First: Some Emotional Realities

Mental processes, I have come to believe, are not organized around thought or reason but around emotional ideals: how we feel we want something to be.

The relationship between emotional drives and reason is like the relation-ship between an entrepreneur and her lawyers. The entrepreneur knows what she wants to do and employs the lawyers to tell her how.

The subject of the passions doesn't seem to matter. What matters is that emotions…set our agenda. And they do so largely without our being aware of them. Far from being disorganizing, they are the focal point of the mental system's activity: They govern our choices, they determine our goals, and they guide our lives. We are, for the most part, in most of life their servants, and we are usually not conscious of them.

Robert Ornstein

The Evolution of Consciousness

People are not just minds. They are not pure rationality. There is more at stake here than just seeing. People are emotional beings. They have investments in preserving the past and the present. They do not appreciate the possibility that they have been wrong. This is a very big deal. You must see that! What does it mean for me to have to accept the fact that my partnership did not have to fail, that my marriage did not have to fail, that these people I have such poor evaluations of might really be all right people, just like me. I have made investments in these feelings; I have justified them to myself many, many times in the past. And you, with your Magic Consultant’s Card, you think that I will let go of all of that. Just because it makes sense?

Barry Oshry

Seeing Systems

Next: Four Levels of Defensive Thinking

LEVEL 1

Too much stuff going on, information overload, etc.

Attention Deficit Trait – ADT

“Overloaded Circuits,” by Edward Hallowell, HBR Jan 2005

LEVEL 2

People feel embarrassed, incompetent, threatened in

the more routine, daily stuff of committees, groups, the corporate world, etc.

Defensive Reasoning, Chris Argyris

LEVEL 3

People feel like losers in their lives

The True Believer, Eric Hoffer

LEVEL 4

People fear death, insignificance

Escape From Evil, Ernest Becker

LEVEL 1

Realities of “ADT”

“When the frontal lobes approach capacity and we begin to fear that we can’t keep up, the relationship between the higher and lower regions of the brain takes an ominous turn. Thousands of years of evolution have taught the higher brain not to ignore the lower brain’s distress signals. In survival mode, the deep areas of the brain assure control and begin to direct the higher regions. As a result, the whole brain gets caught in a neurological catch-22. The deep regions interpret the messages of overload they receive from the front lobes in the same way they interpret everything primitively. They furiously fire signals of fear, anxiety, impatience, irritability, anger, or panic.”

“In this state, executive functioning reverts to simpleminded black-and-white thinking; perspective and shades of gray disappear. Intelligence dims. In a futile attempt to do more than is possible, the brain paradoxically reduces its ability to think clearly.”

“He feels compelled to get the problem under control immediately, to extinguish the perceived danger lest it destroy him. He is robbed of his flexibility, his sense of humor, his ability to deal with the unknown. He forgets the big picture and the goals and values he stands for. He loses his creativity and his ability to change plans. He desperately wants to kill the metaphorical tiger. At these moments he is prone to melting down, to throwing a tantrum, to blaming others, and to sabotaging himself. Or he may go in the opposite direction, falling into denial and total avoidance of the problems attacking him, only to be devoured. This is ADT at its worst.”

Promote positive emotions.

“There are neurological reasons why ADT occurs less in environments where people are in physical contact and where they trust and respect one another….By contract, people who work in physical isolation are more likely to suffer from ADT,,,,”

LEVEL 2

Next: Realities of “Defensive Thinking”

Chris Argyris is a business professor at HarvardUniversity. For over thirty years, he has become internationally famous -- and "all" he has done , in effect, is show that “Defensive Thinking” is a very big deal; you must see that! In a nutshell:

When people feel embarrassed, incompetent, threatened, they react in a fight-or-flight mode which Argyris terms “defensive thinking.”

Defensive thinking has two key features: 1) we blame something or someone else -- anyone but ourselves; and 2) we defend ourselves against the fact that we’re defending ourselves.

Which means that it is almost impossible to get people to “look in the mirror” when they are engaged in defensive reasoning -- to see how they are part of the problem and, hence, any real solution. E.g., "Winners listen, losers bitch."

Trying to “tame" "wicked problems” is a classic case of defensive reasoning -- i.e., I must be right (I have to be right), therefore you must be wrong (you have to be wrong). Therefore you must either be uninformed or corrupt or both. Yep….

What this finally means is that if you are going to change -- unlearn, really listen, etc., you must manage the emotional context. Some examples we'll talk about in class include:

1) Generating multiple alternatives/"reframing" in strategic decision making

2) The historical ubiquity of the “Fool” or “Court Jester”

3) Seek First to Understand;

4) EDI -- Empathize Disarm Inquire

Here is a summary of an article written by Argyris, "Theories of Action That Inhibit Individual Learning," American Psychologist, September 1976; 638)

.

Note: “Double-loop learning” is thinking outside the box or examining your assumptions. This is typically embarrassing or threatening, hence kicks off defensive reasoning which prevents learning.

This article presents some recent findings which suggest

(a) that human beings may not only be unable to double-loop learn, but also that

(b) they tend to be unaware of this inability; therefore,

(c) becoming aware of the unawareness is a crucial first step in reeducation;

but, if successful, such a step

(d) tends to be threatening; and

(e) this threat can act to inhibit the very learning we are trying to produce.

These findings are relevant to the design of reeducation activities at all levels of our society.

"The Left-Column Exercise"

Here is a typical example from Argyris illustrating a technique he has used over the years to get people to listen to themselves. Think of it as a secular version of confession or prayer. In short, you are trying to listen to what you don't want to hear -- in these cases, the unconscious, the "covered up" conversation going on with you and others when you are caught up in defensive reasoning.

Select a specific situation where you are interacting with one or several other people in a way that you feel is not working -- specifically, that is not producing any apparent learning or moving ahead.

Find a quiet, "psychologically safe" place where you are by yourself. Recall the actual conversation in the right-hand side. Now, recall -- uncover, admit, think carefully, confess -- what you were really thinking in the left-hand side.

On the right-hand side:

Write out a sample of the

exchange in the form of a script on the right-hand side

On the left-hand side:

Write out what you are thinking

but not saying at each stage

of the exchange

The most important lesson that comes from seeing "our left-hand columns" is how we undermine opportunities for learning in conflictual situations.

There is no one "right" way to handle difficult situations, but it helps enormously to see first how my own reasoning and actions can contribute to making matters worse.

LEVEL 3

LEVEL 4

(presented in class)