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MARCH / APRIL 2022
Are We Growing in Our Understanding? BY RALPH TATE
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f all the aspects of the COVID pandemic that have affected all of us, the one that concerns me the most has been the apparent truncation and termination of open exchanges of ideas and thoughts about the virus. I may be mistaken, but it seems to me that almost any discussion about COVID occurring between people who do not have the same perspective results in either elevated emotions as each side tries to defend their position while attacking the other or abruptly ends because they know that if it continues, that’s where it will end. On a national and state level, we are told
Decision-Making in Challenging Times INSIDE THIS ISSUE In these challenging times it helps to have a process for decision-making to help you sift through issues and concerns and determine what are key pieces of information or criteria on which to focus. The Holistic Management® DecisionMaking process has helped numerous people determine how and when to invest in a business, how to handle the pandemic, or determine the right production and marketing practices. Read how long-time Holistic Management practitioner, Frank Fitzpatrick, has developed a new business and is working to address climate change.
In Practice a publication of Holistic Management International
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what “science” is and anything else is treated as “misinformation” and forcibly removed from social media sites. Any attempt to share alternative experiences is met with calls of radicalism or name-calling. So, in the midst of this world that seems to become crazier every day, I think the tools that we have learned as Holistic Management Certified Educators actually enable us to see what is going on and, perhaps provide a saner approach to seeking understanding. In learning Holistic Management, the first principle we learned was: Key Insight #1—Nature is complex. You cannot change just one aspect of nature. Any change will result in other changes occurring, although the changes may not occur immediately. Any time we have introduced an herbicide, an insecticide or an antibiotic, it isn’t too long before we find nature starting to produce weeds, insects or bacteria that are resistant to the chemical. So chemical companies create more chemicals, resulting in more resistant plants, insects and bacteria and the cycle just keeps going, to the chagrin of the chemical companies. But we also know that it isn’t just the plants, insects or bacteria that are affected. It is other parts of the ecosystem as well. Entire biological systems are disrupted. Dung beetles disappear from pastures following cattle treated with fly tags. Monarch butterflies no longer reproduce because GMOs have changed the genetic makeup of milkweed plants. And on it goes. Did it surprise us when we were told to isolate from each other for an extended period of time with a corresponding loss of jobs and social interaction, and we saw a significant increase in depression, obesity, domestic abuse, and suicides? They may have been unintended consequences, but we knew things would not stay the same. A key concept we learned in decision-making was: When dealing with social or financial decisions, assume the decision you made was correct, but when dealing with biological systems, assume the decision you made may be wrong and look for the first possible indicator that nature
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is not responding the way you anticipated. In his book, Think Again, author Adam Grant illustrates these same principles in a little different way. He says we can act as a Preacher, a Prosecutor, a Politician or a Scientist. We act as a Preacher whenever we believe our sacred beliefs are in jeopardy and our response is to protect and promote our ideals. We act as a Prosecutor when we look for flaws in other people’s reasoning and then attack their position. When we seek to convince people of our position and win them over to our way of thinking, we are acting as a Politician. But the character Grant encourages us to emulate is that of a Scientist, who is constantly aware of the limits of his own understanding. He doubts what he knows and is curious about what he doesn’t know. One of the examples Grant referenced in his book was Orville and Wilbur Wright and their efforts to develop an airplane. It was not uncommon for the brothers to have different ideas about how to solve a particular problem and become very vocal about their ideas, both becoming Preachers or Politicians in the defense of their own position. Typically, the following day, when they showed up to work, they had thought about the problem overnight and had become convinced that their brother’s approach was correct! They then realized that neither approach was correct, and, assuming the role of Scientists, were able to cooperatively arrive at a better alternative. They were able to do this repeatedly as they worked through the myriad of technical challenges until they prevailed, and on December 17, 1903, Orville Wright became the first man to fly in a heavier-than-air powered aircraft. In my opinion, one of the major bottlenecks in communication today is understanding that science is never settled. There is no “final” answer. We don’t ever “arrive” at complete understanding. There is always something else to learn that we didn’t realize was connected or even existed. What we “knew” one hundred or two hundred years ago, many times is considered almost comical in its simplicity or its errancy. A somewhat humorous example of this CONTINUED ON PAGE 2