Posted: 2 years ago

As a reaction to my essay for this week's eClub program on "What is it that we don't get; how come we don't get it?", one reader asked why so many eRotarians (as if they are a foreign breed than "real" Rotarians) have doubt and uncertainty about the ideas presented by our leaders. First, they don't as a general principle of working in service but alternatively they must if they travel, if the facts that they come up against do not fit the dogma and slogans that are thrown around and expected to be accepted as "truth" only through faith, not reason which goes through a process of "critical thinking" and "creative thought". It is much harder to question than to accept dogma faithfully on blind trust.

True, at some point in time, after a period of examination, data gathering, and incubation of that data, any reasonable, thinking human being says, "OK, I have doubt and uncertainty about jumping into this flowing river. I will never have all the data and answers that I need therefore it is time to jump in and swim across since I have no choice if I wish to get to the other side." This "other side" of critical thinking is taking on "faith" in your skills, in your leaders who may have done the "swimming across" in the past and made it, and in the hope that what you have examined is "true data and present circumstances". The one good reason that doubt and uncertainty are useful for "getting it" is that it slows down action when there is the time to think through something that is complex and unsure. For instance, you do not have time to stand in the middle of the road when two lights approach at a rapid speed. They could be two motorcycles but there is not time for doubt and uncertainty. A person jumps to an abstraction: danger, and gets out of the way. But, how many times, when some new things are offered, do we say: "Let me think overnight about that!" That thinking process is a period of doubt and uncertainly which forces us to see clearly all possible solutions, all the details of the circumstance and all the alternatives that might be possible. All Rotarians, eClub and traditional Club members, must use all the tools of the 21st century to think through a future action. Finally, we come to a point where we say: "That is enough time for doubt and uncertainty. It is time for action." The individual who only works by faith is "lucky" that they never have to go through the struggle of doubt and uncertainly but they also rarely come up with new, improved and creative solutions. Effective leaders need doubt and uncertainty most of the time (although they may not show it on the outside because it can stop the action of his or her followers); followers need these tools also but less often. All Rotarians are leaders and followers. The trick in doubt and uncertainty is knowing, at any point in time, which you are.

And in that period where you are deciding if you are a leader or a follower (because those jobs shift) is one where doubt and uncertainty rules one's life. Doubt and uncertainty in the 21st century are useful tools for living and "getting it"!