Patterns & Metaphors

Intellectual momentum

Template:
The intellectual momentum of a conference begins long before the event itself. The process develops and refines the thinking of the organizers and the participants alike. Both intuitive and rational aspects are utilized. Screens and charts used as models of reality are developed using both approaches, but are directed at the more rational aspects of the conference. Images used as symbols of more complex and profound relationships are developed using both, but are more directed toward the intuitive aspects of the event.
People operate out of internalized pictures of the world, themselves and their role in the world. These operating-images are created as solutions to problems. They provide people with ways of appropriating and understanding the world. They sort information into relevant and irrelevant data at an unconscious level. They make sense out of the world for people. They can be invented by the individual but by far the bulk are given by society. In fact, society provides us with solutions to problems of living and to problems that do not yet exit. Operating-images can change and when an operating-image changes individual behaviour changes. Operating-images may be added to or minor adjustments may be made. Operating-images may be dramatically altered to the point that a whole new world view becomes operative.
It is not possible for an individual to change his own operating-image but he may place himself in a situation where his operating-image may change and he may be open to the possibility of change. Messages from the environment add to, confirm or change them. Operating-images resist change, by denying the validity of the message or the source of the message or by screening out the message altogether.
The intellectual momentum of the conference depends on intelligent evaluation of the practical needs of the group, more so the larger the group is. At the same time, it is up to the intellectual momentum of the conference to take into consideration the actual capabilities for production and translation, to ensure that they are envisioning a flow of thinking and learning that is within the realm of possibility.