Positive Perspective: an integrated, action -oriented transformation of contradiction can take place with the introduction of a compelling vision of the future (Weitz and Bergquist, 2024). As Fred Polak (1973) documented in great detail, an image of the future provides any system with direction and motivation. Without this compelling image, any system (such as an organization or society) will soon wither away. Closely associated with this compelling vision is an appreciative perspective (Bergquist, 2003). I have repeatedly brought this perspective into my analysis of both the Lens of Essential and Lens of Essence. For Barry Johnson (2020, p. 7), this appreciative perspective is found in the Polarity-based capacity and willingness to: “see ourselves and our world more completely . . . It is the capacity to see ourselves, our organizations, and our countries as more than our shortcomings.” When we “catch other people doing it right” then we are moving beyond polarization to integration via successful action.
Negative Perspective: it is quite understandable that Barry Johnson focuses on the motivating force offered by fear. The role played by fear is made large by Johnson when he sets up a Polarity Map. It is Fear that drives our movement from one polarity to the other polarity. I wish to push back against Johnson a bit and offer another perspective that comes from the Behavioral Economics school. For many of these folks, fear is not the biggest motivator—at least if fear is defined as the potential loss of something, the potential harm done to oneself or others, or the failure to achieve something. These forms of fear (and accompanying anxiety) are certainly powerful. However, there is another motivator that often tops fear. This motivator is Regret. We anticipate that sometime in the future we will feel very bad that we didn’t choose a specific course of action when we had a chance.
If we take Regret into account, then we might move from one polarity to the second polarity not because we fear the ramifications of the first polarity but because we are fearful (concerned) that opportunities offered by the second polarity might be overlooked in our haste to focus on the first priority. As is the case with the proverbial donkey, we sit by the first stack of hay and imagine that we have missed the opportunity to sample the rich texture and taste of the second stack of hay. Delightful smells from this second stack waft over to us. We move over to the second stack and then even more keenly savor the rich smells emanating from the first stack of hay. Off we go back to the first stack. Our life is filled with regret–and we starve to death wanting never to miss the taste of either clump of hay.
I would suggest, even further, that Regret ultimately resides in our desire for but inability to focus on Essence. In some vague way, we “know” what it means to ultimately be satisfied and fulfilled. We can imagine munching on the most succulent hay to be found in the world. We can envision the feeling of happiness and contentment. However, we don’t know how to arrive at Essence. And we are not sure if we really know where to find Essence. In the Wizard of Oz, Dorothy discovered that Essence doesn’t exist out there in some myth land of Oz. She was mistaken and only after a long journey finds that Essence exists back at her home in Kansas. The matter of Essence can be even more challenging. We might not be sure that Essence really exists or that it is what we hope it will be. Peggy Lee writes and sings about what it means to be disappointed (“Is that all there is!”), while many stories have been written about a lifelong, unfulfilled search for Utopia.
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