Simple Rules: Radical Inquiry Into Self

This month, Associates Mallary Tytel and Royce Holladay introduce a new HSD-based model that is the focus of their soon to be released book, Simple Rules: Radical Inquiry into Self.

How can HSD help individuals think about their own choices and the patterns in their lives? At the heart of HSD is an understanding that any individual’s life is shaped by patterns of interaction and decision making generated in the context of daily activities. People make choices about how to live their lives and how to respond to events in their lives. Those choices generate the patterns that shape the tapestry of each life. In complex adaptive systems, those patterns then influence further choices about responses and interactions.

How can HSD help individuals see, understand, and influence patterns of interaction and decision making that shape their lives? One approach to this question has been described in our soon-to-be-published book, Simple Rules: A Radical Inquiry into Self.

We believe simple rules provide a powerful metaphor for understanding how our life experiences shape day-to-day choices that generate predominant patterns in our lives. Once we articulated that perspective about simple rules and how they emerge, we began to wonder about whether and how emergent patterns might be influenced through intentional inquiry and reflection.

We began to wonder how individuals might shape their life patterns by defining and using a short list of simple rules to guide their own actions and decisions. We found this to be an intriguing question and have developed a process of self-inquiry we believe offers this potential to anyone who is willing to engage in personal reflection and exploration.

Simple Rules: A Radical Inquiry into Self offers a straightforward, uncomplicated approach to using one’s beliefs and understandings about the world to create positive action toward goals. Simple rules guide behavior and ensure coherence in life. A short list of simple rules, however, is more than a checklist: it is part of the larger dialogue a person has with him- or herself and the world, and points a way to achieve authenticity and satisfaction.

What makes this work “radical” is that it asks a person to explore deeply, allowing questions—rather than answers—to move the inquiry forward.

Moving from systems theory to practice, we engage readers in a process of understanding what they can do to influence the direction of their lives. Simple Rules encompasses both a discipline that generates new knowledge and the application of this knowledge to transform action and results.

We encourage you to watch for this book, and the accompanying journal, and use it to gain a greater understanding of your own personal growth. For more information about this book, please visit www.simplerules.org or contact us at info@simplerules.org. For more information about simple rules and human systems dynamics visit the HSD Institute website.

Royce Holladay, M.Ed, HSDP
Director of the Network
Human Systems Dynamics Institute
HSD Associate

Mallary Tytel, Ph.D., M.B.A., HSDP
President and Founder
Healthy Workplaces
HSD Associate