A focus on answers.<\/strong> It\u2019s always amazing how quickly the call for answers comes when acute anxiety is present. In one organization this happened in the first meeting! They weren\u2019t interested in exploring what \u201cthe problem\u201d may be or what their part in it was. They wanted to know not only what I was going to do, but how I was going to do whatever it was that would help them get out of their stuckness (I jokingly had to remind them that a consultant doesn\u2019t actually \u201cdo\u201d anything). <\/p>\n In the second organization one person kept pushing for \u201cdata.\u201d That\u2019s a sure sign of imaginative gridlock: an inability to move toward adventure, vision, and imagination rather than a search for certitude. When certitude is your highest value, boldness goes out the window as a resource. The fact is that innovators, visionaries, and trendsetters don\u2019t work off of \u201cdata.\u201d They move on imagination fueled by vision.<\/p>\n The polarization of false dichotomies.<\/strong> The third characteristic of imaginative gridlock is \u201ceither-or thinking.\u201d When the mind is anxious it cannot be imaginative. It tends, therefore, to create false dichotomies and to polarize concepts, options, and opinions. And then it doesn\u2019t take long to begin labeling and personalizing issues, leading to an inability to listen and dialogue. In one organization the result has been the formation of \u201cfactions\u201d or \u201ccamps.\u201d Once someone became identified in a \u201ccamp\u201d his or her opinions and thoughts were always discounted by another faction\u2014regardless of the merit of the content. <\/p>\n Change comes hard to organizations, but even harder to systems that suffer from imaginative gridlock. In these cases it\u2019s necessary to focus on changing the way the culture thinks first, and then work on change. As Einstein said, \u201cProblems cannot be solved at the same level of awareness that created them.\u201d <\/p>\n I\u2019ve been working with a couple of organizations that are \u201cstuck\u201d but motivated enough to get moving toward becoming \u201chealthier.\u201d As I witness the process of working with the leaders and employees of both organizations I\u2019m reminded of some fundamental … Continue reading 
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