May I show you how we can get back into a way of thinking that is not determined by the state of exception?
We live in a time when the unimaginable has become normal. Even the pandemic has become routine. It takes a conscious effort to take a step into the future. Freedom starts in the mind.
Unfortunately, pandemic thinking has put a veil over many areas of life.
It is only in the exchange between people that data comes to life.
There are more reasons why we struggle to free up our minds again:
- In complexity, we do not find cause-effect relationships
- We have difficulty in looking behind the scenes
- Any many still believe that we find meaning purely by reading data.
The hope is to create meaningful encounters. Sense-making sessions are a communicative way to do this — they replace factual knowledge with attention.
Here is the instruction:
Step 1: Choose a complex topic and invite a group of stakeholders to discuss it!
Only in direct exchange with others do you begin to understand their perspectives.
I recently did this with a team of students to create greater awareness of environmental sustainability. We found startup founders and government representatives to enter the room.
Step 2: Do several rounds of breakout sessions with different contexts!
The biggest mistake is outsourcing difficult issues to committees and expert panels.
Many people think that only professionals can give an informed answer. However, complex issues require taking a bird’s eye view, looking at the situation from different angles (contexts). It just requires our full attention to engage in complex situations through sensing.
Step 3: Share your observations freely and without bias!
There is a huge benefit in harvesting your feelings and experiences — yet, it’s necessary to keep an open end. There is most likely no right or wrong answer to complex questions:)
All three steps line up, because they ensure a high quality of communication that allows for completely new solutions that you would not have thought possible before. This is how communication frees up our mind!