When I was a boy in high school, I had a passion for what are called ground effect machines. These are craft with a motor and fan that provide enough lift to raise the craft inches above the ground and allow it to scoot friction free along the ground or over water. It pained me that I did not have the knowledge to understand how big a fan blade I would need, and how many horse power I would need to generate lift. So, I went to my local high school physics professor and asked him if he could help. I figured he could do the math and I can I could acquire the materials and start building.
I was stunned by his reply. He said, “I don’t know how to do that, I am a physicist and not an engineer”. This made no sense to me, math is math, physics is physics. But apparently being a physicist does not make you an engineer.
Not knowing where else to turn I gave up on the idea and moved on to riding Go Karts. So why am I reflecting on this memory right now, and why should you care? Because I am offering an example of one of the fundamental beliefs in transformative coaching, that we are all, Capable, Resourceful, Creative, and Whole.
Right now, I am in the midst of doing all kinds of things in my coaching work that I don’t have the “math” to do. Unlike then, when I thought you had to have the right expert to build something, now I rely first on my imagination and insights. Some might say you can’t expect reliable results with out evidence-based theories. This perspective values logic over inspiration. What I value is emergence over evidence, at least when it comes to breaking new ground and creating new art.
As you know, there are two kinds of logic in the popular domain; Inductive Reasoning and Deductive Reasoning. In Inductive Reasoning, “…we go from the specific to the general. We make many observations, discern a pattern, make a generalization, and infer an explanation or a theory”, according to Wassertheil-Smoller in Live Science.
In Deductive Reasoning, “we hold a theory and based on it we make a prediction of its consequences. That is, we predict what the observations should be if the theory were correct. We go from the general — the theory — to the specific — the observations”, according to the same source, Dr. Sylvia Wassertheil-Smoller, a researcher and professor emerita at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
Now here’s the piece that we don’t often learn about in a course in logic; Abductive Reasoning, which is the third rail of logical inference. It is based on “making and testing hypotheses using the best information available. It often entails making an educated guess after observing a phenomenon for which there is no clear explanation….Abductive reasoning usually starts with an incomplete set of observations and proceeds to the likeliest possible explanation for the group of observations”, according to a professor from Butte College.
Going back to high school, if I had the ability at that age to trust my Capabilities, Resources, and Creativity, I would have observed as much as I could, built scale models and iterated my experiments to larger working prototypes. Evolutionary biologist Rebecca Costa, talks about the role of insight as an element in human evolution. Insight is at the heart of abductive reasoning. We observe, have an insight, then test our concept to see if it has merit. My willingness to trust my intuition and explore novel concepts and solutions widens my range of interest in coaching. That is why I go beyond my main area, ADHD coaching. My latest thrust is in the direction of “Strategic Aging” where I am creating new theories to address the emotional challenges that accompany the changes in our bodies as we age. I’ll address this more in the category of “Strategic Aging” in my blogs and videos.
Not every insight is going to lead to a productive outcome. However, every time we act on evidence based practices, we are unlikely to discover anything new. I would encourage you to discover what it feels like to approach your edge of knowledge. Putting ourselves at the edge of learning opens up possibilities that may not otherwise exist. Standing at the edge of learning can bring up insecurities, it is not the safest place to stand. When we connect with our capabilities, resources, and creativity at that edge, it can bring vibrancy to our experience and discovery to our lives.
I will write more about this topic by bringing real life examples into the narrative. Watch for articles that fit with in the category of “Standing at the edge of learning”.
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