Overview - Design - Faculty - Enroll - Next ...

A Roundtable Conversation with GTC Particpants

Pacific Integral is pleased to present a spotlight on three of its GTC members: Susan Cannon, Masai Jones, and Kim Adams. We invite you to read and enjoy the following stories, told in their own words, of their backgrounds, visions, why they joined the program, and what they learned.

Please tell us about yourself and your vision.

Susan: My work involves an evolutionary perspective. I try to tune in to the call of evolution, and to ask what it is that evolution is calling for in terms of we humans being conscious participants in it? So I look for leverage points –where my efforts can have the most impact in terms of nudging the evolutionary trajectory toward a more life of affirming direction. And one leverage point I see is leadership development, working directly with people who are out in the world influencing larger systems.

Generating transformative change is essentially my field. I have a Ph.D. in integral studies with a research emphasis called Transformative Learning and Change in Human Systems. How I got there was a long story. My early career was in science and engineering. I was always interested in the nature of reality, how things work and how to make the world better. Through a series of different life events, I started widening my circle of inquiry. And I was seeing that you couldn’t get all the answers through science, psychology, or through any one disciplinary focus. But if you took a more integral approach you begin to see extraordinary possibilities.

In the late 80s to early 90s, I lived in the Soviet Union and through the collapse of the Soviet empire and the restructuring to Russia. I got to see what it’s like living in a large social system that has fallen apart and is trying to rebuild itself. It was an intensive experience and I got very interested in how things happen on a civilization level. And I began to see that our own American society was going through an enormous change and transformation itself, and I wanted to participate in a conscious way. I’d been through something of a bad experience with how the Soviet Union had gone through its change. I thought –well, you know these things seem to be happening everywhere and I’d like to be a more positive influence if I could. So I was drawn into transformative work.

Masai: I’ve always done work out in the world. Social justice and spiritual work at the same time. I have a business called Embodied Sacred Psychology … I had always wanted to do the blend of all three together. What I’m noticing about myself as I’m going through the 3rd tier of life—being a grandparent—is a shifting of my identity. It’s deepening my commitment and deepening my experience of what I’ve done in the past. It’s made it fuller, richer and more important. So any social justice work that I do now is to preserve the generations. I look not just to take care of people who I feel are in need but to take care of whole generations of people who I think will be in need.

Kim: I live a spiritually committed life. My life has been about the exploration of the inner world. I’ve worked in healthcare and later transitioned to information technology where I worked in systems design and analysis. I worked with software designers who were brilliant in their skills to program software applications. But the results were disappointing. For example, medical health records software was inadequate and annoying to use. The software would ask for yes/no responses. But capturing a person’s medical health information is complex and being forced to enter just yes/no responses would provide for false data. The computer people must work much more closely with the doctors, nurses, and patients. I see the problems and the challenges. But I did not know how to overcome the limitations imposed by business protocol and computer technology. This was my inquiry.

Systems built need to be tailored to the needs of the people. This required a deeper connection among people and departments. The connection needed to be on a more spiritual level than the superficial level that exists in the business environment today.

What brings you joy in your work?

Susan: I love mentoring and co-creating with colleagues, kindred spirits, and people who are in a mode of inquiry, or who are passing through a change that they’ve started and want to understand better the oscillations and the discomfort of it.

Masai: When I know I’m talking soul to soul with another person. Sometimes the other person doesn’t even know their soul is talking to me but I see it, feel it, or I feel we have that special connectivity. It’s also about having a relationship with the person.

Kim: Anytime I feel connected to the field of being and I get into a space of possibilities, I’m jazzed. The connectedness is, in and of itself, joyful and then what arises from it—being incredibly inspired about the work is overwhelmingly powerful. When anything is possible, I see and create extraordinary results.

What led you to join the GTC program?

Susan: I knew the people facilitating the program and I knew their depth of substance. I want to be part of the particular field they are creating because it’s rare. GTC works with learners who are consultants, leaders and people who want to influence, transform and help systems deal with complex adaptive challenges. Their focus is in teaching and applying advanced methodologies in a way that transforms the learner. It’s about bringing theory into practice but also working to develop the individual to have the capacities to hold it all –grounded and embodied –it’s rare to find this combination out there. And it’s a kind of phenomenon to have the quality and depth in the principals who founded this program ... I found it irresistible. For example, Terri O’Fallon and I go back a long way--we got our PhDs together. So I know her background, I know things she gets involved with. She’s interested in planetary work and whatever she does is going to have some kind of positive planetary influence, so I feel comfortable with that. That’s where I want to be.

Masai: I joined because I understood that the work was going to be taken internationally and I wanted to work internationally …working with corporations or communities locally but I want to go globally. I heard about a program called Integral Africa and I was asked if I’d be able to teach in it. So I was recruited as a potential teacher working overseas. And unfortunately, that has not yet come to fruition but we’re hoping to continue to do some work maybe in South America this coming year.

Kim: As I dwelled in the dilemma of the need for people in business to be connected on a deeper level, I had a profound experience out of my meditation. It gave me a nudging—a vision of my life path that I would not have imagined. It distinctly made clear that I had an outward role to play in life. I’m very spiritual and was always living the inner world but what my meditative experience told me was that I needed to express it outwardly. I saw the outer expressions of the way people work in business and the inner qualities that were not part of their work life. My vision was to play a role in bringing the two sides together.

But I still didn’t know how to do that. When I found the GTC program, I knew that it offered the exact tools I was looking for. The program teaches how to bring to the business environment the deep inner capacities I was experiencing inwardly without losing my inner practice and qualities. GTC meshed the outer with the inner.

Do you have anything specific – perhaps a highlight or memorable moment in the program that you’d like to share with us?

Susan: At one of our retreats, I felt the substance of the field emerge in our group. We were working with accessing causal and non-dual states … working with it and actually practicing it –and not just talking about it. The collective field that was generated during that retreat was really profound. I was seeing everyone that I knew well in a completely different light. It was an amazing experience. I have a high interest in collective wisdom and co-intelligence fields and I have been connecting with colleagues there, so I was experiencing it happen live, it was wonderful. It’s difficult to describe the experience as it’s beyond words—perhaps more on a soul level, than mental or emotional.

Masai: Learning Spiral Dynamics was a really important step for me. I was able to apply it to my counseling practice and to my relationship practice and seeing how people resonated at whatever color they are. I have more forgiveness and compassion for behavior—my behavior and their behavior because I see that we all come from some set backgrounds that we need to beware of and mindful about.

Kim: I can’t think of any one single point. The program introduced me to the work of Ken Wilber, Don Beck and Bill Torbert. Their work was absolutely inspirational. I was looking for ways to have an outward expression of my inner capacities and these authors are celebrated experts in this exact area. They have researched well theories and concepts that they’ve applied and proven with many successes. You might say this was an “Aha” discovery, which made me feel I found a community of people whose work and vision matched my own.

How did the program change you as a person, if any?

Susan: It definitely supported me in my own process to be able to work with a group. It accelerated my own growth. I had come into the program a little differently than most—as faculty in training. I already have a strong background in this area and you’d think it’d be rather boring but it wasn’t. The program’s transformative aspect accessed me where I was to help me take the next step. It’s unlike a transactional program that focuses more singularly on content and skills.

To teach in a program like this you really need to have an experience of it. To facilitate the group in a year long or two-year long process takes a particular kind of capacity for holding the field that’s generated and continuing to evolve it. So you’re diving into that at a deep level. And part of what makes it integral is growing this work.

Kim: It changed me in a very dramatic way. I’ve been an introvert, shy and often self conscious and nervous in public situations. The program had addressed all of my insecurities. I’m now a public speaker and I network with people. I’ve learned practical tools to approach people and have generated sales from my contacts. People see me as out-going! I’ve gained the insights into organizational behavior and individual and business effectiveness techniques to have the self-confidence to carry on business conversations and gain consulting contracts.

What differences have you noticed in your work because of the Integral framework or any of the program’s other teachings?

Susan: I’ve consulted but have not thought about my work in terms of a single profession such as coaching, consulting, and so forth. The GTC program made clear the consulting aspect of my work. I now see it more systematically and I have a framework for it. I’m holding my work in a different way and I see that we’re all consulting at some level with any kind of offering we make in the world and in the marketplace.

Masai: I’m bringing a larger, fuller and more embellished richness to my work. I became aware of areas I wasn’t paying attention to. For me it was the lower right quadrant, and also the upper right quadrant—my body. I started to be aware of how I should take care of myself, my relationships and family at the integral level.

Kim: The big difference is that the Integral framework provided for a foundation upon which I founded my consulting practice. I’ve applied the theories to help me generate business contracts. However, a more significant difference in my work is that my efforts have a deep effect on people. It goes beyond the immediate effect of the task at hand. For example, when I was a nurse, those I cared for would give me feedback that I was a caring nurse who gave tender-loving care. This feedback is about the actual task. The Integral framework allowed me to serve my clients in ways that not only brought forth my best service for the task at hand but also in a more profound way. My clients would tell me that my work affected them on a reflective level that intensely impacts how they think, behave, and produce successes. It’s absolutely awesome to know that I’ve shown them greater possibilities than they had.

How would you sum up the program’s benefits?

Susan: The program installs many of the leading edge integral and transformative methodologies for change agents or leaders working in fast moving, complex adaptive systems. It gets the methodologies into people’s bones. You’re embodying them. You’re not saying oh I’ll try this or that. You’re living from a place where an appropriate response is natural. You’re actually practicing and not just talking about it. The integral theories and concepts are cool to talk about and there’s a lot of buzz out there. The GTC program is fairly unique in that it actually provides a supportive container where you can do hard work of applying them in real systems. This process is lengthy, intensive yet incredibly nourishing. It provides a container for your own transformative development no matter where you are. The potential for a program like this—the way it’s designed with its online component for learning—is connection with people around the world. And this aspect—the framework to connect people with all kinds of projects—will be growing as the technology is developed.

Masai: The intent, love, creativity, spiritual support, and the commitment are all beautiful pieces that have more than exceeded my expectations. And it is evolving in its teachings, evolving in its understanding and responding to the needs of the participants –this coming year our cohort will have a component for community work as well as a component for organizational consulting. I’m seeing this adaptation and I’m really excited about it.

Kim: The GTC program is set up in such a way that I get a constant affirmation to bring forth my higher self. Terri and Dana were continually reflecting back my higher self to not allow me to undermine myself. When I get the tendency to fall back in my habits to undermine my potential, they would get me back on track. As my personal coaches, Terri and Dana have made a huge impact in my life.

Next program starts October, 2008

 more information...