Choosing a car model using only the letters and numbers displayed on a showroom wall may not provide sufficient differentiation. We want to understand the features and benefits of the models. More importantly, we want to map a point of confluence. Where do our needs and resources intersect with those of the available models?
Hagrid offers Harry Potter two choices: to follow him to enroll in Hogwarts or to stay with the Dursley family. The story (and film franchise) would have been very different if Harry had chosen to stay with the Dursleys.
We are presented with the same opportunity daily. Although the magnitude of our decisions might differ daily, we can stay or go.
How do you approach ‘unless you’d rather stay’ options?
The ability to make choices is one of the most significant currencies offered to humankind. Not everyone is afforded a similar range of options; some individuals can only choose between undesirable outcomes. Others have seemingly limitless options at any moment.
If we want to assess the culture of our community, family, and workplace, a metric is to examine how we are treated after we make a mistake. Are we provided the space to recover? Do others show up and support us when we trip into a void? Are we permitted to repair the damage and/or share what we have learned with others? Is our identity forever tied to the depths of our narrative, or can we reclaim our story?
In the movie Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Harry needs to select a wand before attending Hogwarts. He enters the wand shop, and the shopkeeper attempts to find the right wand while sharing, ‘The wand chooses the wizard.’
If we amplify the inquiry, does the organization we serve choose us, or do we choose the organization? There are causes I wish to serve but have never been asked to take a significant role. Other enterprises have asked me to join their team, and I am forever grateful after completing a term of service.
Where do you fall on the decision matrix? Do you believe the wand or wizard chooses?
Do you climb to see what is above? Not a right or wrong approach. An option. This may be one of the countless choices we encounter. Some add depth and dimension to our journey. Others require decision and and move on without reflection.
What decisions remain in the stories we tell?
If we have more than one pair of race skis, we might wax days in advance for a ski race by preparing for a variety of weather and snow conditions. If we posses only one pair of skis, it is safest to wait until closer to the race before finalizing our wax choice. More is not better if we have the relevant information to make an informed choice. Where we make errors in preparation is thinking we have all possible outcomes covered.
How might we avoid the false sense of certainty we gain by having an abundance of resources? How might we understand that we operate in a thin band of conditions before we have to adapt and attempt new approaches and techniques? How might we remember that if we look up at earth’s atmosphere, it looks abundant and expansive. However, look at it from a cross-section and is appears razor thin? How might we embrace the miracle that is choice and opportunity?
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?
Seth Godin is the master of keeping it simple. I borrow his expression ‘doing the work that matters’ frequently. Seth’s blog post simplifies the difference between choices and decisions and our confusing of the two. We encounter choices in our real-time wayfinding process. What if we streamlined our efforts by making quick choices, so we open bandwidth to focus on the decisions that matter. Make a game of choosing by spinning a wheel, asking the opinion of the next person we encounter, selecting the adventurous route, or going left. Decisions impact the work that matters and requires time and information. Which TSA security lane to stand in at the airport is a choice. Which person to join you for a month-long expedition is a decision. Make time for the decisions that matter, few remember how quickly you navigated TSA, but many benefit from your decision to commit to the mission.
A template for a spinning wheel if you are game to choose differently.
What-if-concepts 