Troubleshooting
Post #17 in a series examining Understanding, its components & importance
“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”
- Albert Einstein
This is the Era of Trouble with a capital “T.” Both religious and political fundamentalists each fight for the supreme right to interpret history’s contributions and guiding documents in their own, often simplistic ways. Tree huggers berate those whose lifestyles are anathema to their values. Republicans and Tea Party activists refuse to participate in the legislative process unless they are guaranteed to get everything they want, and they have promised to fight and destroy all who disagree with them. Ardent liberals decry that the majority Democrats have compromised too much, and they are similarly preparing for battle. Scientists, engineers, others with technical skills who just want to do good, lose their jobs and economic security while the chief executives of the companies that once employed them are given tens of millions of dollars of bonuses “as a reward for the really tough decisions they had to make.” China’s leaders increase their control over the information their citizens can access in order to avoid threats to their supremacy. The Texas School Board similarly crafts a school curricula that curbs access to subjects and facts that could derail the fantasies of conservative perfection that they’d prefer to promote.
What is similar in all these cases is that there are people so beholden to one view of life, one avenue of understanding, that they would rather steamroll and destroy all who challenge their views rather than even consider that their views may be incomplete. These are people who would rather game the system so it continues to provide them any benefits rather than risk changes to it. To these people the more challenged they feel, the stronger they need to become and thus the more rigid they set themselves up to be. What they don’t seem to get is that rigid structures are more prone to stress cracks than their more flexible counterparts… and eventually, the cracks will be so large they can no longer be ignored.
Stress fractures and other signs of trauma usually precede a decision to confront trouble, for that is the point when denial no longer works. It is our hope that when the need to troubleshoot arises, it will be accompanied by a commitment to look at the whole system and all contributions to it, not just to blame all who are different as “the troublemakers who need to be destroyed.”
The best way to troubleshoot is via a three-step process. First, de-personalize the process by focusing primarily on the operative models, not the operators. Second, look at all aspects of the operative models and determine where the disconnects lie. Third, when crafting solutions, do so with the intent of improving the operators understanding of the models that work best for the needs that are confirmed to still be valid. A troubleshooter will be successful if more people buy into the validity of the proposed solution and changes to the governing model than started out believing in it.
In the end, all human unhappiness derives from broken understanding. It is the job of the troubleshooter to fix that.
Troubleshooter’s Quick Guide: 12 Potential Sources of Dysfunction in How We Approach Life
The Starting Condition
After getting an initial description / perception of what the trouble is, all good therapists and other troubleshooters turn to the beginning, to get a depiction of all the conditions that led to adoption of the system currently in play.
The Supporting Environment
Then it is time to look at the environment that the system-in-trouble is living with today, and to compare it to the starting conditions explored above. Differences may be a source of trouble… either that the environment can no longer be controlled, or that the adopted models are not attuned to current conditions.
Need – The Force Behind Understanding
There are two aspects about our needs that can lead to dysfunction. One is to recognize that we are always trying to fill different physical, emotional or spiritual needs, and the priority we assign to each need changes over time. When the strength of our individual needs change, the models we use to guide us to provide for them should also change, else we will be doing the same things over and over again, providing for needs that are no longer important. Two is we need to gauge our own resistance to change, for while we may know we need to change, we may not know how to let go of old patterns and experiment with new ones.
Language – The Currency of Understanding
Some dysfunction arises from mis-communication on the giving end, receiving end, or both. Such troubles can arise from inadequate vocabulary (be it verbal, visual or tactile), under-developed receptors, or faulty transmitters. The challenge is to determine if any of that can be fixed, or if different modes of communication need to be developed to support the understanding that is needed.
Limits – The Reality of Boundaries
Every model of understanding can only do so much. Those who claim the Bible or the Koran have all the answers to all the issues of life and the planet are delusional. Scientists who claim that their science has all the answers are equally off-base. The challenge is to determine what each model’s strengths and weaknesses are, and to choose models that are better fits for the needs you are trying to meet.
Scale – When Size Really Matters
Are your needs personal? Are you upset that government models seem to fulfill the needs of others better than they fulfill yours? Is your definition of freedom that you can do whatever you want even if it hurts others? Is your definition of socialism that your individual needs trump that of other groups, and if they don’t like that that they can fight for themselves? If so, you are operating on a small scale, one with your ego at the center of the world. Sometimes that’s okay. But some problems need to be addressed from a different perspective, one where you may be an integral part of the system but not always the center of focus. Choosing the right scale and getting agreement on it is perhaps the most difficult task of the troubleshooter.
Simplicity via Symbols
If the dysfunction grows out of approaches that are too complex for the operators to handle, one solution is to simplify things. The challenge is to communicate that while simplification may be necessary, it takes away detail and the ability to fine tune operations. If the dysfunction grows out of over-simplification, out of a need on the part of the operators for one-dimensional thinking, then the need is to help the operators grow. In many ways that is the path of education, adding complexity each time something learned in younger years is re-examined. Experts are those who recognize the need for, and master the complexity.
Dimensions, a sign of complexity
Adding complexity to our understanding is a difficult task, one where you often find failure. Thus even the troubleshooter will turn to experts to guide him when understanding of a complex system is required. The challenge is finding an expert who himself understands and appreciates the complexity he has mastered and can communicate it in simple terms, vs. finding an expert who abhors complexity and is pushing his own agenda to make the world simpler so he can maintain his viewpoint and power.
Money, Materials and Methods
The troubleshooter must also examine the stuff and the poeple that are used and how they are all put together in whatever system he is examining. Sometimes it is not the process but the equipment that is broken… and though it may be difficult obtaining more money or materials, it is often less threatening to do that than to change the system.
Time: Friend, Foe or Casual Observer?”
How is time accounted for in the operable model, and does that model provide feedback within enough time to satisfy the needs of the practitioners? Sometimes energy must be added to reduce that lag time. But sometimes, the troubleshooter’s task is simply to convince people that some processes we control only indirectly, like atmospheric temperature, may take decades to see changes based on what we put in it today; that is just the way the earth is designed (by God, if you wish).
Leadership Matters
What direction are we pointed in, and is disagreement about that direction the cause of troubles? That is when different leaders emerge to try and change directions. Sometimes those different leaders create competing sects that split apart from the larger group and go their own way. There are multiple challenges for the troubleshooter. Are the competing leaders looking to arrive at the same ultimate destination and just disagree on the best path? Are they creating rifts for their own benefit? Does the leader who has the best intentions of his followers at heart need help keeping those followers focused and not distracted by those with ulterior motives? This may then require a closer look at the final aspect of understanding, power.
Power
Finally, how is power really controlled in the system that is at the heart of the dysfunction? Is there a short-circuit so that power is being drained away from where it belongs? And can that power be deployed more efficiently? Final warning for the troubleshooter: when dealing with power, be careful not to be electrocuted in the process.
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Tags: models, troubleshooting, Understanding
Understanding | Stan Kaczmarek | 29 March 2010 |
