The Philosophy of It All

Or How Dogs Got Me Thinking in a New Way About Creative Ascendancy

Let’s Start

Writing has been difficult lately. The past couple of months, in particular, have been challenging. A string of disappointing news, competing priorities, and glacially slow progress have made it hard for me to stay creative, optimistic, and forward-thinking. It’s frustrating when your actions don’t seem to lead to the outcomes you hoped for. (I can’t help but wonder: is it me, or is it just 2024?)

This brings me to an important realization: all of us operate within systems — complex, intricate systems far too vast for the human brain to fully comprehend in a single instance. These systems are shaped by time, place, and circumstance. You can break down a part of the system and analyze it in detail, but even that analysis is inevitably filtered through your subjective experience at that moment.

This reminds me of the philosophical underpinnings of research, particularly ontology (the nature of being) and epistemology (the nature of knowledge creation). How do we know what is? How do we know that we know something?

Philosophy is fun because it quickly leads to questions like, “What is real?”, “How do you know something to be true?”, and “Is your experience of something a subjective or objective phenomenon?”

It’s both challenging and vital to ask these questions. Sometimes, I wonder if we ask them often enough — particularly when it comes to developing organizations and initiatives. For instance:

• Is what we’re doing important?

• How do we know it’s important?

• How will we know our work is having the desired impact?

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About the Dogs

The other day, I was watching a documentary on dogs. An evolutionary biologist made a comment something to the effect of: “We really need to change the theory from ‘survival of the fittest’ to ‘survival of the friendliest,’ because it’s collaboration that enables species to survive.”

It was one of the comments that once you understand it, you can’t forget it. It shifts your perspective.

We’ve all been taught that it’s the strongest, fiercest, and most fit who succeed. But in reality, it’s the most collaborative. It’s the species that provide comfort, connection, and service to others that thrive.

This instantly brought to mind the dichotomy between competitive advantage and creative ascendancy. As I’ve argued, success isn’t about achieving an advantage over others; it’s about becoming more of who you are / want to be. And importantly, you achieve creative ascendancy within the context of your circumstances and in collaboration with your community, stakeholders, and ecosystem.

It’s about using your resources and capabilities in new ways to develop new resources and capabilities. Growth, however you define it, becomes dynamic—it evolves.

Introducing 'Creative Ascendency'

Components of Creative Ascendancy

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Shifting Perspective

Originally, I intended for this piece to focus on strategic planning for 2025. I wanted to rally around the idea of making 2025 “the year to thrive.” But we’re not there yet — I’m not there yet.

Sometimes, it’s more important to pause and take stock of your context and the system you’re operating in. With that in mind, I’ll leave you with a few questions I’m currently mulling over:

• Before we keep pushing forward, what resources and capabilities do we already have that we can make better use of?

• Does our current context—our time, place, and circumstances, both micro and macro — change the direction we think we want to go?

• Are there opportunities for collaboration that we’ve overlooked because we’ve been viewing our actions through one perspective while missing another?

These aren’t easy questions to answer. And it’s okay if your perspective on them shifts over time. But in a world where collaboration is essential, it’s imperative to ask whether we’re cultivating the partnerships that matter most.

Here’s to that.

Onward.

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A Note On Where We Go From Here

With just a few weeks left in 2024, I’ve been reflecting on this essay series. I originally planned it as an experiment to run through the end of the year. I’m still undecided about whether to continue it in 2025 — there are those competing priorities to sort out.

For now, I plan to write two more posts: one offering a quick, actionable strategic planning guide for 2025 (because I love a good plan) and one wrapping up this (portion of the) series with some (hopefully) meaningful takeaways to inform your work and organizational development.

As always, your feedback is invaluable. It helps me get out of my own head and see things from alternative perspectives. If you have thoughts to share, feel free to message me or leave a comment.