Uplift

Group think. Discussion sinking into debate. Details emerging, more and more so. Finally, we are so wrapped up in details we cannot find a way out of the thicket. Thicket of thoughts, ideas, causes, and so much more. We are lost. In the details.

Lost from view is what we want, yearn for. The prize at the end of the mess-up of talk is obscured. What were we fighting for? What is the principle point of our discussion in the first place?

A lot of meetings end in this stalemate. In business sessions, surely; in political chats. Even in personal skirmishes choosing what to eat for dinner. No wonder restaurants are so popular! You choose your own meal for what feels right at the moment. Everyone else does the same.

Disagreement among reasonable people prevails these days. It doesn’t have to.

There is a method that has worked for me for years. It is very simple. It is this: Stop the discussion (you may have to clap your hands loudly or blow a compressed air boat horn!). Claim: “We are in the weeds; let us return to the point of our discussion.” And then, proceed to ask the group: “What is the ideal outcome you are striving to reach? Describe it in 10 words or less.”

That’s it. Simply stop the babble and ask for each person’s dream yearning related to the discussion. What is the outcome they each hope to create, maintain?

The group reporting that follows should be written down on a white board or flip pad, recorded. Then review the notes and see if common threads appear. Ask the group to reword all the yearnings into one 10 word phrase or sentence.

By this time the group should be back on track for a productive session.

Lift your eyes to the horizon of time and space. Let your brain imagine a world without the problem you are trying to solve. What would that world look like? This is not utopian thinking; rather it is objective thinking without the encumbrances. The weeds are gone. They no longer are dragging us by the ankles into the murk.

Follow the discipline of desired outcome. Do not allow extraneous topics muddle the picture. Let logic support the conclusion. It helps when the outcome is clearly defined. Then it is a matter of working backwards to our current space in time. Potential and possibility become much more tangible and workable. Indeed, they motivate our work forward into the future.

Want to create a new product or service? Imagine what its reality would create as an outcome? It is not the service or the product as outcome, it is the effect created by the presence of the new product or service.

Involved in church governance? What is the purpose or mission of the church? Does the program under consideration advance that mission? Or does it merely play at the edges of it? Are we trying to get noticed or are we trying to accomplish an objective? The two are quite separate. However, they are often confused.

Just because participants in a discussion have legitimate concerns and ideas, not all of these are pertinent to the matter at hand. That point is lost in the weeds. The desired outcome becomes obscured, lost from view.

Now apply this process to governance of a state or nation! Congress has been mired in the weeds for decades and does not realize it. Or, if they do, they manipulate the confusion to control others for ideology, greed or power; or all three!

What is America’s desired outcome? I think it is our history-long quest for freedom and equality of each person within our nation. That freedom builds on equality rather than producing it. Freedom comes for all when equality for all is reached. Meanwhile, the natural justice of equality settles so many problems along the way to freedom. Women deciding what they wish to do with their own reproductive rights is just one of those equalities. Another is race, ethnicity, religion, and color of skin. Another is gender orientation. Still others are equal access to education, healthcare and justice under the law.

If all of this were functioning properly, we most likely would not need as many ineffective laws on the books. Streamline the whole and create freedom by building on justice and equality.

But, we still have weeds. Eliminate them or sidestep them. Get back on track!

October 1, 2021