Forum: What to draw on in building a ‘cabinet’ of your own

By Kathy Solberg / Herald Forum

As a new presidential cabinet takes shape, we find ourselves on the edge of winter’s embrace; a season that offers profound metaphors for navigating periods of significant change. The interplay of darkness, disruption and decision are a useful framework for understanding how we might approach systemic transformation in a thoughtful and effective way.

Embracing the darkness: Winter’s darkness isn’t merely an absence of ligh; it’s nature’s invitation to pause and reflect. Just as trees draw their energy inward during these shorter days, organizations, businesses and individuals could benefit from periods of contemplation before major transitions. This natural slowing allows us to examine the deeper structures and patterns that shape our systems, rather than rushing to implement change simply for change’s sake.

The darkness of winter teaches us that periods of apparent dormancy are essential for sustainable growth. For a new administration, this might mean resisting the urge to immediately overturn everything that came before, instead taking time to understand the complex web of relationships and dependencies that make up our governmental systems.

With abrupt transformation from individuals that do not understand the systems they are operating within, brash and sweeping change has the potential to lead to collapse rather than the sustainable model of incremental change. Winter can be harsh and without proper preparation, the reflection and art of wintering can be lost if work is not done to create space for stillness.

Without conscious preparation, the chaos of external disruption can overwhelm our ability to find meaning in the darkness, leaving us reactive rather than reflective.

Rethinking disruption: I am a systems thinker and tend to see things in the way of systemic organization. There are systems thinkers and what I will suggest are reductionist thinkers.

Reductionist thinkers tend to analyze things in isolation rather than looking at the interconnections and emergent properties. They don’t work from a place of networks and feedback loops and tend to analyze problems in isolation and seek a “root cause” rather than understanding the multiple contributing factors. Reductionist thinking has led to many scientific breakthroughs. It also can miss important dynamics in situations involving human behavior, ecosystems, organizations and interconnected systems.

While “disruption” has become a buzzword synonymous with progress, nature shows us that sustainable change requires a deeper understanding of systems. When we observe how ecosystems evolve, we see that the most enduring changes often occur gradually, with each element adapting in concert with others. Brash, unilateral actions — however well-intentioned — can create unforeseen consequences that ripple throughout the system.

True systemic disruption requires:

• Understanding the existing relationships and feedback loops within the system;

• Identifying leverage points where small changes can lead to significant positive outcomes;

• Recognizing that sustainable change often requires patience and careful orchestration;

• Acknowledging that all parts of the system will need to adapt, not just those directly targeted for change.

Personal decisions: As we witness large-scale transitions in governance, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed or powerless. However, systems thinking teaches us that every individual is both influenced by and influential within their local systems. The winter season offers us time to reflect on our own role in the systems we care about.

Consider how a single snowflake contributes to transforming an entire landscape. Similarly, our individual decisions, when aligned with broader systemic understanding, can create meaningful change. This might mean:

In a world of broken systems, disruption seems to be what is needed and what our country has voted for as we move forward into the new year with a new president. How it is navigated will make all the difference. We can individually and collectively with those within our community make decisions that align with our ability to control what we can.

Kathy Solberg leads a consulting business, CommonUnity. Learn more at www.commonunity-us.com.