Case Study #7: Creative Alignment In Groups

Katie and Tom came together to create a conscious community that could operate sustainably. Their vision is to be an example for how to build a community that works and grows together. This founders group wrote a mission statement, a code of conduct, established a remediation council and became quite aligned about what they would do and how. They realized they had to have quality members who have conflict resolution skills and the capacity to express their Creative Nature. The first challenge was to create the legal structure so they could raise the funds needed to make their vision a reality. After considerable debate, they settled on a foundation structure that enabled them to invite participation in a way that would not be distracting. Ironically, the people they initially considered enthusiastic had difficulty with not having any control. They felt that the founders group (Katie and Tom) were being too selective and focused on restricting certain types of behaviors.

A Story Teller, by the name of Mark, was interested in joining the group. Since he would make a substantial contribution, he wanted a few modifications of the group agreements. He also had several friends who wanted to be part of the group. This became the first test where the whole group tried to establish a clear purpose. Some of the individuals saw this possibility and chose to join, while others were disenchanted, creating negative gossip about the foundation. The initial founders, after making a few adjustments to the charter, included Mark in their group. The remaining problem was that several of Mark’s friends who wanted to part of the group were not invited to join. About this time, an Inventor showed up who had tremendous technical experience with sustainable building and designing independent communities. After demonstrating his skills to the founders, they asked him to join, but he became reluctant that he would not have the freedom to do what he wanted to do. This became another point of contention, as some of the founders were willing to make exceptions for his participation.

While the overall group was becoming more diverse, they found it harder to operate in a unified way. They started realizing they needed to understand more of the differences between individuals, so they began investigating the Higher Alignment process. They soon discovered that many of the differences of those in the group were based on Creative Expression qualities. The initial founders were Visionaries. They still were aligned in their vision for the community. They had difficulty bringing in Story Tellers, who seemed more casual and cavalier. Topping it all off was the Inventor, who did not want to conform to the requests of the group. The real question became, could they honor the differences and work through them or did they need to start over, looking for people they were more aligned with? They discovered that they were split on which way to go. Because they did not want to start anything until these issues were resolved, it took many months before the initial founders group of Visionaries decided to go back to their initial charter.

Using the Higher Alignment perspective, they sought out individuals with the same Primary Creative Expressions. This made it easier to attract those who wanted the initial charter to be sustained. By publishing and writing about this material online, they started attracting more individuals who could support the organization in many ways. They also found that there were many Visionaries out there with different skills. The beauty of the process was that it started moving quickly. More people opted-in to fully participating in the creative process of not only fundraising but actually finding the right property so they could start the building process. The magic was that one person led to another, who led to the next, and so on. The project went from conception to intention to planning and then construction. They also built in training programs to teach Common Neutral Ground and how to identify Creative Differences.