Monday, October 22, 2012

IV = III +III

If you were allowed to move just one line to make this equation true, what would you do? The answer from Jonah Lehrer's new book Imagine: How Creativity Works is moving the first I to the right of the V changing the equation to VI = III +III.

The next equation is slightly more difficult. Using the same rule (move just one line) to make this equation correct. III = III + III. The answer reveals something about the self imposed rules we place when problem solving. Applying this insight to your business we gain some understanding as to the importance of enhancing awareness over increasing effort.

Some teams are more efficient than others not because they have different people or situations, but they have different beliefs. Changing those beliefs from the top down or outside in is as ineffectual as telling people to resolve the above equation by trying harder. We are often blinded to reasonably simple solutions by our own thinking.

These scotomas or mental blind spots, according to dictionary.com, are characterized by "the inability to understand or perceive certain matters". They can be as simple as the inability to see the movement of a single line or as complex as illusions about the efficiencies of our own service delivery process. The critical word in this definition is inability. The solution to this dis-ability is not found in increased effort but enhanced awareness. Before we are able to see new solutions to seemingly intractable problems we must let go of all the answers we already know. Have you solved the above equation yet? Here is a hint. Are you considering all of the lines?

I had a front row seat to the blinding power of institutionalized illusions during a team building retreat last Month. In preparation for this event we had already interviewed each member of both management and front line teams, conducted a pre-retreat job satisfaction survey and finally asked each team member to redesign their job as if they were the owner. Not surprisingly the view from the top was often in sharp contrast to the experience in the trenches.

The retreat was designed to include both management and front line team members, and as is characteristic of most hierarchical organizations the initial stages of the event were politely unproductive. At the outset of the retreat I had shared a laundry list of my personal bewilderments, among which included a belief that there were profound disconnects between the current science of leadership and the standard "Big Giant Government Manual" process. Now it was time to add a little spice to our conversational stew that was sure to get a rise out of someone. I said "I have come to believe that government would rather go out of business than change the way they do business". I had planned to follow that highly inflammatory statement with the comparison of a Ponzi scheme and the postal service when the manager in charge erupted with "NOT HERE". Every head turned in his direction. There were a few snickers, several rolled eyes and the predictable "suck up to the boss I am with you" smiles. Fortunately there were a few who could no longer contain their dismay. Are you kidding one blurted out as others nodded in agreement. The manager was stunned. He looked wide eyed around the table for anyone that would come to his defense, but the cat was as they say already out of the bag. The resolution of this dichotomous misunderstanding is the topic of an upcoming whitepaper. The point of this article is that we are all blinded by our own beliefs. It is not that we don't want to see the truth we can't see the truth.

What we believe that we know to be true is at the very least incomplete. Choose to take a tip from training provided to managers of the Ritz Carlton. Never assume you know anything. Always ask why five times. Or better yet try the scientific definition for "knowing".

Tuesday's paper stopped short of announcing the discovery of the Higgs boson or as it was described by Nobel Prize-winning physicist Leon Lederman "The God Particle". And what was the cause of this restraint? Why have they chosen to withhold the announcement of such an incredible discovery? They have chosen not to know because as of this moment there is a 1 in 16,000 chance of being wrong. The rule used by particle physicists is that there must be a less than 1 in 1.7 Million chance of being wrong before a discovery is proven. I am not suggesting that we have proof positive before taking action but the next time you absolutely KNOW something to be true take a moment to consider what if it's not. So with all that insight in mind have you solved the equation above? What if you moved the vertical line from the plus sign and laid it parallel to the other line to form another =. Then the equation would be III = III = III.