Written by: Laurence Nicholson, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
I often work with people who are looking for a root cause for issues they are facing, and I find that, on occasions, they can become frustrated at my insistence to keep diving deeper in search of enlightening information.
It is most likely that, because the process can be an uncomfortable experience and where they are laying bare their innermost feelings and emotions, any potential opportunity to cut this short is jumped at.
Of course, it could also be because when we make a discovery or particular explanation during therapy, they consider it as either validating their own argument or, in some cases, laying blame for their issues at a particular person’s door, or even at anyone else’s door but their own.
It would be all too easy to halt the analysis and discovery stage. The knowledge gained provides a clear condition against which to apply various processing, acceptance, and management techniques for addressing the issues and moving forward.
This should be avoided!
The reason this should be avoided, and the process continued (assuming the therapist does not believe this IS the root cause) is that any associated plan for dealing with these newfound revelations could well include some method of approaching individuals to face certain emotions and if this is NOT the real root cause, or worse; an associated blame or responsibility (as suggested earlier) was derived under a flawed or prematurely terminated thought process, such a potentially confrontational experience can be more damaging for the person in therapy in many ways, including emotionally, when they are shown as having a flawed argument, and socially, as they potentially lose a person in their life who might have proven supportive otherwise.
These kinds of consequences can be seen every day when statements are made, which could well, and often do, have an element of truth to them and have caused serious emotional, reputational. Relational damage, but the full details of the situation were never identified because the process of gaining insight was halted prematurely, for one reason or another, such as those I alluded to earlier.
Accusations, for example, of conversations held around sensitive or even discriminatory topics, create considerable collateral damage and hurt, and often appear to point clearly to one party is being at fault, but without further knowledge, can be entirely untrue. Who, for example, instigated the conversation? What were their motives for doing so? Are one party’s comments being portrayed as the ‘start’ of the conversation instead of as a response to another party’s incitement? All of these could actually uncover an altogether different situation.
So how can this be avoided?
Firstly, consider applying some guidelines around when the root cause identification process can appropriately be considered completed. These should include the following, as a set of core details required:
Identify the instigator of conversations in which damaging or upsetting statements or discussions are claimed to have taken place and are part of the issue in question.
Identify what motivated the discussion or conversation in the first place, particularly for the instigator. Their motives may be altogether different from what they portray.
Don’t terminate the discovery process until it reaches a natural but relevant end. Many analyses of root cause contain numerous ends that could be considered a ‘natural’ end, especially when it vindicates or validates something for the person undergoing the process. Still, if questions are left unasked, it might not be the relevant, nor indeed the correct, end.
Use techniques like the 5-Why’s to unearth further explanations and levels of cause to identify the core reasons for behaviors and actions.
Consider what the consequences are as potential outcomes for ALL parties in the situation. This helps uncover subtly hidden motivations, which could cast a significantly different perspective on the reality of ‘who said and did what and for what reason,’ showing a claimed victim as entirely the opposite. For this very reason, some want to stop the discovery process at this point, as it suits their personal agenda, and going further will only cast them in the opposite light to that they are motivated to achieve.
What should be kept in mind is that what seems obvious is not always so, and only by identifying the true root cause, along with any and all motivating factors for all involved, are the real truths likely to surface.
Ultimately, only when the objective truth is discovered can all those involved begin to heal and repair, become a stronger and better self, and face up to the realities and responsibilities of actions.
Laurence Nicholson, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Laurence Nicholson is the CEO and founder of the N Cubed Group, My Better Life – Mind Coaching, and Exec Mental Health Solutions, through which he works with both Corporate clients and individuals to improve and optimize mental health, performance, and resilience, to realize measurable improvements in business and personal productivity and decision making.
A Mind Coach, certified as a Corporate Mental Health Facilitator, holding 'Distinction' grade certifications in Life Coaching, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Psychoanalysis, Depression Counselling, Anger and Aggression Management Counselling, Criminal Psychology, Forensic Psychology, and Corporate Wellness Coaching, Laurence is also trained in Corporate Coaching and Mentoring, Behavioural Analysis, and to the expert level in non-verbal deception detection and analysis.
He had spent over 35 years working across corporate environments as both a consultant and leader, and when he was first sent abroad for work way back in the 1990s, he became fascinated by how different people and cultures think and behave in different ways under the same conditions, and quickly became addicted to immersing himself within local environments, to get a true experience of thought processes and event-behavior associations.
Human psychology and behavioral patterns became his passion, and he used his corporate consulting work as a way to enable him to travel extensively and to study wide and diverse behaviors, and investigate the ‘how and why’ of our brain’s processes, and more importantly the impacts of stress and change on people, universally.
His business education and experience as an advisor and consultant in procurement, finance, law, information technology, organizational change, and executive management, combines with his life experiences and numerous culturally immersive experiences from working in over 14 countries around the world, to provide what his clients consider as a unique appreciation of their individual circumstances.
Laurence aligns himself with Jungian psychodynamic theory, with its spiritual element, supporting this as a certified and attuned Reiki Master Teacher and a Certified Meditation Teacher.
