Breakthrough: Bridge to New Paradigms
Any new paradigm challenges fundamental assumptions and beliefs. Old habits make it difficult to step across the line into new ways to think and act. For 20 years, the HSD community has built bridges from the closed-system paradigms of the past to the open-system opportunities of the future. We have tried our best to be gentle, patient, and subtle in our invitations, but time is running out! The challenges are urgent, and we are impatient! So, we are engaging in two initiatives to break through into the future: Dragons of Complexity and Adaptive Action for Sustainability!
Dragons of Complexity
Five basic assumptions lock us into old, command-and-control ways of thinking. We are collaborating with Michael Spayd and Marie Murtaugh of The Collective Edge to find the key to unlock possibility in complexity. We call these limiting beliefs “Dragons,” and the keys to unlock them include:
- Certainty is an Illusion. We are trained to expect certainty and to see uncertainty as a threatening exception. In reality, uncertainty is the rule. We cannot engage with it until we recognize its power and see it as a door to possibility.
- Patterns instead of Problems. Simple problems can be solved, but we don’t need to worry about them. Our biggest challenges are ‘wicked issues’ that will never be solved. When we see them as patterns to shift, then we stop blaming ourselves and others when our well-planned and well-intentioned solutions fail.
- Difference is Energy. Power of privilege pushes toward common ground, but the power of possibility emerges from diversity. The paradigm of the future releases potential of difference through generative engagement.
- Time is not a Line. Opportunities multiply when you see time as an infinite past folding into a pregnant present and unfolding into an ever-expanding future.
- Precision isn’t Accuracy. Sometimes, in complex environments, soft eyes and big pictures give an accurate picture that reveals more truth than the validity and reliability of measured precision.
Join us as we bring these “Dragons” to life. Break through the assumptions that keep us stuck in paradigms of the past.
Adaptive Action for Sustainability
https://bit.ly/AA4Sustainability
We face wicked issues—like the climate crisis—that require more than faith and understanding. We are collaborating with the International Organization Development Network to prepare professionals to lead their communities in Adaptive Action for sustainability. During the OD Summit in Raleigh North Carolina in June, a circle of concerned citizens will learn the tools, models, and methods they need to bring others together to address their local climate challenges. In three days of Adaptive Action Lab, we will explore:
- WHAT? What are the unique wicked issues you face, and what opportunities and challenges exist today?
- SO WHAT? So what patterns emerge from the problems, and how can HSD models and methods help you shift them toward greater health and sustainability?
- NOW WHAT? Now what will you do in the immediate and long-term future to be the difference that makes a difference for your family and your neighbors?
Join us as you turn your dread and fear of climate change into patterns of possibility!
Shifting paradigms is not easy, and it is not quick, but it is imperative! We must think and act differently to create the future we imagine. Join us in these two adventures, as we explore the territory that lies between habits of the past and possibilities of the future.