Seeing Outside the Tunnel
Looking wider in a world of constraint
Extinction is such a harsh word. According to the Oxford Dictionary it means:
The irreversible condition of a species or other group of organisms of having no living representatives in the wild, which follows the death of the last surviving individual of that species or group.
I use the term Extinction in the Return on Effort game (ROE), as it describes a situation where high effort and resource is being spent for low or poor performance (which brings inevitable demise). I have seen this in myself and in many small business clients where there doesn't seem to be enough time to run the business, look after customers, find customers, look after staff, find staff, and then the water pump breaks (insert any piece of tech or vehicle part). The pile-on can be relentless, and in larger and corporate business environments the experience tends to be quite similar.
In The Rhythm Effect (page 59) I site a study conducted on South American Sugar Cane Farmers where their IQ was tested before harvest (when there was very little in their bank account) and after harvest (when they were flush with cash). The IQ scores increased by an average of 13 points when they were cash rich. This study has been repeated many times in many contexts and shows us the hardest thing about being poor is not having any cash (as opposed to the stigmatised idea that poor people are lazy/unmotivated/immoral). The exact same phenomena occurs to a business owner, executive, or store manager when targets are not being hit or they are behind on deadlines.
A shift to a Scarcity Mindset hits all of us.
This mindset puts us into a tunnelled, short-term-focused headspace causing panicked, inconsistent and irrational decision making. Silly mistakes creep in and often communication becomes curt or inconsiderate (or non-existent!) It is easy to see that this sort of situation leads to more work for worse outcomes - hence the pathway towards Extinction of one's business, job, project, funding, or motivation to carry on.
The wonderful French philosopher Alain De Botton, once wrote of the Capitalist construct being an anxiety inducing system, where an open market means consumers are encouraged to be promiscuous and providers are required to compete on every level to win or maintain business (Calm, Alain De Botton). This bleeds into our pursuit for a career as individuals, or the competition for resources between departments seen in organisations. We live our lives in an environment constantly pushing us into a Tunnelled Vision. In such a state we have no chance of seeing wider contexts, considering longer term impacts, or making well rounded consistent and strategic decisions.
I see this in the daily lives of the modern day professional. The push for results and constant drive to be better is pushing people into a Scarcity Mindset. But what is the alternative? To do less? Which would create more pressure? And, make us more anxious? Lowering our IQ even more!?!
No, this is not the way to go.
It is also essential to see how a gun-ho, head-down, bum-up, quicker/faster/higher way of working OR a procrastination, sit-back-relax-do-nothing, chill/slower/lower way of working are not the only options. I see it as a spectrum with many varied and useful choices in between.
Image Source: Paul Farina
A deeper look at ROE. In Extinction our Scarcity Mindset creates a focus on Self Protection, meaning we only see what is in front of our nose. We disconnect and reach for obvious broad answers to the complex challenges being faced (ie. poor solutions)
What might some of these options be? Here are some quick ideas I have found helpful in this space:
1. Bring them in. When the pressure is on and we are overwhelmed or in a bind we tend to withdraw into an apathetic state (Flow, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi). We stop talking, stop listening, and isolate ourselves from others. Instead, acknowledge how tough or difficult things are and use it as a switch to get people involved. Whenever I am under the pump or when things are not going to plan my pattern tends to look like this....
Call my wife to have a moan
Call my second wife (aka. Sam my assistant) and half moan, half get creative to find the best way forward.
Continue harassing Sam on Whatsapp with my thoughts/questions/updates
Talk to the clients or contractors involved and share/discuss/re-align
Talk to my support network. A special bunch of smart amazing people in the shadows. They are reading this now, you know who you are. You are special
Create a pattern that works for you. Have a system to congregate/meet/call people to collaborate and shift things forward. Often, step one is all I need to go from "This is all too hard" to "right, lets get back at it".
2. Go back to the War Room. One of my favourite movies growing up was Under Seige with Tommy Lee Jones at his 90's finest and the only movie with Steven Segal in it I could watch to the end. As a hostage situation unfolds the senior Navy 'good guys' are sat at a round table strategising their way through the situation. That table represents their War Room - where plans are mapped out, charted, hatched, and agreed upon. Game of Thrones, WWII movies, Dr Stangelove (the OG and best!) all give us the visual of a war room. I like to use this visual for our professional lives also. When the heat is on we need to physically or metaphorically go to our War Room. It may be a note pad, or a meeting room, or a Miro board. Wherever you hold your plans be sure to keep them visual, accessible, and revisit often. Unfortunately most business people don't have strategic plans at all, and if they do it is housed on a Word document buried in the second draw or somewhere in a hard drive no one uses. Have a War Room for yourself, for your team, and for your organisation. Go back to it regularly and when things heat up.
3. It is never too small. One of the biggest hits in the edutainment industry in the last decade has been James Clear's Atomic Habits. It has been a worldwide phenomenon, and it is easy to see why - habits are the building blocks of how we live our lives. The smallest of small activities we do become very powerful when done consistently over a long period of time. Like, drinking a glass of water when you wake up. Or, going for a walk every single morning, or how we manage our disciplines around email - they are more impactful than we acknowledge. Clear tells us to make things obvious, easy, attractive, and satisfying if we want to build them into a habit. The reverse if we want to break a bad habit. No matter how small, these principles can be applied into a strategy and results tend to follow. Taking the care and attention to build strategies for the everyday/small/mundane stuff reduces needless friction that irritates/agitates us and slows us down when we can least afford it.
A perpetual feeling of Extinction will follow us year-round or to the next job if we do not become more strategic. Creating good habits enabling us to act strategically when we are under fire is smart. It is a wonderful thing to invest in at the beginning of a year, but more importantly to invest in constantly. Building the muscles for wider-view contextual decision making is the one low-to-no-cost activity we can do to create higher ROE.
It'll increase our IQ too.
