Why we confuse activity with progress in understanding our problems and duties | Managing Leadership

Running away from our problems

Management thinkers like to talk about large topics with grand import. Strategy, relationships - even science. And we soak this stuff up, hoping that a preemptive grasp of such as these will help us and our organizations get a jump on the competition.

But sometimes it seems like the old story of the two guys running from a bear. When one of them, stopping to put on tennis shoes, is told he can’t outrun a bear, he answers, “I don’t have to outrun the bear. I just have to outrun you.”

We don’t really grasp anything, we just scramble desperately to stay on top of current trends, hoping that tenuous comprehension of them will keep us far enough ahead of the pack to avoid the grasp of whatever mysterious danger seems to be gaining on us.

The mystery of that danger lies partly in our nonreflective scanning and thoughtless mimicking of whatever comes off the press. If we spent more time doing less, but more considered, reading, we might achieve a better appreciation of what we are trying to do, and of the value of the suggestions presented to us for doing it.

Spend more time doing less? How can that be more productive? We are bombarded with messages about how we need to be proactive, dynamic, dominating, and multitasking. Only by developing these personal qualities will we be able to stay on top of the agenda.

But the real issue, as always, isn’t what we need to be. It’s what we need to do.

The bear isn’t our putative problems at work. It’s our failure to confront them (don’t try this with real bears): if you wrestle your agenda to the ground, force it to identify itself and to explain why you should care about it, you will learn a lot of things that will immediately increase your effectiveness.

We’ll talk more about agendas, tasks, meetings, time management, and the the like, starting tomorrow. See you then!

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You may wish to see all the posts in this series:

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Today’s tip: While you’re running from, or wrestling with, your bears, you may not notice the earth moving underneath you. You will soon enough. We’ve talked a lot here about women at work and their effect on management. Now there is encouraging news that the infrastructure is beginning to rise to meet this superstructure, lending it even greater momentum. See this piece, from the Economist, to learn how the gap in education between men and women around the world is narrowing. There’s an agenda item for you.

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5 Comments

Joe Raasch wrote:

Hi Jim,

Is this management issue just a reflection of our consumer-driven economy? Someone came up with a solution and created a problem to solve. This built a tremendous business for Franklin Covey Co. They have opinions, and successes to share - but altruistic aims? Doubtful.

When people learn to separate their work from who they are, things will change. It is our culture of working hard v. doing hard work (see Seth Godin’s Labor Day post here http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2007/09/labor-day.html). That time for reflection, whether walking the dog, or just sitting in a chair somewhere, will actually allow one to get more work done than if the same amount of time was spent working. I encourage all your readers to try this sometime. You’ll be amazed. Great topic, Jim!

Best,
Joe

PS - as Stephen Colbert has mentioned many times during his “ThreatDown” segments, bears are the #1 threat to the United States!

Tuesday, November 6, 2007 at 9:33 pm | Permalink
Jim Stroup wrote:

Hi Joe,

Thanks for the link to Seth Godin’s post - he always has an interesting take on things, generating new thinking.

I agree that we need to separate ourselves from our work, if only to do it better. That is a difficult task for many of us - especially for Americans, who, for powerful cultural reasons, often find their very self-identity in their work. This is an area where thinking like Seth’s will help us find our way in new circumstances.

I’m disappointed Colbert dropped out of the presidential race. Who will defend us from the bears now?

Thanks for your visit, your kind comments, and as always, for your work!

Tuesday, November 6, 2007 at 10:56 pm | Permalink
Wally Bock wrote:

Wonderful post, Jim. Trends, like strategy, are overrated but sexy and fun to talk about. Making eight phone calls to set up six calls where you make four demos to make a sale isn’t nearly as much fun to talk about but will buy you the meat to feed that bear.

Wednesday, November 7, 2007 at 3:55 am | Permalink
Jim Stroup wrote:

Hello Wally,

Knowing what, supported by why, leads to how. Anything else is pushing the cart up before the horse.

Sell the sizzle, they say - not the steak. But so often the trends are just sizzle, with nothing much at all of substance underneath. Managers who buy this stuff will be left with nothing to hold the bears at bay.

Thanks as always for your visit, your writing, and your work. (Your (terrific) post for today, by the way, had me a bit worried, until I checked the link and found out it was a tag!)

Wednesday, November 7, 2007 at 6:06 pm | Permalink
Wally Bock wrote:

Ah, Jim, you speak of sizzle and steak, but often today the advice of the gurus is not just sizzle, it is digitized, enhanced sizzle-sound for which no steak is actually available.

Thanks for the kind words on the post.

Wednesday, November 7, 2007 at 6:53 pm | Permalink