Phil PowisChief Wisdom Keeper @ Sacred Business Flow

Navigating Complexity with Wonder and Curiosity #substack #shorts

30 Jul 2025 · 1 min

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1:20

Phil Powis (speaker) presents a short talk on using wonder as an applied research lens to navigate complexity and uncertainty. He says he has "tracked and identified a whole language of possibility" made of six facets of wonder; one highlighted facet is "bewilderment," described as the disorienting, "deep woods" form of wonder that, when fertilized instead of pathologized, enables creativity, learning-by-doing, and better navigation through complex uncertainty (illustrated via Alice in Wonderland and Dorothy/Oz metaphors).

Chapters

Tracking wonder has been our laboratory of sorts of applied research. So I hope that's like getting at it because so what? What does wonder do for complexity? It helps us re see complexity and find a way through it. I've. I've tracked and identified a whole language of possibility to complement our very pervasive language of pathology with six facets of wonder. And one of those facets is bewilderment. Bewilderment is the disorienting deep woods facet of wonder. When we're confused and we're dealing with complexity, we don't know the way through. And experiences of wonder allow us or like Alice in Wonderland or Dorothy and Oz, it allows us to navigate uncertainty and complexity and do what one masterminder recently said. She's like, I've got dynamic bewilderment now instead of this unhealthy un uncertainty by fertilizing the confusion, instead of pathologizing the confusion, getting creative through the complexity, learning by doing. Those are in parts the way that wonder, tracking wonder and curiosity help us navigate complexity and uncertainty. I hope that's getting at it for you.