Sanctuary and Order in the Midst of Chaos

With all of the challenges of diversity and size in New York City, there is clearly a need for sanctuary. Like many of the grand old cities in Europe and Asia, there are many sanctuaries in New York City that serve as a critical balance to the challenges of life in NYC.  These sanctuaries usually take the form of parks. But in smaller dimensions, they are also to be found in the squares and circles that abound in New York (particularly Manhattan). The most impressive sanctuary—for most people—is Central Park. I have often got “lost” in the serenity of Central Park. It is hard to remember that a large city is to be found all around this park, until one looks up and sees the high-rise buildings looming over the top of trees and boulders in the park.

While Central Park made perfect sense in the original design of New York City, given that it was not much more than a rather unsightly swamp prior to being transformed into a lovely park, the park today stands out as an “anomaly” that contrasts sharply with the bustling world surrounding it. I suspect that in many ways, skillful coaching is also something of an anomaly for many busy leaders, contrasting with the hustle and bustle of their daily life—and often contrasting with the rapid-fire and reflection-free style of command that is required of these leaders (even though they are constantly confronted with complexity, unpredictability and turbulence). (Bergquist and Mura,2005)  Is the sanctuary of a Central-Park type setting for coaching an antidote to the New York City State of Mind that is required of many coaching clients? Is a sanctuary required for an executive to feel truly comfortable and at home in their own head and heart when faced with the ambiguity of postmodern life?

There is a second way to frame the Central Park anomaly. This second frame takes us back to city planning in New York City. As was the case with many urban planners of the late 19th and early 20th Century who were working in old cities, there was the need to accept the crazy (and often quite charming) patterns of movement established around cow pastures, clusters of shops, waterside docks, and so forth. This often meant that streets converged rather than running parallel and that whole areas of the city had been set aside for something other than residencies. In Manhattan, this seeming chaos is still apparent in the circles, squares and parks; however, there is also a great deal of order in the midst of the chaos. Streets and avenues are numbered and run north and south, east and west. There are the rogue and legendary boulevards such as Broadway and the parkways following the course of the Hudson River and East River, but these stand out as exceptions rather than the rule.

This suggests that the city plan of Manhattan embraces all four of the patterns to be found in any turbulent system (such as a mountain stream). (Bergquist and Mura, 2005) There are straightforward, fast moving currents. These would be the numbered streets and avenues in NYC. This is the subsystem that is usually associated with the rapid, rational and systematic operations in an organization. There are also eddies and whirlpools created by some obstruction in the mountain stream, such as a submerged rock, a fallen tree or simply a bend in the path of the stream. This second subsystem is represented by the circles and squares of Manhattan—such “obstacles” as Columbus Circle or Washington Square. Third, there are the chaotic currents that disrupt the flow of the first two subsystems. These are the Broadways and river roads of Manhattan. These are the chaotic and unpredictable events and dynamic interactions that occur in an organization. Finally, there are the quiet pools, where nothing seems to be moving. While these still places in a mountain stream are often labeled “stagnant,” they are actually the primary source of nutrients for those creatures that live in the stream. These would be the sanctuaries (the parks) of New York City, where people can find nurturance and renewed vitality so that they can once again enter one of the other three subsystems. Similarly, coaching is the quite pool that allows for renewal and refocusing.