
Clear Confident Leader Weekly Observer, Issue #51
From the Greenbelt of Boise, Idaho, Leaves turning colors
Language is primarily generative and creative.
– Chalmers Brothers
Language helps us both to interpret and make meaning of the world around us.
– Doug Silsbee
Whether you think you can, or think you can’t – you’re right.
– Henry Ford
I was in a conversation regarding the world we live in today. Here are some views:
- The world is flat. No, the world is round.
- The earth rotates around the sun. No the sun travels around the earth.
- The earth is a dynamic living sphere traveling in an elliptical spiral as it follows the sun moving through an expanding universe.
The words we use in the narrative of our minds and in what we express to those around us create and reflect our perspectives. I share the examples above as a metaphor for many conversations that occur today, in which arguments arise from taking a simpler point of view and holding firm that it is “RIGHT”.
Reality it seems is more complex than we’re willing to consider and discuss. Yet finding ways to discuss the complexity, and create generative approaches together, are what we need most urgently to address the challenges we face.
To paraphrase Einstein, we can’t solve today’s problems with the same level of thinking that created them. We must evolve our sense-making and conversations to survive and thrive. I encourage:
- Acknowledging and simply describing the complexity we live within.
- Discussing how together we can discover creative solutions that support all of us.
Let’s face and discuss the complexity of where we are, and create a better future today!