Why Dynamism Matters in a World That's Imploding, or, Not Sinking With the Ship

I’m Umair Haque, and this is The Issue: an independent, nonpartisan, subscriber-supported publication. Our job is to give you the freshest, deepest, no-holds-barred insight about the issues that matter most.

New here? Get the Issue in your inbox daily.

Hi! How’s everyone? Welcome back old friends, a warm welcome to new ones, and here’s a puppy hug to soothe those Monday blues from little Snowy.

Today we’re going to continue discussing principles. For life, business, strategy, survival, in an implosive world. We’ve been talking about Not Sinking With the Ship, Maximizing Agency and Minimizing Risk, and learning to renegotiate your relationship with the world, through Kinesis, Poiesis, and Synthesis.

Today I want to continue making all of this real for you, because as I often say these days: none of this is some kind of intellectual game. The days are now over when you could debate me and wonder “if” I was going to be right. Here we are, I was, and the question is: what are you going to about it? 

You have two choices. You let the wreck the world’s become go on dragging you down with it, or…

We’re going to start sessions soon, by the way, you can email me at umairhaque at gmail if you’re interested—many thanks to the overwhelming number who have already (I’m trying to find ways to fit everyone in!) 

So we’re going to talk today about a little concept called Dynamism. Think of it as part of the Kinesis-Synthesis-Poiesis trio, of ways to radically reactive your life, business, approach, strategy.

Why Dynamism Matters in a World Thats Imploding

Let me explain what it is, by way of a little story.

I met an old friend for a beer the other night. We had a great time (Hey, Ian, how are you?). We became friends because he was a long-time reader, way back when. 

He’s like me, in a way. He’s was a punky kid, a misfit, a skater, a misfit. And somehow, he went on to this storied career, helping lead some of the world’s biggest companies, you’d know them all. And today he lives this beautiful life in a little part of Europe. In short, he’s built his Haven. 

So how did he do that?

We’re different in a way, me and him. He’s much better at a certain kind of Dynamism than I am. He’s always meeting people. Has the funniest, most outrageous stories to tell, and I wish I could share you with the latest ones he told me, one of which involved a politician, a musician, a CEO, and what happened when they met.

We talked a lot about this idea. Dynamism. When we look at the world, we see a place that lacks it. We see institutions, paralyzed, bewildered, shellshocked, whether they’re orthodox political parties, or some of the world’s largest corporations. They got the future wrong, and they’re sort of stunned, unable to see straight. We see a lot of the same old, same old, same old ideas, whether they’re in startup-land, or coming from guys who should be Big Thinkers. They, too, are getting the future wrong, and sort of unable to understand why.

And so here we as a world. We lack this thing called Dynamism. You can see it everywhere you look, if you know how. Think about how we just failed to…do anything much about climate change…at the recent summit. Think of the way all our Existential Challenges just fester.

Remember Kinesis? All of this is what happens when we stop being kinetic. Dynamism is what can happen when we are.

Why is the Ship Sinking, anyways? Because nobody’s doing much to change its course, which is headed straight for the series of icebergs we’ve talked about. So everything is now falling apart because of a lack of this magical quality, dynamism.

That brings me back to my friend. He’s got this quality, and I don’t know if he sees it, but I do. He’s just incredibly dynamic in this way, really gifted at connecting with people, at making connections happen. This is how he built his Haven. Through this very special skill of Dynamism. 

It’s why he’s sitting pretty, while so many others are watching their lives fall apart.

I want you to have this quality, too.

And it comes in many different forms. It’s not just about one kind—we’ll discuss more in a second, but first, let me set the stage a little.

Yesterday’s Most Crucial Qualities versus Today’s

Now. Think of the old qualities they’d tell you you needed to succeed or win or whatever the outcome was—basically, self-advantage—in yesterday’s world. Rationality, intelligence, aggression of a certain kind, cunning, and so on. Those work, still, today, I suppose, but less and less: yesterday’s list of traits, qualities, resources, competencies—today, they pay sharply diminishing returns. Does it matter how hard you work anymore? Sort of a joke, right?

That’s as true for institutions as it is for people, by the way. Why is it that paragons of management like Nike and Starbucks are bewildered, down for the count? They’re unable to renegotiate their relationship with the world. They don’t have the qualities it takes to really make it anymore. They’re beginning to Sink with the Ship. And what they lack among the new qualities that are so vital, foremost, is Dynamism.

These institutions, among others, have lost their Dynamism. They’re sluggish. Weary. Worse, when they do act, make a move, you almost know it’s not going to work beforehand, and so do they. They seem trapped in this troubled relationship with the world that’s just not working.

If this is you, and it’s a lot of people these days, so no, you’re not alone by any means, then it’s time to change.

What Dynamism Means (and What it Doesn’t)

So what do I mean by Dynamism? Just…do more stuff? Kind of, and we’re going to formalize it in a moment so you really get it, but let me give you a few examples first.

Ian’s incredibly gifted at being dynamic with people, making connections, taking chances. 

I’m not dynamic in that way. I’m the furthest thing in the world away from that. But over the years, I’ve learned I’m dynamic in another way: with ideas. Creativity. I’m always…creating stuff. Ideas. Writing. Making music. On and on it goes. If a day goes by that I don’t make something, I feel a little sad.

So. There are many different kinds of Dynamism. And it doesn’t matter so much what “yours” is, and you could have many, not just one. The point is that it’s about doing more stuff, yes, but more than just that. 

It’s about being in a different way. 

Being dynamic. Not sort of remonstrating yourself, I’ve got to do these fifty things today. But being in a different way. Where expanding your possibilities is something natural and normal and sensible and regular, and not something you dread or put off or think you can’t do or handle. 

Now. Why don’t most people think of themselves as dynamic? For a very simple reason, which is that we live in a world of failing institutions, which grind us down. They make us weary, because we’re constantly having to fight them to get anything done. 

The result is that they make us feel ineffectual. But they are the ineffectual ones. Take a hard look around. How many institutions are effective, let alone functional, at this point? Let’s go back to Starbucks. It has one job, and it’s a simple one. Decent coffee, in a nice environment. And it can’t even get that right. LOL. That’s not a slam on the fine folks who work there, it’s a comment on the relationship between institutions and people, and the people who work there are being failed, too.

So. In an imploding world, of course most of us don’t feel dynamic. We feel overwhelmed. Panicked. We’re just trying to cope with the dread and stress of what’s-going-to-go-to-hell-next. 

The One Thing We’re Not Allowed to Be

The last thing our failed institutions let us feel is a sense of agency.

And in a sense, that’s right where they want us. Let’s go back, again, to Starbucks. Starbucks would much prefer you to just sort of numbly accept that you’re going to get crap coffee in a dismal environment, because hey, that’s how it is. That’s writ large for everything now from dysfunctional political parties to entire failing nations to mega-problems like climate change. 

Failed institutions want you to feel like an ineffectual nobody, because of course…

Then you Sink With the Ship.

And on that journey? There are many, many ways to exploit you all the way down, to put it bluntly. And of course, at the very least, at least you won’t remind them how foolish they’re being, by getting off. 

So in many, many ways, this is the person our failed institutions want you to be. Afraid, anxious, panicked, maybe terrified, in constant worry and dread and fear, all of which leads you to see yourself as ineffectual, and hey, before you know it, you’re not doing anything much to Not Sink With the Ship, which means I guess that you keep spending money at the bar, casino, restaurant, and pool, at least until the ride comes to a bitter end.

Don’t be this person.

Ian isn’t this person. I’m not this person. You don’t have to be this person, nor should you be.

So now let’s find the dynamic parts of you. To do that, I’m going to formalize Dynamism a little bit.

Why You Need to Expand Your Possibility Set

In the last essay, we talked about your Possibility Set.

This is the range, sum total, spectrum, of what’s possible to you.

Being dynamic isn’t “just doing more stuff.”

I’m not suggesting that you, for example, go gamble at the casino more, spend all day knocking back cocktails at the bar, or hang out at the pool more, all on the Sinking Ship. All of that’s “doing more stuff,” but it’s obviously the wrong stuff.

Being dynamic means doing things which expand your Possibility Set.

Not everything you do does that, right? Many things, maybe most things, these days, will shrink your Possibility Set. If you, I don’t know, go out and subscribe to a dozen newspapers, and read them all, that’s not going to do much for you anymore, especially when they’re sort of lost, too, is it? 

So dynamism means focusing on actions which expand your Possibility Set. And doing more of them.

Now, that all sounds grand and abstract and maybe even intimidating, so let me make it really simple.

All that could be any of the following things.

—Talking to the people you see every day, only really talking to them, so you get to know them.

—Applying for all those jobs you want.

—Not hesitating anymore when it comes to that move, or that career change, or that change to your family or friendships.

—Exposing yourself to this many new ideas every day.

—Creating this many things every day, and they could be anything from connections to ideas to applications to relationships to anything at all.

Could be bigger things—I’m just listing some pretty small ones.

Most of all, I think, it means focusing on the actions that are going to take your short, medium, and long term plans, and help them become a reality. This is what your Possibility Set is for. And when you put those things together, you have a strategy.

That’s not just true for you, it’s true for things as big as institutions, too. Why are all these big institutions in so much trouble now? They don’t have strategies anymore. As we discussed, they’ve been on autopilot, but that’s not exactly a great idea when you’re heading straight for the bergs. They desperately need strategies, again, whether Starbucks, the Dems, Nike, doesn’t matter, and that doesn’t just mean “grand ideas of how their ideal world should be,” but plans about how to exist in this one.

Without that, they’re going to end up where everyone without a strategy will in ages like this, which is Sinking With the…

The Enemy of Getting Off the Sinking Ship, or, Don’t Overthink It

So. Don’t overthink it. The old Nike slogan, here, funnily enough, comes in handy, even if Nike’s stopped believing it itself. Just…do it. We’ve talked a lot about Synthesis, one of the Big Three, along with Kinesis and Poiesis, and how one aspect of that is letting your gut and mind work together, or not letting your mind overrule your gut, which is synthesizing far more information, far more rapidly, than your mind ever can.

Don’t…overthink it. What stops us from doing stuff? Our minds. When we were out that night, Ian did something funny, which is classic Ian, which was that he tried to sweet-talk his way into a trendy bar. Now, that’s funny because we’re two old school punks, and this bar was full of the kinds of people that we spent our teenage years sneering at (and still aren’t too fond of.) But he did it to see if he could do it. He didn’t think about it. He just…did it.

Now, he failed, and that was what was extra funny. The maitre’d would not be moved one inch. Haughtily, he told us where to go, which was right out the door, and we ended up having a great time at a much more chill place right across the street.

But the point is that he didn’t sort of spend ten minutes debating with me, trying to psyche himself up, etcetera. He just did it, it didn’t work, it was funny, no big deal.

This is real Dynamism.

It’s not about always “succeeding.” It’s a way of being, remember? And in every way of being, our failures outnumber our successes, vastly. If you don’t think that’s true, go ahead and tell me how even Julius Caesar or Alexander the Great ended up. 

So real Dynamism isn’t about letting the mind trip you up with doubts, wrack you with hesitation, wreck you with fear, plunge you into paralysis. This is how those Big Institutions ended up where they are. They’re all mind and no heart, and even what mind is left is pretty mediocre these days.

They’ve lost their Dynamism that way.

Does all that make sense? Now. Let’s make it even more concrete. What can you do, every day, over and again, to begin expanding your Possibility Set? I wish that many of those large institutions would think this way—their currently plunging fortunes might begin to change. But they’re a lot harder to change than people. 

The questions before you? They go like this. How am I not going to Sink With the Ship? But to accomplish that, you are going to have to embrace a new way of being, which is more dynamic. You’re going to have to get busy solving that problem, thinking about it, understanding it, relating to it, and most of all, I think, sort of feeling your way into, through, around, past, beyond it. 

Your First Steps to a New Relationship With an Imploding World

Your first steps will be little ones, hesitant ones, fumbling ones. That’s OK. You’re forging a new relationship with the world, an imploding world, no less, and it’s made of a new way of being. A tall order. Be kind to yourself, but also be tough on yourself. Do it, keep doing it, repeat, don’t worry “if it works” or if it “doesn’t.” Your gut will figure that part out, but it can’t if you don’t fail. In these acts is how you forge this new self. If you can’t embrace that, then you will Sink With the Ship. Fear and panic will limit you to never really grow, mature, and develop into the person who is capable of better.

So. Start with little things, simple things, which can often seem the hardest and most daunting. Do them. Repeat. Every day. Don’t worry about “the outcome” just yet. Let it all sit in your gut, which is there to do this: Synthesize solutions to problems This Impossibly Big. Just keep on keepin’ on. The “answers” won’t appear—you will change, and as you do, new possibilities will begin to emerge, and that is how you…

Find, create, develop, cultivate your Havens.

That’s a lot for one little essay. I hope it helped. 

Lots of love from me and Snowy!

❤️ Don't forget...

📣 Share The Issue on your Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn.

💵 If you like our newsletter, drop some love in our tip jar.

📫 Forward this to a friend and tell them all all about it.

👂 Anything else? Send us feedback or say hello!