Sand Talk by Tyson Yunkaporta

Two sentence summary

Tyson Yunkaporta gives an insight into Aboriginal ways of thinking and observing the world we live in. He asks what might happen if we apply this perspective to the complexity we see in the world today.

Three things I took from the book

I intentionally read this book to challenge me and help me think differently. Tyson Yunkaporta says he writes to provoke thought. He’s definitely done that for me – and in a positive way.

NB when I say ‘we’ or ‘our’ below I mean me, the typical Western / Second Peoples way of thinking and problem-solving.

1. ‘OUR’ CONDITIONED WAY OF THINKING MIGHT NOT SERVE US WELL 

In our fast-based approach to life, we like to simplify things. Create five clear steps and a linear plan. We often look at ideas or problems in isolation from the rest of the system.

This reductionist approach is quicker and easier. But does it give us good answers?

2. CHANGING YOUR WAY OF THINKING IS DIFFICULT AND TIRING

The book took me longer to read than I’d expected. The writing style doesn’t follow the structure I’m used to and so it bent my brain!

The fact that I found the more circular versus linear writing style challenging (my words, not his) definitely got me thinking about our constant desire to reduce complex things down so they’re easier for us to understand. What do we lose in doing this?

A more circular, exploratory, holistic approach to understanding complex problems can seem slow, confusing and frustrating. What does that tell us about ourselves?

3. WE CAN’T CHERRY PICK 

Taking learnings from Indigenous cultures doesn’t mean just taking discrete bits of practice or advice that we think will be helpful or serve our purpose. It’s more about an overarching approach and way of thinking.

Listening to many different voices and perspectives and starting to see the patterns emerging from that complexity. Looking at things from many different points of view, especially those opposed to your own. Keeping in sight the complexity of diverse ideas coming together.

Three questions it prompted

1. HOW MIGHT LOOKING AT CONNECTIONS HELP WITH THEORY OF CHANGE?

There is a lot of emphasis on seeing patterns, in particular patterns in the forces moving a system. Looking beyond the things and focusing on the connections. And the patterns of those connections.

I wonder how this might relate to my work on Theory of Change? We talk about the importance of understanding how a business’s activities have knock on effects and result in outcomes and impacts. We talk about understanding and measuring those connections. I wonder what would happen if we focus even more on these connections when looking at how a business can have impact?

2. WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM ORAL CULTURES? 

In Oral cultures, knowledge is passed between people through stories. The stories and knowledge evolve over time and all thinking and reasoning is context-based.

In print-based cultures you tend to get low-context reasoning because the ideas in print don’t evolve and are separate from context. The focus is on the ideas rather than on contextual reasoning.

What can we learn from Oral cultures to improve our contextual reasoning, especially for complex problems?

3. HOW MIGHT WE USE STORYTELLING MORE?

Storytelling is a core part of the Aboriginal culture. Stories are powerful and go straight into long term memory.  

Yarning is a process of bringing different stories together, connecting them and creating meaning.

I wonder how we could bring more of this into our work?