Why Smart People Keep Doing Dumb Things (The Three Hidden Consciences)
Understanding the Hidden Framework Behind Unwanted Behavior
Have you ever found yourself doing something that you promised you wouldn't do again? Have you watched a colleague repeat a pattern that clearly isn't serving them? Have you ever been part of a team where everyone knew something wasn't working, yet nobody changed course?
When behaviors persist despite clear disadvantages, we often blame a lack of discipline, resistance to change, or even irrationality. But what if these behaviors actually make sense when viewed differently?
In my work with organizations and teams, I've found that the concept of the three systemic consciences provides a powerful framework for understanding seemingly irrational or unwanted behaviors. This approach, developed within the field of systemic work, offers a fresh perspective on why people do what they do and opens new possibilities for creating sustainable change.
The Three Consciences That Guide Our Behavior
Think of these consciences as internal guidance systems—the inner voices that tell us what's right, what's expected, and what's necessary. In a systemic understanding, there are three levels of conscience, each with its own agenda:
1. The Personal (or Group) Conscience
This is the conscience most of us are familiar with. We typically call it our "moral compass." It consists of the internalized rules, norms, and expectations we've learned from our families, cultures, and social groups. It guides us toward behavior that is considered "good" or "right" in our specific contexts.
When someone follows their personal conscience, they're acting in alignment with their explicit values and beliefs. They're doing what they've been taught is appropriate.
Example: A manager works late because her organization values dedication and "going the extra mile." Her conscience tells her that this is the right thing to do to be considered a good employee.
2. The Systemic Conscience
Deeper than the personal conscience lies the systemic conscience. This level operates according to unwritten, often unconscious, rules that govern belonging to systems, such as families, organizations, and societies. The systemic conscience is concerned with the survival and continuity of the system itself.
While the personal conscience deals with explicit rules, the systemic conscience deals with implicit patterns, loyalties, and balances that maintain the system. The systemic conscience often overrides the personal conscience when the two are in conflict.
Example: A manager who works late knows her team would function better with healthy work-life boundaries. However, three generations of her family have struggled financially, and her unconscious loyalty to that family pattern makes "taking it easy" feel dangerous and selfish, regardless of her conscious beliefs.
3. The Universal Conscience
The deepest level is what we call the universal conscience. It operates beyond individual systems and represents principles that transcend cultural and systemic boundaries. It is the realm of what serves life, evolution, and the larger whole.
It often manifests as a pull toward growth, healing, or transformation, which can feel mysterious or even disruptive to our existing patterns and identities.
Example: Despite her family history and organizational culture, the manager begins to feel an inexplicable pull toward establishing firmer boundaries. Something deeper is calling her toward balance, even though this contradicts her personal and systemic consciences.
How These Consciences Create "Unwanted" Behavior
This framework is powerful because it helps us understand that most unwanted or "irrational" behaviors actually make sense when viewed through the lens of the systemic conscience.
Let's look at some common examples.
When Teams Resist Positive Change
A classic scenario: Leadership introduces an objectively better way of working, yet the team mysteriously resists or subtly sabotages the initiative. Through the lens of the personal conscience, this looks like stubbornness or a fear of change.
However, through the lens of the systemic conscience, we might discover that:
The change, while positive, would disrupt unspoken loyalty patterns within the team.
The initiative might threaten established pathways for belonging or recognition.
The new approach might inadvertently exclude or devalue the contributions of certain team members.
The resistance isn't irrational; it's the systemic conscience protecting something important that hasn't been acknowledged.
When Leaders Undermine Their Own Success
I've worked with numerous leaders who sabotage their own success just as they approach significant achievements. From a personal perspective, this makes no sense — they consciously want to succeed.
However, the systemic conscience may be protecting something important that hasn't been acknowledged.
Loyalty to family members who didn't have similar opportunities.
Unspoken rules about "knowing your place" or not outshining others
It could also be about maintaining balance in a system where success came at the expense of others.
When Organizations Keep Recreating the Same Problems
Despite genuine efforts to solve them, organizations often find themselves facing the same challenges in different forms. The systemic conscience may be maintaining:
Connection to founding values that are no longer explicitly honored
Balance for past exclusions or injustices that haven't been acknowledged.
Loyalty to previous generations of workers or leaders.
Working with (not against) the systemic conscience
The key insight is that when behaviors persist despite disadvantages, they are usually serving an important function at the level of the systemic conscience. Simply trying to change the behavior without addressing this deeper function typically leads to:
Initial change followed by regression.
The same problem emerging in a different form.
Increased resistance or "symptoms" elsewhere in the system.
Instead, consider these approaches:
1. Acknowledge what the behavior serves
Rather than labeling unwanted behaviors as problems to eliminate, try to understand what they might be serving or protecting. Ask:
What might this behavior be a solution for?
What would be at risk if this pattern changed?
Who or what is being honored through this behavior?
Simply acknowledging the deeper loyalty or function can create immediate change.
2. Look for the hidden loyalties
Many persistent behaviors represent unconscious loyalties to:
Family patterns or ancestors.
Previous members of the organization.
Excluded or forgotten parts of the system.
Recognizing these connections can empower individuals to make new choices while honoring these significant relationships in a more intentional manner.
3. Restore order and balance
The systemic conscience is highly concerned with proper order and balance. When these are disturbed, unwanted behaviors often emerge as a result.
Look for:
Role confusion (people operating outside their proper functions).
Imbalances in giving and taking.
Exclusions of people, perspectives, or parts of history that aren't acknowledged.
Restoring proper order and balance often resolves these behaviors without directly addressing them.
4. Create space for the new while honoring the old
When the universal conscience pulls toward something new, the systemic conscience often resists, protecting what has been.
Rather than forcing change, create ceremonial ways to honor the past while making space for the future. This might look like:
Formally acknowledging previous ways of working before introducing new approaches.
Creating physical or symbolic representations of organizational history.
Explicitly connecting new initiatives to foundational values
A case study: The Mystery of the Revolving Door
A technology company I worked with exhibited a puzzling pattern. They would hire brilliant finance directors who would stay for approximately 18 months before leaving—either quitting or being fired for seemingly minor infractions. After cycling through six finance directors in eight years, the company asked for help.
The typical analytical approach had yielded nothing. Their hiring process was sound, their compensation was competitive, and their exit interviews showed no consistent issues.
However, looking through the lens of the systemic conscience revealed something fascinating. During the company's founding years, the CEO (who was still with the company) had personally managed the finances while the company struggled to survive. He had made several questionable decisions during this period—nothing illegal, just aggressive accounting practices that he now regretted.
The systemic conscience maintained balance by ensuring that no finance director could establish full authority that might expose or judge these early choices. This pattern wasn't a mysterious HR problem; it served an important protective function.
Once this dynamic was acknowledged in a private session with the CEO and he found a way to make peace with those early survival choices, the pattern broke. The next finance director they hired stayed with the company for over five years.
Moving Forward: Working with All Three Consciences
The most effective approach to creating sustainable change is to work with all three consciences in alignment.
Acknowledge the validity of the personal conscience. Respect conscious values and intentions.
Uncover and honor the priorities of the systemic conscience. Recognize what needs to be protected or balanced.
Create space for the universal conscience to guide you toward what wants to emerge next.
When these three levels are aligned rather than in conflict, change happens with remarkable ease and grace. What was previously considered "unwanted behavior" often transforms without direct intervention — not through force of will, but through a natural realignment of the whole system.
This approach requires a different way of seeing and a willingness to work with what is rather than what should be. The results speak for themselves, though: changes that seemed impossible often unfold naturally and inevitably once the deeper patterns are acknowledged.
The next time you encounter "unwanted" behavior in yourself, your team, or your organization, try viewing it through the lens of the three levels of consciousness. What might this behavior be serving? What loyalties might be at play? What balance might it be trying to establish?
The answers may surprise you, but they will almost certainly contain the key to creating sustainable change.
I'd love to hear about your experiences using this perspective. Have you noticed behaviors that persist despite disadvantages? What happened when you became curious about their purpose?