[Neurons] 2022 Neurons #15 DISTINGUISHING LINEAR & SYSTEMIC

[Michael Hall]

From: L. Michael Hall

2022 Neurons #15

April 11, 2022

Distinctions #13 

 

DISTINGUISHING

LINEAR AND SYSTEMIC THINKING

 

We all begin our thinking life by learning to think linearly.  This comes
naturally.  Something happens and then something else happens and lo and
behold, we connect them in our mind as a Cause-Effect structure.  This gives
rise to the "X causes Y" formula which then becomes an essential way that we
think, reason, and feel.  This actually is associative thinking because what
we are doing is associating one thing with another,  and we do so even when
one does not actually cause the other.

"He pushed me and I fell down and scratched my knee; he hurt me."  "She
stuck her tongue out at me and made me feel bad."

 

Ironically, what initiates our linear thinking then messes it up.  Once we
get going in our cognitive development and can follow one thing to another,
the associative thinking that started it all now keeps interrupting us.  We
may start with X and then go to Y, but then Y reminds us of N or B or D and
each of these may remind us of yet another association, and so we are off
and running- unable to think in a straight linear way.  One associated
reference "rings the bell" of a dozen other associations.  While this is
great for creativity, it messes up linear thinking.

 

NLP began and significantly contributed to psychology by taking the TOTE
model of Cognitive Psychology and filled it in with the key "languages" of
the mind-visual, auditory, kinesthetic, language, etc.  That led to the
Strategy Model, a step-by-step process of moving from one representation to
another until we move through the components that lead to an experience
(i.e., spelling, motivation, buying, selling, negotiating, getting up in the
morning, etc.).  This was a tremendous advance.  It also started the formal
processes of modeling.  From here NLP people began searching for ways to
model all kinds of experiences and expertise's.

 

Then they hit a block.  NLP as a field became stuck.  We found out that we
could model those skills and behaviors that was comprise only of
micro-behaviors.  If we could detect eye-accessing cues, hear
representational predicates, limit a behavior in time, etc., then we could
model that behavior.  But long-term behaviors, behaviors that emerge in a
system over time, and behaviors that result from complex layers of states-
these kept eluding us- Leadership, Management, Heath and Fitness, Wealth
Creation, Magnanimity, Forgiveness, Courage, and on and on.  And these seem
to be the very experiences that are most important to us.

 

The challenge here is that these go beyond linear thinking and include
systemic thinking.  That's what the Meta-States Model provided.  In
reflecting upon one's current state, you think-again about it which means
you circle back to it.  Then as you rise above it, you can entertain a
different set of thoughts-and-emotions about it.  As this new set of
reflections applies a state to the state, we have a set of inter-related
variables or elements-a system and not only that, but multiple layers of
systems.  In this way, we can now specify the structure of all of the
meta-level phenomena, not as a hierarchical system, but as a fluid
holoarchical system.

 

To understand Meta-Stats is to think systemically.  You have to hold in mind
the primary state thoughts and emotions while simultaneously taking into
account the meta-level thoughts and emotions which establish the frame for
that state.  In doing this, you include the primary state variables and
transcend them to the higher level.  And you may do this two or more levels
up.  The lower is embedded within the higher.  The higher is governing and
coalescing into the lower. 

           In calm fear, you transcend and include the fear into calmness
(as the meta-state) so that calm is the meta-level frame for fear.  It is
the classification.  Fear is the member of that class.

           In respectful anger, respect is the governing frame/ class for
anger.  As you meta-state or "transcend and include" anger in the category
of respect, systemically respect governs the anger, managers it, and
qualifies it.  To realize that is to engage in the systemic thinking that is
inherent in the Meta-States Model.

 

Linear thinking will only take you so far in understanding "the structure of
experience."  Where it ends, you need systemic thinking to take you further.
You need the Meta-States Model to model the dynamic structure of the
experience and to discover the layers of experience.

 

 

Want more?  See NLP Going Meta (2002) for how to model using meta-levels.
Also, Systemic Coaching (2012).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.

Executive Director, Neuro-Semantics

P.O. Box 8

Clifton CO. 81520 USA

www.neurosemantics.com 

 

To unsubscribe to Neurons, send request to meta at acsol.net 

134324 NeuroSemantics Inside Out Front Cover

 

 

 

 

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://pairlist8.pair.net/pipermail/neurons/attachments/20220410/145312dc/attachment-0001.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 21511 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <https://pairlist8.pair.net/pipermail/neurons/attachments/20220410/145312dc/attachment-0001.jpg>