LEADERSHIP STRATEGY: CHALLENGE ASSUMPTIONS
unchallenged perceptions are seldom reality
Given the state of the international economic crisis, business must become more fluent in the language and process of fundamental change—the key to creating a world that works.
by LSI contributor Dr. John Scherer
Since the time of the Greek philosophers observers have noted the constancy of change. ‘The only thing that doesn’t change is change itself’ – Democritus, ca. 400 BCE. Our capacity to survive and prosper in a rapidly changing world is now “mission critical”.
Our new reality is that things are changing all the time—we must train ourselves to notice and respond. When nothing appears the same from moment to moment, our mind creates a fantasy of ‘the way things are’ and the untrained tend to hold onto that view for dear life. We often mentally mold people and events into what makes sense to us at the time, then live as if our assumption is reality. The good news is that we create a comforting illusion that because we understand, everything is under control. The bad news is that because the real world continues its ebb and flow, we will eventually reach a breaking point where illusion won’t hold together anymore. Unfortunetely, the damage is often already done before reality sets in.
Where you’re coming from can predetermine where you end up
What changes when things truly change is beyond thought, judgments, perception or feelings. What changes when things really change is our operating system. Left unchecked, where you’re coming from will predetermine where you end up. The world we see does not exist outside ourselves. There is something out there. But whatever is out there is filtered through senses that are uniquely our own. What we ‘see’ is a product of a private and often instantaneous interpretation based on our personal history.
X = just another example of Y
So long as labels remain in place, life occurs for us not as simple experience, but as a cluster of well-known and well-worn interpretations. This pantry of labels in our operating system instantaneously replaces the sensory experience as it travels through our mental process. Once we determine what a particular experience means, we tend to go out and find it again and again. More:http://leadershipstrategypapers.com/2011/12/20/leadership-strategy-go-deep-when-problem-solving/
In the workplace, this labeling/naming process might go something like this: Marty, the hard-working, effective and productive woman (X) is seen as yet-another-example-of ‘a great support person who is doing quite well for a woman‘ (Y). Meanwhile, Marius, the hard-working, effective and productive man is seen as yet-another-example-of ‘a possible executive-in-the-making’. Or, to return to the merger example we started with: ‘Here come those arrogant, predatory people from ___. . . Yep! There it is again! See, we told you so!’
When something happens that doesn’t fit our theory, we align the data to comply with what is programmed into a personal (and without training usually subconscious) operating system.
This posting sponsored by the Scherer Center