{"id":88,"date":"2007-03-16T09:36:16","date_gmt":"2007-03-16T09:36:16","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2007-03-30T07:59:35","modified_gmt":"2007-03-30T13:59:35","slug":"observations-at-the-end-of-a-crisis-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/archives\/88","title":{"rendered":"Observations at the end of a crisis week"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>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 <i>respond<\/i> to episodes of acute anxiety, while chronically anxious systems can only <i>react<\/i> to it. That is, they have little tolerance or resources of imagination or self-regulation to handle times of acute anxiety.<\/p>\n<p>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 <i>structured<\/i> for it\u2014either 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\u2019s functioning; is structured around the formation of triangles; or is set up to hamstring the effectiveness of the designated leader in the system).<br \/>\n<!--more--><\/p>\n<ul><\/p>\n<li>Some people just need to be mad. They want their pain.\n<li>It\u2019s a waste of time to try to dialogue with an angry person. \n<li>Some people just need to be \u201cright,\u201d regardless of the cost. \n<li>It must be so sad to live perpetually angry and perpetually frightened.\n<li>The Enneagram is a very handy tool for insight into personality and function. Its accuracy is uncanny. \n<li>Some people will surprise you with their capacity to step up to leadership.\n<li>A chronically anxious system in the grips of acute anxiety has a tremendous capacity for self-sabotage.\n<li>Anxiety spawns triangles\u2014even over distances. \n<li>Anxious people lose the capacity to practice grace, and will believe the worst of others in an instant. \n<li>Stuck people will believe what they want to believe. No amount of earnestness or data will convince them otherwise.\n<li>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.\n<li>A leadership vacuum leaves a system dysfunctional and with little resource for self-regulation or vision.\n<li>Anxiety spreads like a virus in a system that lacks immunity provided by leadership. \n<li>Emotionality trumps rationality even in a system of \u201csmart\u201d people.\n<li>People will take any opportunity to work out their unresolved issues if given a forum.\n<li>Trust is a gossamer thread; once severed it\u2019s almost impossible to regain.\n<li>Can a stuck system call the leader it needs? \n<li>People are hooked on the myth of information\u2014the 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.  \n<li>Information reduces anxiety (but for anxious people, so will misinformation).\n<li>Chronically anxious systems facilitate regression if unchecked.\n<li>No matter how hard you think you\u2019ve tried to communicate process, most people will not hear most of it. \n<li>When people give in to paranoia, guilt by association carries more weight than observable facts.\n<li>When people lack data, they\u2019ll fill in the blanks.\n<li>Perception is people&#8217;s reality. And most people will see things only from their frame of reference and from their position in the system.\n<\/ul>\n<p>\n<%image(20070217-IGMatrix100.jpg|100|131|It's raining today and I have to go out. I'll wear my hat.)%><br \/>\n<i>Cum homine de cane debeo congredi.<\/i><br \/>\n(&#8220;I have to see a man about a dog.&#8221;)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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 &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/archives\/88\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-88","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bowen-family-systems-theory"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}