I’ve been immersing myself in Richard Schwartz’s “Internal Family Systems” lately. In light of our work of helping leaders to navigate their complex organisational environment one thought in particular resonated with me:

We rarely take a fresh, open look at a person or a situation. Instead, we quickly and automatically jump to conclusions. Our automatic conclusions are based on our previous experience and our current desire. 

But that unconscious way of judging is not helping us to navigate the complexity of our inner nor our outer world. To thrive in a world where cause and effect are often unclear, we must stretch into becoming aware of the simple stories we tell ourselves in order to make up for the confusion and uncertainty we hold inside us.

We need to learn to approach people and situations with a beginner’s mind. 

What the Buddhists call a “Beginner’s Mind” is the perspective that many perspectives exist due to the absence of preconception and projection.

So, when looking at an event, a trend, or a conflict, be aware of the story you tell yourself about it.

A great complexity hack shared by Jennifer Garvey Berger is to always challenge yourself to come up with 3 stories of what happened and why. 

This opens up different perspectives while accepting that as human beings we make up our own stories as we look at “the facts” and fill the gaps with a story that is unconsciously written through the lens of our past experience and present desire.