Resources

“Nothing is Intractable.” That’s the tagline on the HSD website. It’s the footer in our stationery. It’s on the first slide of every PowerPoint deck we create. We believe it’s true. And we continue to get questions about how that’s possible when life is so complex.  

“It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him.”                                                                ― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

The Adaptive Action Survey this week asked respondents to consider the current scenario in US politics, as Congress struggles with policies and decisions--fiscal and otherwise--that seem stuck along partisan lines. As we look at evidence that our Congress is stuck, we asked three questions: 1. What do you believe is the reason the US political system is “stuck” and unable to move toward effective decision making? 2. What would you name as the largest barrier to Congress’s ability to make a decision about the looming fiscal issues? 3. What one piece of advice would you give members of Congress this week to get them unstuck?

If you are like many of us working in fast-paced organizations, you most likely have no shortage of projects needing your attention. When the projects start piling up, you are faced with the difficult question of what to take on and what to put off. But the real challenge in making these decisions is that all these projects appear highly important or at least highly risky to avoid.

Each shift, no matter how trivial it might seem in the moment, contributes to the growing tension. Over time, tension accumulates, and ultimately it shifts patterns at every level of the human system. Like an avalanche, a lifetime of love, or a violent society, every whole-scale transformation emerges from the many tiny ones that came before.