September 6, 2021
Today I’m thinking about my chosen methodology for my dissertation research: heuristic inquiry. It is a process rooted in intellectual humility, that acknowledgment that we don’t know what we don’t know and therefore have imperfect information about our world. Heuristic inquiry views the researcher as a learner rather than an expert – an intellectually humble learner who is willing to do the deep dive and saturate themself with the question instead of going straight for the answer. An answer. My answer.
There are six stages to this kind of inquiry:
- Initial engagement
- Immersion
- Incubation
- Illumination
- Explication
- Creative synthesis
The initial engagement involves choosing the theme. I may still be in this space because my theme keeps refining:
- Corporate Shaman (except that is a loaded word in terms of cultural appropriation and I don’t want to go there, no matter how much the shaman label feels right)
- Gnostic Intermediary (except that there is a heavy Christian meaning to Gnosticism that I do not want to be a part of. I resonate with the secular meaning that Walsh (2009) presented)
- Corporate Change Agent (except that is too broad of a term, and don’t get me started on how I feel about change in organizations!)
- Internal Change Agent (except again, “change” feels too small.)
- Internal Transformation Agent or Organizational Transformationist (closer but now I’m feeling silly that there is no right word to nail what I’m talking about)
- Edgewalkers (well, I am one but is everyone i want to study and understand? Also, this is Judi Neal’s term – do I need to create my own?)
- Change Makers (this one comes from Scharmer (2018) but it again conflicts with my views toward organizational change
- Edgewalking Unicorns (will I be able to do a keyword search with this term? Not likely. But it’s what I am now referring to my topic as.
Who am I fascinated by, obsessed with?
Myself. Of course. I feel like I am a different kind of actor/activator in this corporate space. Why? How different, really, is who I am and what I do from others who are actualizing organizational evolutions? Are we all constant gardeners with a common core? Or are we working in the same space with very different understandings, intentions, goals?
I know I am not looking at the C-suite leaders of a company. My interest is not around those leaders who see the need. My interest is around those within an organization who are asked by those leaders – or who see a need for evolution and are called/compelled internally to make it so. I relate to both sides of that scenario. I was asked by McCarthy to help shift the culture in a stealthy way (covertly as part of my “I’m here to help you” work. This request, for me, turned into a give-me-an-inch-and-I’ll-take-a-mile mandate to address things far below their surface-level request.
It is interesting to reflect that I have stayed largely away from the company’s organizational development team as I’ve done this work. This has been in large part due to my perceptions of – and disappointment in – their process-centered approach. I am very much a person-centered practitioner. Right out of the gate I was saddened by this schism in values and belief. I knew – or at least believed – that in order to do what I was asked by this company to do, I would need to distance myself from OD. Otherwise, I would get brainwashed and blinded by the Company Way and that, to me, was unacceptable. I needed to be able to see clearly.
So. I’m talking about:
- People internal to an organization, not external consultants
- People who are in mid-level leadership positions, not in a company’s top leadership tier
- People who may have been asked – or tasked – by these top level leaders to implement or achieve a significant, DNA-level change within their organization.
- People who may have taken it upon themselves to implement or achieve a significant, DNA-level change within their organization because the saw the need and how it aligned with the company’s stated goals and objectives. (A bit like meta-level continuous improvement, perhaps.)
- People who walk the edge of their organization, drawing wisdom and insight from non-ordinary places and applying it in service to their company’s needs and goals. On one level, this could be people who draw upon wisdom from other business sectors, but when I think about myself I see this occuring on more of a mystical or transpersonal level in addition to cross-pollinating ideas.
What, then, are my key words for reviewing existing literature on these folks? That’s the practical question.
