Part II — Dimensions · 05

Relationships, Co-currents and Countercurrents

Relationships are described hydraulically: co-currents that carry work along, countercurrents that hold it back — and the recognition that a countercurrent is often information rather than obstruction.

Second, revised edition · CURRENT Companion

The question it turns on

Which relationships are carrying this work, and which are quietly resisting it?

Concepts in this chapter

  • Co-currents
  • Countercurrents
  • Resonance
  • Relational orientation

Models & concepts →

Thinkers held against it

Martin Buber · Mary Parker Follett · Amy Edmondson

The thinkers →

Where the argument is contested

Treating resistance as information is generous and can be naive; some countercurrents are simply interests. The chapter refuses to collapse the two.

To sit with

  • Where is a countercurrent telling you something the plan has not accounted for?
  • Which relationship do you rely on without ever having named it?

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