We all understand the desire to see the world clearly. When our vision blurs, we visit an optician for glasses. But what if the problem isn’t with our sight, but our insight? What if our lenses didn’t just correct our sight but also corrected our insight, addressing the invisible biases and blind spots that shape how we perceive social situations? [This is where SSF lenses come in].
This is the central promise of the Six Stage Framework (SSF) lens—a metaphorical tool designed not just to correct our social vision, but to augment it with new layers of understanding. It’s a pathway to achieving structural clarity, emotional awareness, and a higher consciousness about the hidden architecture of equity and power that shapes our world.
Watch video below
1. We Mistake Basic Correction for True Clarity
The first step toward this new way of seeing is understanding the difference between simply correcting a problem and truly augmenting your perception. The SSF lenses use the evolution of eyewear to make this distinction clear.
Think of basic bias awareness as a pair of corrective glasses. Their job is to fix a fundamental error, moving your vision “from distortion to clarity.” They help you see what was previously blurry by addressing foundational personal biases, a crucial first step away from stages of denial or resistance.
True vision expansion, however, requires a tool more like smart glasses. This is the next level, where the SSF lens acts as a dynamic, active tool that overlays new information onto your view of the world. This isn’t just a static overlay; it’s a dynamic, adaptive tool that, like future smart glasses with adaptive optics, recalculates what’s needed for clarity in any given moment.
The SSF Smart Glasses (SSF Lenses) are envisioned as a dynamic lens that interprets, flags, questions, and guides how the user perceives the world, responds to others, and holds power.
This distinction is critical. Simply “correcting” our most obvious biases isn’t the end goal. The real power comes from actively augmenting our perception to see the systems, patterns, and power dynamics that were previously invisible.
2. What Looks Like Random Noise Is Actually a Pattern (SSF Lenses)
Without a framework, acts of exclusion or inequity can feel like isolated incidents—unfortunate but random events. Wearing the “SSF lens” trains you to perceive these moments differently. It helps you see inequity not as “noise but as a pattern,” and exclusion not as a “one-off but as part of a wider system.”
Consider a new school policy that restricts teaching about systemic racism. Without the lens, one might see this as a neutral administrative decision. But through the SSF lens, the underlying system comes into sharp focus. You can identify this as Stage -2 or -3: Resistance disguised as neutrality or ‘protecting tradition.’ The critical questions then become: ‘Whose discomfort is being centered?’ and ‘Whose voices are being erased?’ This reveals a system operating from a Cave of Denial and Tradition.
This is the power of the SSF lenses: the lens moves you from asking “What happened?” to asking “What stage is this system at, what caves are involved, and what needs to shift?” You move from being a passive observer of events to an active analyst of the systems that create them.
3. The Ultimate Goal Is a “Mass Consciousness Shift”
The SSF lens isn’t just a private self-help tool; it’s envisioned as a public blueprint for creating a new social norm. The ultimate vision is a “mass consciousness shift” driven by universal adoption. Just as one source notes, “very soon, everyone was going to be wearing AI glasses,” the idea is that everyone could also be wearing SSF lenses.
This widespread adoption would create a shared cultural norm of accountability. It would become natural to ask one another:
-
- “Are you wearing your SSF lenses?”
-
- “How does the world look now?”
-
- “How does the situation look?”
-
- If not, “why not– and “how can you be supported to?”
The implication is transformative. The framework moves from an individual analytical tool to a collective instrument for social change, laying the groundwork for a world where “equity and inclusion reign.”
“Because when enough individuals change the way they see, society itself begins to see differently.”
Conclusion: What Do You See Now?
The journey of the SSF lens takes us from individual correction to augmented insight and, finally, to the potential for a collective shift in consciousness. The SSF lens is more than a framework; it is society holding up a mirror to itself.
Once you learn to see the patterns, you move from comfort to courage, and “you can’t unsee it.” The systems become visible, the questions become second nature, and a new kind of clarity emerges.
This leaves only one final, thought-provoking question:
What are you looking at right now—and how does it look through the SSF lens? # SSF Lenses
“This article also launches my new podcast series, Through the SSF Lens, where we’ll explore how these lenses can help us see everyday events and current issues more clearly.”
Core Framework
#SixStagesFramework
#SSF #ThroughTheSSFLens
#EquityLens #InclusionLens
#BiasAwarenessBroader Reach
#PsychologyOfChange
#EquityAndInclusion
#LeadershipDevelopment
#SocialJustice
#ConsciousLeadership
#NeuropsychologyOfBiasInspirational / Reflective
#MindfulLeadership
#TransformativeThinking
#SeeDifferently
#YouCantUnseeItes
