Given these conditions, it is critical that we search for and find the essential outcome of challenges we are facing in a VUCA-Plus world. This search is not easy, for this world is saturated with perspectives and needs that are frequently shifting in unpredictable ways. Given the challenge faced by this search, I wish to devote some attention to the motivations that underlying this search for what is Essential. I will also introduce a new way to think about dynamic processes associated with this search.
The Motivation of Essential
That which is essential is situated at the top of any system. It can be represented as the tip of a pyramid of hopes and needs. From this perspective, that which is essential can be considered Aspirational. We believe that something good will be achieved which overrides everything else. The challenge is to retain the core values of the system while aspiring to one set of values that we believe is aligned with the greater good.
There is an alternative representation. It is the portrait of a fiery pit. That which is essential can be oriented toward heaven (aspirational) or toward (hell). The latter way to think of essential is from the fear-based perspective of Apprehension. The fiery pit looms in front of us. We fear that something bad will overtake everything of importance in our life. Essential matters become existential. They receive our sustained attention because the future of our relationship, team or organization depends on our successful achievement of specific, essential outcomes.
For many people living in a traditional Christian world, the avoidance of Hell is even more motivating that the entrance into Heaven. From a more secular and contemporary perspective, the fear of loss (according to behavioral scientists) is greater than the hope of gain. The outcome of this perspective typically is a failure to search for anything other than a pathway to survival or escape. We typically end up finding a rabbit hole that allows us to enter the distorted wonderland of Serenity. We exchange our anxiety for a dose of “alternative reality.”
A third perspective regarding what is essential can be taken—especially in a VUCA-Plus world in which many issues are elusive. We are grasping for something that we know is important, though we are not quite sure what it is. That which is Enthralling becomes that which is Essential in our world. We have to figure out what is happening to us or happening out in the world. We spend time reading everything about that narcissistic leader we hate. Newspapers feature stories about events that are over-powering and destructive—rather than events that are manageable and positive. Our life is spent trying to find something called “happiness” that is supposed to be central to our life—and our society (“the pursuit of happiness”). We are pulled to that which is “awesome” and filled with wonder. Unfortunately, this perspective on Essential often leaves us as powerless observers of that over which we have little or no control.
I vote for the aspirational perspective.
