Vigilance and the geometry of conversation
In January I changed the look of the blog page. The name of the new graphic is “Vigilance”. I have been anything but vigilant in my blogging. Life has a way of taking us off track. Today though I am excited again. Last week I was in Phoenix which has a way of stimulating my thinking. I awoke one morning with the map of the complex PULSE Frame in my head. I have been working to free it to the paper ever since.
Imagine the three sides PULSE Frame as an equilateral triangle. Now expand your vision by adding another dimension so that now you have a tetra-hedron, a shape with four equilateral triangles. One serves as the base and the others wrap around the sides of the front face. If you unfold that tetra-hedron so that it lays flat you get a larger equilateral triangle, one at the top and three that fit inside each other to form the base. Are you with me?
Let’s look at each of the four triangles individually.
The first one at the top of the new larger triangle is the PULSE Frame with four parallel lines that divide it into five sections that we call Prepare, Uncover, Learn, Search and Explain. Prepare is the base of the triangle and it gives it its strength. If you further divide it into equilateral triangles you get 9. Uncover divides into 7. Learn into 5 and Search into 3 and Explain is another equilateral triangle. These braces strengthen the structure and form diamonds and triangles galore – glorious triangles and diamonds.
But wait we are not finished yet. Each of those triangles is full of meaning. I will come back to that once I have finished painting the picture
Triangle 2 which forms the base of the tetra hedron when it is folded is another tetra hedron. What I see there are the skills that support the PULSE Frame Process. The peak triangle contains five sections like the PULSE triangle. Each section is labeled starting at the base – Gentle Honest Open Specific Talk. triangle 2 which forms the base of the inner tetra hedron contains the Wheel of change and the five associated skills – Normalizing, Confronting, Transparency, Bridging and Immediacy. Triangle 3 to the left of 2 is divided into five sections labeled from the base – Paraphrase, Open question, Wait, Empathise, Reframe. Triangle 4 to the right of 2 is divided into five sections and labeled starting at the base – Hush, Empathise, Attend, Reflect and Trust.
Triangle 3 to the left of 2 on the larger tetra hedron represents the content support for the PULSE Frame and Conversations. There you find a hexagon within the triangle which is further divided into six triangles and outside of the hexagon are three more triangles one at each of the three original angles. The top three triangles of the hexagon are labeled “To be Positive”, “To be Heard”, “to be Known”. The bottom three triangles are labeled “to choose”, “to act”, to dream”. These six sections represent the six freedoms created in PULSE. The three outside triangles are labeled too. The Lower left is Release the upper point is Relax and the lower right is Relate.
Triangle 4 to the right of 2. It represents the Response support for the PULSE Conversation. Inside this triangle you find the three points form triangles of their own and the space that is left is filled with a circle with 9 points and sections each with a forty degree view of the world. These are the nine BEACHS or Frames of reference that people use in PULSE Conversations. The Enneagram connector lines are also present in the diagram which means that there is a triangle inside the circle and lines connecting the other 6 points. The three other triangles that lie outside the circle are labeled. The bottom left is Freeze, the top centre is Fight and the bottom right is Flight.
A rotating image of the PULSE Complex Conversation
Back to Triangle 1. 9 internal pieces of PREPARE
1. Set the tone and welcome
2. State the Purpose
3. Outline the Protocol
4. Describe the Process
5. Establish Confidentiality or Audience
6. Determine Authority
7. Describe Roles
8. Set a Time
9. Invite parties to the next level
UNCOVER – 7 sections
1. Ask – What?
2. Hush
3, Empathise – silently
4. Attend
5. Reflect
6. Trust
7. Name the title or circumstance
LEARN – 5 sections –
Paraphrase; Open questions; Wait; Empathise; Reframe
SEARCH – 3 sections
Content – Process – Response
EXPLAIN – 1
The tip – the pinnacle – the plan
If you know the PULSE Frame you will begin to see the strength and complexity of it visually represented with this new map. I am calling it the geometry of a conversation at the moment and looking forward to expounding on each of the triangles within the triangles in 4 one hundred page books that are floating in my head.
Comments and questions are encouraged. Your thoughts, reactions and responses will contribute to a better explanation of this map so that others may follow it to sustainable decisions, relationships and organizations.
Vigilance … I will be vigilant until this project is completed. I will share the journey with you.
