John D. Carter, PhD, President of the Organization & Systems Development Center of the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland, is an international organizational consultant with 30 years' experience. He has served on the Executive Boards of the GIC, NTL, the Fielding Institute, and the Organization Development Network. Themes in his work include managing complex systems change, merger integration, the management of professional organizations, and the personal and professional development of minorities.

From Bill Clinton

John Carter’s Sabbatical: A time for integration

John Carter of the Cleveland Gestalt Institute shared his reflections on his current sabbatical with over 50 PRODN members at McCall Field. He described his search for a way to integrate the experience of his thirty-year consulting practice, Gestalt theory and his spiritual journey. He struggles with a dilemma I share with him. How can he integrate his work, his theory and his spiritual practice in a way that can help his clients and others with their own integration of these parts within themselves? He entered the field of OD to be an instrument of positive change in the world. Can he support leaders whose only measure of success is financial? Will he return to his corporate practice at the end of his sabbatical to help others better serve their god if theirs is only the god of a better bottom-line?

In taking the time to examine the dilemma and reflect on his internal struggle, he sought to better integrate himself. His work of integration was the work that I find a continual need to address to make sense of my offer to the world and to determine how I can make a difference.

To frame for us his own process of investigation, John used models from Gestalt theory saying "One compelling model is worth a thousand action steps." He believes that if one has a shared model or compelling picture that they will get up everyday and ask themselves how they can accomplish the goal. Without such a larger frame, efforts and even the best intentions can at their best go off in different directions or at worst go at cross-purposes.

He believes that every single exchange is potentially transformative. Within all of this potential, the consultant’s goal is to slow things down in order to be clear about the client’s intent. Once the intent is clear, the consultant and probably the client will know what the needed intervention should be.

One concept that caught my attention was the importance of scanning internal and external environments to develop multiple pictures of a give idea or situation. When intervening with an individual, he suggested the consultant bring to surface the exchange going on within a client. You can’t get to the internal dialogue without asking your client explicitly what their experience is.

To enable an individual to scan their internal environment, he asks the client to pay attention to what is going on inside them. After a short time for reflection, he asks about the exchange or dialogue that is taking place within them. If the person states a belief or assumption, he asks them how they got to that position. He asks them to focus on the exchange going on within and to describe that exchange.

My day with John Carter left me with two questions for further reflection:

• What are that key models that I use to help clients clarify their own process and where they are in that process?

• How can I help clients be more alert to their own spiritual journeys?

From Kim Eberbach

The day with John was a real "stretch" for me mentally. I was intrigued by his questions and struggles regarding the integration of his three practices: the spiritual, the consultant, and the Gestalt teacher. I was left wanting to know more.

I was especially challenged by John’s models, and with him pushing us to clarify the level at which we intervene within systems: individual, subgroup, whole group. I will continue to ponder these things.

I think that John is an insightful and gifted consultant who has spent many days working in "the trenches" with clients. With over 40 mergers and acquisitions under his belt, he is certainly a seasoned professional. For me, he created numerous questions, and motivated me to explore finding answers to them. This is one of the greatest gifts of a teacher.

Thank you John.

From Julie Spahr

Those of us who attended the March 29^th Special Event with John Carter of the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland, spent a day absorbing the philosophy of John, with a focus on "an Integrative Perspective.. There was much appreciation as we slowed down and took time for inner reflection, and heard John’s own struggle in discerning a balance between his corporate consulting, his faculty role at the Institute, and his meditation practice. He said his own life is committed to transformation and care of the soul. How do we integrate all the parts of who we are, and be in a stance of the "Seventh Degree", which is beyond methods and concepts, but pays attention to both the spiritual and the material?

We had a "Gestalt day" with many teaching points, and a practicum time working with interventions at all levels of system. We also reviewed the three concepts of "Compelling Pictures", "Stages & Phases" and "I, We, It" that form the foundation for much of John’s consulting work.

He left us with many provocative thoughts. Among those were the following:

• "We are always in an experiment, getting information to move us to the next experiment."

• "When I have a clear picture of my orientation, I have more choices, and make more meaning."

• "Pay attention to your patterns and preferences, and then you have choices that you can make about interventions to change."

• "Slow down and ask, "what is my intent?", and that can be the language of the intervention."

• "There’s no such thing as a bad intervention."

• "Ask yourself, ‘What is my own theory of change?’ If you don’t have one, it’s hard to choose an intervention."