Concepts

The First Law of Thermodynamics states in essence that "You can't get more out than you put in". This is a statement of energy conservation.

The Second Law of Thermodynamics could be lightly paraphrased as "You can't even get that much!" It makes the point that, in any system, there will be losses of some kind - heat, noise, light, friction, whatever - and that nothing can be 100% efficient.

In the Human Energy Centre, we believe that these laws can equally well be applied to human and organisational energy. Both can, at times, appear to be a bit like badly tuned engines which take in plenty of energy as fuel but provide far too little energy at the output shaft because of the losses to friction etc. In human terms, these losses tend to be caused by things like conflict at work, lack of direction, misunderstanding, poor communication, fear, and so on.

The challenge for individual and organisational effectiveness as we see it is to minimise the losses and achieve optimum organisational energy output in pursuit of the individual and organisational higher purpose.

In organisational terms, we draw a lot of our thinking from Natural Systems and Chaos theory. From these, a number of key tenets emerge:

• Equilibrium is a dangerous state because a system in equilibrium tends to lose its ability to respond to disturbance.
• True innovation takes place on the boundary of order and chaos.
• Natural systems (which include any human organisation or community) cannot be centrally controlled but will respond in their own way to an external stimulus.
• A form of order will emerge naturally at a local level following a disturbance.
• Local changes can effect the whole system and so an understanding of the "big picture" is key in stimulating response.
• Working with conflict constructively is a much more effective approach than trying to overcome it.

In line with these tenets, when we work with individuals and groups, we do not try to control the approach or agenda but work in a way that provides the space for their own solutions to emerge. Not only does this Open Space approach respect the power, experience and capability of individuals but it provides better solutions and higher commitment to successful outcomes.

Although many of the issues in organisations and communities relate to the interactions between people, these are informed strongly by the internal state of the individuals involved. To improve understanding and to support people in developing their abilities, we use a range of therapeutic models to support our work.

We recognise that human beings live their lives and process their energy at four levels - physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual. Unfortunately, our society puts an unhealthy emphasis on the physical and intellectual to the detriment of the emotional and spiritual. Consequently, we find that a lot of our work is informed by the concepts of emotional intelligence and spiritual intelligence.