A few weeks ago David Chilcott pinged me about a telesummit called Conscious Software Development that is being hosted by Michael Smith starting Nov 10. Since my book has that name he thought that there might be some connection. Thanks David!

And sure enough there is. Last Friday, I had my interview with Michael. It was fun.

In particular, I got to explore in more depth what my book is about and why it might be important. With the huge amount of information available on how to do things what am I adding? An early reviewer was not too pleased that the book was not a ‘how to’ book.

To answer Michael’s questions, I found myself referring to the work of Ken Wilber, the renowned philosopher. Ken’s Integral Theory has influenced me for many years and it has been interesting to see the growing uptake of his ideas. Michael Spayd is using these ideas in his upcoming book on Agile Enterprise Transformation.

A fundamental concept is the four quadrants. The axis are Individual/Collection and Interior/Exterior.

Anil Nayara has a view that appeals to me:

In this view, change occurs in four areas. Personal (interior, individual), Behavior (exterior, individual), Culture (interior, collective), and Systems (exterior, collective)

Integral Health Institute another form the same concept:

Most change agents operate in the ITS or Systems space. We see more and more folks pointing to the WE or Culture space as important. Many coaches focus on IT or Behavior space. Not many focus on the I or Personal Space. That is where Conscious Software Development primarily sits.

Of course, all the quadrants must be addressed for lasting change to occur. And I find myself personally interested in exploring the I space in work environments.

So, thanks Michael for an interesting conversation!

Go check out the telesummit at http://conscioussoftwaredevelopment.com/. The speakers cover a wide range of topics. You may want to see if you can see which quadrant they are focussing on.