We were all impacted in various ways in 2020, but just as bruises result in scar tissue, which is thicker than normal tissue, setbacks can result in resilience if we change how we perceive them. C.S. Lewis puts it beautifully, “Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny.”
When we are experiencing chaos, it can be all encompassing, we can forget that there is order ahead. Our guest on Innovation Show 253 is John Rogers, John reminds us that the devastation of the “Black Death” was the chaos that preceded the Renaissance.
If we learned anything in 2020, perhaps it is that we are stronger together. Collaboration can bring us vaccines in record time. This mindset cannot be just a flash in the pan, if that is the case the pan will not be around for much longer. In a world of complex challenges, we need to venture beyond our swim lanes and explore the entire pool.
“In the absence of clearly-defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily trivia until […]
When others discourage us, we need to see past their words. What do they really mean? Often friends and family do not want us to get hurt, they see a career change/entrepreneurial adventure/new study as a risk. Others may feel if we change they may lose us, we may no longer show interest in them. In some cases, if you change and progress in life, they see it as a reflection of their lack of change. If you change and they don’t where does it leave them?
When we imagine the future, we use memories, dreams, movies we have seen. These data points act like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle that we construct. If this is the case, then we can manipulate the information we consume to create novel versions of the future. We can use new information to create new visions of our organisations for a rapidly-evolving world.
Rhizomatous organisation, where departments within an organisation are connected by a unifying vision, a North Star, while they expand on the strength of the whole. In part two, we look at successful organisations that have behaved just like rhizomatous plants and sprouted new entities in some cases right beside an existing one. More importantly, I share how Dunbar’s number has an influence.
Some tree species (cottonwoods, aspens, poplars, huon pines) are rhizomatous, so that each new tree is actually part of the other trees. They seem like separate entities but they are part of the whole. This provides a beautiful analogy for departments within an organisation, that are connected by a unifying vision, a North Star, while they expand on the strength of the whole.
While all change requires some level of compromise. The most important thing is to never compromise on your values. If your personal values are at odds with the values of the company you work for, you will need to leave. Staying will eventually lead to frustration, unhappiness and even illness. I leave you this week with the words of Janis Joplin … “Don’t compromise yourself. You’re all you’ve got.”
Johann Sebastian Bach ingeniously balanced two opposing, contradictory forces in music: diatonicism and the contradictory force: chromaticism. Bach was the pioneer in perfectly intertwining these two musical forces to achieve musical equilibrium. This intertwining of two contrasting forces is a great analogy for business today. Leaders must explore and exploit in tandem.