Integral Thought
February 19, 2007Nick just sent me a note pointing me to a wikipedia entry on Integral Thought. He thought that maybe it fits in with my generalist thinking a little. From the text:
“The word integral means comprehensive, inclusive, nonmarginalizing, embracing. Integral approaches to any field attempt to be exactly that—to include as many perspectives, styles, and methodologies as possible within a coherent view of the topic. In a certain sense, integral approaches are “meta-paradigms,” or ways to draw together an already existing number of separate paradigms into an interrelated network of approaches that are mutually enriching.”
Sounds like he’s right on the money!
And talk about syncronicity. Tony and I were only just discussing the other day the God v. Science and Creationists v. Rationalists meme that seems to be going around at the moment.
I don’t want to weigh in on this one, but perhaps a view that seeks a comprehensive understanding of humans and the universe by combining scientific and spiritual insights is a worthy opponent (alternative) in this debate?
Time To Think
February 9, 2007Dave Pollard is musing about our lack of time to think: to think deeply …
Not only are too many of us becoming too unpracticed at thinking, I believe many of us no longer have the breadth of useful information, or the generalist experiences and competencies of our ancestors, or the diversity of experiences, or the introspective, meditative, peaceful, uneventful moments, or the unhurried and pensive conversations to draw on, all of which comprise the raw material that effective thinking depends on.
There are a couple of reasons why this post piqued my interest:
- It calls for us (the royal we) to become more generalist. Now clearly here is a voice of reason!
- I’ve also advocated for a long time, the move towards business models that are more open and cooperative and for organisations to treat their staff more like adults than angst-ridden teenagers (inspired by Ricardo Semler).
- I’ve recently been implementing GTD (more on that later). There is some real synchronicity here. From my reading of the book, what David Allen advocates is a method for dealing with the ‘firefights’ and everyday issues SO that we DO have time to think. Is that not the whole point of GTD? From my own experience facilitating strategy and planning sessions, this bottom-up approach to planning is essential. You are never going to achieve the required level of introspective thinking or any productive thought unless the day-to-day is under some level of control.
I agree with Dave’s postulation that the solution lies in approaching management with a completely different mindset–one that empowers individuals to take responsibility, encourages them to act and most importantly, treats them like human beings.
links for 2007-02-06
February 6, 2007-
Ted Mitchell sticks up for Generalists! Whoot! via http://www.creativegeneralist.com/
Philosophy 101
December 21, 2006I was channel surfing the idiot box the other night after getting home relatively late from a friends bday and stumbled across a fascinating doco on the design of modern housing and the relationship between housing, architecture and the relationship with the (perceived) quality of our lives. I later found out that it was part of a series called The Architecure of Happiness. A really interesting series. Reminds me of some of the things I loved studying during my undergrad years, and why I ended up with a Human Geography major.
The author/narrator Alain de Botton was also interviewed on a show that started directly after. Here’s a person that they referred to as a Philosopher — a real-life modern-day philospher. Now you don’t hear of that too often. I like the fact that Alain is such a Renaisance man … author, philospher, artist. A generalist in every sense of the word! I’ll be sure to check out his work in further depth. Any suggestions where I should start?
Many find the idea of finding wisdom from studying Philisophy in these modern times strange and bizzare. I’m fascinated by it.
Generalist degrees in Australian Universities
August 31, 2006It seems that generalist skills have found some sort of favour amongst our senior educators. Well, lets hope so anyway!
Deakin just announced plans to aggressively market its double-degrees to students in order to meet the demands of business, who are seeking more rounded graduates.
via theage …
The move is also a response to Melbourne University’s graduate school plan, under which students study a generalist undergraduate degree before completing a professional graduate qualification.
Deakin vice-chancellor Sally Walker said combined degrees helped students become broadly educated lateral thinkers rather than narrow specialists.
