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Integral Vision

March 4, 2008

"A conflict erupts - and it involves you.  You can't control it.  You can't avoid it.  But you are definitely in it.  What is the first thing you need to do?

Nothing.  That's right: absolutely nothing!

Unless violence or other immediate danger is involved, the first tool required in a conflict is not about doing.  It is about witnessing - seeing the whole.  So unless your physical safety, or someone else's, is at risk, it is better to look before you leap.

Integral vision is the commitment to hold all sides of the conflict, in all their complexity, in our minds and hearts.  The dictionary defines integral as 'necessary to the completeness of the whole.' Integral vision is necessary to the transformation of the whole.  Leaders who transform conflict have learned, often the hard way, not to strike out blindly at the first 'bad guy' they encounter.  They neither exacerbate the conflict through violence nor exploit it for narrow self interest.  On the contrary, Mediators make sure that before they take action, they have committed themselves to seeing as much of the larger picture as possible.

Two feuding tribes may build a wall through an orchard, separating it into two.  But the fruit is still the same; the roots are still in the earth; the same bees will pollinate the blossoms; the same sun will  shine on their leaves.  No matter how high we make these walls, how much we fortify them, how much we spend to hire guards with guns, how much barbed wire we place on top of them, or how deep the trenches we dig around them, our walls do not demarcate the end of the world.  They simply mark the borders of our imagination.

Integral vision requires questioning any dividing line that separates 'us' and 'them.'  There are many lines, including ones made by nature ('shorelines, forest lines, sky lines, rock surfaces, skin surfaces and so on') and others made by human beings (e.g. Christian/heathen or Muslin/infidel).  Integral vision prevents us from turning any of these lines into walls, and makes us aware of the webs that connect us (Gerzon, 2006, p.52)."

Reference:  Gerzon, M. (2006).  Leading through conflict: how successful leaders transform differences into opportunities.  Boston: Harvard Business Press.

Leading Through Conflict is available on loan from the Ohio State University Leadership Center.  To borrow this resource or any other resource, please go to the resource search page http://164.107.48.88/winnebago/index.asp?lib=???

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Created: 2008-04-25, Updated: 2009-01-08