Smart thinking in crazy times

Most problems and issues that we face are complex and multi-faceted. Simple, straightforward solutions are seldom sufficient. And when we get into conflict answers are seldom easy and mostly muddled! Is there a way of thinking about our personal and community’s crises and conflicts that is clearer and smarter than most of our standard approaches? I think there is.

Ian Mitroff is a professor at the University of Southern California where he heads up the Centre for Crisis Management. He suggests that all problems display four perspectives; Scientific/Technical, Ethical/Spiritual, Personal/Social and Systemic/Contextual.

These four perspectives can be illustrated with a typical community issue: a dispute between two neighbours. And let’s say that the dispute is about the noise level of the classical music played by one of the neighbours, which he loves to play really LOUD to accompany cooking his Sunday lunch. This drives his next-door neighbours crazy. Their preference is to have a quiet Sunday morning listening to the church service on the radio and then reading the Sunday papers before going out to one of the restaurants for lunch. Clearly a “classical” conflict!

Now hopefully the quiet neighbours will have discussed their problem with the musical maniac and the two parties have amicably resolved their conflict. But what if one of them decided to treat the entire matter in a technical, right/wrong manner and “go the legal route?”

All disputes have a technical/scientific perspective. Some or other regulation will usually apply to an aspect of the dispute.  So, whatever the final outcome, the parties will need to take cognisance of a technical/scientific aspect to their problem. Sadly, most people too, too often only think of the technical or scientific perspective! However, there are always three other perspectives to consider, and if no attention is paid to them a purely technical solution is likely to make matters worse than before.

So instead of just calling in the police to measure the decibels of the offending classical CD’s, the neighbours also need to consider the personal/social perspective to the problem. When the police arrive with their decibel measuring equipment it is highly likely that personal relationships between next-door neighbours will deteriorate into acrimonious accusation and counter-accusation in which the ability to hear the other side flies out the window. And when other friends and neighbours of both parties take sides, the social ramifications of the conflict click in and could poison the neighbourhood vibe. But wait, there’s more!

Every problem, conflict or crisis is always part of a larger context or system. So, the noisy neighbour problem is a sub-set of many broader issues such as noise pollution, cultural clashes and diversity, community values and norms, constitutional rights and duties and eventually even broad human rights. Each of these wider contexts deserves debate prior to any precipitous actions on the part of the battling neighbours. And yes, there’s still more!

There is an ethical/spiritual perspective to every problem. Even though your neighbour is driving you bonkers, have you considered everything that you may have done or may be doing that is inconsiderate on your part, and which is adding fuel to the fire? In the light of this conflict what is the right thing to do? What is right for the longer-term well being of your irritating neighbour, yourself, your neighbourhood and all its people?

Perhaps we can learn something from practical academics like Mitroff. I certainly believe that I can improve my thinking about problems, issues, conflicts and crises by trying to consider all four perspectives. And I suspect that this approach might help all of us avoid the horrendous mistakes we are apt to make in the heat of the conflict moment.