There is a saying that if you can think of it, someone has already posted about it on the Internet. I was very proud of coining a phrase, The Polarization Fallacy, only to see that others have already claimed it to describe either/or options (you’re either with us or against us type stuff).
I think there is a more nuanced but similar scenario that this phrase describes. We often use the word “polarized” to describe an issue that cleanly divides people on two ends of a spectrum. Frequently, however, these polarizing issues don’t line up the way they first present.
What is polarization, anyway?
Let’s talk about the science of polarization. As we all know (but don’t understand) light can present itself as a wavelength. These waves come in all directions. ie, some are up and down, while others are moving side to side. All of them hit our eyes just the same. A polarized lens filters out all waves travelling in one direction. If you take two polarized lenses, line them up so you can see through both, and then rotate one 90 degrees, no light will pass through. It’s an easy experiment to do with two sunglasses.
All of the light still exists. It is still illuminating and carrying information, just not all of it is getting through. Wearing a polarized lens means we only see half of the light that would otherwise hit our eyes. We only see half of the available information.
Depolarizing = letting the light in
I can’t help but feeling in the case of many of our arguments, we pick the part of the truth that is important to us or resonates the most and set it in opposition to the other argument – also based on some truth. When we argue to make our point instead of to elevate and find a solution, we end up filtering out more and more of the wavelengths, until we focus on a very narrow part of reality.
Of course, we can apply this to all sorts of controversial topics which I am going to stay the heck away from. However, I think it can apply to concerns/arguments/etc. that happen within our business. Maybe that project is the right thing for the company and will expend all of our resources and leave us bankrupt. Maybe that customer really does need our help and they are killing the team because of their excess demands. Maybe one of our team members is an incredibly strong contributor to projects and hurts moral with their attitude.
Depolarizing our view usually means elevating and a willingness to look at the entirety of a situation. It means checking our ego and accepting that we may not be seeing the problem in its entirety. It also means opening ourselves up to a more wholistic solution or approach that will address a broader problem.
Message to the future me
Look for the AND not the OR.
Thanks to Todd Cravens for the great photo of a rainbow at Yellowstone National Park.