change the outcome

Albert Einstein said, “We cannot solve our problems with the same level of thinking we used when we created them.” The question is, how do we go about changing our thinking?

einstein - solving problems Worldview Intelligence has been proven to provide a mechanism to do just that. It is an approach that can be applied to a variety of organizational and community challenges and it offers a framework that enables people to organize their thinking differently. It provides new language to address stuck issues and it offers a way to see and understand the complexity that so many of us are challenged by.

A number of explorations are possible with the same WVI framework including personal, professional, team, organizational, culture and social systems. The fact that the same framework applies in all these situations makes it sticky. And, our clients have told us it is like “having a secret weapon that gives us the skills, power and confidence to change outcomes.” It is a Worldview Intelligence Advantage.

If you want to sample what it is and the power and potential of Worldview Intelligence, Jerry Nagel and I are offering a one day introduction on November 30, 2017 in Dartmouth, NS, partnering with the Halifax Department of Diversity and Inclusion. There is still space and we would love to have you join us.

Clients who have benefited from the Worldview Intelligence approach include a 200,000 member union in New Jersey shifting its primary focus from service to organizing, a growing health care organization in the mid-US wanting to bring coherence across the mergers and acquisitions that have fuelled its growth, a small community addressing the issue of workforce readiness and availability of workers in the region over the next few decades, side-by-side white and Native American communities wanting to bridge cultural worldviews and change the nature of their relationship, a local Law Society shifting the culture of the regulation of law in their province, and the national energy utility in Bermuda.

We want it to be simple. We groan under the weight of the increasing complexity we are experiencing – at work, in life, in our communities and in political environments. We bemoan the fact there are no silver bullets even while we continue to search for them.

Not only do silver bullets or simple solutions to complex issues not exist, but when we try to apply any we have come up with, they do not work. We end up in a situation where fixes fail or backfire loops emerge. Fixes that fail is when the solution we apply backfires and the problem or issue still exists either in its original form or worse. Unintended consequences spin off increasing the complexity of the circumstances we have been attempting to address.

Examples of unintended consequences abound but one example from our Worldview Intelligence work is with a health care client we work with in the US. The client piloted a new approach to patient care in six of its more than two hundred clinics across three states. Including one of these clinics in the pilot put its relationship with two other nearby clinics in jeopardy – a relationship they had invested years in building to create a common patient experience – because the one clinic was now operating differently.

So, if simple solutions do not exist, how do we find our way forward? One way is to illuminate the complexity, the relationships and the underlying patterns. Working with a Nova Scotia client recently that has a strong reputation Nationally and Internationally for the work they do, where they work in numerous coalitions and collaborative relationships to accomplish their mandate, they were invited to map their system and relationships.

Mapping shows the messiness and the complexity of the system. It illuminates what people try to hold in their heads, resulting in less stress and greater capacity to address issues and plan.

The map showed the dynamic complexity of their work. A surprising outcome to them was that in making the complexity visible, it reduced the sense of overwhelm and stress many of the staff felt, untangling the complexity and offering clear ways forward in their work planning, including identifying meetings, who needs to be involved in which conversations to which degree.

Worldview Intelligence explorations do not necessarily reduce the complexity, but by illuminating it, shows ways to address it and then change the outcomes.

Worldview Intelligence

change the outcome

Change Your Thinking, Change The Conversation, Change the Outcome