Cause-Effect Vs Ground-Consequent
I am reading Miracles: A Preliminary Study, 2nd edition by C. S. Lewis right now and it is a very heavy and philosophical read. One of the concepts I just read was on “beliefs.” Lewis explained,
“… if causes fully account for a belief, then, since causes work inevitably, the belief would have had to arise whether it had grounds or not. … But even if grounds do exist, what exactly have they got to do with the actual occurrence of the belief as a psychological event? If it is an event it must be caused. It must in fact be simply one link in a causal chain which stretches back to the beginning and forward to the end of time. How could such a trifle as lack of logical grounds prevent the belief’s occurrence or how could the existence of grounds promote it?”
C.S. Lewis, Miracles: A Preliminary Study, 2nd ed. (London: Collins, Fontana Paperbacks, 1960), p. 20.
Lewis went on to explain that both the cause-effect and ground-consequent are at play here. The difference lies in the direction of the reasoning. Cause-effect focuses on identifying the cause first and then the effect, while ground-consequent starts with the effect and then reasons back to the cause. This is very interesting to me because it highlights the complexity of causality. So many times I see others pointing to data and claiming causality when they are really, at best, making a ground-consequent claim.
A cause-effect relation refers to the relationship between an or action and its direct consequence. In the example Lewis gave (1960, p. 20), “He cried out because it hurt him,” the cause is the pain felt the person, and the effect is their crying out. Conversely, a ground-consequent relation refers to the reasoning or explanation of an event based on its consequence. In Lewis’ example (1960, p.20), “It must have hurt him because he cried out,” the consequent is the person crying out, and the ground is the assumption that the reason for their crying out must be because they were hurt.
This all got me to thinking how important, as leaders, understanding cause-effect and ground-consequent relationships is in helping us make more informed decisions, solve problems more effectively, think strategically, communicate better, and foster a culture of accountability and learning within our team. Here’s how:
- Decision-making: By understanding the cause and effect of different actions and decisions, we can make more informed choices that are based on evidence and rationale. This can lead to better outcomes and minimize potential risks.
- Problem-solving: Identifying the underlying causes of a problem allows us to address the root issues rather than just treating the symptoms. This can lead to more effective solutions and prevent recurring problems.
- Strategic thinking: Recognizing the cause-effect relationships within our organization or industry can help us anticipate potential challenges and opportunities. This enables us to develop proactive strategies and adapt to changes more effectively.
- Communication and delegation: Understanding the ground-consequent relationships helps us communicate expectations clearly and delegate tasks more effectively. By clearly explaining the expected outcomes and the reasons behind them, we can motivate and align our team members towards achieving shared goals.
- Accountability and learning: Recognizing cause-effect relationships allows us to measure and evaluate the impact of our actions, making it easier to hold ourselves and others accountable. It also provides opportunities for learning and continuous improvement by analyzing what worked and what didn’t.
Easy To Please But Harder To Satisfy
In Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis said that God is “easy to please, but harder to satisfy.” In that context, I believe Lewis meant that God is easy to please in the sense that He delights in our sincere efforts and desires to have a relationship with us. However, God is harder to satisfy in the sense that He desires us to seek true fulfillment and satisfaction in Him alone, rather than in temporary things or immediate gratification. In other words, while it may be relatively simple to please God through our genuine pursuit of Him, finding deep and lasting satisfaction in Him requires a greater effort and a commitment to prioritize Him above all else. Also, I believe God is never satisfied because he wants us to continually improve and be the best we can be.
We can take a few big lessons away from the simple statement of “easy to please, but harder to satisfy” for our everyday lives as leaders. It is relatively simple to find temporary satisfaction or pleasure in small things or immediate gratification. We need to celebrate those small things in those we serve as well as ourselves. Being easy to please as a leader means being open-minded flexible, and appreciative of the efforts and achievements of our team. It means recognizing and acknowledging their hard work and providing positive reinforcement regularly. This creates a positive and motivating work environment.
However, finding long-term, deep satisfaction requires a much greater effort and cannot be easily achieved. We must work extremely hard to help those we serve be the very best they can be and not be satisfied. Being hard to satisfy means setting high standards and expectations for yourself and your team. It means constantly seeking improvement, challenging the status quo, and pushing for excellence. It means not settling for mediocrity and always striving for growth and development.
Here is how we might put this into practice:
- Clearly communicate our expectations and standards to our teams.
- Encourage and recognize the efforts and achievements of our team members regularly.
- Provide constructive feedback and guidance to help our teams and team members improve.
- Continuously challenge ourself and our teams to set higher goals and strive for excellence.
- Lead by example and demonstrate a commitment to constant improvement.
- Foster a culture of innovation, creativity, and continuous learning within our organizations.
- Provide opportunities for professional development and growth for ourteam members.
Make no mistake, being easy to please doesn’t mean accepting mediocrity, and being hard to satisfy doesn’t mean being unappreciative. It’s about finding a balance and creating an environment where both personal and professional growth can flourish. This environment is what I believe is loving those we serve.
All Fact And No Meaning
As a renowned writer and scholar known his works on theology and fantasy literature, C. S. Lewis was emphasizing the importance of finding meaning when he said, “His world is all fact and no meaning.” Lewis was likely referring to the idea that some individuals or societies may prioritize knowledge and facts without considering the deeper significance or purpose behind them. In other words, they focus solely on gathering information without reflecting on its implications or connecting it to a larger framework of understanding. This quote can serve as a reminder to not only seek knowledge but also to find meaning and purpose in what we learn and experience.
In The Weight of Glory, Lewis also explored the deeper aspects of life and the human experience. When he said, “He sees all the facts, but not the meaning,” he was likely discussing the idea that simply collecting information or facts does not necessarily lead to understanding or wisdom. From Lewis’ perspective, it is important to go beyond surface-level knowledge and strive to understand the meaning behind the facts. This could involve asking questions such as “Why is this information significant?” or “How does this fit into a larger framework of understanding?”
By considering the meaning behind the facts, we can gain a more comprehensive understanding of the world around us. This can help us make connections between different pieces of information and develop a deeper appreciation for the complexities of life.
Ultimately, Lewis’ thoughts here serve as a reminder to not just accumulate knowledge, but also find both the personal and societal meaning in the the associated context.
Two Heads Are Better Than One
I’ve never heard anyone describe C.S. Lewis as a teacher of leadership, but in the exhaustive study I am doing of him and all his writings I continually find nuggets that are quite genius and related to leadership in some way. Here is one such nugget I found this morning as I finished reading A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis:
“People were no cleverer then than they are now; they made as many mistakes as we. But not the same mistakes. . . . Two heads are better than one, not because either is infallible, but because they are unlikely to go wrong in the same direction” (p. 290).
C. S. Lewis, reprinted from Introduction to St Athanasius’s The Incarnation of the Word of God in A Mind Awake
I believe we can break this statement down into two parts. Let’s first examine, “People were no cleverer then than they are now; they made as many mistakes as we. But not the same mistakes. . . .” When C.S. Lewis made this statement, he meant throughout history and across different time periods, humans have always possessed the same level of intelligence and made similar numbers of mistakes. However, the nature of these mistakes may differ. Lewis was highlighting the idea that while humans may make different types of mistakes in different eras, the fundamental capacity for error remains constant. This perspective suggests that we can learn from the mistakes of the past and strive to avoid repeating them in the present and future.
Now let’s examine the last part of the statement, “Two heads are than one, not because either is infallible, but because they are unlikely to wrong in the same direction.” Here, Lewis was emphasizing the value of collaboration and different perspectives. He believed that when multiple individuals come together to solve a problem or make a decision, their collective knowledge and diverse viewpoints can help to minimize errors and ensure a more balanced outcome. Rather than relying solely on one person’s judgment, having multiple perspectives can lead to a more comprehensive understanding and contribute to better decision-making overall.
Notice Lewis was promoting ‘collaboration’ long before it was a cool leadership buzz word. Of course, now we realize just how important collaboration is and how important relationships are to successful collaborations. I just blogged about that is Relationships Determine The Creative Outcome.
Seeing Through All Things Is Not Seeing At All
C.S. Lewis recognized that trying to understand or analyze everything at its most fundamental level can lead to a loss of meaning and depth. In A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis he said, “It is no use trying to ‘see through’ first principles. If you see through everything, then everything is transparent. But a wholly transparent world is an invisible world. To ‘see through’ all things is the same as not to see” (p 270). Just imagine being able to see through everything. While I believe in being transparent from a leadership standpoint, I also recognize that we would go crazy trying to understand and know every detail about everything.
If everything is completely transparent and understood, then there is no mystery or wonder left in the world. To see through all things means to not truly see or appreciate them for what they are. For example, if we think of glass, it is really opaque. Glass exhibits colors beyond our vision and absorbs wavelengths that our brains cannot convert into an understandable image which makes it transparent to us. Thus, glass amazingly absorbs UV radiation, which we can’t see, and that is why you cannot get tanned or sunburned through it. It is important, in many respects, to recognize and respect the inherent complexity and beauty in the world, rather than trying to reduce everything to its basic elements.
Thoughts & Imagination
In my quest of studying C. S. Lewis and reading all that he has written, I am reading The Search For God right now. I love these compilations of his writings, speeches, and sermons because it provides the opportunity to re-read some material and hear new material. This is a great mix that causes deep reflection. Lewis spent a great deal of time addressing our conscious and rational minds versus our imagination. It is from the conscious mind that we predominantly operate each day. But, much of our behavior, attitudes, and decisions are influenced, if not ruled, by our imaginations. This is not a bad thing, and actually for those who fully embrace it, who we call artists, it is a great thing. Lewis argued and continually contemplated our need to balance out our bias toward rationalism and create space for the imagination. Or, at the very least recognize the role imagination plays in our thinking.
In The Search For God C.S. Lewis said, “What you think is one thing, what you imagine while you are thinking is another,” and I believe he was referring to the idea that our thoughts and imagination are not always aligned. While we may have conscious thoughts and beliefs about something, our imagination has the power to create different scenarios or possibilities that may diverge from our initial thoughts. This statement suggests that we should be aware of the distinction between our conscious thoughts and the imaginative possibilities that can arise during the thought process.
The example Lewis gave was how he imagined the University of Oxford before he had actually been there was different than what he actually saw. That wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, especially since he was there for academic reasons, not how the University. This made me think of all the times I have said things like, “This is not how I had imagined this” or “I’m not really sure what I thought this was going to be like, but this is not what I was imagining.” Has this ever happened to you? Our imagination is so powerful. It can work for us and can also work against us at times. Bottom line: we need to allow our minds to wander and wonder.
The Work You Never Dreamed Of
C. S. Lewis said, “Doubtless it is a rule in poetry that if you do your own work well, you will find you have done also work you never dreamed of” (p. 253) in A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis. This comment caused me to consider the implications of doing our own work well in our professional lives beyond poetry.
I believe C.S. Lewis was suggesting that when we focus on doing our own work well, we may discover that we have also accomplished things beyond our original intentions or expectations. This idea can be applied to our everyday professional lives by emphasizing the importance of doing our best in our current tasks and responsibilities. By putting in the effort and striving for excellence, we may find that we not only meet our immediate goals but also uncover new opportunities, skills, or achievements that we didn’t anticipate. It’s about maintaining a strong work ethic and being open to the possibilities that may arise from our hard work and commitment. As my mom always said, “Do your best.” Boy, do I miss her.
Discovering New Horizons
C. S. Lewis made a statement in Mere Christianity, bk 3, ch. 6, where he was referring to the idea that it’s often more enjoyable and fulfilling to learn and grow in new experiences rather than continuously chasing after the nostalgia and longing for past experiences. I was reminded of this comment when it was restated in A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis. Here is what he said: “It is because so few people understand this that you find many middle-aged men and women maundering about their lost youth, at the very age when new horizons ought to be appearing and new doors opening all round them. It is much better fun to learn to swim than to go on endlessly (and hopelessly) trying to get back the feeling you had when you first went paddling as a small boy.” He was suggesting that instead of trying to recreate the same feelings and emotions we had in our initial experiences, we should embrace the process of learning and adapting to new situations, which can bring new and different joys in life.
We need to work at keeping new horizons appearing and diligently watch for new doors opening throughout our entire life:
- Embrace change: Change is inevitable, and embracing it can open up new opportunities and experiences. Be open-minded and willing to step out of our comfort zones.
- Continuously learn and grow: Always seek new knowledge and skills. This could be through reading, attending courses or workshops, or even pursuing new hobbies or interests. One of those opportunities for me most recently has been the opportunity to be a Scholar in Residence at The Kilns for the C.S. Lewis Foundation and take classes at the University of Oxford.
- Cultivate a growth mindset: I believe in our ability to learn and adapt. See challenges as opportunities for growth and see failures as learning experiences.
- Network and connect with others: When we surround ourselves with diverse individuals who can offer different perspectives new doors to exciting and new opportunities are opened.
- Set goals and challenges: Having clear goals and regularly setting new challenges for ourself can help keep us motivated and open to new possibilities.
- Practice gratitude and mindfulness: Appreciate the present moment and what we already have. This can help us stay grounded and open to new experiences without constantly longing for the past.
Remember, life is a journey, and there’s always something new to discover and learn. Embrace the unknown and enjoy the process of exploration and growth.
Being Influenced By What You Said
C. S. Lewis said, “The very man who has argued you down will sometimes be found, years later, to have been influenced by what you said” in A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis (p. 150). I have found this to be so true. In fact, I’ve been on both sides of this, as the arguer and the argued. It just really reminds us how everything we do has a role in our evolution. We evolve with every conversation and action we take. I can actually think of some things that I have successfully argued for in my policymaking life that I have now come to disagree with myself on and argue against using the arguments and reason of those who argued against me in the first place.
Lewis believed in the power of persuasive arguments and the potential to change people’s minds over time. He suggested that even if someone initially disagrees with our viewpoint, they may still be influenced by our argument and come to see things differently in the future. His thoughts emphasize the importance of presenting compelling and thought-provoking arguments, as they can have a lasting impact on others.
Showing Before Explaining
Yesterday, while reading further in God In The Dock by C. S. Lewis, he said, “You must show that a man is wrong before you can explain why a man is wrong.” This really seems so basic, but as Lewis points out, we are very quick to jump to an explanation of why something is wrong, or why someone’s view is wrong without considering the most basic question of whether the person’s claim is right or wrong. This really takes me back to thinking about judging the idea, claim, or hypothesis and not the person.
Lewis argued that it is important to first establish that someone’s belief or argument is flawed or incorrect before attempting to provide an explanation or evidence as to why it is wrong. This could be seen as a way to approach discussions or debates in a logical and persuasive manner. It seems counterintuitive, but think of how many times we’ve done just that. So next time you find yourself ready to explain why someone is wrong, first consider if we can really show the claim to be wrong. There really is, as Lewis pointed out, a difference.
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