SEEING THE BIG PICTURE
Act I

Seeing the Part Without the Whole

Generally, if we are paying attention, we know what life is like for us in our part of the system. Other parts of the system are, for the most part, invisible to us. We do not know what others are experiencing, what their worlds are like, what issues they are dealing with, what dilemmas they are facing, what stresses they are undergoing. To makes matters worse, sometimes we think we know when in fact we do not. We have our beliefs, myths, and prejudices, which we accept as the truth and which become the bases of our actions. This blindness to other parts of the system—which we call spatial blindness—is a source of considerable misunderstanding, conflict, and diminished system contribution.

Seeing the Present Without Seeing the Past

Temporal blindness refers to the fact that all current events in system life have a history; there is a coherent tale that has led to this particular point in time. Generally that history is invisible to us. We experience the present but are blind to the complex set of events that have brought us to the present. And again, it is this blindness to the history of the moment that is a source of considerable misunderstanding and conflict.

Scene 1 describes the consequences of spatial and temporal blindness.

Scene 2 and 3 deal with the transformation of spatial blindness into spatial sight and temporal blindness into temporal sight.