In Conversation with Sohail Inayatullah

What is the “definitive” origin story for CLA?

I grew in an international relations world. My father set up the first IR program in Pakistan I believe, at least at the Quaid-i-Azam university in Islamabad. IR is what we did at lunch. As a pre-teen I remember my father asking me if I preferred the writings of Mao or Zhou Enlai. And: were the Chinese correct in saying that the USA was merely a paper tiger. He would smile as he quizzed us. But the main conclusion was: reality is geo-political. In contrast, my mother spent her time in prayer, in love, talking about compassion. My main conclusion was that reality has different core dimensions, and I needed a way to talk about them.  A third insight was that as we grew up in Indiana, New York, Peshawar, Geneva, and KL, culture could not be underestimated, nor could the efforts of culture to create hierarchy.  So I had different views of reality floating around in my head. 

When I moved to Hawaii in 1975 and met James Dator in 1976, futures became a way to hold these different perspectives – the geo-political, the spiritual, the cultural as positive difference and culture as an attempt to create a hierarchy of race. 

However, it was not until the 1980s, when I read a piece about Johan Galtung in a sociology journal where the author suggested if we wished to solve intractable problems we needed to shift from the problem to the deeper sociological structure. Galtung would then add, and deeper still is epistemology or ways of knowing. I was fortunate then to meet Willian Irwin Thompson who lived in epistemology, and then exposed us to mythology, to deeper archetypes. Joseph Campbell too was having us all rethink politics by not moving to structure but to archetypes. He explained spirituality not in the language that my mother would use but through the structure of epistemology. Alongside these luminaries, I was doing a PhD on Shri P.R. Sarkar. He focused on layers of reality, on depth, the kosas and the chakras. I also was impressed with Rick Slaughter’s typology of futurists from pop futurists to systems futurists to epistemological futurists. 

By 1990, having been to numerous international conferences, I could see that voices rarely aligned to create transformative policy. Voices flew past another. Some shouted more data: others cited long philosophical tracts from their favorite philosophers (Marx or Hegel), and still, others spoke in metaphor language and finally, there were those in organizations merely wishing for some policy recommendations they could take to their board or Minister or Prime Minister.

I did not sense more argumentation would resolve anything as individuals were arguing from different levels and worldviews, and thus needed a way to organize differences in a way that could be transformative.

And thus at the Bangkok World futures studies federation course (August 23-30, 1992), CLA was born, though it was called LCA in the beginning (however, Colin Blackman suggested I change it to CLA). I was at the front of the room giving a presentation on the futures of Bangkok traffic and in real-time, I could see the levels ie litany – too many cars and congestion; system: road design, rising wealth, and the desire for more cars with the solution that of building fly-bys; at the worldview level, the tension was between centralization and decentralization, and finally at the deepest level, it was LA or West is best. Merely paying Korean multinationals for new fly-bys would not solve the problem. Certainly, systemic efforts are welcome but the narrative, it seemed was key.

CLA has since undergone a few iterations based on hundreds and hundreds of workshops over the past thirty years. From just one CLA approach, I now have six ie

1. CLA as deconstruction and reconstruction

2. CLA as a map of current reality and transformed reality

3. CLA as a map of worldviews and metaphors

4. CLA as a map of worldviews and metaphors with a transformed reality

5. THE CLA game

6. THE CLA of the self or inner futures.

Could you give us an idea of how the various iterations of CLA led you to the ‘CLA of the self’, what is the ‘CLA of the Self’ and where do you believe this latest CLA process will take your efforts in the future?

THE CLA OF THE SELF

I remember well William Irwin Thompson’s phrase “All scholarship is disguised autobiography.” What he was stating was our subjectivity always travels with our objectivity. The more we can be clear about our hidden and not so hidden assumptions, our narrative, the more effective we can be as scholars, as change activists. The CLA of the self is an attempt to use CLA on me, on each other, as a way of reducing pain, giving voice to our alternative selves, and finding narrative solutions to help us create preferred futures. 

I do not remember the exact day or time of the first CLA of the self workshop. It grew organically in the 90s with antecedents in the 80s based on the work of Thompson and others. It was also a way, here highlighting P.R. Sarkar to bring consciousness to the table. He has argued in the future it will not be just the scientific experiment (in its objectivity) that is critical but the consciousness of the scientist him or herself. A way to begin to understand that to me was to understand the guiding narrative or metaphor of the person engaged in science. Finally, there was the work of participatory action research wherein the role of the process is not to do to others but to co-create. We are not the external experts there to help but on a shared journey where we are co-evolving. Recently in a workshop with UNHCR, participants challenged the worldview of international organizations focused on “doing this to others” instead of “we are in this together”. They felt they were like cowboys who created tent cities instead of creating the conditions for refugees to self-organize and lead in their own transformation. 

Thus, inner CLA has always been clear that I need have awareness of my own narrative in any social setting. However, in the last 20 years, it has gone from self-awareness prior to a futures project to using CLA to reduce pain and create desired futures through inner narrative shifts. Working on myself, just a few days ago I felt harangued by someone asking me for endless information. I was in a double -bind as I wished to be helpful but as well felt extorted. The metaphor that came to my mind was that of “being handcuffed.” Using the process – what selves are in conflict; what is the origin worldview – I came up with the new metaphor: community is the key. I thus resolved the issue not through my own efforts but by enlisting the help of others, who could see the conflict with greater clarity and provided me with the tools to unshackle myself. 

One of my first collective experiences of this was working with Jenny Brice when she was director of HR at Fuji Xerox. As part of the CLA day, she asked all executives to come dressed as their favorite characters. She designed the conference room with images of European fairy tales. They then understood this was not just about developing the new national strategy but being clear who each person in the room was and could be. She came as Robyn Hood, commented on how females figures were often timid, supplicant, and thus she switched from Robin to Robyn Hood.  At another meeting, the day was difficult in that there was a battle of vice-presidents, each claiming attention from the organization’s President. Ultimately, one became more and more argumentative. The organizational story was Cinderella, waiting for Prince Charming (government funding). As she became more and more upset, I asked her: “who are you.” She yelled out,  isn’t it obvious. I am the step-sister.” The project fell apart thereafter. What she said was powerful but there was no way for the other vice-president, the favorite to now say who she was, as I had not prepared the conceptual context for inner story-telling as part of our futures day. From that meeting onwards, I made sure even as we did scenarios and CLA of the external world, we spend some time at every meeting/workshop engaged in the CLA of the self.

This inner clarity whether working on organizational issues or personal issues increases the chance of success. 

Working with doctoral students, I make sure to spend a great deal of time, determining who I am in their story. One said, he wished to become a rockstar, and my purpose was the booking agent. From the beginning, I sought out avenues for him to express his extroverted personality. Another saw me as the camel driver taking him to the oasis of academic achievement. In this case,  I made sure to keep him on track and not wander to desert mirages.

With the Pearls of Policing program, similarly, we ask police executives their core metaphor in policing. We do this on the first day of and at the end of the project.  The narrative helps set up their preferred future, where they wish to be. If they feel they are like superman in a world where kryptonite is increasing, we help them change their narrative to, for example, the Avengers (ie police partnerships) or if they are technical-minded to transforming the kryptonite instead something less deadly or to find ways to protect.

If an organization and institution creates new visions and futures but individuals within these structures do not feel empowered or are hamstrung then we have not done our job. CLA of the self intends to change our story, so we can create new futures.