Running the 'Systems Discourse' Gauntlet | Frankly #42
In this week’s Frankly, I reflect on the increasing standard deviation of comments and feedback from the recent episodes that had nuanced viewpoints. This isn’t a problem per se, but more of a personal meta-recognition of the difficulty in telling a systems (not single issue) story to the general public - especially as it grows while world events get weirder.
I came up with 7 different continuums of perspectives people use when taking part in a “systems” discourse, such as what we’re attempting to do on The Great Simplification podcast. In such complex and often controversial discussions, each of us has a point of view that stems from our own personal experiences, knowledge, and identity - yet how we channel that point of view into the larger discourse matters.
How does understanding our own perspectives potentially help us side-step mental roadblocks and become more open to other possibilities and actions? What are the hidden ruts that we can fall into when discussing the future with others that we’re not consciously thinking of and can we learn to avoid them? Can shifting our perspective along the spectrum of potential responses open dialogue and facilitate more inclusive and cooperative conversations as we collectively try to meet the future halfway?
In case you missed it…
In this week’s episode, literary scholar and psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist joined me to discuss the way modern culture teaches and encourages us to use - and not use - the two lobes of our brains. Each side is specially attuned to see and interact with the world in certain ways: the left side acts as a narrow problem-solving executor, while the right side is a broadly open contextualizer. While both are critical and work together, industrialized society has become more and more reliant on our clever yet myopic left-brain perspective, losing sight of the wisdom that can see and coordinate the entire picture.
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