Diversity: Epigenetic Factors

Epigenetic factors are the biases, prejudices, and fears passed from one generation to the next. (Villoldo 2010).


Along with hair color, shape of nose, length of legs, we inherit a great deal of our thinking from our families. Carolyn Myss compares communities that are ethnically and culturally similar to tribes. Being strongly identified with a tribe means that some percentage of the individual's thoughts and actions are dictated by the tribe.


Here's an example, many white teens raised in small Mid-Western, rural towns choose to become Republican and Christian as adults, which reflects the dominant paradigm of their community. As children, we cannot fully comprehend politics, religion, and philosophy so we default to expressing the same views as our parents and other nearby role models. Even adult tribe members don't often take time to consider religion, politics, and philosophy to any great length. It is more efficient to default to the tribe, or often to the leader of the tribe. Believing that the leader is responsible and accountable and leaving the details to him is a justification for reduced consciousness, reduced awareness.


The epigenetic factors passed from generation to generation are patterns because the complex of biases, prejudices, and fears take the form of neural networks (see pic) which have been reinforced by each generation and then validated throughout one's own life as we "see that which we expect to see" of others.

Socialization is the process of being introduced to the thought constructs of our parents. It's the replication of neural circuitry from generation to generation. We are introduced to our parents thought constructs in the simply course of daily living. For efficiency and survival we are programmed to largely trust and accept these ideas. And that helps us fit in with the tribe. Around the age in which the young leave the family home there is a window of opportunity in which rebellion and differentiation from the parents may include becoming aware of and rejecting inherited thought patterns. Other opportunities to notice and reject social programming arise throughout adulthood. Frequently in the form of negative feedback.

As we journey to the center of the Civil Rights system it is important we maintain awareness of the concept of epigenetic factors. I suspect that the replication of neural circuitry among tribe members who share thought constructs produces an electromagnetic resonnance which increases the gravity of that thought construct.

The beliefs we share with our family and our community of choice produce a sense of cohesion, safety, and trust. These beliefs are interwoven with sentiments such as care for and appreciation of our community. The sensitivity around epigenetic factors is this: When we invite someone to notice their own subconscious attitudes and actions they may discover incongruence. The individual may discover that her subconscious attitudes and actions are not at all in alignment with her values. This can be quite shocking and a big part of the threat is that it calls into question one's loyalty to the tribe.

It has only been five or six generations since Americans owned slaves. It has only been three generations since Germany sought to exterminate Jews. Some epigenetic factors are connected to actual trauma experienced by recent ancestors. Passing down fear of enemies is a survival instinct.

Delving into this lake of the collective subconscious with the intention of understanding why our workforce does not reflect the population demographics of the American public will require sensitivity, respect, trust, and honor. (gulp)

Be a Good Neuron - Start a Blog

The Forest Service, like so many organizations, is struggling to find ways to communicate more effectively. At present we're relying on emails, newsletters, intranet sites, meetings, and conference calls. We're innundated by irrelevant information in our inboxes so often that in order to survive we have to tune most of it out. Then we miss the pieces of news which were really crucial.

For the past 100 years the agency has gone through phases of both centralization and decentralization. The next phase of development is struggling to emerge - networked intelligence. My good friend and colleague Faye Fentiman says "intelligence is widely distributed in organzations - one brain per person." Each brain has an amazing depth of unique knowledge which is currently only barely tapped.

Think of it this way. There are 35,000 hard drives each with huge volumes of information, but none of them are networked. There's no way to Google a topic and find anything valuable because each hard drive is encased inside a skull and there are no wires connecting them. Some people call it a knowledge management issue, others call it a communications issue.

There may not be wires from my head to yours, but there are connections and channels of information and influence between individuals. They're called relationships. The more trust and commraderie between two people, the more freely they share their knowledge. The collection of relationships throughout the agency are social networks.

True networked intelligence requires a healthy and vibrant web of interconnected social networks which allow for the unimpeded flow of knowledge throughout the organization. What's interesting to me is that intelligence within one brain also requires a network, a neural network. In your brain there are neurons which fire electrical impulses. Think about your mom for a minute. Everything which comes to mind about your mom can be called a thought construct. Each thought construct is a network of neurons which fire in tandem while you are thinking about that topic. These neural networks, like all networks, are self-organizing. That means that sometimes you can spontaneously realize there is a connection between two or more formerly separate thought constructs. When that happens we describe it as a light bulb going off in our heads, which is fitting since the neurons connect via electricity. When you get a new idea or insight it is said to look like a lightning storm in your brain - it's the flash of thousands of neurons firing in conjunction for the first time - the birth of a new neural network.

If I record my ideas, theories, experiences, knowledge, etc. in my blog and if others do the same, then by Googling I can find and connect with other people around the topics which interest us. Over time as these connections multiply, a network is born. In the knowledge management world it's called a Community of Practice.

The Forest Service is only just entering the world of Social Media. We can Wiki, and executive leaders can blog. I've recently heard that blogging will open up to any employee, provided the supervisor agrees to monitor the blog. I'm choosing to blog outside the fire wall now, and when the opportunity arises, I'll have a duplicate blog on the inside. The reason I think it's important to do both is that I want to participate in dialogue both internally as well as with my external peers.

Even if no one ever reads these posts, it's helpful to me to process and record information in this way.