Our Complacency
Perhaps our real problem is not so much our deficient thinking, but our complacency. We do believe that our thinking is wonderful. Our existing thinking has indeed been wonderful in science and technology - and getting to the moon and beyond. Yet our poor thinking has been responsible for most of the human disasters such as wars conflicts, persecutions etc. The reason is obvious. We rush to use judgement rather than to design the way forward.
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Franis on -
It sounds like you are asking us now to design a way forward, Edward.
How would we start?
Would we start by first choosing a specific, crucial area?
OK, I'll do a septine on what is the most crucial area to focus our energy to solve the issue of complacency.
1. Energy. If people had more physical energy, what would they do with it? Probably better their own situation at first, but, as the saying goes, much of youthful exuberance is wasted. But when someone's needs are taken care of, they tend to turn their attention to community and social concerns. This contributes to complacency, because everything seems OK. No need for any improvement because there is no pressure.
2. Communication skills. Education in communication skills would allow for better community support from peers. The ability to communicate is a foundation to successfully working with other people, introducing your ideas and expressing them in some way.
3. Speaking skills. When someone learns to be articulate and confront their own fears about speaking in public, they tend to become a representative for whatever they believe is important. Complacent people tend to want to hide.
4. Art and Creativity. Decades ago. it was established that those who were trained in art made the best psychological counselors, (not graduates trained in psychology.) Evidently the study of the arts begets wisdom.
5. Self-knowledge. When people know what they want, they also tend to learn how to structure the time they have.
6. Efficient Health Care. Those people who age gracefully and are not in pain have more time and energy to devote towards making the world a better place after kids are grown and they have time to be on their own.
7. Inspiration. To the extent that people are inspired, they work hard for ideals.
After doing this exercise, if I were going to pick the more crucial - I'd say #7 and #6.
-
Permalink Reply by Franis on
-
Ahhh. That's a much better explanation. The Septine is actually a design tool. You attempt to find a situation that would accommodate all the various points of the Septine...
Well, if I could back to my original list and edit everything down to one word...
Solving Complacency
1. Training
2. Communication
3. Presentation
4. Creative Arts
5. Self-knowledge
6. Health
7. Inspiration
This looks like the new subjects in the education I'd suggest to replace what we've got in schools for kids right now.
The dominant points I habitually think about
1. freedom (of response)
2. writing
3. logistics
4. eating
5. people
6. deadlines
7. errands
That's much more interesting... Thanks, Dennis!
-
Permalink Reply by Kim Jones on -
SEPTINE ON OUR COMPLACENCY
1. Complacency is easy
2. If it ain't broken, why fix it?
3. Complacency puts an issue to bed (thinking stops)
4. Creativity is for the arts world
5. New ideas involve too much risk (leave that to the rich wankers)
6. Why swap the comfort of complacency for the rough road of thinking?
7. I made an informed judgment about something - why should I change it now?
-
Permalink Reply by Kim Jones on
-
Or (simpler version):
1. Easy
2. Satisfactory
3. Closure
4. Arcane (creativity)
5. Risk (ditto)
6. Comfortable
7. Prejudice
-
Permalink Reply by Kim Jones on
-
Some teachers are discussing the newfangled trend of teaching "thinking skills" in schools.
"Educational consultants are such try-hards" one says. "They seem to imagine we have to go to all this trouble to redefine what thinking is about when in fact education has been teaching thinking for centuries. Why make something seem new and unfamiliar that has already been refined over centuries to make it easy, straightforward and streamlined?"
"Exactly" says another. "Haven't they heard of the logic of if it ain't broken, why fix it?"
"Listen" says a third, "I'm sick to death of all this trendy professional development! Why did I spend four years at university gaining my spurs only to be told by some upstart called - whatsisname - Edwin de Bono - that I need to go back to school and learn how to think? The way these edu-consultants make their big bucks is by making everyone feel like you have never reached the end of your training. They love seeing you squirm uncomfortably."
"And how about this nonsense surrounding creativity!!??! I'm a bloody mathematics teacher for christ's sake! When you think about so-called creative subjects, does mathematics leap to mind? Hmmm? Let's leave the airy-fairy creative stuff to the artists and the musos thank you. We logicians deal with the right and the wrong."
"Indeed. They told us at this latest talk-fest that we have to have the courage to stick our necks out to trial new ideas in teaching kids. And if I get a glorious new idea, I suppose the funding for that will just come flying in through the window? If it costs a bomb - and then bombs out - will the school still want to employ me? I don't have a rich uncle to support me when I get the sack, ya know..."
"I have been teaching in schools for the last 33 years. Does anyone actually think they have something left to teach me about teaching? I've refined my act to the point where I am entirely comfortable in what I do and how I do it. I think they call this wisdom, don't they?"
"You just stick to your guns, mate. There is such a thing as an informed opinion and anyone with your seniority should have that level of respect. They say the world is changing and that our methods should change but I say there is nothing new under the sun. It's al just faddish, trendy nonsense. Something to put in the next glossy brochure the school sends to parents. Helps justify putting up the school fees - you know the game".
-
Permalink Reply by Raymund Kwok on -
In science and technology, there is really not much complacency. Scientists and engineers are working very hard with pressure to find something new. There are various mechanisms in universities and companies to push the scientists and engineers to work hard, including thinking. This is the reason that science and technology are moving exponentially.
As a scientist, I found it is odd to include feeling (red hat) in the thinking process. rH is usually not needed for thinking a science or engineering issue. This is probably another reason that science and technology can move fast.
For many other issues, such as trading, stock market, selling goods, etc, rH is an important factor. The complacency comes from rH without the help of the 5 hats.
I think we may slight modify 6 hats, so that the goal of the 6 hat thinking process is to test the rH and change rH. The result will be some action items with alignment to rH.
-
Permalink Reply by Franis on
-
Yes, very good point Raymund that the hR needs to be further developed in additional directions. Kim's post also has motivated me to think about this further.
Raymund, hR is definitely in science. When there is a discovery, people don't shout "Eureka! I found what I expected!" Scientists, engineers and technologists will be laughing or saying, "That's curious!" because they found something unexpected.
So how someone FEELS is directly related to how they can make the leap that is required to be making a discovery. This topic is a feature on my Creative Hit List.
Some of what would be factors:
encountering the unexpected
the nature of "failure"
perfectionism
procrastination
criteria for success
definitions of quality
design thinking - the factors that designing prioritizes
authority or endorsement by others
why a person imagines they are not being creative or "Can't think"
why people are not willing to attempt to think
Why people are not willing to reveal the results of their thinking
Manipulation and emotional persuasion in action - so it can be identified
Point Of View of perception - tools on how to actively shift it
(...and I'm sure there are many more. It would be vastly productive to do MORE thinking on this subject. Discussion of this HUGE area would also enhance the participation of people who not given their voice to these questions on this site. I believe people are not participating here because these issues are not being discussed.)
It's a common thing to imagine that "demonizing" emotion in general deals with it, when it is really merely dismissing it. Obviously, this has not been working so well for those "emotional" people who do not agree with that approach and continue to persist in actively fueling their "unreasonable" emotions.
I know that I'm a strange cookie - in that I'm an emotional person AND ALSO someone who can put emotion aside and think with impunity, reasonableness and practicality. In our culture, emotion and thinking are put at odds with each other in a fashion that one precludes the other. Either you are a "thinker" OR you are a "feeler"! In me, this is not the case - I am BOTH.
Tagging emotion as "undesirable" does not offer ways of dealing with it.
Raymund suggests that hR be dealt with differently. Since it is disregarded in these scientific fields, that this intentional disregarding should be reflected in the use of the hR. I'm suggesting further developments from the opposite point of view - that there isn't enough development of the hR.
By describing the use of the hR , we are told to use hR as an expression only. The Republicans and many other bureaucracies have expertly shown HOW feelings can be blithely disregarded. If the public is allowed an assigned expression, this expression can be carefully designed to have NO EFFECT. The Bush administration example has shown that if people are allowed to vent their "inconsequential" feelings and are kept busy by doing that, then the project can blithely go ahead! The project goe ahead, despite whether it is right or wrong or has disastrous and even dire consequences! All points made by protesters can be completely disregarded about why the project should be stopped.
Now, scientists & engineers often feel that the hR is inconsequential and vastly unrelated to their business at hand. They actively suppress feelings and feel that emotion should rightly be kept out of the activity of science. People who specialize in these areas have taught themselves to shut off access to emotion.
It's possible that this recommendation to suppress emotions are directly related a distinct personal bias about the uselessness (and "messiness) of emotions.
In the use of de Bono tools, what has been suggested to be done about addressing the hR? (From what others have communicated to me, this is why many people do NOT prefer to use de Bono's methods - because they are so devoid of emotion.)
IMHO, there should be more content as to what is the positive, constructive use of the hR, so it can be employed by scientists and engineers in a constructive fashion. Content such as this: "Beyond Reason" by Roger Fisher and Daniel Shapiro is a stellar example of how authors have dealt with the issue of feeling, (related to their subject of negotiation skills. Of course, our topic is thinking skills.)
-
Permalink Reply by Raymund Kwok on
-
Franis,
In science and technology, the subject matter can be separated from feeling. The experimental results are not affected by feeling (except people made mistakes).
For others, starting a war as an example, if feeling of hatred in one national is well developed, the leader can easily make the judgement to start it. The result can depend on feeling.
-
Permalink Reply by Danny Stevens on -
Raymund, it is true you can separate white hat elements and red hat elements. The work of science involves inspiration for proposing hypothesis. Hunches are often important for designing experiments that can falsify a hypothesis. Pretending that emotion and intuition do not effect the scientific process is to give those things uncontrolled sway over the process, just disguised as logic.
Often an idea may be suggested that is similar to an idea that has been considered and rejected, so the new suggestion is discarded as being "the same as" the old one. Red Hat use could identify this as a prejudice and lead to a proper examination of the differences that the new idea offers.
Emotion also plays a sneaky role in the conclusions that are drawn from the observed facts. This can come into play through things like selection bias, e.g. I have come up with conclusion X, I know its right, so I don't have to see if any other conclusion equally fits the facts. That is an emotional defence of a current position. The red hat can help people to identify this in their own position.
Isaac Asimov wrote a wonderful essay showing that people who believe the Earth is flat are not guilty of making a gross mistake, only a marginal approximation error. After all the flat Earth view suggests a uniform curvature of 0, while the spherical earth view has a uniform curvature of some small value like 0.00001, and the bulging at the equator model has a non-uniform curvature that is also very small wherever it happens to be measured. Each model is just a closer approximation to reality. Mr Asimov's essay was a perceptual reframing, adjusting the emotional level of the "wrong" reaction, suggesting that it should be toned down by seeing the issue in another way. That is important red hat style work.
-
Permalink Reply by Bhuvaneshwar Joshi on -
Congrates Danny Stevans for elevating 6 hats for the use by researchers.The role of red hat is interesting. In fact now that we know that humans do not think rationallyalways.Most of the times our decisions are colored by our emotions and by our mindset;beliefs,idioms,assuptions etc.
-
Permalink Reply by Steven Wu on -
Hmmm, can we conclude that life is a comedy (of trial and errors) for thinkers and a tragedy for feelers?
-
Permalink Reply by Charlotte Fairchild on -
Are there conclusions with thinking or is it a never ending story?
© 2013 Created by Administrator.
Powered by
