Why does purpose matter? If you are building a castle, knowing its purpose yields dramatically different features and results. Are you defending? Entertaining? Controlling a harbor? Making an architectural statement? Each version shares iconic similarities but adopts critical elements that amplify its purpose. Knowing who you are serving changes the focus of your work.
Where do you go to practice your craft? Is it accessible to encourage the development of fundamental skills and provide the opportunity to try new progressions? If we are encouraged to do this for a new hobby, why not have a similar setup for the places we serve? Where are the training grounds for board members and volunteers? Where can we gather to practice, learn new skills, and attempt innovation?
Are you trying to replicate your competitors’ superpowers? Or, have you reviewed what your competition does less well and maximized your talents in those places?
If forced to navigate a squeeze section on a trail, what would you take with you? What would you leave behind? At what point do you look for another route, since the resources sacrificed are too important?
If we build a beacon on top of a mountain, people will naturally climb towards it or use it for orientation purposes. However, if we place a beacon on a ridgeline full of other towers and ariels, we might get lost in the crowd. Our mission is to position our towers as close to the edge of the map as possible, making them useful without being so far off that they are never seen.
The route we take influences our perception of the terrain and the destination.
Where we go to think influences what we think about.
When we launch a new idea or product, it is our most recent (and hopefully best) version. It is the current model. When we purchase a new vehicle, software, or product, we receive what is currently in production. We cannot purchase and immediately use the coming model.
How might we embrace where we are and what we have? How might we not always be evluating our version versus the next itteration? How might we avoid prioritizing buying for the future when our needs might change?
Top performers learn how to use their elite capacity in doses. Instead of maintaining an output that is always at their redline, they can calibrate the scale of their effort to the requirements of the terrain they face.
How might we scale our efforts to better reflect the real-time demand on our resources? How might we set those who serve up for success by coordinating their efforts to the work that matters?
When we introduce a knot, we weaken the working load of a rope up to 50%. If we project the impact of a knot into our own work, what are the literal or figurative knots that create impediments to our impact? Which systemic knots can easily be removed? Which operational knots have been stressed so dramatically that they cannot be undone?
How might we employ knots to secure essential items and avoid using them when they are redundant or unnecessary?
What-if-concepts 