The Holographic Team

Our paradigms--how we view our world and ourselves in it--hold enormous power over our thoughts and actions. The central paradigm of Western culture has been Newtonian physics. Newton viewed the physical world as made up of isolated and impenetrable atoms colliding with each other like billiard balls. Everything in Newton’s universe is reducible to individual atoms and the forces acting between them.
Following Newton’s lead, scholars from other disciplines began to adopt this mechanistic world-view. Upon its principles have been organized our schools, corporations, technologies, economies, politics, even our religious institutions.
Our paradigms also determine how we relate with each other. From Newton’s atomistic perspective developed a model of relationship founded on conflict and confrontation. The whole is seen as nothing more than separate, conflicting parts. This view stresses separateness, isolation, hierarchy. Newton also believed that reality could be reduced to one truth. This leaves little place for diversity.
What we see is what we get. Seeing ourselves as separate individuals, we organized our workplaces to accommodate this reality. This culminated in the principles of “scientific management.” Workers became viewed as interchangeable parts in a production machine. To motivate others, managers were to push and pull at followers. People were moved by external forces; much like billiard balls being knocked about.
Today we consider ourselves more enlightened about how to manage the workplace. We recognize the need to involve people and to work cooperatively. However, the Newtonian paradigm continues to shape how we relate with each other. We organize ourselves into teams, but we still relate as separate individuals. We come together holding our separate opinions with the goal of persuading others of the rightness of our particular views. We continue to believe that there is one right answer to each problem. We have brainstorm sessions to “bounce ideas off each other” and expect to discover the solution. After making a decision, we part unchanged by the experience. We remain separate billiard balls; occasionally clustering together but always remaining impenetrable. Just like Newton’s atoms.
Psychiatrist Leonard J. Duhl states that change involves learning to see alternative realities. Post-modern science offers us other ways to view the universe. One of the models that gives us a different perspective on reality is the hologram.
The hologram is a form of photography. Information is stored as a network of interference patterns, which represent the interaction of energy frequencies from light. These interference patterns are distributed on a holographic plate. The resulting “holographic blur” has no recognizable form as we would expect to see on a normal photographic negative. Yet when the holographic plate is placed in front of a laser beam, the original wave pattern is regenerated and a three-dimensional image of the object photographed appears.
A unique characteristic of a hologram is that if the laser beam is shone on only a small portion of the pattern, the entire image still appears. Each part of the hologram contains information about the whole.
Physicist David Bohm took the holographic model a step further to what he called holomovement. Bohm combined “holo” and “movement” to express the view of physical reality as an undivided whole that is in perpetual dynamic flux.
Holomovement consists of two fundamental aspects--the explicate order and the implicate order. The implicate order is the primary reality, although it is not visible. The explicate order is the physical universe we experience. This manifest reality is a pattern on the surface of the implicate order.
Compare this to the waves on the ocean. The depths of the ocean are the implicate order. The waves that appear on the surface represent the explicate order. The surface is constantly changing and emerges out of the primary ocean depths.
Scientists have been applying the holographic model to give us new insights into a variety of fields. This model can also be useful in informing us on how to work in teams.
Let us begin with the holographic plate. Present on the plate is a network of patterns that represent the interaction of energy frequencies. The plate is the implicate order. On a team the implicate order would be the shared meaning--the mission, vision and values. This shared meaning emerges from the interaction of the energies from the team members. The team’s purpose must represent the commitments of the team’s members; what each person has energy around.
The information on a holographic plate is spread throughout the whole. The team mission, vision, and values must be internalized by each individual on the team. Each team member will have also contributed from within himself or herself to discern the group’s purpose. In the resulting “holographic blur” the team members find their individual meanings overlapping and entering into each other to form the overall purpose.
When we look at a holographic plate, we cannot discern a specific image. The plate must be placed before a laser light and then a three-dimensional representation appears. So it is with a team’s mission, vision, and values. These remain vague proclamations until expressed by people. Each team member represents a part of the explicate order. Each person makes manifest the shared mission, vision, and values. The three-dimensionality is the body, mind, and spirit of each team member. These dimensions are expressed through each person’s actions, thoughts, and energies.
When a laser beam is shone through any portion of a hologram, the entire image is projected. However, more detail will appear when more of the holographic plate is used. While each member on the holographic team is an expression of the team’s shared meaning, more aspects of that meaning are expressed when the team is working as a unit.
What makes the holographic team unique is the members’ realization that they are all expressions of a unified whole. Each member is within every other member. All are different manifestations of a common underlying reality.
Listening is a critical skill in developing a holographic mindset. Our listening must go beyond understanding another’s message. We must allow that message to enter into us and become a part of our thinking.
David Bohm believed that dialogue was the means to this type of communication. Bohm made a distinction between dialogue and discussion. In discussion, different views are presented and defended. Ideas are analyzed. Discussion is meant to facilitate a decision.
Dialogue is an exploration of issues. Different views are presented as a means to discovering new perspectives. While discussion is meant to lead to action, the purpose of dialogue is to cultivate a deeper understanding of issues. Each person’s contribution to the dialogue contributes to a more holistic understanding of an issue.
Certain conditions must exist for dialogue to occur. First, all participants must suspend their assumptions. This does not mean suppressing our assumptions. Rather, we are to put forth our assumptions for examination. Second, participants must consider each other as colleagues. This requires an environment of mutual trust and respect. The third requirement is a facilitator who will keep the group in dialogue and prevent people from straying into discussion. I ask you to read this entry in the spirit of dialogue.