Even if we are not oriented toward a religious life, we find sanctuaries to be sources of soul-ful Intersection. An effective coach will provide sanctuary and encourage both the spirit-ful movement upward and outward with their client, and the soul-ful movement downward and inward. These two types of Intersection also set the stage for a fuller representation of the Cosmopolitan State of Mind—or any state of mind for that matter. When describing a state of mind, I am exploring the internal context of my client—which is usually the primary focus of my coaching sessions. As professional coaches we are looking for diversity not only in the environment in which our clients dwell, but also in the mind and heart that dictate how our clients process and act upon this world.
As my colleague, Sandra Hill notes, we must pay attention to not only the external context in which leaders operate, but also to their own internal context. Coaching clients have both character and culture. Character is all about the internal context and culture is about the external context. With the help of a coach or consultant, clients can create and learn to live constructively and creatively. They can begin to truly appreciate their own rich and distinctive internal context and character. A Cosmopolitan perspective held by the expert, the coach and the client will incorporate both the internal and external context.
The Intersection between Sources of Information
I would suggest that dwelling in the intersection is not just a dance of soul and spirit and an interplay between internal and external realities. It is also a disciplined interplay among disciplines and an openness to diverse perspectives and practices that arise from multi-tasking with diverse sources of information. It is a Cosmopolitan dance between and among numbers and words. Ultimately, it is entrance into both of Snow’s cultures—especially if the study is being done with human-based process and events, for human behavior is particularly elusive and in need of multiple perspectives. I believe I can make this point briefly and in a persuasive manner by pointing to a newly emerging interdisciplinary field called behavioral economics that focuses on the human enterprise. The work being done in this field suggests that critical multi-tasking occurs when the discipline of economics interplays with the discipline of psychology and when rational decision-making (particularly with regards to money) meets at an intersection with powerful human emotions.
In many ways, this new interdisciplinary field was inaugurated when Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Board of Governors of the US Federal Reserve Bank, noted in a 2010 graduation speech that “we are social creatures. . . . [E]conomic policymakers should pay attention to family and community cohesion. All else being equal, good economic policies should encourage and support stable families and promote civic engagement.” (Weitz, 2012) Bruno Frey anticipated this merger in 2008 when he noted that “economics is undergoing a remarkable new development, which may even be called revolutionary.” He is speaking about the impact so-called “positive psychology” (the study of happiness, courage and other positive human conditions) might have on the formulation on economic policy. (Weitz, 2012)
Several other books have also been precursors to the Bernacke speech—including Daniel Gilbert’s Stumbling on Happiness (2006), Dan Ariely’s (2008) Predictably Irrational (2008), and Jonah Lehrer’s How We Decide (2009). In each of these books, decision making processes are described as a mixture of cognitive (primarily frontal lobe) considerations and emotional (primarily limbic system) considerations. Ariely and, more recently, the Nobel Prize winning Daniel Kahneman (2013) and Richard Thaler (12015) have focused often on decision-making processes that effect financial matters. They are describing the multi-tasking processes involved in effective policy-formulation, monitoring of economic outcomes, and (more basically) the nature and meaning of economic “success.”
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