Hello,
February is a month that is filled with the TENSION--people start longing for spring and wonder when winter will release its grip.
A tension to consider is: After thinking through resolutions from January, am I tipping backward into last year's learning, where I can identify, achieve, and repeat my best work? Or do I lean forward into the new year's intentions where I reckon with the unknown?
Tipping forward takes will. It means I have to invest in making the small decisions to move in a direction that is increasingly uncertain. It takes mental, physical, and spiritual energy--without the promise of satisfaction.
Craftsmen know that expertise is anchored in the context of scope, time, and place. They know skills are useful to practice, but by themselves are incomplete and conventional--and conventional is the last thing a Craftsman wants is to be.
Thinking with Craft means reframing the tension of opposites. It is viewing tension as te privilege of the struggle to solve problems for work that is worthwhile. When we choose the problems we want to solve it is our unique take on the context that captures our fascination. We hone in on the particulars, we gain unique proximity to the problem, giving us an edge in resolving them. This affords us the ability to see unique opportunities others will miss. In short, we begin to get personally involved.
As a craftsman, you continually work your way from one pole to the other, maintaining tension between the two, and occasionally enjoy fleeting moments of flow expressed in what you do, make or say. This is what it means to become more comfortable living in a state of dynamic uncertainty.
Tension is about managing the change of tipping forward.
I’m thankful for the many examples of Craftsmanship I have had the pleasure and privilege to learn about in the past few years. In order to tip forward, I continue to deepen my connection to and understanding of my own Craft by re-integrating lessons I have learned from the very talented master craftsmen and women I interviewed. That requires me to Show Up, Learn Skills, and Experiment--check out the interesting resource links below illustrating these ideas.
"It's not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change." Darwin, paraphrased.
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CREATIVITY REQUIRES DEEP INVOLVEMENT.
What makes you uniquely creative? When people give serious consideration to this question, they are often stumped. We are told we are innately creative, but most people don't really believe they can own that label authentically. Their fears hover over two primary themes: not being enough as they are and failing.
The concept of failure is starting to become popular again, which is heartening. But few have experienced failure enough to know what it is in order to court the kind of risk it requires. We are told to "fail fast" as if it were a small thing.
We know, inherently, that we need to have courage. We need to be willing to fail, learn from that, get up, and try again. We know we won't get where we need to be or solve the problems we need to solve by playing it safe.
What’s most surprising to me about creativity and transformative learning isn’t, as most research suggests, that people haven’t realized how powerful it can be. We know, in theory, that learning, asking tough questions, curiosity and creativity are powerful leadership behaviors.
What’s most surprising are the subtle ways we resist these qualities. I don’t believe we need to learn the benefits of creativity and optimism--we already know them. I believe we need to focus on learning to tame our resistance to allow creativity (and the failure that comes with it) to happen.
Click through to learn 10 hallmarks for thinking like a craftsman.
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The founder of a new investment fund called Johnson Partners was a guest speaker at the "View From The Top" series, where he shared with Stanford GSB students the lessons he has learned from working more than three decades in retail. Complete article here. (WARNING: video is 54 min, and worth the listen. His experience with Apple starts at min: 28:00.)
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TRUE EXPERIMENTATION MEANS THERE IS A HIGH POTENTIAL FOR FAILURE: JC PENNY
Every day, leaders make decisions about maximizing current cash flow and profits or reinvesting and building for the long term. But if decisions were as easy as moving money around from budget A to budget B, there would be a lot more successful businesses. A substantial portion of business failures--from the costly to the catastrophic--can be attributed to not paying attention to the right balance between maximizing current performance and building future potential.
Asked to apply his success from Apple and Target to J.C. Penny, Ron Johnson was hired to turn around a tired old department store. The chain was attempting to reinvent itself, leaving behind its core customer in an attempt to gain new ones. Johnson pitched his idea with standard Apple suspense and fanfare. JC Penney’s stock price went from $26 in the summer of 2011 to $42 in early 2012 on the strength of his story.
The idea failed almost immediately. His new pricing model (eliminating discounting) was a flop. The coupon-hunters rebelled. Much of his new product was deemed too trendy. His new store model was wildly expensive for a middling department store chain – including operating losses purposefully endured, he’d spent several billion dollars trying to affect the physical transformation of the stores. JC Penney customers had no idea what was going on, and by 2013, Johnson was sacked. The stock price sank into the single digits, where it remains two years later.
Looking at failures, particularly if they are big enough, can be very, very instructional. Ron Johnson had an excellent theory about retailing that applied in some circumstances, but not in others. The terrain had changed, but his old ideas persisted. Simply put, the map he was using didn't' reflect the territory in which he found himself--classic human bias.
Even his success turning around Target, which seems like a closer analog, was misleading in the context of JC Penney. Target had made small, incremental changes over many years, to which Johnson had made a meaningful contribution. JC Penney was attempting to reinvent the concept of the department store in a year or two, leaving behind the core customer in an attempt to gain new ones. This was a much different proposition.
Of course, this is easier to understand with hindsight. The trick is to always question your data and your understanding of the data. Your degree of certainty is often an indicator that it's time to hold facts lightly and cultivate emergence.
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CHC ON FACEBOOK
We have entered an age of unprecedented technological advancement enabling exponential growth. It's a new world for many, generating both excitement and anxiety. To keep us focused on opportunities, I'll be curating daily posts across a variety of topics that will inform, inspire, and challenge you.
Click this link to check it out.
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Yesler exemplifies grit without ego. He serves and inspires, in pursuit of perpetual growth, spreading joy and optimism across the team. #MoreBiscuits #ChampionNapper
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