Liminal Thinking: Create the Change You Want by Changing the Way You Think

by Dave Gray

Once you see the boundaries of your environment, they are no longer the boundaries of your environment. —Marshall McLuhan

Most boundaries are convenient fictions.

Boundaries give life structure, which makes us comfortable. But they can also be shifted, rethought, reframed, and reorganized.

Change happens at the boundaries of things: the boundary between the known and the unknown, the familiar and the different, between the old way and the new way, the past and the future.

These are liminal roles because they are associated with growth and change, which involve breaking, shifting, or otherwise transcending boundaries

Too abstract and therefore broad. Most roles are probably liminal in at least one sense. So what's the point?

Liminal thinking is the art of creating change by understanding, shaping, and reframing beliefs.

We all can grasp some fragments of reality, but none of us have a grasp on reality as a whole.

"reality as a whole" is rather evasive and philosophical.

Beliefs are not reality. They are not facts. They are constructions. You construct your beliefs, even though for most people this is an unconscious process. By beliefs, I mean everything you know.

In most cases, the question of whether a belief is right or wrong is a kind of distraction.

All beliefs are approximations, because the whole of reality is unknowable. Any scientist who is worth her salt will tell you this. Beliefs may have some truth to them, but all of us are fallible, and so are our beliefs.

Beliefs seem like perfect representations of the world, but, in fact, they are imperfect models for navigating a complex, multidimensional, unknowable reality.

Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away. —Philip K. Dick

Liminal thinking requires a willingness to test and validate new ideas, even when they seem absurd, crazy, or wrong.

Numerous studies have found that when people feel a lack of control, they have an increased propensity to form conspiracy theories as a way to explain their helplessness.

Lying to ourselves is more deeply ingrained than lying to others. —Fyodor Dostoyevsky

In a system problem, if you’re part of the system, you’re part of the problem.

Good leaders supplement the information that’s coming to them through official channels with a lot of walking around and sense-making on the ground. This is a very difficult thing to do. Often unconsciously, especially as a leader, you will tend to broadcast what you want to hear, not just by your words, but by your tone, facial expressions, and body language.

In a top-down organizational hierarchy, “I don’t understand” is a polite way of saying “No, I’m not going to do this.”

Why do people say they agree when they don’t agree? Because somebody asked them to leave their emotions at the door, that’s why. And when they left the meeting, they put their emotions back on and went back to work.

Reason does not get people to act. Emotion is what causes people to act.

A theory that explains everything, explains nothing. —Karl Popper

Many theories people have about other people are like horoscopes. They are not falsifiable theories, but self-fulfilling prophecies that can never be disproven.

Sometimes people come into conflict not because they disagree, but because they fundamentally misunderstand each other.

How could you live and have no story to tell? —Fyodor Dostoyevsky