The model · full breakdown
Every current, every dimension, every consequence.
The complete taxonomy behind the Flow Through Self — every upstream current, every dimension of the self, and every downstream consequence, with definitions beneath each summary.
Upstream
What arrives, curated or raw.
Upstream is everything already in motion before the situation reaches us: external conditions, organisational structures, inherited meaning, human relationships, and the pressures and uncertainties acting upon them.
Context and conditions
The external realities within which action becomes possible, necessary or constrained.
- Market forces and competitive pressure
- Economic and geopolitical conditions
- Technological change and disruption
- Regulation and institutional expectations
- Social norms and stakeholder demands
- Resource availability and material constraints
- Environmental and physical conditions
- Events beyond the organisation's control
Systems and structures
The formal and informal arrangements that distribute authority, attention, risk and opportunity.
- Organisational models and governance
- Roles, mandates and decision rights
- Incentives, targets and performance measures
- Processes, routines and inherited practices
- Hierarchies and power dynamics
- Ownership and accountability
- Information flows and access to knowledge
- Dependencies across functions and systems
- Technology, infrastructure and operational limits
History and meaning
What the organisation carries from the past into the present.
- Inherited narratives and assumptions
- Cultural norms and shared beliefs
- Previous successes and failures
- Institutional memory — and institutional forgetting
- Unresolved decisions and abandoned intentions
- Collective wounds, disappointments and loyalties
- Identities people feel obliged to protect
- Language, symbols and stories that define how things are
- Expectations created by earlier leadership
People and relationships
The human energies, interpretations and tensions already present in the situation.
- Others' emotions and states of mind
- Needs, interests, fears and ambitions
- Trust, mistrust and psychological safety
- Unresolved conflicts and unspoken tensions
- Competing loyalties and personal agendas
- Status, influence and informal authority
- Capability, confidence and readiness
- Expectations directed towards us
- Relationships formed before we entered the situation
Pressure and uncertainty
The forces that compress attention and make thoughtful action more difficult.
- Time pressure and urgency
- Information gaps and contradictory signals
- Ambiguity about purpose or direction
- Competing priorities
- Cognitive overload and organisational noise
- Dependencies on decisions made elsewhere
- Fear of delay, failure or exclusion
- Pressure to demonstrate momentum
The Self
What receives, interprets, transforms—or distorts.
The self is not a neutral passage. What reaches us is noticed through attention, interpreted through experience, coloured by emotion, tested against identity and values, and transformed—or distorted—before it continues into the world.
The Self
Presence and attention
The quality of being here before anything is done.
- Awareness
- Attention
- Embodied sensation
- Emotional presence
- Capacity to pause
- Openness and curiosity
Perception and interpretation
How raw experience is noticed and made sense of.
- Noticing
- Pattern recognition
- Assumptions and mental models
- Memory and experience
- Intuition and imagination
- Meaning-making
Identity and inner history
The self that walks into every situation, shaped before it.
- Self-image and personal narrative
- Roles and affiliations
- Needs and attachments
- Ambitions and fears
- Habits and protective patterns
- Unresolved experiences and sensitivities
Values and orientation
What the self reaches for, and what it refuses to abandon.
- Values and convictions
- Purpose and intention
- Ethical judgment
- Responsibility
- Loyalty and belonging
- Sense of what matters
Capacity and agency
The resources the self can draw on when the pressure is real.
- Emotional regulation
- Discernment
- Tolerance for uncertainty
- Courage and restraint
- Adaptability
- Capacity to choose
Self-processing
What happens as upstream forces pass into and through us.
Receiving
Letting what arrives be felt before it is judged.
- Noticing
- Attending
- Sensing
- Allowing
- Staying with what is present
Interpreting
Framing experience so it can be worked with.
- Filtering
- Framing
- Comparing
- Associating
- Naming
- Making meaning
Regulating
Holding the interior steady enough to think.
- Containing
- Distancing
- Rebalancing
- Holding uncertainty
- Separating signal from noise
- Distinguishing impulse from intention
Transforming
Turning worked material into something new.
- Reflecting
- Questioning
- Reframing
- Integrating
- Metabolising
- Imagining alternatives
Choosing
Deciding what to carry forward and what to set down.
- Discerning
- Prioritising
- Accepting or resisting
- Interrupting
- Deciding
- Preparing a response
Distorted processing
Distorted processing
What happens when awareness, fear, identity, or pressure distorts the flow.
- Ignoring
- Denying
- Suppressing
- Simplifying
- Amplifying
- Projecting
- Personalising
- Rationalising
- Deflecting
- Displacing
- Freezing
- Reacting impulsively
- Repeating inherited patterns
Downstream
What we release, reinforce, interrupt, and leave behind.
What continues from us into the world—through the signals we send, the climate we create, the actions we take, the structures we reinforce, and the consequences that follow.
Signal
What others hear, see, and infer from our presence and communication.
- Clarity or confusion
- Coherence or contradiction
- What is said—and left unsaid
- Tone, language, and emotional charge
- Presence or distance
- Confidence or hesitation
- Pace, rhythm, and timing
- Priorities made visible
- Boundaries and expectations
- Consistency between words and behaviour
Climate
The relational and emotional conditions our conduct helps create around us.
- Trust or suspicion
- Safety or defensiveness
- Calm or transmitted anxiety
- Openness or guardedness
- Permission to question, disagree, or speak
- Inclusion or exclusion
- Hope, energy, and possibility
- Fear, fatigue, and resignation
- Standards made socially real
- The emotional residue left in the room
Action
What our interpretation becomes when translated into conduct and choice.
- Decisions made, delayed, or avoided
- Priorities selected
- Resources allocated
- Boundaries established
- Conflicts addressed or displaced
- Risks taken or contained
- Commitments made
- Interventions initiated
- Experiments and corrections
- Restraint—the choice not to act
- Follow-through and accountability
Relationships and participation
How our response shapes other people's capacity and willingness to participate.
- Voice and psychological safety
- Ownership and agency
- Cooperation or competition
- Learning and reflection
- Mutual responsibility
- Dependence or empowerment
- Conflict patterns
- Quality of dialogue
- Capacity for collective judgment
- Willingness to remain engaged
Structures and consequences
What becomes embedded, repeated, and carried further after the immediate moment.
- Decisions translated into systems
- Incentives and permission structures
- Roles, routines, and practices
- Precedents established
- Behaviour rewarded or normalised
- Capabilities strengthened or weakened
- Intended and unintended consequences
- Value created, displaced, or destroyed
- New narratives and organisational memory
- Future conditions created for others
- What becomes upstream for the next situation
The whole picture
What arrives upstream is not my doing. What I pass downstream is my responsibility.
Today's downstream becomes tomorrow's upstream. The model is a description; the practice is what you do in the passage.