Ma-kin sense: Unprecedented
Ma-kin sense of the keyword: Unprecedented
Definition: Never having happened or existed in the past
The group of reflectors: Lou Platt, Lorna Dallas-Conte, John O’Reilly, Laurie Atkins, Kriti Dhiman and Katherine SimpsonTalking with a friend the other night we were tempted to play Coronavirus daily briefings bingo – score a point every time the speakers said “unprecedented”, but 5:30pm felt too early to get three sheets to the wind, alone in my one bed flat in East London. At the moment, The word is coupled with numerous contexts during the coronavirus pandemic, one has only to google and it is, you could say a precedent with the outbreak.
Unprecedented response,
Unprecedented risk,
Unprecedented challenge,
Unprecedented scenes,
Unprecedented measures,
Unprecedented decline,
Unprecedented crisis,
Unprecedented global research effort,
Unprecedented crowds,
Unprecedented plans, and
Unprecedented 329-page bill in just three days, (to name a few).
Last year, Government Technology, named ‘unprecedented’ word of year 2019. Back then, it was mainly associated with two dominant conversations President Trump and the climate crisis. Eric Holdeman, discussed that not only are we reporting never before seen disruption but to accompany this we will need to watch and listen to "new precedents" being set and old ones destroyed. In this moment, these disruptions or interruptions are stretching through our social, environmental, economical and political landscapes, our values, how we connect and belong in this moving terrain. As we watch, wait and wonder – who will wander forward to make decisions and can we trust them to design new precedents and be willing to let go of old ones that are broken?
What is the “un” in un-precedented? Unknown. Undoing. Unseen. How do we take action into a space that is unprecedented? With this action emerges a catch-22, to freeze or move. The former is fuelled by the lack of experience to lean in, which leads to feeling uncertain and frozen. The latter, manifests from not knowing, it enables risk taking in a space where anything goes and creativity is rife. We are not required to behave in ways of the past, and we have permission to behave in ways that maybe feels more natural to some, feelings that are curiously liberating.
Stealing ideas from Elisabeth Muir, we suggest this movement can be encouraged through the child-led psychotherapeutic approach called watch, wait and wonder which uses play to enhance sense of self and self-efficacy, emotion regulation, and attachment, a process that is reflective. As our formalities and foundations are literally moving beneath our feet if we see, think and ask questions we can act, show up and not ride the rollercoaster we are all living, but one can step off, watch and take the position as the observer.
Our previous understanding has been disbanded and our loss of expectations of our future may have joined in a grief memorial gathering. These practices of how we handle grief such as the grief cycle this loss of what was or futures that might be, needs to be taken care of, looked after, so we can make sense of our collective futures.
“How do we manage this unprecedented landscape in unprecedented times with care? ”
To make the case to manage with care, new precedents could be set and embedded into our social functions as the old ones continue to break down, and while we are at it, we can question the ones that are unstable and serve only the few and not the many. Leadership, Maslow’s Hierarchiy of needs and management can be flipped or re-assembled as we reshape and collaborate across borders and sectors, scarcity and abundance, privilege and inequality and physical and digital giving us the ability to hear and see things that were previously invisible. As the five of us conversed, the parrots and Indian robins mirrored our rhythm of conversation as they chirped in the hill tops of Mandi Town, Himachal Pradesh State in India. The sounds were magnified through laptop speakers into our homes across England, connecting us in profound yet humble, simple ways.
These unseen connections across people, place and paradigms, are emphasised by our networks. Many people’s livelihoods rely on supply chains across the world, we truly recognise how connected we are and our resilience to bounce back is fierce. There is a complete revolution of values. As we move and migrate together through our unstable terrain, by necessity we find ways to self-manage, make-up structures so we creatively live by other means, and as the old English proverb says “necessity is the mother of invention”, where the catalyst for most new inventions is a need. This need, is a provocation and opportunity increases our sense to see otherness. Seeing otherness is critical in this space where we are doing and undoing. To see otherness can take time and as we wait for the future to go back to normal, or the ‘new’ normal becomes less fluid, and solid so we can walk on it and aren’t centred in a traumatic space, we have permission to notice on the periphery to shape change.
There are advantages to sit, wait and s l o w t h i n g s d o w n while sitting on the bench and taking time out. Following advice from Penelope, in Homer’s Odyssey, the greek Myth, who waited for her husband to return from the Trojan War, (which seemed unlikely to most), yet, she didn’t want to marry another. And to spare herself the explanation, she declared she would wait until she had woven a shroud before looking. Yet to bide her time, every day, she sewed the shroud and unraveled the same threads by night, so that she would not have to give up hope for the return of her husband. In the myth, her husband did return years later. This act of ravelling and unravelling can give us the space we might need to question when things are broken-down or never before seen – enabling us to think beyond the quick fixes, and the low hanging fruit but for long-term sustainable change that cares.
However, if we wait too long the situation may change from underneath our feet, when we least expect it and by default new forms and structures are laid, locked down and policed before we even realise. And we have to wait again for an unprecedented disruption to interrupt us.
To wait, watch and wonder versus to move where we innovate through necessity, these are the dualities we are all facing in varying degrees. Applying both, suggests we could move with grace and consciousness as a whole – as a body. A body of people, a body of countries, a body of knowledges or even a body of health. As the body needs both movement and rest to function optimally we suggest one needs both approaches. And as we migrate together as a body, completely new forms of creativity are emerging – as long as we have space to watch this body as an observer, allowing ourselves to step off the rollercoaster we can see the otherness and take care of it for the future and not waiting for the next unprecedented event to unfold.
What are ‘ma-kin sense’ articles?
Purpose
• Discuss as a group for 27 mins to reflect on a keyword that is prevalent or emerging in society. The conversation is written up as an article with doodles and notes accompanied.
Format
• Each person shares their observations on the key word and riff off each other.
So what
• The conversation is for self-reflection and collective transfer of knowledge – nothing more, nothing less.
• It is an opportunity to be in the moment, experimental and experiential to poke and prod as a collection of voices to excavate and test the edges of our boundaries.