Rational achiever

The term, “rational achiever,” was put into common parlance early on by Ken Wilber, a founder of the Integral Institute, and creator and proponent of the philosophical framework called Integral Theory. Curt Mountintop’s recent article called, “The Fifth Level of Personality Development: The Rational Mind in Ken Wilber’s Integral Theory,” gives us this overview: 

“We’ve journeyed through survival instincts, tribal loyalty, raw power, and rigid order. Now, it’s time to step into the fifth level of Ken Wilber’s AQAL model: The Orange/Rational Stage. This is where things start to open up, where the mind stretches beyond the boundaries of conformity and begins to explore the vast terrain of individual reason, logic, and achievement.”

For an entrepreneur, in the first blush of creating a startup, indeed these qualities are necessary.  It’s important to assess the marketplace, to measure the viability and vitality of your business, to develop financial health, and to put systems management in place. Once these tasks are completed, complacency may set in, addressing the next set of developmental tasks for the company from the same perspective.

What’s missing?

If we ask ourselves, what’s missing from this description of the rational achiever brain, we find little discussion of meaningfulness. A lack of meaningfulness on the part of employees and a failure of leadership to cultivate meaningfulness with them were crucial factors in the Great Resignation after the pandemic.  Meaningfulness is not only something individual; it’s to feel a part of something greater than oneself, to feel a genuine sense of purpose and a mission in life. Many companies have yet to fully understand how this works.  One large corporation believed it was creating meaning for its employees by telling them their mission. In this case the mission was to bring efficiency to the company, and in that way contribute to their own sense of meaningfulness by helping lower prices. That is the leader’s rational achiever brain speaking about efficiency, the bottom line, and only about the company. In his article, Curt Mountintop sees this kind of thinking a trap, which he calls “tunnel vision.”  Patagonia, on the other hand, the outwear company, allows its employees time to go surfing.  The company extends itself to the employee on the employee’s terms, and in return, the employee feels a sense of loyalty that comes from being seen and supported.

As the entrepreneur progresses, they will find increasing limitations that come from relying on the achiever brain.  Complexities, contradictions, uncertainty, unintended consequences, charting new territory – all require a different skill set. Scientist Dr Lisa Miller contrasts the rational achiever brain with what she calls the awakened brain: “The awakened brain includes a set of innate perceptual capacities that exist in every person through which we experience … unity, and a sense of guidance from and dialogue with life.” It is this dialogue with life that will shape the future of business. The way forward here is through constant practices of meaning.

Conclusion

The rational achiever brain brings efficiency and individual advancement to a company.  If we liken a company to an iceberg, these skill sets, while valuable, are far from accounting for the whole story of success in business, especially as we head toward an extremely uncertain future, with changeable political winds, climate emergencies, and, frankly, the unknown.  The consulting firm McKinsey & Company posits that by 2026, fifty percent of revenue will come from products, services or businesses that have not yet been invented.  Stewardship of our planet, together with profitability, requires that we re-write the corporate charter to extend beyond profit for shareholders. When we look to the future that wants to happen, we will find ourselves in that dialogue with life that is testimony to an awakened brain, urgently needed in our time.

For more startup news, check out the other articles on the website, and subscribe to the magazine for free. Listen to The Cereal Entrepreneur podcast for more interviews with entrepreneurs and big-hitters in the startup ecosystem.