Four Minds!

Different starting points

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year!

Four mind states arise from the combinations that are available to us from the childhood and adult minds in combination with how we respond to new events – local or global view.

If we respond to new events with our fight/flight mechanism and we keep this on, or on a hair trigger, then we operate essentially all of the time in our red zones. Perhaps 5-10% of people are like this. Red zone.

If we respond to new events with the local view (in the blue zone) but what we see does not match our self view then our red zones will trigger. If what we encounter is familiar to us then we will continue in the blue zone. In an uncertain world we will operate more often in the red zone than the blue zone. Red-blue zone.

If we respond to new events with the global view directed internally then we can accommodate dissonance without our red zone triggering. Yet our red zones are still there, albeit dormant. We will tend to operate in the blue zone a lot of the time only dropping into the red zone through tiredness, stress or major dissonance. Blue-red zone.

If we respond to new events with the global view directed externally - towards other people - then we can accommodate dissonance and we will gradually cause our red zone to fade away. About 5% of people are like this. Blue zone.

It seems to be the proportion of blue-red to red-blue that determines the culture of an organisation. A ratio that can be shifted over time.