What is the first step in visioning? (Visioning process (1))
In my last article, I talked about how we can understand the flow of the times in the world. In the VUCA era, it is becoming more and more difficult to predict the phenomena, but we can understand the flow at the level of consciousness.
How should we perceive the flow of the times?
▼ To see it as a shift in the center of gravity of consciousness on an axis with two poles.
▼ Historically speaking, it should be seen as a spiral development.
▼ The development is not only a continuous change, but may also appear as a dramatic change.
In the previous articles, I have talked about the requirements for a good vision. I’ll summarize those points here.
The Requirements for Good Vision
・Connectedness with the subjective truth: Connectedness with the subjective truth of oneself and team members, drawing out their inner energy.・Not ambition, but KOKOROZASHI: Not just for oneself (ambition), but for others including oneself (KOKOROZASHI). And inner energy and KOKOROZASHI are compatible.
・Implications of a transformative change in consciousness: This implies not only a change in phenomena, but also a transformative change in consciousness.
In this article, I will talk about how to conceptualize a vision that meets these requirements.
I use the term “ conceiving a vision” here, but the essence remains the same whether we are creating a new vision or reinterpreting an existing one. You may interpret it from your own perspective, whichever is easier to imagine.
Start with subjective truth
The most important thing to remember when envisioning a vision is to start with our own subjective truth.
One common approach is to think about political, economic, social, and technological trends, because it is necessary to know what is going on in the world in order to conceptualize a vision. This in itself is meaningful, but in my opinion, it is not the first thing to do.
The first step in visioning is to connect to the subjective truth.
One of the requirements for good visioning is that we are connected to our own and our team members’ subjective truths and that our inner energy is drawn out. Starting with the subjective truth will help us to fulfill this requirement.
Many of you may be familiar with the following information from Sony’s prospectus.
To establish an ideal factory that stresses a spirit of freedom and open-mindedness, and where engineers with sincere motivation can exercise their technological skills to the highest level.
I am sure I am not the only one who senses the desire and energy to create a factory where the skills and energy of the engineers are maximized. I believe that the connection to the subjective truths of Sony’s founders is the source of this desire and energy.
As I mentioned in the chapter on subjective truth, subjective truth is a source of inner energy, and not all of it can be verbalized. If you think you can verbalize it at a certain level, that’s great, but it’s perfectly okay if you can’t.
It is important to feel the inner energy that comes from subjective truth. Verbalization is just one of the ways to become more connected to the inner energy.
For more information on how to connect to subjective truth, please refer to the following article.
In my own example, my subjective truth is the following image.
【My own subjective truth (expressed with the utmost purity)】
A sense of unity with the great through the pursuit of essence
The vision I had when I started my business in 2003, and the vision in my project to explore the ISHIKI(consciousness) management, both started from this subjective truth. Since I started with the subjective truth, I have been able to continue to feel the inner energy even after a long time has passed. And I am able to have the will to keep going at all costs.
Focus on the gap between the natural flow of consciousness and the partiality of consciousness
If starting with the subjective truth is the first step, then the next step in envisioning a vision is to capture the flow of the surroundings and society. Vision is a superposition of “subjective truth as inner energy” and “the flow of surroundings and society as outer energy.”
It is a superposition of the superposition of our inner and outer energies, but I believe that the inner is the primary and first move. If we do this in reverse, or ignore the inside, the energy for the realization of that vision will be depleted.
On the other hand, in order to envision a vision that will bring about great change, it is important to overlay the outer energies. Without this, the vision will be small and compact. It’s not that big is good and small is not good. It’s just that it’s a pity that what could be a big vision from the standpoint of the original subjective truth ends up being too small because there is no overlapping of the outer energy.
Now, let’s talk about what the “gap between the natural flow of consciousness and the partiality of consciousness” is.
Earlier, I mentioned that there are some general approaches that consider politics, economics, social and technological trends, etc. In order to conceptualize a vision, it is necessary to know what is going on in the world, but although they are the same in the sense of looking at outward trends, they differ in what we focus on.
The difference is whether we focus on the visible world or the invisible world. The invisible world means to grasp the location and flow of consciousness. In the above diagram, this means paying attention to the upper half of the world, where consciousness is located and flows, rather than the lower half, the material and concrete world.
Why consciousness? It is because, as I have discussed in previous articles, consciousness is at the root of phenomena.
Phenomenon
↓
Structure and background of the phenomenon
↓
Behavior
↓
Decision
↓
Thoughts and feelings
↓
Mental models (Belief systems)
↓
Intuition (Subjective truth)
↓
Self (The subject of self-consciousness)
When there is a flow of consciousness, the flow of phenomena follows it. In other words, if we can grasp the flow of consciousness, we can read the flow of phenomena.
When there is a flow of consciousness, the flow of phenomena follows it. In other words, if we can perceive the flow of consciousness, we can grasp the flow of phenomena.
Natural flow of consciousness: The direction in which the collective consciousness of the surroundings, society and the world is naturally heading.
Partiality of consciousness: The partial distribution of collective consciousness due to some cause and effect, interest, organizational dynamics, etc., contrary to the natural flow of consciousness described above.
And to perceive the stream of consciousness specifically means to perceive the “natural flow of consciousness” and the “ partiality of consciousness” as mentioned above.
Let me give you a concrete example. Many people are concerned about the state of schooling today, but if we look at it from the perspective of the natural flow of consciousness and the partiality of consciousness, we can see the following.
(Example of how school education is to be)
Natural flow of consciousness… Rather than an education in which the correct answer is provided from the exterior and the method to derive the correct answer is efficiently learned, we need an education that values the interior curiosity of each individual and the way they want to be, and cultivates the ability to live in harmony with their surroundings and society.Partiality of Consciousness…The premise of efficiently learning how to derive the correct answer on the exterior has not changed.
This is not to denigrate the current approach to school education. There are some schools and teachers who are conducting classes that nurture the curiosity of each individual in “the Integrated Studies”. However, this movement and flow is still partial, and I believe that we are still in a situation where there is a gap between the natural flow of consciousness and the partiality of consciousness as described above.
The larger the gap between the natural flow of consciousness and the partiality of consciousness, the more energy is required to change it. In other words, the larger the gap, the more impactful the change will be, as if it will change the common sense of the world.
In other words, if the vision we envision is based on the premise that it is connected to subjective truth, and if it approaches this partiality of consciousness, it has the potential to become a vision that can unite the power of many people.
What I would like to emphasize again is that we should not be so focused on impact that we only think about the gap in consciousness level and lose our connection to the subjective truth. If we lose our connection to the subjective truth, our inner energy will be depleted and it will be difficult to gain sympathy and resonance, and our visions will become nothing more than painted pictures.
In this article, as the beginning of the visioning process, I talked about starting with the subjective truth and paying attention to the gap between the natural flow of consciousness and the partiality of consciousness. In the next article, I would like to continue the process of envisioning a vision.
Here are the quests of the day. (If you’d like, please share your thoughts in the comments.)
・If we compare the approach of starting from the subjective truth and the approach of starting from the trends of society and the world when conceiving a vision, what kind of differences in texture or quality are likely to emerge in the vision?
・What gaps do you perceive between the natural flow of consciousness and the partiality of consciousness?
Bunshiro Ochiai
