Science was revolutionized over a century ago when it discovered a world of potential inside the atom — what was once believed to be the fundamental building block of everything. But its most transformative implications — wholes & potential, observer affect, nested systems, etc. — were left out of how we think & educate, design & lead.
Why? These insights challenged the more socially accessible mechanical worldview and were dismissed as too abstract or irrelevant for practical use, ironically missing the “first and most essential thing.” Working with wholes lost in favor of control, measurement, and analysis.
Since the early 2000s, STEM has advanced our tools and knowledge — but it still applies an outdated paradigm for action that pre-determines what game we’re playing and what counts as success. Most organizations still operate from this mechanical paradigm of parts & problems:
- break everything into manageable parts
- solve the problems of the past
- optimize for control of the future
It’s a model built for predictability, not potential.
This mindset dominates business and education. But it’s out of step with how living systems actually work — and it limits potential at every level.
The hidden assumptions?
- That everything is fixed, determined, and best understood in parts & problems, first. Meaning, this is the most essential and true starting point to source action from.
- That performance is repeating what’s known: predetermined results using predefined solutions.
- That gamifying actions for outsourced results equals high performance. It became more necessary to get attention than to pay attention — producing a lot of results, but offering little value.
The result?
But the unintended consequence was the loss of potential in our performance. We outsourced choice, agency, and creativity to the four forms of conditioned thinking: programmed, habitual, reactive, and ego-driven.
So rather than keep evolving present value, we keep repeating yesterday’s answers in a world that needs something new.