Interview with Herb Stevenson on the Cycle of Experience

This interview was part of a series done on a cool Friday morning at Herb’s Ranch in Ohio. We were sitting in his library, enjoying some coffee when I asked him about Gestalt’s concept of the Cycle of Experience.

The cycle is a naturally occurring phenomenon. Understanding it can help in both individual change work and organizational. In many of the groups I work with they get a sensation then jumping straight to action…in the process they short-circuit awareness building and don’t understand why they can’t mobilize their collective energy or get their intended results. Awareness building and mobilizing energy are not optional, they are required for effective action taking. Herb points out this is a “ready, fire, aim” approach that decreases the effectiveness of our efforts.

In community based work, like community organizing, effective campaign efforts spend considerable time and money in the stages of awareness building and mobilization of energy, before moving to action. We can enhance and improve our work by bringing this lesson into the inner workings of our organizations.

Think about the projects you might have been a part of that go from great idea to mediocre results. Was there a step in the cycle that was not properly attended to?