CollectiveIntelligence

I read a book about 20 years ago in which the author asserted there is no such thing as individual intelligence, that it's ALL collective. A good point, it seems to me. To wit: everything we know and can do is built on what someone else knew or could do, before us.

Another angle to this argument is relevant when we're dealing with sticky and complex problems. Putting multiple minds, experiences, and perspectives on developing a solution to a sticky/complex problem almost always results in better solutions. 

When we try to leverage the wisdom of the group, the results are always better when we...

• Stay relentlessly focused on the facts.
• Divorce the conversation from political concerns. 
• Are committed to outcomes that are good for the whole (not just some).
• Build flexibility into the deployment processes.
• Abandon the desire for perfection.

Did I mention "sticky" and "complex"?

Trustability

Our world seems chock full of way too many legal documents, contracts, and memoranda of understanding. It seems we can't afford to trust someone unless we've hemmed them up with hundreds of words of demands, constraints, limitations, expectations, etc. 

I am reminded daily of the pervasiveness of these systems built on one thing: DISTRUST! 

All are grounded in the presumption that "the other" will not do the right thing unless they are bound to it via some contractual obligation.

To the contrary, years ago I learned about a very different approach. Here's how it looks:

"I'm going to trust you...............until or unless you give me some reason not to."

How's that for a contract?????

LearningTriad

We tend to think of learning as just one process or event. In fact, the most impactful learning is a three-fold undertaking: 

Learning > UN-Learning > RE-Learning

Fundamentally, this triadic process is a state change. What we know gets modified, what we can do evolves. Some of the elements that trigger (and sustain) this process are:

• Attention - a focusing of our brain by observing, by listening, by reading, by experimenting.
• Agency - no one else can do the learning for us; we only own it when we do it.
• Application - testing what we think we know and can do against real-world contexts.
• Will - we triadicly learn best only when we want to.

Happy Tri-Learning!

ForwardFacing

Questions are tools. Powerful questions are powerful tools.

When thinking about improvement -- whether as individuals or as organizations -- a few simple questions can push us forward in significant ways:

Why are we doing what we're doing?

If our endeavor is worthy, what are we doing that does not contribute to that outcome?

If we're engaged in impactful actions, how might we do them better?

How do we know how well we're doing?

Clarity about where we're headed is critical. Persistent alignment of our thinking and behavior to that aspiration is .................................... nonnegotiable. Or should be.

If not, we're definitely not facing forward. 

PatternProblem

Maybe the problem is not the problem. Maybe it emerged as result of a faulty pattern.

Looking upstream of the problem is often very revealing as to why the problem is a problem in the first place. 

And the thing about pernicious patterns is that they reliably persist in pushing out problems. 

Is there a pattern doctor in the house???

Delegation

Delegating is sometimes -- too often -- viewed as a way to reduce load. There are, however, some powerful underlying reasons for delegating important tasks and decisions to others on the team (whether that team is one's family or a multi-national organization). 

Effective delegating sends powerful signals to others on the team, such as...

• We're a TEAM and can only be successful if we contribute as such.
• I trust you to do important work and make consequential decisions.
• I'm here if you need me, but I intend to "stay out of your way."
• You take care of this important work; let's communicate regularly on how it's going.
• Expect to get credit when things go well; I'll provide cover when they don't.
• I'll keep you in the loop on looming storms or rattlesnakes in the grass; you do the same.
• You have the authority to make improvements. In fact, it's expected.

Few things are as affirming and satisfying as working with an effective TEAM. 

It almost always starts with leaders communicating that we are one.

WhenBreathBecomesAir

I recently read When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi (2016).

 This book is a posthumous memoir written by a young neurosurgeon, PK, who died of lung cancer at the age of 37.

My top takeaways:

Ø  The Forward written by Dr. Abraham Verghese is some of the most beautiful prose I’ve read.

Ø  I could never be a physician.

Ø  Diseases are simply molecules misbehaving.

Ø  Quality of life has everything to do with quantity of life.

Ø  Words are just as important as scalpels in the surgeon’s tool chest.

Ø  Statistics are humans, too.

Ø  The easiest death is not necessarily the best death.

Ø  Death, like life, is process more than event.

Ø  The physician’s duty is not to return patients to their “old” lives, but to keep them living for their “new” one.

Ø  Bereavement is but another phase of marriage.

Ø  The fundamental question: How do I live a meaningful life?

My favorite quotes:

“Because the brain mediates our experience of the world, any neurosurgical problem forces a patient and family, ideally with a doctor as a guide, to answer this question: What makes life meaningful enough to go on living?” (p. 71)

“Lucy and I both felt that life wasn’t about avoiding suffering. Years ago, it had occurred to me that Darwin and Nietzsche agreed on one thing: the defining characteristic of the organism is striving. Describing life otherwise was like painting a tiger without stripes.” (p. 143)

“Yet I returned to the central values of Christianity—sacrifice, redemption, forgiveness—because I found them so compelling. There is a tension in the Bible between justice and mercy, between the Old Testament.” (p. 171)

“The main message of Jesus, I believed, is that mercy trumps justice every time.” (p. 171)

You can’t ever reach perfection, but you can believe in an asymptote toward which you are ceaselessly striving.” (p. 224)

This book was required reading for my oldest granddaughter as she was completing her undergraduate degree (as part of her capstone project). She recommended it to me. I am thankful for that, on multiple levels.