Thank you Euan.
Now, there is a time and a place for judgemental skepticism and cynicism (I suppose) but somehow there is a widespread sentiment that associates these two stances with expertise and prudence. Now I don’t want you to think that I am all about squashing opposition or creative tension, but I have to say that when I am working with groups of people to create processes that will help take people out of their comfort zones, there is a particular cynicism that does not help. Euan Semple calls this “pomposity” and that certainly seems to capture the holier than thou effect that this kind of stifling aloofness has on groups of people. And Euan names the price that it takes:
I have recently had the experience of people saying to me that the work I do would never work with such-and-such a group of people. My response to them is nothing will work with people if you don’t believe them capable of doing something different or trying something new. I have been responding to these kinds of limiting beliefs with two questions:
That tends to take care of the holier than thou attitudes. A little empathy, a little creative tension, a little mutual compassion for the other helps makes designs for new and difficult things easier. These questions force us to really consider whether we are more capable than someone else. It forces a conscious awareness of the choice you are making when you adopt the pompous stance.
I choose to believe that people are capable of engaging in all kinds of things, from sitting in circles (the scariest thing in the world, if you would believe some) to radically letting go of huge projects they were working on because they weren’t going anywhere.
Lately I have been making an explcit request of clients that we create design teams for events and processes that DON’T include cynics. That is not to say that we don’t need people bringing concerns and challenging questions to the work, it’s just that when you have someone in a design team that does not believe in the possibility of what you are trying to create, so much energy gets taken up catering to the unhelpful pomposity of the rightous skeptic that the design suffers and in the worst case scenario, the result is a design that just serves the status quo. I have, in the last couple of years actually “fired” a client who wanted me to help create the illusion of a participatory event but who could not allow himself to actually let a participatory event unfold. He was completely unwilling to let go of control and unwilling to trust people. He even described the people he was working with, government employees in First Nations communities, as “children that need to be shown the answer.” There is a huge cost to this kind of stance in time, trust and the ability for groups to actually hold the real fears and concerns that they have. What do you think is possible when you work with someone who considers an important policy gathering to be like a daycare?
So start with possibility and create the space for inquiry, curiosity and yes even judgement to arise. But if you start with these things, you will not be able to create creative spaces of possibility because you will get mired down in the energetics of unhelpful politics, posing and pomposity. Staying in possibility is hard, but it is the only way we get to new places. More of the same is too deceptively simple.
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Hello Chris,
Belated and BEST Birthday wishes. Maybe a reading over Skype? And I hope to see and work with you again someday.
Maybe there is a possibility of working with the cynic??
“Scratch a cynic and underneath, as often as not, you will find a dead idealist.” Joseph Epstein
Of course possibility thinking is not available to the cynic. The cynic lets disappointment and bitterness overcome hope. An antidote to cynicism is commitment and creativity. When we look at all that we are committed to [Appreciative Inquiry]- people, places, activities and things – we begin to soften the poison of cynicism that can create an opening to a belief that possibilities are necessary to address the conditions we complain about but allow to persist through inaction. Possibility is birthed from the heart. It is the heart that is the source and of what emerges in the mind and together they identify what has most meaning for us.
The Cynic is certainly one obstruction. What do you think are the personal qualities for people to flourish in creating and sustaining a field of possibility?…
Comment by Paul — June 16, 2009 #
I work with cynics all the time, and skeptics and naysayers…that is what working in community is all about. In fact the reason to work with people who see possibility is so that you can build containers that invite people to show up in a myriad of ways. I look for that antidote early on, especially from the group I am working with so that they can hold the questions that cynics bring as inspiring challenges and not pompous undermining tactics.
I think optimism is the core capacity for creating and sustaining a field of possibility, that combined with a commitment to curiosity and shared learning. Probably more capacities, but those strike me as important.
Comment by Chris Corrigan — June 16, 2009 #
Brilliant post exploring the core issues, Chris.
It provided a delightful inspiring uplift to my afternoon, and reminded me to work at staying consciously in possibility each and every day.
Comment by Jon Husband — August 12, 2009 #