Neometric: operating principle #1

We borrow wisdom wherever we find it. Our operating principles draw on diverse thought leaders and researchers.

A helpful framework that we gratefully adopt as our first operating principle comes from knowledge carriers from one of the oldest surviving cultures on Earth. It is a way of being and working that is described as “relationally responsive”. We love it. To investigate it more fully, please explore the references at the bottom of this note.

We share this not to demand it of anyone else, including those that we are working with. But it may give insight into why it may feel a little unfamiliar working with us at times.

We prefer to operate in a sequence of 4 stages 

Stage 1: Solidarity

Our first step is to stand with you with respect. Some cultures best understand this as a connection of spirit, and others of gut. It involves introduction and boundary setting. 

It is the beginning of a shared story.

Stage 2: Connection

We are then able to consider our second step, establishing relationship. We relinquish some autonomy in our awareness that all things exist in relationship to other things. 

This is the territory of the heart. Fair and transparent routines of exchange are explored as we communicate with increasing confidence.   

Stage 3: Shared Learning

We progress to share knowledge and learn together. The head is now engaged. 

A collective body of knowledge emerges, not simply the sum of the independent parts but something combined which allows what we thought we knew individually to be reframed and more fully understood. We gain and offer perspective.

Stage 4: Co-creation

We are now equipped to act. We engage our hands. To defer action until now will often feel inefficient, slow, uncomfortable. 

But this action is based on shared knowledge, built on respect and relationship. It can be confidently negotiated and implemented with a high degree of shared trust, and with established paths of pressure release. 

If this feels to you at once both upside down and right way up, we are with you. If it seems esoteric and of no practical help, we invite you to pause a little longer. If you don’t have time for that, we wish you good speed.

Sources:

Yunkaporta, Tyson and Shillingsworth, Doris (2020) “Relationally Responsive Standpoint,” Journal of Indigenous Research: Vol. 8 : Iss. 2020 , Article 4. 

“Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World” Tyson Yunkaporta, 2019