“Mind the gap”, the warning phrase coined in 1969 and made famous by the London Underground has become almost universal in one form or another as a way to alert travelers to watch out for the space between the station platform and the train door. The space has been overlooked by billions of people since it’s inception, yet is still dangerous enough that it bears constant reminding to unconscious commuters who may miss it and end up hurting themselves if they are not careful.
We believe the” Mind the Gap” concept can also serve as a powerful reminder and metaphor for the daily perils we all face as relational beings. We are inundated with data and input that is stimulus for our powerful brains to sort through. We can only process a fraction of what we absorb and our responses are lightening quick given just how much we are absorbing. This powerful filtering system we have is an absolute live saver as there is no way we could possibly consider all the input and still be functional if we did.
The flip side of this wonderful filtering skill we humans process, is that it can also get us into trouble with the people who are most important to us; our bosses, employees, colleagues, partners and children to name a few. Marching through life in isolation with our own thought processes may sound pretty appealing at times but the reality is as relational beings we invariably tend to intersect with others frequently. Our belief is that the skill in which we navigate these intersections contributes in a very meaningful way to how effective we are in our personal and professional lives.
The work we do with clients around assessing and building Emotional Intelligence (EQ) takes a focused look at these human relational intersection points with a particular emphasis on the more stressful ones. The goal of our EQ work is to help our clients drive further awareness of their own experience in those stressful moments so that they can make more conscious and effective choices in real-time.
It is from our EQ work with clients that the concept of this diagram was born. Our goal with it is to provide a tool that is easy to use and encourages our clients to be more conscious of their choices and responses. EQ is something that can be developed with disciplined practice and our experience with this tool is that it helps our clients apply their learning so they can be more relationally effective.
The diagram references a powerful systems theory concept of open loops that we think of in this case as interactive and inter-relational versus closed loops that are disconnected and autonomous. The big difference in these two alternative paths between stimulus and response is the open loop encourages individuals to “Mind the Gap” in order to consider what they are experiencing in the moment. The process of identifying that for oneself has been referred to as walking The Awareness Wheel (Miller, Sherod & Phyllis).
We have enjoyed collaborating with the Get LIT team to bring this tool to life. Our shared hope is by making it visually appealing and therefore easier to grasp, just like the London Underground, we will have more people successfully navigating the space between stimulus and response so they can be more effective in their professional and personal lives. Try it out and let us know what you think.