Episode 4: Rewiring the 'nervous system' of corporations

Drawing inspiration from you and I in service of genuine organisational transformation

In the latest episode of Philosophy & Organisations,

Jessica Böhme

and I discuss a variety of topics, including the difference (and relation) between shifting conscious belief and changing the patterns of our nervous system. This discussion started with Jes and I talking about some of our present real world challenges (it took me about 40 mins to ask whether we were actually recording! Thank you to Jes for this). The conversation then evolved naturally.

I’m rather interested in how well this key topic lands with you, given it’s something that has been a common feature of my discussions of late.

This process of actively deconstructing and reconstructing ‘ourselves’—which really means the possibility of transforming our ways of being, doing and becoming—feels very alive. It’s playing out in so many different ways for people all around the world. Personally, I feel deeply grateful that this is now a thing, that it’s talked about, and that many of us are gaining a lot from these shared processes of (re)discovery and character evolution.

Something (among many ‘things’) that’s important here, however, as folks like

ailey jolie

(a big thank you to my partner, Esther, for introducing me to ailey’s work) and

Seth Kaufmann

call such clear attention to, is that so much of what’s thought of as ‘disregulation’ (/ any other frame) is often adaptation (the organism responding to the context of world). This response to world can, for various reasons, get somewhat stuck. The adaptation becomes maladaptive. This *maladaptive pattern/s can cause all manner of ‘issues’.

*I’m very much in the camp of using wide boundary thinking in this context, recognising that many of these ‘maladaptive patterns’ are very likely healthy (or at least entirely justifiable) responses to a rather unhealthy context (i.e. dynamics of the *metacrisis at every level, from the inner to familial to the inter-nation state and beyond).

*I’ll note here that the metacrisis seems to be something like the ‘wrong relation to life itself’, along with its myriad consequences, driven disproportionally by certain actors and actions. I’ve discussed this on many occasions, so will skip for now.

Thankfully these ‘issues’ need not be our fate. We can, in various ways, exercise agency and ‘evolve’. The same is true of groups of humans organising (i.e organisations).

So although it may feel hard to meaningfully shift the ‘inner workings’ of an organisation, thus changing the way it shows up in and impacts the world, it can absolutely be done. And, I’d argue, it needs to be done if we’re to really have a chance of moving fairly adaptively through certain unavoidable challenges to come in the coming months, years and decades.

I could say so much more. But this is my time limit (it’s school holidays, and dad has gotta make dinner!).

With love as always.

P.S. If anything I’ve touched on (and I get it, I’ve just touched on a few things at best) requires deeper explanation, please ask questions in the comments. When I have more time I’ll elaborate.