An essay you can handle

You already have a philosophy.

It’s in the decisions you make without thinking, the things you’d never question and the success you’re chasing.

The only question is whether you’ve ever really examined it.

Pick the sentence that sounds most like you. Then hold the lamp over it.

Pick your sentence

Which sounds most like you?

Under the lamp

Every sentence like this sits on a few assumptions.

They’re usually invisible, because they’ve been there so long.

Hold the lamp over yours.

No. 1My organisation has grown, but I no longer like how it works.

What’s real
An organisation is a machine. Design it well once and it runs.
How you know
If the numbers are fine, it’s working.
What matters
Growth was the point.
Mae-Wan Ho
Who’d argueMae-Wan Ho, the biologist. Living things stay whole by staying in motion, holding together and staying free at the same time. Tighter control usually gets you the opposite.

What might become possible

You stop trying to get back the organisation you had, and start asking what this one is for now.

No. 2I’m making important decisions, but everyone seems to be approaching them from a different reality.

What’s real
We’re all looking at the same situation.
How you know
The evidence speaks for itself.
What matters
We all mean the same thing by a good decision.
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Who’d argueWittgenstein. Words like evidence, risk and fair only mean something in the way people use them, and the people round your table may be using them in quite different games.In the cabinet: Wittgenstein’s beetle

What might become possible

The arguments get shorter, because you’re finally arguing about the same thing.

No. 3I’ve become very successful at something I’m no longer sure I believe in.

What’s real
I am what I’ve achieved.
How you know
If people keep rewarding it, it must be worth doing.
What matters
More of what’s worked is the safe choice.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Who’d argueNietzsche, with a test: could you live this exact life again, over and over, forever, and want it?In the cabinet: Nietzsche’s hourglass

What might become possible

You find out which parts you’d choose again, and which you’ve only been carrying.

No. 4My people keep looking to me for answers. I want them to think for themselves.

What’s real
Leading means knowing.
How you know
My judgement is more reliable than theirs.
What matters
Getting it right today matters more than them learning.
Lao Tzu
Who’d argueLao Tzu. “When the best leader’s work is done, the people say: we did it ourselves.” This is the one Tim Johns brought us.

What might become possible

Your people start bringing you their thinking, not just their questions.

No. 5Everything is changing, and the ideas I’ve relied on no longer seem adequate.

What’s real
The world I learned still exists.
How you know
What worked before is good evidence it’ll work again.
What matters
Stability is the thing to protect.
Heraclitus
Who’d argueHeraclitus. The river stays a river because the water keeps moving. Hold it still and you don’t keep the river. You get a pond.In the cabinet: Heraclitus’ river

What might become possible

You stop defending the old map and start drawing with what’s actually in front of you.

No. 6It’ll never mean as much to them as it does to me.

What’s real
Caring about it means owning it.
How you know
If they cared, they’d do it my way.
What matters
It stays what I made it.
Hannah Arendt
Who’d argueHannah Arendt. Every new person who joins anything brings the capacity to begin something new. That’s not a threat to what you’ve built. It’s how anything stays alive.There’s a whole essay on this one

What might become possible

They start caring about it in their own way, and it becomes more than you could have made alone.

No. 7I’ve been reading philosophy, and I’d love someone knowledgeable to explore it with.

What’s real
Philosophy lives in books.
How you know
Understanding comes from reading more.
What matters
It’s a private pleasure, separate from the rest of life.
Socrates
Who’d argueSocrates, who never wrote a word of it down. For him philosophy happened out loud, with someone prepared to push back.

What might become possible

The ideas stop being things you’ve read and start being things you think with.

No. 8I’ve spent years developing professionally. I’d like some serious time on my own understanding of life.

What’s real
Work is where a person grows.
How you know
An understanding of life arrives on its own, with age.
What matters
There’ll be time for this later.
Michel de Montaigne
Who’d argueMontaigne, who stepped back from public life at 38 to try out his thinking on his own life, and invented the essay doing it.

What might become possible

You give the biggest subject you’ll ever study, your own life, the seriousness you’ve given your career.

None of these is necessarily wrong. Some might be exactly right. You just can’t tell until you can see them.

Nothing has to be wrong

Some people come to us in the middle of something. Plenty don’t.

Everything’s going well, and they want more from their mind than work asks of it.

That matters.

A life without a crisis isn’t necessarily as rich as it could be.

It just means nothing has forced the question yet.

What working with us is like

It goes round, not along.

  1. 1

    We find your ground.

    Tim came wanting management frameworks and structured techniques.

  2. 2

    Something unfamiliar arrives.

    We introduced Lao Tzu’s wu wei, action that doesn’t force, and process philosophy, which sees a team as something always becoming.

  3. 3

    We work it through together.

    “David and John present new thinkers, worldviews or thought processes as hypotheses, debating and exploring the nuances of each idea.”Tim Johns

  4. 4

    Life hands you something to think with.

    “I began applying wu wei in coaching my senior team by posing questions instead of providing solutions.”Tim Johns

  5. …and round again

    “I now layer complementary and contrasting ideas to analyse situations with much greater depth and nuance.”Tim Johns
Tim Johns

He came with a leadership problem. He stayed because the philosophy turned out to be more interesting than the problem.

Read Tim’s case file

What becomes possible

Your circumstances don’t have to change for this to happen.

  • Different things become visible.
  • You notice possibilities you’d walked past.
  • New interests take hold.
  • You see people differently.
  • And because you act differently, the people around you get more room too.

Not a better version of the life you fell into. One that’s actually yours.

So, where would you start?

For yourself. A year with us: one-to-one, in a group of four, or both. At least a session a month, WhatsApp in between, £12,950. Explore membership Ring: arrange a free first conversation, for yourself
For your organisation. We help your leaders examine the philosophy your organisation already runs on, and stay while it changes. Explore partnership Ring: arrange a free first conversation about your organisation

The first conversation is free. Bring the sentence you picked.

Not sure it’s your kind of conversation? Thinking Fit takes seven minutes.

Private viewings by appointment

Ring for a curator.

Whichever door you came in by, you’re in the right place.

Tell us what’s on your mind, or what you’ve been reading. The first conversation costs nothing, and you don’t need to prepare a thing.

Or write to hello@syntropise.com

A curator will reply to you personally.