Awareness and Compassion Transforming Our World

Have you ever noticed when telling a story, describing how your day went, discussing world events, or using words like dignity, respect, life, or love that the other person sees or imagines the situation quite differently?

Family Circus, created by Bill Keane (click on image to enlarge)

Chris Argyris, a Harvard business professor, concluded that no matter how educated and well-intentioned people were, people would continue to miss the mark.  His research and observations were instrumental in the fields of Organizational Development and Learning Organizations, and focused on business relationships and systems.  These lessons are just as applicable to personal situations as well.

Chris developed the Ladder of Inference as a framework to illustrate how quickly our minds take in and process information, and how easily humans make judgements based on this information.  Reality is immediately filtered through our five senses, taking in only a fraction of what is physically observable.  The filtering continues through our familial, cultural and learned experiences, plus other socially constructed realities.  Within milliseconds we have added assumptions and meanings, trying to categorize the situation (e.g., is there a threat?; is this similar to other situations I have encountered?).  This ability to quickly take in information and make decisions is our human condition, and what has allowed our species to survive!

Ladder of Inference, Chris Argyris (current view courtesy of Bread of Life Center)

Therefore, it may be virtually impossible to stop this process.  The invitation in Dialogue work is to slow down and become aware of what we are noticing.. or possibly, not noticing!

Exercises to begin noticing: next time when you are...

• Standing in a grocery check-out line, look at the person in front of you. What did you notice?  Did you make any assumptions or conclusions about that person?  What were those assumptions?  How do you know those assumptions were accurate?
• In the airport's security line, if you are given a chance to choose between two X-ray lines, why did you choose the lane you chose?  Was your decision based on the shorter line or on your observations of people in the two lines? What did you observe?  What did you conclude?
• Driving to work, what are your thoughts and feelings?  What happens within you when you are stopped at a red light or encounter traffic congestion?  Do you go the speed limit?  Why or why not?  At the end of your work day, what are your thoughts and feelings then?

For this next week, jot down a few notes about what you have noticed... or not noticed. What comes to mind about this week's observations?

A special thanks to Baby Blues' creators Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott for their August 22, 2014 comic strip (http://babyblues.com/comics/august-22-2014/).  This may bring humor to some of the areas not noticed in our lives!

Baby Blues, August 22, 2014 (click on comic to enlarge)

Each new day I encounter my willingness - and my struggle - to slow down and notice.  Through this awareness, I have encountered:

• A renewed curiosity:  about myself - how I have been on auto-pilot so much of my life and am now beginning to see differently; about others - how there is so much I don't know about the people around me!
• An understanding of compassion: for myself and others - seeing how our shared humanity is diverse, allowing a variety of experiences to coexist... when I remember!   Our daily encounters can be lifted and changed if we work together!

Together we can change the world: by noticing; by compassion

Let us be reminded of the inner and outer work that occurs when we become more aware and compassionate, encountering and exploring the Infinite Sacredness Within.

Dialogue requires continual work inside and outside (See December 13 blog)

Cheers to the gifts that we will unwrap this week!

Larry Gardepie