpose, values, inspiration” card to your personal situation. If you have a sense that you have a personal purpose, you might name the card to reflect that sense. If you feel you have a number of threads of inspiration working, rather than a singular sense of purpose, you might want to label the card simply “Inspiration” (or have several cards). If you feel mostly in touch with your personal values, label the card in that way. If there is a combination of these influ- ences, use a mixture, or several cards. As you stand in the place of your History, what do you know? What do you experience? What do you notice? Notice your experience with all your “ways of knowing” - emotional, intuitive, sensory, the “felt sense” within your body - as well as your thinking, cognitive mind.