Embrace your Journey #28

"We live in language." ~ Humberto Maturana*

It's officially summer in the Northern and winter in the Southern Hemispheres and here we are, most with some vacation time to enjoy. Have you realized how important pauses can be and how powerful the cycles are?

On one side of the globe flowers bloom, and, on the other, seeds rest in the soil waiting to sprout and grow. And even in the same geography plants?life cycles are different if they are annuals, biennials, and perennials. Diversity is everywhere in nature and so is the way we live our lives in language, as Chilean biologist and systems thinker Humberto Maturana used to say.

In today's world, especially with the advent of generative artificial intelligence (AI), it seems obviously fine to delegate this ability to create essays, presentations, even coding itself, and who knows what else, to machines, and "save" time, be more productive to enjoy life doing more pleasurable things, right?

I am all about having technology and innovation help us live better, so please don't take me wrong. But what if life has to do with HOW we live in language?

In his point of view, "languaging" is critical for us humans as cultural molecular autopoietic living systems. Actually, in one of his latest work mentioned below, he emphasizes that "all that happens in our living as languaging human beings, it happens in the domain of the recursive coordinations of the inner feelings, the doings and the emotions that we coordinate in our languaging as we operate in conversation and reflections."

So the big question is: what are we conserving as we live our life cycles? Or better yet, what do you want to conserve?

Intentionally reflecting upon it will help us have clarity and raise our awareness. I hope the sharing below will help you with your unique process.

Continue to read through this newsletter for further insights, stay curious and tuned to what we post at the?Briyah Institute's page on LinkedIn ,?and?enjoy your Leadership Journey as a new season unfolds!

Cheers,

Adriana Machado

Cycles and seasons can also be observed in the way organizations innovate. Evolution is possible in innovation as well!

Actually, HOW organizations innovate can also be observed in terms of their "languaging", in other words, in terms of the narratives they use.

Let us take a look at the narratives related to sustainability-oriented innovation as depicted by Dr. Taryn Mead in her PhD thesis/dissertation entitled: “Factors Influencing the Adoption of Nature Inspired Innovation in Multinational Corporations"?completed at the University of Exeter, UK .

She has identified three distinctive narratives related to sustainability-oriented innovation: The Ambiguous, the Accountable, and the Aspirational. In fact, clear patterns emerge across the organizations depending on the narrative, which creates unique cultures that may lead to different approaches to innovation.

You may check this first article for the framework that guided her investigation about the innovation processes of the companies she studied; and this second article with practical recommendations to any bioinspired innovation effort, regardless of the culture and sustainability narratives, that can help to guide success.

Interestingly, her findings demonstrate that embracing a culture of “nature as model” can be quite effective, especially since "its ultimately the stories that people tell themselves" that help advance or inhibit bioinspired innovation.

Looking for a refresh on what causes the seasons? Liacos Educational Media has a cool video for you.

How about reflecting on the interconnection between seasons and festivals? Take a look at what National Geographic explains about equinoxes and how astronomical phenomenons may have "inspired ancient structures to reveal hidden secrets."

What happens after we are so habituated of delegating our creative power to machines and artificial intelligence? What happens to emotion when conversation and reflection is being delegated?

So many questions to make as we figure out what we want to conserve as we live our lives and advance in the cycle of generative AI!

Make a pause to listen to this conversation hosted by Politics and Prose with futurist Amy Webb on her book, "The Big Nine: How the Tech Titans and their Thinking Machines Could Warp Humanity.”

Technology is evolving fast. How actively are we paying attention? Here is a more recent presentation by Amy Webb to continue to reflect upon trends, patterns, and what we are conserving as we live our lives the way we do.

"Love is the fundamental sensory, operational and relational condition of the harmony of the ecological ambiance in which a living being can exist..." ~ Humberto Maturana, Ximena Dávila Yá?ez and Simón Ramírez Mu?oz

Looking for further insights on how to apply systems thinking to work and life while interacting with other leaders from around the world???Join us for the CEO Meet & Master Program .?Registrations for the October cohort?will open soon.

We look forward to seeing you there!

At?Briyah Institute? we bridge innovation, practice and purpose to ignite leaders to transform organizations co-creating an impact economy -- that which pursues financial returns alongside positive impact for people and planet.

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*Humberto Maturana , Ph.D.?(September 14, 1928 – May 6, 2021) was one of Chile's best known author, biologist and philosopher.?Maturana? created the term "autopoiesis " about the self-generating, self-maintaining structure in?living systems , and concepts such as structural determinism, structure coupling, and natural evolutionary drift.?His work was influential in many fields, mainly the field of systems thinking, cybernetic and the biology of cognition. He co-authored several books with Francisco Varela, including?Autopoiesis and Cognition ?and The tree of Knowledge. He co-founded?Matríztica ?with Ximena Dávila, and co-authored the article Cultural-Biology: Systemic Consequences of Our Evolutionary Natural Drift as Molecular Autopoietic Systems with her and Simón Ramírez Mu?oz, where the last quote of this newsletter comes from.