mastering the obvious

Tom Peters wrote about an article a couple of days ago in the Boston Globe called "Luck Inc., the 7 secrets of really really lucky companies".  (Bob Sutton wrote about it as well.)  

There was one particular comment in the article that stuck with me.  It just wouldn't leave me alone. At the end of the article, it reads:

"There's value in mastering the obvious," he says. "If Jim Collins's impact is to get people to do stuff that they know they should do already - facing the hard truths or being selfless or whatever - I certainly don't think that's a bad thing."

"Mastering the obvious."  

I had quite the reaction to that statement.  And "get(ting) people to do stuff that they know they should do already".  I couldn’t get that phrase out of my head, despite the assertion that it's not "a bad thing." 

The longer I mulled it over, I realized that this statement got to me because I often feel like I'm talking about just that -- what should be obvious.  

It's something that I struggle with, feeling like I'm stating the obvious.  (Which then taps into bigger questions for me about what I have to offer.  But that's my stuff, right?)

But then I’ll work with someone, or an organization, and say, "Try this....and this...and this..."  And, when they see results and thank me, I realize something.  Which brings me to my first point about 'the obvious'.

1)  What's obvious to you, might not be obvious to me.  

Calling something 'obvious' assumes that we all have the same level of knowledge and experience.  Leaders have all levels of education, all levels of experience.  What seems obvious to me, with a background in learning & development, often isn’t obvious to someone with a background in engineering.  Many things, including our perceptions and assumptions, effect what seems obvious to one person versus another.  

2)  Sometimes we forget the 'obvious'.  

We get busy. And sometimes, we forget the basics.  We forget the obvious.  Sometimes, we simply need to be reminded.  For example, being there, being seen, and being in touch with the ‘front lines’ is a concept that appears in many business philosophies.  Tom Peters called it MBWA (management by walking around), the Toyota Production System calls it ‘genchi genbutsu’, Jim Kilts talks about the importance of doing this.  And yet, leaders often get pulled into putting out fires or their focus changes, and they forget.  Maybe it’s a good thing that this obvious concept appears over and over again, if only to serve as a reminder.

3)  If it's obvious, why isn't everyone doing it?  Having just written about how leaders are sending the message that they don't care to their employees, writing over and over again about how to handle layoffs but seeing it handled badly, it seems everyone isn't doing the obvious. 

Another case in point:  how many times have we heard that much of what we're experiencing in corporate America right now is due to short-term thinking.  I've heard several respected business leaders make this point.  (You probably have too.)  And yet, we're watching as organizations continue to exhibit short-term thinking in response to the recession.

There are times I believe that this, again, comes back to life experience.  At one time, I believed ‘management by walking around‘ was obvious and all leaders in all organizations did this.  I believed that until I worked in, or with, organizations where the leaders didn’t do this one basic thing.  (In other words, while some things that even I write here might seem obvious at times, even to me....I write them because either I have known leaders who don’t do these things, or my friends & clients have had these experiences.)  

4)  Seeking out ways to continuously improve is one of the marks of a great leader.  Whether it’s being reminded of basics, or finding new ideas that can be integrated into a company’s culture to make it better, good leaders read these books in an effort to improve, which in and of itself denotes humility and a willingness to learn - two good qualities for leadership.  

They don’t read these books as a magic formula for success.  They have the ability to discern whether something is obvious or whether it will work well in their business or not.  If they’re a really good leader, they’ll seek out the ‘best-of-the-best’, even outside their industry to look for new and better ways to do things.  

It seems that reading ‘success literature’ might not be a terrible thing after all, since we all seem to be at different points on the road to obvious.  But that’s obvious, right?

All the best!

deb

Comments

[Sherri]

Great post, Deb! This is a good lesson in not downplaying whatever it is that you know. I think I do that a lot because I feel like what I know is "easy, common sense" type stuff. Like you, I'm taken aback when people find "wisdom" in what I said. I guess we all need to give ourselves a little more credit, huh?

[Wally Bock]

Great post, Deb.

[Daisy]

It reminds me of the old mantra: Never assumes anything.

[Deb Owen]

Thanks guys!
All the best!
deb