The major problems in the world are the result of the difference between how nature works and the way people think.
– Gregory Bateson
At the beginning of the nineties, I began looking for new ways of thinking about how we lead and learn as human beings. I wanted to find or create methods and tools that take into account how we think and act in our perception of ourselves, nature, the world, our lives, our minds, and our lives.
I started thinking about the question: Is there a place in the world where people or cultures think in the way that nature works and do not fear but embrace the change that is the way of life?
I found that almost all wisdom traditions, especially within Indigenous cultures, had similar worldviews and symbols based on the notion that everything goes in cycles and continually changes. It is all about dynamic balance – like riding a bike, movement creates balance.
The Learning Wheel – the greatest teaching tool known to humanity?
My teacher then was Donna Talking Leaves, a native American Medicine Woman. She introduced me to The North American Medicine Wheel, a Learning Wheel that is a cornerstone for learning theories, methods, and tools. The Learning Wheel teaches us that the four elements, each so distinctive and powerful, are all parts of the physical world. All must be respected equally for their gift of life. The Learning Wheel teaches us that we have four aspects of our nature: the physical, the mental, the emotional, and the spiritual. Each of these aspects must be equally developed in a healthy, well-balanced individual through the development and use of intention and will, a Quest for wholeness.
The Medicine Wheel (länk)
The ancient symbol of the Learning Wheel is a mirror that reflects not only what a person is but also what they might become through the development of their potentialities. In the same way, it can also be used as a tool for transformative learning in organisations.
The Quest – The Inner Compass A Conscious Leader has a high degree of self-awareness, reflecting and learning from their own experiences. They are aware of how they are affecting their own life, the lives of others, and what kind of impressions they are making on the planet and life as a whole. The Quest is a Learning Wheel that helps us to re-calibrate our inner compass.
The Why Wheel
Vision guides by the spirit, Mission (or business idea) guides by the heart, Strategy guides by the intellect, Recourses guides by the ”finance and HR department e t c”. And everything circles around the life giving Purpose, the organisational Soul, the Core Values, the organizational DNA.
The Learning Wheel
In 1997 the merger of the five Learning Disciplines and the medicine wheel was presented to Peter Senge, the founder of Organizational Learning at MIT. He liked the idea a lot. Within Nature Academy Learning Lab we have used this combined concept ever since.
WiLD Pathfinder– Wisdom, insights, Leadership, and Dialogue. Transformative Learning and Personal Development based on life-generative principles. We create opportunities not only for intellectual understanding but for transformational and practical, immersive learning experiences.
