Conserving Tendency
What affects our ability to change?
As human beings, we are living systems that are volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. We live in bigger systems that are also VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous). They are our family, organisation, nation and world, that continuously push us towards chaos. We interact and communicate to make sense of things so we can pull back to restore order. This is how the body “couples” with its environment to survive and thrive. This amazing feat of dynamic change is performed by the nervous system as it preserves the bits that are “you” and rejects those that are “not you”. This is we grow and protect our identity.
Our immune system does the same thing to protect our body’s health. The body replaces its cells (except the eyes) every seven years, whilst conserving its identity, personality and memories. It is this “conserving tendency” that enables us to reproduce, learn and adapt. This ability to self-generate and evolve is embedded in every aspect of our being, including our language, emotions and relationships. Kevin Kelly observed this phenomenon as dynamic, where “change changes itself.”
How come we can be the same and be different?
The cognitive biologists Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela observed how change happens in the nervous system. Like all living systems, we are “structurally coupled” to blend with our environment, including people, to generate new futures by enhancing our capacity to share what matters to us and collaborate to achieve it. It is the paradoxical nature of our being that we can behave differently in different contexts and perform in different ways to serve our shared needs. All change depends on this relationship as it stimulates our ability to commit and communicate to make change happen.
What is happening behind the scenes?
At a molecular level, each cell maintains its role to coordinate its actions with other cells according to simple rules that control their complex interactions. They collaborate to achieve a mutually beneficial outcome. They stand or die together in their drive to survive and reproduce. Just like all living systems, they must remain closely connected to be viable enough conserve the order they rely on. The result is a dynamic, complex and adaptive system that can thrive at the edge of chaos.
How can we use this capacity to conserve and transform ourselves at the same time?
To understand how this “coupling” works we need to think of senses as the “medium” through which our observations are generated. The nervous system processes and combines the sensory data coming from inside and outside the body. This produces our unique Way of Being. When two or more bodies come together, they use the “medium” of language, emotions, moods and body gestures/posture. This enables independent and autonomous human beings to relate and communicate with each other. This is how ideas are spread. Richard Dawkins refers to them as “memetic viruses”.
It’s our “autopoietic system” that makes us want to protect ourselves from threats (like a hedgehog), whilst our “evolving system” makes us want to learn and adapt to new situations (like an octopus).
Both tendencies help us maintain a dynamic balance that adjusts automatically to fit the attitudes and conditions prevailing at the time a decision is made.
How does learning affect attitudes to change?
Attitudes are an example of how a “conservation tendency” can impact on our Way of Being. We talk about people having “closed minds”, because they appear unwilling to change their attitude, way of thinking, feeling or behaving. Personal experiences, beliefs and cultural norms cause us to see our world in a certain way.
For example, when I listened to Richard Dawkins talking about memetics, I was enthralled by the idea that thoughts can be toxic and infect the mind. It gave me an insight into how the mind works and ideas can infect us. Working as an Organisation Development Consultant at the time I realised that I had been infected by Kaizen, Business Process Re-engineering and Executive Coaching. I was prompted to step back and reflect on just how much impact they had on bringing about change. The insight for me was that sustainable change had to be about changing a person’s Way of Being and that transformational leadership required the capacity to establish a productive relationship through meaningful conversations.
Unless we are aware of these “memetic viruses” we cannot protect ourselves from being exploited or convinced by an idea that we adopt and then reject to conserve our own. Other people’s ideas are like viruses that have to be stopped from entering our mind in case they infect and change how we prefer to see ourselves. This can create internal conflicts and concerns that make us feel uncomfortable, embarrassed, defensive or fearful of change. This tendency can be the enemy of change because our mind can find any number of reasons to “kill” a meme.
Adopting a “transformational tendency” is more difficult because it involves risk. Openness involves considering alternatives and being accountable. We either have to change our attitude to resolve the dilemma or reject it. When the “octopus” mind is “hungry” for a solution it “pushes outwards” and explore its options. The closed tendency of the “hedgehog” means it has chosen to avoid risks and “pull inwards”.
What does this mean for the VUCA World we are living in?
Living systems that are complex and ambiguous, exist in a state of tension (a zone of complexity) between two tendencies that take us towards order or chaos.
One tendency seeks to recreate and resist change and the other to seek growth by embracing uncertainty and expanding our innate capacity for innovation and creativity. Human beings are predisposed to avoid the possibility of “chaos”. The Corona Pandemic is a good example. The lockdown was introduced to “pull us inwards” to avoid a health crisis and then “push us outwards” to avoid an economic crisis.
Then there is the uncertainty of Brexit and the volatility of Global Warming. We find ourselves living on the “edge of chaos”, a state living systems inhabit all the time but are blind to or ignore until it threats our very existence. This makes it an existential crisis, a meme in itself that suggests our life has lost its meaning and purpose.
It certainly feels as if we are losing control of the environment and human behaviour. To regain control and avoid the chaos, we urgently need more of an “octopus” mindset. It is the task of government to create the conditions to shift the dominant way of being, doing and thinking across the globe. But the task is too important to be left to the political game-playing of criticism and blame.
Is change just about learning?
Sometimes it is not just about learning or the analysing of big data. It also about having new insights. We can think too much our dilemmas, to a point where we lose any clarity of thought and sink into confusion or misunderstandings. A relaxed mind is more likely to generate clarity of thought. This limits the scope for disclosures (disclosure space) that need to be released from our unconscious mind. Being stuck in a closed or cluttered mind can be transformed in an instant with a realisation something cannot be changed (facing facts). Accepting what cannot be changed enables the mind to relax, open up and consider alternatives (exploring possibilities) for change.
The factors that disrupt a person’s Way of Being can be deep-seated in the mind (ontological constraints). We remain blind to what’s possible until we become aware.
We become more aware when our Way of Being stops working for us or we get stuck in our default lifestyle. It could be something very “functional” like poor organisation, or something “perceptual” like an ungrounded assumption. They shape how we communicate for action (using speech acts) and connect with empathy (using deep listening). to relate and interact with others (through conversation). They determine how and when our thoughts and associated feelings get triggered and you feel constrained to react in the way you want and then feel guilty about it.
Now is the time to develop these skills as jobs in a VUCA World require you to be able to have the capacity to respond positively to change and new ways of working. This means being able to rise to the challenge of dealing with the unfamiliar and cope with the new or unexpected. If you don’t believe me, then note what employers are looking for.
- “A positive ‘can do’ attitude and an eye for new opportunities”
- “The ability to demonstrate an open and dynamic approach change”
- “Can respond with pace and agility to problems as they arise”
- “Someone who is a good listener and communicator”
- “Can respond positively to change and the challenges and opportunities it brings”