Jennifer Cassidy

Lately, a lot of the conversations in my house start with the word “when”:  “when the house renovations are done”; or “when we have more money”, or “when we have more time”, and even “when the kids are older”.  It seems that my husband and I are always waiting for something, because something else is always stopping us from getting where we want to go. When I married my dear husband, he warned me about the “Cassidy luck” – meaning that if something can go wrong, it will. It really does seem that we have our fair share of trouble, lately too – house renovations are on hold while we fix the truck, the truck repairs are on hold while we wait for a new part, the new part is on hold while we wait for more money.  Sometimes I think “Hurry Up and Wait” should be our family motto.

In the practice of yoga, there are four principles of self-discipline, or Niyamas.  One of these principles is that of “Santosha”: the practice of developing equanimity with all things.  To put it another way, Santosha is the acceptance that all things are both flawed and perfect at the same time, that everything is part of a larger dynamic system of life and death, and that the only constant thing in the universe is unending change.  This acceptance that everything in one’s life is part of the larger system of the universe, and that change and complexity in that system is inevitable, allows the yogi to “loosen her grip” and roll gracefully over life’s bumpy road: the yogi reduces the complexity in their lives by accepting change as part of the process of life. I’ve been thinking that practicing Santosha on a personal level is similar in some ways to using Systems Thinking to work through complexity and change in organizations: in many organizations the most commonly heard words are “when” or “if”: “if accounting would just…” or “when the engineers get the act together…” for example.  Systems Thinking means seeing the organization as a system and that everything that you need to solve the organizations problems is achievable by working with the organization as a system, rather than a set of unrelated parts with problems that need to be isolated and “fixed”.

It seems the more I practice yoga and the more I learn about the process of Systems Thinking, the more I realize that these two practices are really about behaving in a conscious manner.  The consciousness that is required to practice equanimity in one’s personal life by making the decision to be “roll with the punches” of life and just be okay with what is happening in the here and now, and the critical consciousness that is required to practice Systems Thinking by leveraging change in an organization to produce positive results, are similar.  In terms of outcomes, yogis know that physical and emotional abundance is the reward for practicing contentment with what is here and now, with being equanimous with the unending change in the world.  Similarly, Systems Thinking practitioners know that the reward for equanimity within an organization means working with an organization as a whole system and consciously making decisions that put the organization in the position of riding the crest of constant change, and the reward is the same: abundance follows.

So, taking a little from my yoga practice and a little from Systems Thinking, I’ve been trying to see my household as a system in which change is not a disruption but more of a way of being.  I’m trying to start conversations more constructively: instead of “when” I’ve been practicing saying “how” or “why”. I figure knowing the system means knowing how to make constructive decisions about the system rather than getting off on a track of discontentment about what is happening now: what is changing too fast, and what isn’t changing fast enough.  I’ve even been thinking about a new family motto: In mutatione pax…Peace in Change!