The First Law of Thinking:
The current view of the situation (cvs)
can never be equal to
the better view of the situation (bvs)
George H. Gallup, Founder of The Gallup Poll:
What the School of Thinking is doing to teach people to think for themselves may be the most important thing going on in the world today.
One of the core ideas (CVS) which I have recently “escaped” from and therefore creating a BVS has been about how armed conflicts can end. For the longest time, I have believed that helping “elite” parties, i.e. government, military, the leadership of the revolutionary fronts, negotiate and enter into agreements will bring peace and end armed conflicts. My CVS has changed. My BVS (or the new CVS) is that peace cannot happen despite negotiations and accords by the political and security elites because these “elites” precisely have interests which they cloak under the guise of peace but are really about preserving the status quo. The elites are not best positioned to pursue peace because peace requires the upending of the present dominant power structures. i.e., a radical change of the status quo, which these “elite” dominate and benefit from. It would be against their self-interest to negotiate a just and landing peace.
For many years I’ve been, and have worked in areas that are, very outcome focused. As such I have often been in the mindset that effort doesn’t count, only outcomes (or successes) count. While I may have still been able to be successful in this mindset, there has been added pressure and procrastination that has stemmed from this belief. After learning the SDNT process I’m now trying to view starting as a “win”, which is helping me reduce my procrastination and increase my motivation.
I have been trying to apply the concepts learned here to the work I do, to my lifestyle and the general work around the house. A current cvs2bvs would be thinking outside the box. Currently I tend to just jump into taskswithout much planning and a better way to do this would be to plan by lateral thinking. To foresee or predict outcomes of varying quality and plan to improve on them to achieve a higher quality.
I sometimes ask myself: what does make me choose one pursuit over a nother !?
Now, I believe that it’s what turely motiveates me…
Recently, I spoke with my team in our NGO, and shared with them some of my ideas about how they can start to think lateraly and how to find the suitable thing they need to do.
I told them a rule that I have concluded from using SDNT “Start with something you can do , then Do it until you can become good at it , and clearly understand what you are doing, Then Share your action-based outcomes in a way that helps other people”.
I actually begin to discard the unhelpful idea that is ” some people are born with high level of skills” … It’s just not true.
Although I have a very good comfortable job I have always seen myself as an entrepreneur. I want to be able to serve my clients the way that I think would create tremendous value for them. I want to be able to reap the rewards of my labor and creativity. SO I have set up a plan for myself to escape from my CVS to a much better BVS. I want to be an entrepreneur that solves peoples problems and creates value for my clients. TO be able to create a business that can do very well by doing good.
I escaped from box of expectation from others. Whenever I do something I start to expect a preferred outcome based on my view of the world. Some other times I have also expected people to behave in a certain way AND many times I have been able to escape my own expectations. This has freed up my thinking for more creativity and prevented negative emotions helping me be happier .
One recent insight, having just had a child, is the amount of effort and work that goes into developing a child in the early years. One then becomes much more thankful for your own upbringing and parents. The same goes for leadership in an organisation. Although you may try and impart knowledge onto a team mate they may not recognise the value until they are imparting onto others. If they get to that stage, then I guess you know you’ve done a good job. It won’t happen overnight though.
A core idea that I need to rise above is that I need to do ealmost everything myself. I need to be able to delegate, to relinquish control by trusting other people.
This kind of insight is using LT at it’s best. Thinking outside our OWN box is the hardest one to do. Edward used to say that the most difficult feat of human thinking is escaping from our own point-of-view, Nice one Jamie.
My most recent core idea I have risen above is that…. my perception of myself is not the same as others perceive me. I need to slow things down, take a breath and look out from within.
Instead of carrying out renovations myself this time, I would seek out an expert and have them draw up designs for the home improvements. I would then take these to a property valuer and have the alterations/additions valued to gain an idea on how much value they would bring to the home. I could then weigh up the cost verses the benefit before procceding with the project.