Wicked Problems perceived as Snakes – an Animistic perspective on #Cohesion_Digilogue

Heuston, we have a problem…

There are some famous words that resonate with every baby boomer: ‘Heuston, we have a problem’. So began the most famous rescue mission in the history of our species, when the Apollo 13 systems failure held the world in its breath, as three stranded astronauts were brought home safely to earth through collaboration, ingenuity and dialogue. 

With Covid19, we once more hold our breath to a totally different kind of problem; the problem that now confronts the entire human species. 

When we think we have a problem, we usually assign a negative emotion or a bad thought to it. It is a wrinkle in the system, it’s the thing that won’t go our way, a thing that won’t do what we want it to do. It’s a thing that is here which we do not want. Somewhere deep down inside us, unconsciously; we sense it as we might sense a snake. 

There are no problems in Nature

However, if we are to genuinely reconnect to nature, we could take an animistic view that every single energy point in the universe is alive and each being has a consciousness which has come to help each one of raise our own level of awareness; to evolve from human doings to become human beings. 

In this way, we have an opportunity to evolve from being two legged animals to being sacred humans; in tune with the Creator and in harmony with all its creation. There are no problems in Nature, except maybe two leggeds themselves…

Wicked problems as snakes

If we unconsciously think of wicked problems as snakes, we can have a visceral reaction; we may shudder or we may cringe, but why is that? If you are in Ireland, is it because Saint Patrick banished the snakes from here in the year 432AD? 

But what if that is not the true story? What if the myth of the banishing of the snakes was the misinterpretation of the expelling of the Druids and the forced ending of common worship to the feminine goddess of Eiru and an end of our ancient relationship with her children the Tuatha De Danann? 

Do we fear snakes because it is the animal in the Christian bible that tempted Eve? Is it because the snake is dangerous? Not all snakes are deadly, some are benign; some eat other smaller poisonous predators that can also kill us such as spiders and scorpions. Snakes can halt the spread of Lime disease. 

Is it because they are sneaky or slithering or silent or even that they are sensual? Do they represent the kundalini sexual energy that we were conditioned not to be aware of in our own body? Is it because the snake can be the image of the one-eyed monster of the patriarchy which has done so much damage on this planet that we call home?

Is it because we do not know how to handle them? Is it because we do not understand their teachings and wisdom? Is it because we think they are cold blooded killers? 

What if we have it all wrong?

What if we have the snake image all wrong which means that we may also hold the entire idea of a problem incoherently in our cultural thought, language, word and deed? What if we ask not WHAT is the Problem, rather WHO is this PROBLEM, we might get deeper answers.

Snakes are family creatures, so rest assured as soon as you think you deal with a snake problem, another one comes out from the grass. Mothering snakes look after all the snakes in the nest, so problems will want to take care of each other. When you attend to one snake-like problem, prepare to deal with the rest of the nest.

Snake symbols can mean fertility, so be prepared to engage in fertile ground for delving into the reality of the collective unconscious in the organisation that you are in. Most people don’t deal with the source of the issues in their organisation, because THEY ARE the biggest issues in the organisation. 

It’s much easier to get paid to solve anything else but your Self… and always beware those snakes in suits who took the San Quentin psychopath test and who scored the same as a murdering psychopath yet they live in the boardroom. You all know who they are… And as it happens, they know who they are too…

Re-imagining snakes as powerful allies and wisdom teachers

Ancient traditions are not so afraid of snakes as we are in the so-called West. Serpents are charmed into dancing in India, they are honoured for their medicine in America, they are symbols in many healing traditions, they are our mythologies of ancient wisdom; they are an image in Jungian psychology.

The snake sheds its skin, so it is a symbol of transformation. The old skin is no longer necessary, and the alchemy of transformation produces a new skin; it leaves its old itself behind. All change and growth is uncomfortable to immature minds so when so-called problems arise, we see them as blocks to our lazy comfort; they are a challenge to our sense of so-called control. Dream on…

The ancient image of the Aureboros – the snake that eats its own tail is a mythical image of recurring life and death.  

The snake symbol is a catalyst to our limbic brain which freezes us by the image of fear. What if we see a rope in the darkness and we think it is a snake, but its not; you have been afraid of a rope. A snake reminds you of your own level of awareness and your own connection to nature, your connection to other two-leggeds and humans and above all, your connection to yourself. 

We are programmed to be frightened from birth. In Ireland, being a ‘Slibhin’ is the cruelest form of insult. Yet we may have mistaken the signs. Snakes are not potentially bad; they are simply potentially dangerous. 

Snakes as Hydras

In Greek mythology, Hercules cut off the head of the seven headed snake only for it to grow back again. This is what snake-like problems are like when we do not get to the root of them; we cut off the symptom, yet we fail to deal with the root cause of the so-called problem. 

We resist change by sitting in endless meetings about meetings and we oppose transformation by setting the agenda for outcomes and actions; when what is really needed is a focus on source, root and essence. 

Dealing with Snakes

The way to deal with a snake is to be still, to be quiet. The natural response is to breathe, to walk quietly and to engage with the snake as an equal; an ally, a teacher or a representative of divine nature. 

An immature non-animist will react too quickly. They will become negatively emotional or positively cheerlead the wrong way. You might as well run around the table shouting don’t panic as fail to see the teaching that is about to unfold in front of your very eyes, your beating heart and your inquiring mind. 

Firstly, can you learn to avoid the repulsion that has been conditioned into you from birth? Can you reimagine the stories where snakes are gifts from the creator? Can you ask what it is here to teach you? Can you remember that there are many different kinds of snakes and that some of them actually kill predators that might kill you without even knowing it?

Can you ask is the snake male or female? Is the snake guarding her eggs? Is the male feeding? Are you in the wrong place and time? Are you trespassing? 

Do you all too easily fall into the image of the snake-oil salesman or think about the psychopaths who are snakes in suits? Yes, these are genuinely bad omens and they need to be dealt with maturely at all costs. 

Yes, there are certain snakes, who will kill you and in this case there is only one action; to ask for the creators permission to slice their heads off and to bury them sacredly in the ground of their being. 

Snake as Infinity; problems as possibilities and puzzles

The snake represents infinity – the eternity of possibility. The snake represents the umbilical cord to the ground that the snake crawls on. All you are being asked to do is to mature and to cut the cord yourself. You are being asked to grow up. 

Snakelike problems are eternal in this plane of existence. Everything is so inter-connected that when you solve one problem, you will create another one in some other part of the universe. 

However, when you get to the root of the problem; when you find the SOURCE of the issue and not just its symptom, you will be going deep into nature and communing with the Creator itself. 

Snakelike problems remind you to slow down and to be careful. You may be moving in the wrong direction. If you do this at speed, not only will you be lost, it will be difficult for you to find your way home, especially in the dark. When you rid yourself of the snake, perhaps you are ridding yourself of your guilt? Eating of the tree of knowledge was a choice after all wasn’t it? 

Snakelike problems as duality in process

Snakelike problems represent the duality of good and of evil. They invite you to be flexible, to be present, to be aware and above all to engage with the image. James Hillman once showed his class of student psychotherapists the image of a snake and asked them to interpret it. 

Within seconds, he had dozens of interpretations; it is a phallus, it is medicine, it is danger, it is evil. He told them they were all wrong by reminding them that none of them had engaged with the image. He invited them into a Dialogue with the image of the snake. Stay with the image; speak to it, dance with it, dream with it. 

Skinning the Snake in different cultures

Some of us wear snakeskin shoes or carry snakeskin handbags. We put our feet and our treasured possessions into the snake’s skin; why not put your resistance into the snakes live body, into its energy; into the dance of the cosmos that is being presented to you. We say there are many ways to skin a cat, but is there only way to skin a snake?

Celtic tribes considered the adder for its ability to withstand the cold. They bury themselves deep in the ground; they represent the depth of the feminine earth – the heart of Gaia. Yet their phallic shape and great ability to hunt gave them masculine powers too. This coupling of masculine and feminine did not produce a child; it produced pure and raw energy; hence the triple swirls of Celtic Symbology. 

In Mayan cultures, the snake is revered for its ability to swallow its prey whole, as a symbol of meta-morphosis. What they saw as feeding was interpreted as transformation of prey into life energy for the sustained survival and growth of the snake. 

In Hindi culture snakes can open chakras and hence it represents the kundalini of the spine; calling us to our deepest desires and emotions; which often live is us as unconscious dreams and intuitions. The snake asks us to shed our habits and our incoherent ways of doing. Snake asks us to wake up and to look around to see where the danger and the opportunity is. 

The sorcerers staff is transformed into a snake and is used to lead the tribe out of danger and safely home. The Chinese see the snake as a symbol of good luck. 

Snakes are not all that bad, and neither are your problems. 

#Cohesion_Digilogue makes you a Snake-Charmer

#Cohesion-Digilogue is an online 90 min Dialogue circle for 12 weeks consisting of twelve network members in which each network member presents a problem each week that they wish to solve. The group uses a proprietary dialogue method to get deep into the source of the issue. 

Dialogue identifies the source of a problem in a different way than meetings by getting beneath its symptoms and by simultaneously recording the leadership skills, the learning of each member and by positioning the group to become a high performing team, taking note of the human dynamics and the continuous action learning of the group as a whole.

#Cohesion-Digilogue addresses the need to become more proficient at having high quality digital meetings in order improve leader to follower communications and efficiency as a process of ongoing staff development. 

#Cohesion#Digilogue is a unique blend of experiential soft skills along with scaleable technical capacity which reduces mis-communication and mis-understanding that can often happen when staff are separated by time and space and even more so, when they are under stress and pressure. 

#Cohesion-Digilogue reduces Zoom fatigue that leaders and followers may suffer from due to an increase in the number of meetings during the Covid19 lockdown. We have noted in our pilot projects in Ireland that non-facilitated zoom meetings are beginning to suffer reduced functionality and efficiency. 

#Cohesion_Digilogue increases the efficiency of business workflow by implementing a deeper process online than even in physical meetings in terms of engagement, comprehension, focus, attention, contribution and by being part of a holistic approach to solving systemic problems. 

#CohesionDigilogue produces well documented outcomes; much more so than than unfacilitated zoom meetings by introducing a highly experienced guide certified in a fully researched / tried and tested quantum technique for optimising the use of the resources to address recurring problems. 

Such recurring problems are deeper than the symptom that is usually tackled at a meeting; such as blocks to forward movement or limitations on growth that can inadvertently place personal and collective development lower down the agenda than staff actually need and want, and which most leaders are not yet trained in or equipped to handle. We have foind that technical expertise is not a good indicator of leadership mastery. 

#Cohesion-Digilogue safely identifies structural traps that exist within collectives that members cannot normally see, which are safely revealed and resolved with a high degree of psychological safety and human centred development

#Cohesion-Digilogue delivers sustained organisational development through integrated technology (dashboards and chatbots).

By getting to the source of problems, skillfully managing group dynamics, increasing quality of thinking, increasing creativity, evolving communication skills with in-the-moment feedback, increasing employee engagement, identifying talent gaps, increasing employee satisfaction, customers identify where value is created and where it is eroded.

In one case, a company saved R92m in one circle because two departments were not talking to each other due to an interpersonal issue between two data entry staff.

#Cohesion_Dialogue is a quantum process which accesses the collective workflow of the system by mirroring and reflecting the complexity, multiplicity and incoherence that can exist. Dialogue addresses this complexity in a more effective way than having meetings with prescribed and perhaps, hidden agendas

By learning to deploy #Cohesion_Digilogue in any system, members will develop high level skills in navigating the complex adaptive shock of the post covid19 economic system/recession. 

Members will build better relationships, make sense of how emotions drive behaviour, take more coherent actions and track their own and the group’s learning in real time. 

Members will transform their ability to relate to each other by massively increasing their ability to listen, by learning how to better understand the real problem rather than to superficially deal with the symptom and to be able to deal maturely with lots of interpersonal noise in the organisation.

Cohesion Global has deep domain knowledge in the field of Dialogue by having deployed programmes in scores of companies, hundreds of leaders, thousands of followers and hundreds of systems. The work is grounded on two PhD studies developed by the founder. 

The guides and elders who have been gathered to support the members network are highly valued holders of intellectual property and wisdom from several countries outside Ireland.  

The human-centeredness of the approach tailors it uniquely to each system, because each group is different. Dialogue is not about cramming content into a group of employees. 

Each of the guides are uniquely attuned to each member of the network in such a way that an imprint of support is manifested through personal journeywork and blended personal and collective development between the guides and the members.

This is very difficult to imitate because it is a human centred approach which uses technology as an enabler and not as a substitute.