a Series of 10 — when experience becomes a liability

By my count I am 8 blogs away from having written 500 blogs on my two websites. I thought it might be an interesting idea to write these remaining blogs based on the common threads that have woven themselves through the last 492 I have written — and with that said, “a Series of 10” will continue with a blog on experience.

I love having experience under my belt because there are so many advantages:

• I know things and have a foundation of skills that serve me well.

• I have seen things that offer insights and perspective.

• I know success and failure — both extremely valuable. And as time goes on, there is more success than failure in my experience (pun intended).

• I’ve developed pattern recognition and the ability to solve problems quickly.

• I’ve earned some awards and recognition along the way as I leveraged my experience.

To be honest, if I’m not careful I could (and maybe have) developed a bubble or maybe even a personal dogma that has me believing that if I am good at one thing I’m also good at everything else (overconfidence bias or arrogance). I could also be losing the realization that knowledge and circumstances are not static and what has worked in the past may not work in the future. I may have become arrogant.

There is a concern that experience, and all the value that comes from the hard work to achieve it, could become a liability and slowly detach me from the ever-present reality of progress.

There are mountains of examples where “experience” just does not apply anymore, and even worse, situations where my experience somewhat applies but I’m haunted by mistakes because of assumptions based on skills or insight that just doesn’t quite fit anymore. Doing a DIY project using old tools when there are modern and more efficient ones available — using a ratchet wrench instead of a classic wrench comes to mind when you have a large number of bolts to tighten.

Again I will stress, I love having experience but it’s better to think of it as an innate skill that I have developed and must remember that nothing is static. Progress is happening even when I myself may not be progressing and I must stay fresh with new ideas and situations. It is better to rally behind the characteristics that helped develop the experience in the first place then rely on the experience itself.

• Curiosity — search out new ideas, information and situations to develop your knowledge base; if it’s new, explore it.

• Tenacity — work hard, take challenges on, and be comfortable with being uncomfortable.

• Flexibility — figuratively be able to pivot from being correct to being incorrect; if your way of thinking is not generating results, change it. Right and wrong are constructs that keep you from solving the problem.

• Cooperation — never is anything solved by one person. You need others to help do what you need to get done.

• Adaptability — a cousin to flexibility. Situations will change so you need to change with the situation.

• Trustworthiness — this is a quiet characteristic that people rarely talk about. If you are trustworthy, opportunities will be presented to you that lead to continued experience development in areas that you may never have appreciated.

Experience is a reflection of the past and potential for the future — resting on your laurels and experience just gets you left behind.

Be humble,

iamgpe

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a Series of 10 —the comfort of not deciding

By my count I am 9 blogs away from having written 500 blogs on my two websites. I thought it might be an interesting idea to write these remaining blogs based on the common threads that have woven themselves through the last 491 I have written — and with that said, “a Series of 10” will continue with a blog on decisions.

I am going to argue that making a decision is a binary event — it is either a “yes or no” proposition; any other word, and the dreaded word “maybe” comes to mind, is a flashing red light in my mind. As with all things, there are caveats and I will get to that.

If you have a decision to make, and it doesn’t matter whether your answer is “Yes I will do something” or “No I will not do something”, it subconsciously signals a couple of things to the world:

You have established a vision, goals and objectives. These may be well thought out and easily articulated or maybe something more abstract, not well thought out and unarticulated — but at your core, you have guiding principles. Either way, it signals there is a reason behind your decision.

You are willing to take ownership for your decision. This means you will take responsibility for the decision, will embrace your position, accept the results of the outcome, and where appropriate, drive action.

It also quietly says you are not ruled by the fear of being wrong, are willing to embrace discomfort and are secure enough to expose yourself to criticism.

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” — Teddy Roosevelt

The same characteristics that are involved with decision making and the associated action tend to increase the chances of victory (however your goals have defined it).

Now to the caveats I mentioned earlier:

There is one case that comes to mind where saying maybe is appropriate — similar to when it’s your turn to bet when playing poker, instead of betting you say, “Check”. You are still in the game but by doing this you’re letting the next player decide the bet; you are trying to get a better understanding of the situation before you make your decision. Sometimes you simply need more time and information before you can make a decision so you do nothing — for now. But be cautious, if you wait too long, someone else may make the decision for you.

Also, if your decision is no, it is important to look in the mirror and ask yourself if your decision is based on your goals and objectives. It is fair to say that what you’re deciding on is not important but it’s dangerous to let it mask the fact that you are really afraid, want to avoid responsibility or worried about what others think so say “no” as a default. Ensure when your decision is no, it’s not a result of not wanting to make a decision.

Being the Man in the Arena is uncomfortable but it’s preferable to being in the stands where you are comfortable watching as you indulge the pastime of complaint and criticism. Metaphorically speaking, take that step into the arena because nothing good comes from being too comfortable watching.

iamgpe

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a Series of 10 — second-order consequences

By my count I am 10 blogs away from having written 500 blogs on my two websites. I thought it might be an interesting idea to write these remaining blogs based on the common threads that have woven themselves through the last 490 I have written — and with that said, “a Series of 10” has come into being.

Cause and effect; action and reaction; push comes to shove — these are all pithy sayings that remind us that if you do something, as a result, something else will happen. If it’s not a universal law it definitely should be. More than ever in our made-up binary world, where instantaneous gratification is the norm, there is this tendency to expect the result to follow the action quickly so we can be done with it and move on. Worse still, in many cases, there is little understanding that there will be consequences past that moment. Actions always cause consequences, and it’s important to understand that consequences echo. There is a second-order of consequences (in a figurative sense) that can ripple for years.

Under this title there are two important messages.

Number One: Things happen when you drive action; if you do something you can expect something to happen. It should be pointed out and you may consider this wordplay, but inaction (commonly known as doing nothing) is a form of action and will also result in a consequence. Although there is a place for inaction, driving action is a more effective way to progress through problems and take advantage of opportunities. Also, you are more inclined to think about consequences (and unintended consequences) when you are initiating something. Part of being proactive I suppose.

Number Two: The results of your actions will echo much longer than you think and will have impact that you may not have imagined. It’s a reminder to look at the results of your actions with a longer timeframe in mind than the situation may suggest. Also, the more strategic the action is, the greater the cascade of continued actions and results that may echo for years — this is where the virtue of patience comes in — some of your actions may take quite a while for the ripples to die down. This helps manage expectations and reinforces the need for tenacity and sticktoitiveness.

A case in point for myself — I started what I affectionately called my city project when I downsized to experience city life and continue developing my boutique consulting initiative. That did happen but I also: redefined what work is for me and how it is accomplished, became much healthier, established better habits for success, changed my life model for looking at the world and now make my way assuming I know nothing. None of it I would have imagined because my view was so short term and as they say, “you don’t know what you don’t know”.

“As much as I am the same, I am different”.

iamgpe

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