Catalyst Thinking

When I was young, I suspected that the world was not what I had been told it was. I was excited about growing up and getting exposed to a wider, more exciting universe of knowledge and experience.

At university, I chose to study Biology naively, thinking this was the “study of life”. My first year consisted of taxonomy; categorizing and naming life forms. We named kingdoms, phyla, classes, orders, families, genus and species of plants and animals. We named all the bones, muscles and organs of the human body. We named the parts of simpler life forms and learned an order of progression, from simple to complex. It was a disappointing year for me.

We wrestle down the awesome and overwhelming power of life, thinking to control it, by naming and thereby defining reality. It’s a huge relief when we encounter what seems like chaos and call it something that assuages our fears. The shifting economy, for example, feels much more comfortable as a “downturn” than a “depression”. Once we name something, we set it down, we contain it. It seems to have edges and boundaries and is therefore (we believe) manageable. We confuse reality with the name we have given it.

I think we are collectively beginning to suspect that we haven’t got it nailed yet. There is a sense of “something else” at the door. It may be a threat or an opportunity or both.

Catalyst Thinking is an exploration of that “something else” – and what we can do with it. It is a different route to perceiving and interpreting reality – and allowing ourselves to become open to new potential. With Catalyst Thinking we can get out of the perceptual traps we find ourselves in, set by believing that language defines reality, that habitual ways of seeing are the only ways. The practical application is that by shifting how we see, we interpret the world differently and are therefore able to explore alternative solutions. Much of what we live by are the rules we ourselves have invented, our “mental models”, to use the term popularized by Peter Senge. We can be catalysts for change, solving the problems our world is bumping up against.

Catalyst Thinking can be scaled to any level.

· On the personal level, it is creating meaning that serves oneself and one’s aspirations, overcoming mental barriers in order to achieve one’s goals. It is listening to the “small voice” of intuition in order to gain insight or find empathy for another’s perspective. It involves a feeling of “agency”, the perspective that one has choices, can act in the world and one’s actions have value.

· On the team or organizational level it is collaborating in such a way so as to increase the probability that good ideas will emerge and be endorsed. It involves creating the conditions for a shared sense of purpose and motivation to collectively make the world a better place.

· On the societal level it involves a paradigm shift and a cultural sea change, what I believe is now happening. We see all kinds of indicators that our world is changing environmentally, economically, politically and culturally. It can seem fearful because it is new. But I believe we are spontaneously adapting to address the needs our world is calling us to act on.

I aim to explore some questions that have been on my mind for a while. There may be no definitive answers; they are pointers to stimulate thought, research and reflection. I intend to share the nuggets I pick up along the way.

• How can we access our innate “right brain” wisdom more effectively?
• How can we get more in touch with our own “intuition”?
• Where do great ideas come from?
• How can we learn to see differently?
• How does creativity get triggered and how does it manifest?
• What are some practical applications of creativity for innovation, learning, relationships, collaboration?
• How can we collectively become more innovative and collaborate to resolve challenges like climate change, poisoning of the earth and chronic human suffering?
• How can we undo the Gregorian Knot of our own limited perceptions to find effective ways to live in harmony with earth and each other?
• How can we grow and express our own greatest potential?
• What examples of Catalyst Thinking are now changing how we perceive and therefore how we might resolve the global (and local) challenges confronting us?

My quest takes me to a variety of disciplines, including ecology, psychology, quantum physics, spirituality, shamanism, sociology, to name a few.

I also inquire into my own direct perceptions of things. In the above set of questions “I” can substitute for “we”. We are all caught up in the limitations of our perceptions. I am a right brain (creative) thinker who has learned the left brained (rational) world. I am like someone who’s mother tongue is an ancient language, rarely used and almost forgotten, who has become proficient in the “lingua franca” of the day. I am working my way back to my own “mother tongue” and in the process sharing what I’ve learned.