Just to keep on the same page, let’s agree that everything in the document is provisional and up for discussion/debate. If you would like to see specific changes, please comment in the document itself. If you would like to discuss details, please comment in this thread.
Here is copy/paste from near the beginning of the Current Reality Tree document. I’m putting it here, to be able to better opine below!
Current Reality Tree
Undesirable Effects
These are the visible symptoms that show the system is not yet producing enough throughput.
UDE 1 — Many people resonate with the ideas, but few enter sustained practice.
UDE 2 — Events, content, and conversations create inspiration but little durable adoption.
UDE 3 — The group is busy, but throughput remains low.
UDE 4 — Core organizers carry too much of the work and begin to burn out.
UDE 5 — New participants do not know the next step after initial contact.
UDE 6 — The group has difficulty forming stable pockets.
UDE 7 — Existing pockets remain small, fragile, or isolated.
UDE 8 — The wider sangha is sympathetic but not strongly mobilized.
UDE 9 — The movement remains conceptually rich but operationally weak.
UDE 10 — The language feels abstract, elite, or hard to translate into ordinary life.
UDE 11 — The group struggles to measure progress meaningfully.
UDE 12 — Decisions drift toward visible activity rather than real transformation.
UDE 13 — Conflicts, ambiguity, or interpersonal strain slow the work.
UDE 14 — Institutional influence remains limited.
UDE 15 — Replication is weak: others admire the work but do not reproduce it.
On UDE 1 - I’m not sure what “sustained practice” is for 2R. (For me - it’s posting a lot!). I believe however the Oasis tents explored a variety of potential practices. If anyone has any candidate ideas for “sustained practices” consistent with 2R goals, please share!
On UDE 2 - I’m not sure we have defined what “durable adoption” would even be. I do believe there is some general consensus about the dangers of metacrisis, climate change, the breakdown of modernity and so on. So maybe some of us are “adopting” a generalized worldview the way fish adopt the ocean. But again, more specific “adoption” ideas are open to proposal!
On UDE 3 - yes, we could be busier, but as groups go, this one seems pretty happening to me.
On UDE 4 - now that I am retired, I have more bandwidth to take load off of @rufuspollock , @JonahW etc. But I would also encourage others to step into leadership roles that could benefit from more attention!
On UDE 5 - Yes! It would be very desirable to craft a more formal 2R onboarding experience.
On UDE 6 - yes and no. I’ve experienced an island of coherence here from time to time. All is not just pure flux! But could we use more structure and clearer processes? Yes.
On UDE 7 - my stock in trade is to run around and talk to everyone. So it’s not like everything is completely disconnected. But I would love more company on Team Run-Around!
On UDE 8 - generally agreed. I’m not even sure what a “mobilized” sangha would look like. Ideas, anyone?
On UDE 9 - agreed. It could be conceptually tighter also.
On UDE 10 - Back in my freshman year (in the days of typewriters), I learned style from Struck & White: “Omit needless words!” 'Nuff said.
On UDE 11 - it will be hard to measure “progress” till we grapple with the legacy of PM critiques of metanarratives, etc. My recent textbook on IT ends with a nod to Ray Kurzweil’s progressivism, as well as featuring many nonliner skeptics of such “progress” such as Taleb, Snowden, Hagens, and so on. “Progress” and “metacrisis” do not fit comfortably in the same worldview!
On UDE 12 - my action world is “off shore” from 2R. This is an idea shop for me. But I literally crawl in the dirt and do stuff too. Others here are likely that way also. Getting the talk and the action integrated is where the true challenge lies, IMO.
On UDE 13 - under the Tuckman model, conflict is a prerequisite for productive work! So I don’t hate conflict. I just hate rehashing boring, unproductive, circular conflicts that never get anywhere. Using the Stages of Team Development | MIT Human Resources
On UDE 14 - agreed. I’m more ambitious than that. Let’s rock the institutional world!
On UDE 15 - yes … but … As the run around guy, I also run around and gather all the best ideas (like a squirrel stashing nuts). For example, I recently lifted this one from WhatsApp and decided to “own” it also. I invite everyone else to go nut-gathering in similar fashion! Viable System Model: A theory for designing more responsive organisations – Integration and Implementation Insights
This is true, and this methodology helps ensure that conflicts are experienced as healthy tension rather than frustrating stalemates.
See the Conflict Resolution tree for more.
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Made the following updates to the Current Reality Tree (aka Problem Tree), as explained in this post:
CRC 0: No agreed process for updating the trees
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Revision suggestions depend on informal authority, charisma, persistence, or the original author’s judgment
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Participants may not trust the trees as shared artifacts
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The group hesitates to let the trees organize consequential R&D
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Throughput definition becomes premature or contested
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The group cannot confidently move into the dependency chain
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UDE: Strategic modeling creates insight but not legitimate shared direction.