The metaphor of Lord of the Rings reminds us that most do not see the signs of trouble. They seem blind to the signals and too focused on the world as it was.
Of course they are not really "Blind" - it is that their mindsets are so "set" that anything that is outside their "Normal" is invisible.
This issue of the imperative of seeing beyond your conventional mindset was the centre-piece of Chet's opening remarks. The entire conference was designed to help us all "see" and to harness the diversity in the room to provide a deeper and a wider perspective on both the challenge and the opportunity.
Anyone who may feel this idea of looking at the power of mindset to hinder or to help, need only recall how most of the pundits got the financial crash that we are now living through all wrong. They could not see it and most were locked into Group Think.
The OODA loop is clear. All planning and all action is likely wasted unless you have "Seen" what is really going on and that you have processed this insight properly via your available worldview/mindset.
If you have a Newtonian - cause and effect mimdset - you cannot "get" the idea of an interconnected world.
Chet laid out for us - the Fellowship - our greatest challenge. How were we going to help groups of people to open up their mindset so that they too could "see"?
Typically, we all "see" the world differently to each other. All groups form like this with a myriad of "views". The hard work is actually not to get everyone to see excatly the same - for that gets us back to one of our problems today - Group Think. When we all think the same - we are at extreme risk.
What Chet recommends is "Harmony" not "Unison". With most people in a larger frame, youi have the value of low friction but also useful feedback - so that important things are not missed.
So how do you get to this ideal?
By setting the best Context and by using a great deal of conversation and practice to get there.
The core Context for the Boyd 2008 Conference was this:
- That the Newtonian - cause and effect world - the machine metaphor - had reached the end of its utility
- That the replacement metaphor was that of natural systems and networks where all is interconnected
- That the world is already there - that we live in a hyperconnected world where the state has not enough power to help us and where machine model organizations of all types are too slow and expensive to offer value - think Auto Bailout
Download Richards -- Mindsets#DA9A70
Chet Richards‘ OODA Loop refresher is valuable. Listen here (mp3) (Thanks Charlie Richards)
Later I will post a video
