We can open ourselves to an emerging WORLDVIEW of reality backed by philosophers, spiritual leaders, complexity scientists, and people who are searching for better ways to address social, economic, and environmental challenges. We can practice communicating generatively when we find a new place to stand as we deal creatively with our collective challenges. And when doing this, we help others open to a new view of reality.

Things that appear contradictory can be true at the same time—and it is so in this case. The “radically new” mindset of Generative Communication is big enough to accommodate the both/and perspectives of the dominant paradigm and an expanded, emerging paradigm informed by the ever-evolving sciences and philosophies. For example, there is a place for positivistic science methods as we grow knowledge and understanding.

Maybe it was the whack on the side of the head that led me to start writing. How do I convey to others this critical, new (yet grounded in ancient teachings) way of thinking about human interaction? What must I say to help people understand and utilize our inherent gifts to genuinely participate—responsibly, with an eye for much more than our individual self-interests—in co-creating the realities we long for as a human community? I’ve been writing ever since.

For me, as close as I can figure, the idea of Generative Communication came from a slow-growing seed in the recesses of my mind, likely embedded in my DNA. Let’s call it “a propensity for challenging the status quo.”

One reason for formulating the Generative Communication model—a new strategy for dealing with complex challenges—is the recognition that our world has grown so complex in the 21st century that there is more information to process and problems to solve than our individual brains can handle, even with the aid of intelligent computers.