Edgewalkers

Serving Those Who Walk Between the Worlds

archetypes of change

Keeping It Light: Appreciating the Guardian

By Susan K Furness, Edgewalker Senior Associate

“The View” by internationally-acclaimed Contemporary Master Artist, Dario Campanile

It is a precious responsibility to step into any of the five Edgewalker Archetypes of Change. Yet acting in or out as the Guardian orientation feels especially huge. I mean, a Guard takes care of something deemed valuable. And adding the ‘ian’ brings a truly intimate energy. Like it is my sole responsibility. Or indeed my ‘soul responsibility’. 

In 2008, I embraced the Guardian as my default archetype. However, the way I wear the proverbial overcoat sees me ever eager to fill the extra-large pockets with ‘responsibility for the responsibilities of others’. The precious role of the Guardian – to tend what is precious – falls heavy on my shoulders. 

In her book Edgewalkers; People and Organizations that Take Risks, Build Bridges and Break New Ground, Dr Judi Neal’s definition offers immediate light, with words like future, gift, sensing, protecting people: 

Guardians are the people who look to the future and tend to see all the things that could potentially be a problem. They have a gift of analyzing and/or sensing what could go wrong before it happens. They are committed to protecting people and the organization from potential harm.

To lighten up, I need to repack. In earlier blogs I ignited a fresh relationship with the Edgewalker Skills of Sensing and Focusing. Thus, I love that Judi honors the sense-ability of Guardians as they look to the future with a focused beam to reveal potential pitfalls on the road less travelled. 

I also warm to the play with polarities, bringing the left and right brain into the game calling to work the ‘analysis of facts and the third eye of intuition’. Intuition is an Edgewalker Quality of Being. 

But what feels uncomfortably hot and heavy is the ‘commitment to protecting from harm’. 

I take some moments to listen to my Guardian-filled heart and recall the need to deploy ‘sensed-based situation analysis.’  Is my responsibility as a Guardian to shout ‘fight or flight’?  I recall the Indian philosopher, Anthony De Mello’s suggestion: “…find truth in observation, not opinion….”.

Another light goes on.

In the unlikelihood of serious physical harm to anyone my commitment to protection can be met by delivering the message as a well-rounded observation, stripped of opinion, demand, directive or order. 

In this light, my Guardian overcoat immediately feels much lighter. 

My responsibility is not to carry the responsibility of others, rather to appropriately name what I sense and/or know. This is made even lighter presently as life during and after corona offers no known facts. Sensing the Future is showing up as an ‘alternative strategic driver’ in business and in life. 

Let’s unpack some more. 

‘Problem’ features boldly in in Judi’s definition and this tugs uncomfortably at my heart strings. I do not do problems and to further empty my pockets I need to find a replacement word. 

Diane Musho Hamilton wrote the book Everything Is Workable. With inner listening and outer practice, I know Diane to be right and that a conscious conversation can clear the pathway – and help keep the luggage light. 

Indeed, if I notice my polarity excitement rising at the mention of a ‘problem, issue or challenge at home, in the office or the boardroom’ I am going to re-christen it swiftly as an ‘opportunity’.

This lands beautifully at the door of the next Edgewalker Café entitled ‘Blessings in Disguise; Six revealing gifts of Intention’. Do join us on February 11, 2021. See our Edgewalker Newsletter for details.

Tending the Hearth

By Judi Neal, Ph.D., Founder, Edgewalkers International

This is the third in our series about the five Archetypes of Change – Edgewalkers, Flamekeepers, Hearthtenders, Placeholders and Guardians.  Today we focus on Hearthtenders. 

We all have a complicated relationship with change in our lives and our work.  Sometimes change is welcome and embraced because it makes things better. Sometimes we resist change because we fear it will make things worse. Sometimes we are the initiator of change and other times external factors impose change upon us. Sometimes we take the long view of change, such as “What will my life be like when I retire?” and other times we take an “in-the-moment” short-term view, such as “I wish people would stop interrupting me right now when I’m trying to get this report done.”

The third archetype of change is the Hearthtender and they tend to take a short-term view of change and will embrace it if it makes their work more efficient. In organizations, families or faith communities, the Hearthtender orientation towards change is to value getting the day-to-day work of the system completed in an efficient way.  Their primary orientation is towards being of service. They love to keep things running smoothly, and in an organization, they see their team or unit as “family.”  The Hearthtender naturally is attracted to the idea of continuous, small incremental change and often has creative ideas about how to improve workflow and processes. However, they do not tend to think strategically and long-term. They tend to be focused on details and it is easy for them to get caught up in the weeds or to be overwhelmed by long to-do lists.  

Our research shows that in most organizations, the Hearthtender Archetype is the predominant Archetype of Change, and is absolutely necessary for the not only the routine of daily operation but also for the support of transitions from one organizational state to another.

In the U.S. we are in the midst of a major transition. We have just had a very unhealthy, toxic Edgewalker president leave office. He pushed the boundaries of democratic norms of decency, ethics, and service until they broke. He went over the edge. Our new President, Joe Biden, will need to amplify his Hearthtender Archetype in order to clean up the mess left by his predecessor and to handle all the short-term crises that were intentionally left behind. Biden will need his Hearthtender quality of compassion for others, for seeing unity (“family”) where others see conflict, and he’ll need the quality of a healer as he helps to heal a wounded nation.  As he focuses on the short-term, which is necessary in the middle of a crisis, he will also need to draw upon his Hearthtender skill of being able to multitask, the skill of being able handle many issues at once, the skill of attention to detail in policy-making and decision-making, and the skill of streamlining systems and processes to make them more efficient.  

All of us have the capability to tap into any of the five Archetypes of Change even if one of them is more comfortably our go-to place.  When and where are you a Hearthtender? Think about the parts of your life or work that are going smoothly, that run like a well-oiled machine.  Oiling that machine is Hearthtender work. Think about the parts of your life or work where you truly feel you are being of service, where you make a difference. My husband Ellis Ralph is a beekeeper and this time of year (winter in the Northern Hemisphere) is time to feed the bees sugar water to make sure they get through the cold season until they can forage for themselves. That’s Hearthtender work.  Think about the parts of your life where you bring people together to celebrate or to create a sense of team, community or family. That is the heart-work of a Hearthtender. 

I also encourage you to think about the Hearthtenders in your world who support you. Hearthtenders thrive on knowing their work made a difference, and I encourage you to show them your quiet gratitude. 

Feeling Into Tomorrow’s Reality


By Susan K. Furness, Edgewalker Senior Associate

If there is one thing I have long-since known, it is that you cannot know the future. So, when Dr. Judi Neal named “Sensing the Future” as one of the five Edgewalker Skills I was immediately drawn to the conversation. 

The notion of Sensing the Future speaks to me in a number of ways.

  • Sensing the Future speaks to both the creative and logical me, reminding you don’t know what you don’t know and you definitely don’t know the Future until it is has moved through being Present, to become the Past.
  • Sensing the Future stirs my sixth sense of Intuition into play to power-up other ‘sense intelligences’ (hearing, seeing, touching, smelling, tasting. When I combo the embodied knowing of intuition with what I (perceive) I know, I notice how graceful ‘movement’ becomes.
  • Sensing the Future offers me comfort as I give myself permission to stay present, to vision what could be next, but not labour on, or yearn for, what is next now.

I am nudged to consider the difference and/or relationship between Knowing and Sensing. The author Mark Nepo suggests its common to confuse plans with planning, dreams with dreaming and love with loving. Mark also shares that every book he has written has been discovered on the way to unplanned destinations.

This sparks a smile, as my legacy career has me ‘labelled’ Marketing Strategist. Indeed, my 30-year old company, Strategic Solutions bears the responsibility of its name in a (business) world I now know to be more fun, much more real and much less worrying in un-strategic surrender, especially as we navigate to AC (after corona).

I am not mooting the absence of the age-old stalwarts of the Strategic Plan – Mission, Vision, Objectives. Rather, I am appreciating the exchange of vocabulary to ignite a ‘different’ felt shift, or movement, in myself, the team, the client, the customer, the marketplace, the reader, the community …..and some. 

Try these vocabulary exchanges on for size and shift :

  • Mission becomes Purpose which becomes Reason which becomes…
  • Vision becomes Reality which becomes New Reality…
  • Objective becomes Intention which becomes Sense…

The best part is you get to choose the Vocabulary Energetic that works for you and for your Sense of the Future, or perhaps your Sense of a New Reality.

Here’s some to practise as we make ‘quantum leaps’, noticeable or not :

  • Timeline becomes Pulse which becomes Rhythm 
  • Strategy becomes Method which becomes Recipe
  • Tactics become Tasks which become Rituals

According to Dr Neal, the Edgewalker definition of Sensing the Future is ‘the ability to understand and embrace the future’. 

Let’s take the last bit first. 

Embracing the future is an ability we all have, as each breath we take carries us forward. However, it may not be an ability we recognise or enjoy.

I wonder, is this because the future is always just ahead of the point of arrival?

As I ponder, I am aware that understanding the future, especially one we don’t know, is where turmoil can kick right in. Enter the Edgewalker archetypes of change – Hearthtender and Guardian.

The Heathtender – or Heart-Tender – looks kindly at me and says, para-phrased from Anthony De Mello : ‘Find truth in observation, not opinion….’ I take this as embodied observation by listening to the intuitive heart first, before asking my head.

The Guardian or Doomsayer steps forth looks me squarely in my knowing eyes and states : ’It will be alright in the end, and if it is not alright, it’s not the end….’.

I chuckle. That appeals to my sense of play, as well as my feel for the future, as tomorrow shows up, right here and now. Please leave a comment below. I’d love to hear your thoughts.