The quality of societal structures and processes, and whether it advances human and natural potential, ultimately depends on the quality of human beings participating in, and running, societal structures. This is true of economic, political, cultural, and societal structures and institutions.
An authentic SIAD Program therefore has to pay attention to advancing educational and training processes for individuals, especially existing and emerging leaders, that ultimately lead to meaningful engagement in addressing the complex challenges of society.
In the human and spiritual dimension of Larga Sustainable Zarraga, the core sub-program is “Individual Mastery to Advance Generative Outcomes”, or IMAGO.
Silicon Valley, as clearly demonstrated in the book, The Rainforest – The Secret to Building the Next Silicon Valley”, is not just a place, it is a state of mind. It is the quality of trust that exists among the key stakeholders of Silicon Valley. Without this trust, Silicon Valley will not function the way it is functioning today.
This trust is not a “soft” concept, incapable of transforming the hard structures of societal realities. As shown in The Rainforest, Ronald Coase won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1991. Coase showed how high or low “transaction costs” determined the fate of business institutions and macro-economies. Transaction costs, however, are, in the end, dependent on the degree of trust that prevails among the key actors of an institution or a system.
Trust and transaction costs highlight the degree to which self-mastery becomes an important part of creating “generative” outcomes. The word “generative” refers to unusual results that come when individuals or groups of individuals access their creativity and place the resulting insights and innovations for the good of the whole.
In short, the self-mastery courses and activities envisioned in IMAGO will be self-mastery not for its own sake but for creating solution ecosystems and creating better societies.
The word “imago” is itself a scientific term that refers to the highest stage of the metamorphosis of a worm (larva) into a butterfly (imago). It is thus a metaphor for the actualization of the higher reaches of human potential (imago) starting from an often ineffective or egotistically-oriented personal self (worm).[1]
The objective of the IMAGO Sub-Program is to provide human and spiritual development opportunities for existing and emerging leaders, in and outside Zarraga, to realize their higher human potentials in order to be more effective in serving their societies.
[1] For a more developed treatment of the “imago” metaphor, see, Nicanor Perlas. 2012. Mission Possible! Sow Courage; Harvest a New World. Metro Manila: Movement of Imaginals for Sustainable Societies Through Initiatives Organizing and Networking.