See the Series Introduction for Just Tao It, Part I: HERE
See the Just Tao It Series Introduction Tao/It on-ramp, PART II: HERE
See Just Tao It, Chapter 1: HERE

From my interpretation of the Tao Te Ching, Chapter 3 (Unpublished):

Avoid overpraise of the praiseworthy,
And people will not act resentfully.

Avoid overvaluing what can be possessed,
And people will not act covetously nor feel distressed.

Leaders who are steady
Keep hearts open and bodies fed.

They quiet comparison
Before it takes root or spreads.

They lead without claiming the spotlight,
And follow without falling behind.

They loosen the grip of what’s expected,
And leave forced outcomes aside.

By not doing what need not be done,
What is natural can align.

What is done from not doing
Holds order without design—
And accomplishes more than striving can find.

—

There’s something about this chapter that doesn’t try to convince you of anything. It just sits there, almost understated, until you start noticing how much of what it’s pointing to is happening all around you, and once you see it, it’s hard to unsee.

We’re living in a world that runs on amplification. Praise gets turned up, status gets highlighted, and what can be possessed gets elevated in ways that draw attention whether we intend it or not. It doesn’t take long before people begin measuring themselves against what’s been made visible, and once that comparison takes hold, desire isn’t far behind. Over time, the system begins to run on something very different than what anyone set out to create. What feels different now is not the pattern itself, but the scale and speed, because these dynamics aren’t just human anymore; they’re reinforced and accelerated by AI systems that learn what holds attention and feed it back to us continuously, shaping what we see, what we value, and what we respond to. Influence, in that environment, is no longer subtle. It becomes structured, persistent, and difficult to step outside of, and once that’s in play, Allowing doesn’t disappear, but it becomes harder to access because something is always nudging, suggesting, or pushing.

The Tao doesn’t argue with that or try to correct it. It simply points to what happens when certain things are elevated beyond what they can hold. Avoid overpraise. Avoid overvaluing. Not because those things are inherently wrong, but because they move something, and once that movement takes hold, it rarely stops where we expect it to.

That’s where the polarity shows up for me as Influence AND Allowing. There’s no such thing as neutral leadership, because we are always influencing something, whether we intend to or not. What we notice, what we elevate, what we reward—these shape behavior and signal what matters. That was true long before AI, but it’s easier to see now that it’s been scaled and reinforced. So the question isn’t whether we influence; it’s how much, in what ways, and whether we recognize when to stop.

Influence brings clarity and direction, and it helps people understand what matters. It often feels like progress because something is moving and decisions are being made, and without it, things can drift and people are left trying to interpret expectations on their own. But when Influence begins to dominate to the neglect of Allowing, it doesn’t feel like control at first. It feels like alignment and momentum, like things are working. Over time, though, something begins to tighten. People start checking before they act, energy shifts from contribution to performance, and what once felt natural becomes something that is managed. The system slowly reorganizes itself around the signal rather than the substance, and because nothing breaks immediately, the shift is easy to miss.

Allowing doesn’t carry the same visible markers, which is part of why it’s often misunderstood. It doesn’t announce itself, and it can look like inaction when it’s actually something far more deliberate. Allowing is the capacity to recognize when additional influence isn’t needed, when the system can hold what’s emerging without being shaped in real time. It isn’t stepping back out of indifference; it’s choosing not to intervene when intervention would distort more than it would help, and that requires a different kind of trust, especially in environments where attention is constantly being directed for us.

When Allowing drifts too far to the neglect of Influence, a different set of issues shows up. Direction becomes unclear, needs go unmet, and what could have been simple begins to feel uncertain, not because people are unwilling, but because the signal that helps orient them isn’t there. So the tension here isn’t about choosing one over the other; it’s about recognizing the rhythm between them and noticing when one begins to overtake the other.

That rhythm is harder to sense when amplification is constant, because we’re no longer just influencing each other; we’re participating in systems that are continuously shaping what we notice and how we respond. The line between what is chosen and what is fed begins to blur, and in that environment, the ability to Allow doesn’t disappear, but it does require more awareness to access. It becomes something that has to be practiced rather than assumed.

There’s a line in this chapter that keeps resurfacing for me: what is done from not doing holds order without design and accomplishes more than striving can find. It doesn’t explain itself or offer a method. It simply points, and the moment we try to turn that into something we can apply consistently, we’re back in Influence again, trying to manage what may not need to be managed.

So what I love is that there isn’t a formula or a takeaway. It’s a question about awareness and restraint, about whether I can notice when influence is doing more than is needed and whether I trust enough to let something unfold without stepping in too quickly. That’s not always comfortable, especially in a world where movement is rewarded and stillness can be mistaken for falling behind, but there are moments where not adding anything changes everything, and those moments are easy to miss if you’re always trying to shape what happens next.

Here’s an interior Polarity Map for Influence And Allow:

INVITATIONS:

And_V1_PEEK_C22, “Claiming Power And Sharing Power” from And, Volume 1, Foundations.

To use an “AI-trained Chat w/Cliff for Step 1, Seeing” CLICK HERE.

Ready for the Polarity Advantage? Go deeper into Polarity Thinking, see our online self-directed Credentialing and Introduction to Polarity Practice or in-person training with Barry Johnson and me at Kayser Ridge by CLICKING HERE.