If we know less, there is an option to learn more. If we know less, we are less likely to guess with unfound conviction about the outcome of future events. How do we maintain a beginner’s mindset, even when we possess some understanding of the topic?
Larry uses random chance to decide which of two friends to visit every day for a month. Each friend lives an eight-minute subway ride away, but they live in opposite directions from the closest station to Larry. Trains to each friend’s neighborhood arrive at Larry’s station every ten minutes, so he walks to the platform and boards the first train to arrive. After committing to this experiment every day for a month, he recognizes that he has seen his friend Henri 85% of the time and his other friend Cole only 15% of the time. He traveled to the starting station at spontaneous times and boards whichever train arrived first. Why does he end up visiting Henri so much more frequently?
The transit schedule is such that the train to Henri’s neighborhood arrives one minute before the train to Cole’s neighborhood; therefore, it is likely that the next train is headed towards Henri since there is only a single-minute period every ten minutes when the next train departs and heads in Cole’s direction. More specifically, trains to Henri’s arrive at 08,:18,:28, etc, versus Cole’s train at 09,:19,:29, etc.
We wonder why we are not selected more often to do the work that matters. Sometimes, we live in the shadow of the more dominant enterprise. Other times, we do not retain the network reach of another cause. Sometimes, we offer the same service, but the schedule works against us. Understanding how and where we are uniquely positioned to act is part of assessing our competitive advantage. When you have an emergency and call 911, dispatch tries to assess the nature of your call before sending emergency services. Launching the Confined Space Rescue Team with ropes and flexible stretchers does not solve a working structure fire. Dispatching the Swift Water Rescue Team clad in neoprene and flippers does not work well for a winter avalanche rescue. Knowing when to launch our services and to whom is vital to serving with impact.
100 million NCAA March Madness collegiate basketball brackets are filled out yearly, and they cannot correctly select all the winners. How do we expect to predict our organization’s future if we do not have the benefit of professional analysis and endless metrics? Are we so confident in our ability to forecast the future that we can write strategic plans as if we are completing a winning NCAA March Madness bracket? We might get some themes right, but the odds are against perfection.
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What message do our footprints represent? Are we setting a path for others to follow? Do we intend to seek sanctuary and obscure our tracks? Might we follow the crowd and tread on historically worn trails? Is it possible to inspire those who follow?
It is easy to think of our footprints as follow-through. The activity has been completed, and we do not witness our tracks unless we commit to pivoting to observe our path. It is usually in difficult terrain that we might commit to a review of the terrain we have previously traveled. The propensity of time, our focus is only forward?
When do you consider the topography already covered? What is the lasting impact of your completed work?
When do you persist, and when do you seek another path? Do you rely on instinct, metrics, feedback, emotions, and past experience? What drives your decision-making? How might it vary from moment to moment? What external factors impact your judgments? How much priority do you give your instinct when captured in a liminal moment?
My board term is concluding, and there is an opportunity for contemplation. What was completed, what was learned, what was overlooked, and what was left unfinished? Surprisingly, the unfinished business has my attention. Did we keep the organization in flight and positioned to fulfill its mission, or did we lose track of the navigation and propulsion resources?
There will be unfinished business; the question is, is it the work that matters or a list of emergency repairs?
What topic would your team double-click on to investigate in more detail? If you preserved 15 minutes at the end of a team meeting and took a poll of the agenda items covered (or perhaps topics left off the agenda), which would the group expand upon?
How might an agenda support curiosity over performative habits?
If you were given a chance to make a wish list order on behalf of a cause you support, what would you order?
Now, look at the organization’s strategic plan. Is there an overlap, or do your dream orders and the organization’s strategic priorities travel opposite directions?
This is a memorable icebreaker at the start of a board and staff meeting. It quickly assesses whether the strategic framework is a living document or a list of ungrounded ideas that float like a dirigible, circling the air space above without delivering the cargo.
If I post no insights today, are you the reader and I the contributor, like passing aircraft in the sky? Each is headed on our own itinerary but missing the chance to share a ride report on what lies ahead. When do you choose nothing, and when do you choose to share something?
Flying over Greenland and the name generates more questions than clarity. Which names make you ponder their genesis?
What-if-concepts 