A landmark conference hosted by Findhorn Foundation, 10-17 October 1987

Findhorn Foundation website

Why I created this article

My adventures in the world of organisation transformation began in 1987, the year of this seminal event.

Although circumstances prevented me from taking part, I was very much aware of it, knew several people who did attend, and bought the book of lecture transcripts published by Findhorn Press (see below).

Three of the speakers—Roger Benson, Göran Wiklund and Jan Backelin—subsequently became friends.

I joined The Business Network, established by Francis Kinsman, Ed Posey and Eileen Conn, where I met Mike Owen. He introduced me to James Wilk, who became a close friend and mentor.

I travelled up to Findhorn to participate in a Warriors of the Heart workshop led by Danaan Parry, and joined his Earthstewards Network.

Some years later, I took part in two groundbreaking organisational culture trainings run by Roger Harrison, and still have occasional contact with him.

So although I wasn’t able to take part in From Organization to Organism, its impact on my life was profound.

I have created this article in recognition of the significant contribution the conference made to the field of organisation transformation, which was in its infancy in 1987.

My thanks go to Roger Benson, who generously provided the material that appears below.

Contributing Faculty

[Please note that this is what the faculty members were doing in 1987. If you would like to know what some of them are doing now, please go to the section headed Where are they now?]

Linda Ackerman: Linda is an innovative consultant and trainer specialising in managing complex change in the large organisations of business, industry and the military. She lectures widely and has just completed a book on Flow-State Leadership and organisational energy.

Jan Backelin and Göran Wiklund: Jan and Göran work as consultants in their mutual company Banbrytarna (Pathfinders). Their main area is Organisational Transformation, working at an international level organising seminars and information transfers between Sweden and the rest of the world.

Godric Bader and Peter Mattli: Godric is the Chairman of the Scott-Bader Group of Companies, a unique and pioneering organisation owned by the employees who both work in it and are members of the Scott-Bader Commonwealth. Peter joined Scott-Bader in 1958 as Works Chemist, a position he still holds, and has since served on a number of Scott-Bader bodies including Commonwealth Board of Management, Company Board, Community Council, and Council of Reference.

Roger Benson: Roger is currently an educator and co-director of the Findhorn Foundation as well as a counsellor and business consultant. He offers a variety of educational and professional programmes centred on the themes of vision, creativity, personal and social transformation, and intuition development.

Mark Braham: Mark is President of the Association for Integrative Education in Geneva, as well as an educational and systems consultant. He is a respected educator and specialist in natural organisations and their effects upon education.

Chris Elphick: A community activist for the last 20 years, Chris has a wealth of hands-on experience in development and structure of “community”. He works extensively with cultural and creativity development as a means of individual and group empowerment and has established his own consultancy in this field.

Gerard Endenburg: General Manager of Endenburg Electrotechniek, author and management advisor to industry and government, Gerard has written two books and numerous articles on Sociocracy, an organisational method based upon consent, and has successfully implemented it within his own organisation.

Tony Gibson: Founder of Education for Neighbourhood Change at Nottingham University and author of several books on community development and planning for neighbourhoods, Tony is at heart a community organiser and was Development Officer for the Lightmoor Self-Build Community.

Willis Harman: President of the Institute of Noetic Sciences and former Senior Social Scientist at SRI International, Willis is an “exemplar futurist” and widely published author whose works include An Incomplete Guide to the Future, Higher Creativity, Changing Images of Man, Paths to Peace, and his most recent addition, Global Mind Change.

Roger Harrison and Celest Powell: President of Harrison Associates, Roger was educated as an industrial psychologist before teaching organisational behaviour at Yale University. He has since become an independent educator and consultant both in the USA and Europe, focusing upon organisational purpose and mission, and the development of responsive and caring service. Celest, having been a consultant and systems designer for many years, is co-founder of Kenwood Associates, a consulting and training organisation, and as well has a private practice as a psychotherapist.

Hazel Henderson: Futurist, visionary, radical economist, author, lecturer, television producer…and more, Hazel is consistently in the forefront of evolutionary thought and perspective on the challenges facing society today, as well as the evolving forms of tomorrow. Her books include Creating Alternative Futures: The End of Economics and Politics of the Solar Age.

Margrit and Declan Kennedy: Margrit has a Ph.D. in public and international affairs, has published and lectured widely, and has also done research for both UNESCO and OECD. Declan is Professor of Urban Infrastructure at the Technical University of Berlin, has previously edited a journal dealing with the science of human settlements and is currently co-founder and Director of the Permaculture Institute of Europe, in much demand giving lectures and courses. Both are architects and urban planners, and their work has led to a wider understanding of the principles of living systems and the relationship of money, tax and interest systems to the organisation of society.

Charles Kiefer: Founder and President of Innovation Associates, Charles is a graduate from MIT in physics and management where he held both research and administrative positions, and currently lectures widely in addition to his creative work in training and consulting. His specialities include visionary leadership and enabling organisations to create the future proactively.

Francis Kinsman: Author, futurist, and consultant, Francis has a wide scope of experience in business and financial affairs as well as being a trained counselor in Transpersonal Psychology. He has also co-founded the Business Network, a group of individuals who share interest in emphasising the human factor in business and management.

Christine MacNulty: Managing Director of Taylor-Nelson Applied Futures, a leading futures research group doing innovative work looking at values, motivations and evolving social trends in the UK, she as well was a pioneer in the use of scenarios in corporate planning.

Danaan Parry: Noted for his international work in conflict resolution and his ability to bring ordinary people from East and West together, Danaan is also an author and founder of the Holyearth Foundation and Earth Stewards Network, a connecting point for people who are committed to positive change.

Anita Roddick: Anita is the dynamic founder and Managing Director of the Body Shop International, a worldwide network of natural cosmetics and body care outlets, all adhering to common holistic principles based upon respect for people and the environment. She “is passionate about retailing and improving customer care” and “would rather wear out than rust to death”.

Peter Russell: Author of the widely acclaimed book, The Awakening Earth, Peter is also a psychologist, futurist and international consultant, holding degrees in theoretical physics, experimental psychology, and computer science, all of which contribute to his unique perspectives on human and planetary evolution.

From Organization to Organism: A New View of Business and Management

Publisher: Findhorn Press, September 1988

Table of Contents

Willis Harman
Participative Wholes and Autonomous Parts: The Organism Metaphor in Science and Societal Change
Page 9

Peter Russell
Redemption of the Executive
Page 27

Listen to Peter Russell’s talk

Hazel Henderson
Living Earth’s Lessons Co-Creatively
Page 37

Margrit Kennedy
Towards an Ecological Economy: Money, Land and Tax Systems
Page 59

Declan Kennedy
Ecology and Economy: Permaculture as a Way of Mind
Page 81

Jan Backelin and Göran Wiklund
Nourishment and Life: The Spiritual Purpose of Business
Page 93

Godric Bader and Peter Mattli
The Scott-Bader Commonwealth: Business as if People Mattered
Page 97

Anita Roddick
The Responsibilities of Profit
Page 101

Mark Braham
A Model of Possibilities
Page 107

Danaan Parry
Conflict Resolution Within the Circular Organisational Structure
Page 125

Linda Ackerman
Flow State Leadership: A Change of Consciousness and Form
Page 139

Gerard Endenburg
Business Without Owners: A Model of Sociocracy
Page 149

Christine MacNulty
Women and Men and Power
Page 153

Francis Kinsman
Creativity at a Distance
Page 167

Chris Elphick
From the Ground Up: Community Creativity in Action
Page 173

Tony Gibson
Growing a Working Neighbourhood: How the award-winning Lightmoor Project has taken shape and where it is headed
Page 177

Roger Benson
Essence of Community
Page 183

Roger Harrison and Celest Powell
Organisational Culture and Quality of Service: A Strategy for Releasing Love in Business
Page 187

Charles Kiefer
The Metanoic Organisation: An Organisation that Creates the Future
Page 221

Where are they now?

Sadly, Danaan Parry, Anita Roddick and Willis Harman are no longer with us.

I’m unable to account for all of the other speakers, but the following people are still going strong:

Linda Ackerman Anderson

Roger Benson

Chris Elphick

Roger Harrison

Hazel Henderson

Charles Kiefer

Christine MacNulty

Peter Russell

Göran Wiklund

Jan Backelin has retired from the world of organisational consulting.

Further reading

Brita Adkinson was a member of the team that organised From Organization to Organism.
Read her story

Roger Harrison diagnosed the culture of the Findhorn Community during his stay.
Read his story

Each of these terms can be defined in many ways. Here are my working definitions:

Transformation A profound and irreversible change that brings about an expansion of the value creation potential of an individual or organisation.

Innovation The discipline and process of conceiving, birthing and establishing new products, services, facilities, business models, work practices etc. that generate value for the organisation, its customers or service users, its investors or funding bodies, and other stakeholder groups.

Credit: Piece, Love & Cooking

Transformation is about expanding the organisation’s value creation capability.

Innovation is about deploying that capability to bring forth new value-generating creations.

Employee engagement: Can’t be done.

Stakeholder engagement: Can’t be done.

Brand engagement: Can’t be done.

Community engagement: Can’t be done.

Trying to engage a person is like trying to dance them.

Credit: The Feedbak

Engaging, like dancing, is a mutual activity that happens when someone accepts your invitation to participate.

If the invitation is declined, there’s no need to feel rejected. You can’t expect everyone to want to dance with you.

Engage with: Yes.

Engage: No.

Co-creation is a more fruitful approach than engagement, and a more mature (i.e. adult to adult) response to innovation and change challenges.

When practised to its full extent, co-creation is an egalitarian way of working in which all interested parties work together on an equal footing to bring forth a mutually beneficial result.

Credit: Hunt Emerson

This ‘beneficial result’ could be a new product, service, facility or work practice; a new vision, business model or strategy; the solution to a tough problem; a stronger value creation capability and organisational culture; or a new state of affairs.

In 2013, innovators will be focusing on co-creating conversations

…on changing how we communicate with each other – from power-over to power-with* conversations which inspires our aspirational thinking about the future. The more we learn to shape conversational spaces, the more we are able to bring our greatest wisdom and insights into the world. Human beings are designed to co-create. The more we learn about how to shape conversational environments for co-creation, the more we will set the stage for deeper musings, for more profound innovations and for more powerful conversations to emerge around the world. We are now poised to learn, grow and nourish each other’s greatness – co-creating conversations will lead the way.

Judith Glaser | CEO, Benchmark Communications, Inc; Co-founder, Creating WE Institute

View the source of this text

* In her book Truth or Dare, writer and activist Starhawk distinguishes three types of power: power-over, referring to domination and control; power-with, pertaining to social power or influence among equals; and power-from-within, meaning personal ability and spiritual integrity.

I began helping people learn about and practice co-creation in the early 1990s (clients have included global corporations, government institutions and third sector organisations), and it is central to the Yoda way of working.

Read more about co-creation

Engaging employees: Can’t be done.

Engaging stakeholders: Can’t be done.

Engaging customers: Can’t be done.

Engaging the community: Can’t be done.

Trying to engage a person is like trying to dance them.

Credit: The Feedbak

Engaging, like dancing, is a mutual activity that happens when someone accepts your invitation.

If the invitation is declined, there’s no need to feel rejected. You can’t expect everyone to want to dance with you.

If leaders stopped trying to engage people and started inviting them to co-create the future, the desired results would be produced much more quickly and effectively.

Co-creation is likely to be a more powerful  approach than engagement when you are facing innovation and transformation challenges.

When practised to its full extent, co-creation is an egalitarian way of working in which all interested parties work together on an equal footing to conceive and bring forth a mutually beneficial result.

Credit: Hunt Emerson

The result could be a new product, service, facility or work practice; a new vision, business model or strategy; the solution to a tough problem; a stronger value creation capability and organisational culture; or a new state of affairs.

In 2013, innovators will be focusing on co-creating conversations …

…on changing how we communicate with each other – from power-over to power-with* conversations [that inspire] our aspirational thinking about the future. The more we learn to shape conversational spaces, the more we are able to bring our greatest wisdom and insights into the world. Human beings are designed to co-create. The more we learn about how to shape conversational environments for co-creation, the more we will set the stage for deeper musings, for more profound innovations and for more powerful conversations to emerge around the world. We are now poised to learn, grow and nourish each other’s greatness – co-creating conversations will lead the way.

Judith Glaser | CEO, Benchmark Communications, Inc; Co-founder, Creating WE Institute

View the source of this text

* In her book Truth or Dare, writer and activist Starhawk distinguishes three types of power: power-over, referring to domination and control; power-with, pertaining to social power or influence among equals; and power-from-within, meaning personal ability and spiritual integrity.

I began helping people learn about and practice co-creation in the early 1990s. Clients have included global corporations, government institutions and third sector organisations.

Neogenesis is a term from the scientific realm, principally biology. It can be defined like this:

The origin of new forms from old-established species.
(view source)

Here’s how I’ve translated the definition for the organisational sphere:

The emergence of more advanced forms of organisation.

Neogenesis is:

• A barely perceptible evolutionary shift occurring in the world of organisations.
• An easily perceptible evolutionary shift occurring in a particular organisation.

The very nature of the enterprise is changing. This is the result of the rapid shifts that have been occurring in the business world over the last few years—the commoditization of goods and services, the individuation of value, the transformation of the workforce.

Jim Stikeleather, The Metamorphosis of the CIO

My definition of neogenesis is under constant review. Please post a comment if you can think of a better one.

How to spot a neogenetic organisation

Organisations that have undergone neogenesis are not a homogeneous group, but they have one thing in common: they have a world-enriching purpose (a.k.a. profound purpose, noble purpose, higher purpose). This means they exist to create value not just for customers, investors and other stakeholders, but also for society.

87% of respondents in the Edelman 2012 goodpurpose® study believe business should place at least equal weight on societal issues and business issues.

Source: Purpose to Profit, Simon Mainwaring, We First

Some other characteristics

• They have a capacity for constant renewal.
• Their ethos is distinctive and palpable.
• Purpose, values, vision, business model and strategy are fully aligned.
• They are consciously designed to liberate people’s creative potential.
• They have a service disposition.
• Everyone is an innovator, wholeheartedly committed to co-creating the future.
• There is no leadership blind spot. Transformational leadership prevails.
• They are lean and agile.
• Corporate social responsibility is not a department. It is woven into the fabric of the organisation.
• Instead of following best practice, they invent next practice.

Neogenesis is not:

• A system, methodology or model.
• A brand.
• A consulting firm.

Why call it neogenesis and not organisation transformation?

In 1988, John Adams, a founding father of the field of organisation transformation, wrote:

Sometime during the very early years of this decade, probably in 1981 or 1982, a large number of people began to use the term organisation transformation to describe their work. During the Spring of 1982, a few of these people recognized each other at a conference outside of Boston, USA, and began to discuss their common interest in concepts like vision, purpose, spirit in the workplace and global perspective.

Harrison Owen, Frank Burns, Jim Shannon, Linda Ackerman, Linda Nelson, Lawry DeBivort and I were among the people who worked on creating the first International Symposium on Organization Transformation, which convened with more than 200 participants (three from Europe qualified it as international) in July 1983.

View the article from which this text was sourced

Over the years, the term organisation transformation has lost much of its original significance and is now largely understood to mean pervasive organisational change.

Also, organisation transformation does not suggest an evolutionary shift that sweeps the entire world of organisations.

Hence the need for a new label that comes with no baggage attached.

I would like to host a one-day event here in the UK for people who want to explore neogenesis.

Participants will be able to discuss how to foster it in their own organisations, in their clients’ organisations, and in the world of organisations as a whole.

They will get to see the big picture, exchange ideas, establish cross-discipline relationships and begin new collaborations.

Interested? Complete the form and I’ll keep you posted.

[contact-form-7]

Thank you for taking the time to read this lengthy post.

Very best wishes,

Jack Martin Leith
Bristol, United Kingdom
2 May 2013

Written by John D. Adams, Ph.D. during the sixth International Symposium on Organization Transformation (‘OT6’) held in Djurö, Sweden, August 1988.

[I took part in this event and subsequently co-organised OT12, OT13 and OT14. The blue comments in square brackets are mine. Jack.]

Sometime during the very early years of this decade, probably in 1981 or 1982, a large number of people began to use the term organisation transformation to describe their work. During the Spring of 1982, a few of these people recognized each other at a conference outside of Boston, USA, and began to discuss their common interest in concepts like vision, purpose, spirit in the workplace and global perspective. [In 1982, these concepts were revolutionary and remained so throughout the rest of the 1980s.]

By the summer of that year, quite a few of these people in the United States had contacted each other, and everyone was experiencing much excitement about these ideas and their application, and many enquiries began to arrive from all over the world. As there was a sizeable number of people in the Washington, DC, area, that city was an early focal point. Within a few months, dozens of people who had not previously known each other were suddenly operating in a very close, high energy way.

Harrison Owen had a centrally-located office in the city, and this became a regular meeting site. Harrison sent out a letter [download the letter] that summer to his mailing list asking if others were interested in the idea of OT, and the response was overwhelming. The letter was sent on stationery which had the letterhead TWG which had been printed for an organization that never came into existence, but it struck a responsive chord, and most of the enquiries were about how to join the TWG Group. A newsletter was created and, since no one was interested in creating a network that would have to be managed, TWG was characterized as an energy field that would congeal into gatherings from time to time. A monthly sharing session began in Washington, and interest grew in holding a large event in the summer of 1983.

Harrison Owen, Frank Burns, Jim Shannon, Linda Ackerman, Linda Nelson, Lawry DeBivort and I were among the people who worked on creating the first International Symposium on Organization Transformation, which convened with more than 200 participants (three from Europe qualified it as international) in July 1983. In many respects it was a traditionally designed conference, but it had many new features. It was connected to the then newly-formed Meta Network computer conferencing system [the World Wide Web had not yet been invented], no one received any remuneration for speaking, much of the design was emergent, the idea of the Native American ‘talking stick’ was introduced, and a great deal of attention was paid to celebration, ritual and conference energy. With the exception of The Meta Network, these concepts have continued to be central to subsequent OT symposia on both sides of the Atlantic.

In July of 1984, the conference was repeated in Columbia, Maryland. It was noticeably less traditional, although there were still prearranged, invited presentations – but this was the last year for that.

During the late 70s and early 80s, Frank Burns had been experimenting with emergent conference designs in his work with a think tank in the US Army, which involved several hundred military and civilian people who were working to create the ‘Army of the Future’. Among those involved was Harrison Owen, who further developed this idea as Open Space [subsequently renamed Open Space Technology] at the 1985 OT, held in Monterey, California. In 1986, Open Space was again the hallmark of OT4, held over the July 4th holiday in Tarrytown, New York. During this conference, Sabina Spencer, Frank Burns, Lisa Carlson and I were given the opportunity to create OT5.

As we discussed what we would do, we came back repeatedly to the fact that, while we spent a great deal of time at each gathering talking about global spirit and global consciousness, our attendance was more than 95% American. So we thought it would be interesting to have OT5 happen outside of North America, to make it possible for a lot more of our OT friends to participate, and to challenge our country people to take global consciousness seriously and fly over the Atlantic puddle for the symposium. Since Sabina and I were associated with Ashridge Management College [now Ashridge Business School] in Berkhamsted, England (in fact we met there), we suggested that location, and so it came to pass that OT5 moved to Europe in August 1987. About 100 people attended, from 14 countries, as Open Space and the talking stick made their first appearance in Europe.

At every OT gathering it is not known whether it will be the last one. [As things turned out, the series ended 17 years later, with 0T23, held in Milwaukee, USA, in July 2005.] When it is time to move on to other ways to use our energy, we assume it will be apparent. The existence of the next gathering depends on someone deciding there should be such a gathering, and volunteering to make it happen. Last summer at the closing session of OT5, a group of Swedes stood up and volunteered to bring OT here. So, no one knows if there will be an OT7. [At the end of OT6 a group of people from the Netherlands announced that OT7 would be held in Amsterdam in 1989.]

But one thing is clear. A strong network of people is evolving around the planet, much of it interlinked via computer networks, which is the leading edge of transformational change in organizations. [How prescient. This was more than a year before Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau published a proposal to build a “Hypertext project” called “WorldWideWeb”.] It is also very gratifying to see that our ‘movement’ is continuing to attract new people from diverse areas, and also to see that OT has rapidly become mainstream in the practice of organization development in many parts of the world.

The term organization transformation is now being used in a number of diverse ways by different individuals and groups. I am most gratified that our gatherings have consistently emphasized the importance of spirit, vision, purpose, energy, creativity, integrity and dignity, and the emergence of broader consciousness.

See also:

• Organization Transformation Symposia: the complete list, 1983-2005
• Harrison Owen’s 1982 letter of invitation to those interested in organization transformation

Edward Matchett (1929–1998) started out as a design engineer at Rolls-Royce (aircraft engines, not automobiles) in Derby, UK, later becoming a teacher of design.

From 1966 to 1970, he conducted an investigation into the creative process, sponsored by the Science Research Council of Great Britain.

The aim of this research was to identify practical and workable means of injecting a new order of “creativeness, professionalism and achievement” into product design and development.

His findings, which are summarised in his 1975 book Creative Action, are a much-needed antidote to the mechanical and lifeless ‘brainstorm then project manage’ approach to innovation.

Edward Matchett established his company, Matchett Training and Consultancy Services, in 1970 “to take people to the highest level of professionalism and original thinking”, and to do this in a systematic way. This work was usually done in-house, often in a carefully constructed environment that Matchett called a logosphere of meaning.

The underlying discipline employed by Matchett was predominantly his Fundamental Design Method (FDM), on which he began work in 1958. Matchett asserted that “the most advanced form of FDM lifts a mind into ‘meta-control’, making it possible to produce the quality and quantity of thoughts and actions that are normally produced only by a person of genius.”

Matchett’s concepts and methods are based on forty years of continuous first-hand experience as a manager, teacher, consultant, coach and counsellor, on many hundreds of practical industrial projects in R&D laboratories and product design offices, and at what is now Cranfield University.

“Edward Matchett’s remarkable achievement in discovering the true nature of creativity and genius is arguably the single most important theoretical breakthrough made this (20th) century. He has shown that the process of creativity in both nature and the works of man can be expressed as an equation that is as simple and as powerful as Einstein’s E=mc². This 5M Equation is the key fundamental relationship that is behind all that exists and behind all the processes of natural evolution from the Big Bang onwards.”

Painton Cowen

5M Equation

Edward Matchett claimed his 5M Equation to be “the formulation that Arthur Koestler and, earlier, Rene Descartes, had both been seeking … but never discovered” (view source).

I don’t know why Matchett called it an equation, but here it is:

Making Media-plus-Matter Meaningful in the Moment

This is my visual interpretation of the 5M Equation:

What follows is my understanding of each element of the equation, based on careful reading of texts written by Edward Matchett, and also by his friend Anthony Blake.

Anthony Blake, co-founder, The DuVersity

Edward Matchett states that the 5M equation is a cosmic law, expressed like this:

Appropriate form requires and demands that Media-plus-Matter be Made Meaningful in time ∂t (the immediate Moment we label ‘now’).

Source: www.edwardmatchett.co.uk – Major Works, Volume 4, Creative Action: the Making of Meaning in a Complex World (it is not possible to provide a URL for the relevant page)

1. Making

Being acutely conscious of Matter (the evolutionary impulse of the created world) and Media (the creative energy of the creating world).

I think this is what Edward Matchett means by “Consciously linking with the Law of Evolution and the media of the eternal” in his paper, A Genius Grasp of a Five Petalled Flower.

“… understand that the central dynamic of creation and the law that describes and contains this dynamic are the same, namely: making media-plus-matter meaningful in time ∂t. When you do understand this, you will then see that this law isn’t something that you learn to apply. Rather, it is something that you become in tune with. It as though the entire natural order is breathing to the inner dynamic of this law – but you can’t. You simply have to adjust the way that you ‘breathe’, until you come into unison with the ways of the natural world. That is all.”

Edward Matchett

What does Edward Matchett mean by the Law of Evolution?

I discovered the answer in Creating a Logosphere – A Sphere of Meaning, an article on the website of Health Education Alliance for Life and Longevity:

“It was in 1968 that Edward Matchett first recognized the fundamental ‘equation’ or key relationship that underlies all creation that Charles Darwin came very close to discovering: that both human and natural creativity obey the same law, the Fundamental Law of Evolution. This law governs the release of appropriate form and meaning in any context and is central to the basic philosophy of all the Matchett disciplines, namely: The Sophiagenic ‘5M’ discipline, Fundamental Design Method, Neural Education, Logoecology, Logosynthesis, and Creative Action.”

If you are familiar with Matchett’s work and can improve or correct my definition of Making, please leave a comment or send me a private message. Thank you.

2. Media

“The perpetual emanations and creative action of the one source of creation.”

Source: Edward Matchett, via The DuVersity.

His other descriptions of Media include:

• “A holographic enfolding now unfolding to aid some new practical purpose.”
• “A non-material entity that comes through a minute crack in the door of time.”
• “Emanations from the eternal flowing out like rays of light from a sun.”
• “That which existed before the Big Bang now dynamically available and poised to continue creating.”
• “A timeless dimension that holds within itself all that has been and all that can ever be.”

Source: Edward Matchett, A Genius Grasp of a Five Petalled Flower.

Matchett uses the terms Media, Creative Intelligence, Creative Energy and Creative Action interchangeably.

“The Creative Action of the eternal has a latent, very definite, constant predisposition to produce meaning in whatever matter it meets and combines with. Its own nature demands this.”

Edward Matchett, Author’s introductory comment, Creative Action (Second Edition)

Anthony Blake says: “We cannot be aware of media, only of its results. And the results of media are meanings.”

3. Matter

“Everything that exists, has explicit form and is known, whether mental or physical.”

Source: Anthony Blake, Matchett’s 3-M [sic] Equation. This can be viewed on the Edward Matchett legacy website. The design of the site is such that I cannot provide a direct link. Please follow these instructions:

• Go to www.edwardmatchett.co.uk/index.html?page=/MajorWorks.html
• Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on [all linked by the] 3-M equation

4. Meaningful

Meaning: “That which makes life and work truly worthwhile.”

Source: Edward Matchett, A Genius Grasp of a Five Petalled Flower.

Other descriptions:

• “The total satisfying of need.”
• “The ‘making’ of media and matter completed as it should be.”
• “A touch of heaven on earth.”

Source: Edward Matchett, A Genius Grasp of a Five Petalled Flower.

5. Moment

“The immediate moment we label ‘now’.”

In his paper Matchett’s 3-M Equation, Anthony Blake writes:

“ … we might consider Media + Matter = Meaning as a statement of how time is created. The idea that time is created by the mutual impact of three independent impulses is to be found in various places but never generally accepted or even noticed. For example, the physicist Julian Barbour speaks of the making of a Now in terms of the coalescence of three particles that precedes time and space.”

Julian Barbour | Image credit: Wikipedia

The extraordinary works of Edward Matchett

Books

Creative Action: The Making of Meaning in a Complex World (1975, Turnstone Books)

Creative Action is a remarkable but little-known book written by Edward Matchett and published by Turnstone Books in 1975. The dustjacket text states:

“Although the true nature of Creative Energy remains a mystery, some of its secrets have been unlocked. This book is an introduction to the practice of Creative Action.”

Matchett has written a very practical book that reveals the principles of Creative Action and offers a 12-day programme for putting the principles into action.

Creative Action describes a natural endeavour that requires us to tune into creative energy, containing “the highest intelligence known to man”, and join forces with this energy to co-create something truly new and non-derivative that fills a hole in the universe.

Creative Action is now out of print. Used copies can be bought from Amazon.co.uk. The Matchett Foundation has acquired the publishing rights and it’s possible that the book will be reprinted.

Journeys of Nothing in the Land of Everything (1975, Turnstone Books; available from The Matchett Foundation)

The Core of True Genius (1996)

The Road to True Professionalism (1994)

The Sophiagenic Discipline (1997)

Sophiagenics, ‘the getting of wisdom’, is an innovation and change discipline that was developed by Edward Matchett, based on his 5M Equation.

“Sophiagenics is the essential discipline for producing intelligent change and progress, necessary new patterns and new orders of things and ideas; not a formula for perpetuating proven patterns and orders. It is not merely the causal agent of external change and progress, but also of important radical internal developments, up to full maturity, and being truly wise. Self reliance is exchanged in each new moment of Sophiagenic application for a total reliance on creation itself: the one source that has structured and empowered all the organisms of nature since the ‘big bang.’ The continued practice of Sophiagenics converts logic-bred thinking into an exact instinct and illumination, in which ‘media’ (the perpetual emanations and creative action of the one source of creation) and matter (existing creation) combine naturally and organically to make and extend meaning in and for each new moment.”

Edward Matchett, quoted on the website of The DuVersity

Fundamental Design Method

Fundamental Design Method represents the final summary of the work done by Edward Matchett from the 1960s to the late 1990s. It was republished in 2009 by IFR Press, with a foreword by Darrell Mann. Price: £20.00 plus delivery charge.

To place your order, download the order form and send it to IFR Press:

IFR Consultants Ltd., 5A Yeo Bank Business Park, Kenn Road, Clevedon BS21 6UW, United Kingdom

Telephone: 01275 337500 (+ 44 1275 337500)

Fax: 01275 337509 (+44 1275 337509)

Read more about Fundamental Design Method on the Edward Matchett legacy website

Booklets

The booklets listed below are reasonably priced and can be ordered from The Matchett Foundation via the Edward Matchett legacy website. Most are available still on paper as printed booklets. The remainder, and the existing titles when stock runs out, are delivered on CD.

Appropriate Form (36pp)

A Profile of Edward Matchett (17pp)

Birth of a New Age: a conversation between the Holy Spirit and Edward Matchett (32pp

Constructive, Creative and Healing Powers (8pp)

Discover the Artist Within You (16pp)

From Talent to Genius (10pp)

In the Power of the Holy Spirit (13pp)

Neural Education (48pp)

New Beginnings: adjusting positively to a new situation (17pp)

On the Tightrope: a conversation between the Holy Spirit and Edward Matchett (27pp)

Rebuilding the Monastery: a conversation between the Holy Spirit and Edward Matchett (56pp)

Sophiagenic Synchronicity of Life, Need and Nothingness (20pp)

Sophiagenic Teaching, Coaching, Counselling and Healing (28pp)

Sophiagenics: acquiring Wisdom through contact with life’s wellspring (20pp)

The Actual Experience of making Media plus Matter Meaningful in Time (8pp)

The Awakening – a short story (16pp)

The Character of the Oak – Poems by Edward Matchett (68pp)

The Creating of Excellence (16pp)

The Eleven Levels of Being – level ‘six’ to level ‘ten’ (16pp)

The Eleven Levels of Being – level ‘zero’ to level ‘five’ (20pp)

The First Control Equation for Securing Appropriate Form (13pp)

The Second Control Equation for Securing Appropriate Form (24pp)

The Fundamental Understanding of Genius (16pp)

The Understanding and Search for Design Method (17pp)

Papers

Edward Matchett was a prolific writer. If you click on this link you will see the complete list of his papers, which are generally between one and seven pages long. A few of them can be downloaded from the Edward Matchett legacy website, and the others can be ordered from The Matchett Foundation and delivered on CD.

Experiencing Divine Wisdom in Ordinary Living is a short paper by Edward Matchett that can be downloaded from the DuVersity website.

The Matchett Foundation

The Matchett Foundation was created by Edward and Brenda Matchett to oversee the legacy and promulgation of Edward’s work, especially his writings and their distribution. Today, the foundation is administered by Brenda Matchett and John Matchett.

Contact information

The Matchett Foundation, 14 Montrose Avenue, Bristol BS6 6EQ, United Kingdom

Telephone: 0117 924 0423 (+44 0117 924 0423)

Websites that mention Edward Matchett and his work

Edward Matchett legacy website

Darrell Mann’s foreword to Edward Matchett’s republished book, Fundamental Design Method

Wikipedia: History of the concept of creativity (see the section: Periods and Personalities – 1960s)

Health Education Alliance for Life and Longevity: Creating a Logosphere – A Sphere of Meaning

The DuVersity was co-founded by Anthony Blake, who knew Edward Matchett well.

Read the story of how Anthony Blake and Edward Matchett met

Click here to see Google results for all references to Edward Matchett on the DuVersity website.

Significant references are listed below.

DuVersity: What is Sophiagenics?

DuVersity: ILM (direct knowledge in Sufism) – Immediate Learning Method

DuVersity: ILM and Edward Matchett’s 3-M equation – Make Media plus Matter Meaningful

DuVersity: The Information Field and Time (discusses Edward Matchett’s concepts of media and matter)

DuVersity: Inner Exercises

DuVersity: Logosafari – ‘a journey through meaning’

Otto Scharmer: www.ottoscharmer.com | www.presencing.com

While being acutely aware of established organisational theory and practice, neogenetic organisations seek out and invent ‘next practice’ – experimental ways of working that could become established practice in the future.

The source of the material in this section is Innovation Unit, a UK-based a not-for-profit social enterprise with the stated aim of using innovation to help transform public services to better meet social challenges.

Next practices are emergent organisational approaches based on new insights and developed through real-world experimentation. Best practice asks: “What works?” Next practice asks: “What might work better?”

Next practice is keenly aware of best practice – its strengths and limitations – but sets out to move it to a new level. In some cases, next practice will disrupt, profoundly evolve or revolutionise best practice.

These are some of the characteristics of next practice:

• Significantly changed methods of service delivery, organisation or structure, which, if shown to be successful, would hold implications for the wider system
• In advance of hard evidence of effectiveness
• Not (yet) officially sanctioned and therefore maybe entailing some risk
• Consciously designed with an awareness of the strengths and limitations of best practice
• Generated by very able, informed practitioners aware of the existing knowledge base
• Informed by critical scanning of the wider environment
• Directed at serious, contemporary problems
• User focused

“While best practice is a snapshot of what we know has worked well in the past, next practice is an attempt to take that prior experience and improve upon it rather than merely replicate it.”

Derek Wenmoth

“There is a lot of research focused on best practice, but I focus on next practice. Next practice by definition has three problems: firstly it is future-oriented; secondly, no single institution or company is an exemplar of everything that you think will happen; and third, next practice is about amplifying weak signals, connecting the dots. Next practice is disciplined imagination.”

The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid, by C.K. Prahalad and Stuart L. Hart

“Next practices – emergent innovations that could open up new ways of working – are much more likely to come from thoughtful, experienced, self-confident practitioners trying to find new and more effective solutions to intractable problems.”

Charles Leadbeater, Improvement and Development Agency for Local Government pamphlet, The Innovation Forum: Beyond Excellence

I am grateful to the authors of the passages that appear on this page. Thank you for your insights.

Further reading

• Can We Overturn Built-in Innovation Legacy? Useful and relevant Innovation Excellence article by Paul Hobcraft.

Both of the following publications, from Innovation Unit (a UK-based not for profit), focus on innovation in pedagogy. Even if this is not your field, the publications are worth reading for the general principles and approaches that are presented.

• Next Practice in Education: A Disciplined Approach to Innovation
• Learning Futures – Next Practice in Teaching and Learning

Here is part of an email received today from Rupert Sheldrake:

A big controversy has erupted about my Whitechapel, London TEDx talk on The Science Delusion/Science Set Free. TEDx is a franchise system from the American media corporation TED, whose slogan is “ideas worth spreading”. The video of my talk was posted online about a month ago, and all went well until last week, when two militant atheist bloggers in the US, Jerry Coyne and P.Z. Myers, denounced it and urged TED to remove it from their web site. The TED editors responded by calling for an online consultation, which can be read here.

Fortunately, most people argued in favour of a free, open discussion of the issues I was raising, and opposed any censorship by TED. Nevertheless, two days ago, TED officials ordered the London organizers to remove the video from the internet; when they did not do so, TED removed it themselves. It has now resurfaced on a number of independent sites – here is one.

TED has now relegated my talk to an obscure corner of their website, with a statement by an anonymous “Scientific Board” claiming it contains serious scientific errors. I have replied to their points and have asked them to post my reply immediately below the statement by the Scientific Board. Their new ploy has not made the problem go away. There are now hundreds of posts in the discussion forum, almost all condemning their behaviour. The situation has become so serious that TED’s founder and head, Chris Anderson, has now had to enter the fray and take part in the online discussion. At the same time as they removed my TEDx talk, they also removed one by Graham Hancock, to whom Jerry Coyne has also objected. You can read the lively, ongoing discussion here.

Video of Rupert Sheldrake’s TEDx Whitechapel talk: The Science Delusion / Science Set Free