A Call To Action
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The most common forms of feedback I receive on my work come in two flavors:1
“I love the way you think.”
…and…
“I wish you’d tell me how to apply it.”
The first statement makes me a bit giddy.
The second burrows into the pit of my stomach where self-doubt and inadequacy live. After all, it’s not too much to ask.
Maybe I’m just not up for the task.
However, I think the desire for a concrete Call to Action (or maybe, Call to Application) points to a more fundamental question. It’s one that anyone who learns how the proverbial sausage gets made asks:
What do I do now?
You read something that connects a few previously unconnected dots. You hear something that shakes your foundation.
What do I do now?
Nothing. And everything.
You do nothing because there is no straight line between contextual awakening and definitive action. Thought A doesn’t always lead to Action B. If This doesn’t always lead to Then That.
Upending the status quo is a chaotic mind map—not a tidy flow chart.
You do everything because when ideas are discovered, when assumptions are questioned, when connections are made, what you decide to do next is fundamentally altered. Thinking differently means acting differently in every conceivable way.
Everything you do next is what you do with this new awareness.
Together, we expand the web of connected things and ideas so that we can reveal a deeper truth.
The “problem” with expanding the web of connected things is that “right” answers become few and far between. Instead of a “next step,” you see more questions. Instead of the confidence of an “action plan,” you feel the gentle anxiety of ambiguity.
When someone tells me, “I love the way you think,” my deepest, most sincere hope is that what’s really being said is, “I love the way I think when I discover how you think.”
I don’t think or write or speak to change what you do. I do it to change how you think. Because the way I think is constantly changing.
All that you touch, you change. All that you change changes you. The only lasting truth is change. — Octavia Butler
And when you change how you think, you change how you act. The practical application is built in.
Maybe instead of a Call to Action, we need a Call to Think.
What do I think now?
Perhaps it would be better to say “perceive and process” instead of “think.” I endeavor to perceive in new (and old) ways. And I experiment with varied ways of processing what I perceive. That’s what I mean by thinking.
I hope that’s what you mean by thinking, too.
Perceiving and processing is not a separate system from action and application.
I once played a role where action and application were my focus. Today, my role—one that fits me much better—is perceiving and processing. It’s not a superior role or a more important role; it’s just my role.
My role does not, cannot, work without others who play their roles. People like
, , , , and approach work, economics, entrepreneurship, and culture in ways that complement, influence, and intersect with the way I perceive and process. Learning requires many teachers.
We miss a golden opportunity when we we fail to connect the day’s headlines, the latest gossip, the tug of desire, the worry for the future, the identities we perform (and those we don’t) with the bottom line. That is, the bottom line of the choices we make to do our jobs or run our businesses.
Making a connection. Considering alternatives. Questioning assumptions. Imagining otherwise. Living with uncertainty. Surfing ambiguity.
These are Critical Actions.2
The Definitive Next Step or the Practical Application can be asking:
What do I do now?
To ask it—and believe that you will navigate the uncertainty of the answer with grace.
To ask it—and remember that thinking and feeling is a valuable (and painfully overlooked) part of action.
To ask it—and look around for more questions.
What do I do now?
That’s my Call to Think.
Including in the results of the survey I sent out last week. If you haven’t filled it out, it’s still open!
“Critical thinking” and “critical action” are two sides of the same coin. And this is a note to me to revisit the subject of critical action (and non-critical action) in the near future.