Ideals in Motion

Starting Over…

What an intriguing and, for many, frightening idea. Who hasn’t at some point wished that they could just start over? Of course, the wish always comes with some very specific strings attached! Strings like “I’d like to start over knowing what I know now.” The problem is that if I try to start over knowing what I know now I’m obviously not truly starting over. The challenge (and this is why most won’t or can’t do it) is to start over by forgoing what I know now – at least long enough to truly assess today free of the filters of yesterday.

This is why sustaining something is so difficult. What’s seemingly impossible not to do is look at our current reality through the filters of lessons accumulated, experiences had and decisions that have worked and not worked. We seldom are able to approach today with a fresh set of eyes. We seldom consider the data, facts, and information in front of us without assigning meaning to it. Meaning that is generated through the influence of all we “know now”. And, as soon as meaning has been tacked on to something our behavior lines up right behind it and we end up doing life the way we have always been doing it. In the words of Peter Drucker, the sage of management and organizational studies, “the source of your success will be the source of your failure.”

Capacity continued…

One of the defining attributes of effective capacity is marked out in the twin domains of choice and choosing. It’s one thing to have awareness of the variety of choices available to me in a given situation – it’s something else entirely when it comes to having the courage to make the choice that is the absolute best for keeping my ideals in motion. Especially when making that choice scares me to death or knowingly puts me in the position of willingly turning my back on more comfortable alternatives.

In this sense, capacity is very much about courage. The type of courage that recognizes that by making a choice I will willingly forgo what else is possible (and often comfortable and familiar). In a very real sense, the quality of my choices eventually comes to be determined not only by the ideal that the choice serves, but also by what I am willing to sacrifice or forgo in order to keep the ideal (and myself) in motion. In this way capacity is very much synonymous with courage.

Sustainably moving towards what I want does involve a continuous process of refining my capacity to make choices. The more intentional and conscious I am when considering the various choices available to me the greater the likelihood that my ultimate choice will be well considered and less prone to “buyer’s remorse”. Making choices always involves turning away from alternatives. The sustaining movement to a life’s ideal requires that I develop the capacity to walk away from alternatives as well as the capacity to keep my ideal sharply in focus. Both require discipline and the former requires the courage of being in integrity with what I say I want my life to be.

The Nature of Capacity

When considering how something becomes sustainable there are two key elements to consider – capacity and starting over. Let’s spend a little time on capacity…

Webster defines capacity as “the power of receiving and holding knowledge…; the ability or qualification to do something.” The first part of this definition speaks to the power of awareness. Specifically, it speaks to the relationship between my awareness of what’s going on in, with and around me and the subsequent choices that awareness makes visible to me. Simply put, an increase in my level of awareness increases my choice making capacity.

This is important to the question of sustainability because choice and power are synonymous. In the field of systems dynamics this equivalency between choice and power is one of the core points of focus of something called the Law of Requisite Variety. This “law’ essentially states that the element in a system that has the most choices available to it will be the dominant element in that system. This becomes important when I consider that all I have available to live, work, play, dream and sleep in are systems – systems of relationships in which I am a participant. My awareness of these systems, my capacity to receive and hold knowledge (i.e., my place in them, their make-up, my make-up, changes they are undergoing, forces that impact them) is what will in no small way determine my power/ability to sustain any success over time.

On Sustainability...

Most people, when thinking about having something be sustainable, will tend to think in terms of a perpetual motion machine. In other words, something will be sustainable if I can just figure out the “code” that makes the thing (a relationship, a business, a product, a high performing team) run and then make sure that the "code" is in place and operating. The problem with this way of thinking is manifold.

Foremost is that approaching an event with this orientation will often result in attempting to maintain the status quo – to keep in place the things that seem to be making this work. Unfortunately, natural, growing, healthy systems require change in order to thrive. Paradoxically, trying to maintain the status quo, while very compelling, is often the surest way to doom something that is working.

An alternative way of approaching sustainability is to think of it in terms of developing the capacity to continuously start over. This is a fundamentally different approach to success, to life and to living. The capacity to continuously start over...this is an approach that is well and elegantly suited to keeping my ideals in motion.

In upcoming postings I’ll be parsing this notion a bit. Particularly, I’ll be looking at the core elements of this approach - capacity and starting over. Neither of which are as straightforward as many would think.

 

How does stillness generate activity?

I'm reminded of what Michael, the protagonist in Robert Heinlein's classic book Stranger in a Strange Land would say – “waiting is full”.

Stillness is a containment vessel that quickens what is held. Paradoxically, stillness is also a very mindful activity. In one sense, stillness can be seen as similar to the pause between inhalation and exhalation in the breathing cycle. Without the stillness of the pause, no action in either direction is possible.

The notion of stillness generating activity has import personally as well as organizationally. In today’s business world the maxim of “he who hesitates is lost” has been fully integrated into exhortations to be first to market, to be constantly vigilant (Andy Grove’s notion that only the paranoid survive) and to swim like sharks (which will drown if they stop moving). Trying to get a manager, a leader or a team to take even a day to become still enough to examine where they are, who they’ve become and where they are going is almost impossible. It takes courage, discipline and intention to become still when there are so many stimuli demanding our attention. Yet, without periodically and intentionally examining these questions we run a very great risk of losing connection with that which gives meaning to what we are doing. And, without meaning we invite burnout, disease and emotional disengagement – the number one cause of lost productivity and employee turnover in the world.

Stillness invites and encourages reconnection. It is necessary to the process of sustainability. Stillness is a meaning-filling activity.

Containment…the key to productivity!

Tom was resisting his boss’ request that he write a job description. He felt that to do so would put him in a box and limit his creativity, freedom and, in his mind, his effectiveness. His boss had made the request as a way to begin to bring some structure and accountability to Tom’s work process. Tom wanted to be seen and recognized as a “player” within his company. Unfortunately, his self perception didn’t match that of his peers or supervisors who saw him as far too scattered and undisciplined to be taken seriously.

Relatively young and new to leadership positions, Tom didn’t have or appreciate the need for a structure that allowed for catalyzing his considerable talents. By formulating a job description Tom would essentially be creating a containment field that would cause him stress. This is the good news! Without the stress created by the containment field there could be no directed or intentional action on Tom’s part. Tom’s ideals of and for himself could not coalesce – they would continue to be scattered and unfocused.

In a very real sense, the stress generated by the creation of the constraining job description provides energy. The nature of this particular containment field, a job description, allows for a directed channeling of that energy. Essentially, the containment field of the job description becomes a dynamo – a generator – that has the potential of putting Tom’s ideals into motion in a way that may result in him becoming recognized as the “player” he believes himself to be.