A Word Not Often Heard.
Other than as a descriptor of a medal or award or an older gentleman:
‘Distinguished’.
Not Looking for Perfect.
“I'm not looking for perfect, I'm just looking for corrections. The worst thing you can do is hide from making them ….”- Aircraft Carrier Landing Signal Officer to Marine F18 trainee pilot.
A good decision is one that advances you towards where you want to be.
Good decision making is a deliberate process of inquiry that advances you towards where you want to be.
Decide.
Learn.
Correct.
Decide.
Learn.
Correct.
Decide.
I Ran a Race.
‘Everyone’s a leader.’
‘Lead from any chair.’
The problem with these catch cries is their use of the word ‘lead’.
They attempt to recruit people by harnessing the heroic, simplistic notion of ‘leadership’.
To most, ‘leadership’ conjures up the lone figure at the front of a reluctant, dependent crowd of followers.
The ‘everyone can lead’ exhortation smacks of the ‘I Ran a Race’ ribbon awarded to every child participant.
What about if we used the term ‘Decision Maker’?
Lazy Labels.
The Royal Australian Air Force ordered the F-111 in the 1960s but delivery took years after it suffered a series of accidents.
Subsequent reporting on the aircraft insisted on calling it ‘The ‘Controversial F111’.
It’s fighter brother, the Mirage, was referred to as ‘The Aging Mirage’.
The B-52 Stratofortress entered service in the United States Air Force in 1955 and is still flying - 70 years later.
Labels.
‘Firebrand’
‘Radical’
‘Ageing’.
Lazy.
Being Themselves.
Wayne and Ian and Ian turned up to the leadership course.
To spend three months learning the theory behind what they had always practised.
To get the names for what they had always done.
To simulate the behaviour they routinely carried out.
To be tested on what they had memorised about what others describe what they had routinely done all their lives.
To be called Leaders.
Third Umpire
When we make important decisions - the really important ones.
We secretly look to the third umpire to affirm us.
A good boss.
A respected associate.
A loved one.
Their judgement means the most.
To them - we are most vulnerable.
The Myth of Cause and Effect.
We labour under the myth of ‘cause and effect’.
If I’m civil to others, they will be civil to me.
If I’m loyal to the boss, the boss will be loyal to me.
If I honour others with the truth, they will do likewise to me.
And we find ourselves so often confused and bitterly disappointed.
There is no Cause and Effect Law of the universe.
It’s one of the many lingering legacies of childhood.
When parents and teachers would mostly reward us for Doing the Right Thing.
When they should have taught us to do the right thing solely because it’s the Right Thing.
The most powerful prayer is the Prayer for Generosity:
Lord, teach me to be generous,
to give without counting the cost,
to fight without heeding the wounds,
to work without seeking rest,
to spend my life without expecting any other reward,
than the knowledge that I do Your will..
Both Sides.
Best way to teach a child to appreciate both sides of an argument?
Have them become an umpire or referee in the sport they play or enjoy.
Ambush.
I have begun every new task by not knowing how to do it. - Garry Emery
Pilots with 1000 hours are statistically more likely to make mistakes or have accidents than those with few or very many hours.
The more you know about something
The more you know you don’t know.
Or at least the more you know you’re vulnerable to being ambushed by what you don’t know.
All The Things.
A bad boss says: ‘Here’s all the things I’ve done.’
A good boss asks: ‘Tell me all the things you’ve done.’
Low or Very Low.
44% of adult Australians have low or very low literacy.
55% of adult Australians have low or very low numeracy.
Wow.
Not Beyond the Obvious.
90% of the cause of organisational dysfunction is obvious.
There’s nothing heroic about seeing and acting on the obvious.
Walk the factory floor or the maze of cubicles or ride the truck or read the emails or sit in the back of enough classrooms and it’s obvious.
90% of the reason the dysfunction continues is leaders think leadership is about looking beyond the obvious.
That only their unique genius and wisdom can find and fix the problem.
The problem with organisations is the obvious.
The bosses.
Deluded.
Nobody dare tells the bad boss the truth.
Denying the bad boss the information to make good decisions.
So the bad boss makes bad decisions. (If he makes decisions at all - which is itself a decision.)
Nobody dares tell the bad boss how bad their decision turned out.
Until eventually
The bad boss drifts off from reality into a fictional world of delusion.
No Learnings in this Space Going Forward.
I got to page 10 of the 1,215 page textbook.
Saw the word ‘learnings’
Then gently set it aside.
A Survey.
Sitting in on a trial with five witnesses recently graduated from a Catholic school.
Also witnesses in a survey on the effectiveness of a Catholic eduction.
Before giving evidence, each is asked if they wish to take the oath or affirmation.
‘Affirmation’ each declares their non-belief in God.
There’s your survey on the value of thirteen years of a religious education.
The Myth of the Team.
Ask any good student what project they dislike the most and they will say:
Group work.
The myth of The Team.