Words and peoples various reactions and interpretations of them never cease to amaze me. Working in the field of effective communication for improved leadership, decision making and sales, this topic is a place of constant curiosity for me. Words matter and more importantly being curious about hearing what they mean to others matters more.
Another reaction to my year of 4-by-4ing, see previous post, sparked the description of creating a squared box with perfect right angles. Two triangles put together in a very structured way that is symmetrical and rigid. The picture described is the absolute antithesis to the endless ambiguity of off-roading, which creates an interesting paradox to explore.
The need to balance both structure and ambiguity is the art and science of leadership in my mind. Both are needed at different times for different reasons. The skill comes in finding the right times and situations to match with the appropriate perspective to achieve the desired outcome. Like with any paradox there are the two poles at either end and it is the dynamic balance in between that is interesting part.
So if I’m exploring the concept of ambiguity that comes with off-roading this year that is at one end of the paradoxical spectrum and I’m met by the concept of getting squared off with an image of a structured 4-by-4 box, how do we explore the middle ground?
The answer was both of us being curious about what is possible and what the other was thinking about. With a little more time we landed on the following three take-aways:
1. Inside a perfectly squared off 4 by 4 box there is an unlimited number of weird angles that also exist. The key is to get them aligned correctly.
2. Nothing is as it first appears; ala a pretty box does not necessarily bespeak a perfect gift inside.
3. True craftsmanship and leadership works with the flaws of any given situation.
Let me now ground these three points in the reality of life and business by expanding on them.
1. Alignment – My work with leaders and teams coupled with my own experience in business has cemented my belief that successful teams are always working on their alignment. The more diverse they are the better which makes the communication and commitment to alignment all the more important. In other words successful teams and leaders are continually 4 by 4ing to get squared up and aligned.
2. Change is constant – The pretty box that is perfectly square will not stay that way. Life and business is dynamic with countless forces at work continuously. So the pretty box today will not be pretty tomorrow unless it is broken apart and rebuilt based upon what is learned inside and outside the company. Good companies, especially the fast growing entrepreneurial ones are constantly changing and evolving. If they don’t they eventually dissolve, which is the natural order of life. So if the perfectly squared box isn’t being broken apart from the inside out in service of innovation and improvement, aka Kai Zen, it eventually will breakdown from the outside in.
3. True Craftsmen and Leaders work with the flaws – In the midst of a remodel I’m in the middle of the hardwood floor carpenter we are working with to restore the existing fir floors we found in our new house commented that there are some great “character boards”. I asked him what he meant by that and he said these are the boards with darker tannins that don’t quite match the others. I just love that phrase and have repeated it often. It is the character boards in any individual, team, organization or 4 by 4 squared box that give them character and make them unique. The key is to be able to recognize and work with the character boards. Take this concept a step further as a leader and it can develop into a desire to embrace and encourage risk taking and possible failures that may result but ultimately make us and our squared boxes all stronger as a result.
I encourage you and the people I work with to take the time to explore the difference of perspectives and the polarities of a paradox like this one to get to the learning it generates. The alternative answer or balance I find is always somewhere in between and comes from the ability to lean in toward the other with curiosity and a desire to learn from their perspective while further shaping your own. My belief is that those that make the time to explore the differences will be rewarded by what emerges because the picture is never as it appears when it comes to humans working together to achieve results while under duress that life and business inevitably produce. This is the truth about dynamic 4-by-4ing in the journey of life and business where we strive to be as effective as possible to achieve the results we want.