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The idea of levels includes the fact that they are to some degree separate from each other. That is what the term ‘levels’ means. So there are gaps between the levels, which sometimes act like barriers. If we persist in making efforts along a set direction, new insights cannot come in. This has been studied in problem-solving, when most people persist in following an approach, even though it does not work, because they cannot stop and use other approaches. To be able to stop what one is doing requires the operation of a higher level of thinking. A great deal of time and energy is wasted in persisting in old ways when something new is needed.

Levels of work apply to an organization as well as to an individual, though it is less clear because the hierarchical structure of most organizations may not correlate with levels of thinking at all but with the exercise of power and influence. Still, in its own terms, this is also structured into levels.

It is not all about striving to get onto a higher level. As the old adage says so clearly, we only need 1% creativity to get the job done. The higher levels are more ‘expensive’ than the lower ones; they make deeper demands on us. Also, a creative insight is like a soul that needs a body, if it is to make its way in the world. Making a body takes time and effort.

Thinking about levels can be most useful. It can lead to developing the capacity to feel what level one is working on; which can then lead to being open to making a change. Each person can develop their own model, one that suits their experience and aims. But there will be some universal features.

Put abstractly, on the lower levels is repetition of what has been done before; while on the higher levels, what is done is new. This has various degrees, as many as one can discriminate between. Here is one version concerning five levels.

UNITIVE

In the diagram there are five levels, including the top point. Why is that there? It is intended to signify a point of unity in which all the other levels are combined in one. The operations of a higher level always look mysterious from a lower level but, from a higher level still they are seen to follow precise laws. Creativity is not ultimate.

CREATIVE

The core level is creative. This means bringing in some factor that has been missed before. Many people try to ‘explain’ creativity but this may be a mistake, because it comes out of what is inexplicable in us. It is the spontaneity from which our lives are renewed and given new potentials.

CONSCIOUS

The next level up from the sensitive is where we make meaning. It is where we do more than react, because we are able to take in a whole complexity of factors. It is manifest in the height of professionalism, when we can see what is significant in a complex array of impressions – ‘the wood for the trees’. It is significant that people can rarely explain what it is that enables them to make insightful judgements that others cannot. Seeing the whole instead of just the parts is an important way of understanding this level, which we can call ‘conscious’, giving this word this very significant meaning. Someone who is operating consciously can do a very small thing that makes all the difference while others may expend vast amounts of energy and time to little effect. But different people are conscious in different ways and another important aspect of this level is that it enables people to understand each other. That is why it is all important in true dialogue.

SENSITIVE

Taking in new impressions means that current programmes have to be adjusted. If something unexpected comes up, we jolt into awareness of what is here and now. We become ‘sensitive’ to what is actually happening here and now. It is the beginning of 'lateral thinking' because it breaks the control of automatic habit.

AUTOMATIC

At the bottom level, one is on automatic pilot. This is the basis of our daily lives. We drive to work thinking about all sorts of things and navigate our way without very much attention. Familiarity breeds automatism. Without this, we would have to expend too much energy in just surviving.

Most ‘creativity techniques’ are designed to break old patterns, to weaken the hold of the lower levels. True creativity has to take place by itself in its own way. It can easily be missed if we are dominated by external pressures. The pull of the familiar is very powerful. It has to be, because it has evolved to minimize the amount of energy we use to adjust to the pressures of life.

The law of the lower levels is: do the same thing over and over again until you are forced to make a change because of a new challenge.

The law of the higher levels is: do everything differently unless you are forced to repeat in order to survive.

The aim of the LVT process is to help you move from lower to higher levels in such a way that each level of work can be integrated with the others. It actually starts with putting a ‘body’ together of known information and then in various steps brings this to life and intelligence. In some ways, it parallels what we know about organic evolution. Relatively simple ‘molecules’ are brought together to form more complex ones. As the process unfolds, more and more originality can become ‘embodied’ so that what emerges has a life of its own. It enables the deeper levels of ourselves to contribute and neutralises negative tendencies because the more inward levels of our functioning are acknowledged and appreciated .

The process cannot be forced artificially. It must tap into what the people involved really feel they need. They have to have in them a sense of a ‘gap’ between where they are now and where they need to be, a gap that cannot be bridged by anything that has come before.

The basic three stages of Gather – Organise – Integrate correspond to the first three levels of Automatism – Sensitivity – Consciousness. The creative is beyond them but can enter at any stage.

In terms of knowledge, the first level is ‘knowing about’, the second ‘personal knowledge’ and the third ‘understanding’. Working with different kinds of knowledge, or different levels of thinking, can become play; and play is the basic mode of creativity. Unless work is endowed with play, it is unlikely to be creative. LVT enables people to play with thoughts so that they become alive and intelligent. People experience a transition from having to think - to allowing thoughts to arise of themselves. We need to learn how to recognise and value such thoughts.