Stunning Complexity

Posted on Friday, May 9th, 2014

I recently re-read a review of a book titled “Dancing in the Glory of Monsters: The Collapse of the Congo and the Great War of Africa” by Jason Stearns. The review was published in the New York Times Book Review on April 3 of 2011. Part of my practice as an aspiring systems thinker and teacher is to pay attention, when I read or listen to the media, for examples of “human doings” in the world that invite or would benefit from a systems perspective. The reviewer, Adam Hochschild, noted that 15 years of intermittent fighting and upheaval in the Congo has drawn little attention in the United States. Much more attention was given to coverage of events in Dafur, “although Congolese have died in far greater numbers.”

The book’s author suggests “one reason we shy away is the conflict’s stunning complexity.” That is, how does one begin to grasp, much less understand, a war that has involved 20 different rebel groups and the armies of nine countries, yet does not seem, to us, to have a clear cause or objective?

I was, of course, struck by the phrase “stunning complexity.” How often do we respond to a complex challenge in our lives by not actually responding? I wonder if this is what is happening to us when we rapidly start to name all the other influences or factors that prevent us from working together to devise a solution. Or when we list all the reasons we can’t make a difference or “change the system.” (This naming of “reasons why not” is often recognizable by the “yea, but” that precedes the litany.)  Are we stunned by the complexity? And what’s the antidote? How do we remained engaged with the world as it is in these powerful times?

One definition of stun is “to deprive of consciousness or strength by or as if by a blow or fall.” Another is “to shock or overwhelm.” If we realize that we might be temporarily stunned by the complexity of a situation, what can we do to regain our “consciousness or strength?” I suggest that one possible powerful response is to summon our curiosity and use it to do more than wonder “what in the world is happening?” Curiosity is powerful when it manifests as genuine inquiry, when we intentionally express our curiosity through “open and clean questions (which I learned from Don Swartz, founder of the OSR program).

Questions that are not clean (“dirty” or unhelpful questions) seek instead to lead, to tie or bind, to imply or suggest, or to give advice. “Why do you always…?” implies guilt and is a dirty question.

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An open question, of course, is one that cannot be answered with a simple “yes” or “no” nor any other single word that effectively ends the conversation. A clean question, in addition to being open, flows from a genuine intent to learn or to help.  “Why is that important to you?” expresses an intent to learn more and is clean.

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Can we really begin to regain our consciousness and strength by asking better questions? Of course we can. The practice of shaping a better question in some complex circumstance means that we’ve slowed down, are more aware of our surroundings, and are at least initially resisting the drive to come to a rapid conclusion or solution, which together can enable us to have a different kind of conversation in which we respond rather than react. In my experience, inviting and then hosting “a different kind of conversation” is how one person can offer relief from a collective stunning and begin to explore possibilities.