Beyond Frameworks
Why field awareness is a missing skill for navigating complexity
There are these two young fish swimming along, and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says, ‘Morning, boys. How’s the water?’ And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes, ‘What the hell is water?’”
David Foster Wallace
We’ve been taught to read the map but not the room.
To work with the visible contours of the environment, but ignore the “water we’re swimming in”.
Over the past two decades, I’ve walked alongside leaders, teams, and changemakers as they navigate transformation, uncertainty, and disruption.
I became known for this work, for being fluent in frameworks and theory, and for translating complex ideas into accessible language.
And I still am.
But the last few years have taught me something essential: Sense-making and mapping are not enough.
In today’s environment, change is constant, uncertainty is high, and complexity is everywhere.
Most people I work with, whether they’re leading teams, facilitating change, or supporting systems, are already wrestling with this reality.
They’re doing their best to navigate disruption and transformation with integrity and care.
Many turn to frameworks and models to help them make sense of it all.
But soon find it’s not enough. Decision-making under uncertainty requires more than data and rationality.
It also demands intuition, discernment, and presence.
A significant part of my own journey has been reconnecting with my body, embracing somatic and intuitive wisdom. To augment the value of the mind, not replace or reduce it. To bring all my wisdom to the table.
From Mapping to Fielding.
Have you ever experienced this:
You’re doing everything “right”. You have a good strategy, you have the best consultants on the job, you’ve mapped the stakeholders, the risks, and the constraints. You have a plan, you even have the right people, and yet you still find that nothing changes.
Something invisible gets in the way.
The room goes cold.
People nod, but nothing moves.
That “something” isn’t just resistance.
It’s not a skills gap or poor communication.
It’s the field, the relational atmosphere that shapes what’s possible in any given moment. The proverbial water we swim in.
It might sound abstract, but you’ve felt it:
The tension before a tough meeting, even before anyone speaks
The shift when a particular person enters the room
The unspoken heaviness after a restructure or conflict
The energy lift when a group clicks into alignment
Young children know how to read fields. They can sense when it is a good time to approach mom or dad to ask for something, or when to avoid to keep a low profile. We couldn’t get through school without field awareness … but over time, we are taught not to trust it. The rationality is what is needed.
Fields are subtle but powerful forces that influence behaviour, trust, creativity, and timing. They’re not new or “woo”. Systemic Constellators know them well. Well-known authors such as Meg Wheatley, Otto Scharmer, Thomas Hübl, and Arnold Mindell have written about them.
They’re so ubiquitous that they are invisible, literally like water is invisible to fish.
We use “field” to describe a space or territory in which a network of interactive forces—both visible and invisible—are radiating from sources inside and around us. Fields influence how we feel, think, and behave. We, and everyone around us, are participating in living fields of energy and information each and every moment, whether we are conscious of them or not.
Briskin & Gelinas, 2025
Why this matters for facilitators, change agents, and system stewards
You can’t lead or guide change effectively without being able to read the room. To sense the water you’re collectively swimming in.
You can’t “see around corners” without the ability to sense beyond the seen …
When to push and when to pause
What’s being said, and what’s being avoided
Whether a team or group is aligned or fragmented
Where energy is flowing, and where it’s stuck
That kind of facilitation and leadership doesn’t come from a toolkit.
It comes from presence.
It comes from field intelligence.
What is field intelligence?
Field intelligence is your ability to sense and respond to the emotional and relational climate in and around you.
It’s not soft or mystical. And it’s not reserved for a select few.
It’s a capacity we can all cultivate.
It helps you:
Detect early signals of risk or resistance
Spot when a team isn’t ready, even if they say they are
Understand what’s really happening beneath the surface
Create the right conditions for meaningful change to take root
Many facilitators and leaders already do this intuitively, at least sometimes.
They just haven’t had the language or practice to refine it.
Field intelligence extends beyond systems thinking and emotional intelligence. It’s less about individual emotion and more about the shared, often unspoken field in which behaviour, trust, and decisions emerge.
“In the quantum world we are now entering, self-expression takes on a different meaning. Space everywhere is now filled with fields, social as well as physical.
These invisible, non-material structures affect everything within them. They are dynamic, pliable, and ever-present. And they include our self-identity and self-expression. Not only do we enter and interact with fields, we ourselves are fields, dynamic, constantly changing, a particle in a greater unifying whole. Change becomes less a Sisyphean task about a future ideal and more about the relational and energetic reality we create together in the present moment. We are always in a relational field. We are never alone.”
Briskin & Gelinas, 2025
Field intelligence helps us improve our timing and influence
We’ve all seen strategies and sessions fall flat, not because the ideas were wrong, but because the moment wasn’t right.
Field intelligence is your capacity to sense and attune:
Is the collective ready for this shift?
Is trust strong enough to have this conversation?
What needs to be named before we can move?
What’s the right next move, given the current relational field?
What’s ready to emerge that no one has said yet?
It’s bringing more of your awareness and discernment into the room so you can respond wisely and generatively.
From thinking about to being with.
Today’s complexity demands more than analytical thinking.
It requires us to bring our whole intelligence, encompassing cognitive, emotional, relational, and somatic aspects.
This is a core part of the work I call Waycraft:
The art of navigating complex environments with presence, responsiveness, and wisdom.
It includes structured tools, yes. AND the practices (like STAR) and awareness needed to sense the field and work with it.
Because the real leverage isn’t always where the map or data says it is.
It’s in the moment. And in your ability to feel what’s needed next.
A field practice
Before your next meeting or workshop, try this:
Take a moment to pause and tune in before you enter the space.
Bring your attention into your body …
What do I sense in my body? Restrictive or expansive? Tense or relaxed? What emotions are present?
What might this tell me about the tone or texture of the relational field I’m stepping into?
What’s my intention? What energy do I want my presence to contribute?
Notice what shifts when you step in with this awareness.
That’s field intelligence in action.
Final thought
You can’t spreadsheet or whiteboard your way through complexity.
You have to be present with it. Attuned. Ready to respond to what is emerging in the moment.
Field awareness is a strategic capacity, not a “soft skill”.
And in today’s disruptive world, it is one that facilitators, leaders, and changemakers will need more than ever.
Want to Explore This Further?
The best way to learn field intelligence is to practice in a field.
This isn’t something you can absorb from a textbook or webinar. It requires real-time sensing, feedback, and shared presence. A safe container to practice your sensing and attuning, and learn to trust it.
I’m currently creating two ways to experience this work:
Triskel Field offers the opportunity to experience the transformative power of a co-created field. Join our final free co-attunement session, scheduled on 9 October at 10:00 SAST. Sign up to join us here.
A Field Intelligence Practice Space – launching soon. If you’d like to join or be notified when the next cohort opens, sign up for updates here.