Global configuration of an integrative symposium

Enacting Transformative Integral Thinking through Playful Elegance (Part #11)

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As a corrective to linear thinking and alignment, efforts might now be made to emulate the archetypal symposium by configuring participants in a circle. Some of the thematic sessions were so configured in Luxembourg. A case can be made for attention to the cognitive geometry implied by such configuration, recognizing that it is a step beyond the linearity of conventional presentations to an aligned audience -- a progression from Engaging with Globality through Cognitive Realignment: making points and aligning a target (2009) to Engaging with Globality through Cognitive Circlets: learning/action cycles (2009). However, as a geometric progression, more is possible as has been separately summarized (Metaphorical Geometry in Quest of Globality, 2009). Whilst it may not be feasible to configure participants in a sphere, this may indeed be envisaged for their contributions from the field they represent, as separately envisaged (Engaging with Globality through Cognitive Crowns: all-encompassing, well-rounded experience, 2009). The technology of the AlloSphere research facility is a major step in that direction.

Mapping: Given the major challenge for participants of interrelating the integrative content of the contributions available as text, some attention could have been fruitfully given to using various software packages to generate rapidly an overall map with interactive facilities to allow identification of points of mutual interest. As noted above, one such application is Leximancer (see illustrative gallery), also developed in Australia. It is appropriate to note that at an early conference of the Society for General Systems Research (London, 1979) on Improving the Human Condition: Quality and Stability in Social Systems, several key figures of cybernetics themselves applied a simple technique to map participants at the event, and their preoccupations, in an iterative manner as separately documented (Metaconferencing, 1980; Metaconferencing possibilities, 1981). The mapping approach was explored, using the Leximancer application, to map insights emerging from the Copenhagen mega-conference on climate change (Insights for the Future from the Change of Climate in Copenhagen, 2010; Magic Carpets as Psychoactive Systems Diagrams, 2010).

More generally, such mapping is the primary concern of the Global Sensemaking Network: a group of people dedicated to helping humanity address complex, interrelated global problems -- such as climate change, energy policy, poverty, and food security -- by developing and applying new web-based technology to assist collaborative decision making and cooperative problem solving. They develop "tools for dialogue and deliberation on wicked problems".

"Passing patterns": Writing in a period when the world is focused on the Football World Cup, it is remarkable to recognize that greater sophistication is applied to the analysis of patterns of interaction in various sports -- passing patterns -- than is applied to the patterns of dialogue at vital strategic gatherings (Jochen Voss, The Mathematical Theory of Juggling, 2007; Ben Beever, Guide to Juggling Patterns; Mark Weston, Passing Patterns, 2006; Athalie Redwood-Brown, Passing patterns before and after goal scoring in FA Premier League Soccer, International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport, 2008; Association for Soccer Education and Teaching, Passing Patterns and Small Sided Games, 2008; Alan Reifman, Network Analysis of Basketball Passing Patterns II, 2006; Patrick Riley, Coaching: Learning and Using Environment and Agent Models for Advice, 2005).

The approach has been adapted to message passing in complex organizational networks. The situation is all the more curious given the widespread metaphoric use of "ball" in strategic dialogue -- as in the "ball is in their court". There is clearly a case for tracking, visualizing and mapping "point-passing" amongst participants within a supposedly integrative dialogue.

Software configuration: There is however another approach, namely to use readily available software packages to represent the programme content configured in spherical form rather than in the conventional list form commonly used. This was, for example, explored with respect to both the content and participants of the last conference of the International Peace Research Association with the theme Building Sustainable Futures: Enacting Peace and Development (Leuven, 2008). Using the Stella Polyhedron Navigator package (produced in Australia) the results were also output as readily available animations offering a variety of dynamic perspectives on the event (Polyhedral Conference Representation as a Catalyst for Innovation, 2008). Some possibilities are indicated below using that software package to represent contributions and contributors. The images are normally to be viewed interactively -- rotating them and transforming them into related geometric forms.

This process could be better shown as an animation and edited into a movie (as was done with the peace research conference). The views below are purely illustrative and merit further thought regarding the juxtaposition of contributions and use of distinguishing colours. In the case of the contributors, the allocation is arbitrary and notably determined by the quality of the photograph available (from the programme document). The polyhedral forms used were those with numbers of features corresponding to the number of contributions or the number of contributors.

Symposium contributions on polyhedral faces of cuboctahedron (View I)	Symposium contributions on polyhedral faces of cuboctahedron (Rotation of View I)

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Symposium contributions on vertices of cuboctahedron	Symposium contributions on vertices (morphing to names on faces)

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Stage in exploration of relationship between contributions	Experimental use of representation of relationships in 4D

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Mapping of symposium contributors on an icosidodecahedron (unfoldeded net in 2D)	Mapping of symposium contributors on an icosidodecahedron (folded into 3D form)

Is this one approach to understanding the relationship between the 30 "conference birds" cited in the Sufi tale above? Note the polyhedral form is basic to the syntegrity approach of Stafford Beer as mentioned above. A richer set of illustrations using this approach, and links to related commentary, is provided in a separate document (In Quest of a Strategic Pattern Language: a new architecture of values, 2008).

Whilst the primary symbol of global, integrative understanding is traditionally and naturally the sphere, it is appropriate to note that approximations to it (in geometric terms) are more readily achieved by polyhedral configuration of multiple flat earth perspectives -- the greater the number symmetrically configured, the better the approximation. However, attention can appropriately be given to the memorability of globality presented in this way when the fewer the flat earth perspectives so configured the less the challenge to "re-membering" them. It is in this respect that the sets of Platonic and Archimedean polyhedra are of primary interest. Hence the use of the cuboctahedron and the icosidodecahdron in the exercises above -- and the use of the icosahedron by Stafford Beer.

In the light of need for psychoactive catalysts of engagement, such configurations of topics -- of topoi in the tradition of mnemotechnics and memory palaces -- merit reflection (Degrees of Cognitive Engagement with Interrelated Global Categories, 2009; Topology of Valuing: dynamics of collective engagement with polyhedral value configurations, 2008).

As a common focus of integration of requisite variety, a 12-fold pattern also merits a great deal of attention (Knights of the Round Table, jury size, etc) especially given the universal popularity of integrative perspectives offered by the horoscope -- like it or not. It is appropriate to recall the Dodekatheon of classical Greece ("the 12 Olympian deities"), and its Roman parallel, as reflecting a comprehensive integration of a diversity of (systemic) functions. This 12-fold pattern is given particular attention by R. Buckminster Fuller (Synergetics: explorations in the geometry of thinking, 1975) through his focus on the cuboctahedron. Some implications have been discussed separately (Geometry of Thinking for Sustainable Global Governance, 2009; Geometry, Topology and Dynamics of Identity, 2009; Union of Intelligible Associations: remembering the dynamic identity of a dodecameral mind, 2005).

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