I’ve been posting under this brand for a few years now and have never been inclined to explain it. Indeed, rational explanations somehow miss the point. However some recent musings have reminded me of how much the Generative Edge motif is central to my contribution and work so I’m taking this week’s post to unveil some meaning.

First the noun; what is an edge? An edge is an interface between one reality and another. Unlike boundaries, edges inherently draw us to explore what lies beyond. Beaches are edges. Thresholds are edges. Everywhere we look there are edges where one reality becomes another. From where I sit I can see a curb, the edge where pedestrian life and vehicle life meet. The counter beside me is the interface-edge of the barista’s world and the coffee consumer.

Edges require transitions. Sometimes, when dramatic changes in abilities are required to manage risks on the other side, edges may be associated with danger. However, as we move through the day, we cross edges all the time, so as we become familiar with a particular state, the transitions become unconscious.

I am interested in and work on an edge; the edge between the inner life and our experience of the outer world. Cancer survivor Mark Nepo says it like this:

“How can we stay awake and authentic when our wounds make us numb and hidden? How can we make a practice of wearing down what thickens around our mind and heart? How can this practice of staying authentic [serve and strengthen] while we are immersed and entangled in the moment of our lives?

As a cancer survivor, I have found myself like Lazarus, awake again, in the same earthly place but different. Everything has changed and nothing has changed. This wakefulness has led me to be a student of the vibrant edge where our inner life meets the world. … We all live on this shore between the depths of being and the dangers of experience.” (from The Exquisite Risk)

And what about the adjective? What on earth is ‘generative?’ My apple dictionary widget says it is ‘about being able to produce; as in ‘the generative power of life force.’ I have always described it as ‘life giving’ or ‘energising’ but with overlays that include the ideas around sustainability and being connected with the whole. The word doesn’t get used much except by the networks of people around the world who are interested in systems thinking as it applies to social transformation, but you’ll also come across it in art, music and linguistics.

So, what then is a ‘generative edge’, or more precisely, how does the use of the term apply to our work through Ergo Consulting and my musings on this blog? It is about offering help as people move through transitions, help that engages the interface of the inner world and our outer world realities. We have discovered over the years that managing apparently straight forward transactions in the workplace without taking into account the unseen realities associated with people’s perspectives, motives and emotions is like putting a band aid on a broken leg.

And more so, we are interested in that which is life giving. We facilitate the individual and collective tapping into that which at the centre of our motivations and reason for being, helping people to be fully alive in whatever scenario they are operating.

May you live on the Generative Edge this week.

Earlier this morning we dropped our youngest at the airport, she’s now old enough to travel on her own without the hassle of ‘unaccompanied minor’ paperwork, a reminder of the future that blows us along like a wind at our backs.

Then. with an unexpected appointment free day I relished the opportunity to come into town and continue my thinking and planning. A rare privilege so grabbed with glee.

Because the future is on my mind these days, I thought I’d plug into some of my past. I walked from a tram stop at the top end of town through the alleyways of the CBD to one of Melbourne’s first laneway café strips, Centre Place. It contains a favourite haunt from the late 90s, Jungle Juice. I frequented ‘the Jungle’ when I had an office in iconic Nicholas Building a stones throw away. The place reminded me so much of the pokey cafes I experienced in Japan in the early 80s. I was surprised to see very little had changed. The bagel based menu, the impossibly small kitchen in full view of the cramped tables. The music was still alternative and cruisey, and the tables still attract journal-ers and readers. On the way out I wandered passed the lifts on the ground floor of Nicholas House and smiled to see that the ‘lift ladies’ have been retained. When I was based there the same women had worked the two lifts for 30 odd years, relieved at times by one of their daughters, a relative newby at only 15 years in the lift. The same woman stood at the threshold, cardigan and bun in tact. She viewed me suspiciously as I peered in to see the family photos still adorning the walls. Is there another building in Australia still served by ‘lift ladies’? Is the Nicholas Building stuck in the past or has it progressively retained something of value from the past? How can we tell the difference?

We are who we are because of our heritage. Like the trees that I can see from where I now sit in an intentionally very different café (Weston Hotel lobby) the essence of who we are stays consistent while we are extraordinarily adaptable and resilient to the changing environment. (By the way, I’m amused by the 30-something urban professional discussion nearby about golf handicaps and tan lines …) So I wonder about the joy of the journey, and the capacity to embrace the present and honour the past. Jungle Juice is no longer part of my present. Going back there was like looking at a dog-eared photo from a favourite old album.

When we go on holidays we like to take photos to capture the memory. We know its not going to last so we capture it. We also do it with our kids, keeping things and images that will remind us of a present that is history as soon as it happens. I will always remember Johanna, in her faded green windcheater and flowing hair turning confidently to wave at us as she disappeared out the departure gate door this morning. I don’t have a picture, but it will be an iconic memory.

Every day is a gift.

Failing unexpected tragedy, we have a stack of years to live. As heart warming a story as Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman’s Bucket List is, the sad fact is most of us will probably only start working our list when the end is tangibly close. I said to Maria after we watched it a few months ago, ‘let’s start today’.

The future is about living. Life is not about going through the motions waiting for an opportunity to do ‘good stuff’ later, when the kids are older; when I get a different job; when I’m retired; when I’ve got more time; when I’m fit. There is beauty, truth and goodness everywhere. Smell the roses, go for a surf.

As Zac and I did yesterday. The water along the surf coast was disgustingly brown, apparently because of the rivers spewing flood waters into the bay and in turn into Bass Strait. Despite forecasts to the contrary, the wind tossed the swell into rubbish. So the water was putrid, the swell was messy. We exhausted ourselves and could count our combined rides on one hand. But it was better than staying at home.

The future is not about waiting for a fanciful reality that only exists in commercial TV land. It is a slow brewed reality created by our commitment to live fully today. And tomorrow. And the day after. And the day after that. The perfect ride on a glassy point break is only so in the context of the brown mess we tried to ride yesterday.

It is healthy to set ourselves some goals, make some resolutions or do whatever else we need to do to ensure that our path through 2011 is determined at least in part by our intentions. Perhaps due to the searing images of houses being washed away in the current floods, I’ve been thinking about the difference between foundations and the rest of the building.

It is typical in our annual visioning to think in terms of the ‘building’, by which I mean the visible outcomes of our living. Nothing wrong with this. If we don’t plan ahead we will drift with whatever the strongest current happens to be. “If you aim at nothing you hit it every time.”

Life seems increasingly uncertain. Natural disasters, personal loss, health … we’re fragile. At work, the stability of ongoing business, relational issues, economic conditions, the impact of the stuff in the previous sentence, all add up to fragility. For some time now, understandably, people who are interested in such things have been developing an understanding of ‘resilience’ and how we can navigate the fragility of life without being broken by the events of normal living.

So as I think about 2011, while there are plans, goals and strategic directions set, I am more focussed on the disciplines that will ensure the foundations are strong. I certainly hope that 2011 will not usher the same drama and trauma as 2010, but there are no guarantees while we choose to engage life as active members of society rather than abort into a reclusive lifestyle.

What are those things, that for me will give me the resilience to enable agility, mental, emotional and spiritual health amidst whatever 2011 offers? There are many ways you and I might think about such foundations, or fundamentals, but for me they include:

1. Clarity re the ‘story’ that gives meaning to life. The start of the year offers you and I an opportunity to refresh our appreciation and related commitments to the mix of activities that express our engagement with what is good, pleasurable and meaningful. (By the way, I use those three words intentionally, borrowing from Clive Hamilton’s idea that people tend to pursue, consciously or unconsciously either the ‘good life’ (truth based), the ‘pleasurable life’ (satisfaction based) or the ‘meaningful life’ (contribution based).
2. Refresh my commitment to the most significant relationships I have. Appreciate who the people are that form the community network of which I am a part. It is these people, including family, that are the ‘reinforcement in the foundations’ to crudely refer back to that metaphor.
3. And then there is all the personal stuff: diet, exercise, reflection, recreation … all those personal disciplines that give strength, those basics that allow resilience when the ground shifts beneath us.

I am conscious of the pessimistic tone. I don’t apologise for it because my reflections from the events of 2010 continue to shape my view of life. But I’ve also lived long enough to know that the same principles apply to the positive opportunities that come along. If I am not strong on the basics, if my fundamentals are not rock solid, then my capacity to respond to new, stretching opportunities will be flakey.

So, if you’re wondering how to give some definition to the new year, I invite you to join me in refreshing or beginning a new commitment the threads that give strength in your life, so you are in the best condition to respond to the inevitable surprises; challenges and opportunities that 2011 has in store.