Succeeding in complex environments requires an adaptive capacity where we can “stand in inquiry”. It’s not just a way of working, more a path towards a greater capacity for personal and group learning.
Engaging the world through a lens of inquiry is to be curious, to observe and imagine what is happening, what it could mean and what is the next best action.
It’s not just about asking questions. It’s about observing and approaching every interaction, every situation, every opportunity with questions about what can be learned in-the-moment . . .in this situation . . .by this person . . . . for this organisation.
So What Does Inquiry Mean to You?
To stand in inquiry means that you are open to the world around you—the images and experiences that shape your life, new perspectives and different ideas to learn from those around you.
This opens up possibilities imagination and action. Standing in inquiry means that you consider your world through a lens that allows you to:
Turn data into decisions
Turn judgment into curiosity
Turn disagreement into shared exploration
Turn defensiveness into self-reflection
Turn assumptions into questions
Turn data into decisions
We live in a world of self-generated beliefs and personal truths that are obvious to us but not to others. Data allows you to gain a verifiable understanding of what is happening and make sense of it before deciding what to do. But we select the data from what we are aware of, give it our own meaning and draw conclusions from it.
Courtesy of The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook
We cannot move through life without adding meaning or drawing conclusions, but we can improve our assessments through inquiry and advocacy. One way is to use the “Ladder of Inference” in three ways:
Becoming more aware of and sharing our thinking and reasoning to combine multiple perspectives: REFLECTION.
Making our thinking and reasoning more visible by interrogating different viewpoints: ADVOCACY.
Inquiring into our thinking when we make assumptions and draw conclusions from verifiable data: INQUIRY
Turn judgment into curiosity
Judgment allows us to decide what we like and don’t like, what is safe and what is not, which path will more likely take us to a desired outcome. Judgment helps us avoid what is dangerous and stay safe.
At other times judgments limit what we can see, shaping what’s possible.
Action that is too narrow will not support learning or adaptive action. Patterns of bias and prejudice are examples of cultural assessments that focus on differences and restrictions, rather than encouraging connection and growth.
We can recognise judgment that is not helpful when we find ourselves:
Taking a position, without questioning it
Ignoring multiple possibilities beyond those we believe in
Discounting others’ input and perspective without listening to what is said
When we recognize these types of behaviours in ourselves, the best thing to do is to pause, take a deep breath, step back and ask some questions.
What if that were not so?
What else might be possible if. . . ?
What is this person really saying?
What else are they getting at?
Turn disagreement into shared exploration
Patterns of disagreement emerge whenever we encounter difference. “Things are not as I believe they should be.” “Others don’t see things as I think they should.” “This should not be happening.” Patterns that emerge from differences can range from mild to aggressive, argument to conflict, even violence and war.
In complex systems, difference should not be seen as destructive. It is the energy behind all change. The greater the difference, the greater the energy for change, the greater the potential for larger and more impactful patterns to emerge. VUCA World experiences are an example of pent up energy creating differences.
When we engage across the differences to understand what they are, we can dissipate the energy that drives disagreements by turning them into something that is shared and of mutual interest. We listen more deeply; look for points possible connection to turn our judgment into curiosity.
The next time we find that the differences are dividing us, we are creating energy that agitates the mind and can leave us stuck. We then need to find questions that can move us to “explore possibilities”.
What would it be like if we…?
What is it that makes this so “awful” for each of us?
What nugget of shared benefit can we find?
What else?
Turn defensiveness into self-reflection
When we feel threatened, our first response is generally to lash out at those who represent the a danger to us. They are not like us. It doesn’t matter whether the perceived threat is physical, emotional, or cognitive. When the threat comes, our first reaction is to get it and all it represents as far away as possible, out of our system. Our concern can stop us reflecting on why we feel as we do?
When we feel threatened, we may need to move to a space where we feel psychologically safe from harm. At the same time, what feels threatening may come from our own perceptions of the situation or the people in it.
The fear we experience may very well be about our own sense of safety or status or competence. For instance, the only way to “move away” from that sense of danger is to reflect on what that fear means to us.
When we can separate the real threat or danger from our own perceptions and personal fears, we are better able to step beyond the flight-or-fight response and engage across that difference. The next time we feel such a threat, we must pause and ask:
What about this feels familiar?
What am I afraid of losing, and how can I step beyond that and see the other person’s perspective
What am I telling myself about what just happened, and what might be an alternative explanation?
How would others describe what just happened
What else?
Turn assumptions into questions
Our assumptions provide the foundations for how we see and understand our world. They shape our conclusions an, perspectives, giving us a conceptual place to stand that reflects of integrity. From that space, we step into decisions, choices, and actions that shape your life and make us feel good about ourselves.
Our assumptions are based in our experiences and in the lessons we have learned through the course of our life.
Our cultural background, family or community values, experiences of joy or pain, and confidence in our assumptions about the world.
Sometimes our assumptions are built on fact and reality; sometimes our assumptions are not. They may be based on misinformation or lack of information or the misinterpretation of information.