The Side Effects of Self-Actualizing
Why we have such disparity, inequity, and suffering in the world?
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(Washington Post stories)
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Good economic news...
- "US Economy grows at blockbuster pace in 3rd quarter"
- "Americans, especially wealthy ones, are still spending big."
And yet...
- "Hunger worsened among US households in 2022"
- "As child-care crisis looms, President asks Congress for urgent help"
For about 40 years, as our economy has grown dramatically, all the wealth and income gains have gone to the top percent or so, with the rest stagnating. How is this situation sustainable? What kind of economy is there, really, when almost everyone gets worse off?
Why do humans, directly and indirectly, produce, tolerate, accelerate, influence, and ultimately overlook these disturbing outcomes? Or, at best, bemoan the existence of these outcomes but with no understanding of what role they personally are playing. Or how other well-intended folks can participate in changing it but don’t. And indeed, how we all are missing the role we could play to reverse it. And, in fact, a role only humans can play.
Oh, we have lots of offered approaches on how to draw down the effects. A list of 100 solutions, in order! The United Nations 17 Sustainability Goals. Britannia's list of “How To Reduce Inequality.” They range from employment-related policies—including strengthening collective-bargaining rights and full-employment schemes, to living-wage policies, stronger minimum-wage laws, and wage subsidies. A list of how to reduce inequality In Education, the list making, has been a long-standing issue in society, with many factors contributing to the problem, including wealth disparities, race, and gender. The education lists suggest exposing Children To Free Resources, making Material Relatable For Students, and creating an engaging classroom. These are all worthy ideas and may make a small dent in selective locations and populations. But the problems still get worse, and there seems to be no promising relief in sight for many communities and families. A shorter list is not the answer. A keystone idea is needed, e.g., the wedge-shaped piece at the crown of an arch that locks the other pieces in place.
All attempts at finding solutions to what is offered above, and many other issues, are based on a list of ideas. Lists, by definition, fragment rather than ask “What is the essence?”; or the foundation; or core or heart of the matter. I like nodal as a concept. What is the nodal work to go to the heart of this question? What single path could change its course in the world? How do we get people to care enough to work on it? And what can businesses and organizations do about it?
Proposed Nodal Intervention: Redesign all work systems and human development to be sourced from and based on capability building focused on systems actualization. Self-actualization, our current philosophy, needs to become a means or instrument (designed in the context of) for systems actualization ends and not an end in itself. We need to move to care for and measures based on Systems effects and not individual personal results. Teams in the same system work and are developed together, measured together by self-evaluation based on systems outcomes and effects. Work and development are not designed around individuals.
Design of our current institutional systems sets up a self-referential worldview! Self-actualizing is the goal! Each person is evaluated as an individual. Rewards and feedback are person by person. Promotions are competitive against others who want the same position. . If your daily focus is YOU, it conditions you, especially without reflection, for solipsism. It becomes the driver of all activity, even for well-intended people. There is no choice. It has been over a century since the creation of modern management design emerged in the first two decades of the 20th century. All this promotes artificial competition with hierarchies and categorizing, keeping everyone ignorant of reality-at-work embedded in a whole, inviting negative emotions and polarized thinking among the various. It fragments life in our mind, mentally imposing oppression and condemnation of anything ‘not US.’ This mental division results in inner violence. The result of “us and them” multiplied into individuals, groups, communities, and nations on a grand scale, categorizing the slots each person in our community is seen to fit in. Although we believe this about others, we believe something else about ourselves. No wonder we are self-referential!
Anthropocentrism is an extension of this self-actualizing aspiration since we identify with being ‘human.’ Also, race is something we identify with most often, which fosters demeaning and derision for “the not us.” We identify with gender (him/his), age (Gen X, Great Generation), or any disease or conditions we inhabit (I am dyslexic). All of this promotes categories, sorting and judging anything no us. Then, is course, we always revert back to identifying with self as preeminent.
How did this come about?
It seems like a flawed direction when we examine our own lived experience. With reflection, we see we never really do anything in isolation. Self-actualization is an illusion. A mistake or error in conceiving and yet is the driver of all our institutions. The design of our institutional systems is set in a pretty intentional direction.
There has been a compounding of this effect, based on a cultural shift fostered by a Western philosophy shift for 100 years so far, and it is still being propagated. It has been like a march toward the creation of the Era of Self-Centeredness, which also has some roots in American rugged individualism but is more extreme. Self-centeredness, as a philosophy of design, was initiated in the early twentieth century with the institutionalizing and adoption of behaviorism. It was targeted for initiation in schools as there was the newly mandated compulsory education. It was launched by one state after another and led by behavioral psychologists as the authority on behavior and motivation. Based on the study of rats and dogs, (Pavlov) and not humans. Which is fine if you educate, manage, and parent rats and dogs. See more on this historical set of decisions and devasting outcomes for human capacity in my seventh book, No More Gold Stars: Regenerating the Capacity to Think for Ourselves..
How do we redirect our Institutions?
The most significant impact we can have, the fastest and deepest on these, is to improve the capacity and capability to think for themselves with a system-centered mind engaging in external considering. A Living Systems Mind. Our current human shortfall is not a character flaw but a system’s error in building capacity instead of programming us and conditioning people to follow expert knowledge, we have fragmented science and followed fragmenting decision-making, as well as accepted external authority-guided answers. Shifting to Living Systems thinking versus nature-mimicking and linear-directing approaches, we will see the world differently. Couple this with redesigning work systems with a regenerative systems developmental philosophy and technology, and we have changed course. It took over a hundred years to get here, so it will take a few decades to build a Living Systems Mentation for humans and Work Design for institutions. However, we have proven it can be done on smaller scales in over 100 global businesses and organizations.
A Better Approach
The work/role now is one of development (in discernment and self-management) and design (of work). Our current direction can be said to be the opposite of what can the needed approach is to change; currently, we use advocacy, (affecting,influencing others, with the efforts intended to manipulate and control) and advice giving (best practices, list of prioritized actions). Both of which are continuations of behaviorism applied to all living beings. I. e. Some smart humans will tell others what is best; some will work on laws that will increase resistance by the opposition, and then a new election to reverse them, and ultimately more identification and pressure for ‘our side.’ of the issue! Many associations have the effect of coalescing “well-intended” identities for good that judge what the wrong actions are.
Without development, we are easily conditioned by the structures we live inside of and systems we put people through, by the design and carrying out of work?
Our current approaches to change are based on humanist and behavioral responses, not Regenerative Living Systems. We cannot develop a system-centered state of being if we evoke primarily empathy. It is a distancing approach. Development is caring for others enough to develop their inner being and ableness to stop identifying and fragmenting. Without the ability to self-manage, we resort to kindness, donations, reducing our footprint, and volunteering a bit. Charity and philanthropy give us a distanced way to remove our discomfort.
What we need now is to go to the source of the problems we are creating, which is our lack of will to find the REAL source. i.e., Self-Actualizing as our philosophy for education and work design. By Source, I don't mean the cause but a deep understanding of the dynamics that arise from our culture and the philosophical grounding that holds it intact. Find the pattern that indirectly leads to an outcome. It is usually hidden and has a mental precursor based on a lack of capability, not a lack of doing. Not a better-ordered list of doing solutions. An undeveloped, unmanaged mind is one of two foundational sources of all misdirection, bad behavior, and bad outcomes. But we work on the other end of the stick, behavior, and accompanying values. This is ‘way too late.’ We have to start with ourselves and our capability and blindness to the sourcing we have created with our philosophical position of self-actualization and have set in motion and have failed to build the capability to manage.
Cognitive dissonance about our shortfalls on issues comes from
1. not making the connection between our own systems (work, managing, planning, evaluation, and the effects that they produce. We now know algorithms affect the sorting of people unfairly, but we miss that systems serve up the same outcomes. They are both invisible structures or systems with a process or pattern to be followed to give us a predicted outcome. Like a recipe! Their design invisibly produces a cultural and societal pattern of behavior and its accompanying effects.
2. We try to change the culture and society by working on behavior. This is too late and has minimal effect since the mentation is still there, which rewards unchanged behavior. i.e., power hierarchies are in the mind from being in the structure for centuries. Every system in every institutional structure we have teaches, focuses, and affirms people to be self-referential and consider themselves first, last, and in between. (e.g., Institutions— Education, Organization, Family, Churches, Entertainment, and Research)
3. Not making the connection between pervasively undeveloped capability in humans and their ability to see how the world works, what reality is, and their ability to change, learn, and produce better outcomes. We instead create the next LIST of Doings from a poor understanding of what the underlying error is. An addiction to doing without a better mind to develop the appropriate things to do and how to do them. Thanks, Nike, for the bad advice!
Summary:
By promoting Self-actualization with all of our work design and human development practices, we point the interest and attachment to our individual selves. We identify with ourselves as what matters. But by adding behaviorism with rewards, incentives, feedback, rating and ranking, promotable, and recognition, we also create categories with generic definitions for all in that category, by which we judge people and fight to be seen in the proper categories ( A student, high performer, thought leader, expert), avoiding the wrong categories (remedial, C student) and judge others not in our class. The identification becomes strong with our belongingness and fear of not being accepted by that class or group. We see only the effects on ourselves. And what others have done for us lately.
To stop the inequity, racism, inequality, and self-centered choices, we have to do nothing short of changing our cultural philosophy of individualism. We cannot fight it as individuals, even when we see it. It defines us all culturally. Without development, we always choose ourselves, even when it is a secret to ourselves. Businesses, organizations, and institutions can lead the way. Focus more on the Core pervasive philosophy behind our systems and development practice. Work on the hidden dimensions that have to be redesigned.Join our Regenerative Business Development Work Design and Management Community and learn to spot the errors that erode our ability to fight climate, racism, economic and social inequality, and the other shortfalls in making a world that works for all.
Carol, I do agree, and greatly admire your skill in presenting some difficult concepts (well, the concepts aren't that difficult, really, if you aren't cemented into the current structure). With a strong background in journalism and communication, I struggle with how we get these ideas to a public that is surely wanting solutions, but will not have the patience, or even ability, to grasp what you (and so many others) are saying. How can we simplify so that it becomes useful to the
people we want to reach?