#62 Swimming with Dolphins - The Waves of Change - conversations withPaul Kordis, part 3

We are continuing our conversations with Dr. Paul Kordis. Paul has been researching writing, and speaking to groups for over 20 years about the processes of profound change. He is a globally traveled speaker and seminar leader on futuristic, human development, change and other topics. He received his Ph.D. degree (with honors) in human capital and economic development from Colorado State University in May, 2008.

His 1,500-page dissertation is entitled “The Superhighway to Serfdom: How False-Social-Norms Marketing is Hijacking the American Dream.” He is a co-author (with Dudley Lynch) of the books The Strategy of the Dolphin: Scoring a Win in a Chaotic World, which has become a best seller, and Code of the Monarch: A Guide to the Real Global Business Revolution. He is also the author (with his wife, Susan) of the book Name Your Passion: A User’s Guide to Finding Your Personal Purpose.

Today’s conversation touches upon the following topics:

• Emergent phenomena – that enhances people’s life. It’s in the systems, institutions, organizations.
  • Developments in the economic, political and religious systems are leading towards bifurcation point.
  • Artifacts
• Waves of change
  • Take human history as a 30-day month
  • First 29 days – hunting and gathering
  • Wave 1: The agriculture came along – peaked in early 1900s
  • Wave 2: The Industrial wave – started in 1650s, peaked in 1950s in the US
  • Wave 3: Informational wave – peaked out in mid-1980s
  • Wave 4: approaching the bifurcation point. Characterized by 6 primary technologies
    • Bio-engineering
    • Nanotechnology
    • Robotics (macro)
    • Machine cognition
    • New material science
    • Exotic energy sources
• Key observation: in waves 1 & 2, change was slow, and we could adapt on the back of the wave. Wave 3 was faster, we had to adapt with the change. With wave 4, we may have to adapt before it happens.
• Wave 4 technologies
  • Car battery – building the capacitor with a virus
  • Water filtration plant “Slingshot” – by the guy who built the Segway. Runs on methane, produces about mega-watt of energy, and produces enough fresh water for the entire village.
• Betrayal of the technologies
  • They de-centralize power, hence less profit for the richest

[techtags: Paul Kordis, Dolphins, Waves of Change, Syntropy, Spheres of Human Influence, Generosity, Purpose, Passion, Globalization, Localization, NLP]

#61 The 5Rhythms: an Organic Map of Life - Dancing with Kathy Altman,part 3

We are continuing our series on the practice of 5Rhythms – a moving meditation, a dance without steps; a practice introduced in the early 1970s by Gabrielle Roth. We invite you for an insightful conversation with a long-time 5Rhythms practitioner, Kathy Altman.

As Co-Director of The Moving Center School, Kathy was the first person asked to help Gabrielle bring her work out into the world. Over the past 20 years Kathy’s teaching has brought thousands of people back to the joy of their own, original movement. Using dance as the medium, Kathy illuminates for her students “as on the dance floor, so in life”. She is devoted to inspiring people to live the teachings of presence, patience and practice long after the music ends.

In this episode, we touch upon the following topics:

• As in dance, so in life
  • We are all good at some rhythms, and not as good at others
  • We practice the whole wave to gain more balance
  • The first 3 rhythms are just gateways; lyrical and stillness are the reward
• The Shadow side of the Rhythms
  • Flow – inertia, where we can’t get ourselves going
  • Staccato – tightness, rigidity of boundaries
  • Chaos – confusion
  • Lyrical – spacing out, instead of spacing in
  • Stillness – getting numb, instead of quieting
• Rhythms in real life
  • Shadow sides are the extremes of the rhythms that define their true essense
  • You see this everywhere in life
  • Examples of famous people embodying various rhythms
• Connections between people in dance
  • Connecting essence to essence, soul to soul. Very different from connecting on a personality level.
  • Ventilate your personality – that’s the practice
  • “Just like me”

[techtags: 5Rhythms, Kathy Altman, Gabrielle Roth]

What If...

What If…

• …Transformational teachings were shared as gifts, rather than traded for money
• …You had access to iconoclasts and change makers on-demand, rather than at their availability?
• …The conversations were spontaneous, open, and emergent, rather than scripted, dogmatic, and dry?
• …Change was approached synergistically, through the synthesis of many approaches?
• …There were no ads or infomercials?

At the Radical Change Group, we believe that questions are more important than the answers. Hence, we have formulated our mission and focus as these "what if" questions – for our listeners to decide for themselves.

As we are rolling into yet another evolutionary phase, we need your active support more than ever. Please consider supporting us by either volunteering / interning with us, hiring us, or sponsoring us. We – and most importantly our listeners and those who otherwise benefit from this work – will appreciate your help!

The Radical Change Group Team.

#60 Introduction to Network Science

Network science is a new and emerging scientific discipline that examines the interconnections among diverse physical, informational, biological, cognitive, and social networks. This field of science seeks to discover common principles, algorithms and tools that govern network behavior. The National Research Council defines Network Science as “the organized knowledge of networks based on their study using the scientific method.” (Wikipedia)

This introductory episode brings forth the following topics:

• What is network science?
• Structure of a network
  • Nodes, links, clusters, weak links, hubs
  • Examples of clusters and the power of the weak link
• The power of the weak link
  • Making connections
  • Interested vs. Interesting
  • Having / making friends
  • Interviewing for a job
  • Finding your love
• The Power Law
  • The “80-20 rule” (or “90-10 rule”)
  • Examples – wealth distribution, biggest players in a market, etc.
  • Leveraging the power law
• The first mover advantage

[techtags: Network Science, power law, weak link, networks, connections, links, hub]

#59 The 5Rhythms: an Organic Map of Life - Dancing with Kathy Altman,part 2

We are continuing our series on the practice of 5Rhythms – a moving meditation, a dance without steps; a practice introduced in the early 1970s by Gabrielle Roth. We invite you for an insightful conversation with a long-time 5Rhythms practitioner, Kathy Altman.

As Co-Director of The Moving Center School, Kathy was the first person asked to help Gabrielle bring her work out into the world. Over the past 20 years Kathy’s teaching has brought thousands of people back to the joy of their own, original movement. Using dance as the medium, Kathy illuminates for her students “as on the dance floor, so in life”. She is devoted to inspiring people to live the teachings of presence, patience and practice long after the music ends.

In this episode, we touch upon the following topics:

• 5Rhythms as a spiritual discipline
  • Most people medicate (drink), rather than meditate
  • “I’m just a <qualifier>” – we are bigger than that
  • It takes great discipline to move with our emotions rather than freeze
• Practices for embracing emotions
  • Recognize them as energy, not a static thing
  • Let it in, let it through, let it out
• Fear of your own greatness
• How can this practice help us understand our reason for living?
  • Learning to connect, despite of everything else. Err on the side of liveness, connection.
  • Can I dance in a group of complete originals, just like me?
  • Three types of relationships – to myself, to another, and to the community
• Naming the rhythms
  • Flowing – a grounded way of moving without stopping. No manipulation; following the needs and desires of the body in motion.
  • Staccato – start to organize. Having a clear beginning, middle, and end to our movements. Finding natural physical boundaries. Moving with no force, but lots of power.
  • Chaos – mind, and its watery nature. It’s where the build-up starts to crash, and we cannot control the uncontrollable.
  • Lyrical – where things re-pattern themselves, bigger than we could have imagined. Let go of letting go, and see what remains. Discovering our own patterns, as opposed to the external patterns that shape us (as in Staccato).
  • Stillness – the “dessert” after the “meal”. Being.

#58 The Different Kinds of Change - Structural and Cyclical

Change can mean:

• The process of becoming different
• The act or process of changing

(from Wikipedia)

In this episode, we discuss the following topics:

• Examples of structural and cyclical changes
• Defining cyclical and structural change
• Why this distinction is important
  • One you can undo, and re-do again and again, the other – if you missed the boat, it’s gone.
  • In business, fortunes are made (and lost) on correctly (or incorrectly) predicting structural changes.
  • All structural change leaves behind damage
  • Russian revolution of 1917 – a structural change that was a step back (from the Adaptive Intelligences perspective)
  • American Revolution of 1776 – a structural change that is a step forward
  • Personal growth – will the change stick? From the perspective of the neurological levels – on the lower levels, change is often cyclical (behavior), but higher up (values, identity, spiritual) it is often structural and thus, permanent
• Calibrating what change it is
  • Look for markers. In Business – where boundaries are dissolved or disrupted, it’s likely a structural change.
  • Relationships – same event can be either cyclical or structural, depending on the particular context, and with experience, you usually know pretty well which one is which in a particular relationship
  • Personal growth – first, by the neurological levels
• Dealing with change
  • Business – missing the change vs. riding the change.
  • Relationships – being responsible for your actions and knowing where to stop
  • Personal growth – embrace the structural change, be aware and either stack up or eliminate cyclical change, depending on whether you like it not
• Initiating change
  • how to choose the right type of change and how to do it in business, relationships, and personal growth

[techtags: Structural Change, Cyclical Change, Business, Relationships, Personal Growth]