What is Actually Going On?

Discover the powerful manipulation technique we're facing and the magic of sensemaking

Oct 21, 2022

We need to work on developing our capacity for making sense of the world. Dive in to discover the power of sensemaking.

We live in a complex, uncertain world full of wicked problems tripping us up. While these complex issues have multifaceted challenges that seem impossible to resolve, we must address them. Unfortunately, they definitely do not have simple solutions.

The best way for us to try and solve these issues is by working together as a diverse community. None of us has enough information to go it alone and find a solution. Naturally, there are some challenges with working together. Thanks to our cognitive biases, we stick with what’s easy, familiar, and comfortable, even when we’re totally wrong.

That’s not the only issue with our cognitive shortcomings: Our entire political system manipulates us by taking advantage of how we think. Sometimes that’s intentional, and they know they’re doing it. Sometimes it’s just what some strategy consultant told them to do.

Nonetheless, they’re trying to oversimplify things. They’re framing things in black-and-white ways that are simple for us to understand. While telling us what we want to hear may sound fine, many forces are actively trying to confuse, mislead, and polarize us.

All of this means we are unable to find a shared foundation of what reality even is. We have a hard time agreeing on how we would even reach an agreement on what’s true about the world. What’s more, we all have different ideas about what’s meaningful.

Our diversity is currently working against us. Truthfully, we can only make changes and survive all of this by collaborating across our differences.

While our diversity should be an asset, it’s a challenge right now. So what can we do?

How can we make sense of the world?

Sensemaking is a term I first heard in an interview on my previous podcast, Fractal Friends. It was with retired Green Beret Major Jim Uhlmann. He reminded me about Rebel Wisdom, where I really got to learn a lot more about this concept.

The folks at Rebel Wisdom have built an entire world of media and resources around sensemaking. They have a film library with over 20 different films applying or talking about sensemaking. They also have a fantastic sensemaking 1-on-1 course and a great video introducing sensemaking.

I want to thank Rebel Wisdom’s David Fuller and Alexander Beiner. They have done so much work in an incredibly thoughtful and dedicated way. Their journalism appears consistent, transparent, and with high levels of integrity. They seem to walk their talk, which touches many people’s lives, including mine.

What is sensemaking?

So let’s take a look at sensemaking through the Rebel Wisdom lens. I took their sensemaking 1-on-1 course last year, and it was awesome. They distilled all the materials from their course into three Substack essays, which I’ve linked at the end for you to check out. They have videos to go with them, and they’re sharing their workbooks. It’s a fantastic bunch of resources.

What’s cool about the way they work is they don’t just talk about how to make sense of all the crazy information. They frame sensemaking with a holistic approach, orienting around three themes that align with much of the content I’m covering here in these essays. (Secretly, between you and me, they’re a role model for this project.)

Discover the three themes

So, what are Rebel Wisdom’s three sensemaking themes? They talk about the first person, second person, and third person. Let’s break them down.

First person

The first person is about each of us. I am my first person. You are your first person.

It’s about knowing yourself and being aware of your cognitive biases. Rebel Wisdom has some great lessons that lift the idea of mindfulness and meditation. It leads us to think about how we can face our shadows. One way to do that is by working on our personal development, improving our capacity to live in complexity and ambiguity.

How do we approach our differences with curiosity and humility?

How can we hold multiple beliefs without them threatening our identity?

Second person

The next part is second-person work. We need to leverage our diversity and different perspectives to develop a clear picture of what’s happening in the world. Finding ways to connect and have generative, authentic conversations to make sense of complexity is vital. That may be complex personal and internal things we need to understand or cultural stuff. All of that is helped by being in dialogue.

Rebel Wisdom brings in many different teachers, and I love the work from Diane Musho Hamilton, where she talks about sameness and difference.

Of course, they talk about communication skills, too. Don’t worry; that’s coming up soon. We have many social technologies that can help us deliberate, engage our differences and find collective wisdom.

For me, that’s the core foundation of what I’m doing with the Omni-Win Project, which I’ll be exploring more deeply in future essays. That’s also what’s happening on my podcast. I’m talking to experts in those fields of deliberation and communication.

Have you checked out the Omni-Win Project Podcast yet? If not, here’s the link. Join the co-creation journey and learn more about yourself and the world. There are also video versions, which you can check out here if you prefer.

Third person

The third person is intriguing to think about. How do we deal with the big picture? We have systems, cultures, institutions, religions, and ecosystems that we’re all part of, so we must learn about the dynamics driving them.

This includes us needing to understand the rules of our current society or civilization: Game A. The rules of Game A will lead to a mega meta-crisis. They’re self-terminating rules. Game A is not an infinite game. We’re playing a finite game.

I’ve covered these three themes in past essays. Check out the archive if any of those topics interest you.

We need to understand how complex systems work and what complexity is. We must learn how to navigate, sort through, and digest all the crazy information coming at us. Let’s touch on that now and dig deeper into this in the next essay.

We’re being manipulated

One of the contextual problems I mentioned is that our political system has significant incentives to manipulate our thinking. It’s profitable, gets people into office, and it’s pretty easy for them to do because of our cognitive biases. We want simplicity, and that works against us.

One of the powerful ways this manipulation is happening is through narrative warfare.

This political strategy is all over our media landscape as political parties and activist organizations use it to manipulate our thinking. Foreign powers use it to sow distrust.

What is narrative warfare?

Narrative warfare isn’t trying to convince us of anything we don’t already believe. Instead, it’s confirming our existing beliefs, feeding into something we already “know.” It’s selecting small pieces of information and cutting out the rest.

But why? They want to inflame our anger and get us all riled up. At that point, they can direct our anger wherever they want it. Scary, right?