Assimilation

Among some updates forwarded to me from Robert Fritz's website by Sharon McGann, was this snippet of information:

Robert Fritz's latest book, The Path of Least Resistance for Managers (Berrett-Koehler) is currently on Amazon.com¹s best seller list for Canadians. It¹s number 7 (Harry Potter is number 6). 

Congratulations Robert!

I believe Fritz has made a major contribution to helping people discover new ways of operating in the post-mechanistic paradigm in which we now find ourselves. It is said, that to function effectively in a new paradigm one must totally embody the new paradigm: its principles, its language, its behaviours. It is not easy at first, but as more people fully embrace the new paradigm, the old world-view no-longer seems to embody commonsense.

A key concept Fritz talks about in one of his earlier books, The Path of Least Resistance: Learning to become the creative force in your own life, is assimilation.  I've found his ideas around the concept of assimilation very useful, not only in my own life, but also in helping others transform the perceived obstacle course ahead of them into a path of least resistance to their vision.

Assimilation is an important stage of growth and development because it is the period during which we incorporate intricate physical and mental skills in such a way that they become a natural part of ourselves. Without assimilation there is no real learning (only learning about things):

Assimilation is a step beyond mere learning, for in assimilation you incorporate the learning into yourself.

Yet assimilation is poorly understood.

Fritz says one reason the assimilation stage is so little understood is that during this stage, progress in growth and development remains invisible for a time. For long periods it might look as though nothing significant is happening or is being learned. For example, if you have ever learnt a musical instrument, you will recall that your music teacher (at least this is the way mine operated) had the annoying habit of giving you pieces to learn each week and then go on to more complex pieces before you ever mastered any of them. The interesting thing, is that after a few weeks, if you return to the simpler pieces that you had never mastered, you find that you can play them with ease and well - what has happened?

This highlights a key principle of assimilation:

One powerful way to assimilate your present step is to move on to your next step - even if you feel inadequately prepared for it.

People who do not understand this principle, and who are coming from a reactive rather than a creative orientation, are likely to give up any new venture as they perceive no progress is being made and decide, "this is obviously not for me" - whether it be a fitness programme, learning a musical instrument, a new language, our running a business under the new GST regime!

The above principle pertains to taking a new path, going where we have not gone before. The same dedication that should be applied in persisting with a new path, should not necessarily be translated into trying to keep going with an old path that's had it's time. A recurring pattern in the universe is the cycle of birth, life and death. There's no point trying to hold onto something that's "had it's day". This is only postponing the inevitable, wasting energy and making the final end more painful/stressful. This lack of awareness of cycles most frequently occurs in relationships with others. We try to hold onto a relationship that is no longer working. Humans are notorious for trying to engineer the natural cycle of birth, life and death out of our experience (through plastic surgery, HRT, and other technologies) yet it is only postponing the inevitable. Fritz cites Robert Frost's poem Reluctance to illustrate this point:

Ah, when to the heart of man
Was it ever less than a treason
To go with the drift of things,
To yield with grace to reason,
And bow and accept the end
Of a love or a season?

One final important key principle of assimilation:

What you embody tends to be created.

Embodiment is distinct from behaviour. To embody love is not the same as behaving in a loving style. As Fritz explains:

Those who "fight for peace" do not embody peace, but rather embody fighting. Those who worry about their health do not embody health, but rather fear. Those who lust for power and affluence embody neither.

Embodiment is not simply adopting the right behaviours or finding a new response. What you embody speaks louder than your behaviour, to the same degree that your actions speak louder than words.

You assimilate what you embody. As you internalise what you embody, inner development occurs that is consistent with what you embody. All aspects of your consciousness realign themselves in accordance with what you embody.

Media Watch

• The Australian Jan 23, 2001
  (Spotted by Bronwyn Buck)
  From Sir John Browne Chief executive of BP Amoco (he has built the business from a market value of 20 billion UK pounds to 129 billion UK pounds in 5 years). He is talking about being comfortable with being different.

The more you grow up the more you understand that nobody really conforms and everyone has something slightly different to offer.

When you think about it in a corporation context, it's the only effective way to run a corporation of this scale. Everybody is here on merit and they're all different. They have different inner value systems, they speak differently and present themselves differently. It reflects real life.

• The Sunday Mail Jan 21, 2001, p. 92
  In an article titled, Ethics of profit: honour before greed, says new breed, by Michelle Collins

A growing number of investors is looking to make a difference as well as a dollar. Shareholders are increasingly basing their decision on where to invest their hard-earned cash not just on a company's bottom line but on its stand on a range of non-financial issues, from its green credentials to how many women sit on the board. This trend is called ethical investment.

Recent estimates put between $150 million and $300 million - of more than $500 billion in funds under management - in ethical investment. However, this is just a drop in the ocean compared to the trend which is already established in the USA and Canada.

Sara Harman, stockbroker and senior financial planner with Hartley Poynton, says although the trend is still in its infancy in Australia, it will grow substantially in the next five years.

So what constitutes an ethical or socially responsible investment (SRI)? At its broadest definition, says Sara, socially responsible or ethical investment means investing in companies where you feel comfortable with their policies, and that means what constitutes a socially responsible investment will vary from person to person.

Sara Harman is one of a new, and growing, breed of financial planners who work out 'who's naughty and who's nice" based on their own set of values. Hartman cites Cochlear Limited, maker of the bionic ear, as an ethical success story:

Obviously, when Cochlear started, the risk was high and the company did not pay a dividend...

This is your classic case of a growth company that has made good and used state-of-the-art technology to improve the lives of deaf people and it was previously run by a woman [Catherine Livingstone - now appointed to the board of directors of Telstra].

Last year, Cochlear went from a low of $8.50 to a high of $21.10.

[Readers of the Minessence E-zine might interested to note that Cochlear  Limited, under the guidance of Heather Lesley-Swan, have, for some years, been undergoing an extensive values programme using the AVI at its foundation]