15 Human Loops questions to help you start to think about any life situation
Life is complex, multi-layered and always changing.
As well as reading the summer summary and the introductory welcome post that explains a little about how I got to Human Loops, these fifteen questions are useful for starting to assess any dynamic personal situation you might find yourself in, to get you thinking about all the moving parts and how you might consider other options.
(Related: 9 example Human Loops stories & analyses to help you think about situations)
1. Who are "YOU"? Participant or observer? Protagonist or helper? Leader or follower? Team member? Manipulator or manipulated? What is your basic role in the situation?
2. What is the SITUATION? E.g. City, countryside? Airplane, home? France, Egypt? Bureaucracy, health? Indoors, beach? Politics, professional? Family, job? Night, day? The structures, environment, events.
3. WHO ELSE is involved in your current situation? Friends, partner, family, colleagues, customers, kids, parents, enemies, neighbours, team mates, strangers? Basic relationships and roles.
4. What do you basically FEEL about the situation? Good, constructive, logical, reasonable, constructive, positive or bad, wrong, weird, destructive, negative? Gut instinct.
5. What TIMEFRAME are you dealing with? Will you die in the next few minutes if you don't change something or is this some multi-generational trauma that is likely to take months to even attempt to fix?
6. What SENSORY INPUTS are you receiving? Clues, indicators, messages, instruments, evidence. Sight, sound, smell, touch, taste, information, actions, unfolding of events, notifications, alerts, warnings.
7. What PHYSICAL STATE are you in? Fit, energetic? Tired? Fatigued? Stressed? Traumatised? Groggy? Weak? Depleted? Dizzy? Injured? Medical episode? Hungry? Thirsty? Drugs? Alcohol? Medication?
8. What is your EMOTIONAL STATE or mood? Calm or relaxed? Mostly good or mostly bad? Smooth or intense? Scared? Fearful? Worried? Rage? Angry? Violent? Overwhelmed? Panicking?
9. Are you just REACTING to the situation? Are you on autopilot, running past scripts, no time to think or process what might really be happening?
10. Can you create a GAP? Can you create some space, some time to step back and breathe and think, at whatever timeframe you are operating on and have available? 10 seconds? A minute? A day? A week?
11. What RESULTS is the situation already generating? Is there anything measurable or conceivable that is now different than it was earlier? How is it different? Better or worse? By how much?
12. Are your PERCEPTIONS aligned with that REALITY? Are you stuck in fantasy? Are you confused, puzzled or disoriented? Are you being deceived or manipulated?
13. How are the OTHERS behaving? Do you have a shared, collective interpretation? Is anyone acting wrongly or in bad faith? Is there coherence or conflict? Transparency or deception?
14. What would "FIXED" look like in this situation?¨What would be different? What would be better? How would you describe that? What would the sensory inputs and results be showing?
15. What is STOPPING YOU getting to "right"? Is it already structurally too late? Do you have a chance to turn this around in time? How might you do that? Could you actually try that?
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I think you’re missing a fundamental question which would take you beyond the individual: how am I connected?
Im a paper type of gal (yes, I murder trees). Immediately read this and printed for my bulletin board. My way of saying these are vital questions to be aware of OFTEN