Our need for more integrative thinking

The philosopher and psychologist, Ken Wilber, (Wilber.shambhala.com) believes that a minority of people are integrators. They are not captured by one point of view, and they understand that every point of view and approach to the world has its place, its role, and its time. Integrators are flexible, they can see the whole picture, they allow for different views and varying levels of value development in their decision making.

We suggest that by nature, futurists are likely to be integrators. A futurist’s ability to look beyond the immediate and to take account of all possible—and even improbable—consequences of an event or trend drives him or her to a big picture view. This ability may be learned, or innate, and can be sharpened by practice and the acquisition of knowledge and experience.

In the last few months it has been hard to be an integrator when we have all been caught up in war issues, with individual points of view hotly defended and opposing viewpoints seen with suspicion and sometimes anger.

Wilber says that there are as yet few integrators, “I long for a group of world leaders who can see a bigger picture, a bigger picture that really does allow all value systems to arise, but only worldcentric behavior to be tolerated.” This time, he believes, is still a long way off. The war in Iraq and the advocacy and protest of the war in Iraq, has made us all realize that many worldviews and value systems have strict boundaries that do not allow for alternate points of view, not to say alternate actions. This is true from both pro- and anti-war perspectives.

From a futurist’s perspective, where are we now?  If we believe Wilber, we are a long way away from the effective world management of conflicts because few people, and almost no leaders, have yet become integrators. We have to remember that all worldviews have a function and usefulness—our goal must be to increase the number of big picture thinkers and doers.

Now that the war discussion has quieted down, we turn back to our own organizations and our work in bringing big picture thinking to our own system’s decision making. It’s likely to be true that there are few integrators working in even the most sophisticated organization. Two possible directions of action worth thinking about are:

Increase the number of integrators, or, enhance our capability for integrative decision making by demonstrating how people can think more broadly about the issues in front of them.

Bring new information into the organization to broaden world views that we know are likely to have strict boundaries, and encourage people to at least understand and appreciate approaches and solutions that are beyond their current boundaries.
 
Easier said than done? Yes. We have to persist, nevertheless.

Copyright 2003, Leading Futurists, LLC, All rights reserved.

© Leading Futurists, LLC 2003