I have spent the last 20 years of my life researching what the interplay between transformation (how does anything change?) and relating (how do I show up and navigate complexity?) in what could be seen as very different fields.
Coming from a background in academia and research I was fortunate to work with urban design and transformation while writing a PhD focused on temporary spaces for user driven innovation. Simultaneously I explored what I would call “reality creation” though interactive theater and LARP (which is basically a radical method for designing and exploring alternate realities).
Doing that work made me realize that societies and cites are deeply interconnected with the organizations that manage and develop them. And thus, that if I don’t work simultaneously with organizational development AND urban development I will likely not have much impact. So I spent a couple of years working with innovation in the public sector.
Through that work I increasingly experienced how much is missed in communication and started focusing more on development of relational and interpersonal competences. I took a deepdive into Authentic Relating, Circling and other methods for improving the ways in which we relate to each other.
And that work led to investigating the ways I show up in the world. How my being and doing in the world creates very different ripples depending on how sensitive and aware I am. This tied back to my Tai Chi and Qigong practice, which has been foundational for the way I navigate in the world and also led to a few years of studying and receiving Body Therapy in Copenhagen.
Finally I started getting curious of my relating to nature, the foundation of being and God (something I would definitely not have been comfortable working with 20 years ago) and how the way I hold my own individuality in connection with the big unknown impacts the way impact the reality I live in.
And now I want to write a book about what I have learned on that journey. It will be an exploration of the threads that tie together the individual, the interpersonal, the organizational and the societal levels with a focus on how we relate to what is and what can be.
I hope to use this patreon as a way of communicating about my work and hopefully getting some support and feedback as I struggle to put into words some of the things that are most precious to me.
I have been wanting to write this book for years but have procrastinated and postponed it while focusing on leading workshops and doing other projects. This patreon is my way of committing to getting it done.
All the love
Peter Munthe-Kaas