Avoid default thinking

In late April, I lunched with a remarkable man, John D. Adams. His book, Thinking Today As If Tomorrow Mattered: The Rise of a Sustainable Consciousness, resonated with my thinking about people?s orientation to time and my belief that most people are after a quick fix rather than realizing a vision. John?s work adds a dimension to the thinking of the Meta-Learning Lab. He reasons that we develop habits of thinking, a series of defaults that we are largely unaware of. He proposes that we consciously get out of autopilot mode, expand our comfort zones, and take control of keeping things in balance. This requires self-awareness and incremental change, both facilitated by asking appropriate questions.

Here's John's summary of people's orientation to time:

Attention focus	Time Orientation in Thinking
	Operational	Strategic
Outer/Reactive	Focus: Immediate problem Function: Administration Liability: No big picture	Focus: Anticipation Function Develop Strategy Liability: Overlook immediate
Inner/Creative	Focus: New Approach Function: Innovation Liability: Duplicate effort	Focus: What We Want Function: Define the Future Liability: No Reality Testing

John proposes that versatility in consciousness is essential for on-going rapid individual learning and that the only sustainable consciousness is a learning consciousness.

I have plowed much of the same ground as John, but his crops bear more fruit. Having set up this framework, he shows how a person or organization can achieve a more balanced position. I'll come back to this in a later post.
Posted by Jay Cross at May 13, 2003 11:13 PM | TrackBack