However, Mark has clearly forgotten anything he ever knew about power laws, Chinese emperors, chess inventors and rice harvests. And even though the volume of information steadily increases, it is almost inevitable that its quality will decrease until we are all panning for micronuggets of meaning in the torrents of spammy infostreams.

Most social networks are developed by focusing on the quantity of users and shared information, rather than the quality of the information and the significance of the connections that people make, so they inevitably result in gigantic data farms rather than a resilient web of genuine relationships.

Just because you wear sandals doesn’t make you a prophet…and it may never make you a profit.

In a follow up session to our visit to Inchcolm Abbey, we were exploring the fact that many of the islands in the Firth of Forth are known as Inches. In this context, the name Inch is derived from Innis, the Gaelic word for an island, and so Inchcolm is Gaelic for Columba’s Island.

As we drew more Dreamwork Maps, more and more islands representing different parts of the enterprise appeared, and these Inches were named correspondingly. Later in the session, as we worked our way through the strategic topography, the phrase ‘Inch by Inch’ kept being voiced.

The challenge that the innovation team was facing was one that often appears in large enterprises. Although nominally the same enterprise, organisations usually form internally into islands of self interest and intention. These self focused islands then become defended with entrenched opinions in the same way that Inchcolm was once fortified.

The group realised that the way to move beyond this damaging silo mentality was to somehow connect the island dwellers. Attempts had previously been made to try and integrate and unite the islands of interest in the organisation. However, these had all ended in further alienation and animosity as the islanders felt that they were being forced to integrate and as if they were losing their unique identities.

A story began to emerge about connecting the enterprise Inches together, one Inch at a time, and this culminated in a viewing of Al Pacino’s wonderfully inspirational speech in Any Given Sunday. In his role as coach Tony D’Amato, Al powerfully articulates the true nature of a winning team.

Tony D’Amato understands that a team is not an homogenous entity or an integral holon; it is a collection of individual inches which are fundamentally connected. These inches are all around, and when all those inches are added up, that’s what makes the difference between a team winning and losing, between an organisation living and dying.

However, by the time everyone was wearing Thunderbirds black bushy eyebrows and realising that they all looked like Alistair Darling, and we had explored who was really pulling the strings, we moved on from Thunderbirds are Go to Thunderbirds are Gone.

The group decided that what they were really looking for was possibility space, rather than technology derived from futuristic misadventures. They felt that they needed to go back to first principles and the phrase a priori was used by a number of the participants.

In Dreamwork, we often use the phrase ‘from the archetypal to the specific’ when we connect a fundamental pattern to a particular idea, and so the group came to the conclusion that they would like to experience a priori in an archetypal possibility space. Perhaps in a real ecclesiastical priory. On an island.

As often happens when an intention is stated in possibility space it soon begins to manifest in reality. Just a few miles from where we were working was Inchcolm Abbey which had been used as a priory until fairly recently. It is located in on the island of Inchcolm in the Firth of Forth.

We sailed out to Inchcolm on the Maid of the Forth and began to explore and experience a priori in a priory. The abbey is a very peaceful place and one of the key insights from the group was that it provided a sense of grounded possibility. This theme was developed further in a series of Story Fragments. As the story emerged the group realised that the fundamental platform for their research and innovation was a solid grounding of intentions, needs and perspectives, rather than fetishising the latest technologies.

The island that had appeared in Common Ground was no longer an improbable puppet state, but a solid and tangible foundation for their vision, rising forth from their oceans of experience.

Although the visionary dramaturg who orchestrated this innovative performance may have been under great parental pressure, the resulting production accurately reflects the approach taken by many business schools and leadership initiatives.

On any leadership course, one of the first questions to be asked is ‘What is the most important attribute of any leader?’. Various responses are given and elicited, usually along the lines of ‘courage’, ‘vision’, ‘integrity’ and so on. However, the one attribute that any leader really needs is rarely identified, if ever.

The key attribute that all leaders need is followers, but many leadership programmes are encouraging a generation of Snow Whites to stunt their own growth by ignoring the value of others in developing their individual potential.

In Dreamwork, we recognise and encourage both Heroes and Helpers. Instead of fixating on the Hero’s Journey with its single hero and anonymous helpers, we work in Heroic Space, where all participants have the opportunity to be both Heroes and Helpers, depending on their intentions and needs.

The main reason for this is that a woman who is parachuted into a leadership position in a group of men often ends up behaving like those men, and to all intents and purposes has become a man. In some ways this can be even worse than having a man in the position as the woman may find it difficult to own and assimilate her own masculine energies.

These disowned energies and their potentially destructive aspects are then projected on to others with undesired outcomes. Usually the woman begins to lose the asset that was most valuable in the first place, her feminine perspective, and begins to behave like a Drag King.

The corollary of this situation also occurs frequently, and can be just as potentially destructive, where a man is challenged with voicing and recognising his feminine energies. A man’s skill in voicing his feminine aspects does not require him to be known as ‘Mandy’ at the weekends, or to join the increasing ranks of Travelodge Trannies. Instead, he should perhaps pay attention to archetypally feminine attributes such as intuition, empathy and compassion.

Carl Jung described a man’s feminine energies as his Anima, and a woman’s masculine energies as her Animus. For an individual to grow and develop into their most authentic potential, these energies should be in a healthy balance. Rather than decreeing target numbers based on external gender assessment, perhaps organisations should focus their energies on encouraging the inner balance of masculine and feminine energies. What happens inside, happens outside.

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Since commercial transactions began, businesses have been using psychics to help them see into the future and to choose the most profitable paths to follow. Although no contemporary businesses like to admit employing paranormal services, the use of psychics is routine and widespread.

Most businesses attempt to operate exclusively in the domain of the known, where next quarter’s numbers are analytically forecast by the spreadsheets on the laptops of their business analysts.  However, in an increasingly uncertain world, the most valuable business opportunities are often found in the realm of the unknown, where markets can be created and their great potential realised.

It is challenging to explore unknown potential using objective analytical tools, and so leaders tend to rely on gut instinct, or retain the services of business psychics like Laura Day. Like other psychics, business psychics range in effectiveness from having some genuine gift to complete charlatanism.

The genuinely gifted business psychics are probably not using psychic powers at all. Instead, they are unconsciously recognising tiny and subliminal cues and clues from their clients. These identified fragments of meaning are what a body language expert describes as a tell. By connecting these tells, the business psychic reflects back what their client intuitively finds valuable, and so tells their potential fortune.

In Dreamwork, we use tools like the Dreamwork Identifiers, Connectors, Reflectors and Illuminators to enable clients to identify and connect these intuitive cues and clues, and to reflect and illuminate their value. It may seem like magic, but any one can use it to access their intuitive wisdom, and coherently and consistently tell their business fortunes. And yes, it does cost more than a pound…

Some may be distancing themselves from the unpredictable behaviour of their followers, some may be temporarily avoiding the bulldozing boulders of their own leaders, and virtually all of them will be retreating from playing the character that they act out in business life.

However, if the retreat is being hosted with skill and empathy, the gathered leaders may begin to glimpse a space beyond chanting, aikido and Moleskine notebooks. In this discovered space, they may encounter their own authentic selves that are so often in retreat in their day to day corporate existences.

The leadership challenge they then face is to maintain a continuing dialogue with their authentic self as the experience of the retreat retreats from their memory. Although they may be full of great intentions and powerful affirmations, this is usually not enough to sustain their avowed authenticity and it begins to waste away like a rare animal in the corporate zoo.

It is easy enough for them to blame their business environment for the impending extinction, but by having the courage to speak up in their true voices, they can begin to recreate the space in which their authenticity thrives. In Dreamwork, we use Selves and Voices as a way to help leaders to open up new space by listening to their own voices speak their truth.

However in many leadership teams, obsequious I-I connections are often substituted for genuine I-You connections. In an I-I connection, there is none of the debate, dissent and drama of an authentic I-You connection. Instead, there is an echoed repeitition of a single individual’s perspective.

This single individual is usually the leader of the group, and instead of challenging his or her perspective, the executive minions end up just repeating viewpoints and regurgitating dogma. Although this may seem to create a coherent group inspired by a single vision, it usually promotes a monoculture of yes men and women who are constantly affirming ‘Aye aye’ to their captain of industry.

The old adage ‘Two heads are better than one’ still holds great value in the context of an I-You connection. However, in an I-I connection, it usually results in behaviour like Zaphod Beeblebrox, who shut off parts of his mind that he felt were not presidential enough.

To offer himself some degree of protection, he wore bullet-proof glasses, reinforced gloves on his hands which he used to cover  parts of his face, and his front teeth been replaced by plates made from steel. His assistant would fire a .22 bullet at him from a rifle and it would smash through three glass panes before Bialla caught it with his teeth.

As a result of his accepted occupational hazards, Ralf was seriously wounded nine times, but survived and continued to perform the routine, as portrayed in the 1972 documentary film ‘Wer schießt auf Ralf Bialla?‘.  In 1975, he died by falling off a cliff, supposedly because of constant dizziness caused by the injuries.

Recently, a client asked us if we could just provide him with a magic bullet to motivate his staff.  As I explored this request with him, I asked if he would like it in the form of an email that he could just fire off from his holstered Blackberry. We then continued by reflecting on his use of language, and how the message might be received rather than how it might just be banged out.

Often messages are just fired off, rather than being used as a way of engaging in dialogue. Instead of creating new space through questioning and enquiry, a firefight fought over old territory often ensues. The recipients of magic bullet messages begin to look like Ralf Bialla, viewing the world through the distortions of self protecting bullet proof glasses, as they catch some bullets and dodge others.

Eventually, dizzy from the cacophony of target based one way missives and directives, they realise that they have become targets themselves, and they go AWOL, taking their passion and creativity with them. So next time you feel like firing off a magic bullet email, just think who is going to catch that bullet for you. You might just end up shooting yourself in the foot.

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In the final episode in Series 5 of the sublime Peep Show, Jeremy explains the concept of Orgones to Mark.  Orgones sound remarkably similar to Spiral Dynamicists Don Beck and Chris Cowan’s concept of vMemes (short for values-attracting meta-memes).

According to Don and Chris, vMemes can be thought of as broad orienting paradigms and schemas through which the world may be interpreted.  From their perspective each vMeme leads to certain beliefs, social groupings, motivation patterns, organizational dynamics, and goals.

However, in reality, the practice of applying broad labels to vast swathes of humanity can only result in alienation and misunderstanding.  Describing the Financial and Accounting Team as Mean Orange Memers precludes any real possibility of forming valuable I-You connections with them.

Instead of using generalised value concepts like Orgones, vMemes and Holons in Dreamwork, we identify specific values that people experience and aspire to, and use those to help them tell the story of their own beliefs.  So if you feel that you need to escape from the spiral wizards, ‘Feel free to use my Enchanted Coracle…‘.