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“Impatience kills quickly.”

–

Katerina Stoykova Klemer

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Velocity, at its core, is about decision utility, i.e., which decision will create the greatest return. I call it Return on Choice (ROC).  In business you face a relentless onslaught of decisions to be made. Jackson & Jackson (How to Speak Human) suggest its over 30,000 decisions each day. Given the sheer quantity, success is often dictated by how well you choose what is important versus what is not as important versus what is not important at all.

Well. Let’s face it. No matter how good you are you will not always get this right.

Well. Let’s face it. We could all become more adept at making choices because, let’s face it, if anything, we seem to have become worse at making thoughtful choices.

There is a direct relationship between ROC and impatience: too impatient poorer ROC & just enough patience higher ROC.

Now. I am all for, and a huge proponent of not dicking around <the technical term for ‘wasting time overthinking’> when a choice needs to be made. But there is a difference between making speedy decisions and making a decision because speed is the main criteria. The latter encourages impatient decision making which lessens decision utility.

This happens for two reasons:

• Impatience exacerbates our typically poor prioritization skills
• Impatience emphasizes Personal bias

Prioritization skills

Since we live in a world of infinite possibilities, it’s incredibly hard to figure out what to do, when, and where.

If you start thinking this way, well, you begin living in a world strewn with hypotheticals.

If I do A, then this will happen.  But what if I do B?  Will it be better?  Will I get back more? Will everyone around me be more satisfied? Or what about C? That looks good. Oh. But someone suggested D.

You get it. There are 26 letters in the alphabet and while most of us stop way before Z even getting to D can be maddening. It seems like the world is your oyster … everything is possible … but you don’t take advantage of any opportunities because you’re not sure of what’s best.

This is where I remind everyone what US President Dwight D. Eisenhower supposedly said: ‘The most urgent decisions are rarely the most important ones’.

Misreading the urgent from the non-urgent and the important from the unimportant may create impatience at the wrong time and waste energy & focus. Smart Business patience at its most simplest is grounded in the The Eisenhower Matrix. While Stephen Covey is often credited with the decision making matrix it was actually Dwight Eisenhower, considered a master of time management, who developed the matrix.

Decision utility is often driven by effective prioritization what to do do and what not to do.

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“Mental clarity ain’t for the faint of heart.”–

Katerina Stoykova Klemer

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Personal bias.

Decision utility has to navigate the ‘personal bias’ maze.

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“Being aware of our own biases doesn’t mean we aren’t still susceptible to them.”

Faris Yakob

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It is natural we depend on defaults or ‘decision heuristics.’ They are times savers and actually assist ius in more efficiently navigating the 30,000+ decisions we have to make and getting shit done. But. When impatient we get, well, a little lazier. We lean in on our bias which is unfortunate because thinking takes hard work and every choice has opportunity costs. Unfortunately, most of us are not good at assessing ROC <return on choice> when viewing things thru a bias.

Especially when impatient people need to invest in working to eliminate bias.

Invest in developing the choices <and however many we need to feel like we have enough to assess assuming that is a finite number>.

Invest in actually assessing the choices <better, betterest & best assuming a best can be actually identified>.

Invest in the actual choice.

I imagine we are talking about the proper investment in time because organizational impatience leads to the permitting of poor choices <and a quicker death of a thousand cuts>. Maybe even more important is impatience without good investment equals ‘lost velocity.’ Or maybe even worse? Missed velocity.

Dealing with impatience and balancing impatience & patience ain’t for the faint of heart.

Managing decisions is all about a thorough understanding of the decision’s hierarchy of needs, navigating bias & understanding the attributes in a span of time that generates the most rewarding outcome. Being impatient doesn’t mean you ignore this thinking, but rather you incorporate it into your impatience <and it can dictate how patient you are in your impatience>.

I will suggest successful impatient decision making is about having, well, a rigid policy of flexibility.

Ok. Translation. Effective impatient patience is all about mental clarity – creating mental space to see things, feel things, absorb things and make those things into a decision or choice.

When you are facing a choice, making that decision <yes or no, do it or don’t do it>, you go through a cost-benefit check that may last anywhere from a split second to days, weeks, or even months <and yes even months can be an impatient patient choice>.

Such choices come up many times a day and time is a factor in virtually all of them.

It is a constant stream of choices. And each choice can mean the difference between speed & velocity.

It is easy to see how impatience can be abused if we regard life in today’s world as an almost unbroken fast moving river of choices/decisions of which they only represent different paths versus crossroads.

It is easy to see how with everything moving so fast all the time you can actually feel like you are speeding along even without making any good ROC choices. But 99 times out of a 100 there is little velocity, just movement.

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Note:

Velocity is 2 dimensional in what you leverage from and then the choices you make to create a higher decision utility (ROC: Return on Choice). We believe having a distinct vivid brand, and bold brand message, insures your highest ROC .

………….. finite projects each focused on Velocity spur meaningful Progress ……..

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“Don’t confuse a flurry of activity for progress. That’s a magician’s trick.”

One of my past Bosses

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How often do we see a company doing lots and lots of shit yet we don’t really see any progress?

That’s a business in love with speed, not velocity.

That’s a business which justifies return off of ‘doing’, not progress.

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Velocity and speed are different things.

Speed is the distance traveled over time. I can run around in circles with a lot of speed and cover several miles that way, but I’m not getting anywhere. Velocity measures displacement. It’s direction-aware.

Farnam Street

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My obessesion with velocity means i embrace something called “The Velocity Zone.” The velocity zone has a direct relationship to ‘doing shit’ (progress type projects, not speed/stagnant projects) and “shit with distinction’ (distinct brand messaging & positioning, no ‘bla’/boring/meaninglessness). It is this combination which not embraces generating value but also the velocity necessary to consistently elevate value above competition and the sales associated with doing so.

Velocity

The enemy of velocity are the ‘to do’ lists are endless with lots checked-off, but never get shorter and the people who are working long hours but what is done never seems to create any meaningful progress.

This is speed while being stagnant. It’s like a hamster in a wheel. It’s not only unsatisfying for the people in the wheel, but the business itself doesn’t gain any satisfying results (although managers are usually quite creative in result presentations to make it seem like shit is moving everyone forward).

Velocity is always about decisions. What I mean by that is there is never any lacks of things to do in a business but some just aren’t worth doing.

Velocity projects fall into 2 slots:

• value creation initiatives which increase velocity of value offered
• velocity initiatives which increase the velocity of the organization itself & indirectly enhances value.

Choose your projects wisely. Velocity is all that matters.

Distinctiveness

Inherent to any velocity based progress is distinctiveness. All things being equal, being distinct insures multiplicative effect rather than simply an additive element to everything else happening. This doesn’t men you should seek to be bold or vivid in your positioning & messaging & branding just for the sake of doing so. What it means is that you walk as close to the edge of what your brand character/personality is and bring it to life in as vivid a way as possible. This means you are walking as far away from being ‘bla’ (meaningless gray) as possible.

Now.

Oddly a current business trend, collaboration, gets in the way of gaining desired distinction. Why? 2 reasons:

• leadership espouses collaboration but implements autocratic decision-making. This typically translates into ‘safe’ which typically translates into ‘bla.’
• the issue collaboration faces is many people think it equates to committee, consensus & incrementalism. Distinction SHOULD be a collaborative effort because the closer you get to the edge the more important it is that everyone believes the edge is a good place to be. But this is not a committee or consensus decision unless you seek to edge closer to ‘bla.’

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“In my experience, committees can criticize, but they cannot create. Search the parks in all your cities You’ll find no statues of committees.”

David Ogilvy

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Choose your distinction wisely. Not all distinction is distinct, but being distinct matters.

The Velocity Zone

The Velocity Zone is easy to identify but, surprisingly, many businesses find it difficult to get to. they constantly select incremental progress projects inching up above stagnancy but never really getting any meaningful progress. They constantly dream of being distinct and, yet, pragmatically justify some minor attribute as being ‘bold’ trading the opportunity for distinct for ‘bla.’

There’s only one thing I can guarantee in business. The relationship between business success and the Velocity Zone. If you get in this zone, and stay in this zone you will progress. I will not guarantee you will succeed, but I can guarantee you will not fail.

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They say it all breaks down to keeping your feet on the ground

My sole intention is keeping my head in the clouds

They say that I can’t last a day in the real world

I say you wouldn’t survive one night in mine

—

Asking Alexandria

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I get businesses unstuck  (90% of the time that simply means helping them get out of their own way). That’s what I do. This discussion most typically revolves around Taleb’s concept of Antifragile. And while I find Nassim Taleb whipsmart trying to explain Antifragile in a pragmatic business sense, and business environment, is semi-impossible (or at least beyond my intellectual capabilities).

Suffice it to say almost every business I have ever interacted with has struggled with balancing, or applying proportionate effort, pragmatism and possibilities – standardized process and agility/vision to meet opportunities. Most businesses see them as binaries where I see them as malleable. Most businesses see them as an organism and I see them as molecular. That said. While I love conceptual discussions (and actually believe the future of business will be owned by the ones who can think conceptually) my job is to frame in the abstract and deliver in the concrete – balancing idealism and realism. I call it ‘’pragmatism and possibilities’ and suggest its all about having your feet in the clouds and head on the ground.

Suffice it to say that 99% of the best businesses have figured out how to successfully keep their feet in the clouds and their head on the ground.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know it looks like I got it twisted around, but I did not. Good businesses are always walking with the future in mind. Always traveling toward possibilities. Always seeking ‘what’s next.’

Good businesses are always closely listening to the drumbeat of the feet of what is happening around them. Ear to the ground insuring everyone in the business is keeping their head in the game today. I have called it mastering pragmatism & possibilities. But, in reality, it is the ability to have your feet in the clouds and head on the ground.

I tend to believe if more people thought about it this way businesses would actually manage their pragmatism better (i.e., maximize existing resources in an agile way), would have more hope (i.e., maximize opportunities that arise better) and achieve more possibilities than they could ever imagine.

You have to admit the current definition – feet on the ground & head in the clouds – just ain’t working that well these days. Businesses seem to be more woefully stagnant <albeit always ‘talking’ change> and have more despair and lack of hope with regard to actionable possibilities than ever.

Why? Well. I am sure I could invest dozens of pages sharing thoughts on why, but instead I will focus on what I would consider the intellectual aspects, i.e., what is going on in with our attitudes that affect our heads, how we think and how we approach these things.

** note: if one were to need a playbook on how to discuss pragmatism & possibilities with a business this is as good a place to start as any – deconstructing each issue.

• Issue one. over-simplification

Suffice it to say we have devolved into a society of sound bites. This is true in business even moreso. In business it seems to be all about simplicity. In everyday Life it is ‘summarize it for me’ or ‘oh, it’s simple <insert some explanation here>.’ In the end I can’t figure out if should be pointing the finger at us or them.

Them <management & leadership> because they think we are not capable of understanding some form of complexity and therefore they only offer up simplified versions of what needs to be communicated.

Or us <the employees> because we either:

<a> demand a sound bite under the guise of ‘we only have time for the headline’

<b> we only latch on to the fragment of the whole which we believe summarizes the whole.

Therefore I will point the finger at all of us and them. Here is a Truth.

Most things are just not that simple, in fact, they are complex. An effect can have multiple causes and a cause can have multiple effects. I say this despite the fact, naturally, we would like all the dominoes to line up one after another and when one falls the next naturally is impacted and falls. Causality is just an easier thing to grasp.

Well. Things don’t really work that way. Especially in a business environment. Maybe in a controlled test environment but, in business, events are typically bombarded from a variety of directions and while not all causes are created equal <some can impact more than others> most things are too complex to be simplified into ‘one thing.’ And, yet, we oversimplify again and again and again.

Over simplifying simply means ignoring complexities.

Over simplifying simply means being consciously ignorant.

Over simplifying … well … just doesn’t work in the long run.

It eases you through the moment only to have to doubly <or exponentially> invest energy later on. Let me put this as simply as I can: over simplification just doesn’t work.

Instead of dumbing things down to some simplistic sound bite we need to raise the level of general understanding & knowledge to the level of complexity of the ideas & systems in which a business works – in other words, unravel the complexity into understandable components. Factually, seconds of involvement <sound bites> versus minutes of involvement <deeper complex discussion> leads to degrees of real knowledge, i.e., seconds leads to shallow knowledge or let’s call it ‘less knowledgeable.’ Over simplification will not demystify uncertainty and cannot help us do what we really need to do — reconcepting & rethinking that which is (which is the portal to unlocking potential).

What I am suggesting is difficult and uncertain work. But certainly more satisfying and inspiring when we solve and recreate and it certainly is a more effective way to keep your feet in the clouds and head on the ground..

I can unequivocally state that the fate of possibilities for a business, any business, lies in balance if we don’t invest in the hard work of ‘non over simplification.’

And worse? We won’t solve any of the problems we face if we do not address this.

This leads me to …

• Issue two. being intellectually insightful is about hard work.

Let me begin by suggesting that good ideas cannot be decided by number of tweet votes in favor of. Business ideas do not compete on American Idol nor, frankly, should they compete in any larger group. We are not all judges <and probably shouldn’t be on American Idol either>.

Why? Good ideas are rarely popular; therefore, I don’t really want a business idea to win some meaningless popularity contest. If we really want to do what needs to be done to maximize both the pragmatism & the possibilities in business we have to hunker down and work hard … work hard in that we need to use what we have to rethink things … use all aspects including economic thought and philosophy and the past … all of which means dealing with ambiguity and contradiction.

And, yes, that is hard work. That is the kind of work that hones the intellectual insightfulness necessary to keep your feet in the clouds and your feet on the ground and, well, make progress. Smart progress.

Instead of dumbing things down we need to be raising the level of general understanding to the level of complexity of the systems in which we are embedded and which are embedded in us. And while you may balk at something like ‘intellectual insightfulness’ as too far reaching or ‘elitist’ … suffice it to say we just need to be smarter … less ignorant … more enlightened <open to additional thoughts> and more involved in the difficult and uncertain work of demystification and reconcepting ideas and systems in which we live in and … well … just plain rethinking shit.

Suffice it to say that there is nothing simple when talking about world-changing ideas … because talking will not simply make the world change.

I read somewhere recently that ‘if you remove this boundary … the only boundary left is our imagination.’

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Imagination is important, but even imagination is complicated and difficult and tends to not offer tidy solutions. Especially if you don’t invest in the hard work.

We need to be doing more of ‘using your imagination within the box of what exists.’ We don’t need to be wandering aimlessly ‘outside the box’ but rather using our imagination insightfully and creatively WITHIN the box and expand the boundaries.

It is all hard work, but hard work will work. And in this case I mean hard thinking work.

Simply ‘doing’ aint gonna cut it. We need to be smarter. And whether you think about thinking this way or not, it ain’t about staring off into space doing nothing <random dreaming>, thinking is a blue collar job. Thinking is all about work. Hmmmmmm … it is quite possible that what I just wrote defines “head on the ground” better than anything I have ever written before.

Anyway. As a corollary to issue number two …

• Issue three. innovation is not <just> technology.

What makes oversimplification even more challenging is that for some reason we seem to be associating innovation with technology … and just technology. We can’t … and shouldn’t.

This type of thinking leads us to possibly believe technology innovations will eventually solve all problems and maximize everyone’s Life as some point. That is a very dangerous idea.

It is dangerous because in reality if we focus just on technology as the solution we are actually preventing the real change we need. It’s a very dangerous idea because it completely removes the human aspect. I cannot tell people how often I need to remind everyone technology augments humans (if you seek potential & possibilities), not humans augmenting technology.

Regardless. Minds need to innovate too. Thinking and attitudes need to evolve and innovate. New thought systems, economic systems and systems in which people live eat and breath all need to evolve and that happens through innovation <whether technology is involved or not>. Technology is simply a path that runs parallel to culture <or society> basically amplifying everything that is happening on the parallel path <the corollary to that is … with nothing to amplify the technology remains silent>.

Technology and culture and people and business are entangled. Everything is connected with everything. Technologies may enable new ways of doing things as well as thinking. This effects culture so culturally we need to innovate to structure how those technologies will be involved in our lives <so that we can dictate a little how they are incorporated> and we need to innovate our thinking and culture so that we can actually impact how technology evolves <so that we can dictate how what technology is innovated in some form or fashion>.

At the moment it seems like we respond to technology rather than proactively drive technology. Yes. Technology has certainly dramatically improved the overall quality of business but, at some point, technology is not a reason for being, but rather simply an enabler for being. The paradox is that the system we have now may make amazing new technology possible, but at same time is creating such cultural conflict that maximizing technology ‘what could be’ seems impossible. We need to innovate the systems in which technology exists.

Economically, culturally and philosophically. All systems need to see innovation.

• Issue four. adaptability does not mean ‘no strategy’.

Businesses inherently like structure. They see structure as replicable (safe, efficient & maintaining whatever level of effectiveness they have currently attained). The problem is emphasizing structure, pragmatism, actually increases the fragility of a business (source: antifragile) and limits the scope/horizon view of pursuing possibilities. With a ‘feet on the ground’ philosophy structure & construct of resources/systems/process dictate the direction, velocity and vision of the business. In other words, pragmatism is the source of possibilities. If you flip the equation, pragmatism becomes the enabler of possibilities. This does not mean a business has no strategy, all it does is maximize flexibility & agility to pragmatically apply resources to possibilities as they arise. Taleb calls this AntiFragile, Toffler called it the polymalleable organization, HBR has called it “Agile”, I call it “feet in the clouds, head on the ground” or “managing pragmatism & possibilities.” Call it whatever you want but it is the issue a business needs to address in order to be successful in the future.

<that’s it for my issues>

Look.

Hope and possibilities grounded with enlightened pragmatism abound in today’s business world if you look hard enough <and have your feet in the clouds an head to the ground>. But none of it comes easy. These types of things are rarely just given, they need to be earned mostly thru hard work.

I don’t believe simplicity is bad.

I don’t believe being optimistic or having a positive attitude is bad.

I don’t believe technology is bad.

I don’t believe hard work, smartly done, is bad.

But we seem trapped in the old paradigm of “head in the clouds & feet on the ground.” This old paradigm kind of separates work & thinking <vision> in a non useful way. And I … well … I admit I sometimes think this paradigm encourages a slightly warped version of some lazy thinking.

And we cannot be lazy moving forward. And we certainly cannot afford to be lazy thinkers. For in this type of laziness lurks ignorance and it is ignorance we should fear. Not any ideological argument or technological innovation which inserts itself into our daily lives but ignorance.

Avoid lazy thinking. Maybe have everyone should hearken to Emerson’s words:

“Consent yourself to be an organ of your highest thought, and lo! suddenly you put all men in your debt, and are the fountain of an energy that goes pulsing on with waves of benefit to the borders of society, to the circumference of things.”

In the end.

Effective business has always been about applying the right resources at the right time against the right opportunity (or challenge). Period.

Efficient business has always been about applying resources in a consistent way all the time to be applied against the opportunities that exist. Period.

Agility resides in the optimization betwixt the two. Either, alone, is fragile. The fragile mixture, proportionate focus, of the two actually makes one Antifragile (stealing from Taleb). That said. A business is most likely able to find the optimal proportion by, well, keep their head to the ground and their feet in the clouds.

Consent yourself to be of your highest thought.

And how do you do that? Keep your feet in the clouds and your head on the ground. Be pragmatic and explore possibilities.

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Originally published September 2016

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Q: One thing that has always puzzled me about management courses and books is, if they know how to do it, how come the trainers and authors aren’t managing big time?

A: Those who can, do. Those who can’t teach. The really chicken-shit become consultants.

<source: some online discussion>

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Well. That question and answer was certainly harsh. Uhm. Well. Uh oh. I have met the enemy and it is I as in I am, apparently, really chickenshit.

And I don’t like it.

Oddly, despite the fact I do some business management consulting, I tend to agree with this statement. I imagine that doesn’t bode well for me as a consultant.

Regardless. Consulting is odd.

Businesses ask for advice and tend to ignore 70% <or enough of a portion that makes the advice less than effective> of the advice.

Business pay gobs of money to well-known supposed ‘elite’ consultants, who tend to simply rehash the same tripe over and over, and offer the same systems & ‘benchmarked’ processes and ideas of ‘what makes others’ great tripe.

Businesses ignore any advice if it is too contrarian under the guise of ‘impracticality’ and yet most times a business needs a consultant to point out the impractical is necessary for success.

Businesses tend to go to the safest consultants <the most well-known> and receive the safest <most expected> advice … and yet most businesses really need to be reaching out to the lesser known consultants with the more radical thinking.

Anyway.

Me & this consulting thing.

I am fortunate in that I have been in a business for the majority of my career where I have glanced off <and dived into> almost every industry & category known to mankind. I have pretty much seen the worst & the best of any department and discipline and thinking within any industry.

I have learned a shitload, with a shitload left to learn, and still learning as much shit as I can.

I have learned there is no formula, best practices are typically less than best and past experience is never about parallelisms, but rather analogous.

I have learned that each successful solution is actually pieces & parts of a variety of processes, solutions, ideas and applications.

I have learned to be a consultant <to my dismay>. I have also learned I will never be an ‘elite’ consultant.

Because elite <or well-known> tend to have formulas and systems and specific plans of action.

Because these same well known elite consultants peddle ‘here is what made others great’ and shove the square peg of ‘best’ knowledge in even if the company is a round hole company.

Why do they do it? I imagine those things make the buyer <the business> more comfortable in what they will get from the seller <the consultant>.

However. Here is the problem businesses are running into <and why most management business consulting can be sometimes fairly categorized as chickenshit>. The elite are, well, not so darn elite in forecasting or designing solutions. As The Economist suggested when examining this consulting issue:\

“No one can be sure if forecasts are the best available, or if they can be improved, or how. We can’t even be sure forecasts guiding our decisions are more insightful than what we would hear from oracles examining goat guts. Worse still, we often don’t know that we don’t know.”

Examining goat guts aside <be aware I do not do so if I am hired>, studies have shown that the average expert did only slightly better than random guessing. Even more disconcerting is the fact that the stated ‘elite experts’, the ones with the most inflated views of their own success average, tend to attract the most attention and most business. Uh oh. And these are the ones who pulled down the solutions success average.

And the more self effacing experts, by the way, the ones who have the better actual averages, the ones we should actually pay attention to don’t get on anyone’s radar screens and get hired less often.

Well. That’s disappointing. And there is a relatively obvious reason why.

The truth <thru the same research as noted above> is that the truly good forecaster & creator of solutions, the ones who are good at identifying the best solutions, tend to show that they are better able to incorporate what the elite consultants scoff at as ‘luck’ (luck residing in the less than obvious factors or the ‘outliers’ which inevitably reside in every business).

In actuality it is the ability to identify and accommodate the randomness associated with the situation and incorporating it into your thinking and ultimate solution that makes the best the best.

Ok. To be clear.

What that means is that most situations seeking a real solution have some randomness that needs to be identified, embraced and utilized.

Systems or processes tend to throw out these random factors as ‘outliers’ and they get ignored.

Ah. Therein lies the difference between good and bad consultants.

Randomness is incorporated by the elite non-elite.

Randomness is ignored by the non elite elite.

I say this not because I am elite by any stretch of the imagination.

I say this because most consultants suck <or are chickenshit>.

They suck at offering good solutions.

They suck historically in making a true difference.

The only place they don’t suck is blowing their own horn and, well, offering up solutions that sound good, but are never put into practice <because they aren’t actually good>.

I have all the respect in the world for Accenture & McKinsey consultants. Smart smart business people. But a substantial part of my career <which I assume taught me how to be a consultant> was translating their research and insights into usable actionable behaviors & actions.

Some thoughts.

–    Plans are good (up to a point)

Well. They are good as long as you don’t ignore everything else going on around you. Because inevitably a great plan is defined by what it ends up looking like in hindsight <the rear view mirror> and the attitude and emotion which actually made it happen. A management consultant should always offer a plan, it offers a direction to go and some shit you may need to do to get there. But it shouldn’t be made up of ‘what made someone else successful’ <or anything from the book ‘Good to Great’>.

How to judge a good plan? It cannot be implemented by another company. It contains the outlier aspects of what makes the company, well, the company. Please note I am discussing management and business organization thinking because there are certainly operational aspects that can be benchmarked. A good plan for you should look like a good plan for you (not someone else).

–   “next man up” or “next woman up”

 Consulting is difficult because inevitably you cannot control everything … but … well … shit … that’s an excuse. Because frankly even the best business leader in the world doesn’t control everything. You stimulate energy and provide direction and empower people with ability.

Great plans inevitably revolve around those who have believe.

Yeah … yeah … yeah … I buy the importance of team and the fact that one person can actually trigger belief (which enables shit to happen), but let’s not forget that often one person can actually make it ‘not happen’, i.e., can kill belief.

I think many consultants ignore identifying those with a desire to believe <as well as those who do not believ>.

Sometimes it is helpful to identify the next man/woman up. They are a powerful group. Current leaders tend to be steeped in some existing attitude and behaviors. The next person up is typically the one who seeks some change <and is willing to accept some new attitudes & behavior>. Just as with leaders, the next person up is always not the best in ability, but they may be the next person up with belief. Belief is a powerful energy source.

I mention those two thoughts as impetus to return to the original opening thought.

Those who can … do. Consultants are mostly chickenshit because they, well, cannot do — and know they cannot do, so they simply try to enable the ‘doing’. With an entire quiver of tricks and inspirational tools they set out to create the necessary ‘doing plan’.

Good intent.

Still chicken shit.

The best ‘consultants’ are those who are in positions to do. They are currently people in the organization.

And that is what I miss by playing at being a consultant.

I fooled myself into believing I was a ‘consultant’ because I could do what consultants do. But the truth is that almost anyone who is worth a shit in a leadership position already in a business, and can keep an open mind, and be willing to change <and … yes … I fully understand I just outlined the value of management consultants> is in a much better position to think of the consultant-like ideas as well as actually do the consultant like actions IN an organization.

And that is what I miss. Being able to ‘do.’

Don’t get me wrong. I love the thinking. I love the assessing the organization and identifying change agents and changes to improve, but I also love the implementation. And I would love not being in the chickenshit category.

It’s possible there is some happy balance, but it sometimes seems impossible to see when looking at the consulting world.

I mean, truthfully, how do you successfully ‘sell yourself’ as an effective consultant if you are saying “hey … every solution is unique … I can’t use what supposedly worked for someone else because … well … you are different.”

That sounds less safe than what the other guys are peddling.

So the experts who reapply from ‘those who have been successful’ will always be chosen over the expert who says ‘I will bring out the best in your company … make it the best it can be … from what it is.’

Well.

That’s chickenshit.

Ponder that the next time you hire a consultant.

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“Drowning men, it is said, cling to wisps of straw.”

–

Fyodor Dostoevsky

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There may be nothing worse than the feeling of something slipping away from you.

Standing there just watching whatever it is slip away like water through fingers.

Okay. Maybe worse?

The feeling like it is all slipping away from you and there is really nothing you can do. And, yet, you will cling to anything … even wisps of straw hoping you can hold on to whatever it is that is slipping away.

It is a helpless feeling.

Especially the first time you drown.

Oh. Yes. I just said “first time.”

Yeah. You can actually drown many times in Life & business.

That’s the thing with Life <and much of business>.

This kind of drowning rarely kills you in Life <real drowning does>. It really only kills the moment, the ‘thing’, the feeling, the opportunity, the whatever.

Regardless.

Drowning sucks.

Here is a Life truth about why it sucks so much.

Moments, ‘things’, feelings, opportunities, possibilities – die fast .. like in the blink of an eye. In a blink of an eye what was possible simply disappears and is no longer possible.

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“In the blink of an eye, what was possible is possible no longer.”

Nelika McDonald

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Despite this blink of an eye timing … we see the situation as drowning. This means we cling to wisps of straws that are not really there. And we call it drowning but in reality we are already ‘dead’ <with that opportunity>.

Here is the good news.

While this feeling sucks, it is easily recognized. And because it is easily recognized , if we truly pay attention, we can avoid wasting energy and time clinging to the wisps of straws and swim away to something else.

I am not suggesting this is easy.

I simply suggest recognizing something is half the battle.

I simply suggest we should not ignore the easy part because drowning is rarely sneaky.

Let me end with where I began – clinging to wisps of straw. We all will drown. It’s just part of living Life to its fullest. Therefore I would suggest it is incredibly important to recognize that we are desperately clinging to only little wisps of straw and, instead, should be seeking to swim away to seek the next moment and opportunity to, well, fly.

==================

“Maybe you can afford to wait.

“People are all over the world telling their one dramatic story and how their life has turned into getting over this one event. Now their lives are more about the past than their future. “

=

Chuck Palahniuk

——-

We all have moments, you know, cross road moments.  Ok. There are actually a shitload of crossroad moments, in fact, so many your head would explode if you truly counted them. But, in this case, I mean ‘that moment’ kind of moment.

That moment we believe our world and Life shifted direction.

One moment in which something died within us … or something came to Life within us.

The proverbial and metaphorical fork in the road.

I will not argue that these moments not only play a large role in life nor will I argue that these moments can be infinitely important. But. What I will suggest is that, maybe, we make these moments important to us in the wrong way.

Maybe we need not reflect upon them because they are … well … in the past.

We have already left ‘there’ and are now ‘here’ and are … well … on our way to ‘somewhere.’

I don’t know. I saw this quote and it made me think.

It made me think about how often when asked about ‘how did you get here’ we so quickly shift into the past and, well, not talk about what is happening now. Nor do we answer this question by discussing where we are going, i.e., the future.

It made me think about how we value our past decisions so highly and maybe not value decisions to come at the same value.

It made me think that we assess value in size <one big moment> rather than in quantity <the little moments that got us ‘here’>.

It made me think about how many choices we have, have many of those choices are truly meaningful, and how many ore are actually meaningless, how poorly we assess meaningful & meaningless, and how often a ‘fork choice’ doesn’t really look like a fork when standing there.

Sure. Some of us probably have ‘that moment’ stored somewhere in our past. But I imagine more of us actually have a whole bunch of seemingly meaningless little moments, almost unrecognizable, that have got us to where we are attitudinally, intellectually and physically.

It made me think maybe by reliving ‘that moment’ we are setting us up for unrealistic future moment management.

It made me think maybe we are continuously seeking big earth shattering moments in the future by doing so.

It made me think that maybe, in reality, the future is made up of infinitesimal little moments in which we are made, broken, reshaped & remade.

Aw. Shit. This is all philosophical rambling on my part.

All I know for sure is that I will hesitate from here on out to dramatize some past event as ‘meaningful in my Life’ beyond the fact it was but a moment. I will hesitate to think that “everything would have been different” if i had done something in that moment.

I will not argue that there are some moments we would all like to have back and do something differently. I imagine my real point is that there were most likely a succession of moments that led up to it (that were just as important) and there are moments after that moment in which things may have unfolded just as poorly, or maybe not as well, if we had done something differently.

But I do know that I will just take … well …. a moment or two clarifying in my mind that some moment I am thinking about was not necessarily ‘that moment’, but simply ‘a moment.’

I imagine my hope in doing this is that maybe thinking this way I will make every moment a little more important in the future.

=============

“Every organization must be prepared to abandon everything it does to survive in the future.”

=

Peter Drucker in 1999

—

Well. This is about organization change, decision-making and change & people.

Ok. When was the last time you said “This isn’t working. We need to change it.”

Yesterday? Today? A minute ago? Well. It happens every day.

To everyone.

I would suggest the idea that people are ever satisfied with what is, and what surrounds us, actually defines us as a species. We are in a state of perpetual dissatisfaction. We are constantly thinking about how to change shit, improve shit and fix shit. That’s what we do and it doesn’t matter whether it is at home, in businesses or in Life.

We are thinkers, innovators and inventors and <whether we actually think about it this way> ‘changers.’

We are constantly faced with changes every day and moving toward solutions to address the changes. In fact. I could simply call this ‘adapting’ <which may be more palatable to people than ‘changing’>.

In our heads we decide whether we want to sit still and bitch & moan or decide whether we want to impact the change happening around us with something positive. That is what we do <we people>.

This seems even moreso in business where 90% of us assume change is inevitable.

In 1999 Peter Drucker said:

“ We do not hear much anymore about overcoming resistance to change, which 10 or 15 years ago <in the 80’s> was one of the most popular top management seminars.

Everybody has now accepted by now that change is unavoidable.  But this still implies that change is like death & taxes – it should be postponed as long as possible and no change would be vastly preferable. But in a period of upheaval, such as the one we are living in, change is the norm.”

—–

Reminder. He said this in 1999.

Look. We are constantly faced with change. We are constantly being forced to adapt. That said. Frankly, we are not all change agents and, frankly, the majority of our own change is not dictated by us … we are simply forced to adapt to a swirling environment in which we are simply trying to exist <and prosper if possible>. If you think about it that way, your only opportunity to make a difference in the change comes in , well, maybe two ways:

Leadership

=

Knowledge

I’d suggest those two things are connected. The more you become knowledgeable on the issues, understand the decisions being made by others, discern what society or culture is actually imbuing into the environment then ultimately you can actually be a part of the solution , and change, rather than be some frictional element slowing the change <some people would suggest the latter is becoming part of the problem>.

You need to be informed, ready to act and willing to act.

You do not need to be dynamic as an individual to be dynamic beyond your purposes.

I say that because we shouldn’t get grumpy with people who hesitate to embrace change. Shit. We all hesitate to embrace change because it means leaving some things we actually like behind. Therein lies the reason I opened with the Drucker quote.

“Abandoning everything it does.”

He didn’t say ‘abandon the bad stuff.” He said “everything.”

There is where I believe we people, and businesses, get change really wrong. We try and hold on to something. Mostly the somethings we believe is the good stuff. Yes. Some of it may truly be good, but how often does the current good look bad in the new changed environment. This often means we end up not only holding on to something that is worthless in the here & now, but most likely slows/slowed us down during the change <because we kept on holding on to it and trying to figure out how to actually keep it ‘good’> and, worse, it is now most likely gumming up the new environment in some form or fashion.

I would argue change becomes even tougher & trickier because we are just not comfortable abandoning everything if we need to.

Shit. Business book after business book and business school after business school pounds into our heads that efficiency is about consistent delivery and developing best practices and highly successful protocols & processes. All of that suggests “maintain.” Build and don’t abandon. The problem? We see them as foundational items and not as potential anchors.

Look. Some smartass asshole is going to send me an email and say “you cannot always change everything because that is chaos.”

Yes. That’s not really the point.

The point is that you have to be PREPARED to abandon everything, i.e., willing to let anything and everything go.

The point is ‘survival’ not ‘managing change.’ We seem to too easily lose sight of this survival view even when we hunker down and think about what we would be willing to do to truly survive. Regardless. We all know that young people and inexperienced people <and clueless consultants> will always be the first ones to say “throw it all out, it is wrong, begin fresh.”  Well. rather than ignore I’m always prepared to listen to them. Just listen.

And know when to abandon.

And know when to hold on.

Look. All change is confusing to people. I am not suggesting it isn’t welcome or desired just that even when desired it can be confusing with a mix of emotions as the desire rarely matches reality.

I will note this is where leadership steps in. Good leaders tend to inspire simply by bringing people together around a shared purpose and a common set of values and motivate them to create value for everyone involved. They know their ‘north star’ with regard to a moral compass and are prepared to stay the course despite challenges and disappointments and focus change (and adapting) on value creation – not change itself.

Change leadership is not easy. As Teddy Roosevelt said … “in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood … who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions … knows in the end the triumph of high achievement” that can truly only come by leading well. I disagree with some people in that I don’t believe leadership has to be great by any stretch of the imagination … just do it well. And ‘do it well’ often means being prepared to abandon everything to survive.

In the end.

Being PREPARED to abandon everything to survive is an attitude. Abandoning the right things is a skill. And all of it is change. I actually believe most people like change (but hate the way most businesses & leaders talk about it & implement it) but this version of change, “abandon everything”, well, this is the scary type of change – its about survival. That makes it essential. And essential is scary. And maybe that’s my point. Change, when its natural & tied to adapting is less daunting. It feels evolutionary & good. Abandon all to survive feels “impactful.” That’s where leadership enters into the equation. Instill the energy to abandon all, yet, instill the attitude its simply adapting. Anyway. I believe people would benefit from viewing Life with an eye toward ‘abandoning everything’ just to assess what is most important but I believe it is ESSENTIAL to business.

============

Why are we so full of restraint?

Why do we not give in all directions?

Is it fear of losing ourselves? Until we do lose ourselves there is no hope of finding ourselves.

————-

Henry Miller

============

Wimp. Gutless. Chicken. Wuss. Mamby pamby. Spineless jellyfish.

Pick your word.

That is what business has become.

Yeah. I know. Harsh.

Go boldly is just not a phrase you hear often in business anymore.

Not even whispered.

Heck.

Not even kiddingly.

Instead we use words like ‘managing risk’ or ‘planned change’ or “restrained response is necessary” or “we need to follow the process” or … well … any other chicken shit scared-to-do-what-needs-to-be-done word or phrase.

Now. To be clear.

Everyone talks about being brave — “let’s be bold”. Yeah. Everyone sits in meetings and waves their hands enthusiastically or look around sternly making statements and actually talk about bold thinking and bold moves and, well, being bold. Attend any planning meeting or transition meeting or change meeting, in fact, pretty much any meeting in a business office and at some point someone will throw the ‘let’s be bold’ card out onto the table.

What happens next?

Everyone looks as Bold sits there on the table within the reach of anyone. Sitting there on a plate like everyone’s favorite donut .. all the while everyone looking at it is on a diet.

Oh, so tasty.

Oh, I can’t touch it.

This most typically happens in some snazzy meeting room and when someone starts talking about the direction of the business and change, but it also comes up when talking about some new initiative, some new ‘creative thinking’ or … well … anything that may appeal to younger employees or anyone who truly wants to do something good, or spectacular, on the business. 

Conceptually … the desire is there. So why is there no real bold behavior?

We are in a mamby pamby business world.

We are in a ‘let’s stick with the tried & true <safe> to maintain whatever growth we just celebrated in our last meeting” <which was most likely really crappy but justified by a verbal ‘better than the competition’> world. We are in a “let’s be edgy but don’t scare off any potential customers” <which those people most likely aren’t a viable revenue stream anyway> world.

Unfortunately for these spineless shits sitting around conference tables … reality in today’s business world is that we are actually in a “smart bold actions at the smartest time” <but … uhm ,.. apparently no one is smart enough – bold enough? – to identify the smart time>.

It sucks.

We are now living in a “rationalize minuscule change as bold actions’ business world. It is demoralizing as well as a less than effective business strategy.

All that said.

This lack of boldness strikes deepest during transitions and change. And I can logically explain why.

Change in business scares the shit out of any manager & leader.

Okay.

It scares the shit out of 99% of business people <mostly the older more experienced>.

Yeah, yeah, yeah … change sounds great, but in practice it is a shitload like chaos. You plan, but as soon as transition hits its full stride the plan is … well … no longer a plan.

Ok. It is the remnants of a plan.

This means many managers are left with scraps of a plan in their hands and this means that many managers are left to make their own decisions and left to their own devices. This also means that many managers find out they are gutless chicken shits.

Why do I say that?

In their minds ‘go boldly’ is defined by “implement the plan.” Boldly implement the plan to the nth degree.

Without a plan? The cold fear of the unknown and being unsure freezes boldness.

<sigh>

Wimps.

We have become a business world of wimps.

And this lack of a bold muscle can cost you in a variety of ways.

If you do not go boldly you will not only never find success, frankly, you will also ever find “you”, as in yourself, as in “what I am capable of.”

By the way … bold does not mean ‘stupid’. Bold simply means attempting to control your destiny – your personal one and your business one. And in doing so … well … you are letting the chips fall as they may by managing the chips as well as you can.

In Greek this is called Kairos. Kairos is the ability to adapt to and take advantage of changing circumstances.

The concept suggests you have an opportunity to manage what fate has in store for you … if you manage the circumstances as they arise.

And how does this relate to ‘be bold’?

Well. Kairos suggests that fate has a whole array of possibilities to shove your way – not just one in particular. Uhm. That means, if you buy that thought, depending on what you do and how you act and what you say … uhm … Fate just may end up offering you a possibility other than what it thought it was going to offer you a moment ago. This also suggests some boldness increases the odds in your favor with regard to fate. I personally do not think this is ‘fate favors the brave.’ I believe it is less about bravery and more about simply boldly acting upon what your experience suggests is the way to go as a way of managing your Fate.

I could argue that 90%+ of business people do not balk at the idea of ‘being bold’, but balk at actually being bold.

I could argue that the % may even go up higher during business transition <change> times.

Yeah. Even with a real challenge and the authority and space to operate “bold” is unfortunately very very low on the list of business behavioral attitudes.

What is high on the list?

“Restrained response” …

“Restrained behavior”

“Restrained risk.”

I have one word for you.

Wimps.

“Restrained” is for all the fucking wimps.

Look.

We need more smart bold non-wimps in today’s business world.

We need less chicken shit, scared to move, business managers and more bold managers who seek possibilities with a 360 degree view … without restraint … and the desire to do the right smart thing in any direction.

Lastly. Better than any whizbang cultural “happiness mojo” initiatives, being bold, embracing bravery within the business actions, will increase the energy of the organization, attract young people & increase overall productivity as well as engagement (which is the real prize in a business).

This seems kind of crazy, but some businesses are actually training people on how to do the right thing.

This is nuts.

Companies like Goldman Sachs are suggesting it is “interested in serving something greater than their personal interest.”

One has to wonder if this is simply a wacky ploy to correct some misapprehensions with regard to a career in finance.

One has to wonder if this is just bullshit.

And Google offers something called ‘search inside yourself’ <as well as ‘neural self hacking’ and ‘managing energy’>.

Insert ‘yikes’ here.

I imagine the good news is that it seems like companies are beginning to understand that maybe business isn’t all about ‘high living’ <making the most money, having the most ‘bling’ or being the biggest materialist>. How did they get there? Well. Certainly not be examining their own navels. They got there because many aspiring employees are actually talking about the ethics of their employees.

Hey. I’m not flippantly picking on them. I think this is something businesses should do, but I am concerned it is just empty talk at the higher levels. By the way. This  issue is maybe the largest issue facing businesses in terms of ‘the generation gap’, in other words, the leaders thinking one thing and emerging employees/managers interested in other things.

Regardless. All these ‘train to do right thing’ words will certainly sound good, but I am not sure the behavior support will follow.

Anyway. With many business leaders expounding upon this whole ‘being mindful’ <which is code for doing the right thing>, well, I guess my problem lies in several areas:

–          Sincerity.

Arianna Huffington conducts something called the ‘gps for the soul’ in something called a mindfulness conference.

<pause for bullshit alert>

Other hugely successful profitable business managers, whose organizations are not particularly well known for anything but squeezing profit from revenue, are suggesting learning more about having a soul in business.

Well. Here’s the deal. We can talk, or, we can do. Or maybe better said: we can teach/preach, or, we can do.

Teaching a younger generation or a rising generation of managers is one thing allowing them to actually put it into practice is another. Frankly, most businesses today aren’t built, and managed, with a soul <or principled behavior at its core>. They are built for shareholder value or ownership value <or profit>. In those cases the ‘soul’ resides in the wallet of the shareholder. If you do not understand that and do anything other than please that soul, well, you get fired. Even if your soul tells you ‘hey … I am doing the right thing.’

I am suggesting there is lack of alignment.

Lots of talk but, pragmatically, businesses are not wired to match the talk.

Look. I love the intent … I just don’t believe the sincerity.

–          Bolt on attitudes

This is the corollary to the sincerity. You cannot bolt on attitudes. You can try, and it looks good to say all these things, but the reality is that it simply becomes a separate business unit or separate business objective in which you get to check a box at the end of the year. Like a ‘did we do enough to show we have a soul?” type discussion or “let’s review what steps we took this year to show our soul?”

Ok. How absurd is that?

Well. It gets more absurd.

Speaking of bolting on .. mindfulness <doing the right thing> is becoming part of the whole self help movement.

This means we start talking about ‘the competitive edge to being mindful.’ This means the idea of doing the right thing actually becomes an aspect of ‘how to get ahead.’ This means it isn’t about mindfulness, but mindful of self <and self success>.

That is also absurd.

Here is my point. Why the fuck do I need to teach anyone to be ‘mindful’ or ‘to do the right thing’?

I don’t.

And making a business out of it is not only absurd it is immoral <or amoral — I get them mixed up, but suffice it to say neither is good>.

We are treating doing the right thing as if it needs to be taught and this issue in business needs to be flipped.

How a business is evaluated needs to be taught and ethics or doing the right thing will follow. Change the structure of how business thinks and craft the systems to insure it can be implemented and attitudes <and culture> will emerge.

What I mean is that 99.9% of all employees (people) knows ‘the right thing’, but businesses demand another. To be successful in a business a lot of words fly around about being good and ‘team player’ and yet day in and day out the business world is rewarding profit and growth and individualism <because ‘teams’ do not get promoted, individuals do … oh … and bigger salaries follow>.

There needs to be a balance. And it isn’t teaching someone to be mindful. That is fucking crazy.

I have a vision of some middle manager bringing up mindfulness in a meeting with a senior manager … who slightly cocks his head and says something like “welllllllllllllllllllll …. suuuuuuuuuuuuuure.”

“But.”

<insert ‘where’s the money’ here … and … ‘i need to fire this kid’s ass because he doesn’t get it’>>

Cause he knows the money will give bonuses and promotions and, in today’s world, not getting fired.

Until we can balance mindfulness and profitability in a way where someone can’t get fired this is all fluff.

C’mon.

A mindfulness conference? Teaching someone to have a soul? Helping employees understand what is the right thing to do?

<give me a sarcastic> Please.

Look. I am all for personal mindfulness and becoming more self aware, but, a business? Please.

=========================

originally published December 2013

====================

“I don’t pay attention to the

world Ending.

It has ended for me

many Times

and began again in the morning.”

=

Nayyirah Waheed

————————————

Once to every man and nation

Comes the moment to decide

In the strife of truth with falsehood

For the good or evil side.

=

James R. Lowell , 1845

<poem protesting America’s war with Mexico>

———————-

Is the world heading for another Global War?

As I read through the headlines on Yahoo News and other Media Outlets, it seems that there is a lot of anger, posturing, threats, paranoia, fear and distrust being expressed here in the US and elsewhere in the World.

The Iran deal, North Korea threats, Turkey and the Kurdish separatism, ISIS, Syrian revolution, radical groups in Western Africa, failed states in Somalia, Israel/ Palestinian continual war, Russian aggression and the European response.

Is this our reality, or just the manufacture of NEWS that the media creates to fill a 24/7 cycle? Are these all isolated situations or are they an early stage of a 20th century cycle that must repeat itself?

—

TED Discussion Topic in 2015

==============

Well. I admit. There are times I feel like I am ready for the world to end. Okay. Not really. Maybe I only want the entire discussion of as we know it today as predicted by numerous “experts” of the imminent destruction of our world, and everything we now about it, to end.

It seems a little crazy, but, we sometimes seem to always live on the edge of the end of the world. There is no lack of predictors of doom online, on television or on radio talk shows today.

But you know what?

Being good at predicting doom, and the end, seems like an uneasy contradiction. If you are actually accurate and good at your prediction skills, who will be around to actually give you credit for being right?

Shit. Who would actually want to give you credit?

In addition more often than not the predictions are wrong <albeit the predictors are cannily good at>:

<a> post- doom: finding the random thread that actually did come to fruition or,

<b> post-doom: find the next phase of doom.

Here is the craziest aspect. Doom prediction is not a generational thing nor is it worse at one point versus another. Every decade, shit, every year has a new doom or Armageddon ‘thing.’

There is moral crisis <pick the 1740’s, 1880’s, 1910’s, 1970’s and now>.

There is economic crisis <pick the anytime in the 1500’s, the 1780’s, the 1890’s & 1920’s, the 1980’s and now>.

There is unsustainable overpopulation crisis <beginning of the industrial age until now – every year>.

There is terrorism crisis <every decade in recorded history>.

There is political crisis <war of the roses time, 1780’s, 1920’s, 1960’s, 1990’s and now>

Oh. And religion all by itself has a long history of ‘end days’ predictions <242 dates list >.

I cannot remember the first time I heard that the world was going to end because of an existing crisis other than maybe the imminent nuclear attack from the evil empire of the Soviet Union. Heck. Nostradamus and the Mayans as well as the Christians had the corner on the end of the world predictions until people came along trying to create a variety of manmade end of the world scenarios.

It has been my fortune that I have ignored the noise enough that no matter my age I haven’t stopped doing what I was supposed to do awaiting the end <I did my homework, I showed up for work, I didn’t quit exercising> and I still fulfilled the painful commitments which could have easily been shirked under the guise of “who will know I didn’t do it.”

Maybe it is because at a relatively young age I understood that most end of the world conspiracy theories begin with some crackpot wearing an aluminum foil hat sitting in their mother’s basement teasing out “what if” scenarios from actually was.

Maybe I had parents who ignored the bullshit and the foil hat people <who they believed were kooks>.

So are there any real threats?

Most of the conventional ways you’ve heard of the world ending are pretty much speculative bullshit. Even the original apocalypse, nuclear weapons, falls far short of what was promised/predicted. There are simply not enough nuclear weapons to destroy every major city on Earth therefore the entire world as we know it. Even in the 1980s, when the global arsenal reached its height, estimates were that 400-500 million might die in a first strike and perhaps double this number in total from famines, plagues, and radiation.

I will not bore you with real numbers, but that means the vast majority of humanity would survive.

The same numbers apply to any other Armageddon like event you want to worry about.

Pandemic.

Having recently worked with a bunch of highly qualified ER physicians I can factually state that we have them all the time. Before you get all worked up over “what if pandemic scenarios” I will point out that not once in four billion years has a disease mutated to the point where it could wipe out every living creature on Earth. Dangerous pandemics that kill lives? Yes. Dangerous pandemics that kill civilization? No.

Asteroids.

We only get a major asteroid hit <one that can destroy all major life forms> about every ten million years. Ok. Uhm. Maybe we are due (yikes). But. We are probably at a point where we could spot it and do something about it before it crashed into someone’s living room.

Solar Flare.

Possible. But lets say it knocks out every electrical device on the planet. At worst we would struggle with regaining our non-electrical footing and most likely set back the economy, the way we live and standard of living several decades.

Uncomfortable? For sure.

Extinction? Not so much.

Aliens.

Despite some of those TV shows speculating alien involvement with building the pyramid and such … the Earth has been circling the Sun for at least four billion years with no visitors to date. While there is a chance … it kind of seems like a Dumb and Dumber chance <one in a million>.

Manmade.

TV movie <see The Day the Earth Stood Still>.

Regardless. We <people in general> seem to confuse a variety of common everyday occurrences with Armageddon and “the end.”

Why? Let me share 3 reasons.

– Change <in general>

Change sucks and most people balk at changing. As soon as some major innovation that creates a big sweeping change in the way things are done <farming instead of hunting & gathering, printing press, industrial revolution, TV, computers, internet> it is like a tectonic shift within civilization.

Everything gets affected.

People freak.

Some people freak enough to predict the end of the world as we know it. Many others wonder if they are right. Most just ignore it and, well, change.

– Different from us <generations>

Each generation sweeps into the world shoving aside that which was <and how it was done> and puts their own imprint on the world. Each generation doing what is currently being done gives ground grudgingly. And each grudging step, which includes giving something up, seems like a step towards the end of the world as we know it.

Some of the ‘I want to hold on to the way it was’ freak out enough to predict the end of the world. There are enough ‘others’ within their age cohort who wonder if they are right <and comment on it>.

< I encourage everyone to pick up a copy of The 4th turning by Strauss & Howe which outlines the historical turnings of generations and how our freaking out is cyclical in theme>

– Different from us <culturally or ideologically>

This has nothing to do with generations or periods in time, this is simply a constant undercurrent of which current affairs can make the undercurrent bubble to the top. What we don’t know, or understand, freaks us out. When we see others who do, and act, significantly different from “us” <our country cohort> we freak. We freak because we believe we are living Life right <by the way … so do they>.

This is a constant and the freaking typically settles in at a ‘slightly uncomfortable feeling’ but nothing that makes us actually feel uncomfortable enough to say or do anything.

Most of us.

There will always be a few who will place the ‘different & differences’ up on a pedestal and start screaming “it will destroy us.” Depending on what else is happening in the world at that time others may shift from ‘slightly uncomfortable feeling’ to “maybe we should freak.’

<note: populists prey on this underlying fear>

Lastly. We confuse what time, in general, does to reshape the world and us:

==

New occasions teach new duties, time makes ancient good uncouth,

They must upward still and onward, who would keep abreast of truth.

Though the cause of evil prosper, yet the truth alone is strong;

==

Life naturally destroys what was, what is and creates what will be. This restless nature of life, which is constantly destroying, can create a sense that EVERYTHING will be destroyed.

Don’t panic.

The chances that everything will be destroyed falls into the Dumb and Dumber chances <one in a million>.

Yes. I will admit <using Orson Scott Card’s words>:

———

… we do appear to live in a time when people like me, who do not wish to choose the extreme ridiculous, inconsistent, unrelated ideology, are being forced to choose – and to take one whole absurd package or the other.

We live in a time when moderates are treated worse than extremists, being punished as if they were more fanatical than the actual fanatics.

We live in a time when lies are preferred to the truth and truths are called lies, when opponents are assumed to have the worst conceivable motives and treated accordingly, and when we reach immediately for coercion without bothering to find out what those who disagree with us are actually saying.

In short we are creating for ourselves a new dark age – the darkness of blinders we voluntarily wear, and which, if we do not take them off and see each other human beings with legitimate , virtuous concerns, will lead us to tragedies whose cost we will bear for generations.

Orson Scott Card

====

Orson’s words resonate and the sense you may get from what he describes is “Armageddon is upon us”, but it isn’t.

It is simply the uncomfortable chafing of culture & events & civilization trying to find its way. I would also like to remind everyone of something I read somewhere in a book … “all these quarrels had been minor bumps and potholes along the road of a lifetime of respect and trust. When you stop and think about it, what good is a friend who agrees with you all the time?”

Uncomfortable, but what good is a world where everyone agrees with you all the time? Events are uncomfortable, and we will disagree on those events, but .. aren’t the solutions found in the disagreements?

Regardless.

Here is what I know.

Don’t panic

I would guess that if you could visit 2115 you would see a world pretty close to the way it is today.

Sure.

Computers, technology and nanotechnology will most likely have evolved to some absurd heights, but there will still be suburban barbeques, Amish communities, farm communities and a shitload of regular people doing their own thing.

So relax, maybe have a drink or go for a run and accept the likelihood that despite all the blowhards on TV and books about the ‘decline of’ or ‘the end of’ there will still be a relatively normal world for our ancestors to inhabit in a hundred years.

originally posted August 2015