[Neurons] 2018 Neurons #20 DISCERNING AND DECIDING

Sun May 6 12:50:30 EDT 2018

From: L. Michael Hall

2018 Neurons #20

May 7, 2018

Great Decisions Series #4

DISCERNING AND DECIDING

Deciding is one thing, discerning is another.  While they are not the same,
they are closely connected and intimately related.  But how?  Which one
comes first?  Which one drives the other? 

The answer is that discernment comes first.  First, you need to think- to
really think.  Then as you thorough and authentically think, you are enabled
to consider things with a more indepth perspective and also from multiple
perspectives.  This, in turn, enables you to make many refined distinctions
about differences that make a difference.  That's what discernment is and
what it focuses on- making refined distinctions that enable you to be wise
in your decisions.

How much would you like to be able to make wise decisions?  How much would
that create a richer and fuller and more satisfying life?  This highlights
the problem with poor. hasty, and/or unthinking decisions -such decisions
usually set us on the wrong pathway, a pathway that we will come to regret.
And this seems to be rampant among humans as indicated by statistics:

           40% of senior level hires fail or quit within 18 months.

           50%-plus of teachers quit their jobs within four years.

           83% of mergers and acquisitions fail to create value for
shareholders.

           50% of marriages end in divorce.

I can't imagine that anyone would argue against the need for wisdom when it
comes to making decisions.  Yet how many of us have made wisdom an essential
step in our decision strategies?  For most of my life, I thought that wisdom
was a great idea.  No problem there.  But incorporate it into my everyday
decision-making processes?  How do I do that?

For that matter, what does it mean to have a step for wisdom in our
decision-making process?   To discern is to separate or distinguish between
things that are different (dis- "apart," cernere "to sift").  This ability
refers to discriminating between things that are often confused in order to
attain to perception, insight, and mental acumen.  In discernment, you use a
searching mind to mentally penetrate a subject to more fully and thoroughly
understand it.  For myself I have only recently realized the importance and
value of such distinctions.  And that's why I have put them as one of the
advanced skills in Meta-Coaching and one of the crucial factors in critical
thinking.  So in the new book, Executive Thinking they play a significant
role (ch. 24 Thinking Strategies).

Something else about wisdom.  Typically when we think about wisdom, we
usually think about the process of learning from experience and that
suggests why wisdom is more the gift of age rather than youth.  It's the
mistakes and errors and wrong roads taken over time that gives us the
data-base of sufficient experiences to have made the learnings that make us
"wise."  This is what now enables us (hopefully) to think through something
rather than react.  

Gregory Bateson said that wisdom consists of being able to take multiple
perspectives on a single subject.  It was this idea that led some of the
first trainers in NLP to create the pattern for multiple perspectives.  

           First personal perspective is what you see from your own eyes,
ears, and body.

           Second personal perspective is from the other person's point of
view- what I look and sound like in his eyes.

           Third personal perspective is the view from outside of both -
from a third person.  

           And fourth personal perspective is from the viewpoint of the
system- seeing the fuller system of influences that are present and active.

Involved in discernment also is a thorough and pervasive questioning-a
questioning that exercises a healthy skepticism as it looks for valid
evidence and is not satisfied with superficial answers.  I think it is in
this sense that Pierre Abelard described wisdom as an aspect of doubting:

"The beginning of wisdom is found in doubting; by doubting we come to the
question, and by seeking we may come upon the truth." 

Involved also in the wisdom of discernment is the full acceptance of human
fallibility.  The contrast can be seen in the foolishness of the know-it-all
youth who doesn't even entertain the possibility of being wrong.   Dietrich
Dorner (1996) describes this in The Logic of Failure in these words: 

"The ability to admit ignorance or mistake assumptions is needed a sign of
wisdom.  People however tend to desire security over wisdom.  The ability to
make allowance for incomplete and incorrect information and hypotheses is an
important requirement for dealing with complex situations."

Oh for the wise discernment that can enable us to make informed decisions
that serve us well.

Neuro-Semantic News

·        Coming soon --- NSTT - Grand Junction Colorado, July 1-15.

·        Master Practitioner of NLP with a focus on Modeling--- in Manila
Philippines, August 13-25, 2018.

·        Experimental 10-day ACMC in Manila--- June 4-13. 2018.

·        New book to arrive, approx. May 15 --- Executive Thinking.

L. Michael Hall, Ph.D., Executive Director 

Neuro-Semantics 

P.O. Box 8

Clifton, CO. 81520 USA                             

               1 970-523-7877 

                    Dr. Hall's email:
<mailto:meta at acsol.net\hich\af31506\dbch\af31505\loch\f31506> meta at acsol.net

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Dr. L. Michael Hall writes a post on "Neurons" each Monday.  For a free
subscription, sign up on www.neurosemantics.com.   On that website you can
click on Meta-Coaching for detailed information and training schedule.   To
find a Meta-Coach see  <http://www.metacoachfoundation.org>
www.metacoachfoundation.org.   For Neuro-Semantic Publications --- clink
Products, there is also a catalog of books that you can download.   

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