Action in the Moment
Self-Awareness and Intuition for Leaders in Ambiguous Times
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“Action in the Moment” presents self-awareness and intuition as key concepts in developing a model of individual and organization behavior where ambiguity is the foundation of reality. The world around us is not clearly right or wrong. Everything appears to be gray with no clear meaning or obvious direction for us to take. In any situation that involves human behavior, we do not know the outcomes of interest and/or we cannot measure the outcomes. Nevertheless, we must still make choices. Most of us sense that something is wrong, very wrong. The problem is not with the apparent chaos perceived in the world around us. The problem stems from our personal loss of self-awareness and the reason for our existence. The assumption of uncertainty as the basis of reality is very wrong when we live in an ambiguous world. Various philosophers, psychologists, behaviorists, scientists, mathematicians, quantum physicists, politicians, artists, poets and athletes are among those who provide examples in support of ambiguity as the basis of reality and the importance of self-awareness and intuition for making decisions whether in our personal or organizational lives. Collectively, we have studied almost every aspect of organization behavior and in spite of all the effort to improve our understanding of individual and organization behavior we have little to show for it. We have some good slogans, and yet, we have ended up with just as many problems as ever. In this book, I have attempted to turn our thinking around and look for answers in ourselves. My position is that we must admit that ambiguity is fundamental to our existence, become more self-aware, celebrate risk taking, fearlessly enter the unknown, and develop our intuitive leadership potential. We do not have the time to take the easy way out by thinking of building reality based on uncertainty and allowing probabilities to run our lives. We clearly have much to do. It certainly is time for a paradigm shift in how we make decisions. We need to develop an understanding of how to find patterns in the chaos and take “Action in the Moment”. I hope this book encourages a conversation about the assumptions we make about reality, and how important self-awareness and intuition are in responding to the apparent chaos presented by ambiguity. At least we need to recognize that we really cannot know much about our own behavior until we understand the reason we exist and take action in the moment. I hope that the perspective presented will stimulate others to continue the development of a new paradigm for understanding human and organizational behavior.
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About the Book
“Action in the Moment” challenges the idea of uncertainty as the basis of reality. Treating uncertainty as the basis of reality is very wrong when we actually live in an ambiguous world. If reality was based on uncertainty, a machine could replace us and there would be no reason for our existence. Additionally, ambiguity provides us with free will because we can then use our own internal rules in making decisions. We do not have to use the external rules designed into a machine that makes decisions based on probabilities and utility. “Action in the Moment” presents self-awareness and intuition as key concepts in improving our understanding of individual and organization behavior in ambiguous times. The thesis presented is that we must admit that ambiguity is the basis of reality, and, rely on self-awareness and intuition as fundamental to decision making and our reason for our existence. We clearly have much to do in responding to the apparent chaos presented by ambiguity. We have reached a point where we are like a deer frozen in the headlights of an oncoming car. Decision-making paralysis has resulted from us avoiding ambiguity as the basis for reality. This book describes a simple process for eliminating this paralysis by developing our self-awareness and intuition. The process presented will improve your leadership ability, the integrity of decision-making, and almost every aspect of organization behavior.
About the Author
Thomas G. Swenson, Ph.D., earned his doctorate in management from the University of Oregon. His career has deviated from the traditional academic career. He has taught traditional aged and adult students, active U.S. and foreign military, government officials from Commonwealth, Central Asian and South Asian countries, members of royal families and top government officials on the Arabian Peninsula, and business executives from various countries. He has guided the founding of English language centers and universities in foreign countries, and created his own startup apparel company in Vietnam. His career has had transitions driven by curiosity and inspired by the unknown in searching for the next unique challenge.