Entanglements

June 5, 2021

This week we explored the concept of transdisciplinary leadership in terms of climate action. Since the concept of transdisciplinarity is “at once between disciplines, across disciplines, and beyond all disciplines” (Nicolescu, 2014, p. 187), what does this mean for leaders working at the forefront of climate change? Especially when it can be difficult for practitioners to stay on top of the knowledge being cultivated and shared within a single discipline, let alone multiple disciplines.

Corman and Cox (2020) identify eight qualities of transdisciplinary leaders, including “valuing doubt and resistance to new ideas” and “understanding the need for constant adaptation” (p. 13). On the surface, these qualities appear to be contradictory. How can one value resistance to new ideas while also embracing new solutions and adopting a future-orientation? It reminds me of the conversations I have with my two-year-old nephew: “Do you want to go on the slide?”. His response: an emphatic “no!” while running toward the slide.

I have come to realize his answer is somewhere in the middle: “Yes, I want to go on the slide – but I want to do it my way – not your way.” The “no” is really a “yes”, and yet his “no” needs to be respected.

I have been reflecting on how this messy middle may be a keystone of climate action.

Climate is not the first discipline to tackle this messiness. Quantum physics embraces the messy middle enthusiastically: for example, the foundational principle of ‘wave-particle duality’, which suggests that any entity may be described as either a particle or wave. So, if particles can also be waves, and a “yes” can simultaneously be a “no”; then perhaps effective climate action can be equally resistant and welcoming to new ideas.

Until this week, I had not considered climate action through the lens of physics. Upon reflection however, I thought of another relevant quantum property – ‘entanglement’. Philip Ball describes this property as what happens “when two quantum particles interact… their quantum states are inter-dependent… they somehow transmit some kind of influence” even when separated in space (The Royal Institution, 2019). There is an invisible thread holding the particles together and dictating their actions. Scientists are still trying to determine how the two particles remain entangled, even when they are not physically connected.

What would entanglement look like at the climate action scale? Perhaps it means that the action of one leader in one part of the world has unseen, unmeasurable ripple effects on leaders in other parts of the world. As ideas are shared, processes are developed, old narratives are taken apart and replaced with new ones, an intangible change seems to be occurring. Perhaps transdisciplinary leaders are the ones that can translate these intangible connections into tangible actions.  

As you can tell, this is a metaphor in development, and any feedback would be welcome. Does the concept of ‘entanglement’ resonate as a leadership strategy? Where do you see the ‘messy middle’ or contradictory strategies at play in the climate sphere?  

References

Corman, I., & Cox, R. (2020). Transdiciplinarity: A Primer. Royal Roads University. https://commons.royalroads.ca/macal/wp-content/uploads/sites/88/2021/04/MACAL_Transdisciplinary_Thinking03-31-21-3.pdf

Nicolescu, B. (2014). Methodology of Transdisciplinarity. World Futures 70(3-4), 186-199.

The Royal Institution. (2019, February 13). Understanding Quantum Entanglement – with Philip Ball [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_0o2fJhtSc