The Unreconciled Self: A Planetary Philosophy [Update]

I’ve almost completed the manuscript for the book titled ‘The Unreconciled Self: A Planetary Philosophy’, exploring our fractured relationship with our natural environment, and what we have lost as a result of this.

I’ve shared it with a few trusted friends, with whose encouragement and feedback I hope to have it completed by Christmas. In particular, Sae Schatz , Debs Wright ICF ACC , Donald Clark , and Kerri O'Neill have all offered valuable challenges and support, and without whose encouragement I would doubtless have faltered.

Not because the work is hard, but rather because there is not single ‘truth’ to discover: rather this work is a guided reflection, or series of spaces, within which to do your own thinking. In this, it is structurally similar to ‘The Humble Leader’, which itself was written as a series of eight spaces within which to have conversations.

Probably more than anything, these people have given me some confidence to share the work, fractured as it is. In my practice, of #WorkingOutLoud, I am used to being wrong, and being confused, but I still aim to avoid saying something simply incoherent. Which is difficult when trying to grind new lenses through which to view the world.

This weekend I am in Venice at the Berggruen Institute [cc Noema Magazine ] Planetary Summit, and I’m extremely grateful to them for the opportunity to delve into new ideas and perspectives relating to our understanding of the planetary – the interdependency and interrelationship between human and natural systems. There are clear parallels to the work on ‘The Unreconciled Self’, and I hope provocations to push myself further in this work.

The following are some of the key themes in the book – and I will try to signpost to places where I have explored these fragments in my broader work on the Social Age and Social Leadership:

I seek to explore a tension between static and structural views, towards a philosophy of motion. This is not simply about physical movement, but rather something more fundamental about the ‘nomadic’, and our relationship with textures, seasons, and space. If you follow my work more broadly, you will have seen this idea explored in core Social Leadership work around ‘Boundaries’ and ‘Trespass’, as well as the central premise ofQuiet Leadership, viewing the ‘Organisation as Ecosystem’.

There is a theme around ‘reconnection’ to the local, whilst maintaining global perspectives. In a sense I think that this parallels the work around ‘self and system’ in that it is partly a conversation about scale, and partly one about interdependency.

My work on ‘Imperfect Leadership’, as well as ‘The Identity Project’ research, both circle around notions of perfection and ‘completion’. The language of ‘The Unreconciled Self’ originated in The Identity Project, but I’m expanding it for this new work. Central to these ideas are motion, and fluidity, as well as ‘separation’ – something about how we need to be unreconciled, because it is in the tension that we find… something… partly identity, partly purpose. I’m still vague in this part of the work, and perhaps will remain so at publication. As a reminder, if you do not know my work and practice, #WorkingOutLoud is an open and evolutionary way of ‘knowing’, and being wrong is part of my practice and identity.

I draw on some of my more established work on notions of citizenship, evolution of our structures of religion, and newer work on consumerism, I think reframing these in the context of the Social Age: broadly this is about an evolving taxonomy, or series of taxonomies, around our structures of society and belonging. I’m reasonably confident in some of this work.

Whilst these ideas may seem esoteric, there is a point to this work: our thinking, and our Organisational strategies, towards sustainability, and adaptation, often act as though we sit separate, or upon, our natural environment, but this work seeks to re-contextualise us within the system. In this, I include a reflection on technology – not really to reconcile our digital and physical realities, but to understand better the influence or impact, or I guess kind of foundational pressure that this exerts. Donald Clark has, in particular, provided a wonderful and provocative narrative on this, which I am still processing. This section needs the most work. There is something about finding a relationship with the digital that does not define us fully.

Finally, the notions of movement, boundary, and ‘knowing’ a place, which is about embodied experiences within nature. This is partly the most attractive part of the wok, but also potentially the most biased, liberal and subjective. Nonetheless, I think it has value, if only as a sketch for others to rework.

My work covers a broad landscape, and without a doubt this work sits at the edges of the system. My core work is research based, whilst this work is more reflective, philosophical, and speculative. But it does tie into a broader system of thinking, and I hope will find it’s audience.

For me, writing is the thinking. Some of my books have been read by a few hundred people, some by tens of thousands, but they are all important to my own understanding and thinking. So even if it’s only me a few friends that read it, I won’t mind. The act of writing it is changing my own thinking, which makes it worth it.