The tines or prongs of the fork begin at the point where the handle is divided. This explains why the ‘Fork’ is also a metaphor for division. The shaft divides into four parts; four ways of being engaged in change. In this way, the fork unifies four routes in a single image. This is why I tend to call the prongs tracks. It is because I associate the model with a railway station, trains, and changing tracks. Each track presents a way of advancing. At some point, you pick a track to start making headway on.
The prongs also serve as ‘tracks of attention’. Your attention is what keeps you on track. If you want to become better at working on development, then knowing the object of your attention is crucial. An amateur can try many ways of doing some- thing, but he may not always know exactly what he is doing. The expert knows what he is doing. If you are unable to concentrate on your track, then you run a risk of derailing. You could lose track, in other words. You will learn more about this in section 5 of this chapter, which deals with the track game.
The Fork enables you to get results, and this explains the image of lines and arrows, making it a model of results set out on a timeline. It is the metaphor of the way towards the goal, set along a line in time.
The context is also part of the basic model. Interaction with the context brings development. Without a context, there can be no development as the whole process is cut short before it has a chance to start. The environment feeds development by providing reasons to get going.
This book is about the method of proceeding along each track and the relation- ships between these tracks. The fork, along with the knife and the spoon, provides the arsenal of instruments with which you feed yourself. How the knife and spoon combine with the fork in a metaphorical sense, I will leave to your own imagination.
2.2 The four tracks
There are four ways of engaging in development. These ways are numbered one to four, each with its own name: project, self-guidance, identity, and the greater whole. We will start on the project track.
1. Project: making plans work out right
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