Context is King!

So many words are spoken and written. So many content is generated. Some say “content is king”, but there are prerequisites that make the difference between success and failure. At one hand, there is a timely component. On the other hand, there is this “value-thing”.

Value is hard to determine. It is not as objective as You might guess from first glance. Value is a highly individual and therefore subjective thing of personal or individual benchmark. You need a system framing the topic to determine value within some coordinates which are valid in the particular situation.

Jurists often say “it depends …”, before they start commenting on any topic. What is meant by this expression is, that facts and relationships web a net of dependencies to each other which needs first to be perceived at all to make any distinct statement about the situation and the law which might be applicable or not. For many people, including myself, this is often quite unsatisfying if You seek for “quick answers” and fast solutions. Nevertheless it is so true.

Many opinions and actions deriving from “first shot” emerge later to be wrong, incorrect, missing the point and therefore are mostly a waste of energy invested in.
Good news is, once You recognized the pattern, You can change Your behavior by insight. Or as the Asian masters say “If You want to proceed fast, go slow.”

/what is important?

First thing to realize in terms of understanding is context. Determining, what “it” is build from and what to determine for recognization and working on it. You can study for hours, days and ages to get all explainations and references sighted, aligned, compared and understood by that. Or You just get inspired of some not always so serious definitions to get an idea of how context is build from terms and conditions.

I can assure You, this list is curated, sorted and shortened. Once You begin to reflect about context, it opens up floodgates. That’s part of the mechanics behind context. Many people understand context intuitively and by that stop thinking any deeper and further. Often, this works fine, but fails big in case a context has changed and actors within miss to recognize.

/state (status)

Condition of a thing or person described from main attributes.

/condition

Pre-requisite to one or several related results.

/component

A constituent element, as of a system.

/entity

The existence of something considered apart from its properties.

/identity

The set of characteristics by which a person or thing is definitively recognizable or known.

/integrity

The quality or condition of being as intended and declared.

/object

An entity related to a subject. It is something that is acted with (i.e. a tool) or upon (data) or on (material, document etc.).

/subject

The acting entity in relation to an object.

/product

A physical or meta-physical result of an action.

/attribute

A quality or characteristic inherent in or ascribed to someone or something.

/property

A quality of something. It lies within the thing itself and makes the thing recognizable and specifiable.

/function

A function is the ability of something to serve a purpose by action from itself or with it. The function of a tool is easening achievement of a change in status or property.

/method

A method is a specifiable connection of steps (approach) to achieve a result by using a function in relation between a subject and an object.

/tool

Something physical or meta-physical which supports the transformation from one or several things into a different state or a different thing.
A tool can be hammer and chisel as well as methods like drawing sketches or tightening screws.

/scheme

An orderly plan or arrangement of related parts.

/pattern

A natural or accidental arrangement or sequence.

/relationship

Association between things, basing on relations like meaning and reason given by mind.

/change

The transformation of a thing by changing one or more properties as well as the transformation into another thing.

Change can be the combination of material and/or data to re-produce something of the same kind (copy) or the creation of something which is perceived as of a new kind like cutting and sewing fabric to generate cloth following a pre-defined plan.

/idea

An archetype of which a corresponding being in phenomenal reality is an imperfect replica.

/context

The circumstances in which an event occurs; a setting.

Context, finally, is a meshed texture of relationships within space and time between things and their properties woven from relations to each other. Context is individual and unique by at least one parameter in comparision to a scheme applied and things contained. Most common unique parameter is a timestamp.

Things within a context are concrete and might be equal and therefore comparable, groupable and sortable. Similiarities in context are perceived as structures and their abstract relationsships between each other as well as the concrete ones are often named systems in case they impact each other.

context: relationships between elements, esp. components

/meaning

A sense of importance or purpose.

Meaning is the perception of the realationships within a context. Relationships need to be recognized (“learned”), build  and understood while relations exist whether the are understood or not. Relationships derive from relations and express the state of connection between its parts. Perception of meaning is a highly personal thing and subject to constant change while meaning itself should be an objective – describable thing which therefore could be shared and commonly understood.

learning: using knowledge and abilities build from one context to deal with the other

/irritation

Noticing a context deviating from expectation.

/problem

A problem is the deviation of a context in current state from an intended (ideal) state.

You can change context or Your attitude towards it.

Options are amongst others:

  • ignoring it
  • fleeing from it
  • fighting against it
  • learning from it
  • dealing with it
  • handling it
  • changing Your attitude to it

It’s Your decision to chose the action pattern which suits best in given context. 😉

/humor

Understanding deviation originating from replacement of a thing into a different context and enjoying enlightenment from gained insight.

/opinion

Attitude towards a context. Might be the current context, the considered, the expected or the fictitious – which is the most common occurance.

/judgement

Should be result of careful investigation and application of well-handled, commonly accepted methods on a context.

Often found as sticking an opinion-tag to a context, chosen from some random attributes and opinions on them. >> cognition biases.

/heuristics

Mental shortcuts to act on assumed equal, using a method learned long time ago.

  • In case of context stability: good – speeding up actions.
  • In case of context deviations: bad – missing the point.

/fuzzy

Replacing the “all” by some data of assumed significance.

Speeds up, but fails occasionally, usually with low impact and easy to correct. >> black swan.

/evidence

Something, everybody can recognize who is sharing comparable education.

Often assumed, rarely found.  >> “fuzzy”.

/error

Incorrect belief about a context.

/mistake

Incorrect choice or faulty application of a method executed within a context.

081517_0952_FearisabadC2.png
“fear to act” often derives from lack of, or incomplete understanding of context.

/logic

Commonly tought ruleset to conclude from one to the other.

Often used as word, rarely used as method.

/deduction

Direction of a conclusion. From concrete to abstract.

/induction

Direction of a conclusion. From general to specific..

/circle

Line without end.

/cycle

Move in shape of a circle.

/fractal

Everything equal on every zoom-level.

/creativity

Ability to transfer existing into something different – not necessarily new.

creation: combining existing to fit into new context

/productivity

Transforming material and energy into stuff. Generating more of the same.

production: generating equality from same sheme

/intention distinguishes happening from made

For generation of impact, nothing is needed except energy working towards transformation of an object.

It can happen by accident, random, automatic or manual directed by attention, initiated by will-power, guided by hand and directed by mind.

For any impact that is generated intentionally, understanding and ability is needed to achieve status You once identified and accepted as result of any action.

For acting intentionally it is needed to know what You are doing – at least from experience, even better if You act from understanding.

Royal discipline of acting is performing individually and independently on distributed tasks, aligned to one goal, which actors chose by decision as a group originating from a shared understanding based on shared values.

Some call that team-work. On an abstracted level, an organization is formed from the repetition of these approaches.

The kind of doing it derives from shared values, shared knowledge, deriving from experiences made in the past in context of this organization. This is usually called the culture of this particular organization.

teaching: transferring context to people

/culture is built from predictability in context

Organizational culture is unique. It originates from people who share context of the organization It originates from experiences and education they bring into on the day by day bases. While being under influence of constant change, this culture changes permanently. But not in the same velocity as surrounding conditions. This phenomen is often called resilience of an organism.

Interesting questions arises from the switch between re-gaining defined Status quo in contrast to the definition of a different Status quo which is perceived as the new benchmark to orientate against.

This very moment is the break-even point in transformational processes of organizations.

Guiding question behind is “What will last?”

You cannot predict whether an individual or the complete organization will change in a certain timeframe and towards a predictable behavior.

You can only offer different approaches, additional or improved methods and tools which are accepted or rejected by individual members according to their understanding of needs aand demands.

Key is: understanding.

  • at side of provider as well as user of any behavior and tool.
evolution: ability to fit into a different context

/time component matters

Many people feel under pressure to perform in limited timeframes. Sometimes this is called “time2market” in other context it was called “piecework” or “overperforming”.

  • What, if goals You accepted once, are missing intented impact now?
  • What, if there is a more effective way to achieve the same?
  • What, if You invest before harvesting?

/conclusion

Often, it is a good idea to sharpen Your tool – before starting to cut 100 trees.

Time (and other ressources) invested upfront, might pay off in the end. You need confidence and certainty to dare investment.

Experience helps. But not always.

Make sure about the context You are operating in. This is one of the most crucial success factors You can work on in a world which is always under impact of constant change.

Very often, it is just persistence which differs the successful from all the others.

Sometimes it is foolish to do all the same, expecting different results.

It is one of the hardest challenges in life to distinguish the one from the other.

/get some meaning

Question the context You are set in.

  • What does it mean to sit in the same room with the same people, again?
  • What does it mean to do the same in reduced amount of time?
  • What does it mean to do the same, but in a different manner?

Key questions are

What is equal?
And where is the difference?

Remember Einstein replying to a student asking

“These are the same questions as last year’s exam, Professor.”

He answered “Yes, but this year the answers are different.”

/etc

You get access to whatever I estimate being worth to share on my twitter-channel.

/inspirators

/sources

/farewell

May all Your needs vanish into reality.
Live long and prosper.

/famouslastwords

Does Your life run in a circle?

Life runs in cycles. Some are smaller, some are bigger.
In the end, there is no end – only another beginning.

Talk to whom it might concern. And share what matters to You!

One response to “Context is King!”

  1. […] Context is King! […]

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