Revising underlying structure

When we're busy with what needs to be done, there's no underlying structure anywhere in sight. When we're devoted to being ourselves, we cannot be someone else. We are preoccupied with maintaining the upper level of evidence by doing things. We are caught up in the emergent products of the underlying structure with no idea "where that came from?" or "why that fall apart?".

We are oscillating between one extreme and the other if the underlying structure is in conflict. We cannot make up our minds, settle on one alternative or stick with a change once it's been made. We are stuck in first gear and stagnant as a swamp -- if the underlying structure embodies "one right answer". In one case we cannot stop changing. In the other we cannot change.

For example, individuals may believe that work and play don't mix and constantly need the other to feel alright about themselves. They are never satisfied at work or having fun. Others believe play is disgraceful and only work is respectable. They cannot stop working, come home without work or take a break from work to relax.

An enterprise that assumes "the customer is always right" will change with every fad and fancy of their fickle patrons. A company that assumes it knows what is good for the "stupid" customers, (patients, students, subscribers, clients, etc) will continue to do what it has always done regardless of how times have changed, complaints have multiplied or rivals have redefined the market.

When we are free to reflect on patterns in the fluctuations or stagnation, we may discern some of the underlying structure. We may recognize hidden beliefs, assumptions, premises and "unalterable" facts of life. We may see how everything that happens on top is true the form of the underlies it. We may realize the futility of changing the behavior while making no change in what drives the behavior. We become conscious of what needs changing and what will fall into place without making it happen. We are free of "trying to change". We have become capable of "changing without effort".

If the underlying structure is stuck on some ideal that rejects the opposite, revising the structure to "it takes both" will get things moving again. World class performance in business occurs when employees are told to comply with policy AND deviate from policy when appropriate. Student test performance improves with studying AND sleep.

If the underlying structure is conflicted about "how it takes both", low class performance results. The employees will oscillate between over compliance and excessive deviance. The students will study too hard and sleep through the test period. Then the underlying structure needs to be revised to realize the "best of both" alternatives. Compliance and deviance get combined into a validation of individual judgment and cultivation of employee awareness of long term implications of their choices. The students discovers how to cut down on study time by sleeping regularly and getting better test results with less brain-dead studying.

Often all it takes to revise an underlying structure is an added distinction that complicates the established premises without rejecting them.