What Is Your Native Perspective?

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A big part of having better relationships is clear and meaningful communication. If you’re interested in improving how you communicate and listen to others, this exercise can provide you with a fresh perspective on the way you communicate and how it shapes your instinctual way of being, seeing, and doing in the world.

This practice offers a powerful diagnostic tool that integrates two different components of the Integral model — quadrants and typologies — which will help you learn the four primary ways of relating to the world (experience, action, relationships, and systems) and identify which of these four fundamental perspectives is more or less “native” to you.

We think you will find this exercise to be a unique and entertaining way to utilize the four quadrants in discerning your most natural ways of being. By simply understanding your own Native Perspective and communicating with that knowledge in mind, you will be able to better see and hear those around you, and will likely feel much more seen and heard yourself. And who doesn’t want that?

This technique was developed by Joanne Hunt and Laura Divine of Integral Coaching Canada, and was adapted for this exercise by Huy Lam and Robb Smith. Narrated by David Riordan.

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    Interesting. I have an Inner Experience perspective with the 8 questions, with Action and Systems tying for second place. With the final 9th question I now have a tie between IE & A & S. I was torn between the A & S answers for the 9th question. I feel a close connection with both IE and A with IE winning out by a small margin. It will be interesting to see how these play out and if there’s more S available to me than I am aware of.

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    I found this most interesting and helpful. Just the right amount of self observation and analysis (unlike others such as Please Understand Me, which as I recall asks 70 questions, which I also like, but I did this on a Sunday-it made my day). I also appreciate the positive, supportive tone. My thanks to Integral Life for producing and publishing this.

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    Interesting exercise. Forced choice resulted in a surprising Native Perspective. Good to know. On the other hand, absent forced choice I find myself taking into account All Four options in making a decision with priority of perspective varying with given occasion. E.g., this second occasion to experiment with the same exercise resulted in a different NP. So . . . “messed up” seems in play.

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    I thought I’d turn out to be mostly Inner Experience. But it was pretty evenly spread. I vary how I respond according to the situation, with the weakest being relationships or shared meaning. I was trained for years to assess situations using a variety of perspectives and approaches so perhaps this is at play.

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