Posted by: Hal Alpiar http://halalpiar.com
“Puzzles are transmitter-dependent;
they turn on what we are told.
Mysteries are receiver-dependent;
they turn on the skills of the listener…”
--Malcolm Gladwell in “Open Secrets” about Enron’s demise
(in his new book of collected nonfiction, What the Dog Saw).
Gladwell digs another shovelful deeper, noting “...principal elements of the puzzle…require the application of energy and persistence, which are the virtues of youth. Mysteries,” he says on the other hand, “demand experience and insight.”
Perhaps you’re leading a team of Rubix Cubers who go home at night thrilled for the opportunity to have spent their day’s work solving puzzles by following directions. But more likely, you are in your job because of “experience and insight.” So, you might want to be viewing your business leadership role as one charged with motivating others to solve mysteries.
Certainly the more autonomous and more disciplined puzzle-solving approach works fine for military-style organizations and dangerous work settings, where discipline and uniformity is to be rewarded. But reality is that every other kind of business imaginable needs to be pulling innovative strings to rise above the world’s still-lousy economy.
Inspiring value-added innovation means you cannot be solving puzzles when there are full-scale mysteries at hand. That’s like expecting Soviets to play baseball on their chess-boards. Henry David Thoreau once asserted that “all we ever have is limited knowledge.” If he was even half right, it makes the most sense to proceed entrepreneurially, by acting on available information instead of waiting to accumulate it “all.”
How you do what you do, the process of what takes place, is what determines leadership effectiveness. Being focused in a direction that’s not in tandem with desired results – like shopping for computer software at a garden center – can add up to lots of wasted time, money and effort.
Force yourself to step back from whatever whirlwind you’re in, or merry-go-round you’re riding, and examine the problem-solving hole you’ve been digging in. If it’s not been productive and you’re in it up to your ears, get out and dig another hole!
Odds are that digging all the way through the Earth and coming out on the other side of the planet will not deliver resolution as effectively or quickly as climbing out and digging in other places. Oh, and you’ll be more respected as a leader, by the way, for abandoning what doesn’t work and moving on.
If you think that all this “is easier said than done,” remember that both that thought and the action that prompts it are your choices! And you already have the critical listening skills, right?
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