What are you meddling with?
If no one has given you a mandate, or if you think something should be done that does not yet fit into your mandate: what legitimises you as a free actor? Who or what should you follow?
The answer to this question depends on your worldview. Whether others accept it depends on theirs.
We distinguish seven worldviews, each with their own beliefs about what the world actually is, what knowledge is, how things work in the world and who should be in charge.
MachineThe world is ... a complex mechanism with cause-and-effect relationships.
Knowledge is... Undisputed truth. Established according to scientific methods.
Conviction... Whoever knows best how the machine works gets to sit at the controls.
Legitimisation ... Follow the expert.
Value ... Results of research according to recognised and replicable methods are building blocks for shared knowledge on a global scale.
Restriction ... When conflicts of interest are large and the issues complex, agreement on what is true is hard to reach.
JungleThe world is ... a wilderness full of dangers.
Knowledge is... power.
Conviction... Survival requires strength and discipline.
Legitimisation... Follow the strong leader (or become one yourself).
Value ... In an unsafe environment, strength is needed to survive and keep one's core healthy.
Restriction ... The law of the jungle makes winners and losers, monopolists and dropouts. Fear rules. What is shut out develops into counterforce. Struggle exhausts. If everyone only tries to survive, no one survives.
MarketThe world is ... a market where the best may win.
Knowledge is... a product with value.
Conviction... In competition, quality, specialisation and division of labour develops, resulting in prosperity for many.
Legitimisation... Serve the customer.
Value ... A healthy market offers room for development. Competition gives energy. A healthy market contributes to a complementary system with room for all.
Restriction ... A market without corrective mechanisms makes short-sighted and degenerates into a jungle. The customer is not always right.
VillageThe world is ... a village where each depends on the other.
Knowledge is... accepted truth.
Conviction... Workable solutions emerge in collective learning processes.
Legitimisation ... Work towards mutual understanding and consensus.
Value ... Collective action based on shared ambition and joint research leads to solutions that people support and want to work on.
Restriction ... The learning process goes well if everyone is willing to cooperate. Creating his willingness usually requires dedicated effort. And the process itself is also vulnerable to obstruction.
MysteryThe world is... an order determined by higher powers.
Knowledge is... the unwavering truth, as revealed in holy scriptures.
Conviction... Those who are called to interpret the will of higher powers give direction.
Legitimisation... Follow the spiritual leader.
Value ... Those who realise that there is something greater than what humans can comprehend are under no illusion that they can take control of the world around them. They listen to what that Greater has to say to them. Unwavering truth gives guidance and direction. A community of faith offers protection and meaning to life.
Restriction ... Unwavering truth is a block to creativity and a collaborative search process. Combined with conflicts of interest, this can lead to struggles along jungle lines.
KosmosThe world is... part of the cosmos in which everything is connected to everything else, and from which guidance emanates.
Knowledge is... knowing by intuition.
Conviction... Those who feel connected can trust their inner compass.
Legitimisation... Follow your heart.
Value ... Also, those who trust their intuition as a signal from the Greater in which everything is connected, do not have the illusion of control. They can act in the moment without being hampered by fixed patterns that no longer fit what is needed.
Restriction ... "It has to be because I feel that way" is not a strong argument when communicating with people with different beliefs.
Living organismThe world is ... a global ecosystem, with built-in control mechanisms.
Knowledge is... responsive action
Conviction... We know more than we think we do. As part of the evolutionary process, we ourselves are instrumental in making and keeping the world around us healthy.
Legitimisation... Work on responsiveness.
Value ... The Greater is the global ecosystem, which will always be more complex than humans can comprehend. The cycle of rising, shining and sinking (pulsating growth), always drives evolution in the longer term towards greater cooperation, division of labour, complexity and beauty. This awareness offers hope and direction. Those who are in good spirits intuitively sense what is needed because they are attuned to the complex steering mechanisms of the ecosystem.
What is healthy? This is the connecting question for people with diverse beliefs.
Restriction ... Ecological thinking is not yet prevalent. It takes a lot of ingenuity, skill, strategy, stamina and love to move people to positions where the good conversation about that connecting question becomes possible.
How do you deal with this?
Worldviews and beliefs that go with them have their value in the context in which they are formed. It crunches when that context changes. Fighting each other or trying to convince each other does not help if you are looking for solutions that those involved can support.
The key question is: "What can we make possible together, with all the valuable things each can contribute?" Explore together what is valuable in the divergent beliefs, and what is difficult to reconcile.
Sometimes you find an opening in what none of you want. About what each thinks is unhealthy: you usually agree on that. What is healthy: that is what the dialogue is about, with respect for each participant.
The biggest task is to get stakeholders into positions where there is room for that dialogue: vital space.