FOR FACILITATING THE SIX LOOPS THAT OPERATE IN ALL GROUP DYNAMICS

In the early 1990s, I developed the Shadow Work® Model, which is a space model. That is, it defines the emotional space or "container" in which we process people's issues.

For example, if all the emotions were present in one space, at the same time, there would be just four: anger, grief, joy and fear. Likewise, if all the archetypes were present in one space, at the same time, there would also be four: the Magician, the Sovereign, the Lover and the Warrior.

So the first model I offered was a four-directional space model, much like a map, with North, South, East and West. And a map is a great way to navigate space.

However, as I worked with the space model, and especially as I taught it to my students, another model quite naturally emerged — a time model. Time models detail the steps or phases through which any process must go to reach completion. You can think of a time model as a kind of batting order, in which certain energies bat first, second, third, and so on.

I realized that whenever a process proved to be particularly useful, whether for an individual's issue or a group's issue, it always seemed to adhere to a certain batting order, or flow of energies. And I noticed that such a flow just seemed to exist whenever an issue was moving successfully toward completion, that is, whenever something was successfully growing. This was especially true as something grew through psychological time, or group time.

MODELS ARE EVERYWHERE

I actually believe that the world is literally constructed of such models. For example, if you study biology or chemistry, you will discover that certain interactions always occur in the same order. If you study the development of a fetus into a fully formed baby, you will see the same flow of steps for the development of each and every baby. As we all grow from babies into adults, we also follow an orderly progression of stages.

So why shouldn't each psychological process in our lives follow an order of stages? Suppose that every kind of growth followed an overall pattern. This could be like the "ultimate growth pattern" or the "ultimate growth model." In fact, it would be a super-model. I have been searching for the right formula for this super-model for most of my life.

Over the past few years, I have been delving even more deeply into all my models. And then, just recently, all the models in my mind coalesced in an awesome and intriguing way. It began to appear that the space model and the time model came together into one super-model. It was fantastic! I was spellbound. I began to wonder if I had discovered the psychological equivalent of the much-sought-after Unified Field Theory, or Theory of Everything, which Einstein pursued until the end of his life, and which many physicists are still in search of today.

It's no coincidence that I have also been studying physics. I have found some fascinating correlations between my new model and the reigning paradigms in physics since the Renaissance. Newtonian physics, Einstein's theory of relativity, Quantum Mechanics, String Theory and M Theory all fit very nicely into the super-model. And this makes sense to me, because Newton and Einstein were describing physical time and space, and I am describing psychological time and space. Doesn't it just seem natural that these two kinds of time and space should line up?

A SIX LOOP THEORY

I'm calling the super-model a Six Loop Theory because it delineates six steps in any cycle of growth, and because each step is a "loop" between two fundamental energies.

Each loop looks something like two stars in space that orbit one another reciprocally. Each of the six loops is governed by certain laws that apply to the movement of two fundamental energies around one another, much like the laws that govern two stars that orbit each other.

Each loop is an orbit between two of the same four energies that we already use in the Shadow Work® space model. Wherever there are four things combining in dyads, there will be six possible dyads.

This is where the space model and the time model merge into one super-model.

Let's look at the six loops for a moment.

The six loops say that all growth is cyclical. That is, every cycle of growth returns to a place similar to where it started, thus completing a circle. And in any cycle of growth:

1. the First step is the loop between Sovereign energy and Lover energy (between the visioning, idealistic energy in us and the feeling, bonding energy in us).
   
   
2. the Second step is the loop between Magician energy and Lover energy (between the detached, guiding energy in us and the vulnerable, feeling energy in us).
   
   
3. the Third step is the loop between Magician energy and Warrior energy (between the detached, guiding energy in us and the ego-building, results-oriented energy in us).
   
   
4. the Fourth step is the loop between Sovereign energy and Warrior energy (between the mission-seeking, numinous energy in us and the get-going, practical energy in us).
   
   
5. the Fifth step is the loop between Sovereign energy and Magician energy (between the idealistic, follower energy in us and the objective, self-critical energy in us).
   
   
6. the Sixth step is the loop between Lover energy and Warrior energy (between the bonding, vulnerable energy in us and the ego-building, responsible energy in us).

THE SUPER-MODEL PILOT TRAINING, 2008

If you would like to understand this theory in greater detail, I am offering a pilot training, together with Paul Alexander, to a select number of group facilitators, scheduled for 2008. The training is sponsored in part by the Institute on the Common Good (ICG) at Regis University, and Paul Alexander is the ICG's director.

The location will be in Colorado. We will take an in-depth look at the first three loops, with an overview of the whole model and its applications.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

• How to diagnose in what stage a group might be
  
  
• How to know what kind of interventions and facilitations will move the group forward
  
  
• How to predict where problems will arise
  
  
• When your group gets stuck, how to switch from time-oriented thinking to space-oriented thinking to get it unstuck
  
  
• How to help a group combine visioning with feelings, in the First step, to avoid trouble later in the process
  
  
• Why a group that can't address its own container, in the Second step, will soon fragment into unnecessary conflict
  
  
• Why a "results-only, bottom-line" orientation, in the Third step, usually de-motivates a group
  
  
• Why a higher mission of service, in the Fourth step, is essential for any project to rise above the mere nuts and bolts of everyday existence
  
  
• The simple yet magical factors that enable some groups to live long and prosper while other groups fall apart

If you facilitate groups, this new model will help you understand the positives and pitfalls of many of the models you already know. In fact, we believe it will actually help you use those models more effectively. Whether you're currently using the model of Scott Peck, Tuckman and Jensen, Otto Sharmer, Beck and Cowan, Bill Isaacs, Peter Senge and Bill Uri, or any number of others, we believe the super-model will help you diagnose more accurately which model to use, and coordinate more successfully the use of more than one model in your work as a group facilitator.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

To register, or to ask me for more information about this intriguing new model, call me at (303) 530-2840, or email me at cliff@shadowwork.com.

Cliff Barry is the founder of Shadow Work® and a certified group facilitator and coach living in Boulder, Colorado. Read more about Cliff.

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