Hi Kabir and everyone.
I did a quick review of the website and I can see how this would be interesting for folks in our Integral group.
For me, "Polarity thinking" may be a good example of the application of the Integral guiding principles Nonexclusion, Enfoldment and Enactment which acknowledges the truth claims of multiple points of view or even just 2 opposing points of view, in other words a solution to "Polarity thinking".
Also, the basic concept of Holons (a thing or occasion is both a whole and a part) looks like it may be part of Barry's work. We see an example of Polarity thinking in an example statement on the website "We need to support team development and reward individual achievement." One part of the statement (need to support team development) is often set up as an opposing side to the other side of the statement (reward individual achievement). From basic Quadrant knowledge we know that the upper quadrants (representing the individual) can not be separated from the lower quadrants (representing groups or collectives), they all arise together and to affect one you end up affecting them all. You just can't choose to support 2 quadrants over the other 2 and expect to have a meaningful solution.
In my opinion, Integral concepts like Holons, Nonexclusion, Enfoldment and Enactment are just a few that we and our culture desperately need learn about and start using in order to make sense of all of the "false choices" we are called upon to choose from. "Polarity thinking" looks like a tool that can help us see beyond the opposing statements and craft a solution that includes practices that address both sides of the statement.
Now I don't know if Barry intentionally set out to include these Integral guiding principles in his work but if he did then that alone would be worth hearing about! :) And if he didn't intentionally do it well it still looks interesting to me :)
~Mark
On Sat, May 12, 2012 at 4:04 PM, Kabir Kadre
<[address removed]> wrote:
My dear friends, :-)
While our official meet ups continue to be sparse, I am continuing to focus on opportunities arising for us to come together as a learning community, and community of practice.
I am very privileged to count among my friends a man by the name of Barry Johnson. I met Barry a number of years ago through personal relationships, and have since had the privilege of learning from him in formal settings on a number of occasions.
Barry is a practitioner, and a teacher of the modern view of polarities. You may have heard of this work under the moniker of Polarity Management. While not formally a household name in the “Integral Community” his work is known and appreciated in many of these circles. If you're unfamiliar with it, I encourage you to reach out to me personally, or to simply explore online. His website has some good introductory material and you can also hear introductions of his work in a number of integral interviews and articles. (See links at the end of this e-mail)
Why this? Why now?
As it turns out, Barry will be in San Diego in about a month's time. I am looking forward to seeing him, and was delighted when he suggested he might be available for anything from an evening's presentation to a three-day workshop if we were interested in putting something together.
I wonder if there is any interest in our community for this work. Please let me know if you might the interested in participating in any such event.
Warmest regards,
Kabir
http://www.polaritymanagement.com/
Generating transformative change through working with polarities
http://tinyurl.com/ce6ojo3
Exploring Big Questions in the Integral World
Posted October 22nd, 2009 by Terry Patten
http://integrallife.com/member/terry-patten/blog/exploring-big-questions-integral-world
Beena Sharma
http://integrallife.com/contributors/beena-sharma