Root Causes of Disharmony

Lately I’ve been blending my interest in ‘harmony’ with my professional focus of root cause analyses. In my life right now, I know disharmony when I see it. I especially know it within myself. If something is stuck in my craw, it can take some contemplative digging to determine what I’m cranked about. Usually whatever I’m cranked about isn’t the root cause.

This has brought to light at least one emotional dilemma that I must navigate: I despise and get very stressed when I’m stuck in a bad plan – disharmony! – so I tend to at least review plans as their devised. As a result, I wind up making a lot of plans; normally I don’t mind, and I generally find it satisfying. It is, however, an additional responsibility, which brings its own stress - and… disharmony!

Identifying this bind is already a great start: it’s obvious that in any given situation, I have to either embrace the planning and coordination, or enjoy the relative lack of responsibility. I do appreciate when a strong, knowledgeable and coordinated leader steps up and makes a plan that I can, at least, live with.

Harmony

Again the topic of harmony is on my mind. I’m re-reading Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land, and one of the differences between Martians and Humans is the Martian inability to endure disharmony. They ‘discorporate’ at the sort of argument some of us have daily. That started my mind down the path.

The harmony I seek, both professionally and personally, is very much like a dance. Dance partners become good and great dance partners through the practice and education. Both know the moves, they learn each other, and they gain an ability to adjust to the real world challenges of the dance floor. The lead has the advantage of knowing what’s coming and the added responsibility of deciding what’s next while executing the current steps. The follow is allowed to focus on the now, but often doesn’t know what’s next. In the case of dancing, the follow must also dance backwards, often in heels.

In my work I often focus on root causes. There’s no point in mopping the wet floor if the leaky pipe isn’t fixed. It occurred to me that most of my own emotional disruptions and are symptoms of disharmony. Often the disharmony is a gap between the world I desire and the world as it is. For example, before I shifted jobs, I was often frustrated by how long it took and by what I perceived as a lack of progress. Another example that no doubt is common in the human experience is the desire to spend more focused time with people I care about. One great advantage of being happily married and living with one’s spouse is this disharmony is relatively easy to fix or avoid with at least one valued relationship. – as an aside, I imagine for many couples, that is enough. We’ve all seen the pairings who drop out of social circles after they’ve found one another.

It’s also frequent that the disharmony is a concern for losing something in my current life that I’m attached to.

I had a lot more to say about this, but I’ve lost the mental thread for now...