A worldview is a philosophy of life. A worldview is not a paradigm; a worldview is a forest of paradigms. Everyone has a worldview that is mostly unconscious.

The holistic worldview of the ancients changed in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries with the philosophical and scientific revolution that changed radically the way people looked at themselves and their relationship with the world. The idea of an organic, living, and spiritual universe was replaced by that of the world as a machine, and the machine became the primary metaphor of the modern era.

Who led this radical transformation in worldview? Galileo Galilei, Francis Bacon, Rene Descartes, and Isaac Newton were the leaders of this new worldview. The Newtonian universe was a mechanical system put in motion by God and operated by exact mathematical laws. This universe was deterministic: If the scientist knew the laws and the initial conditions of the system, the scientist could predict accurately what the system would do and where it would go.

The universe of the scientific revolution was a vast, cold, clockwork machine with mathematical and mechanical laws governing every movement and aspect of matter including people, plants, and animals. God created the material particles, the forces between them, and the laws of motion. After that, the machine ran on its own - purposeless, meaningless, and soulless - and, in the scientific view, God disappeared eventually - replaced by mathematics. The earth was no longer the nurturing mother of the ancients. She was dead, and the atoms that made up matter were inert, independent, predictable, and predetermined. Humans could detach themselves from the workings of the universe and observe and gain knowledge of its workings. The only things real in this universe were the quantifiable, and the knowledge of science was certain and absolute. Scientific knowledge was used to carry out the purpose of science: to dominate and control nature. This was an emotionless world of rule books and impermeable boundaries - a black and white world - an either/or world with human beings - the pinnacle of evolution - dominating the natural world.

People designed organizations and leadership models from this science and we live with the results daily. But the science has changed dramatically. If we are going to model organizations after science, we need to understand the new learnings that have been emerging for much of this century from the discoveries of quantum physics and from the learnings from the study of living systems. A new worldview is evolving - an ecological or organic worldview.

The universe of the emerging worldview is an alive and undivided whole created as one entity with its elements interconnected, interrelated, and interdependent. All betterment flows from the totality as the diverse parts interact and organize together in patterns that balance and sustain the essence of the whole. The potential for change is unlimited and uncommitted. This is a universe of spirit, purpose, meaning, and mystery. The earth is once again the nurturing mother of the ancients. Humans are a presence in nature just as all other species of plants and animals are. People are part of the unbroken whole - not separate, detached, and superior. Meaning flows naturally from people's connection with everything else in the universe. This is an alive, creative, and emotional world of choices - a world of gray - a both/and world where little is certain.

This world was never so self-evident as the day I (Tom) sat in a small skiff in the Baja of California bobbing in light waves. I watched as a 40 foot long and 40-ton great gray whale surfaced slowly beneath the boat and gently introduced her new child to the boat's elated occupants. I peered into the large, serene eye of the mother and wondered what her world was like? Her gentle and knowing return of my excited stare linked us in a mystical moment. I realized that in one slight movement she could destroy the boat and kill its occupants. Instead, she chose to form a relationship with us. Mother and child floated with the boat for a few minutes. They allowed the exhilarated humans to touch them and to lean over and kiss the barnacle covered parent before mother and child submerged slowly and disappeared. For a few short moments the sky, the ocean, the people, the bobbing skiff, and the whale and her child were one.

An ecological worldview does not eliminate failure, suffering, and death. On the African plain, death is as common and natural as life. Indigenous people had an organic worldview. Their lives were not easy or glamorous, but they probably lived more creatively than people do today. Events that human beings define as "bad" happened to the ancients, and they happen to people today. We know this. No one understands why. This is the mystery of life. Scientific discoveries have not changed the dynamics of life. Instead, a more encompassing worldview will provide a greater understanding of life's processes. People can use this understanding to take advantage of some of the dynamics and better comprehend and thereby accept others. Can we begin to imagine how this change in worldview might change how we think about leadership, followership, change, and work?

06/07/98