I recently observed a system go through about a week of acute anxiety which spawned reactivity in the system. All systems experience episodes of acute anxiety, of course, but systems manifest it differently. Relatively stable and non-anxious, high-functioning systems seem able to respond to episodes of acute anxiety, while chronically anxious systems can only react to it. That is, they have little tolerance or resources of imagination or self-regulation to handle times of acute anxiety.
Here are some observations of a chronically anxious system experiencing acute anxiety. I think these can be generalized to any system that is chronically anxious, like those which are structured for it—either because of their nature, or because someone has set it up that way. (A chronically anxious system is one in which someone (or a group) is made responsible for someone else’s functioning; is structured around the formation of triangles; or is set up to hamstring the effectiveness of the designated leader in the system).
- Some people just need to be mad. They want their pain.
- It’s a waste of time to try to dialogue with an angry person.
- Some people just need to be “right,” regardless of the cost.
- It must be so sad to live perpetually angry and perpetually frightened.
- The Enneagram is a very handy tool for insight into personality and function. Its accuracy is uncanny.
- Some people will surprise you with their capacity to step up to leadership.
- A chronically anxious system in the grips of acute anxiety has a tremendous capacity for self-sabotage.
- Anxiety spawns triangles—even over distances.
- Anxious people lose the capacity to practice grace, and will believe the worst of others in an instant.
- Stuck people will believe what they want to believe. No amount of earnestness or data will convince them otherwise.
- It only takes one willful anxious person to kick up the reactivity in an anxious system if the healthier ones in the system do not respond.
- A leadership vacuum leaves a system dysfunctional and with little resource for self-regulation or vision.
- Anxiety spreads like a virus in a system that lacks immunity provided by leadership.
- Emotionality trumps rationality even in a system of “smart” people.
- People will take any opportunity to work out their unresolved issues if given a forum.
- Trust is a gossamer thread; once severed it’s almost impossible to regain.
- Can a stuck system call the leader it needs?
- People are hooked on the myth of information—the notion that if one has all the information it will make a difference to what needs to be done; or that more data will bring insight.
- Information reduces anxiety (but for anxious people, so will misinformation).
- Chronically anxious systems facilitate regression if unchecked.
- No matter how hard you think you’ve tried to communicate process, most people will not hear most of it.
- When people give in to paranoia, guilt by association carries more weight than observable facts.
- When people lack data, they’ll fill in the blanks.
- Perception is people’s reality. And most people will see things only from their frame of reference and from their position in the system.
<%image(20070217-IGMatrix100.jpg|100|131|It's raining today and I have to go out. I'll wear my hat.)%>
Cum homine de cane debeo congredi.
(“I have to see a man about a dog.”)
