Observe before interpreting - Paola Pierangeli

Q: Distinguishing a signal from its meaning

A signal indicates that something is happening; it doesn't necessarily explain it. Tension, silence, a repeated error, fatigue, or a drop in performance can have very different origins and functions. Initially considering them as information helps avoid prematurely limiting the situation to a single interpretation.

Q: Explore rather than conclude

An initial reading can guide your attention, but it doesn't need to become a certainty. Continue to gather information that confirms, contradicts, or shifts your understanding. Sometimes, you need to ask a question. Sometimes, try something and observe what happens. The action itself can then become a new source of information.

When faced with a difficulty, we naturally seek to understand its meaning. A colleague becomes disengaged: they lack motivation. A team experiences tension: communication is poor. A person is stuck: they resist change. These interpretations may seem obvious. However, when they emerge too early, they immediately influence our investigation, the questions we ask, and the solutions we implement. We then risk intervening based on the explanation we have constructed rather than on what is actually happening.

Observing before interpreting means first reviewing the available information. What is happening? Under what circumstances? What reactions are occurring within the system? What changes depending on the people involved, the time, or the environment? This step requires us not to immediately transform our observations into explanations. Instead, it allows us to keep several possibilities open long enough to gather more information. The more precise the observation, the less we need to fill in the gaps in our knowledge.

We are constantly bombarded by signals

At every moment, the system receives a lot of information. A word, a look, a thought, a bodily sensation, a noise, a temperature, a silence or a change in the environment can all be a signal.

Some go almost unnoticed. Others immediately attract our attention or produce a reaction. This reaction itself becomes new information: the body tenses, an emotion appears, a thought imposes itself, attention shifts, or a response is prepared.

The signal tells us that something is happening. It doesn't yet tell us what it means. Observation consists first of all in distinguishing what reaches us from the response it produces in the system.

When the reaction takes over

Not all signals affect us in the same way. Some can activate the system enough to alter our attention, our perception, and our response. We then continue to see the situation, but we already see it from the perspective of the state it has created within us.

Regulating allows you to remain present with what is happening without letting this activation alone dictate your response. Heart coherence is one of the tools I use in this context: it acts on physiological regulation while allowing you to remain in the situation and capable of acting. It can therefore be used directly in the field, at the moment the situation arises.

When reactivity decreases, the system mobilizes fewer resources to maintain this physiological response. These resources become available again to perceive what is happening, integrate new information, and act in a more appropriate manner.

Separate observation from interpretation

Start from what is observable

Start with what can actually be observed. What has been said or done? What is repeated? What reactions appear? In a team, "he's no longer motivated" is already an interpretation. "He participates less in meetings, postpones some decisions, and asks for more approval" is an observation. This distinction seems simple, but it profoundly changes what we are then able to see.

Distinguishing a signal from its meaning

Observe the context

A single signal provides little information. Look at when it appears, with whom, under what circumstances, what precedes it, and what happens afterward. A difficulty that is present everywhere tells a different story than one that only appears in the face of certain tasks, certain people, or certain conditions. Context allows the signal to become more understandable.

Explore rather than conclude

Intervene based on what appears

Some information is harder to process because it touches on a vulnerability, challenges a decision, or shifts our perception of the situation or ourselves. It is precisely at this point that interpretation can become protective: it quickly provides an explanation that prevents us from remaining in contact with what is unsettling. Observing also requires being able to recognize this reaction without letting it dictate our thinking.

Observing does not mean being passive

Observing is already an action. It requires directing one's attention, distinguishing what one knows from what one assumes, staying long enough with a situation for other information to emerge, and sometimes regulating one's own reaction to continue observing.

This observation may lead to immediate action. It may also show that it is better not to intervene right away. In both cases, it is not a matter of waiting passively: it is a matter of not deciding on the response before having sufficiently observed the situation.

And action itself can extend observation. We move forward, we see what this action produces, and then this new information can confirm a direction or lead us to change it. Observing and acting are therefore not two opposing moments: they can participate in the same trajectory.

Key points to remember

A signal indicates that something is happening; it does not necessarily give its meaning.
The context helps to clarify what is being observed.
Our own activation can alter what we are able to perceive.
Regulation can allow other information and response options to become accessible.

Observe. Stay with what appears. Act based on what becomes accessible.

The signal as a starting point

If a signal is neither a problem to be eliminated immediately nor an explanation in itself, it can find another function: to become a starting point for observation.

Rather than immediately asking "what does this mean?", we can follow what it sets in motion: where does it appear, what reactions does it produce, what does it interact with, and how does the system respond? The signal then becomes a gateway to the functioning of the system.

See what's there

Observing does not require understanding everything. It requires accepting that some information is still unknown and not immediately filling that gap with an explanation.

In an environment where we are often expected to make quick decisions, this approach may seem counterintuitive. Yet, delaying a conclusion doesn't prevent action. It allows us to continue acting while letting reality inform us.

What we do not conclude too quickly remains available to be discovered.

Circular water ripples and bubbles effect. Water ripples and round droplets on blue sea texture pattern background. Liquid motion on calm lake surface. Ring affect, circles