The Sorites Paradox – Reflections on my first year working as a consultant in the human services.
The Sorites paradox, or the paradox of the heap, has been puzzling us for nearly 2500 years. It describes a scenario in which a heap of grain is repeatedly diminished, one grain at a time. When there are thousands of grains, the loss of one more does not stop us seeing a ‘heap’, but there will come a point where the heap comprises just one grain. At this point most folk would agree there’s no heap.
The problem is that technically the same heap remains. We could sort this and define ‘heap’ at a minimum of 1000 grains, but 999 is pretty much the same. Usually, this vagueness is not a problem – we can all have different ideas about what a heap might be, and get by with a bit of common sense. However if you ask the same question about baldness the territory starts getting more tricky. Here issues of sensitivity begin to make thinking a little more complicated. The question of how many hairs might be lost before the thing called baldness happens is not just about counting – it is entangled with potentially complicated issues around appearance, identity and age. The worldwide hair loss industry reportedly turns over more than £1.5bn pa.
By the time you arrive in more anxious territory, thinking about complex and vulnerable young people, it is much harder to be confident we understand each other or, that we might reach an agreement about what is happening or what might help.
Somehow this problem of vagueness can permeate thinking in ways that paralyse progress. Anxiety can drive a frame of mind hoping ‘somebody does something’, alongside a sense that decision making lies elsewhere in a professional network. The vagueness allows everyone to be a little unclear what the problem is, or indeed what should be done and by whom.
As I consider my experience, as a consultant and doctoral researcher, working with professional networks. I am struck by the stubborn persistence of vagueness. In my view, there is an alternative, which often lies in a leadership model that affirms differing and sometimes contradictory viewpoints across a group’s membership. Often this affirmation can be achieved through relatively straightforward questions and a determination to take the time to establish all views. The ensuing clarity may well bring its own discomfort, but also the prospect of a collective confidence as to how the land lies.sorites