Show all your workings out
Uncertainty can make us feel pulled apart. What amplifies this state is when we navigate new knowns, unknowns and those unknown unknows which lurk in dark crevasses or hide in plain sight.
As we navigate the uncertainty of our shared public spaces due to the Coronavirus pandemic, novel choreographed dances emerge as we step into and across never before encountered space. It is fair to say that when making things up for the first time there are multiple possible steps and leaps, we can sequence – most things aren’t just one thing or another. It is unlikely binary. We need but, both as well as, and.
Our human condition to prefer a familiar path is not currently available, it is restricted, out-of-service for the time being and even though we know there are multiple sequences on offer there seems to be no room for nuance. This slight or delicate degree of difference to feel the shades of options where we materialise spaces fit for a bit of both feels too unfamiliar to spend time. Instead, we tend to revert to old habits to polarise individuals and make each other choose a camp even if it doesn’t quite fit.
When navigating complexity within uncertainty, things aren’t simply black and white but shades, the nuances – the grey. When we think about something entering a grey area it mostly feels negative, whereas it can be a positive place to camp out for a while. Many situations may not arise if we pause and allow space. To get there we must have permission to spend time sitting in the discomfort of not knowing and not moving too fast, sitting on the grey walls, so we can learn and be iterative by design.
“It is possible that by our very design we are reducing the richness of decision-making rather than expanding it.”
When comparing the word division and its opposite multiplication, they both work as words to reduce or amplify life in some way. It is possible that by our very design we are reducing the richness of decision-making rather than expanding it.
One area of concern is the simplicity of message once arrived at a solution and how we mask its complexities. There may be an element in which we can't necessarily cope with the complexity. A distilled version is much more palatable and reduced down into a simple message – a branded strapline ‘Stay Home. Save Lives. Protect the NHS’. Levels of complexity can’t be distilled into an A or B but we do, mainly because our capacity to take on board these kinds of complexities without a certain level of social and cultural capital and diversity in order to feel confident is extremely difficult.
Distilling down to a reduced outcome or answer we can use the idea of showing the workings out like when we performed a maths test at school. We weren’t allowed to use a calculator in a test, instead we used a pencil to write out the method and sum. However, if all the workings out and answer were correct, the catch occurred when the workings out weren’t communicated effectively or there was too much information leading to confusion. This led us to the idea that the perception of the working out, is as important as the actual working out. It also demonstrates that to get a piece of paper and scribble also effects the speed and duration that it takes to get to that decision.
If we make enough of the decisions visible for people to understand and compare our personal workings out, we can critique and learn from each other. Sometimes we might arrive at the same conclusion from completely different sides and other times we have reduced to a simple act when multiple approaches could have worked.
An article inspired from a Ma-kin sense conversation on the phrase "division". The group of reflectors: John O’Reilly, Laura Cloke, Catherine Smith and Katherine Simpson. 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.