When we are afforded elevation it provides is with perspective. Height changes the horizon line. We are fascinated with drone footage that give a bird’s eye view. How might we elevate to help inform our decision-making?
Elevation and Perspective
Author: whatifconcepts
Co-Sign
What planning documents would you co-sign? Said differently, are you willing to lend your name and reputation to the plan that guide the cause that you support? Are you aligned with the enterprise’s vision for the future? Otherwise, it might be a compelling scale model but not worth the effort to build in real-time.
Choice vs Decide
What, if any, is the difference between choosing and deciding? Is a decision somehow more definitive than a choice? Does a choice leave more room for wayfinding along the way? Does choosing feel more spacious and deciding more narrow? Does is matter?
Canvass
Sometimes we need to be creative to find a place to share our work. It is not always possible to create something unique and hang it in a gallery. Even if the creation exists on a backcountry trail, it will impact those that encounter it.
Location
Most Saguaros cactus do not have golf balls embedded in their arms. However, those that reside within a golf course are inclined to collect a few errant shots. I have been in many conversations where a social sector cause wishes to attract a sensational feature or benefit, perhaps a billionaire philanthropist who takes interest in supporting the enterprise with untold generosity. However, if we are not in a billionaire’s mindset, then perhaps we are like a cactus in the wild trying to catch golf balls. Embrace our respective geographies, we are remarkable for existing within the landscape we occupy.
How a Math Theory Might Confirm Belief
Belief might be based on a sense of proportion and scale. As we gain access to more evidence we can reinforce our beliefs. We have access to a prior perspective and then opportunity to experiment with change. Our perspective may be confirm our beliefs or encourage an update.
Tented Saddle Pad
When preparing to saddle a horse with a western style saddle, the pad that is placed against the horse’s coat is tented. Meaning, the front edge it is raised a few inches from the horse’s shoulders to create a void. You can see a similar feature incorporated into the design of a saddle. The purpose is to leave room for the pad and saddle to settle into place once the rider is seated and riding commences.
How might we leave room within our lives, schedules, strategic plans,job descriptions, and budgets to accommodate for the unexpected and ballast that will inevitably be added to our projects? A skin tight fit might be perfect for race day aerodynamics but may be a liability over the course of an expedition.
Crescendo
Big, loud, jolting, climatic events get noticed. They demand attention by overloading the senses. Less noticed are endings that require no crescendos; experiences defined by what we encounter on the trail, not the arrival at the corral. Sometimes being lost in the wilderness is prologue to a silent arrival. The work that matters takes place out of sight but forever impacts our stories.
What if we are curious about the unexpected, courageous with our values, and contemplative about anticipated outcomes?
Fence Lines
‘Good fences make good neighbors,’ penned Robert Frost in his poem the Mending Wall. Fences are visible demarcations of boundaries. Either to keep things in or keep things out, depending on our perspective. The lifecycle of a fence is fascinating. Newly constructed fences with upturned soil where fresh posts were recently driven, creating unnatural scars across the landscape, until the new boundary becomes part of our unconscious memory of the landscape. There are untended fences with missing pieces, abandoned fences with silhouettes of their former connections, mended fences with visible repairs and temporary structural scaffolding, and temporary fences, constructed for real-time assistance and deconstructed overnight.
I encountered a line of fence this winter where the fence posts remain, a 4-wheel track on one side and a single track on the other side. The abandoned and loose barb wire had been collected, coiled, and piled safely away from the trails. Yet, the pattern of travel remained, out of habit we dared not cross between the two paths midway down the fence line. A reminder that even after we remove the obstacles tha prevented different ways of travel, mindsets and behaviors will endure.
Just because the fence no longer exists, it may take a new generation of users to blaze a fresh path.
What-if-concepts 