The Nine Panes Model

THINKING TOOLS – Models and Frameworks

Described in Doug Silsbee’s book, Presence-Based Leadership, the Nine Panes Model offers a practical roadmap for how to engage with a complex environment by understanding three types of awareness (Context, Identity, and Soma) and how they connect with three types of competence (Sensing, Being, and Acting.) 

The first step is to make “sense” of the complexity in a “context”  (Sensing/ Context,) that we find in everyday life when people are involved.  This awareness means that what we think the world is like is not how it is. When we don’t (or can’t) see the complexity we are stuck in our belief that if we just work hard or smart enough, we will learn the skills needed to predict, control, and solve most of the problems we come across in our lives.  With this insight, we see complexity with new eyes which opens up a world of possibilities. 

Next, we have to consider the ways in which we “sense” that our “identity” is at stake in the “context” we see (Sense/Identity). When leaders are first introduced to the language and concepts of complexity they are usually excited and relieved that the thinking is familiar. But when they try to use the concepts they feel they don’t have the learning time in a pressure environment. They are even frustrated at how difficult it is the apply the thinking in the workplace. Sensing their “identity” is at stake, where the need to predict, control and know the answers are expected. Yet they are unable to find ways of embracing the uncertainty and ambiguity that complexity produces. The ability to adapt their actions to what the context demands are fundamentally challenging. All of us have our identities at stake in a leadership role.

Meanwhile, our bodies are having an experience of their own! Guy Claxton, in his book Intelligence in the Flesh, suggests that our bodies are always taking care of us. When we are under threat, for instance, even if the threat is to our identity and not actually a threat to our physical safety, our bodies leap into action. If we can learn to pay attention to what our bodies are telling us, we will have access to vitally important and valuable information in the form of early warning signals. Sensing/Soma means learning to notice what’s happening in our body (tight chest, shortness of breath) as we face a particular context and an identity threat (what’s wrong with me). If we just put the right procedures in place or just cared enough, we would get along.) We need to give ourselves a new channel through which to intervene as we seek to manage our reactions.

We can then develop practices that regulate our triggered somatic state so we can act from a mind and body that is grounded rather than triggered.  For example, having noticed that our chest is tight and our breath is short, we can pause and feel our feet, breathe into our belly, and centre ourselves (Being/ Soma.)

The diagram below traces the process of triggering and its impact on our body and way of being.

From this more grounded place, we see that we can actually de-couple our inner state from the context (Being/Context.) De-coupled, our inner state is not only not defined by the context, but it can actually shift the context. Just think of someone you know whose very presence has a calming effect on an entire room.

Finally, from a grounded state that is de-coupled from the context, we can make the powerful move of embodying what we care about (Being/Identity.) When something overwhelms us there is a “breakdown” in the normal flow of life. We need to have the presence of mind to re-focused on why we made the choices we did. Once we learn how to “self-regulate” our response we can find the compassion to address the dysfunctional dynamics in our own and other people’s negative behaviour in new ways.

Having “sensed” our experience at these three levels of awareness and engagement in the practices we can embody what we care about, we “act” by engaging with the context, our identity issues and our body’s sensations. 

We do that through the way we communicate what is important to us and listen to the views of others, or simply how we show up every day to share our concerns, and acting congruently with what we care about–Acting as Identity. Through our leadership presence, we can cultivate a culture of collaboration and trust, in which experimentation and failure are encouraged, even expected as we Act in and on the Context.  Finally, we can actively engage in the ongoing cultivation of ourselves, tuning the instrument of our self through whole-body practices that enable us to continually adapt to the unpredictable and uncontrollable things emerging within an ever-enabling context (Acting through Soma.) 

If this neat narrative sounds overly simplified it isn’t. In real life, we can’t separate Sensing, Being, and Acting. The world (and we in it) are endlessly complex and dynamic, so the very act of paying attention to one of these “panes” necessarily shifts what we can see through the others, in ways we can’t know, let alone predict. The Nine Panes Model, like all theoretical models is an aid to thinking and learning – nothing more.