Patterns & Metaphors
Multi-faceted frameworks
Template:
The smaller the facets offered by a framework, the more intense the connection with that which is framed. The greater the number of facets, the greater the variety of connection to what is framed. The absence of a plurality of facets, however large the framework, engenders alienation from that which is framed.
Physical:
The smaller the windows are, and the smaller the panes are, the more intensely windows help connect us with what is on the other side. Paradoxically large plate glass windows inhibit the relationship to the nature they reveal compared to smaller windows, or smaller-paned windows, which create far more frames through which contact is rendered more intimate. Smaller panes establish a psychologically more acceptable balance between exposure and enclosure.
Social:
The smaller the frameworks through which an organization surveys its environment, the more intense the connection with that environment. The greater the number of such frameworks, the greater the variety of connections to the environment. Because of the sense of excessive exposure, larger "windows" on the environment inhibit the organization's sense of contact with it.
Conceptual:
The more specialized the tools with which a conceptual framework maintains contact with its environment, and the more of them, the more adequate its apprehension of that environment is felt to be. Contact maintained through an unspecialized framework of great generality creates uncertainty as to whether an appropriate conceptual distance from the environment has been achieved.
Psychic:
The more specialized the modes of awareness through which contact is maintained with the psychic environment, and the more of them, the more intense and intimate that contact is felt to be. Contact maintained through an unspecialized, holistic mode of awareness creates uncertainty as to whether an appropriate distinction is being made between perceiver and perceived.
