4 Comments

Brilliant, Ed. I marvel at how well you take a gargantuan subject and distill it with such clarity. I can quickly see how excellent you are at your work. I understand you are writing to an audience of businesses, though of course, this translates into much more.

This line struck me:

"Whether it is nostalgia for the past or shallow adherence to current cultural fads, the lack of a tangible vision of the future makes it difficult for people and their organizations to develop the adaptive skills needed in an environment of accelerating change."

One of the things I've been noting is how in our current world, we are being asked to 'adapt' to increasing tyranny. Those who do, are elevated, and those who resist, are side-lined and seen as suspicious, at best, and enemies, at worst. So, in these cases, it would be neither nostalgia for the past nor shallow adherence of cultural fads, but rather a deeper wisdom, that says, "no." Adapting to tyranny is deadly. Sometimes resistance is wise.

So appreciate your insights.

Expand full comment
author

Thank you, Kathleen. It is nice to be appreciated.

All I am doing is seeing things through observation, and trying to make sense of them.

Why does a person act this way rather than another way? So, I continue to observe and engage without direct confrontation to figure out what they actually need. I learned through spending ten years with an office in a house of psychotherapists that organizations are just human beings writ large. For this reason, organizations can have personality disorders. They can display narcissistic tendencies or express borderline behavior. And just like human beings, if they are unwilling to acknowledge their disorder, there isn't much that can be done. In a business context, market forces will have their say. In a personal context, as the person who is narcissistic or borderline continue without getting care, they will end their lives isolated and alone and not understand why.

This is why I talk a lot about patterns of behavior. Your identification about how "adaptation" is presented is an example. The pattern is the narcissistic/borderline demand for social conformity. If a spouse is in an abusive relationship, he or she will do one of two things, cower in obedience or resist to the point of separation or worse violence. In addition, friends and family may intervene to force some resolution to the crisis.

In the case of a society that is trapped in an abusive relationship, this is what I describe in this post - https://edbrenegar.substack.com/p/as-the-center-does-not-hold-the-periphery - when the center of society abandons the values system and a relationship of respect for the periphery, they are acting like a parent who has abandoned a child. The family of society collapses. This is where we are now.

Last thought. I think it is important to not personalize what we observe as something about "me." This is where many critics and opinion makers fail to do what we expect to do. Dispassionate observation provides a way to see what is happening. When we identify that pattern of behavior, then we go searching for perspective and information that explains it. It helps to be curious and the willingness to read, not to finish a book, but as a reference source that I can always turn to.

Expand full comment

Interesting perspective - never thought about it like that. Makes so much sense and reminds me of a book I read awhile back on how all health issues, refer back to the health of cells.

Agree on non personalizing observations. Can't say I'm necessarily good at that! But I see its value. Thank you, Ed.

Expand full comment
author

Yes, cellular heath is one of those things that doesn't get talked about much, but is critical to our health.

Expand full comment