Envision light from a lantern. What do you see? Perhaps a soft yellow light that feels warm and radiates into the nooks and crannies of the space you are in? Now envision the light from a spotlight. An intense, white light that feels hot and focuses on only a portion of the space.

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Which might be more life-giving?

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Think of the light from a lantern as awareness: pervasive, expansive, warm, and illuminating a large space. Think of attention as more like a spotlight: focused, intense, with the space around the light all dark.

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Attention and awareness* are not the same thing, according to Russell Delman. The former can open the door to the latter. In other words, attention leads us beyond the spotlight of attention to the more expansive lantern light of awareness. 

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Is it possible to use the spotlight of attention and the lantern of awareness simultaneously? Why might this matter to you as a leader, consultant, educator, or coach?

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Perceiving the Immediate in Light of the Larger Field

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In Space Is Not Empty, Alan Briskin and I integrate attention and awareness into what we call “field awareness.” This includes paying attention to sensations, energy, and information inside us, opening awareness to both what is inside and around us, along with how the inner and outer are influencing each other. This integration invites us to make more considered and life-giving choices about what to say and do in any given moment. 

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When we exclusively pay attention to the immediate, we lose sight of the larger field in which dynamic forces are shaping it.

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In our book, we tell a story about a group of leaders in a troubled financial institution meeting to figure out how to get the firm out of the hole it’s in. Their creativity was bursting into promising ideas along with lots of laughter when the CEO, piqued by their mirth, burst into the room aggressively enjoining them that “they’d better come up with some good ideas.”

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When he appeared to only pay attention to the laughter at a frightening time for him, what did he lose sight of? The camaraderie of the group, the auspicious ideas they were developing, and how his angry tone would dampen that group’s commitment along with that of others in the organization. This eventually reverberated into how they treated their clients. (This CEO was eventually fired by the founder.)

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It’s tough to continue caring and being creative when the person at the top communicates anger and threats to those working hard to ameliorate the causes of his fears about the future of the firm as well as their own.

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Illuminate the Whole Field

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The CEO had trained the focused light of a spotlight onto what was for him an annoying moment that occluded the glow of lantern light illuminating the whole situation or field being considered by the group. The group had been examining patterns inside the organization along with those of the forces in the business environment in which they were struggling.

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By turning the spotlight onto his fear and anger, he blinded himself to the fact that he had invited some of his best and brightest to figure out a way forward, which would ultimately help him and the organization succeed.

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Lantern Consciousness vs. Spotlight Consciousness

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In Michael Pollan’s recent book, A World Appears: A Journey into Consciousness, Alison Gopnick, UC Berkeley psychologist, makes a case for “lantern consciousness”: “that vivid panoramic illumination of the everyday” that is key to exploring and understanding the world. Contrast this with “spotlight consciousness” that “narrowly focuses on the information relevant to our goals.” It is possible to integrate both into your awareness.

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How might the situation have differed if that CEO had used “lantern consciousness” and had and thanked the group for working hard to come up with ways to improve the position of the organization? What if he had shared that he, and they, might be feeling frightened about the future of their firm and how important their work is for that future? How might that have changed the field in that meeting room and in the organization? 

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Reflection Questions

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How might you pay attention in such a way that your awareness opens to the multiple forces at play in a field?

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When you feel afraid or angry, how might you use your attention to open your “lantern consciousness,” to open to an awareness in which multiple options arise so you can act and speak in ways that are life-giving?

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* For those of you who meditate, the lantern could be compared to “open awareness,” observing the ever-changing, impermanent nature of experience, even being aware of awareness itself. The spotlight is akin to an “attentional practice,” training one’s attention by observing breath, body sensations, thoughts, and emotions without getting lost in them. I tend to start my meditations with attentional practice. This allows me to then move into an open awareness that includes my personal field while expanding into the larger social fields.