The Hidden Power of Stages - Talk 2 of 25
Topic: The Hidden Power of Stages
Theme: Creative Problem Solving
Author: Barry Sweet
Date: January 7, 2018
Video Production by Tim & Karen Morse. Morsephotography.com
When it comes to solving the problems of life…
I think of Ptolemy and Copernicus. Ptolemy came and said “I've discovered the truth… It’s the earth and all things revolve around the earth”. And we loved him (because humans love to be the center of all things). And a couple of years later Copernicus came along and said “I’ve got a little bad news… it’s actually not the earth… it's the sun. It's actually the sun that the Earth revolves around”.
And we tried to kill him when that didn't work. We took him to court and in court, he proved that yes all things do revolve around the sun. Since then we've come into alignment with Copernican views of the solar system.
Out of those two men… the man that I admire the most? Ptolemy. Because he was wrong, but because he gave us a start. And sometimes that's all we need is somebody, anybody just to give us a start… something that we can push off from and say “You know that's right, that's right…
There's something not quite right about it… I can't put words on it… but… but that's right. But. ..” And then you think “Oh wait… yes… things are moving around out there and they're not moving in a circle they're moving in some sort of weird elliptical fashion. We can't figure out… but… Oh! it's the sun it's all moving around the sun! And that is the power of stages. I've called it PBI which is Progress By Increments, because we solve problems by a small increment at a time and then suddenly get a little more insight and we get a little clearer and a little sharper on what the real truth is. But we're all looking for the truth. I don't think we want to be deluded by some lie or some something that's wrong, but sometimes it takes a long time to grind through to get to the truth.
And so in that same way, there are Progress By Plateaus (PBPs) and there's something beautiful about plateaus… you get to stand on them for a little while you're making your way up the mountain and you can stop and breathe slow and look out and enjoy that plateau and something about stopping and slowing down for just a while. You can get these new insight bursts and you can see things a little more clearly.
So what we've learned to do with each other in our small workplace is to do this next stage which is what we call “Permission to Wander” and “Granting Permission to Wander” “All who wander are not lost”, You'll see from Tolkien… Well… sometimes you are lost… but that's okay… to be lost for a while.
Your brain kicks into some sort of subconscious work and it starts working out the solutions. A lot of my solutions come in the middle of the night. I've worked on them all day and focused on them and then in the night, the solution comes and wakes me up because you've got sort of the conscious solution finder and the unconscious solution finder and utilizing the power of both of those things, that's one of the best thing you can do, and trusting the power of stages and plateaus is another of the best things we can do.
There is a relationship between patience and disappointment. And when you hit a plateau your first inclination is to kick into disappointment. But yet, if you can hold on to what happens during a plateau or what happens in between the stages there is a quiet sort of percolation, there's a synergy that happens (and the definition of synergy is one plus one equals three). It's not the usual ratio, it's an exponential gain. And don't be disappointed. When you hit a plateau or you're moving between stages… this is an incredibly powerful time with your consciousness and your subconscious/unconscious are all combining together to come up with solutions that you have not seen before.
When it comes to solving the problems of life…
I think of Ptolemy and Copernicus. Ptolemy came and said “I've discovered the truth… It’s the earth and all things revolve around the earth”. And we loved him (because humans love to be the center of all things). And a couple of years later Copernicus came along and said “I’ve got a little bad news… it’s actually not the earth… it's the sun. It's actually the sun that the Earth revolves around”.
And we tried to kill him when that didn't work. We took him to court and in court he proved that yes all things do revolve around the sun. Since then we've come into alignment with Copernican views of the solar system.
Out of those two men… the man that I admire the most? Ptolemy. Because he was wrong, but because he gave us a start. And sometimes that's all we need is somebody, anybody just to give us a start… something that we can push off from and say “You know that's right, that's right…
There's something not quite right about it… I can't put words on it… but… but that's right. But. ..” And then you think “Oh wait… yes… things are moving around out there and they're not moving in a circle they're moving in some sort of weird elliptical fashion. We can't figure out… but… Oh! it's the sun it's all moving around the sun! And that is the power of stages. I've called it PBI which is Progress By Increments, because we solve problems by a small increment at a time and then suddenly get a little more insight and we get a little clearer and a little sharper on what the real truth is. But we're all looking for the truth. I don't think we want to be deluded by some lie or some something that's wrong, but sometimes it takes a long time to grind through to get to the truth.
And so in that same way there are Progress By Plateaus (PBPs) and there's something beautiful about plateaus… you get to stand on them for a little while while you're making your way up the mountain and you can stop and breathe slow and look out and enjoy that plateau and something about stopping and slowing down for just a while. You can get these new insight bursts and you can see things a little more clearly.
So what we've learned to do with each other in our small workplace is to do this next stage which is what we call “Permission to Wander” and “Granting Permission to Wander” “All who wander are not lost”, You'll see from Tolkien… Well… sometimes you are lost… but that's okay… to be lost for a while.
Your brain kicks into some sort of subconscious work and it starts working out the solutions. A lot of my solutions come in the middle of the night. I've worked on them all day and focused on them and then in the night, the solution comes and wakes me up because you've got sort of the conscious solution finder and the unconscious solution finder and utilizing the power of both of those things, that's one of the best thing you can do, and trusting the power of stages and plateaus is another of the best things we can do.
There is a relationship between patience and disappointment. And when you hit a plateau your first inclination is to kick into disappointment. But yet, if you can hold on to what happens during a plateau or what happens in between the stages there is a quiet sort of percolation, there's a synergy that happens (and the definition of synergy is one plus one equals three). It's not the usual ratio, it's an exponential gain. And don't be disappointed. When you hit a plateau or you're moving between stages… this is an incredibly powerful time with your consciousness and your subconscious/unconscious are all combining together to come up with solutions that you have not seen before.