My reflections about generations yesterday reminded me, as I mentioned, of a book by Adam Kahane called Solving Tough Problems. I’m really glad I re-opened the book. I read it a while ago, but never did a review on my web site. That is now corrected. You can see the review here.

I shared a quote yesterday on the Association Renewal blog about the nature of complex problems. Here I will share a quote that talks about Kahane’s core idea about our response to complex problems: openness.

We get stuck by holding on tightly to our opinions and plans and identities and truths. But when we relax and are present and open up our minds and hearts and wills, we get unstuck and we unstick the world around us. I have learned that the more open I am–the more attentive I am to the way things are and could be, around me and inside me; the less attached I am to the way things ought to be–the more effective I am in helping to bring forth new realities.

We are taught to strongly attach ourselves to the way things "ought" to be. In many instances, this is a good approach. It is certainly important to know why you want things a certain way. But in tough problems, this gets us stuck. It can feel counterintuitive to remain open in those situations, but I think it is sometimes our only path out.