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“… every art form fights the noose of verbal description.”

—–

Art Ross

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I love music.

Not just listening to it but how it is created, the nuances, as well as what it teaches me and constantly reminds me about Life.

Bottom line, as with Life in general, I try to have a wide frame of reference & open mind with music.

That’s why I began with this particular quote. I often believe that most of the great things in Life ‘fights the noose of verbal description.’ Like music. And that is why music can be so enlightening … and freeing … and thoughtful.

We always hear how teens & tweens discuss music how it speaks to them personally and perfectly describes their lives. It’s no different for adults.

Musicians and writers at their best capture the essence of a moment in a small grouping of words in such magical ways that words create pictures. And when combined with the perfect music?  Well. That is a ‘wow’ moment <regardless of your age>.

I say that last ‘words + music’ thought because we should all think about some of the great words and lyrics wasted by poor music delivery. Just think about it. Not all music “wow’ moments are created equal. Some may have the potential of a big idea or moment, but if they are not presented well they are lost. I say this because, unfortunately, sometimes <even maybe often> greatness does not sell itself.

Absurdly, this thought often leads people to drive to the middle to find the safe ground from which to deliver ‘what will please people.”

Juliana Hatfield described this thought about music perfectly … <about odd time signatures>:

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“most pop and rock songs and almost all hits are more even danceable meter like 4 beats per measure. Which is pleasurable to the ear and to the body … it is easy listening in every sense of the world. A round count of 4 is soothing natural repetition. You don’t even have to think about what you are doing and its easy to fall back in line if you step out for a second.

A count of 5 is more difficult. It demands something of the listener in that he not be so passive comfortable and unthinking in his listening. The listener must count along in order to understand what is happening or else expecting the measure to turn around after 4 beats he risks losing the thread of the piece the whole thing running away from him. If your mind isn’t tapped into the 5 feeling you’ll be lost scratching your head like a dancer who has missed a few steps and then finds herself hopelessly behind the others in the routine unable to catch up.

A song in 5 can smack of a kind of smugness and arrogance and elitism in a composer … he may be showing off his compositional prowess by self-consciously crafting a challenging mind stimulating piece of music almost as if the whole thing was designed solely to impress his learned colleagues.

5, or 7, or 13 – odd meters – can feel awkward and disjointed as if the songs are lurching. It can make for some prickly listening.

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Look. I am not suggesting music shouldn’t try and please people, but we should also remember that music is powerful in & of itself and sometimes it creates the most powerfully perfect ‘wow’ moment thru some slight imperfection. Why? Because Life led perfectly is boring. It’s the discordant moments which bring the high & lows which not only makes Life interesting but, frankly, make us.

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“… there came a moment in the middle of the song when he suddenly felt every heartbeat in the room & after that he never forgot he was part of something much bigger.”

Brian Andreas <Connection>

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Before you judge a type of music genre or a particular song, think about the fact that somewhere someone will be finding a moment in which he or she will never forget they are part of something much bigger. I will end where I began. Most great things fight the noose of verbal description. This is so for music just as it is so for people. The point isn’t to be liked by everyone, but to be loved by someone. This is so for the music you love just as it is so for the people you love. Just ponder that as you listen to your favorite music today.

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“She wasn’t doing a thing that I could see, except standing there, leaning on the balcony railing, holding the universe together.”

–

J.D. Salinger

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Well.

This is about business. In today’s world if it doesn’t appear like you are doing something … then … well … damn it … you aren’t doing something <even if you may actually be holding the universe together>.

You have to be doing something that can be seen.

You have to because if you don’t everyone is convinced you are doing nothing. I call this issue … being challenged by the ‘outcome mentality.’ What I mean by that is efficiency driven outcome, or output, is everything. Do more with less is an insidious mantra because this not only suggests ‘more output’ matters but ‘less thinking, more doing’ is the path to more outcome.

That said. So what if your output is … well … holding the universe together.

C’mon. That’s a metaphor.

I’m not truly suggesting the actual universe, but let me talk about business. Sometimes you run across that leader or sometimes a manager or even a young employee <with some potential> who holds the business or the organization together. They appear to you in a variety of forms. They can be a rebel in that they are rebellious to the status quo every inch of the way toward their version of outputs. Some just effectively juggle the efficiency/effective balance. Others learn to weave a strong thread of thinking time into what they do, unseen, and produce a more effective outcome efficiently. That said. Sometimes when you look you cannot see what they are actually doing. They may be often seen doing nothing but standing there leaning on the balcony rail.

Uh oh. In today’s business world that person is screwed.

Look. I’m not suggesting you want people who do nothing, but sometimes people who look like they are doing nothing are actually doing a lot of something. And sometimes it is difficult to measure these people up against ‘outcome focused generators.’

What I mean by that is I have had people in my teams where during review time I have had to stack employees “top-to-bottom” and justify their salary, job status, existence within the organization, whatever review line item you want to call it … based on ‘what have they done.’

Tangible outcome crap.

And, well, sometimes your most valuable employee doesn’t look so hot based on sheer tangible outcome. It is only when you build in intangibles that they rise above the tangible outputters <not sure that is a word>.

Ok.

Any experienced business person reading this will be shaking their head going … “whew … been there” because you have a clear visual of a scrunched up face across the table from you saying things like “well … can’t we get them to do more? … I am struggling to see the comparable value to <insert some ‘outputter name’ here>.” You want to reach across the table and wring their neck shouting “they are frickin’ holding the universe together for god’s sake.”

Holding the universe together is a talent. It is a unique talent to make those around you better and more efficient, more effective and, well, happier <or maybe just more realistically positive in that they lift productivity – quality & quantity>. And sometimes that talent is embodied by ‘not doing anything but standing there.’

I have run across several business people who had the incredible ability to ‘hold the universe together.’ And I have had the incredibly ludicrous experience of having to encourage them to waste time to ‘tangibilize’ <once again … not sure that is a word> what they are doing so people can ‘see’ their value. As a manager, or leader, I imagine one of your responsibilities is to protect these valuable unique people from the challenges of the typical business world view and foster their abilities and opportunities.

Let’s be clear. This has some unique challenges because it has always been that an ‘outputter’ has never understood this type of person or value. Never have and never will. That’s okay … because organizations, just as in Life, need a variety of personalities and talents to be successful.

However. I do get a little concerned that the business world pendulum has swung so far over to efficiency & outcome & output that those who ‘hold the universe together’ is becoming a dying breed. Maybe I am less concerned for the immediate but over time. Because the young people with this talent and ability simply cannot protect themselves from an output world without help. And if all we do in business is to promote outputters … well … enough said. You get it.

I am sure throughout my career I have missed people who ‘could hold the universe together.’ And I rue those mistakes. I take solace in that I have recognized others and tried to herd them through the business gauntlet of ‘all that matters is results <or output>’. All I can say is that while as a leader you take pride in every employee you have the ones who have the ability to hold the universe together hold a special place in your ‘list of things done’ <or list of things ‘I didn’t screw up as a manager’>.

I imagine that is a reminder that in the end, as in the end of your business career or Life, the intangible often  measures up more so than the tangible in reviewing ‘what I have done.’

I imagine this is all a reminder to all of us there are people all around us ‘holding the universe together’ in ways we just don’t see — but we benefit.

So before you judge someone for ‘not doing’ take a closer look just to be sure they aren’t holding the universe together.

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“We tend to hold ourself accountable for things we never did.  Hearts we never broke. People we didn’t hurt.  Souls we didn’t crush. “

—

coral-vellichor

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All these years I’ve been looking at the wrong side.

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(via madelinemharris)

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Ok. Accountability, or responsibility, is always a good business topic. And, yes, I am a big personal responsibility person. But in business, within an organization, responsibility tends to be more shared responsibility than simple personal responsibility. I thought about this during a discussion on Distributed Leadership/Holocracy/etc type business models. These discussions tend to revolve around flat, flatter & flattened operating models. The point being everyone agrees there has to be some leadership roles and, yet, not be hierarchy or command/control.

Anyway. To be clear. I believe there is a strong relationship between shared responsibility and personal responsibility. The stronger the shared responsibility attitude & behavior within leadership & mentors & role models the stronger the development of personal responsibility muscle occurs in everyday schmucks like me. Conversely, if you are surrounded with lack of shared responsibility examples <or even those who espouse ‘selectively chosen shared responsibility’> the value of personal responsibility diminishes to an individual, therefore, they see less value in exhibiting personal responsibility.

We don’t talk about this relationship enough. Far too often we flippantly suggest “people should take responsibility for their actions.”

Well … no shit Sherlock. But if your role models or leaders are constantly passing the buck when the shit hits the fan to save their own bacon <and image> then what the hell … why would you not do the same?

Yeah. Sure. Everyone has to pull their weight and do their job and do what they say they are going to do … but very very rarely does an individual perform in a vacuum in a business.

This happens more so even in management. It drives me a little nuts when I hear some leaders discuss “delegating.”

Somehow delegating equals “absolved of responsibility.”

This is stupid irresponsible thinking.

My belief that it is stupid thinking is rooted in some common sesne I am fairly sure the US Military says:

 

You can delegate authority, but you cannot delegate responsibility.

In other words … you can give others the power to do things … you can delegate … but, no matter what happens … if something goes wrong … the final responsibility always lies with the one who has delegated authority. Sticking with the military as my guidance … this means if your business has an initiative that has gone SNAFU <“Situation Normal: All Fucked Up”> the blame … and the ultimate responsibility for the mistakes <fuck ups> falls … uhm … up.

The leader assumes responsibility. This is shared responsibility. In other words … this is leadership.

Once you become a business leader past a mom & pop management style business you have to face the concept of shared responsibility <and some embrace it and some reject it>.

Despite the fact you have delegated authority that ‘authority’ does not represent a discrete event and period in time. You bear the responsibility for the cascade of events, decisions and actions leading up to the ‘authority giving’ which means everything you have done up until that point provides the context for the delegating … yeah … you own the arena in which you have placed the delegatee.

But this gets exponentially worse <if you are thinking about becoming a business leader>. You actually also share responsibility for the consequences — intended and unintended. This is different than delegating authority <although it relates to it> and owning responsibility for the action … this goes beyond to the actual ripples from the decisions & actions.

Now. Some leaders have a nasty habit of assuming responsibility for the decision and the effect of the decision — within a finite period of time. The weakest leaders try and tie “that was out of my control” or “I wasn’t there for that” as soon as they can to a decision they make. The strongest leaders worry less about any carnage that has been left behind, but rather start worrying about any carnage the decisions & actions could possibly create for the future.

The truth is that business leaders should take a moment and remember the wise words of an American Indian. Red Cloud, an Oglala Lakota leader who led his people against the U.S. Army and later as his people transitioned from life on the plains to the reservation, stressed that when Indian people made a decision, it should be done with the welfare of the next seven generations in mind.

In a short term world where most business leaders are trying to make quarterly goals and just try and keep their job … thinking with the welfare of the next 7 generations seems … well … impossible. I imagine the real point is that most good business leaders assume some responsibility for the generations to come.  Some people may call this ‘long term strategy’ and some others will call it ‘keeping your eye on the horizon’ or even ‘having a vision’, well, I am no Harvard Business guru and all that high falutin’ stuff seems unnecessary. To me it is much more simple. You make decisions accepting the burden of responsibility for what will come and may arise from your decision.

You share the responsibility for what will, or may, come. And if you do that? Damn. You will do good and be good. And if you do not do that? Damn. You may get a shitload of attention and applause in the moment and a shitload of attention and anger in the future.

Why do I say that?

Because if you don’t really believe in shared responsibility and flit from one decision to the next in a transactional “responsible only to the moment” way you will end up rushing from issue to issue, reacting without a plan or a strategy or <worse> no care of longer term affect, creating carnage yet to be seen <because that type of leader tends to seek only the cheers in the moment>.

Just to point it out … with no plan that means anything can happen and a leader can justify anything. Because with no plan to measure a decision against anything can look right … and unpredictable can be touted as ‘flexible to the situation.’

All of this fits a short term leader in a short term world.

The people are few and far between these days who weigh their responses and assess long term affects. In today’s world it almost seems a race to be the first to judge or comment on a decision or action and far too many leaders actually manage to the public race to comment rather than the longer term assessment.

This is scary stuff for anyone to do but a business leader? Dangerous.

Even the best short term decision makers, if forced into a gauntlet of short term decisions, will struggle to insure at the end of the gauntlet they have kept walking northwards as they had been looking down the entire time. More often than not North will not be the direction you are facing nor will you have actually moved any closer to the North star.

I am not suggesting this longer term shared responsibility attitude is easy. In fact .. it is really really hard. In fact … it almost means you have to embrace a little “impossible” into what you actually make possible.

Huh?

In general I have always liked logical thinking <no matter how random the logic may be> but I always love it when someone combines some unexpected logic. Generally speaking the best unexpected logic actually comes from those who do the impossible … thinking of the impossible and seeing possibilities — the impossible being “knowing for sure what will happen in the future.” They make the spectacular leaps/chances, accepting responsibility and sharing responsibility, so that business can make the needed changes or just do the semi-risky things that keep a good business doing good things <things that may push against the borders of the status quo>.

Yeah.

Spectacular errors can only happen if you take spectacular chances. I am not fond of irresponsible risk taking and decision-making, but I am fond of doing ‘the right thing’ even when it may appear to be going against the stream. Sometimes that means a spectacular success, sometimes a spectacular error. But always something spectacular. And, I will tell you, what more could you want to say about your life as a leader but that you have done something spectacular? Especially if that ‘spectacular’ actually happens a generation later which permits you to sit back and say “I did the impossible … I viewed the future well.’

Anyway.

Shared responsibility is the burden of any good leader. They tend to be the leaders who understand they cannot really be sure what is going to happen to them over time, they weigh the risks to the best of their ability and let the chips fall as they may. I tend to believe their attitude is one of “you don’t want to act more fearfully than you have to.”

Good leaders have a tendency to hold themselves accountable for anything, everything and everyone … in varying degrees depending on the anything, everything and everyone. And, maybe most importantly, I tend to believe they understand that there is a relationship between shared responsibility and personal responsibility. And, practically speaking, you will never be viewed as a true leader if you do not.

Well.

You know what? To end this thing today let me offer two other words, typically associated with responsibility, obligation and duty.

Obligation refers general to something you are compelled to do by regulation, law, promise or morality. I think good leaders feel obligated to assume shared responsibility.

Duty, more so than obligation, springs from an internal moral or ethical impulse rather than from external demands.

I think good leaders feel a duty, not just obligation, to assume shared responsibility. Shared responsibility … not only do I believe we should discuss it more often <because it will foster better value in personal responsibility> but I also believe we should be demanding it of our leaders more often.

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“Sliding down the slippery slope of mediocrity.”

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David Ogilvy

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Ok. I believe the actual quote was “the slippery surface of irrelevant brilliance”, but I thought I saw somewhere he said what I wrote above.

Regardless. This is a Life and business lesson. So let’s just call it “truth.” Its a truth about work, effort, decisions, compromise, lies (or “half-truths”) and almost anything else I can think of.

Slippery slopes are incredibly easy to step onto AND get stuck on. What do I mean?

“Just this once” you say to yourself when you are tired. Whatever the decision or action we are discussing, to you, in the moment … it is mentally “an exception”.

“Just this once” when you are asked a question and you ponder your answer. Maybe you embellish.

“Just this once” you say to yourself when you put off that thing you wanted to do. A workout. A chore. A book. A project. A diet. A decision.

“Just this once” you say to yourself when it is a silly rule or it isn’t really unethical, but its not 100% ethical, it’s just in the margins of “okay to do.”

Before you know it <after some “just this onces“> you have edged on to that slippery slope. Once has become many and many becomes the standard.

Life is funny that way. Its sneaky. It permits you to look at things in a mutually exclusive way so that you don’t really see the accumulation of events & decisions.

Think of it maybe this way. In that incomparable <and totally underrated> movie The Replacements there is a scene where Keanu Reeves talks about it as “quicksand”.

It’s the same thing. You get in it. And you fight hard but you just can’t stop sliding down. In fact the harder you try to fight it … the worse it seems to get. And it is a truly helpless feeling. That’s quicksand in life. That is the slippery slope.

Oh. Maybe the worst thing about the slippery slope is that most people don’t realize they have started sliding until it is too late. Because the slippery slope is tricky smart. Sly in fact. It teases you with some easy low consequence decisions upfront. For example … you are on a diet and just have one dessert. One occasion, one time <some people are tempted to call this “reward for good behavior” which is simply another trick the slippery slope plays upon you>.

Maybe the slope even tempts you with permitting a small embellishment. Just a small addition at the end of a thought. Just a couple of words you wish you hadn’t said but didn’t seem to be that big. And the next time it becomes a few more words. And then … before you know it … the embellishment has taken on a life of its own.

Anyway.

It is one of my quests in life to find good people who have mistakenly started the slide and lend a hand to pull them back up. Professionally and personally.

Does that mean I am better than mediocrity? Shit no.

I just recognize that sense of helplessness and I like people to have hope for something better then the helpless feeling found on some stupid slippery slope.

I also believe there are a shitload of really good people … and I mean good as in talented and good as in heart & soul … who just get caught on the slope and life makes it even more difficult to figure out a way to get off the fucking slope.

Anyway. This quote reminds me of two things.

1. Pay attention to everything. It’s the only way to insure mediocrity can’t gain momentum (because we all have to compromise on occasion)

2. Help those who have that look of “how the hell did I get so far down this slope” by grabbing their hand and pulling them back up whenever you have a chance. There are some incredible people and some incredible talent out there that just got caught on life’s slippery slope. It doesn’t mean they are mediocre by any stretch of the imagination. It is simply that they got caught on the slippery slope and didn’t know how to get off.

Ok. Because I used a Replacements scene as an example of the slippery slope <and a really good scene in the overall perspective of the movie with a good message about second chances and shit like that> I want to end with one more Replacements reference.

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“Greatness, no matter how short, stays with a person forever.”  

gene hackman (replacements)

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We all seek t do something great – be it big or small. For most of us greatness will never be a lifetime tag. In fact for many of us <me for sure> this is a Truth.

But. A great moment? A great action? A great thing? Yeah. We all have it in us. And maybe that is where the slippery slope is such a bastard. Once you have done a couple of ‘just onces’ and you are on the slippery slope that one moment of greatness may appear and, well, that greatness slips by. All your ‘just onces’ cost you a chance at the one ‘once’ that really matters. How does that happen? When you are buried in the suckhole of mediocrity 2 things happen:

(1) your doubt with regard to whether you can actually do the great increases (and doubt creates hesitancy and hesitancy creates, well, missed opportunities),

(2) your slow side into mediocrity convinces everyone around you that you are, well, mediocre – only capable of doing that which is mediocre. this matters because 99% of greatness is attained only with oethr’s assistance. No assistance, no greatness.

All that said.

We shouldn’t dwell on greatness nor that one moment or thing  (for a life is never defined by one moment of greatness). We should invest that ‘dwelling energy’ at doing our best to avoid the slippery slope of mediocrity.

However, I will point out an easy moment of greatness. When someone who has been stuck on the slippery slope and is struggling to get off and just can’t see how to get off and out of the mediocre suckhole, well, reach out, give them a hand, remind them what greatness looks like, point out what makes it happen and what they are capable of. I would argue if you did that, in that moment, in some magical way, you may also have achieved your own moment of greatness.

Well. There is a lot of talk in the business world about how creativity has been squashed by data, numbers and an unhealthy pursuit of efficiency. All is true. However, to rediscover creativity I believe its helpful to think about how fearless you have to be to actually BE creative. Creativity is a tricky thing. Originality is an objective but less important than not copying. Inherent in almost every creative idea are elements of something that already exists or has been done.

I say all that because, having been involved in the creativity business in some form for over 20 years, I recognize that the best of the creative best are part insecure and part fearless. And it’s the fearless part that I am going to write about because I saw this quote somewhere.

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“I seek fearless work that challenges me”

Martha Graham

——————–

This is good stuff.

This is the kind of stuff not for the faint of heart.

And, frankly, this is the kind of stuff for few people, but, I can pretty much guarantee its at the essence of every great creative mind. Why? Because this quote is indicative of someone whose heart lies in doing fearless work.

Oh.

Fearless work means being fearless of failure.

Fearless work does NOT mean doing something wacky just for wacky sake.

Oh. But that is the first thing people who condone fearless work bring up.

You hear words like “stupid” or “what were they thinking” or “I could have told them it wouldn’t work <or be popular or be liked>.” In my mind those are words of people who fear work that looks fearless. This fear can be disguised as a variety of things … discomfort in something new … misunderstanding … lack of ability to recognize something.

Whatever.

This is about people who actually DO the fearless work. Because people who seek to do fearless work recognize several things:

–          how difficult it is (even though it may seem simple to the creators)

–          how unpopular it may be

–          when to stop being unpopular (the guard rails in fearless creativity)

In fact. I am going to use someone else who pursued fearless work to make the point. Kristen Hersh (one of the founding members of The Throwing Muses). As a teen (just to make another point that teens can often be wiser beyond their years) she said this about the difficulty of pursuing fearless work:

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“Do you know how hard it is to not know how to sound like other bands? There aren’t any lessons to teach you how to do this and no one can help us figure out what <to play>. It’s hard to learn something that no one can teach you.”

Kristen Hersh

———————–

Actually. I wish I could share this with anyone who is critical of any original idea so they could think about the fact someone is doing something that was self taught because there is realistically no one to teach someone what has not been done before. Sometimes fearless work is difficult, and defined, by the fact you are forging your own path.  There are certainly some principles you can stand upon and some rigor of thought you can apply, but, there are no lessons,  there are no rules &  there are no real guardrails. In fact. The real difficulty is knowing when to put up your own guard rails.  Knowing when to stop innovating and just be creative with fearless work.

Kristen, as a 19 year old teen, pursued fearless work and did some amazing stuff (along with her fellow teen and musical genius in her own right – Tonya Donnelly).

Anyway.  I think the fearless ones tend to hear and see things the rest of us don’t. In simplistic terms it is only popular in their own heads. And unfortunately for the fearless there is only a minority who truly understands what they are doing:

(Kristen Hersh) … “but we play unpopular music.”

(producer) …

“that’s exactly what you play because you’re inventing something. You’re gonna be hugely influential.”

I do believe the best of the fearless best recognize that what they do may be initially unpopular to the majority. It is an uncomfortable position to be in because ideas are fragile and affirmation often makes it less fragile (people too).

The fearless just forge ahead. They may not like it. They may not embrace it.  But they understand it. And fight their way through it.

Because it is a fact. All the truly influential fearless creators didn’t have it easy early on.  They were creating something – inventing something. In their fearless work they were paving the way for people to think differently, see differently and just experience something different.  Yeah, I know, that is what being influential is all about.  But that doesn’t make it any easier. Now. While fearless work is often unpopular initially there is a difference between bad unpopular and influential unpopular. Good fearless is about understanding how to put up the right guardrails. Oh. Yeah. Those guard rails.

So how do the fearless know when to stop innovating?

———————

“when you start to suck, stop”

Kristen Hersh

———————-

Sounds simple, but it is not. I believe the best of the fearless best have an internal quality control.  Conversely, in the mind’s of the ‘less mature’ innovative thinking maybe the guard rails are less defined. But. In the best of the fearless best they have that inner barometer to recognize what sucks and what doesn’t suck.

Oh. And before we start putting too much weight on ‘less mature’ and associating it with age I would like to remind you that Kristen said this last quote when she was 19 (oh, these smart teens as I like to remind those wise stodgy adults).

Like I just said.

The best of the fearless best have an inner barometer.  They are born with it. They are born with the guardrails.

But this doesn’t mean there isn’t fear.

Even the fearless creative people have fear.

Everyone has fear (lest we forget).

————————–

“We fear the idea of something more than the thing itself.”

Steve Chandler

——————

Fearless work means loving the idea of something more than fearing the thing itself. I imagine that thought encapsulates most good things in life. But in this case those who pursue fearless work have overcome their fear in pursuit of what is good fearless work.

Anyway.

Today’s business world needs more people to pursue fearless work. To fearlessly create beautiful ideas that may make some people feel uncomfortable. We need these fearless people because they have a ripple effect beyond their own work. They influence how the rest of us look at ALL things. I do worry a little bit because I know these people exist but I am not sure a business world exists for them to exist in. We say we want more creativity, more risk, more fearlessness and, yet, the business word does not reward creativity, risk or fearlessness. I do worry a little bit because those who DO create fearless work live in an insecure world and if the business world does nothing to offer a security safety net being fearless can become an almost insurmountable daunting challenge.

My personal thought?

If you are fearless, all you can do is …

Act.

Do.

Create.

Discover your fear, face it and seek your own version of fearless work. In the end maybe we are lucky enough to positively influence people. And, at its best, maybe we actually be influential. And, of course, maybe something fearless we do will create the change necessary for the next fearless work to be done.

“But the brain does much more than just recollect it inter-compares, it synthesizes, it analyzes, it generates abstractions. The simplest thought like the concept of the number one has an elaborate logical underpinning. “

—

Carl Sagan

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I am constantly trying to communicate something incommunicable, to explain something inexplicable, to tell about something I only feel in my bones and which can only be experienced in those bones.”

—

Franz Kafka

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This is about ideas and thinking. I am a scribbler. And a sketcher. And a pencil guy. I carry around a stack of index cards & constantly sketch out thoughts for people. My index cards are strewn around the world. I am sure some are used for dart boards, some for a good laugh & some actually was a seed for some idea.

I purposefully used the word “seeds” because I think we would be much better off if we thought of ideas that way. Why? Well. Seeds die or remain underground or get eaten by some squirrel if it isn’t protected, nurtured, watered and pampered in some way to insure it flourishes.

And while there are gobs of articles highlighting ideation process and such , to me, all that matters is an idea doesn’t die with poor articulation. A good idea poorly presented dies. Even great ideas poorly articulated die.

Now.

A shitload of people will want to talk about PowerPoint & presenting & a whole bunch of shit that just gets in the way. Those are simply ways to do it. What matters is how you do it.

Which leads me to the Feynman technique. It is essentially explaining a concept or idea to yourself, on a piece of paper, as if you were teaching it to someone else with little background knowledge. This is all about it’s all making sure you understand it and can you explain it if not simply simple enough to be understood.

I had no clue who Feynman was when I start taking out a piece of paper to find out if what I was thinking made sense on paper. Over time I have found an index card does it for me. it forces the constraint I need to either, well, get it or not get it. If I can’t articulate my idea or thought on an index card I mentally decide it isn’t worth a shit as an idea. Ok. Maybe it is but I know I haven’t figured out a way to articulate it so that it will not die.

Look.

I am not suggesting I am a great idea person or thinker but I am suggesting creating a process to elevate all people’s thinking does not necessarily benefit the smaller group of people who are actually good at thinking & creating ideas. What I mean by that is with the intent to create a better thinking organization we tend to want to throw everyone into the same bucket <I guess we do that to encourage inclusiveness & ‘fairness’>. Unfortunately this means your best of the best get pulled out of what may make them the best & force them into the “unwashed masses” <I am kidding on that phrase but you get the point>.

We should always be thinking two parallel paths. One to elevate the majority and one to empower the minority.

Why? To protect ideas.

Minds work in a variety of ways. It seems to me that organizations should think less about organizing minds but rather freeing minds. If you have someone like me, buy me a stack of index cards & have someone riffle through tem on occasion to see if there is a seed somewhere.

I will say that when I was running a small company I would pin them up on a conference room wall and during meetings anyone at any time could pull it off the wall and say “WTF you thinking?” or “I want to talk about this.”

I learned to articulate better as well as get less defensive about ideas.

The employees learned to articulate better and come up with their own ideas in their own ways. By not having an organizational process but sharing my personal process we ended up having a process.

My point is ideas are seeds. Some don’t deserve to grow & flourish but some do & we should be learning to articulate ideas better to save those seeds.

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“I was surprised, I was happy for a day in 1975 / I was puzzled by a dream, stayed with me all day in 1995.”

opening couplet to The State I Am In <Belle & Sebastian>

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“ … the softly creaking door into their sweet, strange, drolly funny and not a little sinister world, where it’s always a backwards-glancing daydream.”

writer in the Guardian about Belle & Sebastian

=====

    you:

let it go & move on

    me:

<with my fingers tightly curled around a subject, nails buried deep in it>

I Have

=======

So.

I tend to believe we all look back on occasion. Ok. I do not tend to believe. I know we look back incessantly.

Especially on the good stuff.

Ok. Especially on the bad stuff.

Ok. Suffice it to say, good or bad, we backward glance incessantly.

Heck. We are even creative in our backwards looking. It can be after decades, after years, after months, and, yeah, even after minutes.

“I always say the perfect words, five minutes after the conversation has ended.”

The world we look back at is a sinister little world. Sinister in that the view looking backwards more often than not is rebuilt in our heads to reflect some utopian feeling moment. Sinister in that we view some moment as if we were in control everything or, maybe conversely, the universe had controlled everything to occur at that moment in time <some would call this destiny or fate>.

Simplistically, this means backward glancing has a very uncomfortable relationship with “perfection.”

Yeah. Perfection. This happens because we ‘still’ time <make it stop in our viewing> and this creates a wacky perception that everything was actually still in that moment. Worse? That stillness implies control and alignment.

This is flawed thinking. Flawed because this utopian backwards moment is great conceptually but does not even come close to reflecting the reality.

Why?

Well. Several reasons but let me focus on our imperfection.

What we view backwards looking as perfect is more likely a reflection of our imperfection in the moment <or imperfections in general>.

Let’s maybe call those imperfections “a confluence of uncontrollable factors.” And what makes that idea even worse for us is, well, we hold on to the beautifully imperfect moments with fingernails dug in. To be clear … this can go both toward incredibly good memories and incredibly bad memories. Both reflections of imperfect reality which in the rear view mirror look perfectly aligned with us … or against us.  what I mean by this is that backwards looking is a completely  warped view in our heads.

• The moment is made up of imperfections yet we see it perfectly.
• The moment is most likely a confluence of uncontrollable factors yet we view all the factors as controllable <or we should have controlled>

That said. This means backwards glancing is more often than not grounded in what I often call “if only thinking.”

I coulda, shoulda, woulda things.

Backwards glancing far far <far> too often glances off of several thoughts which can steer our current view in the wrong direction:

• Not being good at something <or in a moment>
• Not being good enough <in the moment>
• Fucking something up <or a moment>
• Leaving when it got too hard <or leaving in a moment>

Yeah.

As for “if only” we can certainly change ourselves and our circumstances to some extent. I have written about this numerous times. However backwards glancing generates flawed perceptions of change.  It implies “well, if I had done this” or “if I had only been paying attention to” … you would have done the ‘right’ thing <whatever right truly is> and all would have been good.

Flawed thinking.

All that would have guaranteed is a different outcome and  different experience. Neither of which is guaranteed to be the ‘prefect’ scenario you envision.

Look.

I believe that the past can be a great place to learn from. The past offers us the opportunity to see glimpses of who we truly are in a variety of different situations. It does provide some opportunities to gain some valuable self wisdom.

But at the exact same time it takes some fortitude to not let the past dictate your future or even to let the past get in the way of living in the present. Simplistically, backward glancing can freeze you.

Freeze you stuck in the wretched middle of the past, present and future.

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“And Lot’s wife, of course, was told not to look back where all those people and their homes had been.

 But she did look back, and I love her for that, because it was so human.  So she was turned to a pillar of salt.

So it goes.

People aren’t supposed to look back.  I’m certainly not going to do it anymore.”

Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five

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In the end.

Here is what I believe most of us learn by looking backwards. Nothing very good. Why? Looking backwards it can seem quite easy to think everything would have explained itself if you had only stopped interrupting. Looking backwards it can be difficult to discern what you should miss and what you shouldn’t miss as well as what you actually missed and what you didn’t miss.

“Do you ever catch yourself missing the things that you shouldn’t?  The people you shouldn’t?  Do you find yourself wanting them back but you know that you shouldn’t?

You suddenly remember the million reasons that you shouldn’t want them back in your life but all you can focus on is the one reason you should take them back.”

—

i think that’s a hard lesson to learn. that it’s okay to miss something but not get it back

/// the-homie-sexual

 Unfortunately Life is not so easily explained. I can pretty much promise you one thing … you missed some things you shouldn’t have, you miss some things you shouldn’t and you didn’t miss some things you should have and you don’t miss some things which you should miss.

Back in 2013 I wrote about how most people either get trapped in past or trapped in the future as they live Life. I called it ‘forward without looking over your shoulder. Life is tricky. Always has been and always will. And both the past has its attractiveness <learning> as well as the future <possibilities>. And there is only balance and not perfection.

And maybe that is the thought of the day.

In the end if all we try is to make this life perfect we will fail and make ourselves miserable in the process. And backwards glancing is a key components to making ourselves miserable.

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“We are tossed about by external causes in many ways, and like waves driven by contrary winds, we waver and are unconscious of the issue and our fate.’

We think we are most ourselves when we are most passioate, whereas it is then we are most passive, caught in some ancestral torrent of impulse or feeling, and swept on to a precipitate reaction which meets only part of the situation because without thought only part of a situation can be perceived.”

―

Will Durant

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“Trust yourself. Create the kind of self that you will be happy to live with all your life.

Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into flames of achievement.”

—-

Golda Meir

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So.

This is about leadership & leading with an idea.

It would be an understatement to say that the number of ways a leader can lead are so numerous it would most likely take a book to explain them all <and people have certainly tried>. Trying to simplistically suggest “this is the way to lead” is simplistic tripe.

It would be an understatement to say that the number of ways a leader can articulate an idea for people to rally around and follow are so numerous it would most likely take a book to explain them all <and people have certainly tried>. Trying to simplistically suggest “this is the way to share ideas in a meaningful way” is  simplistic tripe.

That said. Today I will talk about leaders and ideas and articulating ideas. Let’s call it “the business idea” leadership challenge. For those of us who have had the fortune, or misfortune, of walking the halls of management in business we have all crossed paths with all the scary tactics and rhetoric associated with leaders who cannot articulate an idea if they actually tried <and most do try>. These are the leaders who do not really have the ability to articulate an idea well enough for the idea to gain traction and be implemented.

……………….. the idea ………………….

I sometimes believe what makes a good leader is the ability to articulate an idea so that <a> people can grasp it, <b> people can envision it as “something” tangible enough to want to hold it and <c> people can attach some emotional connection to it <ranging from ‘I believe’ to ‘passion’>. But many leaders just struggle with idea articulation and use a variety of tricks to present an idea in a way that encourages people to … well … believe in the idea.