“Anything you can do I can do meta…” Many will recognize this as a take-off of the song Anything you can do I can do better, from the 1946 Irving Berlin musical Annie Get Your Gun. The quote appears in a recent book by philosopher Daniel Dennett titled Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking (2013) Dennett believes that “meta” is a very big deal.
“Going meta,” according to Dennett, is a philosopher’s most important tool for thinking and learning. It is also among the best ways to gain a new perspective, get unstuck, get out of a rut, and move forward when struggling with a difficult problem. It is not only the best way, there are times when it is the only way!
“Going meta,” Dennett writes, is “thinking about thinking, talking about talking, reasoning about reasoning.” The philosopher W. V. O Quine uses a different term, “semantic ascent.” For Quine it means ascending, or going up from talking about justice or freedom or elephants to talking about talking about justice, freedom or elephants. Going meta means to stop doing what we are doing – thinking reasoning, talking – then move up to the next level and examine how we are thinking, reasoning, talking.
Going meta not only applies to getting better at thinking, talking, and reasoning, but to almost any other activity: making decisions, persuading other people, solving problems, leading a meeting, praising others, discipling children, giving (or getting) feedback, writing an essay or a report, and on and on. Meta-work begins with stopping whatever we are doing, then examining how we are doing it, then making changes so that things will work better in the future. Here are some phrases that begin the process of “going meta” in real time:
“This isn’t working for me. I would like to start over.”
“It seems to me that we’re lost. Where are we on the agenda?”
“I don’t want to have a fight. Let’s stop and see where we are.”
Going meta is useful for working on previous problem situations as well. It begins when one person says “You know that argument we had yesterday? I would like to talk about how we got into it and what we can do to avoid it in the future.”
“Going meta” is especially useful when people are struggling to make something work and having limited success. What usually happens is everyone tries harder; often, this only makes things worse. What “going meta” offers is for people to take a look at what is happening, then “try differently.” It offers an opportunity to break up unproductive patterns, whatever they are, and make a new start.
“Going meta” is among the most important skills for dealing with problems.
The purpose of this website, and of the themes and issues addressed in these posts, is “going meta” with problems as problems.
There will be no attempts to “solve” any specific problem. What we will do is “ascend,” move up one level and then, looking down, explore in depth the nature of problems themselves.
There are several reasons for this approach:
First, problems are an important part of everyone’s life. In many ways, they are at the center of our lives. As human beings, struggling with problems of one kind or another is surely among our most widely shared experience. As the poet once noted (in what has been called the shortest poem ever written) “Adam had ’em.” Though he was referring to microbes, he could just as well have meant problems. And not only Adam! The rest of us have “had ’em” as well!
Second, even though problems are ubiquitous, many of us hold a number of profound misunderstandings about the nature of problems. As a result, many of our most important problems, the ones that affect our lives most deeply, rarely get resolved no matter how hard we try.
Third, while we can “solve” some problems we face, there are others that seem to be beyond us. As I will make clear later, these problems – the Wicked ones – are almost always among the most important.
Fourth: Our “Quality of Life” – our satisfaction with what we do, our sense of personal worth, our successes in our most important relationships, and at work, our experiences of well-being and happiness – is largely determined by our abilities and skills in managing successfully our difficult,”messy” and complicated problems. While working on them is complicated, successful results with problems is not: More skill with problems leads to more happiness; less skill, to more unhappiness.
Are problems really important in our lives? Or can we, as some suggest, safely ignore them, focus on the positive, and get on with it. This is an important issue I will come back to in the future. For now, consider Mike Myatt’s, position. Writing in Forbes Magazine Myatt argues that
…the biggest problems all leaders face is problem solving
itself…Pick any leadership challenge and it boils down to a
problem solving issue – nothing more, nothing less. Issues
surrounding talent, finance, public policy, operations, strategy,
social purpose, execution, competition, litigations,etc., are simply
problems to be solved.
And then Myatt adds a zinger: “…most leaders are woefully inept when it comes to problem solving.”
Myatt’s insight applies not only to leaders, but to the rest of us as well. Pick any issue that we care about and struggle with, and it turns out to be a problem to be “solved.”
The biggest problem we all face goes beyond any one problem. It is figuring out how to deal with the processes of working on problems. And, sad to say, many of us are woefully inept in dealing not only with some problems, but with problem solving itself.
Learning about “problem solving itself” means going meta with problems. Where to start? I will come back to this in some detail in a future post. For now, it is crucial to grasp the importance of “going meta:” stopping the action when things aren’t working, figuring out why, then trying again. As I suggested earlier, this is among the best ways of making sure of progress while working on any problem. When people, teams and organizations get off track, “going meta” may be the only way of making things better instead of making them worse.
I like the name Meta, but I want to do a quote “Meta” in spanish means goal something that I need to reach, something that I need to go for it…. and meta is a spanish word, are you usign it in spanish?
I like also the proposal you do with going meta, another kind of see problem solving something that has to be with be divergent in our thinking….
Lupita: Yes, “meta” means goal in Spanish. It is used in English to signal a higher level of analysis, as in meta-communication, meaning communicating about communication. As I suggested in the post, the website is a meta-analysis of problems, looking at them from one level up rather than getting into the middle of them. Great to hear from you, Saludos a todos en Moneterry!
Thank you Joe. Such a great reminder. I found your example phrases like ” I don’t want to have a fight. Lets stop and see where we are”. So useful. And a little humbling. It takes a little courage to make such statements in the moment. …looking forward to the next post. Andy.
Let’s turn meta analysis loose on TREAT NOW. See: http://c4tm.org/center/treat-now/
Joe, this is a masterpiece come together! It’s exciting to be witness to the collection of stories which illustrate various aspects of meta. Your definition of meta, “Going meta means to stop doing what we are doing – thinking reasoning, talking – then move up to the next level and examine how we are thinking, reasoning, talking,” reminds me of living Zen. ‘Wherever you go, there you are’…that is, if you’re stopping to take a look at where you are! Thank you for sharing your wisdom, your love, and your service… I’m hungry for more meta to come!
Colleen, what a nice connection – between “going meta” and the wisdom of Zen: “Wherever you are, there you are,” then noticing where you are and if is in fact “the place.”
Just saw “Death Trap” at Pioneer Memorial Theater. “Meta” came to mind: a play about two playwrights writing
a play about murder while they attempt (or are they just playing?) to pull the murder off.
Going Meta (Summary and Analysis)
PROBLEMS exist in everyone’s life, whether WICKED or TAME, “Going Meta” may be the ONLY solution at times.
A problem, arises in the presence of an event, situation, or issue, a person comes to “own”/care about, and become emotional towards a GAP between “what is” and “whatever it is” that person wants it to be.
There are three types of errors that may be made when defining a problem:
• Thinking problems exist when they in fact do NOT.
• Believing there are no problems when in fact there ARE.
• Addressing the WRONG problem.
“Going Meta” is said to be one of the best ways to “gain a new perspective, get unstuck, get out of a rut, and move forward” when addressing either a tame or a wicked problem. This approach recommends:
• STOPPING whatever you are doing.
• Examining HOW you are doing it.
• Making necessary CHANGES
GAP analysis:
• “Where are we now?”
• “Where do we want to be?”
• “How do we get there?”
Taking action for any problem is necessary, taking a minute to stop and really analyze and fully understand the situation and/or problem is essential in the process of making the changes necessary to have the ability to move forward. It is very hard to understand the nature of problems and every problem is unique, but managing problems is essential to our quality of life.
Learning how to STOP what you are doing and really think about how you are thinking, and figuring out HOW to change can be tough and may take time, but problem-solving IS managing and having the skills and knowledge necessary to problem solve is essential in any organization.
LISTENING is a great start to any solution, and figuring out whether a problem is solvable (TAME) or “messy” and confusing (WICKED) is key because you never want to:
• Confuse a tame problem with a wicked one.
• Attempt to tame a wicked problem prematurely.
• Treat wicked problems as if they were tame.
Problem-solving skills for a leader are very valuable and add value to any situation or organization, and will hopefully to also add to competitive advantage. Having the ability to stop and examine your organizations situation, or even your own situation can be difficult, but can be best derived from your emotional intelligence. Being self-aware, self-regulatory, motivational, empathetic, and having quality social skills will aid in facing problems or GAP’s.
Being an emotionally intelligent leader will help you in the long-run. Leaders need to be skilled in assessing the problem and organization and its abilities to help work on/ solve problems effectively.
Next time you are faced with a problem, “go meta”, and STOP, examine the nature of the problem, and HOW the problem is structured, and then CHANGE, therefore possibly avoiding that problem again in the future.
Hi, Joe C Bentley Ph.D
Even the good leaders have trouble with solving problems. Commissioner Roger Goodell of the NFL has problems to solve everyday from players hitting their wives, steroid use, to marketing issues. It is very hard to tackle highly sensitive problems in a ethical and legal way. Roger Goodell will make sure to cover all bases next time when dealing with domestic violence. Roger Goodell’s job is on the line because he made bad choices problem solving a highly sensitive issue. I feel that if the NFL would have “Gone Meta” they would have avoided many of the mistakes that occurred in recent months. I would like to hear you thoughts on this. Your thoughts on business and your site have been really helpful to are Leadership class. Thanks for all the great articles!
About Wicked Problems: The Nature of Wicked Problems (Summary and Analysis)
“All life is problem-solving.” We all deal with some form of problem- solving in our everyday lives, figuring out whether it is a wicked problem or a tame problem is the first step in understanding it as a whole and finding order in the process of advanced leadership.
• Tame: “problems you can solve”, has a correct answer/solution
• Wicked: “problems you can only work on”, no end solution, only progress can be made
“Managers are not confronted with problems that are independent of each other, but with dynamic situations that consist of complex systems of changing problems that interact with each other. I call such situations messes, managers do not solve problems they manage messes.”
Wicked problem characteristics:
• Messy, confusing, dynamic, ill-structured, ambiguous
• No final solutions, only progress can be made towards the goal
• Face up to them, and do our best
• “Even modest advances can yield big dividends”
• Wicked problems are unique
It is a “messy” world, where dynamic situations and ever-changing problems exist, and that as managers, you are professional problem-solvers or “Mess Managers”. Messes are uncontrollable and “one might even define the essence of management as problem-defining or problem-solving, and that managers are “problem-managers” in a paradoxical world.”
Understanding the nature of WICKED problems is essential to effective leadership. When dealing with wicked problems, you must define them and give them structure in order to take action and narrow the GAP that exists between the present and the future state of the issue. Only when you understand the problem, can you begin to narrow that gap.
Overview of “Going Meta”
“Going Meta” is just not a short essay on ways to solve problems. It looks at a problem that might not be solvable right away and reminds us that’s okay. “Going Meta” is far more then being a good problem solver, it’s the ability to stop trying to solve a problem and take a step back from the problem and the see the problem all the way through. Problems can be hard to solve especially when facing messing ones. Its important to stop and re think the problem over and try to attack the problem from another angle that might not have been clear to us before we stopped for reassignment.
“Going Meta” in Management:
Mangers face difficult problems and decisions everyday. Sometimes those decisions involve wicked problems. Facing a wicked problem can seem like a tall mountain to climb or bottomless ocean, using “Meta” can help make the climb a little less daunting. Stepping back and re thinking a problem will hopefully allow for a clearer path to the solution.
Examples of “Going Meta”
• “This isn’t working for me. I would like to start over.”
• “It seems to me that we’re lost. Where are we on the agenda?”
• “I don’t want to have a fight. Let’s stop and see where we are.”
Personal Benefit:
“Going Meta” is an extremely important tool to have not only when facing wicked problems in business, but also in your own personal life. After reading this article I have found my self “going meta” when facing daily problems. I have found this article to be very useful and am excited to continue to explore “Meta.” Thanks for the great insight on tackling problems, looking forward to future articles!