TIME TO THROW AWAY OUR TICKETS?

We are busy traversing an unpredictable, somewhat uncontrollable and fragile web of circumstances. The Covid-19 pandemic. And we are no longer travelling the safe, secure path that we were on not too long ago. Maybe it’s time to throw away our old tickets?

In engaging with new threats, challenges and opportunities, new mind-sets, ways of thinking and ways of making progress are needed. I believe that this applies at all levels - at the nation-level, organisation-level and personal-level. As we watch what unfolds I believe that two of the approaches we can learn from are:

• how scenario planning and implementation can guide us to a desired, emergent future  
• how collaboration, insight and good behaviour are helpful during difficult transitions

SCENARIOS

In South Africa in the lead up to 1994 and the possibility of a non-racial democracy so eloquently envisioned and described by Nelson Mandela, and which many still hope for, four scenarios were constructed by top level stakeholders. The chosen scenario was:

FLAMINGOS represented a beautiful ideal where everyone takes off together, flies together to the same destination and lands well, still together as one flock.

Built on inclusion, participation and collaboration this scenario required the overcoming and discarding of any harmful focus on differences, and instead harnessing the richness and power of diversity in all its forms, to bring about the desired end. A cohesive and cooperative way forward to the goal meant casting aside unilateral decision-making followed by imposed ‘solutions’ and control and compliance measures to ensure blind obedience.

For a flamingo transition to work, we need to let go of egoic thinking and acting, and narrow self-interest; and devote time to healing divides and building bridges not walls, and stay true to agreed and espoused values. In short, to diligently put “we’ above ‘me’

To borrow an idea from Swiss-French psychologist and psychoanalyst Charles Baudouin, we have a tendency to (often unconsciously) hold onto our bus ticket for a long time after we have left the bus.  

A planner promoted to general manager may over-emphasize the role of planning in his multiple-faceted leadership challenge, a freedom fighter turned politician may continue to display limiting beliefs and resentments, managers may continue to employ tools and techniques no longer suited to the new world we that inhabit. The head of a department conditioned to a control and compliance way of operating and being an “authority” may believe herself unable to adopt a collaboration and cooperation mind-set.  Economists, psychologists, medical doctors, business leaders, theologians, the rich and privileged, the poor and disadvantaged all develop their own worldviews, have their own “bus tickets”. The challenge for leadership at the highest level is to insist on and bring about a flamingo culture and journey. All other tickets must be thrown away.  Can all strata of South African society do this? 

The LAME DUCK scenario (a ticket to be thrown away together with Ostrich and Icarus scenarios) is where restricted powers or mind-set renders government, leaders or people without the freedom to decide and act, impotent. The lame duck situation may come about through continuously creeping corruption, division, incompetence, being seduced and blinded by temporary and immediate gratifications, inability to permit any other worldview than one’s own. 

A sure way of shooting ourselves in the foot is when we get so entangled in political and other power struggles, arguing to win rather than to learn, that the end is lost sight of, and our means take over. So the desired end is lost. 

OSTRICH is a scenario where an authority arrogantly or as a result of unconscious bias, sticks their heads in the sand to hide from problems, from the possibility that they may have erred, and from a reality that they wish to avoid. Whether this is the possibility that the model, algorithms and robustness of data being used to make decisions may be faulty; from the extent of social discontent that could bubble up into anarchy, terrible violence and severe upheaval; or from the immediate and longer term implications of further hurting an ailing junk-status economy - the outcome is not good.   

Dualistic thinking fuels ostrich behaviour. A stubborn mind-set that insists on fallacious choices signals a pending failure – no matter how many self-given plaudits, wishful thinking or patting each other on the back (defensively?) happens.

Mature non-dualistic thinkers are able to see that two opposing ideas can result in a superior, third way. So crises and opportunities can co-exist, high tech can accompany high touch, losing/ letting go often also signals a win, compassion and power belong together, higher efficiency does not have to mean poorer service, people and profit and planet go together …and ‘and/both’ does trump ‘either/or’ in the situations that we now face. 

Our choice as we traverse the coronavirus pandemic web is NOT that we must do our utmost to save lives OR that we must save the economy, OR that we must preserve the whole-person well-being of our people (physical, emotional, social, spiritual).
We are not dealing with simplistic, mutually exclusive opposites or priorities.
We do need an ‘and’ mind-set and approach.

The Flight of Icarus (Gowy, Jacob Peter The Flight of Icarus Madrid, Museo del Prado 1635/7 In the public domain)

Mythological ICARUS remains a cautionary-tale. For a government furiously bent on initiating “reforms”, “corrective legislation”, or re-engineering society, land ownership, pension investment, economic participation  – sometimes justified, at other times based on dubious premises and harshly, unilaterally imposed retribution, restitution or restoration - flying too high too soon, so that the already ailing, junk-status economy goes into melt-down and crashes, is not good.
In his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, the Dalai Lama said “Our struggle must remain nonviolent and free of hatred”. That is more relevant and critical today in South Africa than perhaps any time since 1994.

Good effective action was initially taken, and many quickly became aware of the implications of the virus, and the necessity for protective and preventative measures. But now rushing ahead and basing future decisions on faulty models, hastily developed algorithms and insufficient or unreliable and valid data for decision-making – and imposing severe control and compliance measures (some based on dubious reasoning and dualistic thinking) carries similar danger. 
Let’s throw away this ticket and not prevent our ability to fly.

 

TRANSITIONS 

Change is an event – something happens. Transition is the journey or process that follows a change event.
One way to understand transition is to use the model developed by William Bridges: 'In transition there is an ending, then a neutral zone, and only then a new beginning’.

(Source: Bridges, William (1992) Managing Transitions Addison-Wesley Publishing Co. Inc. New York)

Outside of any narrow religious context, the journey of the Israelites, from captivity to the promised land, illustrates the transition process quite well. Read this account with an awareness of our current Covid-19 transition.

After 430 years in Egypt, the process of getting to the land of milk and honey ultimately took a too-long 40 years , because the people failed to plug into flamingo mode. 

The vision and purpose were good, understood and shared by all; things of value were carried forward from the past (customs, traditions, Joseph’s bones – representing an oath he had made); and before the advent of new ethics, governance frameworks and ways of living and working, came – like it or not - many endings.
(Alchemists in the Middle Ages believed that every ending is a beginning. In the same way that individuals learn to cope with losses by working through feelings before coming to acceptance and restarting, so too can organisations and nations accept that a new beginning requires saying good bye - to old processes, technology, markets, ways of working, ways of behaving, political standpoints and worldviews, ways of running an economy ... No pain no gain). 

In unknown territory, the neutral zone of the marriage of chaos and creativity, the “stiff-necked” Israelis were often unhappy. At one stage they complained about the manna they were provided with (entitlement thinking) and some took more and others less than their due (There are always takers and givers and some who try and even things out). Many refused to throw away their null and void tickets.  One command was to appoint leaders who were competent, trustworthy and not corrupt. Cool heads, strong nerves and fiery bellies are a prerequisite.

Inevitably mistakes are made and these need to be quickly acknowledged and fixed. (Agility)
There is temptation to backtrack, yet resilience, more appropriate skills and attitudes, innovations come about as we persevere with what is right. Harrison Owen has said that “High learning as an intentional way of life, begins with embracing chaos … To avoid chaos is to avoid growth, is to avoid life itself...”. 

As new beginnings emerge and the vision starts to become a new reality, challenges continue. Some scouts in the Israeli vanguard reported that menacing, fearful giants lived in the land ahead. Positive, determined thinking was needed. Moses wasn’t to enter the promised land. That task and privilege fell to Joshua.
Says William Bridges, 'Beginnings are a psychological phenomenon, not simply practical ones. In practical terms things change quickly... Beginnings follow the timing of the mind and the heart”. 

In this transition story the lessons are self-evident. As is the overall imperative to stick to the right path to implementing the right scenario. 

Who wants to be in a country or organisation of ostriches, Icaruses or lame ducks?! 

Let’s throw away those bus tickets that we no longer need.