Ventana: Transforming the Way We Work

It is during times of transition that brief windows (or, in Spanish, ventanas) appear when new patterns can form within an organization. It is during these times that a particular organizational capacity is called for, and that is when organizations come to us. Often it seems impossible to move through the window. Often the sense of struggle and tension makes the challenge seem beyond the current capability of the organization. Yet it is precisely at these moments that a new vision of organizational culture can emerge.

There are two other associations for the name, Ventana. First, in a true learning community there is a relational equanimity present. Each person becomes a window through which every other person in the organization can both see and transform him or herself and have access to the wisdom, capacity and potential of the organization – from within and from without.

Lastly, on the other side of these windows of opportunity is wilderness – pristine, undeveloped, unknown space. The idea of wilderness is essential for an organization to thrive. Wilderness is, for us, a metaphor for unknown territory. The natural impulses living within us, as individuals and as an organization, propel us towards the mystery of what is not yet known. Ventana is the name given to the one of the great California wildernesses.