FHC #12 – Situation [3 pages]

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Concerns of “Selves”

Dignity, Situation and Spirituality

Because we are “Selves” who are also “linguistic beings”, we find ourselves in Situations.

But they are not objective, obvious, perceivable or permanent.

They do not exist until someone says so or makes the interpretation, which means businesspeople’s abilities to make interpretations are more effective, strategic and competitive than others.

Businesspeople’s skills assessing competitive situations they produce, or in which they find themselves, change their capabilities to fulfill their financial, career and business intentions … completely.

That’s why “situations”, and how to produce, assess and act in new competitive ones that appear as often as every 15 minutes strategically and competitively is such an important part of “Aji”.

What are Situations?

As a practical matter, they are always unique sets of:

1. Threats people must avoid to fulfill their intentions

2. Obligations people must fulfill to:

Keep existing opportunities

Produce new opportunities

Avoid avoidable costs and risks

3. Opportunities people must exploit to fulfill their intentions

We interpret the existence of Situations by bumping into threats, discovering our obligations through the costs of failing to fulfill them, and reflecting on opportunities as we strive to fulfill our intentions to survive, adapt and live a good life.

We bring the Situations in which we find ourselves into existence by speaking them in ways that enable us to fulfill our intentions, or we fail to fulfill them.

“Aji”, for example, has businesspeople interpret the competitive situations in which they find themselves, or that they produce, in terms of competitive threats, obligations and opportunities so they can double their incomes.

In practical terms, this means our interpretations about the Situations in which we find ourselves, which are rapidly changing competitive situations in IR#4, because of a new competitor’s offers, practices, narratives or strategies or a new technology, for instance, produce real, practical outcomes that we can sometimes use to fulfill our intentions or that sometimes produce the worst breakdowns imaginable.

If we intend to earn a living, or become rich, our interpretations about our Situations will open or close possibilities to fulfill our intentions.

Sometimes we produce the situations in which we live intentionally but most of the time we do not.

In truth, we all drift through life as best we can with our families and networks.

We try to fulfill our intentions when we are serious about them and not distracted by circumstances, including Carnies and IR#3 Bullshitters.

The Situations in which we find ourselves are always Physical and Linguistic. They are always consistent with natural mechanisms, laws and principles, and they are always spoken interpretations.

They are never magical, mysterious, supernatural or metaphysical.

To cope with Situations effectively, strategically and competitively in order to survive, adapt to always changing Situations and live a good life, people have invented many discourses to cope with them, such as medicine, law and engineering.

All Situations are created by:

Physicalness:

Gravity, electricity, the weather, pebbles in our shoes, etc.

Biology:

Our body’s organization and structures, such as our skin, skeleton and muscles, our diseases and ailments, etc.

Languaging:

How and when we make commitments such as promises, requests and assessments of goods and services, the way we “relate” to tools and human beings, and how we constitute our careers and businesses to make money

Social systems:

Our families, communities and society as a whole, as well as our careers and businesses with customers, colleagues, employees, employers, competitors and vendors,

… including politics, technology, economics and demographics

Individual behavior:

The way we are driven to avoid pain and suffering to take satisfactory care of our concerns, families, finances, identities and work in the marketplace, how we think, act, learn and take care of ourselves and others, the ways we communicate, coordinate thought and action, and produce outcomes.

Situations are “existential” because we must deal with them effectively in order to survive, adapt and live a good life at home and in the marketplace.

They are also “existential” because how and why we live in our Situations the way we do is a source of meaning and Dignity.

Situations are “strategic” because we can use them — ones we produce as well as those we encounter — to execute strategies, improve strategies and produce new strategies.

They are “competitive” because Situations can have marginal utilities that are fresh, new, highly valued and scarce relative to demand, such as a better golf course, employment package or sales presentation.