Students of Influential U programs are steeped and practiced in the fundamental narratives of every transaction. When transactions move smoothly and seamlessly, it is because the parties to transactions reach a meeting of the minds as they move from one narrative to the next in the cycle. But rarely are transactions smooth and seamless – I mean, let's face it – human beings are involved, and at any given moment in time, any single human being is unpredictable. Sure, we can hedge our bets and engage with personalities, and/or do everything in our power to control the environment of transactions, but there are always situations that arise in transactions that challenge us.
Transactional Drift
A transaction is a series of reciprocal exchanges, and for students of Transactional Competence™, we understand that the exchanges taking place are predominately exchanges of narratives. While there are certainly tangible or physical objects involved in the move and phase of a typical transaction cycle, it is the transactional narratives that make up the bulk of the actual activity, and it is the narratives that run the show.
Students of Influence Ecology programs are steeped and practiced in the fundamental narratives of every transaction. When transactions move smoothly and seamlessly, it is because the parties to transactions reach a meeting of the minds as they move from one narrative to the next in the cycle. But rarely are transactions smooth and seamless – I mean, let’s face it – human beings are involved, and at any given moment in time, any single human being is unpredictable. Sure, we can hedge our bets and engage with personalities, and/or do everything in our power to control the environment of transactions, but there are always situations that arise in transactions that challenge us.
Human beings think in story. Story, or narrative construction, is what human beings use to make sense of the world in which we live. What makes sense to us as we engage our environment and especially the people in our day to day lives, is the story we hold about any situation. All of us live in stories. So it seems to make sense that if we all live in stories, and it is these narratives that help us see and understand the world – maybe we ought to consider what stories are involved as we attempt to deal with others to satisfy our needs and wants.
Satisfaction drifts off course…all the time!
John Dewey, an American philosopher, and educator suggests that satisfaction is realized by someone when the situation at hand “will do.” We tend toward this characterization of the condition satisfaction in our study because it captures a particular pragmatic and transactional state or circumstance. To say that a particular situation “will do” isn’t to say we compromise our standards or settling for something less than we need or want. It is also not suggesting that we are satiated or have reached our fill to the extent that more would be impossible or unacceptable. It merely offers a particular kind of characterization that meets our current expectations, and we can live with it without experiencing a sense of disappointment or feeling of exuberance from excess.
To be satisfied in this way generally requires a degree of accurate thinking, forethought, and consideration. The kind of reflection and honest concern about a particular and consequential situation that most people simply are unwilling to invest in. Most people have no real idea or measure for what would satisfy them in the important areas or conditions of their life – opting instead to wait until a given situation plays out – then judging it based on feelings or standards at that time. They leave to chance whether their moment-by-moment stories will ‘hold up’ and deliver when things in life turn out. While this might be fine for many insignificant situations in life, we don’t recommend leaving the most critical and consequential conditions of life to this “I’ll know when I see it” kind of planning. Instead – we suggest something altogether different.
In this year of satisfaction, we are going to consider the stories each of us holds for the most important Condition of Life. If you are going to reach a state of satisfaction in any condition, you will need a very good idea of what you “will do” in that particular situation. What is the story or narrative of that situation in a satisfying state?
Why it is so very important for each of us to get acquainted with and carry powerful and specific narratives for satisfaction is because the stories of our life and the lives of those with whom we engage are always in some kind of transformation and change. If we don’t know the story of our own satisfaction, The Current can have a tremendous influence on the decisions we make.
We must consider that a continual influence on one set of transactions influences another. Narratives from other transactions in other consequential areas of our life drift into the transactions we have underway. For example, I might walk from one meeting where the transaction was in inquiry and step into another situation where the transaction had already moved into labor, work & action. Perhaps someone enters my transaction excited with new possibilities, yet we have already aligned and committed to act. It is impossible to quarantine ourselves from the influence of other narratives, especially those found in the Current. Therefore, maintenance is required. And a great deal of maintenance indeed!
Where maintenance (and a highly consequential environment) is baked-in from the beginning, transactions have a chance of staying on track. In addition, those who embody (deliberately study and practice) the narratives of transaction can pull1 the transaction through each exchange. However, be wary that there is a voice for every condition of life, and the one screaming the loudest often gets the attention. Our satisfaction is on the way out unless we are pulling the transaction through each exchange and keeping things on course.
My Toenails Do Not Clip Themselves
We have a natural want for permanence and consistency. Hannah Arendt writes that “The human condition of labor is life itself.”2 The fantasy is that maintenance takes care of itself, yet it is evident that our hair, toenails, and teeth require some labor. Either a transaction (or narrative) is maintained, or it will drift; this can’t be avoided. When we don’t labor, work, and act for maintenance, things don’t go well; they drift.
For those who study with Influence Ecology, we invite you to re-consider a deliberate study and practice of the narratives of transaction. If “you’re always transacting”3, and we insist that you are, then make it a practice of speaking the narratives in those conversations where a meeting of the minds is critical. Practice speaking them for fortuitous transactions or transactions in breakdown. Listen to the story others are trying to tell and practice meeting them where they are and then gracefully pulling transactions through the cycle. Use the ethical influences and tactics that help those with whom you engage, reach a proper meeting of the minds and, accept declines when an ethical and worthy meeting of the minds is not possible or warranted. Practice the ability to identify where any transaction is and notice how those who are transactionally competent pull others through transactions – study them.
If You Mean It, You Measure It
Where we are not doing any measurement, we’re not paying any attention to where we are in transactions and cannot recognize transactional drift. The result of action is a measure of satisfaction. Through action, assumptions are validated or modified; without action, ‘knowledge’ remains untried, unproven, mere information. Measurement allows for the continuous reconstruction of the transactions that satisfy our aims.
Measures reveal if you deliberately practice making grounded or qualified judgments, assessments, assertions, invitations, offers, and requests (or not). They reveal if you approach your aims through self-action, inter-action, or transaction. Measures are the indicators you must have in place to know if the story you hold about your satisfaction in a condition of life is on track or not.
Measures are the tools we use to navigate the continual narrative drift of every transaction.
- “pull” is used here as “push” or “lead” may denote a more self-actional or inter-actional approach. Guiding others as if to pull them along may be a more apt description.
- Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition (The University of Chicago Press, 1958), page 27.
- “you’re always transacting” is a mantra of the Influence Ecology curriculum. It is a context or inquiry which shapes the view of the all-pervasive nature of transacting. As stated in the Fundamentals of Transaction Program: “Every action (and inaction) builds an identity (career) and shapes the perceived value (or cost) you are to others.”
AUTHOR
John Patterson
Co-founder and CEO
INFLUENTIAL U
John Patterson co-founded and manages the faculty and consultants of Influential U global. Since 1987, he has led workshops, programs, and conferences for over 100k people in diverse professions, industries, and cultures. His history includes corporate curriculum design focusing on business ecosystems, influence, leadership, and high-performance training and development.
