this is such a well written article! I agree you have given me language to describe things I have had to in-eligantly explain on consulting gigs to clients of why I am challenging the status quo.
I love the phrase "carry the weight of complexity"
A nuance: people delivering on the How (often but not exclusively engineering) need to ask capability questions, no amount of outcome positivity will overcome an execution obstacle.
Great sports teams challenge each other relentlessly in practice - because at competition time your opponent will have no mercy.
Does the meeting or discussion act as a crucible to forge a better plan, or is it morale lifting before the storm... or is it externally facing that requires a united front?
I was once described as trying to rearrange the deck chairs on the titanic. Turns out I was seeing opportunity beyond what others were seeing.
Capability optimism needs to come with limits. Over the years I’ve learned that waiting for others to be ready takes less energy than trying to convince them of your ideas.
Love this one, John. As a long time sceptical optimist, who learned the hard way that nothing changes until you can stimulate (or incept) a better option, I especially like the idea of explicit Base Camp and Climbing mode.
I’ve also been working on the way the team in Base Camp mode - even if they all agree they’re in base camp mode - might have to broadcast a Climbing story to the folks watching from afar.
You manage to put into words the things that I have always felt but never been able to express clearly
this is such a well written article! I agree you have given me language to describe things I have had to in-eligantly explain on consulting gigs to clients of why I am challenging the status quo.
I love the phrase "carry the weight of complexity"
A nuance: people delivering on the How (often but not exclusively engineering) need to ask capability questions, no amount of outcome positivity will overcome an execution obstacle.
Great sports teams challenge each other relentlessly in practice - because at competition time your opponent will have no mercy.
Does the meeting or discussion act as a crucible to forge a better plan, or is it morale lifting before the storm... or is it externally facing that requires a united front?
I was once described as trying to rearrange the deck chairs on the titanic. Turns out I was seeing opportunity beyond what others were seeing.
Capability optimism needs to come with limits. Over the years I’ve learned that waiting for others to be ready takes less energy than trying to convince them of your ideas.
Thank you for this.
Love this one, John. As a long time sceptical optimist, who learned the hard way that nothing changes until you can stimulate (or incept) a better option, I especially like the idea of explicit Base Camp and Climbing mode.
I’ve also been working on the way the team in Base Camp mode - even if they all agree they’re in base camp mode - might have to broadcast a Climbing story to the folks watching from afar.