Abstract
Postformal capacities should be employed on everything from poverty to war to planetary survival, yet, there are inherent, unrecognized problems to resolve before they are likely to succeed. Ironically, the very benefits of postformal thought are what make it hard to operationalize those benefits. Postformal thought-leaders need to re-learn and strategically use their earlier ways of thinking and speaking. “Translations” of words using hierarchical complexity's different languages illustrate why. Additional inquiry and dialogic interactions can improve communications and benefit work on our pressing planetary futures.
Notes
iStatement of a citizen in Baghdad about the prospect of democracy, reported in the news shortly after the U.S. invaded Iraq
iiR. Volckmann. 2007. Leading comments. Integral Leadership Review 7(4). Available at http://www.integralleadershipreview.com/archives/2007_08/2007-08-leading-comment-volckmann.html (Accessed 30 August 2007.)
1. The Model of Hierarchical Complexity predicts and accounts for communication challenges between and among all the orders of hierarchical complexity. The focus here is confined to issues involving postformal thought.