Pay More Attention to How ‘The Stage Is Set’

Pay More Attention to How ‘The Stage Is Set’

Beyond the physical and material world that we live in, there are structures, customs and norms that ‘hide in plain sight’ that we often barely notice. These structures and norms impact our ability to see and engage with forces that may be pulling us off track. These become more obvious as you develop a mindset that thinks systemically.

For example, even radio and TV panel discussions intended to get to the bottom of issues and hold people to account can be inadvertently ‘staged’ in a way that may limit getting to a deeper understanding of critical issues.

The obvious point is when interviews on serious topics are repeatedly constrained to just five or ten minutes of discussion. The very format of the programme acts as a limit to what is discussed and not discussed. A notable example of this came on a radio programme a few years ago, when an interviewer asked, ‘What's the one thing we should do to address climate change?’ to which the response was ‘Stop thinking the solution to climate change can be found in just one thing!’ Of course, as we appreciate, there is a dilemma here, because not everyone will want to hear half an hour devoted to a given topic. But the key thing is to see the choices, constraints and dilemmas being made, reflect on whether they are helping or hindering, and be prepared to call them out on occasion.

Other areas for improvement in relation to news and current affairs include:

1. how fact‐checking does or does not work as statements are made (it's encouraging to see this is improving in various media organisations, e.g. the BBC);
2. the need to be more precise about the difference between immediate, contributing and root causes;
3. whether human factors thinking and just culture principles are operating;
4. the absence of explicit root cause and systems analysis discussions or showing causal loop diagrams (e.g. how much inflation is caused by which factors?).

Of course, these points apply even more strongly to social media, online forums and some news media, which have – rightly – been highlighted as areas of concern by many.

Beyond radio and TV there are other bodies and factors that play a significant role in defining our lives, including local and national governments, educational institutions, commercial and not for profit organisations, laws, traditions, customs, practices, etc. Some of these will be serving us well and some less so; which is why healthy, open, debate and discussion about a range of topics and institutions has such an important role to play.

Moreover, we must watch for the risk that open systems (and constitutional arrangements for government) are not eroded or undermined by Machiavellian forces, President George Washington predicted this risk clearly in his farewell address, ‘However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion’.