politics: intensives & expansives

Leela Sinha: 00:00:00

Hey, everyone, thanks for tuning in. So, I'm

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going to, I'm going to go one of the two places that I've been

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avoiding; the other one, you'll have to wait and find out what

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that is. But I've been avoiding politics, I've been avoiding

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talking about SIEF and intensives, and expansives, and

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politics. And this is now coming up on the third election cycle.

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The third, we're, I can't believe we're starting a

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national election cycle in the midterms, but we are, because

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that's where our country is. And I have to say this, I have to

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bring this to the fore, because this is so important, and we

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aren't talking about it. Nobody else is analyzing politics

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through this lens. And so even though political analysis is not

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my... not my original area of expertise, I, we got to talk

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about this. So I developed this framework between 2014 and 2016.

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The book came out in 2016... in July of 2016, and of course, we

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all know how the election went in fall of 2016. And what

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happened after that. And now we've been through the 2020

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election, and we're coming up on 2024, it doesn't feel like it's

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that close. But I know it's much closer than it feels in terms of

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analysis, in terms of who we're running, in terms of how we're

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setting ourselves up to succeed or fail in this next election.

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And so I've got to talk about this, we need to start looking

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at political candidates through the intensive expensive

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framework, we have got to do this. Institutions, entire

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institutions can be intensive or expansive, and entire

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institutions can need an intensive leader at some moments

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in their evolution, and other times in their evolution they

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need an expansive leader. So the need of an institution can

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change over its lifetime, it won't necessarily, but often it

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will. When do we need intensive leaders? We need intensive

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leaders, when we're kind of stuck in the mud. We need

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intensive leaders when we're in a really deep slump. We need

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intensive leaders when we need imaginative, unbelievably

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creative solutions to problems that feel insurmountable. We

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need intensive leaders when we need inspiration. Those are all

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great times to have intensive leaders. When do we need

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expansive leaders? We need expansive leaders when we need

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comfort, when we need steadiness, when we've been

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through a crisis. And we're coming out of that crisis and

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we're just looking for some smooth sailing for a while. We

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don't really want to rock the boat. We don't really want to do

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anything controversial. We just need to recombobulate, we just

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need to get our our sense of balance back. So what are we

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going to do? How are we going to do in this election cycle? I

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think it's a really fascinating moment, because whereas during

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the 2016 election, it was really clear that the country needed

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and wanted an intensive of some kind. There was this craving for

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radical change, there was this craving for kind of loud,

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intense responses to things. And there is a whole analysis I can

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do of the 2016 election, but I'dprefer to focus forward.

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Going forward, we have an interesting situation, because

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we have, I believe, Joe Biden is an expansive. He's an expansive

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leader. I don't actually know what he is personally. But he

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leads like an expansive. He leads as close to the center of

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the road as he can get. He tries not to make controversial

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decisions, he tries to soothe and smooth as much as possible.

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He doesn't like to get out there and make really extreme

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statements about things. He makes statements as, as

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moderately as he possibly can. And as a result, he's really

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irritated the progressives who voted for him, because they

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really wanted more intensive responses to things. But that's

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not who he is, as a leader. That's not how he functions as a

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leader.

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And when he was vice president with Obama, he provided some

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balance. Obama, even though Obama is more moderate than a

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lot of intensives, as a leader, I think that's partially due to

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him having to deal with racism as a constant factor in his life

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and in his leadership, and what Obama and Biden were able to do

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together is Obama was able to be a mild intensive, and Biden

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provided that mild, expansive balance point in the public eye

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and sometimes they would trade. They're both playing very close

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to the center, whether that's true of them or not. So what's

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happening now we're coming- we are not at the end of the

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pandemic, it's still happening- hopefully, hopefully, we'll end

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up with some better medical responses that will help us

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resolve it in a more complete way. But people are mentally

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coming out of the pandemic, it's been, it will have been three

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years solid, of being under this incredible amount of stress. And

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we had an expansive leader during that stress, which has

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worked out, okay. Because mostly, he's been very steady

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state very, let's keep everything else from breaking.

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Let's see what we can do to keep things on the... on the... this

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just kind of like let's just get this boat moving and keep this

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boat moving at a nice steady pace. Right. And that has

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worked. Mostly. It's irritated a lot of people at the extremes,

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but it has kept us from, from floundering, profoundly.

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Unfortunately, the agitation at the extremes is for an intensive

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leader is for intensiveness in one direction or the other.

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There's a lot of desire for an intensive leader right now. So

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that's not what ordinarily I would expect. Ordinarily, I

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would expect, coming out of a crisis, or at least

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psychologically moving out of a crisis moment, in an

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institutional history, I would expect us to be looking for an

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expansive right now. But because so much feels unresolved. And

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because there are so many new crises coming up on an almost

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daily basis-we've had to adjust to a very different kind of news

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cycle from, say, the news cycle I grew up with in terms of how

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many crises are present in any given day, how many headlines

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are bad in any given day- because that's the cycle we're

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in, people are looking for change, people are looking for

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that intensive leadership for something they can really get

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their hearts and minds and souls behind. And that's

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intensiveness. That's that charismatic leadership that an

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intensive brings. So I think, even though we're coming out of

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a crisis, and ordinarily, we would want an expansive, to help

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us kind of come smoothly into the next phase of our existence

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as an institution, what we're looking at is a lot of people

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who are desperate for some kind of change, we're looking at a

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lot of ongoing crisis. And we're looking at a bunch of people who

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don't feel like this expansive leadership is really doing what

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it needs to do. And as a result, we're looking at people who are

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looking for an intensive leader. So I think that in this next

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election cycle, we're going to see a lot of favor for intensive

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leaders. And indeed, we can see as people are starting to kind

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of bubble to the top as candidates, that the people who

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are bubbling to the top are, in fact, intensives. And they are

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intensives, who are maybe willing to do even more radical

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things than their intensive predecessors. So you know, we

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have Beto O'Rourke on one side, we have DeSantis on the other

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side, and in both cases, and of course, we have Trump, and in in

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all three cases, we have people who are willing to do things

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that previous people would have said, "Oh, no, we can't possibly

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do that. That's not allowable." And what we're facing as a

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country, as an electing population, as a voting

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population, what we're facing is unallowable crisis. And so we're

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willing to consider unallowable responses. And unfortunately,

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some of those unallowable responses, especially,

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especially on the more conservative political side,

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are, are dangerous or damaging. And so as we look at the

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candidates who are emerging, I think what we're seeing is this

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real hunger for that intensive response for something that is

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not stabilizing, but disrupting. Now, how is that going to play

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out over the next a-little-over two years? That really depends

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on the news cycle, we really don't know it's become very

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unpredictable.

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We're seeing the conversation get polarized around specific

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issues like abortion and immigration in Texas. And that's

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one way of kind of focusing an electorate, focusing the voter's

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attention on something that feels like it's a thing that

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mobilizes through intensiveness. This particular issue thing is,

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is a very intensive-season tactic. It wouldn't work in an

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expansive season. In an expensive season we'd be looking

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for, like, what are their you know, what's the temperament

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like? What's what's their long term record like? How do we

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think that they will be able to carry us forward through this

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uneven future? And that's not what we're hearing. What we're

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hearing instead is this incredibly polarizing, very

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specific, issue oriented-campaigning. And to me

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that points to the ways in which the people who control the

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conversations or who are trying to control the conversations

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around the elections, around politics in this country are

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really focusing on this desire for an intensive leader. They

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don't know they're doing it because they don't have this

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language. But that's what's happening. We have intensives

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and expansives. And right now, we are, even though we are

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coming out of a particularly rough period, and ordinarily,

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we'd be looking for an expansive, we have so much

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ongoing crisis, that what we're really looking for is an

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intensive, someone who can inspire us, someone who can come

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up with solutions we haven't thought of, because we're all

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feeling stuck. We're all feeling stumped. We want someone that we

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can take comfort in following, which means they have to be

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charismatic and clear, and visionary, but in a way that

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feels relatable. And that's a really tall order. But I think

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ignoring that, as we move forward through this election

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cycle, is going to be extremely foolish, so we shouldn't be

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doing it. Speaking in the shorter term, of course, what we

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do and who we run and how we elect people, this fall is going

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to affect how we elect people next fall. And again, I think we

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have to be really aware of how our local communities, whoever

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whoever we're voting for, if it's, you know, if it's if it's

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Congress members, if it's mayors, if it's school board

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members, like all those people, we have to be aware of how much

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in crisis our local community feels, and whether or not that's

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driving the community toward an intensive leader or an expansive

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leader. And take a look at who's available to run. If somebody

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isn't in the right slot, right. If you don't have any intensives

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running, and what you think people are going to be craving

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is an intensive. Start looking for somebody. If it's too late

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to get them on the ballot this time, start looking at at how

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you can get intensiveness into the process, into the

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environment anyway, because people will gravitate toward it

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if that's what they're craving. Same with expensiveness. If

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people are looking for slow, steady, comforting, reliable,

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and you want to be in that space, figure out how to

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incorporate that into if you're running for office, incorporate

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it into your campaign. If you're running somebody else, if you're

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supporting somebody else's campaign, figure out how that

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person can can meet those needs. Because ultimately, what

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intensiveness and expansiveness describe are behavioral

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patterns, and the needs that emerge from those behavioral

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patterns. And so what we're looking for now is: what is the

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need of the people? How can the people be best served? What is

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their perceived need? What is their actual need? And what are

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we going to do about it? That's what elections are about. How

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are we going to serve the needs of the people? And using this

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framework will give us another lens, another way of

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understanding what is needed, what people believe or feel like

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they need, and how to meet those needs. Thanks for listening. I'm