{"id":1598,"date":"2012-06-30T11:32:59","date_gmt":"2012-06-30T11:32:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saasoft.com\/blog\/?p=1598"},"modified":"2012-06-30T11:32:59","modified_gmt":"2012-06-30T11:32:59","slug":"the-skeptics-cynics-and-the-sphere-of-influence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/?p=1598","title":{"rendered":"The Skeptics, The Cynics and The Sphere of Influence"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>All\u00a0intentional improvement implies change. Change requires deliberate action – thinking about change is not enough. Action\u00a0implies control of physical objects and,\u00a0despite what we might like to believe, the only things that\u00a0are\u00a0under our personal\u00a0control\u00a0are our\u00a0beliefs, our attitudes, our behaviours and our actions. Everything else\u00a0can only be changed through some form of indirect influence.<\/p>\n

Our Circle of Control appears to extends only to\u00a0our skin –\u00a0beyond that is our Sphere\u00a0of Influence – and beyond that is our\u00a0Region of Concern.<\/p>\n

Very few of us\u00a0live a solitary existence as\u00a0a hermit. The\u00a0usual context for improvement is\u00a0social and\u00a0therefore to achieve improvement outside ourselves we need to\u00a0influence the beliefs, attitudes, behaviours and actions of others. And we can only do that\u00a0through our own behaviour and actions. We cannot do telepathy or mind-control.\u00a0 And remember, we are being influenced by others\u00a0– it is a two-way\u00a0street.<\/p>\n

So when we receive a push-back\u00a0to our attempted change-for-the-better\u00a0action,\u00a0we have failed to influence in a positive sense and the intended improvement\u00a0cannot happen.\u00a0 Those who oppose our innovation usually belong to one of\u00a0two tribes – the Skeptics and the Cynics – and they have much\u00a0in common.\u00a0\u00a0They\u00a0both operate from a position of doubt and a belief that they are being deliberately deceived. They distrust, discount, question, analyse, critique\u00a0and they challenge. They do not blindly\u00a0believe our rhetoric.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>This is not new. These\u00a0two tribes\u00a0are thousands of years old – the Ancient Greeks knew them\u00a0well and\u00a0gave\u00a0them\u00a0the names Skeptics and Cynics.\u00a0They were the Lords of the Dark Ages but they survived the Renaissance and\u00a0the\u00a0first skeptical hypothesis in modern\u00a0Western philosophy is attributed to Rene Descartes who wrote “I will suppose … that some evil demon of the utmost power and cunning has employed all his energies to deceive me<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

The two tribes present the Innovator and Improvement Scientist with a dilemma.\u00a0Before action there is only rhetoric, only an idea, only a belief that better is possible. There is no evidence of improvement yet – so no reality to support the rhetoric.\u00a0And if the action requires the engagement or permission of either of the\u00a0two tribes then the change\u00a0will not happen because it is impossible to influence their belief and behaviour without evidence. We have crashed into\u00a0the wall of resistance – and the harder we push the harder they push back.\u00a0 So let us conserve our energy, step back from the wall,\u00a0reflect for a moment and ask “Does the wall surround us completely – or are there gaps?”<\/p>\n

Could we\u00a0find a\u00a0region\u00a0of the Sphere\u00a0of Influence that has few or no Skeptics and Cynics? Is there\u00a0a place where they do not like to live because\u00a0the cultural climate\u00a0is not to their taste?\u00a0We have an option – we can\u00a0explore the Sphere of Influence.<\/p>\n

At one pole\u00a0we discover a land called\u00a0Apathy.\u00a0It is a barren\u00a0place where nothing changes; it is\u00a0devoid of ideas and innovation; it\u00a0is\u00a0passionless,\u00a0monotonous, stable, predictable, safe\u00a0and boring.\u00a0 The Skeptics and Cynics do not like it there because there is none of their favourite\u00a0food\u00a0–\u00a0Innovator\u00a0Passion\u00a0– which is where\u00a0they derive their energy and\u00a0their sport.<\/p>\n

At the other pole we discover\u00a0a\u00a0land called\u00a0Assertion – and we discover that the Skeptics and Cynics\u00a0do not like\u00a0it there either\u00a0but for a different reason. In Assertion there is\u00a0abundant passion and innovation,\u00a0but also experimentation and reflection\u00a0and the ideas are fewer but come\u00a0packaged\u00a0with\u00a0a tough shell of hard\u00a0evidence. This\u00a0makes them\u00a0much less palatable to the\u00a0Skeptics because\u00a0 they have to chew hard for little gain. The Cynics shun\u00a0the place.<\/p>\n

At the end of our\u00a0journey we have learned\u00a0that the\u00a0two tribes\u00a0prefer to live in the temperate zone between\u00a0Apathy and Assertion\u00a0where\u00a0there is an abundant supply of innocent, passionate, innovators with new ideas and no evidence. The Skeptics and Cynics frustrate the inexperienced Innovators\u00a0who become inflamed with passion which is what the two tribes feed on, and when finally exhausted the Innovators\u00a0fall easy\u00a0prey to the Cynics\u00a0– who convert and enslave them. It is\u00a0a veritable\u00a0feeding frenzy – and\u00a0the ultimate casuality is improvement.<\/p>\n

So what is the difference between the Skeptics and the Cynics?<\/p>\n

Despite their behaviour the Skeptics do care\u00a0– they\u00a0are careful.\u00a0They are the guardians of stability and their opinion is respected because they help to keep the Sphere safe. They are willing to be convinced –\u00a0but they want explanation and evidence. Rhetoric is not enough.<\/p>\n

The Cynics follow a different\u00a0creed. Their name derives from the Greek for dog and it is not a term of endearment. They have lost their dreams. They blame others for it and their goal is vengeance.\u00a0They are remorseless, and shameless. They shun social norms and reasonable behaviour and\u00a0they are not respected by others. They do not care. They\u00a0are indifferent.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>So the wise Improvement Scientist needs to be able to distinguish the Skeptics from the Cynics – and to learn to\u00a0value the strengths of\u00a0the Skeptics and to avoid the Cynics. The deal they negotiate with the Skeptics is: “In return for a steady supply\u00a0of ideas and enthusiasm\u00a0we\u00a0ask\u00a0only for an explanation of the rejections”. It is a fair trade.\u00a0The\u00a0careful and considered\u00a0feedback of the Skeptics is\u00a0valuable to\u00a0the Improvement Scientist because it\u00a0helps to\u00a0sharpen the idea and harden the shell of evidence. Once the\u00a0Innovator, Improvement Scientist\u00a0and the Skeptic have finished their work any ideas that have survived the digestive process are worthy of investment.\u00a0 It is a a win-win-win arrangement\u00a0– everyone\u00a0gets what they want.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Cynics scavenge\u00a0the\u00a0scraps. And that\u00a0is OK – it is their choice.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

All\u00a0intentional improvement implies change. Change requires deliberate action – thinking about change is not enough. Action\u00a0implies control of physical objects and,\u00a0despite what we might like to believe, the only things that\u00a0are\u00a0under our personal\u00a0control\u00a0are our\u00a0beliefs, our attitudes, our behaviours and our actions. Everything else\u00a0can only be changed through some form of indirect influence. Our Circle of … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “The Skeptics, The Cynics and The Sphere of Influence”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,41,47,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reflections","category-stories","category-transactional-analysis","category-trust"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1598\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}