TO GROW OR TO EVOL EVOLVE: The Challenge for a World in Full Transformation

Rosana Agudo, Spring 2012

A dominant social paradigm is a mental image A of the social reality that guides a societys expectations
The solutions that we are finding to solve our problems, to end the crisis, to respond to the consequences of bad/mistaken management on a global scale, are uences directed at imposing restrictions, limits and sanctions by way of laws designed to punish, discourage or correct the conducts generated by the mental model that dictates our social system But these solutions do not support the birth of, or the system. possibility generating, a superior social model of a sensitized citizenry and of laws that facilitate and support the installation of the so-called new paradigm. called We want to live in the new paradigm but we want to do it without making an effort; or, because we are so accustomed to reward and punish with money we money, want this effort be only economic We believe that in some way this crisis, that economic. we see as purely economic will be solved when we have money again and that we economic, again, will solve it with money - some paying and others getting paid. The money will be he divvied up among the usual players and when we are more or less as we were p before, we will believe we are already in the new paradigm. But the installation of a new social model is an art that is difficult to master. As for all works of art, this one requires a will to create, a consciousness of service, a harmonious observation of the work during the construction process and beauty, process, lots of beauty, in the eye of the artist in the gaze of the artist. The construction and artist, support for this new social paradigm requires many artists that dream, other that others understand the dream, other that know how and who can bring it into being, and others still others that execute it All this must take place through a chain of leadership it. that has accepted, understood, and learned to be in the appropriate Mental Model, to value it and to propagate it.

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This crisis has not been provoked by a lack of values, as we like to claim, but by , our exaltation of some values and our disinterest and even our degradation of others. We might add, as a principal factor, that the values that have been an ight object of exaltation and glorification, that helped us at some point, have been subject, over time, to a process of degene degeneration imposed by an obsolete mental model that is only interested in assuring its permanence, its survival regardless of survival, the consequences. We havent been aware of th degradation because we have this been too occupied in assuring ourselves a place, or in keeping the place we have, or in avoiding being marginalized in and by the system. The search fo new values he for keeps us occupied, it has us convinced that we have found the source of our maladies and it lets us feel justified because we are already looking for solutions we solutions. We are looking for the solution by trying to do the opposite, but not n necessarily by doing something different within ourselves. We have spent some years talking about this, trying to feel better by talking about values in an inane discourse that , ane leads us no where because we still havent learned to look within ourselves. We can only, or we want only to look without, at the obvious, at the evident, at what is apparent at first glance, at what everybody else sees and at what is accepted by the t majority which is what we are interested in and what we value. We want the future to get here soon we want to finish with this phase of soon; uncertainty and pain because we dont know how to remain in conflict in an intelligent fashion, even though we love it. We are looking for a quick fix to our , problems, creating new ones of the same sort. We live in it and for it but we do not want to learn from it. To get out of it fast is the way to reinforce it, this human paradox, this mental model that endlessly perpetuates itself. However, remaining in conflict with a attitude open to learning is the way to find an the way out, to perceive its origins and its consequences and to gain knowledge and maturity. It is not about leaving but rather, about finishing with excellence but, excellence, the process that has brought us to where we are today. This is difficult for us, being accustomed as we are to short term, tangible results that are easily seen and quickly convertible into money. Once again, a look within is necessary to understand what is going on without. To learn how we function is the methodology that makes us understan the results we are getting, how to improve understand them or how to avoid them. 2 License www.tti-transformacion.com

We say: This is not an Era of change but the change of an Era Very well, I add Era. add: This is the Era of Art and Perfection in Service.

This era of Art and Perfection in Service will be one in which the economy stops meaning only money and co converts itself into what it is: the administration of the patrimony of a society, of a country, of a person, of a family Let us remember that family patrimony means inheritance, our inheritance as human beings one that we inheritance, beings, should care for and that includes all life on our planet, one in which we are included, but not as exclusive beneficiaries. This era will be one in which mone is money a means of perfecting our service in the art of living in relation to other living beings and with nature and in the art of the expansion of wealth. This is our destiny because it is our deepest aspiration and is, therefore, marking our future. The vision, the mission and the values of an organisation are merely the expression of its aspiration, of its dream. Lets take a look at these and we will see with what we are filling our cocoon and the contradiction we assume by continuing to function with an obsolete mental model based on the past, on what is known and on assuring its own survival while simultaneously expressing our search for a new survival, social arena. Sometimes we even compromise our future by linking it to the suggestion of an educational model that assures, from the obsolete mental model, the permanence of our present needs and their future satisfaction. needs,

At the same time, this contradiction is at work creating what I call a paralyzing he paradox: it calls to dreamers but doesnt provide them with forums for meeting o and talking; it listens to them but does not to support them. It calls for creative . people to dream our dreams, but refuses the expression of their dream if they dreams dont coincide with its own. There is such a confusion of contradictory dreams th that this is painfully delaying the installation of the new paradigm that is already more than a promise or a possibility; it is a reality already underway and there are a an eality thousand and one ways to re recognize how it is appearing.

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As a society, we are in this larval phase, in which we gestate and mutate and where transformation towards the next stage is taking place. Here we can find all the content, not just of what we know, not just of our experiences but also of our aspirations and of our dreams. Let us not permit our past to trap our future. We dont need new values; we need maturity and courage enough to take an honest look at and to give renewed meaning to those values that have gone bad because gone of an antiquated viewpoint that no longer provides sense or dignity. evolving means liberating ourselves from the way we ating Growing in the sense of have been looking at things, people, the world and becoming disposed to see anew, with new eyes. This should mean becoming like children. In this sense, mean, creativity will return to our lives and will help us surpass the larval stage and continue on to materialize the dream of our future that we all dreamed together as a species. Are we talking about innovation? Perhaps, but how different it sounds. Perhaps, Returning to the idea of the Mental Model that is dictating our social system, we can ask ourselves or think that this is just a theoretical concept. But we should know that we think, we decide and we behave according to what our mental model tells us is good or convenient, or bad and necessary to avoid. To know our Mental Model and to become conscious of it, of how it works, is the now fastest and most effective way to achieve real and effective transformations in any eve sphere of intervention that permit us to go beyond where we are. Therefore, the basis of a Mental Model is the collection of suppositions, beliefs and thoughts we use to interpret realit It constitutes a filter that translates what we reality. lter perceive and gives way to personal experience. In any sphere, it is the collection of ives beliefs, thoughts and suppositions that constitute cultures and that orient orients strategies, actions and decisions all the while conditioning and limiting them to decisions, the re-enforcement of the existing Mental Model. We are living a amazing an moment. This is our greate opportunity for transformation this is our greatest rtunity transformation; evolutionary step to carry out the realization of our most powerful aspiration. The Mental Model exerts its effects not just in people, but also in organizations in organizations, every social sphere, in society; it creates cultures and gives form to social stages and the historical eras It is within us, it is us and it shapes the reality we l live. 4 License www.tti-transformacion.com

It is common to hear that Things are not going to change,, we must change ourselves. But I think that what we are really trying to say is, in fact, things are not . going to change, we have to change them ourselves It doesnt occur to us that we we ourselves. are the ones who must change, change our mental model, take a look within, within each person, each organization, etc. We are the ones who are going to change reality by changing our way of understanding, of looking at and of relating to the world, to reality. This message is also conveyed by scientific principles. We are witnessing the reconciliation of Science and the Humanities. The truths experienced by ths humanists have never been possible to substantiate until now that Neuroscience has at last affirmed what the mystics meditators and humanists have been telling mystics, us for years: that in order to change our lives, we must change our minds and minds, this has been demonstrated by the science of Neuroplasiticity. We are dedicating all our effort into pumping life-giving oxygen into a dying giant to the production/consumption social model, or else to fighting against it; both sumption behaviours provide it with oxygen. Lets look once again. Let s say ther is more, Lets there much more that we are willing to see, to do in a different way. Lets tell ourselves do, that there is more, much more that we are willing to see in a different way willing way, to do in a different way. Lets tell ourselves that we are willing to understand . wealth more profoundly, from different angles and with more amplitude. oundly,

We can leave this situation at will, one by one, all at the same time. We can choose if we want only to grow or if we want to grow by evolving by supporting evolution evolving, and by collaborating with it. We can leave this situation by learning to look and to see new solutions; we can learn to recognize results other than those we expect esults expected to find. Up until now the results we expected corresponded to our needs, but perhaps these are no longer the same either perhaps they never were. Let us not miss the wonderful explosion of new way to do business, to u ways understand consumerism, to live, that are already beginning to make themselves visible, even ves though we dont see them yet, lets pay attention even though we dont believe them to be viable or we think they are to costly or too slow etc., etc., etc. We are resisting the inevitable with all our strength. Of course, resistance to change is only human even though this mov movement is taking us to a better place with more possibilities. We know in our hearts that we must evolve we must evolve; evolve towards a new social model, in every sphere, in every context, and in every n partition of our lives and in our perceptions of reality. To open our minds and ou eyes to a new way of looking and of understanding the our world is the next evolutionary step and challenge for a society that is immersed in a process of deep transformation.

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And this, all of it, is not just a theory. It is possi possible. It is inevitable. We know how itable. to do it. We are doing it. It is happening and we can collaborate. Thousands of pioneer changemakers are bringing the tendency of social change to the point of critical mass and the different changes that produce transformation are beginning to accelerate exponentially. This is good news, full of hope, inspiration and passion.

Rosana Agudo TTi - Tecnologa para la Transformacin Interior rosanaagudo@tti-transformacion.com transformacion.com www.tti-transformacion.com transformacion.com www.visiontoactionschool.com

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