Root It Out!
The Euro has been saved; the European project lives on; the markets bounce back, rejoice, rejoice! Although cautious commentators reflect that this agreement only deals with the symptoms of the problem and not the cause. Fundamental to any change programme with groups, individuals or even with yourself is to find what the root of the problem really is. An economy is like a big black box with leavers, dials and gauges attached to it. You can get a sense of what is going on inside, but you don’t really know for sure. If you pull this leaver or turn that dial it can change whatever is going on inside and thereby the results presented. You need ask the questions does the economy produce jobs and wealth; is it egalitarian, does it work to reduce inequality, is it efficient; is it sustainable and does it contribute to the production of happy people?
Working to engender change in others is very similar. Your mind is a like a black box too, there are leavers to pull, dials to turn and gauges to check and you don’t really know if the problem is fixed unless you get the results in your life that you want. What you search for is the root cause of any discomfort and deal with that, then test that the presenting problem also clears up. That way the magic of a successful change programme is revealed. So how do you find the root cause? With individuals the signals that you need to read to unlock the workings of someone else’s black box is within their physiology, their eyes and their words. When you know how you can read subtle changes in someone else’s physiology that will indicate to you important changes in their thinking. Peoples eye movements give away how unconscious material is being brought into conscious awareness. Together with these observations your language is a deep indicator of the structure of your thinking. It is how you describe what you experience to yourself and to others.
Paying particularly close attention to these clues and how they interact with each other; together with a little bit of careful questioning and reframing (placing events and situations in a different context) is usually enough to unlock the secrets of the black box. And once you do this, then the change you want now is easier than you think. However, it does need a few other factors which help too. Whoever you are working with needs to be honest with you and themselves and they need to fully surrender to the therapeutic process. For some people that can be harder than you might think. Your right thinking rational conscious mind is what has brought you to where you are today, letting go and trusting, can be a challenge for some. But once you learn to trust yourself you can open up to more of your own potential, can’t you.
We can let the economists and politicians argue over the presenting problems and the root causes of Euro zone’s ailment. Though rest assured that unless heavily indebted countries deal with the causes of their problems and re-wire their economies then this issue isn’t over yet. Solutions there are plenty, let’s hope decision makers know that we are in this together and we can only get out of it together.
Written by Ewan Mochrie