Results & Outcomes
Success & Failure
Outcomes are system outputs. Every result is the product of a system — a set of inputs, processes, and conditions that reliably produces the result it produces. The man who has internalized this operates with one of the most operationally significant frames the integrated life requires. He stops responding to the results with pure emotion and starts responding with diagnosis. The diagnosis produces the leverage to change the upstream conditions that the result was the accurate feedback about.
This page addresses results and outcomes as integrated subjects. The result is not the problem when the result is unwanted. The result is the accurate feedback. The problem is upstream — in the inputs being used, in the process being run, in the conditions being created. The integrated engagement traces the result to the system and addresses what the system was producing.
The System Frame
The foundational frame for the integrated engagement with results is the recognition that results are the outputs of systems.
The system includes the inputs the man is using — the resources, the attention, the energy, the specific decisions. The system includes the processes the man is running — the patterns of engagement, the sequences of action, the integrated workflow. The system includes the conditions the man has created — the environment, the relationships, the structures that operate around the man's specific engagement.
The combined system reliably produces the results it produces. The same system, run again, produces the same result. The variation in results across runs is the variation in the system rather than the random variation that the surface framing might suggest. The integrated engagement traces the variation back to what varied in the system.
The recognition is operationally significant. The man who treats results as random events that occur to him is operating from a framework the actual operation does not support. The results are produced by the system. The system is what the integrated engagement addresses.
The Result Is Accurate Feedback
A foundational principle of the system frame is that the result is the accurate feedback from the system about what the system was producing.
The result the man wanted that did not arrive is the feedback that the system was not producing what the man wanted. The result the man did not want that did arrive is the feedback that the system was producing what the man did not want. Either way, the result is the accurate report from the system about its actual operation.
The integrated response to the feedback is the engagement with the system the feedback was about. The system is what produced the result. The system is what would need to change for the result to be different. The man who responds to the result by trying harder at the same system is not engaging with the feedback. He is repeating the system that produced the unwanted result and expecting the different result the same system will not produce.
The discipline of the integrated response includes the willingness to receive the feedback the result represents. The feedback is sometimes uncomfortable because it reveals what the system has been producing that the man would have preferred to deny. The acknowledgment of the feedback is the precondition for the engagement with the system the feedback was about.
Tracing Results to Their True Causes
The operational discipline is the tracing of results to their true causes rather than to the surface causes that the proximate framing would suggest.
The argument that preceded the relationship breakdown is not the cause of the breakdown. The argument is the proximate event. The actual cause is the pattern that produced the argument. The pattern is the cause of the cause. The integrated engagement traces past the argument to the pattern.
The decision that preceded the business failure is not the cause of the failure. The decision is the proximate event. The actual cause is the assumption about risk that produced the decision. The assumption is the cause of the cause. The integrated engagement traces past the decision to the assumption.
The pattern operates across the dimensions. The proximate cause is visible. The actual cause is upstream of the proximate cause. The integrated engagement traces past the visible to the upstream that the visible was the expression of.
The discipline is uncomfortable because the upstream causes are deeper than the proximate causes. The proximate cause can be addressed through the surface adjustment. The upstream cause requires the deeper engagement. The man who is willing to do the deeper engagement produces the integrated change. The man who only addresses the proximate cause produces the same result with a different proximate event next time.
Surface Behavior vs. Underlying System
A specific dimension worth distinct examination is the distinction between the surface behavior and the underlying system that produces the behavior.
The surface behavior is what the man does. The underlying system is the configuration that produces what the man does. The behavior can be changed at the surface level through the deliberate effort to do something different. The change at the surface level is unsustainable if the underlying system has not been changed because the underlying system continues to produce the behavior the surface effort is suppressing.
The pattern is observable across the dimensions. The diet that the man holds for the duration of his willpower without changing the underlying patterns that produce the eating behavior. The exercise routine the man maintains for the duration of his motivation without changing the underlying patterns that produce the inactivity. The communication pattern the man performs for the duration of his attention without changing the underlying patterns that produce the dysfunctional default.
The integrated change requires the change at the underlying system level. The change at the underlying system requires the engagement with the configuration the system is operating from. The engagement is deeper than the surface behavior change. The engagement is also what produces the change that the surface effort could not have sustained.
The man who has built the discipline of the underlying engagement operates with the integrated change that holds. The man who is operating from the surface effort produces the temporary change that reverts when the surface effort is no longer sustained.
Positive Results and Outcomes
The integrated engagement with the system frame produces positive results across the dimensions where the system has been calibrated to produce them.
The peace that the integrated engagement produces. The peace is not the absence of difficulty. It is the integrated relationship to the difficulty that the integrated system supports. The man whose system is producing the peace is operating from a different baseline than the man whose system is producing the chronic anxiety.
The love that the integrated engagement produces. The love is the integrated capacity to engage with the people in the man's life through the disposition the integrated character supports. The man whose system is producing the integrated love is operating from a different baseline than the man whose system is producing the chronic relational dysfunction.
The contentment that the integrated engagement produces. The contentment is the integrated relationship to what the man has and is engaged with. The contentment is not complacency. It is the integrated recognition of what the integrated life is producing combined with the appropriate engagement with what the integrated life requires next. The man whose system is producing the contentment is operating from a different baseline than the man whose system is producing the chronic dissatisfaction.
The biblical recognition includes these as the fruit of the integrated engagement. "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control." (Galatians 5:22-23) The fruit is the result of the system the Spirit is operating in. The integrated engagement with the Spirit produces the fruit the Spirit's operation produces.
Expectations & Outcomes
A specific dimension worth distinct examination is the relationship between expectations and outcomes — the pattern by which the expectations the man holds shape the outcomes the man experiences.
The expectations operate at multiple levels. The conscious expectations the man holds about what should happen. The implicit expectations that operate beneath the conscious level. The cultural expectations that have shaped what the man believes the conditions should be. The relational expectations that have stabilized through the patterns of the man's engagement with others.
The expectations shape the outcomes through several mechanisms. The expectations shape what the man perceives — the conditions that align with the expectations are noticed; the conditions that diverge from the expectations are filtered out. The expectations shape what the man pursues — the man pursues what the expectations have framed as the appropriate target. The expectations shape what the man interprets the outcomes to mean — the outcome is interpreted relative to the expectation rather than as the standalone result.
The integrated engagement with the expectations is the deliberate examination of what the expectations are and the calibrated engagement with the expectations that the integrated life requires. The expectations that align with the integrated life are maintained. The expectations that produce the chronic dysfunction are reconfigured.
The discipline includes the recognition that the unmet expectation is not necessarily the failure of the conditions. It is sometimes the inaccuracy of the expectation. The integrated engagement distinguishes between the conditions that should have produced what the expectation framed and the expectations that were inaccurate to what the conditions could have produced.
Limiting Beliefs as System Components
A foundational dimension of the system that produces results is the set of beliefs the man is operating from. The limiting beliefs are the specific beliefs that limit what the system can produce.
The limiting beliefs operate beneath the surface engagement. The man may not be conscious of holding the limiting belief. The belief operates regardless of consciousness. The system the belief is part of produces the results the belief is contributing to.
The pattern is observable. The man who believes he is not the kind of person who can do the integrated work continues operating in alignment with the belief regardless of his stated intention to do the work. The belief produces the system that produces the absence of the work. The man who believes he is not the kind of person who can sustain the integrated relationships continues operating in alignment with the belief regardless of his stated intention to sustain them. The belief produces the pattern that produces the relational outcomes the belief was contributing to.
The integrated engagement with the limiting beliefs is the recognition of what the beliefs are and the deliberate engagement with the work of overcoming them. The work is not the surface affirmation that contradicts the belief. It is the integrated engagement that produces the experience that contradicts the belief and the deliberate reframing that the contradicting experience supports. The belief is reconfigured through the integrated work the reconfiguration requires.
The Man Who Engages with Results as System Outputs
The man who has built the integrated engagement with results as system outputs operates with capacities that the symptom-focused man cannot match.
He receives the feedback the results represent. The result the man wanted that did not arrive is the feedback he engages with rather than the disappointment he merely experiences. The result he did not want that did arrive is the diagnosis he engages with rather than the misfortune he merely endures.
He traces the results to their true causes. The proximate cause is recognized as the visible event. The upstream cause is identified through the integrated tracing. The integrated engagement is with the upstream cause that the proximate event was the expression of.
He distinguishes between the surface behavior and the underlying system. The surface effort that produces the temporary change is recognized as insufficient. The integrated engagement with the underlying system is what produces the change the surface effort could not have sustained.
He examines his expectations and reconfigures the inaccurate ones. The integrated engagement uses the integrated expectations and releases the inaccurate ones. The integrated alignment between the expectations and the conditions produces the integrated experience that the misalignment was preventing.
He addresses the limiting beliefs that the system has been operating from. The recognition of the beliefs is the precondition for the engagement with the work the reconfiguration requires. The integrated engagement reconfigures the beliefs through the integrated work the reconfiguration involves.
This is the practical destination of the work on results and outcomes. Not the man whose results are always positive — that man does not exist. The man who engages with whatever results the conditions are producing as the system feedback the integrated diagnosis and engagement uses to address what the system is producing. The integration is the operational reality. The man who has built it operates differently from the man who has not.
Negative Results and Outcomes
The negative results are also the system outputs of the systems that produce them.
The chronic unfulfillment — the always chasing without ever finding, the perpetual sense that the man has a lot to become without the corresponding development. The unfulfillment is the output of the system that is producing it. The system may include the chronic comparison that prevents the integrated engagement with what the man actually has. The system may include the chronic deferral of the integrated work that the development requires. The system may include the chronic disengagement from the present that the chronic future-orientation produces.
The integrated engagement with the unfulfillment is the engagement with the system that is producing it. The change in the unfulfillment requires the change in the system. The man who is trying to address the unfulfillment without addressing the system is treating the symptom while the disease continues operating.
The pattern operates across the negative results. The chronic anxiety that is the output of the system producing it. The chronic conflict that is the output of the system producing it. The chronic stagnation that is the output of the system producing it. The integrated engagement is with the systems rather than with the symptoms.