As a manager, I got acquainted with a strategic planning tool, SWOT- analysis, long ago. Over time, I began to use it, including the situations when making important personal decisions outside of the professional, managerial activity.
Going through the ICU (International Coaches Union) coaching training, I learned that SWOT-analysis is used in it as one of the micro-models – tools used at certain stages of the coaching session.
I got acquainted with Ken Wilber’s integral approach much earlier than with coaching. Last year I had an idea to make a “tool” on the basis of Wilber quadrants, complementing SWOT-analysis, which can help to go beyond the boundaries of objective circumstances, threats and opportunities into a wider integral space, and which can be used as an integral practice in making meaningful personal decisions, formulating one’s own goals. By the name of the quadrants, I called it IWEIT(ITS)-analysis. I wrote about it in my “management blog”(Russian).
//promanagement.by/2018/11/28/iweitits-analysis-integral-practice/
During coaching training, I showed this tool to several groups of fellow students, positioning it as a coaching micro model. Some of my colleagues found the tool interesting, while others considered it as unworthy attention because there was no signature of authority or confirmed by research and scientifically proven effectiveness under it.
I decided to present the micro model IWEIT-analysis to a wider range of people, including coaches, to share an idea and get feedback. I shortened the name for several reasons, I will tell about one of which just below. I will try to make the description brief and as simple as possible, in the hope that the proposed model will be easier to understand for people who are not acquainted with Ken Wilber’s integral theory. And if there are interest and questions, I will try to expand the description in directions that will interest readers who let me know that they are interested, what is not clear, and so on.
I encourage you to explore and develop the tool together.
Let me briefly remind you about the quadrants of Wilber. Idea: every event, fact, phenomenon and even idea or goal, and even consequences of its achievement, have projections in the four quadrants: I, WE, IT, ITS.
The quadrants I (upper left, UL) and WE (lower left, LL) are about the subjective (Interior) side of being, and the quadrants IT (upper right, UR) and ITS (lower right, LR ) – about the “objective reality” represented by “material” objects and systems. If you look at the horizontals, then the upper one (I, IT) is about the individual, and the lower one (WE, ITS) is about the collective one. A little more in detail and with a “colorful example” (not for the faint-hearted) about the quadrants can be found at the link (it takes 3 min – 444 words (Russian) and a couple of pics,):
//promanagement.by/2018/07/04/integral-quadrants/
If it seems to you that the basics are not enough, I advise to begin with the book “Theory of everything” by Ken Wilber or, for a start, read about the integral approach on the Internet.
May be “Eros & Kosmos is an important voice of Integral Theory and Practice for the Russian-speaking world…”
About Eros & Kosmos — Журнал «Эрос и Космос», //eroskosmos.org/english
My article on the integral approach for business people (Russian):
//eroskosmos.org/integral-approach-for-busy-people/
Back to the micro-model IWEIT-analysis.
Draw a square divided into quadrants and arrange the desired letters. Try, for a start, to do it “by hand”, let the “gadgets” rest.
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I |
IT |
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WE |
ITS |
In what order to fill quadrants depends on you, if you apply micro model to yourself, or the client, if you use micro model in the coach session.
One of the applications of the IWEIT-analysis micro model – definition/check of validity and relevance of the purpose of the client, created or stated by the client within the individual strategic session.
Next, we do a mental experiment: think of your own dream, goal or plan, imagine that the considered plan was achieved, worked, everything happened as you planned. Project this moment in turn on each of the quadrants. Write anything that comes to mind to the appropriate quadrant.
To begin with, I will try to start with the “simplest” quadrant of IT. Write to it what you have in the “material world” at this moment: a house in the suburbs or some coast, a substantial sum in a bank account, or maybe just an apartment with an almost paid mortgage; two light heart attacks and one little stroke, the consequences of which you almost do not feel, or, on the contrary, a healthy, strong, tanned body… Imagine, do not hesitate.
Let’s go clockwise to the quadrant ITS. There should be recorded how, in your opinion, economic, administrative and criminal legislation, state and social institutions to the implementation of this legislation and far from it, for example, the church, creative and business unions, charitable organizations, are looking at your achievements… Depending on the scale of your ideas and plans; social institutions can be not only national or not only “your” national. Or maybe, in parallel, your social status or marital status has changed: you won the Nobel Prize (the substantial sum, in this case, will go to your personal account “in” UR-quadrant, but your name will be listed in a meaningful list which is in LR-quadrant). You were awarded the title of honorary citizen of your native city, maybe you were divorced, married again or got married… It’s all here.
The next quadrant is WE. Here, first, write down what your loved ones feel about the considered event: family or each family member separately, friends, partners, colleagues…
Write what your close people feel, what emotions they experience, how they evaluate the considered event (correlate with THEIR values).
Not what they do or say, but what is going on “in their souls”. Next, write down how your actions are regarded from the moral point of view, separately: your close social environment, dominating in the mass consciousness of your country, declared at the level of international institutions and documents (Universal Declaration of Human Rights, for example)…
We complete the circle in the inmost I-quadrant. Write what feelings and emotions YOU experience at the moment of reaching the goal. Perhaps some kind of spiritual practice was an integral part of your plan, and you have reached a certain stage of “horizontal” development. Maybe you have become hard “like flint”, or have learned to get high from being spread love and compassion…
Perhaps, the consequences of the implementation of their plans in the quadrants are a little scary.
I will try to give a hypothetical example.
I start fantasyzing, train in storytelling and make up a story. Next there will be a slightly corrected one from the “manager’s blog.” Maybe it looks like a story of any of your clients?
Your client is an entrepreneur. He came with the request “I can’t decide on entering into a partnership with an investment fund. Something “inside” stops me”.
During the conversation, you found out that he is the son of an officer who died in Afghanistan, a Belarusian start-up in the field of information technology.
He practices yoga, mindfulness, has recently become acquainted with and interested in the spiral dynamics and Ken Wilber integral theory. He has a company registered in Belarus. He is the only owner. Profile of activity – software development in the areas of technical vision, neural networks, artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual reality. The company is a few years old.
The main team – a couple of dozen people, has developed and does not have a staff turnover for more than a year, new people have not appeared in the last year either. Works that the team cannot cope with are given to outsourcing.
The first developments of the company are used in industry, which allowed, until recently, to finance the continuation of development without the involvement of external financing.
About a year ago, the team developed several solutions that have no analogs in the world, or at least not known to the “general public”. New technologies in the simulation work showing unprecedented opportunities, but for testing, applications in “large systems” are not available. In the team, “fermentation” begins due to technological stagnation.
Almost annual search for investors have not brought results. It may be hampered by the position developed by the Entrepreneur together with the team: not to be sold to a large company, but to find funding and develop your own; do not cooperate with the military and the military-industrial complex. The “anti-war” statements of GOOGLE, similar to the second principle, strengthened the faith of the Entrepreneur and his team in their principles.
Recently, the Entrepreneur received a very attractive financial proposal from an American company well-known in their field and that actively cooperates with the “military”. He refused. The project is stalled. Tempting job offers from the US are very actively coming to the team members. Other investors are “not located.”
The other day, the Entrepreneur received an offer from a little-known investment fund, which is ideally suited for his request. All requirements are formally fulfilled, the investor, apart from money, guarantees access to “big systems” for the experienced implementation of their developments. The fund has its own conditions. The development center and the whole team must be located and work in Silicon Valley, in the USA.
He is confused and suspicious that the lucrative offer came almost immediately after the refusal to the company related to the military. The entrepreneur assumes that after the move, as a result of a “multi-step process,” he will be “sold” to military contractors. Is it worth to accept the offer? SWOT-analysis “says”: “Yes”.
You told the client about the quadrants and offered to try to dream up and write down fantasies.
Here’s what we got:
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I “I have a pit in my stomach”: It pulls back to the homeland, to visit the graves of parents, just to walk around the hometown, to see friends, relatives… Fear of potential troubles at home (see about rumors in ITS). I experienced “satori” during meditation, but I don’t know what to do with “this” now. I am over thirty, there was no love (there was no time), but I want to. … |
IT I have been living in California for several years, I’ve already got used to it, I go home once a year. On the account, there is a substantial sum with money. I don’t have a company anymore, I haven’t joined the TOP mercenaries. Moving, climate change, workholism of the first years in the United States, absorption of the company and leaving it undermined physical and mental health. Yoga and mindfulness no longer save. I regularly go to Buddhist “events” and meditations, I begin to dive into Zen Buddhism deeper and deeper. Seriously carried away by Ken Wilber’s Integral Theory. |
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WE Most of the team members “rewrote” their values under the current living conditions. Someone from the team did not accept the values of the “American way of life” (they returned to their homeland). How moral, values depend on “geography”. Former classmates, some relatives envy me, some are “white”, and some are “black” envy, there are those who hate. Many American “friends” do not understand, “what am I worried about,” having such an account and background … Ken Wilber’s integrated approach is one of the ways to reconcile tradition and modern science, the development of people and human systems… |
ITS My personal legal status in the US is about to become dubious because the work visa ends. The company, nevertheless, was absorbed by the American military-industrial complex, part of the team “sold out”, partly dispersed. There are great opportunities to start a new business, the more there is enough money from the sale of the company. Issues with legal status in the United States can be solved, for example, by marrying a US citizen. There are rumors that at home they think that I took military technologies from the country and sold them to the Americans, and my homeland had certain rights or, at least, types of them. Upon my return, I am in trouble there. … |
What Opportunities will you look for with the Client?
Earlier I advised managers to begin to use any tools with themselves. I think the same practice concerning new tools will suit also coaches: “Begin with yourself” — apply the tool to yourself, your purpose.
To “warm-up”, try to imagine the session described yourself, get used to the role of Coach and Client, develop thoughts written in quadrants by a fictional Entrepreneur.
But please, do not do it “in mind”, take a piece of paper, a pen or a pencil and write, you can even draw something.
If it worked, try projecting the recently made decision into quadrants, preferably not super-important, but a bit more serious than buying a new pair of shoes. More precisely, it is worth projecting the result of the implementation of this decision. Write. Draw.
When it is ready, you can take the second step, by analogy with the technology of SWOT-analysis. Take a clean sheet. Draw a quad with IWEIT-analysis quadrants. Rewrite “clean” in the records, previously ranked them by importance.
Read them. Maybe out loud?
Would you make that decision now? Was it the same?
The next step is to try to “attach” this tool to a future decision at the planning stage.
Not only in the IT quadrant is our life and the lives of our customers, the “consequences” of the decisions we make and they make.
Maybe IWEIT-analysis will help us to make our lives and decisions made in it more conscious and integrated?!
Returning to coaching and his GROW meta-model, I think at the “G” (goals) stage, IWEIT-analysis micro model can be used. At the time of clarifying the reality of “R”, for a careful examination of different neuro-logical levels, I think IWEIT-analysis can also be used as a tool.
And what to do with “O” and “W”? What do you think?
Write in the comments, let your opinion become not only yours…
Integral practices and micro model IWEIT-analysis to help you!
PS: ITS – is an “artificial” language construct, derived from the IT pronoun (3rd person, singular, INANIMATE) by adding the letter “S” to it to “form” the plural.
Translation: Kirill Zagovora