Four Territories of Experience

There are four areas where you can place your attention when you think about your experience. They differ slightly depending on whether your experience is only with yourself, or with one other, or as part of a larger group (and we’ll look more closely at those differences in another post). But in general, they cover four perspectives or arenas of experience.

First Territory: Outside events. Results, outcomes, assessments, observed consequences, environmental effects, market performance. In business, or in life, these are the external, measurable, observable, results we get.

Second Territory: One’s performance. Behaviors, skills, patterns of activity, actions. In business, and in life, these are the activities we perform, the things we do.

Third Territory: Strategies, or action-logics. Strategies, game plans, ploys. In business and life, this is the larger plan about how we plan to achieve a vision, how the overall intention is to be realized.

Fourth Territory: Intentional attention. The vision, the intention, what it is you are trying to create. In business, the long term vision and mission of the organization. In life, your purpose in living, what you want to create in life.

Awareness of each of these territories is the first skill to master in Action Inquiry, an approach to learning from your experience by comparing your results to what you intended.

By learning to identify which territory of experience has the focus of attention, you’re well on your way to being more effective, through Action Inquiry.

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