Third, we Act on behalf of the new baseline of desired functioning. In keeping with Miller, Galanter and Pribram, we then again Test (appraise) to see if the new level is still appropriate given ongoing changes in our environment and our experience of acting on behalf of the new stasis. T.O. T. E. and dynamics feedback systems are alive and well in the world of Polystasis. Under a model of homeostasis, daily adjustments are made by what I would identify as first-level change (Argyris, 2001). They require first-level learning which is usually based on habitual ways of thinking. Such a model of stasis might effectively operate in a highly stable world.
However, our world might actually be operating in a rugged and perhaps even moving (dancing) landscape that looks nothing like a flat, stable plain (Miller and Page, 2007). There is no return to a previous state. Rather, adjustments are made based on what we predict will be the next setting of this dancing environment. These adjustments require shifts in the interpretation of environmental meaning and anticipation of environmental challenges. These shifts, in turn, require second-level learning and second-level change (Argyris, 2001). Polystasis comes alive when we recognize that this recursive process moves quickly. A new “normal” is quite fluid–for we continue to appraisal, adjust and act in our challenging VUCA-Plus environment.
Having offered this brief review of the Polystatic process, I am ready to probe more deeply into the search for Essence—a search that I consider to be critical (as is the identifications of Essentials) to the successful engagement of Polystasis.
The Singularity of Essence
Sometime the search for and appreciation of Essence leads us to one factor or desired outcome (the essence of that to which we aspire). I would call this Portrait Appreciation. This is the Bliss that Joseph Campbell describes—and that George Lucas has translated into a notion of “the force” in the Star Wars movies. According to Campbell (1991):
“If you do follow your bliss you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. Follow your bliss and don’t be afraid, and doors will open where you didn’t know they were going to be.”
While the bliss and the force might be mythical in nature or the vision of someone who loves to work in the realm of myth, we have a “lived” version of these singular manifestations of Essence in the finding of Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi (1990) who has studied and written about something he calls the Flow experience. As in the case of bliss and force, the flow experience lifts one to a high state of awareness.
Flow occurs when one engages in some activity that is both challenging and achievable. Rather than being frozen in a state of anxiety (when facing something that is overwhelming) or stuck in a state of boredom (when facing something that is easily accomplished and often repetitive in nature), one exists in a threshold between anxiety and boredom that is highly motivating. When in a state of Flow (produced by an activity such rock-climbing or researching a difficult topic), we lose all sense of time and find that all other priorities and perspectives fade from view.
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