"Islands of Coherence"
what Hanzi Freinacht calls metateams
In the months after discovering metamodernism in August, 2019, I found my way to Hanzi Freinacht and his Metamoderna website. I read lots of his articles but not the two books for which he is best known. However, I did read 12 Commandments: For Extraordinary People To Master Ordinary Life and I now want to focus on the Eleventh Commandment: Kill Your Guru, Find Your Others.
In June, 2024, I took a course, A Dramatic Introduction to Metamodernism and the Philosophy of Hanzi Freinacht, which was time well spent. I was not as brave as my friend Claudia Dommaschk who also took the other course offered, The Metamodern Academy: A Masterclass in Metamodernism.
A graduate-level course on metamodernism with Hanzi Freinacht, Emil Ejner Friis and Daniel Görtz
However, I did end up spending one day at the Masterclass. But first I need to go back and pick up another story. These threads will weave together in a way that deepened an earlier insight that now feels more meaningful and more important.
Claudia and I met in an online community, Emergent Commons, in November 2022, and a friendship began. She soon started a Crew that I immediately joined, our friendship grew and began to include others. Eight months ago she launched her own small Mighty Networks group, Wisdom Exchange (WE), and WE have been meeting weekly. We have been building trust amongst ourselves and our friendships have deepened.
During the Masterclass Hanzi drew attention to the Eleventh Commandment and Claudia and I had an aha moment. We realized that WE had been building a metateam without any conscious intent to do so. This was confirmed by Daniel on the Masterclass day that I had been invited to attend.
The participants of the Masterclass were offered an opportunity to share proposals during the last week of the course. Claudia was first up and I was invited to attend. We shared the WE story. Daniel remarked that WE was the best metateam development that he had seen. And he seemed to also challenge us. Having created something of value, what good use would it support.
I have noticed lots of good projects in the SPACE that do not seems to be moving forward. Perhaps we need to first build metateams, although that is easier said than done. Daniel suggested that a small group needs roughly a hunderd hours together to build the deep trust necessary for effective performance.
From the Eleventh Commandment:
Meet the meta-team. Again, it’s a clunky word, but bear with me. The meta-team is a certain kind of group you gather around yourself, or that you find and join, or co-create. They share in the adventure of life, while committing to changing the world together—in a clear direction, but one with many open ends, changing and adjusting over time.
And how do you do that? By really getting to know others, by deepening your relationships with them, so that they can get a rich and nuanced view of you in your many dimensions. But truly knowing people is hard.
No other social form than the meta-team will truly optimize for transpersonal power.
In his book, Hanzi shares Principles for Cultivating the Meta-Team which alone are worth the cost of the book.
As I write I am reminded of an article by Peter Limberg, Friendships of Virtue.
Today’s incentive landscape does not encourage virtue to manifest.
The last type of friendship, and the highest according to Aristotle, is friendships of virtue, or friendships of the good. This is when one expresses goodwill, and wants the best for another, for its own sake. In these friendships you desire your friend to be virtuous, and you desire to be virtuous in their presence. These are rare…
But WE are proof that metateams and friends of virtue are possible.
Lastly I would like to explain the title of this article. It was coined by Claudia and I like it. Metateam has a masculine vibe while Islands of Coherence reflects a healthy femine spirit. That spirit is another ingredient that makes WE special.
I will give that last word to Hanzi.
The meta-team consists of the ones who view you in a positive light, but fairly correctly and accurately so. They know your strengths and weaknesses and still appreciate you and believe in you—and vice versa. Should you care what other people think of you, by the way? Uhm, yes.