Any Which Way
Author: Wendy Elford Issue: 2025-07-02
Any Which Way
by Wendy Elford
Playing the long game.
There is a phrase - ‘Any which way’ which means there are lots of directions and flows from which something can start, go or stop.
I find it useful in current times which a wise technologist called Venkatesh Rao named ‘The Great Weirding’. This phrase is useful because there are a couple of ways we can deal with the opportunities, requirements and regrets of trying to live a modern and up to date life just now. Any which way reminds me that there are many ways I can get to the end point and some of the ones I have not seen or might not favour can turn out to be the better ones. If there are lots of spinning plates, dropping a couple might also be the better move.
One of the options is to become a little wild witch who I am in my professional world, hence the beginnings of a rebrand included with this shorter post. I’m into the last third of my life give or take some years, so the joke is on me. That is exactly my point. Past Wendy had to do things a certain way, according to the rules. She was quietly a rule breaker. Current Wendy is looking for the best means of elegantly but openly bending but not breaking the rules using a little more forgiveness and authenticity she could have mustered before.
Said another way, there is a call to channel your inner weirdness - for me it is quirkiness - and so become more open to new and possibly intuitive solutions to vexing problems. By not taking things too seriously I get to choose which hill is the one worth dying on and to have a little fun climbing it and enjoying the view.
I am noticing that to play the long game (and this noticing has been obvious to other players), that I need to be more sensitive to the game being played now and to reframe the stories I tell myself about the game that I am playing. Here is just one example based on the idea of trauma informed design. When having renovations done, that really is trauma!
The game scenario is having a brave conversation with the managers of a roof restoration company. Future Wendy does not want a repaint, yet this is possible. Past Wendy would become all high and mighty about the wrongness of a subcontractor (in Australia we call them subbies) NOT sticking to the temperature range suited to painting outdoors. So options are self veiling as the scientist (I’ve done the research and you are wrong), the hapless customer (please help me understand why) and then the negotiator who fixes things. The real way to turn up, the way that worked, was to bring out each of the roles briefly, put them in the box and then get practical. Woosh and the problem goes away. The gone rogue painter now no-longer holds the customer’s emotional state in check mate, but instead the rogue and his over seer have gifted warranties needed for 10 - 15 years worth of peace and security. Being grumpy was never going to be the answer.
An even better way was to audition each of the roles and lightly play the winning one.
Why does this matter? It is the short dip into high friction that wins the long term low friction ease. A game of trust. The tough conversations, biting my tongue then staying curious about what is going on here? Not easy work in the moment when many suppliers are after the shortest route to cash, but much more effective in the longer term.
The long game needs a different set of skills. We may already have these skills. Staying quiet can be one of them, taking a plate away, so to speak. Or letting a plate fall and break then making the obvious observations so we can do a reset. Let the scenery and the props do the work for you. Because we don’t ever really know the what and why behind every single action that other people take. But we sure as hell can tell ourselves a different story which allows a different and hopefully happy ending in this weirdest of times.
A word about an icon
At the moment the game I'd like to play for the rest of this year and into the next is to take myself less seriously. So myself as a joke or myself as a joker. Bringing out the best of our Australian ways I'm ‘having a lend of myself.’ I'm starting to become clear that it doesn't really matter so here goes. In the world of complexity I am playing a cheap trick.
Behind all of this is the reality taking (seriously) that happens when day to day experiencing takes in a big loss in life. My friends will know what that loss is for me. Time to recalibrate, time to reset as my friend said today.
So friends, in the spirit of rebranding, rebirthing and regenerating, I’d like to introduce to you the idea of self veiling. This comes to us from the wonderful James Carse, author of finite and infinite games. And a little icon I have created with a dear tech savvy friend to mark this moment.
Self-veiling is an infinite game we play with ourselves about who we are authentically. We are playful with the veil we throw over body, mind and soul. We temporarily, though often effectively, wear the garb of another self or role. So Dr Wendy Elford has a title. She dons and doffs her academic cap for credibility. She also goes camping and is most at home in the bush around a campfire. But the Wendy who self-veils does not really believe she actually is any of her other roles. She can easily switch between each veil and still authentically be herself. Like the song goes ‘This is me’ from The greatest Showman’. She can’t get stuck.
So I invite you to appreciate the little echidna on a broomstick brandishing a hat and flying somewhere over Australia's red dust into a blue, cloudless sky. My other brand to date has rested on a hard earned doctorate followed by years of wrestling with sensemaking and story making efforts in complex adaptive systems. Irreverently I have called that being a knowledge wrangler. Dr Wendy Elford now has to take a seat while her alter ego, the broom stick wielding echidna aka Dr Wendy Elford (witch) takes to the skies.
You'll see that the echidna is an iconic Australian, a quirky little animal and according to Tyson Yunkaporta, a really quite bright creature. And I can't believe that any echidna has ever had a ride on a broomstick. The echidna is a monotreme or egg laying mammal which forages for ants and is protected by an array of quills. Wendy has also held a private pilots licence and comes from a family of flyers going back to the biplane era.
I am layering one impossibility (broomstick/witchery) with the improbable (quirky Australian Animal) and evoking a layer of mystery and throwing in a doctorate for good measure. I care so much I don’t really care except to be totally authentic and to see where this goes.
So why the echidna? It has been my name in Scouting, the world’s largest youth group, for more than two decades. I have a slightly sharpish personality which my daughter has named as being ‘neuro-spicey’. I am, in short, a divergent.
Why the broomstick? Why the witch? There has been Wendy the good little witch for ages. Wizards and Witches are now out in the world courtesy of Harry Potter’s world wide impact. I failed all the muggles tests in pretty much every job I have ever held and have found I belong with those who practice trick or treat. It’s an important line of praxis between neuroscience, trauma informed and regenerative design and systems thinking. My patience might be tested. I may baulk at answering all your questions - I have a little science and artistry to share, so hence the shortcuts, aka magical thinking. The science is sound.
A lovely bit of ambiguity in the question - Which (witch) is that Wendy? Let’s get her airborne and find out.
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Related:
- Wendy Elford (author)
- 2025 (year)
- Topics: Emergence and Complexity