Intangibles are the equivalent of energy: participants should sense their presence within the experience, and trust in them. Ideally, they should flow. We should openly acknowledge their importance, facilitate the best circumstances for their flow, and observe each one during the experience: the way in which it is flowing, or being blocked. These are the things which power the whole.
The seven Intangibles are:
Collaboration
We facilitate the flow of collaboration through things such as:
- using the Open Space principles to empower choice
- embracing choice
- acknowledging the inevitable clashes of need
- responding with as much care and consideration as we all can
- facilitating and welcoming spontaneity and change
- giving everyone a name tag
- giving no-one a skill or job tag
- encouraging and acknowledging risk
- being accepting of moments where we simply cannot... whatever
- identifying and honouring ownership/s
- acknowledging impact
Transparency
Transparency of process, method, purpose, finance, actor and character, these are all crucial. Transparency is crucial for things like engendering trust, enabling risk-taking, and narrative anticipation. Transparency does not negate narrative tension. It is crucial for open space, and it is crucial for flow and balance of the whole. With transparency, we can help to avoid the fear of missing out. For those who want to be surprised, information can be ignored, but it is impossible for those who need information to have it unless it is made freely available to them.
Balance
Whenever we examine the experience through the eyes of others in order to compare it to our own, we are no longer inside our own experience. Involvement needs to be balanced: no-one should feel they are putting in more than they get out of it, and no-one should feel that anyone else is taking out of it more than they are giving to it. The space needs to be balanced: there should be space for everyone. The story needs to be balanced: there should be room for everyone to find their own place in, and their own path through, the story world. Also, the cost of being involved must balance with the perceived value gained in fair exchange. Accompanying by professional accompanists trained by us, and aspects of journalism and archival, and the final collective discourse are ways in which we continuously evaluate this.
Anticipation
Knowing what will happen next allows for anticipation. Not knowing does, too. Looking forward to something, working towards something, these are crucial parts of us achieving flow, and there is no experience without flow. Anticipation also means the continuous re-identifying of the whole, to maintain structure and give a clear picture of possibilities.
Discovery
Be prepared to be surprised. The whole experience is about discovery. Moments are happened upon. Characters are encountered. The Story/World is explored. The Story unfolds. Participants discover how to get involved, collaborate, create, and they discover aspects of themselves they may not have realised.
Fairness
The whole experience should feel fair and reasonable, to us as individuals, to our tribe/s, and to the meta-tribe. Fair and just in value of all kinds, in balance of output-input, in scope of experience. The Story/World must also contain a narrative that feels fair. Not always good, but always reasonable and just. Whatever happens is the only thing that could have happened.
Experience
We must do everything we can do facilitate the experience. Everything is ultimately about the experience we have all had. Not just the experience of our personal journey, but also our experience of each other, and our experience of ourselves. It is this which will bind us to our discoveries, to each other, to ourselves, and only this.
