> What do clocks, our instruments for measuring time, measure? The formal
> answer is to say that they measure time. It is such an obvious answer that
> we do not think a second time about it. But what does your tacit knowledge
> say? Look at your wrist watch. We have learnt from other people that it
> ticks second after second away. But is it what the watch is actually
> doing? What regularity is actually operating here?
My musicprofessor at college, the late Cees van As, was a very remarkeble
person. He teached us students to listen to music in several ways. He
teached us to listen in such a way that e.g. the melodyline of a tune was
"upfront" for our consciousness, the harmony and the rhythm was for our
ears than more at the background. The same you can do by focussing more on
the rythm or the harmony of a musicpiece. Within a melodyline he teached
us several ways to listen more carefully to this melodyline. He tought us
how to listen at what physically could be heard (the tones) or to listen
to the "in between" (the intervals). it was like entering into an other
world. From him I learned to understand different interpretations from
the same piece of music. Ever since I can hear if a musician (or an
orchestra) plays technically perfect but lifeless, or if a musical
interpretation has "soul". (BTW :This is the same difference between being
a manager or a leader.)
One of my musicprofessor statements was: "The real music lives in the 'In
between'. If a musician can't live in the 'in between' he translates notes
into tones, but he doesn't make music."
He compared making music with our most individual instrument the human
body. Our skeleton is like the beat ( e.g 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4, etc) The
bloodflow is like the melody flowing up and down, the rythm is the
interaction between our heartrythm and our breathing. ( A healthy person
has a 4-1 rythm between heartbeat and one breath.) The harmony (or
balance if you like) is created by our spiritual conductor, that part of
ourself we call "I" or "me".
The concept of time can be approached in the same way as music. We can
experience different aspects of time depending on which aspect we focus.
We can either focus on the abstract dynamical timeflow or the concrete
static measure. Since the mechanical clock has entered our culture, the
awareness of time as an everlasting rythmical flow has more and more
vanished. What is left is the 'tick'. When time began to be measured
analogical, a residu of the flow could at least still be SEEN in the
movement of the clock's pointers and the movement of the mechanics inside
the clock. The more clocks appeared and started to direct our lives, the
more humanity lost their inner instinctiv awareness of time. As a rule one
can say that every inner awareness-process that is replaced by an outer
system or device, will 'kill' the inner awareness eventually.
The next step was the digitalization of time. The 'in between' has totally
disappeared.
This disappearing awarenes for the 'in between' part of time might
eventually kill all form of human spiritual life. In this context it is
both frightening and fascinating that so called klockspeeds in computers
have already come up in 400 MHZ range. This means that from the original
'in between' less and less is possible. A new kind of 'more dead than
dead' flow is developed, consisting of dead 'ticks' in the fastest
possible way.
It is necessary that a countermovement develops. The concepts of Systems
Thinking and System Dynamics has the potential to reinforce these
forgotten qualities IF its adherents are able to include this 'in between'
in their teorum.
Another aspect of time:
>William Auvin-Bray wonders:
>>There is a old Taoists thought about the usefulness
>>of the void or lack of space. For example a cup or bowl has no use or
>>function without the absence of space for food or fluids. The cart and
>>the wheel have no relationship without an axle,(or function),and without
>>a hole through the cart wheel, (the absences of space),the axle has no
>>place to seat in. It is the very lack of function that is the most
>>functional part!
I think the above mentioned Taoistic notion of space also counts for time:
Without the 'in between' (which can be seen as 'lack of function and lack
of space'), the most functional part of time is cut away!
When I work with managementteams on leadershipissues the question of lack
of time always comes up at a certain point. Instead of talking about the
issue I propose them to join in an exercise in which I combine time, space
and self-awareness.
The exercise takes about 1.5 hours.
I use a poem to carry and visualize the issue.
The group will walk circles, growing and deminishing ones.
The objective of the exercise is to gain a new or at least different mutual
shared awareness of time as a basis for further dialogue on the issue.
The poem is originally German from Rainer Maria Rilke. (It is one of the
most beautifull poems I know.)
I give you the German original text and a translation in English tried by me.
Ich lebe mein Leben in wachsenden Ringen
die sich |ber die Dinge ziehen
Ich werde den Letzten vielleicht nicht vollbringen,
aber versuchen will Ich ihn.
Ich kreise um Gott, um den uralten Turm
Und Ich kreise Jahrtausende lang,
Und Ich weiss nicht, bin ich ein Falke, ein Sturm,
oder ein grosses Gesang.
Rainer Maria Rilke
I live my life in growing rings
that bend themselves over the things
I might not be able to finish the last one
but I will try it!
I circle around God, around that ancient tower
and I circle thousands of years,
And I don't know am I a Falcon, a Storm,
or one great Song?
I lett a group walk growing and deminishing circles towards eachother from
their standingpoint in a larger mutual circle, all facing towards
eachother across the centre of this mutual circle.
Each line of the poem represents a circle. The first line the smallest
circle, the fourth line the largest one.
Than in reverse (larger -> smaller circles) from the fifth line to the
eight line.
So far the technical measurable part of the exercise.
The fun begins when the group gets beyond the technical level, where they
have learned how to walk where and when in what direction etc without
causing too many collisjons.
Every group starts by walking from point "A" to point "B" etc. with little
awareness of their own inner processes or the other members of the group.
The awareness of the 'in between' grows when I ask them to focus on the
timeflow or walkflow instead of focussing on the target: point "A" and
"B". A next step with more 'in between' awareness grows when the groups
fills the space between the members of the group with 'presence-of mind',
consciousness, sosial awareness or whatever you like to label it.
Important is that every groupmember has the same shared inner experience
of space and time.
No group has ever failed me in stating that they had gained an extended
notion of time.
Another interesting always recurring result of this exercise is that from
the moment every member has tuned in on this 'in between' awareness the
collisjons and the traffic jams in the centre of the circle are gone and
beautifull harmonious patterns become vissible for the audience.
When I am lucky to have asistance of a musician I use music instead of the
poem.
I tried to point into a new(?) direction of the notion of time and gave an
example by means of an exercise, of how I make this concrete for
Organizational Learning. Did I succeed?
Apologizes for the linguistic missteps here and there.
greetings from Holland, windy and showers!
Winfried Deijmann
Mr. Winfried M. Deijmann - Deijmann & Partners - Zutphen - The Netherlands
Artists, Consultants and Facilitators for Organizational Learning,
Leadership and Action Learning Events
Het Zwanevlot 37. NL 7206 CB Zutphen, The Netherlands
<winfried@universal.nl>
Phone: +31-(0)575-522076
Fax: +31-(0)575-527310
Homepage: <http://come.to/dialoog> after May 1st 1999: <http://dialoog.net>
For information about our international workshops:
<http://www.universal.nl/users/winfried/workshopsuk.html>
"An educated mind is useless without a focussed will and dangerous without
a loving heart."
(source unknown)
--winfried@universal.nl (W.M. Deijmann)
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>