The Way of Nowhere: Eight Questions to Release Our Creative Potential. Nick Udall
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today, particularly in West, contributed greatly to cleaning the North and South axis of the diamond. He explained that the cleaning of this space was a prerequisite for tapping into the power and insights that flowed along the West–East axis of the diamond.
When our teacher passed this to us, we instantly recognized that the diamond gave us a new and useful way of looking at what we were doing and an insight into what we should focus on going forward. Thus a vital difference between the Way of nowhere and other developmental approaches is that while we both recognize and work with processes to expand our conscious and subconscious, we do so in the interest of awakening our creative-consciousness – our co-creative Self.
Creative-consciousness is our innate ability to gain inspirational insights from the whole. Such insights often have an ‘Of course, why didn't I think of that before?’ quality about them, yet they have the potential to bring innovation to the world. They also enable us to move towards being the inspiration and innovation we want to see and be.
This book introduces what we call the art and practice of inspiring-innovation (i-i). The art is how to apply the virtuous circle of inspiration and innovation to families, communities, organizations and any other form of social system. The practice is how to apply this virtuous circle to the only social system which we can control: ourselves. We refer to it as a ‘practice’ because we literally have to practise it, like yoga or running. We have to internalize it and embody it. The more we do so, the more profound its effects will be, just as a professional marathon runner develops more blood vessels than a sedentary person or a highly experienced meditator's brain structure differs subtly from that of a non-meditator.8
This book has been designed to trigger this virtuous circle of inspiration and innovation within us, thus significantly increasing our ability to access breakthrough insights. It then supports us in finding ways to turn those insights into innovative form, one continually fuelling the other in constant motion and exchange.
6 A gift from RainbowHawk, one of Ehama's grandparents and keepers.
7 For an excellent explanation of this vital concept, see Lynne McTaggart, The Field, HarperCollins, 2001.
8 Inspired by a lecture by Andrew Newberg, Fred Travis and Antoine Lutz entitled ‘Neural correlates of meditative experience’, presented at ‘Towards a Science of Consciousness’ conference in Tucson, Arizona, 8–12 April 2002.
Our challenge has been to co-create a living practice that is fit for purpose in today's world. From the ancient wisdom traditions we have extracted those personal disciplines and practices that alter the way in which we see ourselves and the world around us. From the modern disciplines we have taken an understanding of the social systems that we co-create and perpetuate and how we can learn to find our place within them. From the world of design we have learned how to turn energy into form, turning these personal practices and social disciplines into innovative processes and liberating experiences.
One of the most influential components of our practice has been the use of ‘medicine wheels’. Medicine (or wisdom) wheels are systemic designs based on an ancient taxonomy of the universe, and over the last 12 years we have experimented with this 35,000-year-old technology and applied it rigorously to unlocking the creative potential of individuals, teams and organizations – with great success.
While we have deep respect and appreciation of the traditional forms of the medicine wheels, which we employ in other aspects of the Way of nowhere, we have developed our own unique set of wheels by codifying our learning from thousands of interventions. Whilst our wheels are inspired by and consistent with the founding wheels, they vary in some important aspects.9
Wheels are the only tools that we have discovered that simultaneously map and unlock the invisible forces within the self, within a team and within the wider social systems of which we are a part, thereby creating a truly systemic approach to change, development and transformation.
Wheels are an ancient way of mapping life's different energy states. They use the eight points of a compass, each one representing a different energy intelligence. Just as these exist in the outer world, so they also exist within us, because we are a microcosm of the whole.
Each direction can either manifest within us in ways that release our creative potential and interconnectedness or diminish our creative potential and accentuate our separateness.
In this particular wisdom tradition, the liberating energy states are called ‘allies’ or ‘allied robes’ and the diminishing energies are called ‘distortions’ or ‘distorted robes’. They are called robes because they resemble the clothes we wear. These robes cloak us in energy states and patterns of behaviour which we may or may not be conscious of. They exert a powerful influence over us, moving us either towards or away from our co-creative capacity.
We can use these allied and distorted energy states to develop awareness and ultimately mastery of the ways in which we either help or hinder our creativity.
Thus, through awareness and skill, we can learn to accelerate the virtuous circle of inspiration and innovation.
In this book we introduce the art and practice wheels of inspiring-innovation. We use the art wheel as the basis for releasing our collective creative potential, in particular through the discipline of organizational transformation, and we use the practice wheel as the basis for releasing my personal and inter-personal creative potential. Together they map an inner and outer journey of transformation. They have been designed to help us to look at our consciousness rather than through it as we are normally conditioned to do.
Imagine for a moment that these wheels are maps of our inner world, maps of the energy states that lie behind our thoughts and behaviour. As we navigate through the uncertain waters of life, these wheels can help us understand where we are at any given time and give us keys to unlock our creative potential. We do this by deepening and strengthening our allied capabilities and controlling and minimizing our distorted patterns. We then begin to learn how one ally can magnify another and how one distortion can trigger another.
The wheel is therefore a truly systemic tool, as each direction, whilst being complete in itself, is also an integrated part of the whole. This is also reflected in the way any given direction relates to its opposite and neighbours.
i-i practice wheel with the allied and distorted energies
The design of the book mirrors the design of the wheel. Each chapter is based on a breakthrough question which is designed to release the energy of one of the eight directions. As we enquire into the breakthrough question, we begin to access and heighten the energy intelligence of that direction. Yet our creative capacity is unlikely to grow if we simply read the book in the usual way. Runners do not elongate their blood supply systems by reading books about running! So our invitation to you is to hold and meditate on each breakthrough question, a chapter at a time. Seek the insights that lie within each question, between each question and its ally and distortion, and between each word and each thought.
Then, as we move towards the centre of the book, we also move towards the centre of ourselves, until we stand