DC1: A new perspective on learning and self-development

My role at Deeper Change is to take the work I have done over the last 36 years (25 of which have been helping organisations with change) and, as it says on the tin, go deeper.

After the launch of my book, Change, in August 2022, I was pleased to find that the feedback was really good, and that people were using the work to make a real difference. In the last two years since the book, a huge amount has changed in my life, including the world of agile and the wider political and economic world.

The big question is, are they changing for the better?

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Discernment of better

Quite simply, something is better if it resonates with a higher or more suitable energy pattern than other previous options. An energy pattern is something that materialises outcomes and, depending on whether the energy pattern is high or strong, it will bring about healthier and more robust solutions than low or weak energy patterns.

Most of us find out if energy patterns are weak or strong not by immediate discernment but by trial and error that may lead to suffering or an easier life. Some energy patterns are obvious and can be used as an example.

• It is better to have a pattern of honesty rather than using the legal system.
• It is better to be kind than cruel.
• It is better to be powerful rather than forceful.
• It is better to eat healthily than unhealthily.

These, on the surface, look like principals, values, or morals, but those are mental constructs that are applied later. It is the stage of creation before the brain kicks in, that interests me.

It is just at the moment your consciousness is drawn to intention and you are pulled by the motivation for action, that you have a choice to enact a higher or lower energy pattern. Which one chosen completely determines the level of success of the outcome and the level of awareness you will have to discern future choices.

Low choice -> Low outcomes + more lower choice options next time

High choice -> Better outcomes + more higher options are available next time

Better means choosing a higher pattern for your actions that leads to more beneficial long term solutions and one that will give and continue to provide access to further higher pattern choices.

Learning and development

A key part of any good learning and development program must therefore enable the participants to have access to higher energy state patterns. This is really the nature of vertical developmental programs. Anything that directs participants to higher energy patterns is a better program than ones that do not.

As continued use of lower energy patterns hides higher state options in the future, learning and development programs are essential to break the participant out of this negative cycle. By inserting higher energy choices, the leader can facilitates an upward positive cycle.

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Three perspectives

According to David Hawkins and from my own experience, there are 3 distinct categories of energy patterns to choose from. Which ones are obvious to you will entirely depend upon your own internal levels of energetic awareness at the time and what choices you have made in the past.

These three perspectives are:

1. Make decisions to enhance and gain more of what you have
2. Make decisions to enhance what you do
3. Make decisions to enhance who you are

These are very different perspectives.

What you have

Enhancing what you own and collecting more is the primary motivation and is required to navigate a survivalist (and capitalist) world. However, if that is the only motivation then it leads to lower energy patterns that create lower states of awareness.

What you have might also be status from a big house or fast car, choosing a partner because they look good on your arm, or chasing likes on social media.

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What you do

Enhancing what you do is the natural conclusion of a work-based economy. As you get better at your chosen skill, you become an expert, you are able to contribute more and you get paid more.

On the shadow side, only focusing on what you do can lead to lack of purpose, narrow views, and burnout. Only focusing on what you do leads only to respecting others for what they do or do not.

Who you are

Focusing on who you are and how you behave is the highest of all energetic patterns. When people are attracted to you because of the field of compassion and benevolence, the kind of connections we create open up opportunities that far surpass our usefulness in the other two perspectives.

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Learning and development

Nearly all courses, or at least the ones employers are willing to pay for, operate on the second perspective. They enhance only what you do. This enables you do more or better things.

With the advent of agility and modern leadership training, we have learnt very effective way to combine enhancing what you do, with who you are. Vertical development courses enhance who you are. That gives you the ability to form better connections with others and most importantly choose higher energy patterns in the future. They create an upward journey for you.

I personally wouldn’t attend (or teach) any course that didn’t have an element of this in it. Everything else is moving deckchairs. The world needs better people, not more people doing better stuff.

This was first published on the deeper change substack: https://deeperchange.substack.com/p/a-new-perspective-on-learning-and ?

You can also listen to an audio version of this article on my substack site.